Italians do it better ?

Rope pulling Muurame-Cremona 3-1






Last week we had international guest from Cremona Italy. This student exchange has started few years ago and this was third exchange course with our schools. This kind of international contacts are marvellous places to learn more. We teachers should offer posibilities to our youngsters to have foreign contacts. What have learnt during this marvellous week ?

1. Italians have for sure learnt a lot Finnish habits,schools and family life in general. Italians lived in Finnish homes and families, so it obvious that they noticed what normal Finnish family do for breakfast, what are their hobbies, do they go sauna every day and so.

2. We all learnt speak more fluently English. Best part of the co-operation is to improve your self-esteem and encourage to meet different people. You understand the meaning of dialogue in communication.I believe that Finnish students spoke little better English than Italians. Thanks to world's best teacher training.

3. We teachers found out that we have quite different schooling systems. Allthought the education systems were different, schooling and teaching are very similar round the world. And teenagers have the same problems and same joys here and there. We teachers got new friends and colleagues in the south.

4. In my mind Italians have better social skills and they take rapidly contact to you. They got very good sense of humour and they are much more positive than us. We could learn more about their positive attitude instead of negative mood. Italians do the "small talk" better.

So people are still the best part of these exchanges. Friendship is unique and universal phenomenon. Our folks will see each other in October in Cremona.

Arrivederci !

Animoto project

Animoto is easy tool for making picture and video projects and presentations. Less than 30 seconds Anomoto projects are free. Here one example of Spring Ball 2012 presentation from Muurame High School. Enjoy the mood and magnificent dresses and dances !

Make your own slideshow with music at Animoto.

Dialogue and trust

Are you reliable negotiator? Practice dialogue with trust.





Good negotiation skills are key to success. Good conversation and dialogue are simply win-win situations. Both sides win and get.

Before negotiation you should practise little. Focus on these issues :
-set some negotiation goals and targets
-think through negotiation process and your strategies
-recognise your negotiation styles and strengths
-stay calm and strengthen your self-esteem

Build confidential atmosphere and trust

How you can motivate people in decision-making ? If you know something about opposite side, it will help you talk about right things. Do your homework before meeting. Better you know your “clients”, better results you get. Use your knowledge of people and human nature. Personal feedback is always good.

How we can increase trust in meetings? Try these. Be open-minded for new ideas – also opposite statements can be innovative. Talk straight – it is better say also the bad things than be silent. Listening is gold. Do it carefully. It will increase approval and reliability. Be flexible but still be yourself!

Learn screencasting and few word of Finnish

Make your own screencasting with Screencast-O-Matic. This is totally free online screen recorder for instant screen capture. It is very easy !




Did you understand any Finnish words ?

One Finnish model of Entrepreneurschool

How we can get more active and self-confident citizens ? We have built several years Finnish Entrepreneurship studies and model of new school. Basic elements are :-team learning-project learning-personal development plan-coaching processRead more from Slideshare presentation below.Entrepreneurschool of jyväskylä area

View more presentations from Muuramen lukio.

Do we need any more offices ? Try mobile pocket office.

World and schools have changed a lot during last year. Many schools go mobile and try to develop new ways of learning and coaching students. Also principals’ offices are moving more mobile ones.


Do we need anymore buildings or certain rooms for monitoring and leading our schools ?

My own work has changed rapidly last fall. I bought iPad and iPhone devices. These marvellous machines made my day. My office has moved everywhere. I find five different categories which has helped my work:

1) Communication is easier : emails, browsers, Facebook and internal school programs (Wilma) and school’s own homepage in the same device.

2) Online source of information : Flipboard, Zite, Diigo, Pulse, Vodio, Wikipania, Scoop it! are wonderful sources and full of new brilliant ideas.

3) Files, reports and photos : Dropbox and iCloud are with me all the time.

4) Connections : Blogs, Twitter and LinkedIn are great tools to build your PLN.

5) New thinking in learning : Sharing is caring ! More you give, more you get !

I can move and walk easily in corridors, classes and different places. I see often students and teachers. Probably I lead more efficiency than ever. Best part of all this is that our staff and students are learning all the time.

Anytime, anywhere, anyone !

How you ensure quality in your school ? With quality system.

Every organization should evaluate itself time to time. This kind of evaluation and measurable system is quite easy to build. You don’t have expensive tools or technological gadgets. Only you need your society (teachers, students, parents, local authorities), teams to implement, values and vision to give you a target and Excel –tool to collect information.

First you need persons to work. It is always about their interest and commitment to work and learn – never ignore your clients. So these people should collaborate and make goals for the season. These targets might be quite large and big ones, but still measurable. Here is a simple example :

Here in Muurame High School we have three goals:

1) Atmosphere (How people feel)
2) Responsible (Matriculation examination, how satisfied students are our courses)
3) Collaboration (Companies, society, authorities etc.)

After setting goals, it is easiest to implement teams to work. Teams are actually persons, who will do the job. Team learning is true collaboration and mostly fun.

Wheel of continuous development

In the end of the season collect information and results. Here are two of our goals (in Finnish) and data collected.

After implementing these steps, we are sure that your school or organization has changed a little. Learning in basically changing your school, colleagues and yourself !