What does a LSS do - the actually work

I am now fully into the job as a LSS (learning support specialist) and able to explain a bit about the job. Every LSS is given one main student to work with most of the time, being responsible for the overall development, to create a contact person for the student and to have weekly contact with the parents. Most of the students with full support have support in every lesson (mostly except PE though).

In the beginning of the school year we all worked with our own main student, full time. Now we have started swooping around so we work with different students, with the aim of getting variation in our work, get challenged in a new way, work closer together as a team as well as the students learn to work with different adults – at least for a few hours per week.

The support we do is support in normal lessons. The aim is that our students can participate as equal as possible with their classmates for normal teaching. We sit next to the student in the classroom and remind the student to focus, repeat the things the teacher have explained and basically helps and motivate the students in their work. In collaboration with the teacher we modify the curriculum so it’s more suitable for the students understanding and level.

A lot of these students are not only struggling academically but often with their social and life skills as well which mean we sometimes have to step into the learning process of life as the role model we are.

Uddannelsesvidenskab IRL

For English version see below

Jeg er blevet kontaktet for at høre om jeg kunne tænke mig at bidrage til et arrangement der skal give "nye" uddanelsesvidenskab'ere inspiration til, hvordan man kan bruge en BSc i UDV.

Og selvfølgelig har jeg lyst til det.

Oplæget fra arrangøren lød på følgende refleksionsspørgsmål:

- Hvad har jeg lavet siden jeg blev bachelor i Uddannelsesvidenskab? 

- Hvordan ser jeg mine uddannelsesvidenskabelige kompetencer i spil på arbejdsmarkedet? 

- Hvilke overvejelser har jeg gjort mig i forhold til ikke at tage en kandidat? 

- Hvilke drømme har jeg for fremtiden? 

Og nedenfor kan du så se resultatet der blev til et synes jeg selv ganske godt første videooplæg. 

English:
I was asked to do a video presentation about my work experiences after graduating. I'm one of the few who started working instead of studying and therefore i'm able to inspire some of the current students on the bachelor education in educational science. The above video is my result. Unfortunately there is only a danish version.  

Tommorow it is...

Excited, nervous, prepared with a new wardrobe and an information level equals to zero I'm looking forward to my first day at work. Tomorrow I'm having my first day at GEMS Welling Academy (WA) as a Learning Support Specialist (LSS)! 

I'm expecting that I in the upcoming school year will work with 2-3 students with some kind of special needs. I could be general concentration problems and learning disability among students, could be kids with diagnoses like ADHD or maybe Autism/Asperger - that is at least my understanding. I'm expecting an established team and a professional organization from my experiences with GEMS WA so far. 

I'm looking forward to motivate and support students who is academically behind their year-group average, to help them structure their daily school life and follow their progress. I'm looking forward to know how this school system is working, what about the teaching methods, teachers and different policies? Who will be my new colleagues and how will I fit in? Do I personally agree or disagree with the schools way of handling different situations and how will my own opinions develop through this meeting with one of the biggest school systems in the Middle East?     

Getting a job

As I wrote in my latest post … I have search for different types of jobs in Dubai during the summer, but I also tried another way of jobcasting – and fortunately I succeeded.

It was a “walk-in-interview/ recruitment fair-kind of thing” at an international school and I will try in short term to explain my impression of the day. They search for two different positions; teaching assistants and learning support specialist.  I arrived with my CV and a lot of other documents, as described in the job post: “… please bring with you your passport, visa, sponsor passport and visa copy, your current résumé, qualification certificates and 2 reference business email contact details, one of which should be previous employer.”. When I arrived I had to fill out another form, with all my details and wait for the personal screening interview. While waiting I had time to observe some of the other women applying for the same job position as I and the interview process. Around me were mostly women from India, Philippines and Pakistan I assume. There were a few other women from western countries (white skin-color like mine) as well. Before my own interview a few women from the Philippines was rejected because they didn’t had a sponsored visa, to make it obvious that it’s easy enough to find candidates for the positions.

