NO SHOES, NO DAIRY, NO PROBLEM

Each day at school, we get to work with a different group of students. Thursday, we got to work with Group 5--these students are about 8 years old. This whole experience has been very interesting because we get to see how each teacher manages his or her classroom. The teacher for Group 5 told us that he likes to give the students a lot of freedom. We were able to see this when the students started to mess around with their pencils, leaving little shavings on top of their desk. At the end of the day, the teacher had the girls who made the mess sweep up before they went home. To me, it was a really effective way of letting children have autonomy--especially when it isn’t hurting anyone or anything--but then later having them realize that actions still have consequences, even if they aren’t immediate.

From all the classrooms I have seen up to this point, it seems like children in the Netherlands have a lot of say in what they do. The school day is still structured, but within those blocked out times, it seems like they have more choice and are told “no” less. One really interesting thing I saw, was the lack of shoes. So many students in the school will be walking around without shoes, something that most children get scolded for in American schools. I remember growing up depending on what shoes I was wearing, I would try and be sneaky and slip off my shoes under my desk if we were sitting and working for a while. Something as simple as letting kids be more comfortable at their desk might really impact what a student gets out of a lesson. Consider a child who has a sensory processing disorder; taking off their shoes could switch the focus from a scratchy tag to the math problem in front of them.

The more we go to school, the more I feel like we are fitting in. I don’t feel like a random American wandering the halls trying to find my assigned classroom anymore; I feel like a student teacher confidently putting my accidentally-bought, dairy-free butter in the fridge while the other teachers get their morning coffee. One of the teachers has really taken Mackenzie and I under his wing which has helped exponentially. If for some strange reason all else fails, we always know there will be at least one smiling face when our twelve o’clock lunch hits.

After school, we went out to the grocery store again. I finally learned how to pronounce Albert Heijn (Albert Hi-nn), and it’s about time. Upside: it’s super close to our school and we get to pass some embassies as we walk there. Downside: it only takes cash if we don’t have a dutch bank card. I tried to “ball-on-a-budget” and bought powdered soup and home-brand oats with some brown sugar for a whopping 2 euro and 60 pence. Great deal, but not that great of a dinner. Getting used to not having a dining hall and only being able to pay with cash has been an adjustment, but it still is very early in the trip. This “oat” to be easy to figure out with a little patience and a lot of trial and error.