Was war denn gut?! - Retrospektiven in eduScrum

Kein eduScrum ohne Retro! Aber was heißt die Retro für eduScrummer?

Jeder Sprint, also jede Lerneinheit, endet mit einer Retrospektive: mit einem auf Verbesserung ausgerichteten Rückblick auf das Zusammenspiel des Teams. Es geht dabei einerseits um die Umsetzung des Fachinhaltes und andererseits um die persönliche Entwicklung der Teammitglieder.

Wichtig ist die Reflektion über die eigene und die Teamarbeit, aber auch über die Zusammenarbeit mit dem Lehrenden und wie der Lehrende als Teil des eduScrum-Teams den Schülern helfen kann, ihre eigenen Ziele besser zu erreichen.

Scrum ist Vorbild, aber ein bisschen anders ist eduScrum schon

In der eduScrum-Logik werden längere Lernsprints noch einmal durch kürzere Sprintjes unterteilt, um den Lernfortschritt gemeinsam transparent zu halten. Inhaltlicher Hilfebedarf der Teams durch den Lehrer als PO wird rechtzeitig sichtbar, Teamkonflikte können schneller gelöst oder gleich verhindert werden. 

Nach einem sehr kurzen (Zwischen-) Sprintje ist manchmal ein kurzes Review in Form eines Pitches mit einer anschließenden kurzen Retro ausreichend (5-10 Minuten). Bei dieser Retro geht es dann vor allem um die Zusammenarbeit, weniger um die persönliche Entwicklung der Teammitglieder.

Nach einem abschließenden Sprint einer längeren Unterrichtsstundenserie mit mehreren Sprintjes ist eine längere Retro angebracht (ca. 30-45 Minuten im Schulkontext). 

Auch wenn die Teams nur mäßig gut zusammenarbeiten oder wenn Sie besondere Werte verstärken wollen, lohnt sich eine längere Retro. Sorgen Sie dafür, dass die Retros kurzweilig, stark und interaktiv sind; lassen Sie vor allem die Teammitglieder miteinander ins Gespräch kommen. Der Ton sollte leicht und auf Verbesserungsmöglichkeiten fokussiert sein.

Und jetzt fragen wir, was gut war?

Auch!

Fragen, die insbesondere Sie als Lehrender mit der Retrospektive klären wollen, sind unter anderem:

·                Wird Lernen effizienter und effektiver? Werden sich Team und Teammitglieder ihres               Lernstils bewusst? 

·                Werden Maßnahmen aus Review und Retro gut umgesetzt?

·                Werden Hindernisse schnell, effektiv & effizient aufgelöst? 

·                Sind Teams und Workflow stabil genug, um aus Erfahrungen zu lernen? 

·                Werden die fachlichen Resultate überwacht? 

·                Achten die Schüler selbst, ggf. mit Hilfe von Checklisten, auf ihre persönliche                         Entwicklung? 

·                Wird die Prozessverbesserung ggf. mit einer guten Fragenliste unterstützt? 

·               Entwickeln die Schüler eigenständig Instrumente um zu überprüfen, dass sie Ihre                   Teamabsprachen und Qualitätskriterien erfüllen (Ownership)?

·                Teilen die Teams ihre Expertise? 

·                Ist die Definition of Fun (Teamabsprachen) realistisch und klar? 

·                Haben die Schüler Spaß im Team & gibt es einen guten Teamgeist / eine gute                       Arbeitsatmosphäre? 

·              Sind Teams darauf konzentriert, Aufgaben fertigzustellen und achten sie dabei auf ihre           Qualitätskriterien (Celebration Criteria und Definition of Doing)?

·                Sind diese Qualitätskriterien klar und erfüllbar?

·                Können die Teams aktiv Antworten suchen, ohne dass der Lehrer drängen muss? 

·                Unterstützen sich die Teammitglieder gegenseitig? Verlassen sie ihre Komfortzone? 

·                Dürfen die Teams Fehler machen, fühlen sie sich sicher und können sie sich und dem           Lehrer vertrauen? 

·                Dürfen Sie über ihre Grenzen gehen und dürfen Sie improvisieren? 

·                Stehen die Teammitglieder hinter ihrem Produkt (Ziel, Aufgabe) und nehmen sie                   Anteil? 

·                Werden die eduScrum-Rollen ausgefüllt und funktionieren die Rollen gut?

·                Verbessern die Teams ihr Teamwork?

·                Wird die Arbeit von allen Teammitgliedern erledigt?

