Terra FM, Teacher Education Radio Austria, das Studierendenradio der Pädagogischen Hochschule Oberösterreich. Herzlich willkommen bei PHTV Terra FM live aus dem Studio in der Huemerstraße. Ich hoffe, unsere Zuhörerinnen und Zuseher sind nicht zu sehr enttäuscht, dass Sie jetzt mich, diesen alten Herrn hier sehen, statt einer unserer neuen Anchor-Ladies, die draußen heute die Technik machen. Dankeschön Sophie, Dankeschön Christina und Anchorman Paul und natürlich Didi, wie immer. Wir haben heute Studiogäste, die zum Teil nicht aus Österreich sind. Deshalb werden wir die Sprache wechseln und diese Sendung ab jetzt sozusagen in englischer Sprache abwickeln. Hello Tom, hello Rebecca and Karl. I could speak German with Karl, but I will speak English with Karl as well. Hello Karl, welcome to the program. Ja, so there is a reason they are here today. Actually, it's the week, it's a special week, and I have to say that in German again. Es ist eine spezielle Woche. It's the Erasmus Days. Yeah, it's the week of the Erasmus Days. All over Europe, kind of, we celebrate a program which is not self-evident, which gives students from all over Europe and also sometimes from other nations outside of Europe the chance to study one semester or a year abroad at the host university to see a little bit how it is done in other places. And the Erasmus Days kind of should promote the program, should celebrate the program and that's why we also donate this broadcast to the program and to a very special part of the program because as we are a teacher education institution I'd like to put the focus a little bit on school practice this hour and that's why you guys are here because Karl is responsible for the coordination of the school practice for the Erasmus students coming to Pädagogische Hochschule Oberösterreich. Rebecca and Tom are two very fresh Erasmus students who have been here in Linz now for I think is it a month now approximately yeah so you and you're doing school practice in an Austrian school. So I'm very curious to hear a little bit how that is going and if you can already see a benefit from that experience. I mean, of course, it's been a very short time. It might be different by the end of the semester. Yeah, but so maybe we start with Karl to give a little introduction how this is organized. Thank you for your very friendly words. And I'd say school practice here in Austria is and has been always the highlight to my mind for the students as well, because I think it's very important that our Erasmus students, and luckily we do have more than 30 students this year, so we have a growing number, a steadily growing number of Erasmus students being here in Austria at our university. And nearly all of them go to placement teaching. They do practice school, practice here in Austrian schools, and the good thing about it is that I'd say it's a mutual benefit for all people involved. It's especially good for the pupils here in Austria. Mostly they are primary schools, so the kids are aged between 6 to 10. This might be sometimes a challenge for our Erasmus students because if the kids are not that good at speaking English, they have to try very hard to do a good job in the classroom without using a lot of body language and mimics and all those things so it's good for the for the kids for the pupils it's even good i'd say for the austrian teachers to get to know to see to experience new ideas new methods new didactics coming from different countries all over Europe. And it's obviously very, very good, I'd say, for the Erasmus students to get in touch with different Erasmus students in our classes at university, but to get in touch with pupils here in Austrian schools, to get in touch with the Austrian teachers. So I think it's a great idea to have placement teaching for Erasmus students. And I'm really a big fan of that. And always when the Erasmus students leave us after either half a year or one year, they always say the most important thing was placement teaching. It's quite a lot of work for them to plan the lessons, to design all the materials, all these things. But I think it's absolutely worth doing. And the feedback given by the Erasmus students is absolutely great. And they have the feeling they learned a lot and that's why they are here. Well, thank you, Carl, for this overview and maybe ladies first. Let's go to Rebecca first. Rebecca, where do you come from? So I'm originally from the UK, but I moved to Ireland when I was young. So I've spent most of my life growing up in Ireland in the west of Clare. life growing up in Ireland in the west of Clare so very very different to this this is a very big city for me so I live in the countryside so this is very new to me but I'm enjoying it a lot I find it really weird because back home we do not have like trams and buses everywhere so I'm really enjoying not driving for the first time in three years so it's really nice. Getting to come here is like an amazing opportunity for me to move country for three months, to be immersed in Austrian culture, into school practices Carl was just talking about, like it's an amazing experience and so far over the last three weeks I would definitely say I've noticed like differences between our school system and the one here but they're good differences like I just the kids are so energetic they're so happy to learn there's all these different methods used in the classroom that I wouldn't have seen back home or that I might see in the future back home but at the moment they're new to me here and I would definitely want to bring them home with me it It's like the kids are happy, they're enjoying it. Definitely a struggle with the language barrier. My English has become very basic, very slow to talk to them, but it's good opportunity for me to improve my German a bit and to also learn how to teach English kind of as a second language