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I've been here already a bit over 2 months. I wonder how's that just possible... I think it's a great time to have an overlook over danish school system. I'd say Estonian and Danish schools are pretty different and there are some advantages and disadvantages in both of them.
The lessons here are 1.15h long, the breaks 10 min and the lunch break 30 min. In Estonia the lessons are usually 45 min, breaks 10-20 and the lunch break also 20 min. I always used to struggle to finish my lunch in time back home(here I'd like to say sorry to all the teachers to whose lessons I was always late due to that). So during one school day I usually have either 4-5 lessons. Overall I find that the 1.15h schedule suits me pretty well. I think it's enough time for the teacher to explain the topic and also for the students to actually have the time to concentrate. "Quality over Quantity"
okay, study groups. It's a real big thing in here. In every class there are study groups with 3-4 students in each group. What does it mean? When there's time to do some assignments during the lesson, then everybody usually gathers together with their study group outside the classroom and they're doing the assignment together, usually also sharing the document. In the beginning I thought it was odd, when you're not forced to do individual work - so it's easier to become lazier with the thoughts in the back head that someone can do the work for you but I must say I'm pretty impressed how everybody's focused and I find it a quicker way to learn something new in an effective way. In Estonia of course we had some group works as well but most of the time it's just individual work.
I was quite excited before Denmark to see how it works to use computers at school and it exceeded my expectations, a lot. It's so comfortable to have everything working in the computer and my back thanks me as well! Yeah, there's a big difference when your backpack weighs either 10 or ca 2-3kg ;) Most of the books are e-books and the teacher is sharing the necessary materials in Lectio. Lectio is a place where all the important information about the school is. Like eKool in Estonia. In the beginning it was so funny to see that there are only computers on the tables instead of a dozen books, notebooks, pencil cases etc.
Bringing a lunchpack every day to school is also a new thing for me as a student who's warm lunch was given free at school. Or just be ready to spend a bit too much money for a sandwich : ) But a really positive thing is that there are lots of special places at school where you can just fill your water bottle with cold tap water, yay!
Before coming to Denmark I heard stories about how Danes are rather liberal when it comes to style. And yes, that's true! They seem to make a lot more effort about how they look... or how they don't look... in a sense that they always look good. But I must be honest, seeing teachers in beach flip-flops and flowing summer dresses was a bit shocking to me.
Overall I try to participate as much as possible in the classes and I already understand quite a lot. Just with speaking it takes time, the pronunciation is rather haard... But I'll work hard, do a lot of mistakes and try my best!
Yay to danish school system! Skål!
Vi ses!