May 4th
Spent the day with the teacher who is in charge of the special needs department (FLEX Class) in Helsinge. He deals primarily with behavioural issues rather than learning or mental/physical disabilities and his students are in Grades 8 & 9 but will differ in ages between 14 and 19. In the morning class, the students and I spent time introducing ourselves, where we were from, our age, etc. They had several questions about Vancouver and Canada as well as lots to say about the World Hockey Championships going on right now (Finland won 3-0 vs Denmark last night while Canada trounced Germany 10-0 the game before). It is fun to find a similar appreciation for hockey and the nobility in sport in this culture! The students then began presenting locations for a class trip they are going on next week – each group had to put forward a place to visit and cover location, cost, benefit to the class, etc. Once they had voted, the class split and I accompanied the Grade 9’s to another room with the teacher to go over a Finnish version of Planning (introduce the students to real world scenarios such as taxes – why do you pay them & where do they go, laws, how to behave professionally). It was a fun and challenging experience to try answer all of the questions the students had about these situations in Canada. They were extremely envious of the streamlined and inexpensive route Canadians have in getting their driver’s or motorcycle license. They were also awestruck by the situations in the USA where people don’t have health coverage or the amounts students have to pay for post-secondary in North America. After lunch, I observed the FLEX history class with these students where they were going over a recent exam on WWII history. It was very intriguing to get a glimpse of the criteria and expectations Finns have regarding this area of history as I’ve only been exposed to the Canadian and US version of teaching this moment in history. They focus far more on the impact on the Russian front due to their country’s long involvement with the Soviet Union.
May 5th
I spent the day with the FLEX class again but I got lucky today because the class had a field trip to Heureka which is a science center outside of Helsinki that is very similar to Science World in Vancouver. This was a great opportunity to see these students in a learning environment outside of a school. There was a much greater sense of participation from these students who have been struggling in the traditional school environment for years now. Back in BC, I feel that it is common to see these students end up in a Tech Ed class and there as well you can observe the difference a change in learning style or environment can make for the students. There were a variety of exhibits for many different ages and the featured exhibit was about the mining industry in present-day Finland: what does a modern mine look like, provide, and cost? There were a variety of interesting features to this exhibit including a controllable quarter-scale excavator and a simulation of having to build underground structures in a set time and under budget.
Came in WWAAAAYYY over budget… 1/10
A very cool feature that I saw was a photo booth that captured your silhouette and laser etched it onto a coin. This came free with your entry wristband and all you had to do was scan a QR code on your wrist and then pose for your picture. Once that was completed, you walked outside of the booth, scanned your QR code again and it knew which silhouette was yours to etch!
His Majesty Nathan Bristow’s legal tender
Another highlight was the exhibit of physical and perceptual illusions where they showed the physics tricks which allow for some very neat illusions to be shown. I got to make objects roll uphill, pass a straight metal bar through a curved plastic opening, and sink a boat using nothing but air! To top the day off, we got to watch a film on dark matter in the universe which fortunately had headsets with English narration available. I got to relax and watch on a spherical screen (like Science World) while Neil deGrasse Tyson murmured the secrets of the universe in my ear.
Our scholastic trip completed, I accompanied the teacher back to the school to play a spirited game of intramural “floor ball” with some current and former students. Although the game is uncannily close to regular floor hockey, I must say I struggle getting used to the small plastic stick with its lack of weight and curve. Nevertheless, I feel I have done Canada proud as I’ve emulated our team’s performance at the IIHF Championships which I’ve also been watching nearly every night since May 1st!
May 6th
Today I spent my morning with the shop teacher tinkering with his brand-new 3D printer and trying to get it working. Unfortunately, he, like all teachers, ran into the hard and unforgiving barrier of the administrative password. If I had a nickel for how many times I’ve heard teachers complain about having to wait for another teacher or the district to install software needed for a class, I’d have… well… many nickels. After lunch though most of my time in the senior side of the school (the “gymnasium” – again, not where PE happens) in the Year 2 (Grade 11) English class. They’ve been studying the economic rise of the Pacific Rim countries and the Four Tigers in Asia. The majority of the day was spent going over the article, highlighting and defining difficult words, and completing exercises on the readings. It has been a fun time of mental gymnastics having to come up with on-the-spot definitions for words in the simplest terms possible – how would one easily explain “demographic” without using complex words?
In the last portion of the class I got to observe and critique presentations the students were delivering on the famous explorer, inventor, or scientist of their choice. I was regaled with the exploits of Vasco da Gama, Alfred Nobel, and Karl Landsteiner to name a few. It was very impressive and humbling to watch these students deliver quite high-level presentations in their third language. Each student in this school speaks Swedish, Finnish, English, and often is taking fourth language such as German or Mandarin!
May 7th
I observed the senior chemistry class in the gymnasium which had an unbelievable number of students – 3! I had a great chat with the teacher regarding the benefits and drawbacks of working with the small groups – it was interesting to consider the downsides of having a very small class. I’ve always thought of how I could provide so much more one-on-one time with the students in a small class but during my practicum in Elgin Park Secondary, I did see the great value in peer tutoring both for the tutor and pupil. Self-motivation also has a far greater role in a small class as there is an absence of peer pressure to meet an average grade. This can lead to the holding back of the talented student(s) in the class as well as you no longer have the tool of peer collaboration to help keep everyone up to speed which I’ve discovered is a real issue the Finnish teachers face. Several of them have raised this issue as one of the most prevalent in the current system – how they often can’t cater to the advanced intellect of certain students as well as they would like to.
After the chemistry class, I joined another senior English class and helped them through more exercises before breaking for lunch. After lunch, we finished off the school day with more presentations and I was treated to an even higher caliber than the previous day. I was treated to some well prepared presentations on Nikola Tesla, Alexander Graham Bell, and Leonardo da Vinci. As I said in the previous day, I am amazed at the language competency in these schools and I believe BC would do well to begin language studies at an earlier age to take advantage of the plasticity of younger student brains.
May 8th
Today I spent my time at Kirkoby Skola with the younger kids as they prepare for a holiday performance next week. I was overseeing a class doing some book work while certain students auditioned for different instruments to play in this performance next Wednesday. There is a small group of students in the class that are, how shall we say this? Problematic, prone to an unhelpful attitude…? Anyways, I had my hands full keeping them on task until the end of the day. At the end of the day I stayed on for the afterschool crowd. I took a group of the students outside and was playing soccer, tag, and hide-and-go-seek for 3 hours – not a bad way to spend a gorgeous May day! A solid end to another excellent week! I’ve got plans for the next week – more time with the FLEX class and more English presentations!