nearly. Well, Rebecca, you study at Mary Immaculate College in Limerick so you have to cross the Shannon every day when you come from Clare don't you? You do, I actually live in Limerick on accommodation so I don't have to cross it as much anymore but yeah if you're going from where I live to Limerick you have to cross the Shannon River at least once if not twice if you're going there and back. A wonderful partner Mary Immaculate College I hope we have some Irish viewers and listeners at the moment. Yeah and hello to Ireland from here from Linz from the studio. Well thank you Rebecca and we have Tom here and also from a very nice country. Actually I was one of the first Erasmus students to the Netherlands ages ago. Yes I'm from the Netherlands close to Amsterdam but just like Rebecca, from a small town where the bus only goes every half an hour. That's possible in Holland? Yeah. Oh gosh. I thought you have an intercity train every five minutes. Yeah, but if you live, like, I live in a real small town, and you go to the bigger town for your ground school, and then an even bigger town for your high school school and you're still not in the city yet. So moving here was totally different for me too. You have everything around you all at once. But I quite enjoy living here in Austria. When I was a little kid, I always used to scream to my parents that I wanted to move to Austria one day. And that dream finally came true. move to Austria one day and the dream finally came true. For me it's a bit different here in placement teaching because I'm studying to become a German teacher in the Netherlands for the secondary education. So coming here and going to a placement school which is a primary school is totally different because I get to see now how it is to learn German as a mother tongue instead of a second or even a third language most of the time in the Netherlands. I mean, what I wonder is sometimes, and I think this is one of the big advantages of this program and this opportunity, because I realize that we don't know very much actually how education is done in other countries, even in neighboring countries. For me, for instance, it was quite a surprise to see that Switzerland is also completely different to Austria yeah and I don't think many people know and I don't really know why that is the case because we are so globalized we kind of have drink luckily the same kind of coffee now everywhere which is of course a big advantage for a coffee drinker like me that I can order a cappuccino now in the Netherlands that I can order a cappuccino now in the Netherlands which actually tastes like a cappuccino which was not the case like 30 years ago you know 30 years ago it was more filtered kind of such a shame it's not the same with cheese that they don't have to judge cheese here that's right some places do some places do but it's still rare because what they sell here is gouda cheese. I even wrote to the milk company. I said, you shouldn't be allowed to call that Gouda because it doesn't taste like Gouda at all. No, it doesn't. And it's a little bit like that in education. I think we call the same thing Gouda, but it's completely different everywhere. And instead of looking what is good here, what is good there, there's not much exchange. So you are actually ambassadors. You are doing something not too many people do. So yeah Karl, how do you see that? I'd say the big and the very important exchange happens during my classes at university. I'm going to teach Erasmus students in innovative teaching strategies and in classroom management. And I have a special tutorial in three different groups where I help the students to plan their lessons. And what I want to say is the big advantage is that the Erasmus students, they get in contact with each other. And I think they talk about what's going on back home, what are the differences and I think it's one way to talk about differences and the other way is to accept the differences. That's very important because strange for example is it's always the fact that when Erasmus students come here in the first week, they tell me when they have been to placement teaching to school for the first time, they tell me they are quite shocked or let's say at least surprised about the fact that our classrooms, the technical equipment is not very up to date in classrooms. So because not all the classrooms, they do have projectors, they have beamers, and not all of them have whiteboards. And lots of Erasmus students tell me, okay, we are used to working with whiteboards, but, and that's the interesting fact for me, at the end of their stay here, they say, okay, now we do know that whiteboards are great, but it's not the only thing to work with whiteboards. It's even a good possibility to try out collaborative games, new methods, without using the whiteboard. So it's a good idea to have both things, to be well equipped in technical affairs and to know lots of didactic methods how to bond with the kids and not putting the focus on technical things too much i think that's one one aspect further aspects are they are surprised not having uniforms here And sometimes they are quite surprised the relationship between the teachers and the pupils. They are more, let's say, free in a way. They are very friendly, quite a relaxed relationship between the teachers and the pupils. And sometimes that's new for them. For example, in some countries it would be an absolute no-go even to touch a pupil to say you were doing a very good job. It is possible in some extent in Austria to do that in order to praise them, to show them that they were doing a good job. But in some countries, it would be a no-go. And they are shocked by that. They are surprised. And then we talk about that so that different countries means different attitudes, different behavior. And we shouldn't judge on these differences. We should just get