I got my first interview, gave a good impression and got one as well. It was a relaxing talk about my educational background and my experiences in Ethiopia mostly. She skimmed through my CV, asked all the formal questions and before I had time to tell about my skills and different experiences she said that she would like to let me have an interview with the principal.

With a bit unsure feeling I reminded myself  that it must be positive to talk with a second person I waited for another ten minutes, met the principal and was taken to his office “behind the scenes”. He told me about the working hours, salary and other benefits – to make sure that I would be able to fit in. He also asked to my experience and came to the conclusion that I should meet the head of learning support, Misses B.
She was a lovely lady that told me everything about the job as a learning support specialist (LSS) and in return I told about my education and experiences for the third time within an hour. During the relaxed conversation I had a pretty good feeling and realized that I already had experience in supporting kids with special needs from my volunteering at Danish Red Cross Youth summer camps. She made sure that I was willing to work for the low salary and ended the interview by saying “I’m definitely going to offer you this position.”.

1^st of July was the day where I got my first job offer, not only in the UAE but also as newly qualified. 

Finally in Dubai - what's next?

Now i'm here - in Dubai - searching for a job. 

I have been here almost a month now and already taken some different initiative. First of all I have spent time increasing the value and correctness of my English LinkedIn profile - you are welcome to have a look on it here.
It’s still not perfect, but I keep on edit the profile to make it more effective.
I also signed up and create my CV in different job sites like bayt.com and gulftalent.com – at least it gives me an easy access to search for new jobs.
The first job I have applied for is at a company called The Brain Workshop – pretty interesting and fairly spot on, compared to my education and experience. Unfortunately I don’t think I will get it – think I will try later on though.
I have created and handed out an unsolicited application for a consultancy jobs at different internationals school. The description of my offer is more or less like my experience from Ethiopia and I hope that some school would find it interesting to try increasing their level of learning in the class room.

I still believe to find a job here in UAE even though there are some barriers coming up now and then. My English is getting better and I keep trying to improve it, but of course it’s a challenge to start writing CV and cover letters in you second language. I’m also in a position where I’m more or less a new graduated bachelor with 3 month experience, and sometimes I dream about the time to come where I do have some years’ experience, because I see so many interesting jobs I want to apply for in the future. 

Sommeren 2014 bliver starten på en hel ny jobsituation

For et år siden var jeg midt i en proces som blev afslutningen på min bachelor i Uddannelsesvidenskab. Siden har jeg været 3 måneder i Etiopien, hvor jeg har lavet udviklingsarbejde, og nu tæller jeg ned til endnu et eventyr, der for alvor skal vise, hvad en bachelor i uddannelsesvidenskab kan føre til.
Gennem min kommende mand har jeg fået en unik chance for at bosætte mig i Dubai (da han har fået fast job der). Det er så planen, at jeg rykker de sidste danske teltpæle op, opsiger studieboligen, sælger IKEA møblerne billigt og pakker alle fagbøgerne i flyttekasser (der naturligvis skal med) sidst i maj i år. 

Selvom de fleste af os nyder en uges ferie eller to, og jeg kan få rigtig meget tid til at gå med at studere kultur og nye steder, ja så trives jeg også rigtig godt i et job, hvor min indsats betyder noget for en større helhed, jeg kan blive fagligt udfordret og udvikle mine kompetencer. Derfor bliver min rolle i Dubai afgjort ambitiøs job- og udfordringssøgende  fremfor hjemmebagende og kaffedrikkende husmor, så det bliver spændende at se hvilke jobs jeg kan få, og hvordan jobmarkedet adskiller sig fra det danske.

Bloggen her vil fortsætte som en beskrivelse af, hvad en bachelor i uddannelsesvidenskab kan ende med. Jeg forestiller mig, at det udvikler sig mere og mere til en karriereblog, og forhåbentlig også med interessante artikler og indspark til forskellige debatter indenfor feltet. Så længe jeg er bosat i udlandet vil den primært blive på engelsk, så kommende arbejdsgivere, kollegaer og andre interesserede expats kan følge med.

