Being a Teacher in Finland

Being a teacher in Finland means being at the top of your class; it is a highly respected profession. Finns sometimes say that they are "poor" in natural resources like oil so they put their focus instead on their most important resource, their people and in particular their kids.  Kids graduating at the top of their high school cohorts are as inclined to move into teaching careers as they are to become lawyers, doctors, etc. even though those professions pay more salary.  Teacher education programs only take the top 5% of the applicant pool that applies, and elementary education is more competitive than secondary education.  The salary between US and Finnish teachers is about the same, but the prestige of being a teacher in Finland is very high compared to the US.

All teachers in Finland must complete a 5 year university program in which they attain a Master's Degree in the subject they teach and complete an independent thesis research project.  The upshot of all this training and societal respect is that, once they become a teacher, they are trusted to be professionals and make independent decisions regarding their practice.  Teachers, once they get a position, are pretty much automatically "tenured" and secure in their jobs.  There is no evaluation system (really...none!).  The teachers I have met have all said that they have seldom if never had administrators observe them teach or assess their performance.  When I asked how their administrators know they are good teachers they looked at me funny as if to say "why would they assume we are not"?  Its a societal given that, if teachers are so well trained and only the top 5% of candidates can become teachers, they are "masters" in their professions and thus trusted to make the right decisions for their students.

Talking with a panel of Finnish teachers at Finland Fulbright Orientation

Jari Lavonen, Dept of Teacher Education (Univ. Helsinki) giving an overview.

Here are some of my Fulbright fellows out at an ice skating event.

My wife Janet and daughter Emma arrived a few days ago from the US and are getting settled in to stay for the next two and a half months.  Here, Emma and I went out for cocoa and croissant at a downtown Helsinki cafe.

Jalavapuisto Elementary School Visit

I had a nice two day visit to this school in neighboring city of Espoo (Helsinki-Vantaa-Espoo make up the urban core of southern Finland).  What a nice school!  Jalavapuisto Elementary ("peruskoulu" in Finnish) is a bilingual school, so they have two instructional programs going on within the school, one taught in Finnish and one in English.  All the students are native Finnish, but some are learning their curriculum in English.  We were met by two 5th graders who gave us a tour of the building. Over the next couple of days we spent time in many classrooms, from 1st grade to 6th grade.  My fellow Fulbrighter Nat and I gave brief presentations on ourselves and our schools, and the kids asked us questions about what schools are like in the US.  One thing that I noticed right off was the general sense of calm and cooperation within the building.  The teachers clearly take time to build relationships with their students, often referring to them as "dear", and the kids returned the vibe through respectful behavior.  All kids in Finland call their teachers by first names.  They all take their shoes off when they enter the building, and the day is spent walking around in socks, which made everything so much quieter and cozy in a way.  The way kids are taught in this school felt familiar to me as a US teacher, with a mixture of book work, project time, teacher led instruction, and classroom discussion.  But, there is a feeling of "family" in the school that settles over the whole experience like a soft warm blanket.  I'm hoping to return to this school in a few weeks when they do a week long project where all the kids work together in cross-age teams (1st graders and 6th graders together!) to learn about their community.  More on that if I get to see this.

Jalavapuisto peruskoula grades 1-6

Our tour guides showing us an astronomy project

Giving the kids a presentation on my self, Seattle, and my school

Students in grades 3-6 get to build things using wood and metal.  The kids learn to become comfortable with hand tools such as saws, drills, hammers, etc at a very young age.  They are careful about design, measuring and drawing everything before they start to build.

These kids are working as a team to build a "learning toy".

Much space at the front of the school is dedicated to the mountain of coats, snow boots, hats, gloves, snow-suits, ice hockey stakes, and sometimes xc skiis that the kids bring with them.

Busses, trains, trams, and skiis

Helsinki, has great public transportation.  Many Finns living here do not own cars and rely exclusively on mass transit.  The electric trams run all throughout the city, and you don't have to wait long for one.  The trains are very smooth, modern, and fast.  Getting to neighboring cities is easy and doesn't cost too many euros.  

Inside the City Tram

Helsinki Train Hub

Nat riding the rails

City Tram stop

Nearly all Finns learn to cross country ski and skate at a young age.  Though there are some downhill areas, the country as a whole is pretty flat.  Cross country skiing is huge and a part of Finnish identity.  In Seattle I thought I was a  moderately decent skier, but here I feel like a real beginner as Finns young and old fly by me on the trail!  But the skiing is great!  A popular ski area is Paloheina about 30 minutes from here by bus, with pretty easy going terrain.  Nat and I went farther north to Lahti yesterday, where they have a world class ski area and will be hosting the Nordic World Ski Championships later this year.  That area was intense, huge uphills that tested my confidence.  