to know them and talk about it and think about it and learn. That could be a discussion point. Do you agree with it? I mean, there are several things. Well, the part on the technical... There are several things I'm not totally sure now. Well, we're moving... That's good for a discussion, actually. When moving here, I really had the feeling that I was going back in time, especially in classrooms. But I think it's a good point that we don't have all the smart boards in here and everything. Because when I compare it to my home, ground school at home, they're doing a lot of activities in circles together and everything. It's not like frontal-unterricht, like the teacher standing in front of the class and The pupils sitting at their seats. They're doing a lot of circles and it gives a relaxed kind of vibe Children are learning but they don't have the feeling that they're learning because they are doing fun activities. In the Netherlands or here? Here. Well, that's good to hear no i would agree with carl like there is a lot of differences between countries and their teaching methods and how they teach and there's a lot of differentiation in them but as it's like i'd also agree with carl you have to accept it so like when i moved here i knew it was going to be different to ireland to Ireland in Ireland we have iPads in our primary schools and whiteboards it's very electronical technical based schools I've been in one school in Ireland where it wasn't that where I used chalkboards and that was very different for me coming here and seeing chalkboards again wasn't too daunting but at the same time it had been a long time since I had seen a chalkboard there's not many nid oedd yn ddangos iawn, ond ar yr un pryd, roedd yn amser hir ers i mi weld bwrdd sgwrsio. Nid oedd llawer o ysgolion yn Iwerddon sydd heb unifrwydd, felly mae hynny'n wahanol iawn i mi hefyd. Ond mae'n dda, oherwydd mae'r plant yn cael eu teimlo'n hyfforddiol am yr hyn y maen nhw'n ei ddweud. Gall unifrwydd fod yn ddifrifol iawn ac weithiau'n anodd. Rwy'n gwybod bod fy unifrwydd ddim yn hyfforddiol i'w ddweud. Ond rwy'n meddwl bod gwahaniaethau rhwng Iwerddon a'r ddau yma o ran sut mae pobl yn cael eu dysgu. Rhyw fath o ystafell gydag ymddygiad comfortable to wear but I definitely think definitely differences between Ireland and here in relation to how people are taught very relaxed room really good relationships between the teachers and the pupils maybe a bit more relaxed than what the Irish relationship would be with a pupil but I like it I think it's nice I think having that sort of a relationship is really healthy and it's probably one of the better ways to have it because you want your children in the classroom to be able to talk to you and feel comfortable around you. So I really do like that. Well, that surprises me, to be honest. I mean, I'm always quite sceptical to the Austrian school system. So, well, that's a positive surprise that you make this experience. I mean, I also agree with the technical side. I mean, I was in a UK school once. It was a middle school it was not a primary school and i saw several lessons and they were all whiteboard lessons kind of and they were perfect shows yeah so that i i really had the feeling the the teachers were perfect show people but then i just imagined if i have nine shows one after the other like that and that every day from monday Monday to Friday it could get a bit I don't know you know I mean it could get a bit too much so I think that's probably a huge difference between the British Isles and continental Europe that the kind of the technical advancements probably in the UK is more than kind of in Europe. I mean, Norway might be a little bit in the middle because they are technically quite advanced and still do a lot of additional activities. So I don't actually think it's one or the other. It can be combined in a very nice way. I'd say, Christian, that's the secret of being a good teacher. You have to be open to so many different things. You have to be open. You should be well trained in using all these technical outfits. This is, I think, a must in our days. But on the other hand, on the other side, you must be open to use new ideas of teaching which concentrate on the communicative approach. Especially when we are teaching languages, we have to talk to each other and we have to form circles, we have to use cooperation, collaboration, and not put the focus that much on the competitive games, for example. I sometimes have discussions with Erasmus students and Austrian students and Austrian teachers between what is good or what's even better. Could we judge that? is good or what's even better could we judge that is it better to stress the collaborative games or is it better to prepare the kids uh to have competitive games because life means you have to be competitive in some situations shouldn't we prepare them for this fact? Or should we say, okay, life is competitive. Let's put the focus on collaboration and cooperation. And I tend to say I prefer collaboration and cooperation. But I do know, especially when there are gym teachers, they say it's part of the game. And I agree with them. If you run fast, you want to know if you run faster than your partner. And that's a very normal thing to me. So it's again, it's on both sides. And there shouldn't be a winner on one side. It's always both sides, and there shouldn't be a winner on one side. It's always a mixture. And good teachers should be open to these aspects, I think. In this case, I have to cite an Englishman. I think he was an Englishman, Charles Darwin. Because we always say, survival of the fittest. And it's a very interesting thing that Darwin when he got older he changed the concept yeah he actually said no it's not survival of the fittest it's survival of the most cooperative and that what actually that made the humans so strong the able