·                Arbeiten die Teams organisch und gibt es vollkommene Transparenz?

·                Werden die Teams gut durch ihre Umgebung unterstützt? 

·                Sind die Teams tatsächlich selbstorganisiert und selbststeuernd genug um voran zu              kommen?

Es geht um Zusammenarbeit 

Hören Sie auf Ihre Gruppe, aber setzen Sie auch klare Grenzen. 

Welche Maßnahmen können Sie ergreifen, welche können die Schüler oder Teams aber auch selbst umsetzen? 

Finden Sie konkrete Kaizen-Items, also Verbesserungsmaßnahmen, und überprüfen Sie gemeinsam während und nach dem nächsten Sprint, ob Sie und Ihre Lerner diese umgesetzt haben und was das Ergebnis davon war. Diese Kaizen-Items können auf Teamebene aber auch auf Gruppenebene vereinbart werden. 

Reflektieren Sie immer wieder auch über Ihre Retrospektiven: bringen diese Verbesserung in der Zusammenarbeit der Teams, für die Selbstwirksamkeit der Schüler, für Ihren gemeinsamen eduScrum-Prozess? 

Wenn die Verabredungen aus den Retrospektiven umgesetzt und eingehalten werden, kann das Vertrauen innerhalb der Teams sowie in der Team – Lehrenden – Beziehung wachsen. Vertrauen ist die Basis für gutes eduScrum und immer bessere Teamergebnisse.

Autor: Alisa Stolze 

Labels: Autor/Alisa Stolze, eduscrum, Kommunikation; Vertrauen, Lernen, Retrospektiven

http://www.teamworkblog.de/2018/10/was-war-denn-gut-retrospektiven-in.html

eduScrum on the road training 2018

A testemony of the start of a journey.

This the story of a day of deep immersion in eduScrum. I flew 2000 km and drove
277 km to visit three schools in the Netherlands. My student Eric Herzog, a High School chemistry teacher, had conducted an experiment using eduScrum and we already had travelled from California to Geneva to present our experiment using eduScrum at the EARLI special interest group of INTERACTION, LEARNING AND PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT.

Willy Wijnands was our co-presenters and when he invited me to visit the Netherlands to experience eduScrum in Dutch schools, it was an opportunity that is hard to pass up. I was able to free up a day to not only talk and listen about educational research, but go and see some of the most innovative schools in Holland. My goal was twofold: First, to be able to really go deep with Willy and understand the philosophy and mindset behind eduScrum. Secondly, to see the pedagogy being applied in schools and understand better how to teach this mindset to educators. Willy organized to visit three schools. We started with the VOX school. Anneke Volp and her team welcomed us and let us observe the classrooms, if one can even call it that. You have to imagine a giant maker space, however without fancy resources, but even more spirit. Three years ago the school started with an empty hall. Now it is bustling with students working on their projects and using eduScrum to collaborate and develop their teamworking and leadership skills. Second stop was the ASHRAM COLLEGE, Willy’s school. I got to interview the students and Willy showed me his classroom. I also got to sit in on a teacher meeting, who were discussing an upcoming visit from a school inspector. Then we went on to an innovative school in Amersfoort, who serves a broad spectrum of students and integrates vocational skills training and college preparation training. They wanted to discuss how they might use eduScrum in their innovative model.

We drove 277 km and well guess what happens when you are in a car with a passionate educator for 8 hours? You listen. Willy has a wealth of stories and it was nice to have an extensive conversation with him, because true to his teaching philosophy he often says “I don’t have answers. I have questions.” He does guide students to finally say: “Who did it? I did it.”

In the evening Willy immersed me in his workshop for teachers. A true example of what it means to do what you preach. As he is talking he is drawing, literally every picture more than a thousand words. And between the occasional Aikido move, and another espresso, we were going deeper and deeper. Willy is like a zen master. Except, fortunately he teachs without using koans. His explanations are crystal clear and simple, yet profound. The simplicity of excellence.

What I have received is a gift that I hope every educator can receive and give. Someone generously sharing their experience, their wisdom, some failures, and of course all spiced up with wonderful stories. Thank you, Willy!

