Here is an areal maps of where Bergsjoskolan, the school that Mrs. Vester and I are visiting in Gothenburg, Sweden. As you can see it is on the outside of the center of the city of Gothenburg.

The school building includes all of the Primary Grades in the Swedish Education system. This would be their Kindergarten all the way up to our 8th grade students. The ages range from 6 to about 15 years of age. The school was built in the 1970's and there are no windows into the hallway, but most of the rooms looked like they had windows looking out.I think there are a little over 300 students total in the school.

The building is divided into two parts (the building with the blue dot). The Northern part includes the older students 6-9 and the Southern part includes the younger students 1-5. Tuesday Mrs. Vester and I spent time in a 8th Grade Spanish Class and a 6th grade General Education Classroom.

The typical day is more of a "Modular" schedule like our Westside High School. Students have classes that vary in length (45 minutes to 60 minutes) and have a lot of extra free time built into the day. Each day is a little different, with classes at different times and not all classes meet everyday. Students have what they call a Cafe where they can buy some food and drinks, and have games an ping-pong tables for the students to use during their breaks. Students "lockers" are located in the classroom, and resemble more of a cabinet. Students also bring coats in and hang them up on coat hooks that are located along the wall of the classroom.

Much like our students many of the older students have their own cellphones. Students are allowed to have them with them, but the expectation seems to be that if they receive a call they are to go out into the hallway and use them. I did not see any classroom phones and this system seems to work. I noticed a student in one class get out of her desk, go into the hallway with her cellphone and return back a minute later. I have had a lot of conversations with my Host Family. I am living with the "Headmaster" or principal. Her name is Ulla Karlson Hedlin and we have had lots of things to talk about. She is very curious about the similarities between our students and also the differences in our two school systems. Ulla told me tonight that teachers let them use their cellphone camera because the quality was better than the school's camera. And yes Mr. Schrad, Ulla told me she too has a lot of meetings and sometimes doesn't get to eat lunch or visit the teacher's classroom as much as she would like.

Bergsjoskolan is a very culturally diverse school. Very few of the students who attend this school are ethnically swedish.Mrs. Vester and I ate lunch with a group of students in what they call their "Canteen" which would be like our Cafeteria and these boys were from places such as Bosnia, Serbia, Iraq, Somalia, and many other places. These students also come from poorer families and in many cases are refugees from their home country. Despite this, they all speak very good conversational English. I asked one of the students where he learned English better (TV or School), and he told me by watching TV. In Sweden, they watch a lot of American Television. Tonight I watched the TV show HOUSE, and it was in English, but had Swedish subtitles on the bottom of the screen.

Mrs. Vester and I were ale to sit in on a class this morning where students were given their laptops for the first time. The students in our school are not able to take their computers home, but there sounds like plans for that to be in the works. This is only their second year of this project and they are taking "baby-steps." This was also the first school in Gothenburg to receive laptops, which held high significance to these students. Students where the first ones to open their MacBook Boxes today, and students are given complete access to their laptop settings. They create their own Administrator password and the first thing they did was use Photo Booth and the effects to create funny pictures for their desktop background. The philosophy of the school is that best "filter" for the computer is the one between the student's ears. They do have filters to block some websites, but they block very few websites. Students who visit inappropriate websites are brought in and given a "teachable moment" on appropriate use. If I understood correctly, the past two years no student has lost the use of their laptop because of discipline concerns. This may also amaze teachers and students, but the students were also given a USB flashdrive and were taught how to install Microsoft Office, MSN Messenger and a few other programs. They really want to teach the students how to use the computer from getting it out of the box, and its use throughout the school day.

After they installed the programs, they were than taught how to reformat the USB flashdrive to erase the programs and than use it as a Back-up for their computer. Ulla Hedlin told me that when students receive their MacBook computers they treat it as almost a special ceremony. They really emphasize to the students how important this computer is and you can really tell that this computer means a lot to the students. I asked a group of 6th grade boys if they play video games on their computer, and they told me "...the computer is used for school work", and no games were played. Many of them play games at home if their family owns their own computer, World of Warcraft seems very popular like in the United Statesl. As Mrs. Vester and I were observing the students in one of the classes as they were building an iMovie about birds most of them were all working hard (except to ask us questions about life in the United States). The students were very excited to show us their projects. They seem very proud of their projects and wanted to show them off. They even wanted to show use their projects from a few weeks ago involving the planets in the Solar System.

Teachers have a really large Teachers Lounge. Candles are used a lot in Sweden, as it starts to get darker they seem to be used to help with lighting in the building. Teachers also have a coffee machine that makes Hot Chocolate, Cafe Lattes, Regular Coffee, and several other coffee drinks. Fika is a big deal here in Gothenburg. Mid-morning teachers try to make it down at some point to get a cup of coffee and eat this pastry dish which is somewhat like a Cinnamon Role (but different if that makes any sense). Coffee is the major drink here and you always see teachers drinking and getting coffee.

As I start wrapping this Blog up, it is 1:20 am in Sweden and I need to get some sleep before we start our day in about six hours. Gothenburg is a very beautiful city and very European. They have narrow streets and you have to be careful of the bike riders. But being on a major river by the sea makes it a very beautiful city.

Students, I hope that you are behaving for your Guest Teacher. I haven't checked Blackboard Messages much because of time, so if I haven't responded to your messages please forgive me. Tomorrow looks like to be another exciting day. I will talk to you all soon.

Mr. Lance Mosier