to co we were we suddenly kind of started to create strategies to cooperate. And I think there is actually a book about it, a very nice book, it's called Darwin in Love, about the late Darwin and his views on the things which were completely different to the young Darwin. And I think in our societies, I think we in education also, we kind of have a role in creating the societies of the future. And the question is, do we want a competitive society or do we want a cooperative society? And I think I'm not totally sure what we actually want. I mean, as a society, I'm not totally sure. But we do know what we do want. But I don't know if that's always that clear. And I think that a look at how the schools are tells a lot about what society we want. But that's maybe a good time to play some music. We have some music selected by you guys. I don't even know what it is. So I might be shocked, so we'll see. Your blades are sharpened with precision. Flashing your favorite point of view. I know you're waiting in the distance. Just like you always do. Just like you always do. Already pulling me in. Already under my skin And I know exactly how this ends I let you cut me open just to watch me bleed Gave up who I am for who you wanted me to be Don't know why I'm hoping for what I won't receive Falling for the promise of the emptiness machine The emptiness machine It's going around like a revolver It's been decided how we lose Cause there's a fire under the altar I keep on lying too I keep on lying too Already pulling me in Already under my skin And I know exactly how this ends I let you cut me open Just to watch me fade Came out blue, I never heard you wanted me to fade Don't know why I'm hoping For what I want to see Falling from the promise of The emptiness machine I only wanted to be part of something I only wanted to be part of, part of I only wanted to be part of something I only wanted to be part of, part of I only wanted to be part of something I only wanted to be part of something I only wanted to be part Then you cut me open Just to watch me bend Gave up who I ever knew You wanted me to be Don't know why I'm hoping So fucking lying Falling for the promise of Emptiness machine Emptiness machine I only wanted to be home Emptiness machine I only wanted to be home Emptiness machine Der Kahl ist vonache, weil wir haben, also nicht wegen dem Karl in englischer Sprache, der Karl ist von hier, aber wir haben zwei Gäste aus dem Ausland. Wir haben Rebecca aus Irland und wir haben Tom aus den Niederlanden. Deswegen switche ich jetzt wieder into English so to say. And it's very nice to have you here guys and we're speaking about the school practice experience or the best practice exchange, the importance of kind of looking how other people, how other countries do it, and the chance the Erasmus program gives for teacher education students. And that brings me to an important question, because actually actually why do you want to become teachers well for me um i decided i wanted to become a teacher during my work as a team leader in a supermarket i found out that i like to explain people uh things to people that i like to make them better at doing what they love and And then I looked between my subjects, and I found that German was my best subject, so that was a combination for me. And then in the first year of university at home, it was confirmed. I knew this was it. I started to do my school practice, interacting with the pupils, the teenager, working with them. I loved every second of it, and that's when I knew this is it. And you said last year you had a different practice experience. Did I get that right? But during the music break, you mentioned something I didn't completely understand. So in the Netherlands, I do the Lehrerausbildung Deutsches Fremdsprache. It's for secondary schools because German isn't taught in primary schools. So I had one and a half years of teaching experience in the Netherlands in a secondary school. And when I got here, I was placed in a primary school. So all the experience I did in the Netherlands is totally different to what I'm experiencing here now. Teaching a secondary school is totally different to what I'm experiencing here now. Teaching a secondary school is totally different. Here you focus on doing fun activities with the children and teaching them during the activities. And I have the feeling that in secondary school you're more focused on the actual teaching, what do I have to bring them, like grammar or words or anything, and the activities just support them. It's the other way around, it's my belief. Rebecca, this is also interesting what you told me during the music break, that you actually are doing your second Erasmus Day abroad, so you probably also in the other one you had school practice so tell us a little bit more about that. So I guess I'm possibly a little different to everyone when they decided when they wanted to be a teacher. I originally started out with wanting to be a lawyer to have a career in law. Oh that's a different thing. It was very very different. So in Ireland we have level 5 certificates you can do for a year so I went to Galway for a year and did this and when it came around to doing Erasmus we all applied for it and I got to go to Ceuta in Spain and usually we would do jobs surrounding our degrees that we were doing so mine being law but since I also don't speak any Spanish they put me into a private school where they would teach English to young children so I would spend probably three and four hours a day four or five times a week teaching English and when I came home my family looked at me and a lot of my friends as well and said to me that me coming home from Spain and talking about teaching I had never looked so happy about a job in my life and I kind of was very nervous about becoming a teacher to be honest I like standing in front of 30 kids seems