I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday

...is the name of one of the most famous Christmas songs in England. It’s also a song that has been dancing around my head all the week! This is, after all, our final full week before the holidays and so I’ve been doing my best to help spread festive cheer.

Let’s start with International Studies. While Monday’s class planned their multicultural city videos, Wednesday’s class filmed them. Afterwards, it only seemed right that we should play some traditional English Christmas games while munching on some candy and sipping some (delicious) Yorkshire Tea.

What were these Christmas games, you ask? We got stuck into some good old Charades first of all. This is a game where one person must give their teammates clues so that they can guess the names of films, books, songs, and TV shows. NO TALKING ALLOWED!

Next up was Articulate, a game where one player must select a random word and describe it in order for the rest of their team to guess the correct word.

These games were not limited to International Studies, however. The students in Merenojan have also experienced some English Christmas goodness this week. I must say – they were much better at playing Articulate than I am.

“This guy was in Baywatch and for some reason has a show here...” was probably my favourite clue and led us all to ponder: why does David Hasselhoff have his own TV show in Finland?!

The Merenojan students also learned about pantomimes (silly theatre shows) and did some acting of their own using verbs and adverbs. There were some Oscar-worthy performances as students pretended to eat nervously, play ice hockey angrily, and swim happily. This was swiftly followed by some Christmas dinner bingo and, let me tell you, the competition was fierce!

One of my classes today was slightly bemused by the English song “Merry Christmas Everyone” by Shakin’ Stevens. In return, they showed me “Sika”. I was truly lost for words but at least now I know the Finnish translation for “pig”.

Oh and how could I almost forget? Last weekend I finally managed to visit Tampere. There was a wonderful atmosphere throughout the city and I especially loved the Christmas market! All in all, this week has definitely got me excited for the season to be jolly, fa la la la la la la la la. 

Newspaper Clothes

Tuesday marked Finland’s 99^th Independence Day. It was a cold one too (-20c to be precise). As a result, it felt pretty good to watch the big president’s event bundled in thick blankets with a hot chocolate to hand. On a deeper note, getting to know Finland’s history has been a real privilege and it was truly special to get a taste of the celebrations.

Yesterday saw the students return to school, however, and everything was back to normal (if you can call making clothes out of newspaper normal). That’s right – as part of our discussion on multiculturalism and how we define culture, I asked the International Studies students to make one of three traditional pieces of clothing. They could choose from: a kilt, a sari, or a kimono. The rules were simple. They had to try to make this clothing using only newspaper, sellotape and scissors. There were some wonderful creations...

We noted that culture can be judged through such things as clothes and it was soon time to move on to the main task! The students’ second challenge is to make tourism videos based one of three multicultural cities: Sao Paulo, Toronto, and Singapore. They will have to convince the judge(s) to visit their city while providing information to show just how multicultural it is and what it has to offer. After completing their research yesterday, the students are ready to film their videos at the start of next lesson and I'm sure excited to see how they all turn out!

Let's Party!!!

This week, we’re all about the celebrations.

The IS1 classes finished off their presentations on Christmas, Diwali and the Chinese New Year before sharing them. What can I say? I was blown away.

In Monday’s class we had one student dressed as a Christmas tree, Jesus’ birthday cake and the most impressive of Chinese Dragons...

In Wednesday’s class we had an entire classroom transformed into the Diwali “festival of lights” (beautiful candles and all). Wednesday’s class even cooked and baked some delicious treats in honour of their chosen celebrations. (As you can see, these treats were enjoyed a lot!)

Not only did the students get to be creative and independent, they also learned and presented a great deal about their subject areas. Just wait until you see what we have in store for next week though...

Elsewhere, in the local elementary school we’ve spent the past few weeks making British school menus, role playing getting the wrong order in a restaurant (oh no!), and performing questionnaires on the students’ favourite hobbies. Next week, we’ll be buying and selling in our own shops which should be verrrry interesting J

In the kindergarten, things are feeling very Christmas-y. We even played “pin the hat, scarf and nose on the Rudolph" with some hilarious results. It's been the perfect time to learn the English words for winter clothing with all of the gorgeous snow that currently surrounds us and blankets the streets. 