Christian A. Wandeler, Ph.D.
Associate Professor in Research Methods and Statistics
California State University, Fresno
Kremen School of Education & Human Development

Onderwijsinnovatie in Moskou

Agile in onderwijs

Binnen de IT wereld is ‘agile’ al jaren de basis voor verschillende werkvormen. ‘Agile’ betekent letterlijk wendbaar. In het werk wordt het zichtbaar in een flexibele opstelling en in het vermogen om je snel aan te passen aan de situatie of veranderende behoeften van klanten

Scrum is een van de mogelijke methodieken om je werk ‘agile’ in te richten. Vanaf 2012 werken wij, Claudia Struijlaart, scheikunde leraar op het Sint Ursula in Horn en Willy Wijnands (grondlegger eduScrum) en leraar Science op het Ashram College in Alphen aan den Rijn samen, om scrum te vertalen naar het onderwijs, eduScrum. Daarbij focussen wij ons niet alleen op het te leveren product;  het voorvoegsel edu geeft aan dat wij het proces én de persoonlijke ontwikkeling van de leerling én het teamwerk in beeld brengen. Dit ontwikkelen van hedendaags onderwijs om jongeren voor te bereiden op hun toekomst vindt plaats over de hele wereld: eduScrum is bijvoorbeeld ook al in Duitsland, Polen, Mexico, Guatemala en Engeland actief. In het voorjaar kregen wij de vraag van Natalia Gulchevskaya om naar Moskou te komen. Zij heeft in Rusland de groep ‘Agile in Education’ opgezet. Haar vraag was of wij een workshop wilden geven en een eduScrum training aan een groep van ca. 30 Russische docenten, coaches en schoolleiders vanuit verschillende regio’s van St Petersburg tot Kazanstad. We zijn daarop ingegaan.

Yandex

Op maandag 13 augustus was het dan zover. Na een goede vlucht hebben we de bagage in het hotel gezet en mochten we aan het werk. Het IT bedrijf Yandex (het Russische Google) steunt Natalia in haar werk en had een ‘Agile in Education’-minicongres georganiseerd waar wij de eduScrum-workshop verzorgd hebben. Na ons vertelden twee Russische docenten over een softwaretoepassing voor het onderwijs (leek op google classroom) gemaakt door Yandex. Het was behoorlijk druk, wel 200 mensen bezochten deze bijeenkomst. Tijdens de rondleiding liet Yandex zien dat het een modern bedrijf is dat goed zorgt voor de werknemers. Het ontbreekt ze aan niets, van dakterrassen, ligstoelen, bordspellen, veel planten tot aan een stoplicht dat de verkeersdrukte in Moskou aangeeft. Licht op rood:  blijf hier, speel een spel en vertrek later!

 eduScrum

Dinsdagmorgen startte onze driedaagse training. De Higher school of Economics in Moskou faciliteerde ons deze drie dagen. Bij de start zaten alle aanwezigen in de busopstelling met een pen en papier klaar om door ons onderwezen te worden. Maar dat was niet onze opzet; wij werken vanuit het principe ‘leren door te doen’. Dus iedereen moest direct uit zijn comfortzone gehaald worden, wat nog een uitdaging was. Omdat je met een cultuurverschil en taalbarrière zit, weet je niet goed hoe dat ontvangen wordt. Maar ja, ‘agile’ werken vraagt om wendbaarheid, dus we gingen gewoon van start. We begonnen met een spel waarmee iedereen zich aan elkaar voorstelde, gevolgd door een inventarisatieronde van alle vragen waarmee de deelnemers naar de training waren gekomen. Deze vragen hebben een centrale plek in het lokaal gekregen. Nieuwe vragen konden ook later nog toegevoegd worden. Deze vragenmuur werd een plek waar contact gelegd werd. Veel mensen hadden dezelfde vragen en men hielp elkaar waar mogelijk met het beantwoorden ervan. Voor ons was deze plek handig om aan het eind van de training te controleren of we ieders vragen beantwoord hadden.

Wij kwamen tot ontdekking dat men ook in Rusland de leerlingen uit de bioscoophouding wil halen en hun betekenisvol onderwijs wil geven, waarbij de buitenwereld betrokken wordt. Maar daarbij doen zich dezelfde problemen voor als in Nederland. Ook hier heeft de overheid strikte regels, zijn er moeilijke of juist vooruitstrevende directies en lastige mondige ouders. Het delen van de vragen en problemen en oplossingen zorgde voor verbinding: er ontstond snel een band. De gezamenlijke zoektocht naar antwoorden om het leren vanuit het hart gestalte te geven was gestart, met alle uitdagingen die daarbij horen. Tijdens de eerste dag was men vooral bezig om te ervaren wat ‘agile’ is en te leren wat de basisprincipes van eduScrum zijn. De verwarring en de chaos in ieders hoofd waren groot. De twee daaropvolgende dagen zijn de deelnemers aan de hand van de informatie van dag één gaan werken aan eigen projecten. Dit kon in groepen of individueel. Aan de hand dit werk is de eduScrum-methode deze dagen verder uitgediept. Er werd aandacht besteed bijvoorbeeld aan de wijze waarop groepswerk beoordeeld kan worden of aan de manier om de persoonlijke ontwikkeling van een groep en individuele leerlingen te volgen. Tijdens de regelmatige reviews was er de mogelijkheid voor ons om bij te sturen en werden kennis en ervaring in de groep gedeeld. Het gevoel van chaos maakte langzaam plaats voor helderheid en inzicht.

