Gavle

Our time in Gavle has been going well. On Sunday we arrived in Gavle (pronounced like Jav-la). We met our new host families. I am staying with the Attorps family (that is where I was 4th grade when I spoke to you this week). Tomas work in law and his wife works for the University, just a five minute walk away. They have two sons in highschool.

On Monday I was able to visit a school for the day. It was a Montessouri school called Bomhus rektorsomrade. I enjoyed watching the students throughout the day. I was so impressed with the English class I attended. The children were in 4th-6th grade and many could speak conversation in English with me (remember 4th graders that Swedish is their first language). It made me wish that CWA would offer a language to its students. Then afterwards, I got to participate in an Music class with 4th graders. The teacher that was there traveled to many different schools. They were listening to different types of music and guessing what musical instrument was being played. Then they played a memory/matching game. Two people would go into the hall and then the teacher would assign us all one of the instruments we heard. Then the two in the hall would come back and would have to find the pairs of instruments that we were. The students enjoyed it very much.

Before lunch time the students were given a chance to ask me questions. They had questions about me such as what is your favorite color, do you have a boyfriend, what is your favorite animal? These were more questions so that they could practice their English because not all the younger students could speak English. Then the teacher translated other questions like: what do teacher in the USA do when students are naughty, how long is a school day, and how many students are in the class and what are they learning about? So of course I showed them a picture of the CWA 4th graders. The students also didn't like the idea that we didn't have as many breaks as them. They get a 20 minute break in the morning that we don't get at our own school. I told them it was different for me that they didn't wear shoes in their school building. They had to take them off at their lockers and walked around the school in socks. I think this was to keep the school clean. Even parents who wanted to come into the classes had to put on booties to keep their dirty shoes out of the room.

In the afternoon I was given time to speak with the teachers. I really enjoyed their ideas about lots of hands-on working. Even in Math when they used a workbook, they always had a hands-on application portion so that the students could use the material in real situations. Each child had their own weekly goals as well. So the teachers were never instructing all the students at once. They were working independently with some choice as to what they could work on at one time...and then the teacher would pull students or groups of students who needed extra help. It gave me some ideas of what I could do to make lessons more personal with my students. There were also only about 12 or 13 kids in each class. I saw a lot of teachers working together so that 3rd and 4th graders worked together a lot...splitting up into two groups with their classroom doors open between so that students could move about from the two rooms.

Overall, it was very fun for me at the school. The students were very excited Today (Tuesday) was a day of learning about business in Gavle. We started with breakfast and a presentation at a rotary club (we had lunch meetings/presentation both Monday and today as well... we will do 6 of them all together this week). Then we set off for Gevalia, a Swedish coffee company. We learned about how they make the coffee, including a tour of the plant. It was interesting to watch all the machines, but unfortunately I was unable to take any pictures. We did have to wear coats and hair nets because of health issues in the plant... I didn't like that look so much. It was most interesting to me to learn that as they make the machines that make the coffee bags, insert the coffee, and seal and put the bags all in bigger boxes, that they use less humans than they used to. Before they had 300 people working on the machines. Now because technology has advanced, many jobs have been replaced by computers and that means only 100 people now have to work there.

The coffee company was started in 1853 by Theodore Engwall on the coast of Gavle. Over time it has been passed along and is one of the most famous coffees. They export coffee to the USA as well. It was interesting to note that they make flavored coffee for the USA, but you can't buy it in Sweden. There is not as much of a market for it. Check out this site for more on Gevalia:

http://www.gevalia.com/

After our lunch meeting, we also went to another manufacturer called "Leaf." They make licorace mints called "Lakerol" and my favorite, gummy candy! We also got a tour of this plant and got to see how they make the gummy candies. We saw how they mix the ingredients in giant containers, add the flavor in little doses to the batch, and how it goes into a machine that squirts it into shapes (much like you put batter in a muffin tin). Then it takes 24 hours to harden. When it is done they have another machine that unloads the gummies onto a conveyor belt where they are packaged. I really enjoyed the samples from that place :).

At night my team friends, Heather and Jessica, came over. We went on a nice walk in the park across the street. Then we had a lovely dinner and ended the night with some table tennis (ping pong) that they had in the basement. Overall, an enjoyable stay so far!