In fact, the weather was perfect for last Friday's Christmas light switch-on in the evening. There were fireworks, carols, and crackling fires. 

Of course, Finland’s Independence Day celebrations are just around the corner too. This will be my first experience of the Independence Day so I'm pretty darn excited! 

P.S. HAPPY 1st DECEMBER!!!

Game On!

A competition is afoot!

In International Studies, we have begun our new topic: Multiculturalism. With this comes a competition. Each IS1 class has been split into three groups. Monday’s class decided upon these as their team names:

1)    Silly Sausages

2)    The Snapes

3)    Leviosa

As you can see, we may have a few – ahem – Harry Potter fans.

Wednesday’s class didn’t believe me when I said I’d take their first replies as their group names. We therefore have:

1)    No Idea

2)    The Ummms...

3)    Not sure

You may see a theme there.

Over the course of this topic, the teams will participate in three activities. Their work on these activities will then be judged and an overall winner for each class will be chosen.

So what is the first activity? Each team has been tasked with researching and presenting information on one cultural celebration: Diwali, Christmas, or the Chinese New Year. In this week’s lesson they researched their celebration and began to think about how they could present it to the rest of the class in an interesting, entertaining way.

The teams have been given some of next week’s lesson to complete their preparations before PRESENTATION TIME! Watch this space...

One of the beauties of this job is that I get to work with all age groups. While working with Harry Potter-obsessed teenagers is extremely awesome, I’ve also been enjoying my time with the little ones (or "littleuns" as some of us call them in England). 

In Kindergarten, we’ve been getting very crafty. We’ve made lots of things including fluffy cloud ornaments, bouncy snakes and face flags (the children's were much better than my example)!

Overall the weeks are flying by in all of their thoughtful, fun and colourful ways. 

Learning About Refugees

“Anyone can become a refugee, anyone, it’s not something which you choose, it’s something that happens to you.”

These are the words of Hassan, a man who was forced to flee his home country of Syria in search of safety. His story, which included taking a treacherous journey across the ocean in an attempt to find a new home and protection, was just one that we explored in today’s lesson.

After examining some key words and meanings, the students were tasked with shading in a world map to show:

1)    Countries with the most Internally Displaced People (IDPs)

2)    Top 5 countries of origin for refugees

3)    Top 5 countries for refugees

4)    Countries which received the most asylum applications in 2015

(I found this excellent resource at: www.choices.edu).

We then examined our feelings concerning what the map showed. Were we surprised? Why were these movements taking place?

Afterwards, we turned our attention towards Syria. I explained the nature of the civil war which began in 2011 and rages on to this day. We noted that this was in no way a simple war, but one pitted in historical discrepancies and fought between numerous groups. As the class was introduced to the involvement of other countries within this conflict, they soon realised that this truly is a global phenomenon.

In turn, we watched a video from the BBC documentary Exodus following the story of Israa (a young girl from Syria).

Afterwards, the students were tasked with thinking about the practicalities of leaving one’s home and country behind. What items would they take with them given the opportunity and why?

It was important to go deeper than items and material goods though. I found a fantastic resource from the British Red Cross website which offers four scenarios for students to explore:

1)    You really want to go back home. But everyone says it is still too dangerous. People expect you to be grateful to be where you are. However some media reports suggest you are not welcome any more.

2)   You do not know what happened to your friends and family from home. No one knows you're safe and you don't know if they are safe. You feel alone and vulnerable.

3)    You miss the food, culture and friends from home. Everything in your new country is strange and unfamiliar. You feel you are not living, just existing.

4)    You're not sure if you are safe now. You have nightmares about what happened when you had to flee. You have heard stories of attacks on refugees in the local area. You worry that your permission to stay may be taken away.

Immediately, one student exclaimed, “I just couldn’t do it! I would be too scared!” We discussed this fear and the fact that this was and is a reality for so many.

In relation to the scenarios given, the students thought about the problems faced, any possible solutions to them, and the integral role of support when confronted with life as a refugee.