Don't worry mom...I did not go down that!

Ski Lodge at Lahti

Click here for Video of skiing.

Natural scenery in Helsinki

Some of you have asked about the natural scenery in Finland.  Since at this point I have not been much beyond Helsinki I will just include Helsinki scenery here.  As I see more of the country in the coming months I will post more of what I see.

Looking out toward the Baltic Sea

Lots of city parks to walk through

Finnish School system in a nutshell

Moi from Helsinki!  I was treated to my first school visit yesterday, a "lukio" (which would be like a high school in the US) in a suburb north of Helsinki called Vantaa.  I'll post more about my personal reflections on schools when I have more visits to compare, but I thought for now I'd provide a basic overview of Finnish education here for those who are interested.

In Finland kids start compulsory school at age 7 (prior to that, kids are in pre-schools that focus more on play and social skills than the "school readiness" focus of US preschools and Kindergarten).  All Finnish kids have nine years of compulsory education (called "peruskoula" or "basic school") from grades 1-9, so about 7-16 years old.  After grade 9, they will take exams which will help determine what path they will take next, though officially they are done with mandatory education at this point.   Roughly 60% of students go on to a "lukio" or upper secondary school designed to prepare them for University, and the other 40% go into "ammattikoulu" vocational high schools that are designed to prepare them for a trade such as business, construction, nursing, and so on.  Both of these paths take about 3 years and feel more like colleges than what we think of as high schools in the US.  Kids design their own schedules around 6-7 week courses, so each student has very individualized paths to complete the 75 or so required courses.  At the end of this they take nationwide exams to demonstrate their readiness to move on to University or employment.  In the vocational schools much of the student's time is spent out of the classroom and in on-the-job training.  Both university-focused and vocational-focused high schools are equally respected in Finland and both are quite rigorous.  By the end of school nearly all students are comfortable with English and Swedish in addition to their native Finnish.

Basic education is totally free in Finland, and students get free lunch and medical care.  Lunches are served like a buffet and they are quite delicious and freshly made.  Students in high schools must buy their own books and class materials such as a personal computer.

Here are some pictures from my school visit yesterday (note:  students were asked and gave permission for their photos to be used in this blog).

Train ride in

The Vantaa high school from the outside

Hallways are open and light

Teacher Taru Pohtola who organized our visit

Students in a physics class

Teacher Pekka Peura helping a student

Lunch Buffet served free every day to all students and teachers

Vocational (business school) student making a product "pitch" to a panel of judges in a presentation project

First impressions

Welcome to my blog!  Thanks for following along!

I arrived in Finland about one week ago, so this first post is about my first explorations of Helsinki. After a 12 hour flight with a stop in Amsterdam, pretty much binge watching movies to pass the time, I touched down in Helsinki in the mid afternoon, grabbed a taxi to get to my apartment, and got settled in a bit.  I was met by a fellow Fulbright teacher, Nat Woodruff, a high school science and engineering teacher from Amherst Massachusetts, and we headed down to the city center to see the last night of the "Lux Helsinki" light festival.  The festival included displays of lights projected on buildings, art installations, music, and assorted artistic creations with light and color.  Beautiful!

Most of this first week has been exploring the city by foot, getting to know the train/bus/tram system (super efficient), and meeting a few Finnish colleagues and friends.  Helsinki is a beautiful city.  Our apartment is close to the city center, so it is easy to walk to shopping, museums, parks, and city sights.  We are a block away from a park that loops around a lake where people can ice skate during cold snaps, run when it is a bit warmer, and ski when there is fresh snow.

Finns have been very friendly and welcoming.  Everyone speaks English here, so communicating has not been a problem at all, though I am practicing a number of Finnish phrases myself.  Finnish street names are very very long, so by the time I get halfway through a word I've forgotten where I started and have to begin all over again!  I live near the corner of Espetelainen Hesperiankatu and Mannerheimintie, for example.  Finns also drink a lot of coffee, its a big culture thing here, and I think their blood is about 50% caffeine.  The sun rises about 9am and sets about 4pm.  Its cold but not uncomfortably so, hovering just around freezing.  Light snow today.  I love seeing the dusting of snow on the ground.  The streets are icy so I am channeling my inner ninja as I walk and try not to slip.  Its just so fun being in a new place!

Here are some views of the city, all within walking distance of where I live:

The shopping district

Lots of ice rinks all around the city

Nat and I wandering the city

Park near my apartment

Typical Helsinki neighborhood street scene

Leave a comment if you have any questions or want to know anything.  I'd love to hear from you (family, friends, Meadowdale staff, students...)!

Moi Moi, and toivon kuulevani sinusta!