Deze drie dagen hebben wij vol passie samen gewerkt aan nieuwe vormen van onderwijs voor Rusland. Wij namen afscheid van een groep die vol warmte en energie samenwerkte en kennis deelde om samen voor de Russische kinderen goed onderwijs te maken. De deelnemers waren dankbaar, iets wat mij tot tranen roerde. Het was een groot voorrecht om met deze groep te mogen werken, ook wij hebben veel geleerd!

De week hebben wij op vrijdag afgesloten als toerist. Wij werden verwend met een rit in de prachtige Russische metro en een geweldige stadswandeling met een gids die de plaatsen kenden waar de toeristen niet kwamen. 

Claudia Struijlaart & Willy Wijnands

Reflections about using eduScrum

Reflections about using eduScrum in a doctoral program for Educational Leadership at California State University, Fresno, USA

Learning in a Changing World

In a changing world, the ability to think critically, innovate, learn independently, collaborate, and lead are crucial. The expectation is that schools and universities prepare students for changing careers and a changing world. Best practices to reach these aspirations are student-centered instruction, collaborative learning, learning communities, project based learning… And of course, during all of this, students should also learn the most current technologies.

As a university professor, I teach educational research methods and statistics. As such I do research on how to support faculty in the development of their instruction, while I am at the same time also developing my own teaching practice. In my first year I was mostly lecturing, with a lot of dialoguing, but realistically I was doing most of the talking. Then I implemented much more group work during class time and eventually shifted to a flipped classroom, where students would view lecture videos as homework and collaborate on assignments and discussions during class. I strived to develop my pedagogical and technological content knowledge and actively included my students in trying to further innovate of what it meant to teach and learn with the current mobile technology.

Open Mindset and Self-management

It is with this open mindset, that I came across agile learning and eduScrum. Having researched how people develop their human potential in organizations and the workplace of the future. I always aspired to create a similar environment in my courses. I have particularly focused on self-managed organizations, such as the Morning Star Tomato Company, which has no formal hierarchy. They lamented to me that people often first have to learn to self-manage, to be self-determined and to be a leader without formal authority. These skills are all fundamental in order to work well in a flat organization. So, I immediately saw that eduScrum could help me bridge two areas in my life, the research about modern workplaces and how to prepare my students for it, while teaching them research methods.

Implementing eduScrum

After I first spoke with Willy Wijnands I was really excited, but also a bit concerned. Could I really trust my students to take control of their learning? And more importantly could I trust myself to be able to assist them in an effective way? Using the eduScrum approach required some courage and a growth mindset. Regular coaching by Willy was fundamental. He did a fabulous job at making the method simple to understand and was always available to reflect together and discuss the next step. There weren’t any difficulties that he hadn’t experienced already. He shaved several years of my learning path. True to his method, his coaching style was to the point, effective and with a few questions and reflecting on how to improve. My main initial concern was that I had a lot of material to cover in my course, and I was not sure how I would check if students had understood the main concepts. (This actually was already a concern with the flipped classroom.) An important realization was, that there really is a lot of flexibility in varying the degree of control. The burn chart and the demo meeting at the end of each lesson serve as feedback on overall progress and understanding. The multiple check-ins with the teams during the lesson time provide information about the degree of understanding. When one realizes that several groups struggle with a concept, there is time to have the groups stop and provide a mini-lecture for clarification. I had a lot of content and lecture videos online that I was able to point teams to.

