Danish students get taste of Naperville
Educators more and more are turning to technology to break down barriers to connect students with other parts of the world.
Some teachers turned back the clock in Naperville this week, though, and used a very familiar piece of technology — the airplane — to connect students with their peers 4,100 miles away in Denmark.
Two teachers and 19 students from Copenhagen open Gymnasium, a Danish high school focused on creating a study environment that transcends the walls of the classroom, arrived in Naperville late Saturday to learn about American politics, families and youth culture and create a partnership with students and faculty at Naperville Central High School.
After spending two days shadowing Central students through classes and staying in their homes, the Danish students were ready to declare two things: “Lou Malnati’s pizza is delicious” and “Everything in America is huge.”
“Everything is bigger here. Your cars are huge, your homes are huge, your roads are huge,” said Stella Cunane, 19. “And your school is huge. There are so many students here. How do you keep track of them?”
Copenhagen open has 700 students and 75 teachers compared to the more than 3,000 students and nearly 300 staff members at Central.
During their visit, the Danish students gave a presentation about their country and school to students from Central’s World and Classical Languages Department and interviewed AP Government students about our government and youth culture.
Copenhagen student Andrea Kristensen, 18, said she and her fellow students caught a glimpse of young Americans expressing their patriotic beliefs Sunday night in Chicago and were a bit disappointed.
“We saw a celebration in (Grant) Park after the death of (Osama) bin Laden and you would never see that celebration of a death in the streets of Denmark,” Kristensen said. “We were surprised. We think that was too much, just too much of a lack of respect.”
The visitors did, however appreciate the sense of community and school pride shown by Central students and staff.
“It has been a great trip with so many wonderful and helpful people,” Cunane said. “Perhaps they can visit us some day and learn more about us.”
This week’s visit to Naperville was not the first for the Danish school or its staff.
“Our partnership started about a year ago, when Navina Ostergaard, a Spanish and English teacher at Copenhagen open, contacted us,” said Naperville Central Spanish teacher Ellen Spitalli. “Their school had heard of Naperville Central through our PE program and math teacher David Sladkey’s Brain Breaks book and webpage.”
Last spring, some students at Copenhagen open communicated in Spanish via email with Central students. This past fall, Ostergaard’s Spanish class worked with Spitalli’s Spanish IV classes on a project.
“The Danish students uploaded to Google Documents some PowerPoint presentations and videos that they had made on the topic of the environment in Latin America,” Spitalli said. “My students read and viewed the materials and made comments to the Danish students using an Internet school networking site that we were piloting at the time. Then, some of my students videotaped their presentations on an artist, during our unit on Spain and Spanish art, and uploaded them to YouTube. The Danish students were able to view them and give their feedback, in Spanish, also through YouTube.”
Following that project, Ostergaard came to Naperville with another teacher and two students to see what Naperville was like in preparation for the larger visit that is taking place now.
The Danish visitors and their teachers will remain in Naperville through Saturday when they will return to Copenhagen and prepare several presentations for their peers.