really daunting so I ended up applying for teaching and every year since I have loved it and it's amazing and the Erasmus experience just it ended up making me want to become a teacher it was so amazing well that's an interesting story huh I mean that's fun that's well that's nice yeah I really like that uh-huh we could yeah I mean that's it's fascinating that kind of it can have such an impact on on life not i mean that's a total career change yeah but i think it's also good when you when you do when you do it that way because sometimes when you like have the feeling you want to become a teacher right away you might not uh have thought so much about it so i think it's a very good uh approach to actually having done something else before and then switching yeah because then you really know you want to do that yeah the the big word so far in in this talk for me was different difference so there are so many things that are different, turn up to be different, and for me it's important to accept the difference. Because whenever you find out things that might be strange, might be surprising, might be totally new, might be you don't understand why this or that happens. I think we live in a world where it's absolutely important and essential that we learn again to listen to others, to accept others. We don't have to love all the things we get to know, but we should be ready to listen and to understand and to accept others. And that's the reason why I'm a big fan of Erasmus, teaching Erasmus students. Because I've been doing this job for many, many years, and I always found that Erasmus students, nearly all of them are very open-minded, and that's the way I like, because whenever you are open-minded, I have the feeling you can develop yourself because narrow-mindedness, it hinders you to become a personality. And I'd say teachers must be big personalities. And this being open-minded, I found very, very often in Erasmus students. in Erasmus students and that's the way I like it that at our University and I'd say we have an Institute in our University it's the International Office and I think it's absolutely worth having this Institute because it it makes our university a little bit bigger, bigger in thinking and it's important especially in these days I'd say and that's why I'm very much in the idea of Erasmus coming together getting to know each other and listening to each other that's it. Well the guy who gave the program the name is the Dutch guy Erasmus from Rotterdam and actually I have a little calendar at home and I never changed the page it's been there for years now with always the same page because the page says I think it's somehow like that, I'm at home everywhere, or to put it even better, I'm at home nowhere, you know, kind of, yeah, and I think this is exactly the thinking which is so much against what kind of happens as we see it now very often with this kind of nations closing in for me Covid was such a shock when I saw there is a global problem and the first thing we do is closing in you know which didn't help anyway now I mean but obviously nobody seems to really reflect on that that closing the borders didn't change anything yeah so we could have left the borders open i i think the rules are so i totally agree that measures had to be done and everything but closing the borders and for me it was so kind of an example yeah that we humans we always when we are scared of something you know well that would usually be a much better option. And this program kind of stands for that. I'm not a social media guy, but we have the hashtag Erasmus Days. I think you probably find it somewhere. Maybe you can say more about that. Where do you find it? Maybe hashtag is Instagram, isn't that? I think it's going to be on Instagram or Twitter. It's called XNow. Not someone on Facebook, I think. But you are on a picture, right? Christian took a picture of you yesterday. So maybe you're somewhere on Instagram right now. I think it will be posted tomorrow, I think. That's what they do. But that's all over. So if you Google it to find information, hashtag Erasmus on Instagram or wherever you can use a hashtag. I don't even know exactly. Yeah, you find information. And we can only say that this is part one. on Instagram or wherever you can use a hashtag I don't even know exactly yeah you find information and we can only say that this is part one yeah with having us guests but we will do a second part I already talked to Sylvia hinter am schooler from our student union she she actually spent last semester in the Netherlands as far as I remember and she will be one of our next studio guests in one of the future programs coming soon and And she will speak, so to say, about the other side, going away from Austria, like I did it ages ago to the Netherlands, to an institution which doesn't even exist anymore. It was the Paabo Assen in the north of the Netherlands. And that kind of was an example of what was still possible then and what wouldn't be possible now, because there was no course in English. So I didn't understand anything and I went to the coordinator and I said, well, that doesn't make sense. So he asked me what you want and I said I want to see schools. And he said, okay. And he made me a program for a whole semester, always two weeks in the school, and I was only watching. For a whole semester, I watched in primary schools mostly. Always two weeks in the same school, had a reflection talk with the teachers afterwards. And that was the whole semester. And then my fellow students from Austria had sent me these still red papers for the courses. He signed all of them and I brought them home and I got my credits. And I can only say it was the most beneficial semester of my whole education. Because if you ask me what I learned in the theoretical courses 30 years later, gone. I don't use it, I don't know it, I forgot it. So