Week 16 18/04/11 – 25/04/11

This week I travelled into Russia first visiting Saint Petersburg and than heading on to Moscow.  After hearing a number of stories about how dangerous the cities were I was very cautious about my possessions but after spending a few days in the cities touring the various sites it was clear that the rumours and stories did not weigh up and in fact the two big cities are no more dangerous than any other big European city.  However I think that because Finland is so safe in comparison to many other countries I was more cautious when in a foreign land, especially one as big as Russia.  However it was an exciting time to go as the Russians were preparing for a number of state holidays and the armed forces where on parade on occasion.  I felt the level of patriotism was very high as the tours of the old emperors’ state homes and Tsars’ homes were clearly a significant part of the countries history.  The two cities were what I had tough they would be like, magnificently designed buildings amongst very communistic blocks of flats.  I was mostly surprised by the large number of Orthodox churches, especially when the country was communist for so long and communism regards atheism, or no religion, as the state religion (generally speaking).  As it was Easter weekend there were a number of churches actively taking part in very interesting and different services through out the city.  Compared to Finland Russia is very religious and it is clear by the number of Cathedrals in Moscow and St. Petersburg.  However as a holiday Finland only receive Good Friday and Easter Monday off school as opposed to the one and a half or two week holiday I have seen almost all schools use in the UK.

The Russian culture is very different and anything could happen, I saw cars being repaired in the middle of a four lane road junction!  Not to mention the love of vodka the Russians have, I’m sure if there is more alcohol in Russia or Finland (in relation to the population) but both have a strong love of the grape.  The traffic of vehicles and people is extremely high, but maybe this is because being born and raised in Belfast with a population of only half a million people, compared to the 10 million in Moscow.   

Pictures (after a slight absence from previous posts) from top: The Entrance to the Cold War Bunker.

St. Basil's Cathedral, Red Square.

One of the many parades in preparation for Victory Day.

The Aurora Battleship, used in the Bolshevik Revolution.

Week 15 11/04/11 – 17/04/11

Looking back at my exams in January I found it difficult to get accustomed to a new culture and lifestyle (and temperature) whilst revising for my exams.  It was no problem to take the exams here, in fact because of the time difference I preferred it, I did not have to get up for an exam at 9.30 am but instead 11.30 am which was much easier to do after a gradual start to the day.  It was impossible to take everything I needed to revise for the exams but making revision notes and taking over PowerPoints worked fine.  The hardest part was getting all my assignments done and handed in in hard copy before the college closed for Christmas, yet this meant I had more time to create revision notes, prepare for leaving and have more of a Christmas holiday, which I liked.

This week ended my placement.  The school placement was in Turku International School which, I feel, helped develop my skills of teaching EAL students.  However there is not a lot of differentiation in Finnish schools which I don not really like as some pupils could be pushed and achieve more however this does not happen which is unfortunate.  However my favourite thing about the Finnish school systems is that teachers are just left to teach.  When I think of the schools back in the UK, teachers are always scrutinized and made to do a lot of paper work.  There needs to be a balance between teachers’ work life and personal life.  Especially on School Based Work which seems that there is a lot of work outside the classroom with a large amount of lesson plans, resources, units of work, etc. however there is much less work on the students behalf.  There is still a need for lesson plans and resources however the curriculum is the unit of work for the year.  However the work for other classes and the school placement is still quite a lot.

On a more cultural note, the spring has arrived.  After the longest winter season I have ever experienced (the snow arrived in November and is finally starting to go away), I have been treated to double figures in positive degrees Celsius.  However after the long dark winter everyone comes out to enjoy the weather and the town centre is very busy and crowded, but there is also a market now and a change to see things I never thought I would miss, like green grass and road markings.

Week 14 4/04/11 – 10/04/11

This week on the placement course, School Experience, I had to present to my peers what I had learnt from and about the school placement over the last few weeks.  The two placements are so different that it was difficult to mention everything inside of fifteen minutes and give background information about Northern Ireland’s school systems for the other exchange students as well.  The little cultural different make so much different between the two countries.  For example; children are used to going to and from school on their own in the dark where as back home it is not the best thing to do as it is more dangerous.  Finland is a very safe country; the only thing that may happen is that you get your bicycle stolen, but this very rare.  As Finland is so quiet and safe it makes other countries I have visited, like Sweden, a bit wild although it is still a very safe country.  However the rest of the presentation focused on the differences between my main subject, Religious Studies.  Here in Finland it is more like religious instruction as pupils are split up into members of Orthodoxy, Lutheran Church, Islam and ethics.  The ethics classes are for pupils who are not part of a church or do not have anyone from their own religion to instruct them.  Parents are allowed to request that their child is instructed in their religion.  This provides difficulties for the schools as they may have to send the pupils to other schools for religious instruction.  The Ethics lessons are much more like the RE classes in Northern Ireland as they cover a wide variety of religions and ethical questions.  However there is not a focus to develop the pupils’ spirituality as there is in the NI curriculum.  However a lot of the subject content is similar.  As my time on the school placement has comet to an end I think that staying in Turku International School has helped develop my communication into a less ‘East-Belfastian’ dialect which pupils who have English as an additional language can understand.  I aimed to develop my skills of working with EAL pupils as there is an increase of pupils with EAL in Northern Ireland over the last few years.

Week 13 28/03/11 – 3/04/11

This week was rather intense as the work load has increased over the last few weeks and finding time to go to my school to observe lessons has been more difficult.  The school is approximately 30 minutes away from the university and this makes observations and teaching lessons very hectic as we still have lectures to attend at university.  However there is a lot to be learnt during the observations and it also allows time for me to get to know the pupils before teaching them, especially as Turku International School has a very diverse student population.  Yet having a separate teaching practice is much more efficient, I feel, as opposed to having to work hours around classes.

In Finland there are no uniforms and teachers can wear what they please.  As a student teacher not wearing a shirt and tie seems strange and I get the feeling that I am not a figure of authority in casual clothes.  However this might be the reason why pupils have such a good relationship with their teachers.  This also contributes to the relaxed atmosphere in the classroom, yet I feel that the older pupils use this as a fashion parade.  I would have liked no uniforms when I was a pupil but now I am not sure.

Language is a large part of Finnish culture as the nation is bi-lingual and the International obviously has a large number of pupils with varying language skills.  In Northern Ireland there is a very small minority of ethic groups, as the population is almost exclusively white and ‘Christian’, meaning that there are not a lot of methods to develop pupils’ native language, whereas Finland encourages this.  This also meant that I had to change my dialect slightly so certain words could be understood more clearly by the international students.  This has been quite noticeable for me and at times very difficult to change how I speak, but it was necessary and this is something which we have discussed in Stranmillis but it is not an issue there as we all have similar dialects. 

The busy timetable makes it difficult to do many traditional Finnish activities (like cross-country skiing, although there is a lot less snow now), however this weekend a group of us exchange students went to go ice swimming.  After sitting in a sauna in temperatures of approximately 80 degrees Celsius we dived into the frozen Baltic Sea.  It was a sensational feeling and after you feel refreshed.  The sauna is something that is very sparse in Northern Ireland as only a few leisure centres whereas every apartment complex seems to have one.