Jeg håber at i stadig har lyst til at læse med. 

/Louise

Opsummering på min tid i Etiopien

Her ca 5 måned efter at jeg tog afsted til Etiopien vil jeg gerne lige have det rundet ordentlig af.
Få dage inden afgang i midten af september 2013 skrev jeg følgende om mine forventninger til det arbejde jeg skulle bruge tiden på i Etiopien:

"Jeg tænker for det første, at jeg kan hjælpe med at forbedre noget rent organisatorisk – fx nogle procedure omkring det at frivillige kommer og underviser i engelsk. Jeg håber også at få lov at arbejde med evaluering på skolen – altså at udvikle nogle metoder, som de selv med fordel kan bruge, for at evaluere deres undervisning eller lærernes trivsel fremadrettet. For det andet forestiller jeg mig også at jeg kan igangsætte en udviklingsproces omkring lærerne og deres forhold til undervisning. Det kan fx være som workshops omkring læring og motivation, men det kan også være som personlig feedback, efter jeg har observeret deres undervisning nogle gange. Jeg håber at jeg kan igangsætte en refleksion omkring, hvorfor de egentlig underviser på den måde de gør, og ikke gør mig til dommer over, hvorvidt deres undervisning er rigtig eller forkert!"

Nu er det ca 2 måneder siden jeg kom hjem fra et af verdens 10 fattigste lande, og jeg sidder med en følelse af at det lykkedes! Isæt mit mål, der er formuleret til sidst; at sætte refleksioner i gang. Jeg håbede meget på at jeg kunne få lærerne til at stille spørgsmålstegn ved deres egne handlinger og undervisningsmetoder generelt. De var markant mere åbne for feedback og diskussion omkring deres undervisning end jeg havde forventet, og nogle af dem opsøgte ligefrem selv at få gode råd og sparring i forhold til de udfordringer de havde i hverdagen.

Undervejs i forløbet skabte min forestilling om, at jeg også skulle lave ledelses sparring og organisatoriske forbedringer en hel del frustration. Det var vi efter min bedste overbevisning enige om på det indledende møde, men jeg oplevede igen og igen at de ikke overholdte aftaler vi lavede, for at jeg kunne komme i gang med de her organisatoriske ledelsesopgaver. Det var nødvendigt at de lagde lidt energi i det, før jeg kunne komme i gang, da jeg ofte havde brug for at vide noget mere om behov, tidligere løsninger og nuværende vaner, inden jeg fx udviklede komplicerede filsystemer, skemaer, skabeloner eller andet. Jeg synes jeg blev ved med at prøve og prøve, var tålmodig, overbærende osv, men til sidst måtte jeg beslutte med mig selv at jeg hellere ville lægge al min tid og engagement i at arbejde med lærernes behov for udvikling og feedback (simpelthen for ikke at blive mere frustreret end jeg kunne holde ud). På det afsluttende møde jeg havde med ledelsen vidste det sig dog også at det var hvad de ønskede, så alle var glade og jeg har endnu engang fået bekræftet at forventningsafstemninger (både før, under og efter) er med til at forebygge og imødekomme store frustrationer.

Jeg blev bekræftet i, at man kan starte udviklingsprocesser og sætte refleksioner i gang på 2,5 måned, jeg fandt ud af at kulturforskelle gør en stor forskel i arbejdsmetoder og tankegange ligesom det blev tydeligt at frø skal vandes og passes godt længere end 10 uger før de for alvor spirer.

Det har været en skønt eventyr og en stor faglig udfordring, som bestemt har givet mig mod på meget mere af begge dele. 

Voulenteer at Lemlem School in Addis Ababa

This is the review I made my self one of my last days at Lemlem School.

I have been working as a volunteer at Lemlem School in Addis Ababa from September the 17 to the 28 of November 2013 (10 weeks).

