It has been a nice Friday night. Dinner with some friends and the regular drama when girls are invovled. I really don't get why some people has to be such drama queens it's really anoying. Specially at university, it's like we are all adults here you don't have to act as you are 5... But other than that the night has been really nice. I even got som studying done before I left for the dinner which feels great since tomorrow it's time for the Welcome dinner and a bigger party after that. 

It's nice with some interuptions in the studies sometimes but this week it has been a lot of interuptions. First there was the party with my classmates, which ended kind of late and I got home 4 AM, then today it was dinner and tomorrow it's dinner and party. We'll see how late that will get!

I was reading a case study The Relationship Between University Learning Experiences and English Teaching Self-Efficacy: Perspectives of Five Final-Year Pre-Service English Teachers written by Ksenia Filatov and Shane Pill the other day and what the participants said about the teacherprogramme in Australia is exactly how I feel it is here in Sweden. My focus is on upper secondary school but I'm also allowed to teach in yar 7-9 but we have never talked about these classes, what can you do with them and their curriculum. In the article they also mentioned that the teachers talk about meeting the needs of the students but nothing about how to do it, no ideas or strategies about how to deal with it.

Other things I have noticed is that teachers often say that you have to be prepared that students don't always listen or want to do things but they never give any example of what you can do about it, just that you have to think about this. I feel a bit yeah of course I'm not stupid everyone doesn't want to be in school and therefore they disturb the other students. 

Going out on my first practice I'm quite nervous that the classes I will teach will be caotic and disturb eachother and I have no idea what I should do about it since students don't listen to a teacher trainee at least not one that is approximately in their own age. 

Eventhough I have a lot to do when it comes to my studies I really can't keep my hands off of Harry Potter and the cursed child. I have read the first act and I really love it, it is so breathtaking and I would love to get to see the play it would be wonderful and exciting. The best would've been if they would decide to make a screen play for all the fans who will not be able to travel to London and see the play. Well, at least we have the manuscript and get to know the story of Albus Potter and Scorpius Malfoy.

While reading this first act I reflected upon the end of the Harry Potter series and how nervous Albus was about begining at Hogwarts, how afraid he was about being put in Slytherin when both his parents and his older brother was all in Gryffindor. What Harry then tells his son is really beautiful that it doesn't matter, that he will love his son either way. Well, in the play the story evolves and many semesters come and go and the realtionship between father and son gets worse. I'm specifically thinking about the scene were Harry gives his older son James the invisibility cloak and Albus gets a ordinary blanket. I think yeah, what response did he actually expect from his son? A blanket isn't as exciting as an invisiblity cloak and I can't but think that Albus actually feels a litte betrayed by his father and maybe thinking that James got the cloak since he is in Gryffindor and he Albus gets a filthy blanket since he is in Slythering. 

The cloak and the blanket are symbols for the two houses and the two boys. One is popular and have a lot of friends while the other is unpopular and made fun of and only has one friend Scorpious the son of the archenemy of his father. 

I have literary never been this tired and exausted. We have so much to do which means that reading novels and other texts falls behind since the time just isn't there. I have so much to read til every seminar there are articles, chapters from the course books and then other assignments. I get that the teacher is new but she doesn't have to be an overaschiever and just pile up the work. Well, well there isn't much I can do about it other than just start with the studying and begin both of the exam tasks. 

When studying at university it can be difficult to get your personal life to fit into your schedule, but I strongly believe that it is important to let yourself have breaks and spend time with friends and loved ones. Be spontaneaus ang go out for dinner or to a party, I promise the work you have to do won't go anywhere it will still be there even if you aren't home.

I also think that as a student you need to know yourself and know how you learn. Find out when, where, and how you are most effective. For myself I prefer studying in the afternoon/evening rather than during the morings, but that's just me. Some of my friends rather study in the morning so they can do other stuff in the afternoons.

This arrived the other day and as the Harry Potter fan as I am I'm really excited over reading it. However, with my studies I don't have time to read it, but I did begin and it's amazing. I'm still at act 1, but I can really see how exciting this play really is and I would kill for getting the chance to see it live.

When reading this book you have to keep in mind that it is a manuscript and not a novel. The difference is severe since in a novel the author has made all the descriptions and imagination for you, when reading a manuscript you yourself have to imagine the setting, the characters, the play. It is very different from reading a novel and you cannot compare the two. 

I believe as a teacher trainee that reading dramas in school will benefit the students imagination. They have to read between the lines and really use their own imagination since the manuscript only provides them with the conversations and not what happens around the characters.

Peter Pan written by J. M. Barrie

During my summer holiday I got my hands on a few of the classics, such as Peter Pan, Alice in Wonderland and so forth. I finished Peter Pan a few days ago, the original version not a remake or anything. The story is the same as the Dinsey animated film, but with some differences. 

Peter is portrayed as very arrogant and egocentric and he really dislikes Wendy's brothers John and Michael. Another character that is not portrayed that much in the film but has a role to play in the novel is Mr Darling, the father of the three children. 

This novel has a lot of potential in the EFL classroom since the language is old and they use older words that we do not use in the same way today, for example gay = nice. The novel can also be a good way to discuss different themes, such as independence, growing up, leaving home, behaviour, society. The novel can also be used to introduce the students to things as imagery, metaphores and so forth. There are a lot of interesting aspects to this novel and might be a useful book for upper secondary school.

Hello

I just finished my first week of the new term and this year will be really exciting! It won't only be exams and studies but I will also have my first practice at a upper secondary school in about 2 weeks. 

The summer holiday went on fine, I didn't read that much to be honest but I did manage to read both Insurgent and Allegiant and in my opinion Allegiant isn't a book that I would read again any time soon. Other than that I got my hands on some classics and the new Harry Potter and the cursed child. (I have only started reading so no spoiling ;))

The next book that I have read is Eragon written by Christopher Paolini. The most spectacular about this novel is that Paolini wrote it when he was 15 years old and it got first published when he was 17.

About the book then, Eragon is a encredible story about a teenage boy called Eragon. He lives in a land called Alagaësia. Eragon finds a mysterious stone in the mountains were he lives, but it turn out that it is not a stone but a dragon egg. When the egg hatched Eragon named the blue dragon Saphira. Eragons life turns upside-down when the evil king Galbatroix finds out about the whereabouts of Eragon and his dragon Saphira and they have to flee for their lives together with the villages storyteller Brom. 

The story is really exciting and it is hard to put away the book. The book has a really easy language and is suitable for younger readers even though the book is rather long. This book is very good if you want to read about personal development since the main character Eragon does both a physical and pshycial journey. Eragon grows in the story and he is a completely different person in the end of the book than he is at the beginning. The things he has seen and been a part of has changed him and he himself is not sure if it is for the better or worse.

There has been made a filmatisation of the novel but the film is very different from the novel. My opinion on that is that the film is not as good as the book and I believe that the film would have had greater success if it would have stayed true to the book.