Today we went to our last school visit in Maastricht, Netherlands. We were able to see a typical secondary school in this country. We were greet by two teachers, an english teacher and a french teacher. Once we got to the classroom, the English teacher gave us a lecture on Dutch Education and Education in the 21st century. It was the first time that a teacher at the school was engaging us into conversation and asking about our opinion on the Dutch education system. As a group we were able to have a dialogue on the issues that the Dutch system faces in education as well as the issues the United States faces. In addition, he gave us a little background on how the Porta Mosana College is structured. When a student enters secondary school, for the first three years they are in lower secondary education. They take general and basic classes before they have to pick a concentration. Then at the age of 15, the student picks a concentration on science and technology, science and health, economics and society, or culture and society. Since the school has to have a balance ratio between the four concentration, not every student receives their first pick. Also, the teacher mention that they are now offering bilingual education at their school. Students who pick to have the bilingual education, learned every subject in English. He said that soon enough bilingual education will grow in the Netherlands and will be offered in primary schooling. Then we led the conversation into 21st century education. This is a very interesting time for educators because of the fast growth of technology being used in the school. If we think about it, five years ago only a few schools had smart boards, and now they are being implemented into teachers' lessons. The teacher showed us a quote by Tanya Byron saying "we are digital aliens and they are digital native" "How do we empower young people to explore their talents". Education is not how it used to be 20 years ago where the teacher would stand in front of the classroom and give a lesson. In the Netherlands, education is transforming by teaching students skills of global awareness, collaboration, problem solving, critical thinking, creativity and other skills they need for the life. In my personal experience with education I started to gain these skills at the end of high school and beginning of college; while Dutch students are learning these skills at the age of 4. Comparing Dutch education to the U.S, I believe that we are on the right path with this method of teaching but have a long way to go because of how diverse and large our country is. Once our lecture was done, two students gave us a tour of their school. The school looked like a typical high school. After our tour we took the bus to have lunch at the University Hospital of Maastricht where Rene works. I was finally able to have veggies and a salad which was food that I have been crave since the day we landed in Belgium! After lunch we went back to the hotel, grab our bags and made our way to our last stop..Amsterdam!
After an hour and half bus ride we finally made it to Amsterdam! We are staying at a hotel called the Botel which is basically a cruise that does not move! After we got settled in, we went to a restaurant near the dock and had our first meal in Amsterdam. I order some delicious fish with mash potatoes! After dinner everyone wanted to explore the city. Luckily, Henry came with us and gave us a small tour of the city. The city is such a beautiful place considering all the things they have to offer... We eventually got to the Red Light District. That was definitely an experience... people were not joking when they said that the whole street is lit up with red lights and women in the windows. This city is a completely different place than what me and many other students were used to, however I am glad I got to experience going to Amsterdam.
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