May 26th Hateigsskoli Visit, Golden Circle Tour, Last Group Meal

Our last day was a busy one.  We started with two hours at Hateigssskoli, a school of 450 students in grades 1 through 10.  Karla and I like this school because the principal, Ásgeir Beinteinsson, has such a clear vision of promoting learning by ensuring students, staff, and parents are happy with the school and feel it is safe, and by supporting ancillary subjects which foster creativity.  


For example, all students fill out a short survey (which they do not sign) that asks if they are happy with school, if they are being bullied, if they think someone else is being bullied (they are asked to identify the victim), and if they think someone is being a bully (they are asked to name the bullies as well).  It is very simple, straight forward, and direct, but it provides valuable information upon which they can act.  It also makes it very easy to get parents on board to address their child's behavior when they see that numerous students feel their child is engaging in bullying behavior. Throughout the year parents and teachers fill out satisfaction surveys to gauge their feelings about the school.

First graders performing a dance for us.

Third or fourth graders making sweet bread in a cooking class.

Hateigsskoli has drama classes and dance classes that are participated in by every grade.  These creative activities seem to have a beneficial effect on student learning (deeper learning such as critical thinking as well as rote memorization) in the traditional subjects.  Hateigsskoli consistently performs higher than the average for Reykjavik schools, even though they have students from a mix of socio-economic levels.  Research indicates that providing enjoyable and creative classes during the school day improves the quality and quantity of student learning, so Hateigsskoli is not breaking any new ground here, they are just taking advantage this fact.

A Famous Church In Reykjavik

This is a small but interesting church on our walk to the school.

After visiting the school, we took a 6 hour Golden Circle Tour. The first stop was at the rift between the American tectonic plate and the European tectonic plate.  The plates are pulling apart at a rate of 2 centimeters (a little less than an inch) per year.  This rift actually goes all up and down the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, and it is why Iceland has so many volcanoes.  In fact, Island is the largest volcanic island on Earth. Where we were, this rift is a wide valley with the American plate on one side and the European plate on the other.  

Scenery out the bus window just outside of Reykjavik.

Donna about to go down into the rift.

The rift is the big valley at the end of the path an to th right, not the region the path is in.

Karla is standing on the American plate, the valley with the buildings is the rift area between the plates, and the hazy ridge just below the mountains is the start of the European plate.

Amy, Megan, and Donna on the American side in front of the rift valley.

This rift valley is also significant because it is where, starting in 960 AD, the Vikings in Iceland held one of the earliest parliamentary governments.  While most countries in Europe were ruled by monarchs, the Icelandic Vikings implemented a democratically elected parliament - only men of good standing in society could vote so it wasn't a perfect democracy, but it was a good first step towards a democratic republic. This lasted for about three centuries until Denmark (the oldest continuous monarchy in the world) took over.

There was lots of nice scenery on the tour.

Icelandic Horses

Our second stop was at Gullfoss (golden falls) waterfall.  This a huge and spectacular waterfall - everyone was saying that pictures just don't reflect the size of these falls.  We got wet from the mist rising up from it.  As we approached it you could feel the roar of the water.

It is hard to see the scale of these falls in the picture.

Amy, Britta, and Megan getting pictures.

Down Into the Abyss

Mist rising from the bottom of the falls - there are two steps of these falls, this is just the bottom of the last step.

The Upper Step of the Falls

The two people on the left ridge help give an indication of how massive Gullfoss is - this is just the first step.

The third stop was at a geothermically active little area with geysers.  The main geyser goes off about every 6 minutes and it gets about 100 feet high. Our tour guide said every year there are a few fools who don't think the water looks that hot and then the stick their hand in it - it severely burns them and they end up stinking of sulfur.  It was quite windy and the guide advised us to stand upwind of the geyser.  Viewers are able to stand about 20 feet from the mouth of the geyser - in fact, the students were standing about where it was roped off the first time it blew, and it was so loud and had such force that most of them screamed and ran away from it.

After a couple eruptions, our students were calm enough to take some good pictures.

In the background you can see steam rising from the ground in this geothermically active area.

Starting to blow with an upward surge of blue water - keep an eye on the people in the background to judge the size of this geyser.

Going Up

Still Going Up

Up Out of Frame

Dying Back Down

A little pool of boiling water - there were lots of these and other places where steam was just rising up out of the ground. 

Finally, after we returned to the hotel for a quick break, we went about a block down the street from our hotel to a little Italian restaurant for our final group meal. It was a nice cap to the day and our travels. Tomorrow morning the students are going to the Blue Lagoon for a spa, and then in the afternoon we leave for Minneapolis at about 4:35 pm. We get into Minneapolis about 5:55 pm.  There is a five hour time zone difference, so it is a 6 or 7 hour flight.  It has been a good month of travels, but it's getting time to head home.

You don't get to see any real puffins unless you go out onto the sea in a tour boat, but they sell stuffed puffin every where.  And they sell cooked puffin in many restaurants