Malene and Christian in Hamburg - day #6

Our last videoblog from our wonderful trip to Hamburg:



Hope you have enjoyed watching them - we sure enjoyed making them :-)

Now we are finally back home (after a quick stop in Lübeck) - tired but very inspired from a fantastic week in Hamburg!

Malene and Christian in Hamburg - day #5

Just another videoblog from our stay in Hamburg:

Malene and Christian in Hamburg - day #4

Hope you enjoy our videoblog from our 4th day in Hamburg:

Malene and Christian in Hamburg - day #3

Here is our videoblog for our 3rd day in Hamburg:

Malene and Christian in Hamburg - day #2

Another exciting day in Hamburg - enjoy our video blog!

Malene and Christian in Hamburg - day #1

We arrived in Hamburg Sunday evening.
The first evening were spent watching the Germany-Australia football match on a local café at Lange Rheine.

Then Monday the "official" program started, and here's the first part of our video blog:



Hope you enjoyed it :-)

Trine and Gitte Sightseeing in Hamburg Wednesday

We had a fantastic afternoon with Michael and Cornelia. We drove down Reperbahn and went to the new harbour front. After a fine lunch, we were on a harbour trip and saw the ship yard , many impressive new buildings and some BZ houses. Then we continued to Jenich Park , very beautiful building in a fine park

In the photo you see Blankenese and Trine and Michael in Jenich Park
After that we saw Blankenese , a bit like Dragør but with a lot of steps and finished in Altona , where we visited Mercado , a markethall.
After 6½ hours of sightseeing Michael took us to a nice German restaurant , near our hotel

Trine and Gitte visiting 2. Chance Wednesday morning

We met Volker Westphal in Rebus Süderelbe and went from there to Neugrabener to visit Die 2. Chance ("2nd. Chance" ) A project for young students ( 13- 14 years old)
Rebus work together with IN VIA ( http://www.invia-hamburg.de/) in this project. It is in a flat and doesn't resemble school. We met four young men, and most of the time in the project they are working with relations
A lot of the pupils don't go back to school. But 2. Chance has connection with different workplaces and various production schools ( Produktions Schule ) They had success with a music project with Safet , a young teacher , who arranged and recorded a piece of music , with them.. They were VERY proud of that. We had brought a CD with Outlandish , which they liked.A very interesting morning.
We have the music , but I can't put in on the blog

In the photo you see Safet, Harald and Volker, who are all involved in the project

Goodbye Pärnu Friday 11th of June 2010

In the morning we checked out from our "Old people's home" and went to the centre to go for the last visit to Rehabilitateing Centre "Future". Unfortunately it was cancelled so we just had a cup of coffee, a Monica made nice cake, a final chat about the week and we gave them our presents - some Anthon Berg chocolate and a Holmegaard thing.


It has been an informative and interesting week. The estonian system is in many aspects like the Danish. They have the same kind of problems with the students, but in Pärnu we met a centre with extended possibilities of cooperation between the different experts/counsellors. They work in the same building, share coffee room, participate in teambuilding and networking inside the centre and the most important thing they had an obvious possibility of cooperating close around each student. We got the feeling that they had a very positive and cheerful attitude to their jobs and to their collegues.

In fact we met a obvious dedication among the specialists at all our visits. They were concerned about the young people especially those with special needs. In spite of the economical crisis they continue to encourage them all the time.
Though it has been an informative week we missed to meet more students. We haven't had the opportunity to talk to the students as they either were about to pass their exams or had already started holiday, so we had to try to find them around town and in the streets of Pärnu.

The centre is financed by EU and the project is running till end of June 2011. After that they still know what will happen. We hope that they will find the means to continue their important work with the young people.

Estonia has in few years developed the internet so that everybody has access to wireless internet all over - in the parks, in the busses, at schools and they were the first country in Europe that had their elections via internet. Here we have a lot to learn in Denmark!!

