On 4th January I left for my flight to Oulu taking me to a far more winterly country. Already on my flight I was rewarded with Northern lights which I unfortunately couldn’t take a picture of but made me long for more (not on this trip).
The first day met me with temperatures below minus 20 and snowy surroundings that I explored on foot throughout the day. Already there I came across friendly and helpful people, an experience that was confirmed every day. Oulu is about the same size as Graz, though the feeling is that of a smaller city. Getting accustomed to the cold took a while, but as the temperatures rose to about minus 12 during my stay it wasn’t too difficult.
On the next day Jaana and Sonja, two colleagues from the Kaukovainion Koulu and I met in a Finnish restaurant for lunch to get to know each other and talk about the when, where and how of job-shadowing at the school there. Any feeling of uncertainty was swept away by the warm welcome.
As my Airbnb provided bikes I gladly took the offer and cycled along the well maintained bike lanes to the school on the next few days. The Kaukovainion Koulu has about 400 students and 40 teachers, to many of whom I talked during the following days in the nice and comfortable atmosphere of the staff room.
So what are the biggest differences to our school and schoolsystem? The school I visited is a comprehensive school (Gesamtschule) for 7-15 year old students, afterwards they decide for high school or vocational school. Additionally the upper grade students go to the teacher’s room, which means they don’t have their own classroom. One aspect that has to be mentioned is that the class size is usually not bigger than about 12 students and never more that 23. The equipment of every classroom contains an interactive whiteboard and chairs that can be adjusted in size. Concerning languages Finnish, Swedish and English are compulsory also for the smaller kids, later an additional choice of German or French is possible. A different kind of choice is between arts, music and cooking, two of which must be chosen.
One of my aims was to present my country (Itävalta in Finnish), which I did in eight classes in form of a two truths and a lie power point presentation quite appreciated by students and teachers.
I also visited several classes to get an insight into teaching there. The methods don’t seem so much different, though I perceived a high independence of the students in fulfilling the given tasks.
As a traveller of many countries I am always highly interested in the customs of the country as well. One highlight of my visit was a Finnish sauna (very hot, about 90 degrees), including a very short dive in a water hole in the frozen river. Another was to manage making a fire at minus 15 degrees with Jaana and Sanna for a delicious sausage barbecue. Yummy!
So kiitos (thank you) for all the wonderful experiences. Any time again!
by Ursula Rahstorfer