My main tasks at Lemlem:

• Personal feedback for the teachers
• Case classes (8*45 min teaching)
• Teacher training for the teachers in School (2,5 hours)
• Teacher training for the teachers in Kindergarten (1 hour)
• Giving in my point of view for decision made by the management

During my time I have worked with the teachers and their methods in the classroom. The main focus has been to improve active and involving learning. I have observed different teachers individual during their classes and afterwards giving them some comments and concrete ideas for their teaching. A concrete idea could be that the students should read loud two and two for each other, and then the teacher can take a couple and let them read for him (so he still got the chance to correct them) instead of let one student read for the whole class. In this way you make all the students active instead of only one. Another thing I have suggested for a teacher was to let the students go through the homework instead of him and next time I observed him he followed my advice and found it successful. The advices could be as simple as: “Have a look on you mobile clock now and then during the lesson, so you get a feeling of time, and have a chance to end the lesson in a good way”. During three lessons this teacher progressed from a very bad time management to ending the lesson at the exact time.

I made some case classes to prove that active learning is possible here. I took over two English lessons in grade 4 and two lessons in grade 8. I choose the same topic for the class as the teacher already planned, but with the methods that I believed would let the students learn as much as possible. I let both the normal teacher and some extra teachers observe me during the classes, and got some good feedback afterwards.

One Saturday in the middle of the time here I arranged a workshop day for the teachers. It was 2,5 hour and the main focus was active learning. During the day I did both different kind of groupwork and some inspiration talk by myself.  Beside from active learning the themes were how to develop new ideas for teaching and how to plan a lesson well.

In the belonging Kindergarten (3-6 years old students) I made some observations too. The main thing I noticed was that the children has to wait a lot, just sitting still. This made me develop some games and plays, to be used both for stimulating the children’s imagination, but also using the time in a more active and useful way. I did a teacher training session, where I played all the games with the teachers in the Kindergarten. The following days I also went to the kindergarten to play some of the games with the children to implement more successful.

Finally I was giving my point of view in different discussions in the management. We have had different conversations about solving problems and implementing new things. Sometimes I have been the facilitator of decision making and had the chance to suggest new ideas now and then. In general I have been a part of solving small as well as bigger challenges in the daily life at Lemlem School. 

Undervsinging for personalet i børnehaven

Efter en hel del løse observationer i børnehaven, der var tilknyttet skolen, havde jeg en stor lyst til at prøve at inspirere personalet der til fornyelse.
I børnehaven var der omkring 350 børn og ca. 15 fastansatte, der desuden arbejdede på et meget lille fysisk areal (i hvert fald i vestlige normers øjemed), hvilket skabte en masse ventetid, hvor det i pædagogens øjne var nemmest, hvis børnene sad/stod stille, så hun kunne have overblik over dem. Det er såden set fair nok når en voksen skal have ansvar for så mange børn, men det gjorde ondt i mit danske hjerte, der tror på at legende børn udvikler sig bedre end børn der skal sidde helt stille i lang tid.
Derfor samlede jeg nogle lege, som de kunne lege med børnene i klasselokalerne, eller på legepladsen. Både nogle meget aktive lege, de kunne bruge når der var plads og tid, samt nogle lidt kortere lege, der kunne tilpasses til at børnene skulle sidde stille og så bare bevæge arme og overkrop.

Jeg afholdte sessionen så praksisnær som overhovedet muligt, med stort set hele personalegruppen på en gang. Jeg introducerede kort legen, og så prøvede vi den af, med det formål, at de bedre kunne huske og selv benytte sig af legen i deres undervisning.
Det var meget nyt for dem at være så aktiv i en leg, og jeg vidste fra mine observationer at især det at lege som voksen var nyt. Det at den voksne leger med og selv opfører sig fjollet, er engageret osv var en helt ny tankegang. Så mit barnlige jeg overdrev ret meget, for at de kunne se at man godt både kan være seriøs voksen og et legebarn.

Til de nysgerrige er her et link, hvor legene er beskrevet til pædagogerne, så de efterfølgende havde det på skrift (der er nok en velkendt dansk sangleg eller to, hvis man ser godt efter): Legene jeg

Jeg fik en god respons, og blev ved med at igangsætte disse lege når jeg kom i børnehaven, så børnene også lærte dem at kende;)