Goodbye and thank you very much for a pleasant stay especially to Silja, Kätlin, Monica and Carolyn. We look forward to see you in Denmark.



Now we are off for a week-end in Tallinn.

Just another schoolday. Thursday 10th June 2010

On the other side of the river, in the middle of the forest we reached Pärnu Vocational School.
The school is only 7 yrs old, and still under extension. It is partly financed by EU. Just now 1300 students are attendíng classes, they have 180 employees, including 118 teachers. In the whole of Estonis there are 27 vocational schools and this school Valdeko Galit (counsellor) proudly told is the biggest in the country. It's a very popular school and last 900 applied, but only 480 were admitted. They have only 17% drop-outs. As in Denmark they have school practical periods as well as practical periods in companies. It seems a little easier to find these kind of trainee agreements as the student doesn't get any salary during the periods - free workers for the companies.

View from students' cafeteria to the left and to the right view from teachers' restroom

Students preparing for exams.

Below you see one of the eager and certainly clever students finishing vocational school.

The assignment

The solution

Graduation

In the afternoon we went 60 km out in the countryside to visit Tõstamaa Kool in one of the cities outside Pärnu. It is a former manor and is now used mainly as a basic- and secondary school, but they also have a museum telling about the history of the house and ancient times.

Yesterday actually the government decided a new legislation that gives many schools some problems and that goes for Tõstamaa too. It means that they on secondary school level have extend their number of curriculums (studieretninger) from 2 - 3 and schools in the countryside are very often too small for that. At the picture you can see the impressive entrance/welcome you meet when you enter.

To the left you see the teachers' workingplaces - a dream for a danish teacher. To the right is a kind of SFO in the historic cellar - mainly for the younger pupils. Although the surroundings are exciting they have their problem with humidity in this deep cellar.

Trine and Gitte in Hamburg Tuesday

TUESDAY 8th. of June
We left at 7 o'clock and went to meet Dagmar Lübbers at PEPE , a special project for children from 7 to 9 years, who cannot fit into the ordinary school system .
They make personal aims for behavior for each pupil and train social skills , by encouraging good behaviour and ignoring bad behaviour. They had four boys and they were working with different things concerning the world Cup i South Africa. After the lesson , the teacher and the pupil evaluated the lesson together. We were not allowed to take photos in class witout permission , but in the photo you can see ,what sort of aims for social behaviour , they work with.
We had lunch with Claudia Behlau and celebrated her birthday. In the afternoon we visited Ulrike Oppermann at BbB ( Beratung für besondere Begabungen ) Counselling for very talented students , where they make special projects for this group . We got an interesting slide show to take back to Denmark

Trine and Gitte arriving and visiting Kinderbauernhof Monday

MONDAY the 7th. of June

We arrived Monday morning at 4.30 ... We met Dagmar Lübbers from Rebus Stellingen for breakfast and had a short introduction to Rebus as an organisation. In the afternoon we met Claudia Behlau and visited " Kinderbauernhof , a small farm in a housing area , where children can come all day. Some are pupils who cannot cope with school and they can go there two or three days a week . We had an introduction by Ulrike, who was very involved in the project and very enthusiastic about it and she showed us all the animals

A hard day at work Wednesday 9th of June 2010

Our day started at the Noorte Infopunkt (the Estonian name for Pärnu Counselling Centre) where we had another lecture on the system especially concerning the cooperation in the centre and what to do with students with special needs.

From here we have a few slides, but we didn't manage to transfer them to the blog at the moment.

After lunch we went to visit Pärnu Secundary School for Adult Students.

The students attending this school haven't managed to pass secondary or even basic school. At the moment the average age is 20 yrs. ranging from 17 to 50.
There is teaching at the school from 9-16 and from 16-21. The students can choose which schedule they want to follow. Some of the teachers teach for twelve hours, but then of course they have Friday off :-)






Estonian language is easy!!!








A view of the teachers' room










As many of the students are parents the school has provided a nursery where their children are looked after.

