Week 2 10/01/11 – 16/01/11

Personal and Cultural

Turku is the 2011 European capital of culture this year and had its official opening on Saturday.  However I was experiencing a different type of culture, the cottage weekend.  Most Finns own or rent a cottage to go to on weekends or over seasonal holidays.  This was about 30km from Turku near a frozen Gulf of Bothnia in the Baltic Sea, but there was nothing but trees and snow for miles around and it seemed so isolated.  It was really quiet and was a great opportunity to meet new Erasmus students, from; Russia, Spain, Germany, France, the Czech Republic and countless others.  The Erasmus Student Network (ESN) in Turku organises many trips from exchange students and there is a great community of Erasmus students forming.

One thing I have noticed is the amount of cyclist on the footpaths.  There are so many of them, the skinny tyres must help cut through the snow.  It can be difficult to get out of their way, but we are all combating the snow.

Professional

I had my first school visit and it was great.  The school is one of nine or ten teacher training schools which belongs the University.  It is also one of the International schools where have of the school is in English and many classes are bilingual.  There is a growing number of immigrant families in Turku and Turku International School has had a growth in students from different nationalities.  It is also very interesting that the school would choose the students which they want to be placed there, so they will chose the ones most suitable.  Also teachers need to educated to a Master’s degree to teach, a Bachelor is not good enough.  Teachers are given a lot of respect and trust, and as a result there is very little paper work (for example no reports or records), if a teacher says this is what happened then this is what happened.  There is a relaxed atmosphere and teachers wear casual clothes for teaching and pupils do not have a uniform.  Interesting in Religious Education pupils are taught by members of their religion, so a Muslim is taught by a Muslim and so on.  This has made the school arrange a timetable which allows all the students of a particular faith to be educated together and many students come from surrounding schools for these lessons.  This is also part of Finnish law.  There is a student welfare team which gives support to pupils with lower abilities which allows for pupils to receive more tuition to get better grades, however stronger pupils do not receive as much support.  The student welfare team includes student councillors, physiatrists and guidance councillors; there is a lot of effort placed into the welfare of the student.  

Photo: The cottage and its surrounds.