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The school
Charlottenlund lower secondary school is located in
Trondheim, Norway’s third largest city. It was founded 40
years ago, and recently moved into a brand new building. Our
catchment area includes two elementary schools. During the
construction period the staff and administration began a
process of redefining our pedagogic practice adapted to the
challenges facing our youth today, changes in pedagogic
theory and views on learning, today’s society as well as our
new physical environment. The result of this process was a
project called 1001 Mirrors, which began in autumn
2006.
Our
school is one of a handful of lower secondary schools in
Trondheim with a special centre for students with
multifunctional handicaps. Called the M-base, we currently
have five teenagers enrolled. The highly qualified staff
cares for our students and provide them with specially
adapted training. The students participate occasionally in
the grades where they are enrolled, but health concerns
determine the degree to which they can be integrated. The
M-base uses the Snoezelen method, as one of very few
schools in Norway. Read more about this method at
http://www.flaghouse.com/what_AL.asp
Our
Student Council has embarked our school on a solidarity
project with SOS Children’s Villages whereby each class in
our school has adopted a child in
Tarija, Bolivia. Every year our students work for one
day, giving their earnings to “their” adoptive child. At
present we provide for 18 children in Tarija.
Facts and figures:
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314 pupils aged 13-16 years
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teaching staff of around 30
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active in international
cooperative projects and networks:
o
ENIS
o
eTwinning
o
P2V (Peer to Valorisation)
o
Comenius
Learning through
“teaching” peers – 1001 Mirrors
The
project 1001 Mirrors is a two-year project that
focuses on the student as teacher or
presenter. Both learning/teaching and organisational
development evolve around the idea of “the student on top of
the learning pyramid”. Through a student centred process
where each student moves from the basic skill acquisition of
the workshop through individual project work, the student
will gradually become a skilled presenter. The idea behind
the project is that by preparing to present a topic for
others - to teach them something - the student will be able
to reflect upon their own learning process in a constructive
manner. In this manner the student climbs to the top of the
pyramid of learning. Choosing presentation form will also
give the student an opportunity to reflect upon his or her
learning style. This lays the path open for success and will
thus be a strong motivating factor in the ongoing process of
learning.
Our
project aims to help the students find different ways to
approach assignments and learning. The progression of the
project in the different years is as follows:
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Year 8:
Workshop |
The year will be dominated by
workshops in different media and ways of presenting
knowledge. Digital tools, art, speech etc will be
trained in workshops integrated into the regular
subjects.
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Year 9:
Assignments |
Students will further develop
their mastery of the presentation skills learned in
year 8 to work on specific assignments given by
teachers, the school administration, external
clients etc.
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Year 10:
Individual
project work |
Now that the students will have
had two years to develop their presentation skills
and learning styles, the aim is that they will be
able to make an active selection of analogue and
digital forms of expression in their work with
self-chosen projects.
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International
projects at Charlottenlund
Our
school is an active participant in several international
projects. We take part in a Comenius project with schools in
the Netherlands and Germany, e-Twinning with a school from
Finland, currently planning a new eTwinning project with a
school in Berlin, and a P2V (Peer to Valorisation) project
with
St
PiusX College, Northern Ireland and
Bjerregrav skole in Randers, Denmark. Since our new
school opened we have been hosts to visitors from Norway and
abroad on several occasions, to the benefit and pleasure of
teachers and students alike.
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