From the secundary school we continued directly to the Youth Centre.

Pärnu Youth Centre: A centre for young people between 14 and 26 yrs. A great part of the young people in Pärnu City visit the Centre regurlarly. They can rehearse with their bands, they can participate in sports, play poker, hang around the bar etc.

Only the leader Christine (see picture) is paid. The rest of the employees work voluntarily.
Mostly boys use the center. The girls only participate at parties or concerts.

Tour around Pärnu College Tuesday 8th of June 2010

Birgit from college gave us a tour around the house and showed us a slideshow about the university system and organization in Estonia.
















The building as such was quite new and interesting. They are waiting for an extension that should have been ready in 2009. At the picture you can see that the plans will double up the area. The dark part on the drawing is the existing school.







The library were situated in the old part - an old corc factory - sending us back in time. Although it was old it was restored in a modern way. In 2005 they had a storm that rised the water 3 meters above normal level and and flooded the library - they walked in water to the waist.




The atmosphere at the college seemed very relaxed and cosy. The teachers and the students shared several rooms e.g. the sauna and the coffee room.

Visiting Pärnu Study Counselling Centre Monday 7th June 2010

We were picked up by Silja and Kätlin at 9.30 at our hotel. To our surprise they told that two other Danes - Anne and Henrik - from UU Copenhagen Valby team were here too. We had an introduction with Silja, Kätlin, Monica - carreer counsellors and Carolyn - a psychologist. They told us about the different kinds of jobs at the center, what there main tasks were, targetgroups, how many employees and so on.
After that we went to have lunch at a nice garden restaurant nearby.



At the lunchtable Henrik and Anne from UU-Cph., Jonna from UU- Oresund, Silja and Kätlin from Pärnu Study Counselling Centre.


In the afternoon we visited Eesti Töötukassa - Estonian Unemployment Insurance Fund. Here we met Gerli who told us about the number of unemployed people in Pärnu County. At the moment they have approx. 13% unemployed in all, but among 16-25 yrs. the percentage is approx. 20%. The office seemed quite busy. They were a little worried because in spite of the oncoming tourist season it was hard to find jobs. The unemployment fee is about 1000,- eek a month - approx. 500,- dkr.

Monica from Counselling Centre and Gerli from Unemployment Centre.

In the evening we had dinner at a newly opened yacht club at the river. "Nothing to cry out loud about!!!!!" But anyway a very cosy evening with our new friends from UU Cph and the Estonian staff Kätlin, Silja and Carolyn - 3 very happy and cheerful girls.













From the Yacht Club.

Sightseeing in Pärnu Tuesday June 8th 2010

A little nice restaurant where we had our dinner.
For the first time it was possible to sit outside in the evening.
Then the mosquitoes got their dinner too.

From a very cosy little café, where a nice cup of coffee and a delightful piece of cake.

To the left: The red tower - a corner tower of the medieval fortress used to be a prison in the past. Today it is a place where art and handicraft goes together.

To the right: as it shows we have got our street names in Pärnu.

From the beautiful Pärnu beach - unfortunately the weather wasn't very inviting.

We didn't go there as Finn was not allowed to pass this sign.

Our favourite waitress. She was so bright and we had a nice talk with her about education, counselling and her career plans.

Arriving Estonia - Sunday 6. june 2010

After a pleasant flight we arrived in Tallinn, found a taxi to the bus station, and luckily the bus left shortly after. From Tallinn to Pärnu is 130 km which lasted about 2 hours. A slow and quite boring drive. The landscape is totally flat, the road very straight, but we saw two storchs. Unfortunately we didn't have to buy any beverage or food, so we arrived almost starving.

Our hotel is a spa hotel, which means that we are surrounded by old mostly finish ( not finished) limpering people getting different treatments - too bad we didn't bring our own rollators :-)

After arriving we went to the beach, had a pizza and straight to bed.









View over the hotel diningroom

Look behind Finn. Maybe a rollator

will race by!