Run Finland Run!

Run Finland Run! fa fa fa fa fa far better!

Some Finnish schools are so busy with Kiva project, greenflag project, some clubs, after school activities and school trips. Kuparivuoren, my lovely school is one of them! Our teachers put a lot of effort on those. Here is 'Nuori Suomi' or 'Young Finland' assosiation's project which aims to find joy on the move! 

#Liikuntakortti-Sports Card#
The card where they can make crosses according to their physical activities either at home or at school during 3 weeks. 10 min of move is considered one cross. 





Here is the map that they can fly anywhere as long as they have enough crosses in their sports card. The more they have cross the more they gain kilometres. One class was in Helsinki today. Our wish  is to go Istanbul where spring and summer are mixed up nowadays. 


The one thing what one of my smartest colleagues told me is that they have been doing that for 6 years so students get bored and not so much excited anymore to fill the card. Well, that is also another side of coin. But at least, they had done some move that they would not do probably during lessons!

Web Site: In Finnish

Have a glance at Finnish cuisine!

PULLA

Can be a good reason to have a cup of coffee in any cafe! It tastes like heaven! It is sort of sweet bread roll with cinnamon and sugar. Different kinds are baked with crashed cardamom seeds which is constantly used for Finnish sweat breads and rarely with raisins.

PORRIDGE

Your smooth breakfast is ready with delicious berries and cinnamon. Porridge has a bunch of grains to fill up your tummy. If you like, you can have rice porridge especially in Christmas time, rolled oats porridge, rye porridge, milk based porridge. Even one minute porridge for ones who either can not cook properly(like me) or do not have time! I am gonna miss this, for sure.

REINDEER MEET WITH LINGONBERRY SAUCE

Ihana ihana ihana! Wonderful! Hard to express how it tastes. Anyway, it is gamier than beef and sort of pungent taste, but still so delicious! Since Finland is so rich with any kinds of berries, they add them even to main courses. Even though it sounds a bit weird, it goes well together. And of course, don't forget to make smashed potatoes which are the most common food in Finland.

KARJALANPIIRAKKA

It is basically one of my favourites. Karjala is a town which is very close to Russian board and used to be ruled by Russia.There is also a beer called Karjala. The fillings can be potato, rice, millet and buckwheat. It is preferably eaten with eggbutter. You can easily  find them any market in Finland.

SALMIAKKI!

Salmiakki or salty liquorice is one of Finnish taste you shall give it a try before you leave, at least once.(You may not willing to have another one though,most probably) Your brain gets mixed up with salty and sweet flavour in it. You can even recognise the strong smell of salmiakki from a few metres away.It is not that bad if you keep trying.(Maybe because of tongue-numbing:) ) They have quiet many products with salmiakki flavour such as ice cream, vodka and chocolade.

SMOKED SALMON

Honestly, I haven't tried it yet coz I do not like fish at all,but I have heard about it a lot. Finnish couisine is quiet rich with seafoods, thanks for thousands of lakes, for instance salmon soup, cold smoked salmon, Baltic herring with boiled potatoes and so on.

What to do in Finland?

Stratovarious-Land of ice and snow

''The land of ice and snow
Where the midnight sun blows
Hundred thousand lakes glow
In the land of ice and snow

Northern lights guide our way
Come whatever may
Forest god protects our day
In the land of ice and snow

Where Koskenkorva flows
Where the freezing wind blows
Summer nights are white and warm
In the land of ice and snow

Some might say that we are cold
Don't believe all that's been told
Our hearts are mad of gold
In the land of ice and snow

We didn't bow under oppression
We fought and we died
Redeemed in blood
The land of ice and snow

Here I was born and here I've lived
And one day here I will die
Under northern starry sky
In the land of ice and snow''

Tervetuloa Suomi! Welcome to Finland!

Are you dare enough to come Finland in hardcore winter? You might need to think twice and determine.

If you have northern heart and will for wilderness, then Finland welcomes you 'warmly'! Here are a few suggestions for you not to get depressed but to get involved to society and enjoy coldness.

1- Go ice swimming!

It is easy to reach any public sauna here and since every lake is frozen during winter, you can easily find ice hole for winter swimming. In case you do not have any sauna master, the ritual starts with to get wet first before sauna.After 10 min in sauna, you are meant to be sweated already which indicates that you are welcome to ice hole! It is better to have slippers and hat not to lose heat easily.(Sauna may be over 80 Celcius and the water can be 5 Celcius) Ready for great shock and the best reliefing feeling after. Don't forget to bring some liquids! Karhu? The golden beer of Lapland which is Lapin Kulta? Karjala? Anything goes well!:)

2-Hunt Norhern Lights!

