Swedish dances, songs and clothing

For the spring semester the focus has been on dancing, singing and dressing. The students went out one afternoon to check how people were dressed. They did some interesting observations.

We also prepared for a visit to our friendship school in Poland with traditional dances and typical Swedish songs.

My own dalahäst

Den irakiska flaggan på min häst representerar mitt hemland. Jag är född där och har minnen därifrån som Sverige inte kan ersätta. Det finns sol, moln och blå himmel eftersom det är väldigt varmt på somrarna i Irak. Det kan bli över 50 grader varmt där. När jag tänker på mitt hemland så minns jag hur varmt det var, mitt hus och våra vänner. Man brukar aldrig bada i sjöar i Irak eftersom det är äckligt så de som vill bada gör det i simbassänger, män och kvinnor badar för sig.

The Iraqi flag on my horse represents my homecountry. I´m born there and have memories from there as nothing in Sweden can replace. I´ve painted a sun, clouds and a blue sky because it´s very hot in Iraq in the summer. It can be over 50 degrees there. When I think of my homecountry I remember the heat, our house and our friends. You can´t swim in the lakes there because they are gross so the ones who wish to do that has to go to the pool where men and women are swimming separated.

På den andra sidan av hästen så finns den svenska flaggan. Det är för att jag har levt i Sverige mer än vad jag har levt i Irak och jag har många fler minnen härifrån. Jag tänker inte flytta tillbaks till Irak eftersom jag har vant mig vid att leva här och trivs bra i Sverige. Men åka dit någon gång och besöka släktingar i framtiden kan jag göra.

On the other side of the horse is the Swedish flag. It´s because I´ve lived longer in Sweden than in Iraq and I´ve more memories from here. I´m not going to move back to Iraq because I like it here and I´ve got used to live here. But to go back and visit family in the future is something I want to do.
I´ve painted water under the flag because you can swim in the lakes and the sea without catching any diseases. The water is very clean, so it´s cool! :)

Kvinnan som sträcker ut armarna föreställer att kvinnan har lika mycket rättigheter som männen här i Sverige. Det är ingen skillnad mellan män och kvinnor här båda kan göra det de vill inom lagen. Snöflingorna över kvinnan har jag ritat eftersom det snöar i Sverige på vintern men det händer inte i Bagdad bara i norra Irak. Det är jättefint med en vit jul och nyår! :)

The woman who reaches out her arms symbolises that the woman has the same rights as the men here in Sweden. There´s no difference between men and women here, they can both do what they want to according to the law. The snowflakes over the woman, I´ve drawn because it´s snowing here in the winter and that never occures in Bagdad just in the north of Iraq. It´s beautiful with snow for Christmas and the New Year! :)

Designs on glass and pottery: grade 8

The 8th grade, Fall 2008

We bought vases and pottery at a second hand store and have reused them. By putting a new design on them we may be able to increase the value of the items. The students then drew the vases/jars and planed the design to be applied to them. The still life was then colored in with aquarelle paints. Here they tried to match the various shades within the vase with the painting. We decorated the vases, etc. with porcelain paint and burned them in our own oven, following the dirrections on the bottles. Porcelain paint can be applied by brush, sponge or with special porcelain markers and can be found in most hobby stores here in Sweden.

On December 10th, we plan to sell our items at an open house meeting in the evening. We'll serve some snacks and see how much we can earn for our class.

Pictures from our visit to Turkey, November 2008

Turkish pupils at the Swedish crafts display table


Sister schools showing off their traditional dances


Turkish children in their beautiful traditional outfits

The english teacher at the turkish school with the three

Swedish pupils who represented the Swedish coalition

The traditional Swedish crafts display table.

Our students visited their sister school in Turkey and brought with them some of the crafts we had made. School representatives from the other participating countries showed their traditional outfits out in a turkish school yard. It was fun to see all the colours.

The horses you see on this page are a product of the discussions we've had about identity. The students were asked to design, on paper how they would decorate two horses in a way so that they would demonstrate who they are and what they are iinterested in. The form of the horses is typical for as "Dalahäst" (pictured) which symbolizes Sweden. We live in Sweden and we let this form represent living in Sweden. The decoration on the horses would describe who we are within this form.

This week, one teacher and three of our student from the ninth grade are visiting our friend-school in Paraköy, Turkey. This school is one of a few schools that are involved in the Comenius project named in this blog. The students took with them som napkin-holder horses (see the other pictures in this blog) that we made in our art project with them to show what we've been doing. We hope that they like them as much as we do. The rest of the class has autumn recess this week and will continue with their horses next week. The next stage after the horses are completed is to write a short article about what diffrent symbols and picture are found on each horse and what they imply or describe. We hope to post some examples within a few weeks.

Svenne? Blatte? Categorizing creates cultural boundaries

In our exercise where we brainstormed "What is Swedish and not?" and "Am I Swedish simply because I'm born in Sweden?" we found that the students had a great deal of questions about their identity.

One aspect of the identity crisis showed itself to be the words we use to describe ourselves. Could it be that when we call ourelves something other than "Swedes" in order to show respect for the cultures our parents represent we separate ourselves from the Swedish society?

We discussed popular nicknames which have an inherent negative connotation such as "Svenne" (100% Swede inside and out) and "Blatte" (meaning an imigrant with dark hair and a culture from the Middle East and or eastern Europe). We discussed how these words hinder rather than help people assimilate into the Swedish society and workplace. We also discussed that it is important to be connected to and proud of one's cultural background while one also embraces and appreciates the opportunites afforded in Sweden.

Here we cames to discuss freedom, the right of free speach, voting, equal opportunity in the workplace and so on. We came to the conclusion that it was important to appreciate these opportunities.

Brainstorming - the first phase of term 3

In order to get started with the term 3 part of the project, our ninth-graders were asked to brainstorm from the question "What is Swedish and what is not?". They were given a large posterboard and some markers. Many divided their board inteo two sides: Swedish and not Swedish. They mentioned different foods, buisnesses and attitudes that are primarily Swedish or typically found in Sweden:
Foods: Swedish meatballs, pickeld herring, surstömming, cinamon rolls, reindeer meat?
Buisnesses: Ikea; H + M; Volvo; SKF; SAAB are worldwide and well known.
Attitudes: "Lagom", i.e. "just right - not too much"; "Jantelagen", i.e. "Don't stick out, be like everyone else norm"; the tendancy for swedes to have everything look nice on the outside: clean neat and tidy Ikea homes; focus on fashion; saftey first - Volvos 3 point safteybelt, focus on childrens safety in parks; Childrens books - Astrid lindgrens many books about Emil and Pipi, Bamse by Rune Andreasson; and much much more.

Even here we began to discuss gray zones: Is kebab Swedish now even if it came from the Middle East? Everyone eats it in most cities in Sweden nowadays! Are Swedes the only ones in the world who eat meatballs? Not really.

They began to brainstorm around one more question, too: "Am I Swedish just because I was born within its limits?"
Most of the students in the class come from different cultural backgrounds. They are, what we say, new Swedes or second generation Swedes. Many of them had put their own names on the side designated by themselves as "Not Swedish". We teachers wondered why. After all they were born here, live here and kan speak fluent Swedish.

They said that the problem was identity. Really, they didn't know whether or not they wanted to be called Swedes and didn't want to be completely Swedish because their own cultural background was of such vital importance to them. Still they were glad to live here, go to school and have friends in Sweden. So which side should they take?