why all these stupid hassles about exams, when it's all about practice? I don't mean that theory is not important, but you cannot actually ask for the theory in exams. I think you have to connect it and that's what Mr. Karl is doing and maybe Karl you can say a little bit about how you do it, this connection of theory and practice. So I totally agree with you Christian, you have to cross the bridge from theory to practice and in my courses I try to give theoretical input because that's urgently needed, I think, because practice without theory is just trying out things, but not in a positive way. I think the basis should be, the fundamental should be theory, well-taught theory, and explain why it makes sense. And then to really to get it, to understand it, to make it applicable, you must try out things. And you must see that some things work out fine and some methods, ideas don't work out fine. And then the most important thing is that you start reflecting on why did it happen? Why was it good? why was it not good because for me those teachers or teacher students it doesn't matter I say who are reflective practitioners get the chance to improve and it's always about thinking but first it must be they must be given the chance to try out things in my courses and later on to get a wide field in the classrooms where they try out things. And I think it works sometimes. Most of the time I'd say it works. But if it doesn't work, it's not that big problem to be honest because it's always mentioned we must learn from mistakes Er gehört zu mir, wie mein Name an der Tür Und ich weiß, er bleibt hier, nie vergesse ich unseren ersten Tag Na na na na na na Denn ich fühlte gleich, dass er mich mag Na na na na na na Ist es wahre Liebe vom Winde verweht? Er gehört zu mir, wie mein Name an der Tür. Und ich weiß, er bleibt hier. Alles fangen wir gemeinsam an Nanananana Doch vergesse ich nie, wie man allein sein kann Nanananana Steht es in den Sternen, was die Zukunft bringt? Oder muss ich lernen, dass alles erregt? Nein, ich hab es ihm nie leicht gemacht Nananananana Mehr als einmal hab ich mich gefragt Nananananana Ist es wahre Liebe, die nie mehr vergeht? Liebe, die niemals vergeht? Oder wird die Liebe vom Winde verweht? Er gehört zu mir, für immer zu mir. Er gehört zu mir, wie mein Name an der Tür Und ich weiß, er bleibt hier Er gehört zu mir. Ja, wir sind wieder da, meine Damen und Herren. Ich sage das jetzt mal auf Deutsch. Wir haben ein bisschen technische Probleme. Wie hat es da geheißen? Houston, wir haben ein Problem. Houston, we have a problem. Houston, we have a problem. It's about on the same scale. The only good thing is that we are not out somewhere in space. But from our point of view here, it is a major problem because the complete, the broadcasting software got stuck completely. So we are actually very lucky that you still get us kind of. But we had to rearrange the studio. We have only one camera available now. So we tried to do the best at least to get a little bit of the important things Rebecca, Tom and Carl still have to say to get the cross to you but I think it was you Rebecca who was just waiting kind of to be able that they get the stuff going again. Yeah no so I just want to kind of mention a little bit about the school placement I've been doing. I've been there for about three weeks now every Wednesday for a couple of hours each day and I've just it's an amazing experience to see the children wedi bod yno am ryw tref nawr bob Fesawdd am ddau cwpl o awyr bob dydd. Mae'n brofiad anhygoel gweld y plant. Yn pob wythnos rwyf wedi mynd i mewn, maen nhw'n hynod o'r hwyl. Rwy'n credu eu bod nhw'n eithaf wedi cael myfyrwyr arasma pan maen nhw yno, ond mae'n bob amser mor hwyl gweld ffosiau newydd a chymuno pobl newydd. Ac yn amlwg, fel y dywedon ni yn gynharach, gyfathrebu â phlant, dros y ddwy wythnosau diwethaf, rwyf wedi tyfu'n ffon o'r rhain. and obviously as we were talking about earlier with relationships with children over the last couple of weeks I've just grown really fond of them we've gotten a really good relationship going with all of the children in the classroom I was particularly happy yesterday when I was leaving as I was just sitting down waiting to talk to my placement teacher and as the children were walking out for lunch there was so many of them hugging me and saying, Bye bye Rebecca, see you next week. And it's just really heartwarming to see that you can build such a good connection with kids in such a short space of time. It's really lovely. Well, you see how much kids are dependent on social interaction. Yeah, definitely. And I think that's often, not all teachers have that kind of on their radar, how important this connection is. Because when I love somebody, it's much more easier that I learn from that person or they can take what that person kind of wants to teach me. And did we actually speak about the Spain connection I mean because I'm so interesting because you have now Ireland Spain Austria from the school experience from the school experience from what I seen of Spain the children had quite a good quality of English because it was a private school but the way they learn would be very similar to here actually it was very active, very engaged. Not many worksheets. It's more hands-on and active learning. So I guess when you have to compare it between Ireland and then here, obviously Ireland, we do a lot of active learning and engagement, but we also do a lot of writing and worksheets. And maybe we have maybe more structure in a way, maybe compared to here but I like the structure here I think it's a lot more relaxed and it's very suitable and it's engaging for the children to see because they get to learn but they also learn in like a fun way and I think that's really important for kids because sometimes people get very focused on this whole idea of learning through books and