Week 3 17/01/11 – 23/01/11

Personal and Cultural

The temperature increased into plus degrees this week.  Although this meant that I could go outside with out my thermals it did have its problems.  The snow would melt in the day and re-freeze at night making it dangerous to walk on.  It requires a lot of concentration (and a little bit of luck) to not slip.  The city does have employees to put stones, like grit, on the ice for grip, but I am still not 100% confident.  However the weekend was very foggy.  On a day trip to Naantali there was an every fog over the frozen sea.  Naantali is a very scenic town and in the afternoon the fog cleared and we saw some fantastic views. The weekend was complete until I took part in cross-country skiing, a sport/past time which every Finnish good at, even the children were better than us exchange students.  It is very different from downhill skiing as it is a greater work out for your arms and legs.  Nonetheless it was a great experience.

Professional

First week of classes started this week starting with a language course, Finnish for Foreigners Survival Course.  The language is so different from English.  I found it very difficult to learn a new language when I have never had to learn a new language before.  Other classes this week included and introduction to Finnish schools in comparison of international schools.  This class is very interesting, even though we have only basic information at the moment.  Children start school at aged seven here as historically families from rural areas would need to send their children up to 200kms to get to school.  It would be unsafe and somewhat irresponsible to send children at four or five to a school 200kms way.  School years are also shorter, approximately 190 days as historically families needed to work together to collect the harvest in rural areas.  Schooling is compulsory until the age of 16, much like the UK and similarly there are opportunities to gain higher education for degree level and vocational qualifications as well.

My school experience classes which regard to teaching placement takes place in the teacher training school.  It was quite strange walking to the school and looking for the class but we were later told that education is public and anyone is allowed to observe the school’s practices.  This seemed shocking as back home there are so many child protection means we need to adhere to.

Photographs: (top) Cross-country skiing (a rare photo of me not falling in the snow),

(bottom) Naantali with the fog over the frozen sea.