Development of collaboration and leadership skills

What is particularly important is the constant reflection at the end of each session. Not just about the content, but about how they work as teams. Students figure out what works and what doesn’t. The students develop self-management and leadership skills. They also check if they built a culture in their team that matches with their definition of fun. Here some comments from students: “I was anxious at first and had a preference for just listening to lectures, but then I realized that I was here to become a leader, and that included taking charge of my learning.” “I loved how we were able to establish our own plan of action.” “The team became an important part of my life and working together to get the assignments done was very effective.” “This was a good set up because each group had their own time with the professor, opportunities to ask questions and reflect on assignments in small groups with the professor.“

Room for improvement

Based on student evaluations there were two concerns that surfaced. One was that they wished a bit more “explicit instruction on some of the more complicated concepts”. Another was being stuck in a team that they don’t like. To my knowledge that was only the case for 1 out of 20 people. And this is a challenge that Willy has had before. Here the facilitation skills of the instructor come into play. It is about perceiving certain group dynamics and potentially facilitating a discussion around that.

Next steps

I am very happy I implemented eduScrum and will use it again. But I definitely would recommend to have a coach available, because it makes the instructors learning easier, faster and helps keep the confidence and trust. Having materials online available makes it easier too. I am actually thinking about implementing it in a fully online class. Two things I will improve is a) plan time for explicit lectures, when they are pulled by students, and b) in addition to the team based survey on their team functioning, also have an individual survey, where I offer an opportunity for students to signal me when they want help with a difficult conversation about their team functioning.

Overall the engagement and buy in of the students is what most convinced me to use it again. I had teams send me demo videos from their meetings on Sunday afternoon. Two teachers started using it in their own classroom. One student used it to manage her work at the office. Me personally I started using a scrum board to manage my family’s preparations for hosting guests over the Christmas break. All these are signs that eduScrum is a great tool to develop self-management, collaboration and leadership skills.

Christian A. Wandeler, Ph.D., is an assistant professor in research methods and statistics at California State University, Fresno. He got a Ph.D. in personality and positive psychology at the University of Zurich, Switzerland. He was a visiting scholar at Stanford University and studies teacher training, the development of hope and learning achievement, the equity of the Swiss educational system, and studied the quality of the career and technical education system in Switzerland. He consults organizations in the development of human potential, professional development and growing the workplace of the future.

eduScrum at the Leysin American School in Zwitserland

Day 1.

Quarter to six I arrived at Willy’s front door, Denise was yet to come so he invited me in the house to shelter from the heavy rainfall. It had been five minutes before the doorbell rang. Denise had appeared with her entire family to wave her of. As we made our way to the car with our weighty luggage the sky boomed with rage and it began to rain even harder. Short after lightning struck down from the heavens startling us all, including the entire Wijfjes family and even Willy!

Before we could begin our journey we had to pick up a very important package.

As we arrived at Noah’s house the first thing we saw peering through the crack of his front door was a camera, short after the mystery man revealed himself with a cheeky smile. He jumped into to the car and off we went.

It took at least eight hours to get to Switzerland! Of course we had been prepared for this by Willy but blimey what a long ride. I had slept quite a lot during the ride with my head comfortably on Noah’s bag. He sat in the front with Willy and Denise and I sat in the back. I had downloaded some eminem songs that continued to blare through my earphones on repeat the entire way there..so I can now proudly say that I can at least rap one entire chorus of ‘Lose yourself’.

In between my strangely, rather comfortable car naps we stopped once in a while to stretch our legs and take in the view of the German countryside. I had never been to Germany before so to see it so flat surprised me. I had expected more of a Sound of Music like landscape. But I was to early with my judgement because after an hour or two on the road our surroundings vastly changed to far exceed my expectations.

After another hour we began to notice a peculiar weather pattern, it turned from rain to snow and from snow to rain all the way up to Switzerland. There the weather was even more confusing as the fog slowly crept up to us and devoured us under a great white blanket of mystery. I believe we could all feel a rush of excitement as we first saw the mountain range, I barely know how to describe what we encountered. Pearing through the fog we could just about make out the great green giants from a distance. After a day or two we would realize that these mountains were way bigger than we could had ever imagined, but when one lives on the flattest place on earth where even a sand dune can impress you.

As we made our way up the mountain the fog became thicker and thicker like a intoxicatingly heavy syrup whispering us towards the finish line. We knew it wouldn’t be far now and although Willy had a firm hand driving up the mountain, I began to notice he was becoming more and more nervous as we gained altitude. I also observed that inside the car the ambiance was gradually taking a turn for the worst. Looking back on the situation I now understand the sudden silence. It must have been terrible to have to drive up a incredibly steep mountain in the fog

after eight hours of driving with also three teenagers nagging at you with questions like ‘are we there yet?’.

