Yeah! My first blog in there 😀

First I’m going to tell something about me and what drives me.

The most interesting thing in life for me is the human psyche. At first because I study my own psyche from the first year of my study. Every lesson we gave or internship we did, I had points for myself to work on. This makes me as a teacher and of course as a human stronger and more aware of my own habits. I know after 3 years that I am a man with a lot of quality’s, but they can also work on my behalf. A good balance between showing my quality’s and holding in makes me better functionating in the group.

Secondly, because I had a hard home situation as a child, with my divorced parents, I have got some ‘scars of life’. This makes me the person I am today, but doesn’t mean that I have to act like that the rest of my life. I am aware of these habits, and try to work on them. I do this at home with my therapist, where I do a lot of spiritual training so that I can work on myself every day. I think that you can’t help someone if you can’t help yourself, so i want to take fully responsebility over what i do in my life, so I can help other people to do the same.

A last point, because we learn the basics about group dynamics and a bit of psychology, as a part of the study to physical educator. From the first lessons, I liked this part of our education, because children in a sport or active setting act different than in usual class. When you know how groups or can see how individual people act or react, you can create a better environment for kids to learn. I soon found out that this is usable in an outdoor environment. I did this in a course in my study and understood the added value of being outdoor(sports) in combination with psychologies. This are two passions what I would like to combinate after my study. One day I would like to work with youth that had a hard youth, were on drugs or come from youth detention and help them to build up their lives from the inside.

That makes this experience for me a way of developing myself in a active way, with direct feedback and in a enviorment where I am feeling amazing!

And that started Monday.

The first Monday we came together I wanted to create a bit of the vibe that Len started in our group. The tool to sit beside someone else when we come back in the classroom is here an example of. I walked beside the organisers of that day, to get an idea what the goal was of the day. The purpose of the day was to get to know each other. I took that serious and walked beside a lot of different people. I tried to learn a lot of different names and had a lot of conversations with the Norwegian students. One of my quality’s is (because I am dominant) that I can take the lead. I would like to use this quality, to do it myself, so that the international students could do the same, without that I had to tell them to. In the past it worked negative at me, when I was to dominant en wasn’t aware of this and just acted as I wanted to. I tried to use my quality this time in a positive way ant to bind the group.

Before we were at the campfire, I saw that there were a few little groups of Norwegian students that talked Norwegian and thought of our rules. I discussed with our group if they would like to share our common rules with the Norwegian students and they all agreed. I asked Jella for the rules on paper and then I went to Jay, the group representative of the Norwegian group. I discussed the rules with him and if he agreed to repeat the rules for both groups. At the campfire I asked the international students to help me to get the rules clear. With this I wanted to let myself be vulnerable, instead of ‘I am the man and I know everything’. There were a few reactions of the group and it worked very good for everyone. Jay stud next to me and asked the Norwegian people for feedback or preferences in the common rules.

After that I sat down and we did a game where we had to react on a question. In this game I was a bit too much joking with the group. Nathali reacted on that and said that I hadn’t respect for the rules myself. That hit me hard and I understood that in my role as ‘representative’ I also have to act like one. That was a moment that I have to get my focus sharp for myself, instead of joking or being the nice guy. This is a trap for myself, that I want to be liked by everyone and in the past, it went in the expense of my professionality. So, I tried to focus on my goal for that day, that was a representative that want to focus on a good dynamic in the group. I noticed that I it didn’t took much to get me back in my focus and I took her feedback serious.

While we walked back, I noticed that some guys came my way instead of that I wanted to talk to someone I hadn’t spoken to. Maybe that was because I stood in front of the class and they were interested in who I was? That was a reminder of what I just had done, by discussing the rules. I just took the lead and let everyone see that we are a group and the best is to learn from each other. I talked with them and got some information about prices and places that were good to buy stuff.

After the class I got a few reactions from students that I did a good job in taking the lead. I gave them back that I am here for development, and think that will work the best in a group where everyone feels heard, supported and can say what he or she wants. The last thing wat I want is that I dominate or make the rules, and sometimes I give people that impression, so I am trying to listen to everyone and take all the feedback to grow in my own professionality.

So this was a very active, educational and personal day. I am looking forward to the next class!