If you do not know about Northern Lights yet, you can check this link. 

The more you go north, the more you may see them. I can honestly tell that it was the best experience in Finland. Just put warm clothes on you and keep your eyes open and follow the forecast.

3-See ice hockey match!

It was the time that I did understand why Finnish people are quite in their daily life. Because ice hockey matchs are where they can show their anger and play a bit violent! The speedy puck is not easy to follow every single minute. But this is why it is so much fun!

4- Go ice fishing!

It is better to wait till March when the sun wakes up in Northern part of world. You drill as many holes as you can in the ice and wait for hours to catch one fish. When you have company with you, it is not boring as it sounds!

Overall, Finland has the best nature I have ever seen! The colours in Finnish flag are coming from water(lakes) and sky. Because the sky is enormous! 

Math in Finland and Turkey

The base of Finnish Education System has adorable and insprational,however I have to tell that I am not convinced of evidences about their great result in Pisa, Math concept in the schools. Here is the link that you can learn what Pisa is and have a glance at their scores. 

http://www.oecd.org/edu/school/programmeforinternationalstudentassessmentpisa/34002454.pdf

What I have been learning till now is not to teach math  mechanicly but to relate it with as much as things that we can, eventually with daily life, and then let them figure out the rules, formulas with the help of word problems, later on they will be able to get involve with mechanic way of problem solving. Suprisingly, in Math classes we do not teach to think mathematicly. The thing is that if they know how to solve problems, they reach the success. From my point of view, it is of course one way to figure out if they get it or not but not the first or not the vital sign. I usually want them not to solve the problems but to create their own word problems. That is the way it should be, the way I was taught to teach.

Here is the first exercises in integers from the same graders books. The first one is from Turkish book which is published in 2009 to use in 2010-2011, pretty new. And You do not necessarily need to understand the language to comprehend the style of exercises which is exactly word problems. One more thing is to let them think!The second one is published in 2011. I do not feel the need to explain anything, just calculations.

So overall, what I think the reason behind their sucsess? How can they be the top in PISA and famous for education system all over the world?

Without any doubt, they focus on each subject with the same effort and interest. They do care about the special need ones to reach equal level of success. They LISTEN students with a great patience. School is not only seen as a place to  study but also to learn how to live with. Exams are so much according to their lessons. Students are not having extreme and spectecular exams so stress is out. Finnish teachers do their jobs with pleasure! 

And one more thing, Finland is country of peace. Peace makes the difference.

Special School in Denmark,2010

First,we met the headmaster of the school who was very kind and like a normal teacher in his casual clothes not in suits.We looked around and saw some classes each of special and normal.

If somebody has pyhsical disability, they are intagreted to normal classes.In normal classes,two teacher are ready to help them.One of them is especially for the special one.That's why they have enough time to be individual and find out the personal way goes solution.Population in the classes can not be more than 25.If I compare this situation to Turkey,we have classes which contains more than 25 pupils as normal. And again in normally we have one teacher each class. 

If somebody has learning disability,they have special classes to be integrated to society.They do not have to learn mathematics,physics,chemistry at all.Teachers try to teach them social skills.In this point,you can realize that the common question is in Denmark 'what can you do for society' and then just do it! You do not have to spend your time to things that you cant do anytie.They know your abilities and learning capasity. Individual system really works!Students in Turkey have to learn all knowledge about all lessons even it wont be useful in the future for their career or job.In speacial classes,curriculum is different than normal schools'..In our public schools,not only pupils who have disabiltiy but also brilliant pupils have not got any useful chance to get educaiton individual way.

There was also another method to take the child who has a problem spesific subject to other special class for intensive courses to overcome the problem.

Materials,paintings,classes without doors,art classes,computers are other interesting things for me.

To sum up,It was my first experience about special needs education.But it really affected me to search some disabilities about my branch such as dyscalculia.

Danish Schools in overall, 2010, Erasmus

Most important part of Erasmus from my point has started. Even we went school for just 4 days,I was influenced by school,teachers and children.They always sing in the morning for 15 minutes in a big holl.There were 4-5-6 classes together and they were in great harmony when they were singing!Teachers could keep the silence easily.I learned from our mentor teacher that it is not the same implementation with the other schools.It depends on the association that includes parents and teachers who are responsible for decisions about the pupils.Now they have an idea that watching the news before lessons and try to make comments and talk about solutions about some events.In my opinion,it would be so much useful for them in daily life.Great idea;) More,Book commercial was so effective.Teacher explained what they are and, as far as I can understand ,talked about the summaries.They were new books in their library...

