Importance of summer vacation for educators

What is the meaning of holiday for teachers and principals ?

Most of the cases is huge. Educators work is so hard nowadays that you need lot of rest to recover. Working with people every day is even harder than work in factory or in office because you reflect and mirror yourself all the time.

On holiday is time to focus the most important persons - your family and lovings. During school season is almost impossible to see your relatives, grandparents and old friends.Take time to see them properly. Espesially the older people have the wisdom. Discuss with them before is too late.

Summer holiday is also marvellous chance to meet new places, people and get new experiences. If you want to recharge your batteries and refill your think tanks the only way is to see new environments. Be aware and you get plenty of new ideas surroundings you.

Enjoy the nature. What really inspires human being is nature and going outdoors. Nature and forest calms you down. Inhale fresh air and enjoy the sun. Do different things than normally do.

Now it is time to read a lot. New books, articles, see movies and listen to music or go the concerts.

And eventually forget the school and daily routines. This is an order. Have a nice and refreshing summer holiday !

Summer-Principal

ISER 2013 Symposium and New Learning Environments

This my presentation in ISER 2013 Symposium in University of Jyväskylä. Topics of the presentation were New Learning Environments and iPads in learning. Enjoy the story of Mobiluck project.

Forrest Gump ? No, Forest Camp

Environmental education

Every 3rd year our school goes camping. We do co-operation with local army base, church and fire department to set a camp. Forest Camp is one part of our sustainability certificate system for promoting environmental studies.Whole school spend over night in tents and students train security skills like :

-first aid
-fire extinguish with fire department
-find and rescue lost people from forest
-camping

Student leadership

Every single tent has student leader who takes care about his/her staff and tent. Student leaders organize food delivery, picking wood for fireplace, set the fire and sleeping in the sleeping bags. Also teachers are under their control. This is really experienced education and good leadership coaching.
Sleep well !

 

Guest post by entrepreneurship network coordinator Heli Vuorela

How to inspire entrepreneurship and active citizenship in high schools?

 

Published by Heli Vuorela on Wed, 05/29/2013 - 15:10

Education of entrepreneurship takes different forms in different upper secondary schools in Finland. It is one of the six cross-curricular themes in the Finnish core curriculum for upper secondary schools. Each school practices this theme in its own way.

As stated in the Finnish National Core Curriculum for upper secondary schools, 2003: "The objective of the cross-curricular ’active citizenship and entrepreneurship’ theme is to educate students to become contributing, responsible and critical citizens. This means participation in and influence on different areas of society from political, economic and social activities to cultural life. The levels of participation are local, national, European and global.”

In 2009 a network of 23 upper secondary schools from all parts of Finland started a project to develop and promote education of entrepreneurship. The network was called entrepreneurship network (In Finnish Yrittäjyyslukioverkosto) and the project was funded by the Finnish National Board of Education. During the following four years these high schools have shared and spread their best practices of education of entrepreneurship.

The key points of education of entrepreneurship according to these 23 schools in the network are ‘intrapreneurship’, responsibility, activity and initiative. Not only is education of entrepreneurship one subject among the others, but it also means an enterprising attitude in studying and in teaching. An enterprising person – student or teacher – is willing to try new things, maybe make mistakes, but eventually learn a lot.

For a teacher an enterprising attitude means a whole new pedagogical approach. Students are given more responsibility and the teacher’s role becomes more coach-like. Old traditions of teaching are given less emphasis, and the teacher is willing to test new methods, collaborative working playing a big part in classrooms.

Team work is crucial in education of entrepreneurship. Students work in small groups with a project. They usually come up with their own project ideas, thus their motivation is better than in projects given by somebody outsider (like teacher).  In team work students have a possibility to learn about their strengths and weaknesses, and they can develop skills that they will need later on in working life, or their studies after upper secondary school.

In project learning students have to find knowledge and supply it in their project. They can’t wait for the teacher to ‘teach’ them, instead, they learn by doing. An essential part of education of entrepreneurship is co-operation with enterprises and working life. Students may work for companies with a project, or they may get a ‘godfather’ or ‘godmother’ of an experienced entrepreneur to guide and coach them in their project. Also teachers participate in on-the-work learning outside the school. These working days give teachers a broader view on today’s working life than a few-hour visits do.
In the later phase of the 4-year-long network project the social media became an important tool for all parts of the network. Students were encouraged to use social media in learning, teachers found the social media as one channel to reach their students and colleagues. Also the schools as organizations started to use social media in marketing and leading the school, and in informing students in everyday life. Facebook is now a major channel of communication within the network itself. Many of teachers use Twitter to connect with their colleagues abroad, and to follow discussions about education of entrepreneurship and education overall.

The project came to an end in May 2013. The practices and pedagogical methods we have learned will remain and continue to develop in coming years. Students who were part of the process will with certainty profit from their experiences in teams and projects in which they have participated.
In the final seminar in April 2013 the network gathered in Jyväskylä to sum up the achievements of the project. At that occasion we were warmly welcomed to ECF to learn about ECF’s steps toward international business of education. We learned a lot, and we want to welcome all the teachers from all over the world to visit our upper secondary schools  with enterprising students and teachers!

How to make easy eBook from your blog ?

Make your own eBook from your blog easily with Bloxp. Just a put a link to http://www.bloxp.com/ and publish it in iBooks or share it in Dropbox.

Here is mine : https://www.dropbox.com/s/wyoeuml0x47cny4/leadership-think-tank-1365860463.epub

Finland EDU System Google Hangout Chat

We (Olli Määttä, Timo Ilomäki and me) had marvellous chance to join Finland EDU System Google Hangout Chat with colleagues from University of Pennsylvania. Group of doctoral students visited Finland and three local schools surroundings Helsinki. Coordinator Joe Mazza @joe_mazza invited us to join this panel with #PennFinn13 Team to discuss Finnish educational sector.

In this chat participated from U.S. some of the best tweeters and educators like Vicky Davis @coolcatteacher and Josh Stumpenhorst @stumpteacher. We have learnt them a lot. Thank you all for this possibility to meet great american educators. Hopefully we meet someday in States !
See video link below.

Finland EDU System Google Hangout Chat

 

 

"Is Finnish way the only way"?

What unique we have in Finland ?

                                        Pasi Sahlberg's slide in BETT 2013 London
                                        Photo Aki Puustinen

There is something in Finnish society and our system that rocks. There are several points that makes Finland very nice place to live and work. Here are some points :

-ideal size : not too crowded and lot of space around you

-enough natural raw materials like forests, mines and “ know-how”

-fresh air, clean nature and water

-education system that works (=PISA-land)

-low corruption rate

-high life expectancy

-modern infrastructure (roads, traffic, buildings, communication)

-developed administration and ruling policy

-firm social security system

-people value work and well-being