After a good fifteen minutes I was getting fed up with far too serious vibe. So just after Willy took another sharp turn a sentence flopped out of me that will probably haunt me till the end of my school days . “And then we road off the mountain..” I said dryly breaking the awkward stillness. Willy and the rest all cracked up and have been mocking me with ‘and then’ jokes ever since.

We had finally arrived at our destination Leysin. I couldn’t see more than three meters in front of me but nethertheless I was very impressed by what little I could see. Everywhere were tall student houses connected by a broad road leading to the infamous “Leysin American High School”, standing proudly carved into the mountain like an ancient statue.

As we entered the school the first thing my eye fell on was the giant student library. I enjoy a good book so already I was longing to have a quick look. We were standing in the hallway as we were suddenly approached by a friendly looking man named Paul. We shook our hands and kindly introduced ourselves. “Well you guys must be hungry after that long trip” he said gesturing to the dining hall. Gradually we made our way over, yet to encounter the wonders of the tosti machine.

Day 2.

We had slept like lambs that previous night but when I woke up I still felt absolutely knackered. We had arranged to meet Bill in the dining hall for breakfast. We had a good chat and seeing as we were of for the day we decided to visit have a look around. It was a rainy day but that didn’t matter to us. We took the small mountain train down to a town by the name of Aigle and spent the day sightseeing. We walked past the lake Geneva and had lunch in a beautiful  lunch cafe called Zurcher. We each chose a different chocolate and split it into exactly four pieces so we could all share. I chose a particularly scrumptious chocolate cake with with layers of raspberry in it. We also visited the statue of Freddie Mercury which was a lot larger than I had imagined.

After a couple of hours we headed back to leysin and had a good dinner before bed.

Day 3.

Day three was the first day of the course we were all very excited. Willy had asked us to wake up early so we got up at half past six and headed to breakfast at seven. When we stepped outside snow surrounded us for miles, there was not one place that remained untouched by it. It was quite nice being the only ones in the cafeteria, we had all the choice in the world including these godley blueberry muffins. As we made our way to the middle school we had an epic snowball fight, one of many to come. When we were inside we set up the stuff and awaited the teachers. Willy’s course includes many games and fun activities. The one I found the most interesting was the paper airplane game. There were three or four teams of about five people

and every one of them had a team captain. This team captain had chosen his/her teammates on the account of qualities. There had to be a variation of qualities in one group so the team captain wasn’t allowed to pick the same quality twice. When the team’s were made and the game was on you could definitely notice considerable differences between the team’s. They all had a very different tactic, some had divided their groups into different divisions. Two people were to throw the planes, two to fold the plains and two to finish them. Whilst other groups did every step together. The more games the teachers played the more they came in to there own and we began to see people began to take over certain roles in the groups. There were leaders, followers, class clowns and of course the mediators. It was all very interesting to study different groups like that I enjoyed it very.

Day 4.

Day two was the second and final day of the course. Some teachers had decided that eduScrum was not for them had not shown up. Luckily there were still a lot of teachers very enthusiastic to stay so we started with a couple more games and Willy told stories from his experiences with eduScrum and as did we. We explained the pro’s and the con’s of eduScrum in the classroom and we tried to answer the questions from the best we could. At the end of the course we shook hands and said our goodbyes to some of the foreign teachers. Because it was a lovely day on the mountain we decided to go for a hike after we went back to our rooms and had a long good rest.

Day 5

Day five was a lovely day, the sun shone brightly on the mountains illuminating the brilliant green leaves. The sky such a deep blue colour it looked almost like you could dive into it.

We had decided to go down the mountain to take a tour in the most notorious Chillon castle on lake Geneva. After an hour or so we took the car for a drive to Geneva but due to some problems with my health we couldn’t make it as far. We drove back to up the mountain and played cards for the rest of the evening.

Day 6.

Day six was our last day in switzerland, we went to breakfast early and took a couple of tosti’s and fruit with us for the ride back. It took about the same amount of time to get back to the Netherlands than the trip up to Switzerland, although it felt a lot shorter. When we got to Limburg Maastricht Willy brought us to a little snackbar where he ordered something called Zoervleis (which means sour meat) which was ace and showed us the place where he grew up. It was really nice to take a little break like that before we stepped in the car again to drive home.

Thank you Willy for this awesome experience and this amazing opportunity, I feel very lucky for having been part of your eduScrum family. Also great thanks to Noah and Denise for taking care of me and literally carrying me up a mountain. I have made memories with you all that I will cherish them forever.

Bo Walkden, 4 HAVO (Highschool)