worksheets whereas the kids actually enjoy hands-on learning because sometimes they actually forget they're learning and they enjoy it so much so when it comes to like here I say it was very similar to my experience in Spain and then it's very different from Ireland in that sort of sense. Tom, anything to add here? Well, Rebecca took a lot of words out of my mouth, but I love the placement teaching here. And we teach at a school who is a part of our university here. And our school is actually under construction, so they have lunch in our university. And like this week, I did an English lesson with them, and I love the way my placement teacher teaches, because she teaches English by doing plays with the pupils, by doing activities with them. They never know that they're learning English. activities with them, they never know that they're learning English. And I read a story to them and they had a lot of difficulties with the English words. And then I sang a bit of the story to them and they sang it back to me so they could pronounce the word correctly. And then when I saw them again in the university, they still remembered me, the song I sang sang to them and they sing it to me again and that's what i love the most about placement teaching here is that they really grow fond to you they recognize you when they see you in the university during lunch they say hey i'll see you on wednesday and even though they have maybe i believe my classes about 10 Erasmus students during the week they exactly know what my name is and when I will be there again and what I teach them connection again yeah yeah I mean pupils spend so much time in school but if you think that so that's so important Carl but maybe what we have talked about is because that this thing works, we also need teachers who cooperate with the Institute for International Study Programs and cooperation. Thank you for that. Yes, you're absolutely right. And I think, for example, our placement teachers, we do have 13 different groups, which means 13 different placement teachers. They are doing a very good job because they are open and they do really know what our Erasmus students need. And I've been observing so many different classrooms and I must say being a teacher is a great job but I found out again and again it's a very very hard job it needs a lot of discipline it needs it means a lot of work preparation work, talking with pupils, try to find the discipline you need, getting in contact with parents, who sometimes it's a big challenge for the teachers as well. So there are so many different roles teachers must fill in. And I think that's a big challenge. must fill in. And I think that's a big challenge. And what I see, what's going on in Austrian classrooms, I'm really deeply impressed how good they are at teaching. We have really, I'd say, we have great teachers in Austria. And those who have the feeling it's an easy job being a teacher I tell all these people try it out come to a classroom where you have some kids that are not that easy to handle and see what's going on there. Just observe and see which great job is being done in classrooms. I think it's the best, for me, it's the best job you can have, but it's a very, very challenging job. And now I'm quite old, I'd say really, especially for young teachers poo sometimes after feeling really what they are doing there what they are yeah doing that good job I'm really impressed by that yeah well you probably agree I don't, I mean you're just at the beginning of everything. I mean we are kind of at the end of everything. Well for me it's totally different now being in a primary school. Just Tom, we will go on for a while and for everybody who will see this program later on, this will be perfectly there also on Radio 4, but for the live listeners on Radio 4, we have to say goodbye at this stage. This is just because of the technical system failure we had during this show. So we will adjust it for everybody who will watch or listen to it or watch it later on so at this stage i have to say goodbye to the live listeners on radio for all on dof tv we stay on a bit and for everybody who listens to it later on and watches this later on you will still hear or see what we are talking about now so again to you Tom so for me it's totally different here in Austria because I'm in a crown school again where in this class the teacher knows the pupils real good most of the times they have the same class each year the teacher gets a different class but the classroom stay the same so the pupils know each other and a few months, the teacher knows the pupils very well. Where in the Netherlands last year, I had a few of my own classes. And in secondary school, I could have maybe 150 to 160 different students. And maybe at Christmas, maybe in January, I get to know them deeply. Where here in Austria, you know the students really well. The pupils you know really well. You know their needs. You know how you can handle them. How you can teach them. So that was different for me. And even though I've only had like three practice days here, I've already met a few of the pupils real good and I know where they've been, I know what they like, I know some of them how I can teach them English, how it works better by, for example, singing. So that's what I like a lot about Crown School here in Austria. Maybe to conclude now? I'd like to put the focus on one more aspect. Today our guests are Erasmus students, we call them incoming students, and they get the chance in different universities all over Europe to take their experiences. And I do have the chance to read all the, let's call them diaries or portfolios. Experience reports. And I'd say nearly 100% of all Austrian students who dared to go abroad, who took the chance, they tell or they write one thing. It's the best experience ever. It was the best decision of their life to go abroad