Teacher always starts lessons by writing  plan shortly on the board.Their books which have chosen by the teacher have lots of stories about daily math.It means not only division and multiplication mechanicly are important to be good at math but also adapting and relating to daily life are important,more important actually...They think that you can find a calculator to find the result of examples in everywhere but unless you know where you use this result or why you solved the problem, it wont work anymore.That is true!

Sometimes they were being tested while they supposed that they were in a competition with lots of fun.It was the other side of Danish educational system.Colourfull classes,as much as possible qualified materials,Games about subjects,Stories about Math,Combining with related subjects(for example math and science) and etc...You are being educated when you are learning how can learn to learn ;)

I met a girl who is really clever and able to speak English,as well.She just started to draw her hands by the real sculpture--)her hands! Spontaneous cue explained that right lobe of brain is more active than left one.Thus creativeness,skills on painting,drawing,sculpture,writing,reading are more improved than the other subjects as I could realize in Denmark.

Biology time!It is usual to relate two subjects and put together to combine with previous known knowledge and will be learned new one.Microscopes are more less 10 out of the cabinet for 2 by 2 group working.Communication and exchange of information are in every lesson!It is not related being social or numeric lesson.

How can I guess that I gather from spaghetti to division,multiplication about decimal!Afterwards instead of eating spaghetti,How can I expect that I will create a new design of spaghetti castle or whatever you imagine.Still it is continuing with presentation.It was my best experience about this school! I got the point to put into practice!

One of my opinions about Danish educational system is not only from memories even they have to find the result of 7*8.I asked two pupils the question,they started to write all numbers goes the result!7-14-21-28-35-42-49-56! The way of multiplication is also different then we do in Turkey.We dont need to write all numbers,it makes us slow to solve all examples that are compulsory to pass exams.

Teacher is excellent!She knows their learning way and when they start to be bored.Patience,trust,responsibility between pupils and teacher and parents!She cooked a cake with bonbons to serve all class beacuse they have 4 lessons together and it is a bit intensive for them.Great way to relax!

To sum up,whereever you are,experiences make you more than you are!During the week I found myself in my chaotic thoughts while comparing all details about educational system.Perfect decision for me to become a Mathematic teacher !

Unce upon a time in Legoland! 2010

http://www.flickr.com//photos/47248254@N08/sets/72157623807127963/show/

Everything was planned before,tickets for enterance and bus were ready and also erasmus students having easter break were ready as well! We tried nearly every game and enjoyed the legoland.The weather let us to have a nice time,too.I prepared a bread like Indians!Laser game,splasing canoes,toys,planes for mainly children(but we were like children :)),snack time and etc etc! Being together and having an amazing time ! good memories from my first and maybe the last easter break in Europe :)-I could not imagine  that I will go Finland even for a longer time. So it was not the last time!
Ps:Actually my easter break was full of first experiences.It is a tradition in Europe to prepare some colurful eggs and buying some egg chocolates.The reason why they use eggs to celebrate this day is to show the meaning of new life.These are the general knowledge about this day buuuutttt Czech people has a different tradition!:) In the early morning they came our home to through some water on us to make us fresh with their handmade natural stick!It is unforgetable...

Ask how to behave instead of what to wear.

Turkish Class

Schools in different countries have particular rules about clothing which may have some meanings or cause troubles for some. The vital thing which Finnish education system or life itself give me here is peaceful freedom which is gotten rid of any stereotypes and allows you to be yourself without any restrictions. If the man can not be hisself, nothing creative will show up in educational area.

Finnish class

Another essential thing for us to teach our students not to care about the appearence but to focus on the thoughts, ideas and work. We have to create an environment so that everybody does not waste any time to think about the best brand, the fanciest clothes or comparing the best and the worst.  We need great deal of time to increase in success of education. The starting point should not be the appearance, it has to be very fundamental problems such as their mentality, their understanding of school and education, their awareness of being all together and create something not to consume because of competing. Unless those steps are followed in that process, we just stuck to make uneffective developments(!) all the time.

When to go shopping within your pyjamas will be just ok than insanity, then it means something has changed:)