Barefoot on basalt: outdoor lessons are 'cool'!

During a combined outdoor lesson of geography and P.E. (sport) the Hofstad Lyceum students of T2A discovered basalt on the beach. A long time ago boiling hot, molten volcanic rocks, today the cover of ice cold piers, protecting our vulnerable sandy coast against strong, eroding sea currents. The subject of the ‘indoor lessons’ was volcanism and as these erupting mountains in Holland don’t exist, their teacher of geography, Hans Smit walked with them half an hour to the shore in order to experience the basalt boulders. The lovely sunny weather contributed to make, apart from the more formal assignment, also a photo documentary for their bilingual email- and Blogger friends in Cudillero (Asturias, Spain). The idea is to supply them with impressions of the surrounding of Hofstad Lyceum. And then in particular the dunes, the beach and the North Sea. They hope that their Selgas friends in Asturias will make a similar photo session. Both documentaries are going to be presented during a video-conference, that will be organized within short. As this outdoor lesson was realized together with Mrs. Inge Stet, the T2A-tutor and teacher of P.E., all kinds of sport were integrated in the mini- excursion. Like, apart from the long walk, a cross-country race in the dunes, playing football and frisbee on the beach. With these last activities the students continued enthusiastically, even long after the official school day (Friday!!) had finished. A real proof, that those lessons outside the school are considered to be very ‘cool’

Armin's Day At School

Well, at first I wake up at 7:00. Then I do my daily morning ritual. That’s washing, putt my clothes on, having breakfast etc. When I say goodbye to my mom, I leave and go to the bus stop. When the bus arrives, it brings me to a hospital, where I‘m waiting for the next bus to arrive. In that bus are many other children from my school. It stops almost directly in front of the school. Then I’ve to walk for 2 minutes and then I’m at school. The journey to school is approximately 20 minutes.
Once at school, the day at school begins. Mostly I arrive 5 to 10 minutes before the bell rings, so I talk with friends in the corridor. Before the first lesson begins, there are two bells. The first one is to warn that you actually have to go to the classroom and the second one is the sign that the lesson really begins.
One example of a lesson, take geography for instance, the subject which is Mr. Smit teaching and which is one of my favorite subjects:
We come in classroom, sit down on our places and mostly Mr. Smit tells us the rules. We take out our books while Mr. Smit is writing down what we’re going to do that lesson. Last lesson we began with some pictures from you when Mr. Smit was visiting you. After that Mr. Smit gave us a puzzle to solve, we made it, checked it, and the plan was then to do some reading but we were running out of time. Mr. Smit gave us an assignment about searching videos on the internet about earthquakes, floods or volcanoes. We packed our bags and went to the computer room, were we did the assignment. When the bell rang, we handed the assignment in and went to the next lesson.
Normally we have 5 lessons a day. One lesson is of 70 minutes duration. We also have 2 breaks. One of 15 minutes and one of 30 minutes. After the first 2 lessons we have the short break. After the third lesson we have the 30 minutes break. In the breaks I’m just relaxing, chatting, and eating and drinking at a place where my friends and I spend our breaks. Then 2 more lessons and the day at school is finished.

Photo: Armin in front of T2A in the canteen

Hans in Cudillero

Here you´ve some pictures in which you can see a Dutch teacher working hard in a high-school in the North of Spain: http://web.educastur.princast.es/ies/selgas/album_de_fotos/Visita%20Hans%202/index.html