to go to different countries because they it's not only making friends it's very important to make friends in different countries but there are so many aspects to get to know the educational system to yes and they most most of them say i I'm more self-confident now, because sometimes at the beginning it was not easy to find where to stay, to get to the language barrier and all those things, but at the end it was worth doing it. And that's why I'd say to Austrian students try it out try give it a try and go on Erasmus it's worth doing it well that would be a wonderful conclusion actually how is the technical side seeing it shall we conclude or shall we go on a little bit we should go on a little bit because I'm actually actually interested in because we haven't talked about that yet how school practice is organized in your home universities so the study I do in the Netherlands takes four years for the bachelor and in that four years you do three years of practice you first have a half year to get introduced to the Dutch school system and then in the second half year of the first year you already start to do practice and it starts by observing maybe do a little activity with a few students and is it once a week or once a week yeah and then the whole day as long as the day of your practice teacher is and you start off by doing these small little activities and at the end of the year you should have given a full lesson. In the second year you have the whole year, one or two days a week practice. In the third year, a half year. And then you have a half year, a minor, it's what we call. And that can be an Erasmus semester, for example. And then the fourth year, you're actually a teacher already, a teacher who's still doing the studies. And most times you teach for about four days a week and go one day into the university. You have your own classes already and you don't have as much help from a practice teacher anymore. But we have a shortage of teachers in the netherlands and if you want to you can get the chance to start teaching earlier to have your own classes earlier i got the chance last year i was last year i was in my second year and i did it in the same school as i did in my first year and my um my practice teacher said to me at the end of the first year, Hey, Tom, I think you can teach real good already for your first year, maybe already for your second year. Would you like it to teach a few own classes of your own? Get a hand on those class of your own. Have your own pupils make your own lessons instead of me giving you things to do you do it all by yourself try it out if it doesn't work out i'm here we have a lot of other colleagues who can help you back you up and in the worst case we take it over for you um and that was the best experience i had with practice teaching so far that's. They gave me the chance to do it on my own. I took the chance and I nailed it. Did they pay you as well? Yeah. Very good. Of course. Rebecca? I guess my experience is quite different to Tom's actually. Because our degree is four years as well. But every year we do blocks of placement so we would go out for in first year we go out for two weeks straight most of the day we would spend it observing but we would teach two lessons each on our own so we would be with a partner so the idea is is that when you were teaching your partner was assisting with activities so that was our first year roedd eich partner yn ymgynghorydd â'r gweithgareddau. Felly dyna'n ein plesiant cyntaf. Plesiant ddwy flwyddyn, rydw i wedi ei gyflawni cyn i'r mlynedd hwn. Roedd yn bloc wythnos, lle byddwch chi'n dysgu mwy a mwy a mwy yn ystod y wythnosau, hyd at fy wythnos olaf lle rwyf yn dysgu bob dydd, bob gwaith, dyddion, dyddion. Plesiant tair yng Nghymru yn rhywbeth wahanol. Rydym yn edrych ar sefyllfaoedd gwahanol, felly efallai mynd i ysgolion lle mae plant yn cael angen arbennig arbennig, sefyllfaoedd fel hynny. Ac yna, ar gyfer ein plesiant olaf, rydym yn gwneud ymfath ym mis Tair. Felly, ym mis Ddyfn, byddaf yn gwneud y cyfan ym mis Tair mewn ysgol cyffredinol, yn mynd rhwng clas gyntaf i chwe clas, ac yna byddaf yn cael bloc tri wythnos arbennig lle byddaf yn dysgu plant, plant yn ystyr, in a primary school going between first to sixth class and then I'll have a specific three-week block where I will be teaching children junior infants, senior infants, so they're usually about the ages of four and five, maybe six at oldest. So it's been really interesting having my own class back home and it's definitely maybe a bit different to what Tom's been doing but, and it might sound like I got thrown in the deep end a little bit but I quite enjoy it and it was definitely a good experience and a good way to gain practice maybe very different to here as well since here I'm only doing one day a week in a couple of hours but it's nice well that's intensive practice everywhere I think I can only agree to Carl go on Erasmus wherever you are take the chance exchange the best practice of education all over the continent Ich kann wieder auf Deutsch sprechen. Also die nächste PHTV-TRFM-Sendung ist in der ersten Woche im November. Ich glaube, es ist der 7. November, wenn mich nicht alles täuscht. Und vielleicht bekomme ich noch Informationen über das Topic. Gibt es da noch etwas? Gibt es noch nicht? Also das werdet ihr wieder wie gewohnt immer einige Tage vorher auf den jeweiligen Websites finden und in den Ankündigungen auf Social Media. Herzlichen Dank an meine Studiogäste Rebecca, Tom und Karl. Wir wünschen Ihnen euch noch einen schönen Nachmittag. The cycle repeated As explosions broke in the sky All that I needed Was the one thing I couldn't find And you were there at the turn Waiting to let me know We're building it up To break it back down We're building it up To burn it down Wir bauen es auf, um es zu brennen. Du kannst nicht aufwachen, um es zu brennen.