Today was our last school visit :( We were able to visit a primary school in the city of Amsterdam! We were greeted by the vice principal, Mr. Mario Wormhoudt and like always we were offered coffee and tea :) Mr. Wormhoudt talked to us about the uniqueness of his school. He explained to us that this primary school was a Dalton school which is based off of Helen Parkhurst's, an American educator, Dalton Plan. The mission of the school is to achieve a balance between each student's talents and the need of the growing community. This school promotes the mission by allowing students to make free choices, have self-reliance and independent work, and collaborate with students and teachers. After the background of the school, we slip into two groups and were given tours by two eighth graders. They showed us each classroom from pre-K to 8th grade. The classrooms looked very similar to the classrooms we have back home. One difference that I saw was in the 8th grade classroom. There were big headphones on some of the students desk. One of our tour guides said that some students use the headphones to make them concentrate when doing their work. It blocks out the noise from the class. I thought that was pretty interesting. After our school visit we had lunch in the city!
When we were done with lunch we walk through the city and went to the Anne Frank House. Walking through the Anne Frank House was such an emotional feeling. Throughout the house, quotes from her diary were written on the walls telling her side of the story. We got to walk in each room of the house, including the annex where her and seven other people where hiding during the time of WII. It was a great and sentimental experience to have the opportunity to go to the Anne Frank House.
Anne Frank House
In front of the Anne Frank House
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