Finally, the students were asked to think about a message that they would give a refugee while watching Hassan's terrifying experience at sea. The responses were heart-warming, thoughtful and honest.

Upon concluding our globalisation topic, we realised that the world can certainly be a beautiful, kind, yet dangerous, scary, and messy place to live in. Furthermore, we acknowledged that countries are now more connected than ever causing both cooperation and conflict...

USA! USA! USA!

The American election deadline is almost upon us. What better way to celebrate this than to hold our very own Kalajoen lukio presidential election? That’s exactly what we did in International Studies today...

Firstly, we examined a brief history of how the Democratic and Republican parties came to exist. Afterwards, we explored what they look like today. The students also had the opportunity to guess which policies belonged to Hillary Clinton and which belonged to Donald Trump...

It was soon election time! The students were tasked with having to create their own political party in a bid to win the 2016 Kalajoen Lukio Presidential Election.

The class was given the following instructions:

1. Your team must decide upon a party name.
2. You must choose presidential and vice-presidential candidates.
3. You must create a list of policies that you would introduce to the school if you win.
4. You must make a one-minute speech giving information on these policies and explaining why YOU should win!
5. The presidential and vice presidential candidates must give the speech.

In turn, we had the Hillaryus Party (who promised to bring laughter to the school), the Best Party (straight to the point with the name), and the YAAASSSS Party (very positive).

After providing their speeches and outlining their policies (which included later starts to the school day, more colour in the classrooms, and cake on Friday) it was time to vote for the best candidates. Unlike real American potential presidents, the teams were not allowed to vote for themselves.

And the winner was... the YAAASSSS Party!

However, I pointed out to the students that if this was a real American election their own votes wouldn’t directly name the winner. Instead, they would have to go through the Electoral College. Once the system was explained this caused some pretty heated responses.  One of the students exclaimed, “It seems so pointless!” while another simply asked, “Why?”

This question was an interesting and important one. I think that it’s very easy to get caught up in explaining the “how” of something that we often forget to question the “why”? I frowned... Why exactly was this particular system in place? With some research, we soon discovered that it was there because it provides a middle ground between Congress and the public.

To conclude, we considered why the current USA election is a global issue and how it affects us. One of the students noted that the USA is a huge world power while another grieved, “It’s going to be the end of the world!” Whichever way you look at it, this election sure has fueled some strong emotional responses. 

Helsinki Adventures

Last week I finally ventured to Helsinki with Ahren for what turned out to be a pretty eventful trip!

First of all, let’s just take a moment to talk about Finland’s trains. It feels positively bizarre using spacious public transport and...Wait a moment. Finnish trains have top decks AND FREE WIFI? We don’t get this kind of luxury in England – you’d be lucky to find a seat sometimes.

Anyway, we arrived in Helsinki to find that the weather was absolutely dismal but that honestly didn’t matter. I was far too enthralled by all of the architecture to care about some rain.

While there, we checked out Kiasma (the contemporary art museum) which was seriously interesting. I’m not usually a fan of some “modern” art but there were so many thought-provoking pieces...

We also wandered around Anteneum which was holding an exhibition on Italian artist Amedeo Modigliani who was known for living a bit of a wild life.

Ahren took the opportunity to draw me and I’ve since entitled it: Murderous Librarian. I really hope that I don’t actually look this...

Dodgy drawings aside, we meandered through the city before reaching Helsinki Cathedral. Inside, we were fortunate enough to get a sneak peak of a choir practicing and it was spine-tingling...

There were plenty of other things we enjoyed too, including: the Rock Church, Upenski Cathedral, and one of our favourite (Scottish) bands Biffy Clyro.

We were supposed to leave early on Saturday afternoon, however, someone may not have checked the Kokkola bus schedule too thoroughly (ahem). As a result, we did end up staying one extra night which, in hindsight, wasn’t a terrible fate to endure.

In all, we had a fantastic week though it’s nice to be home in Kalajoki again J

What A Week...

200 scones.

That's right, folks. With the help of five extraordinary students, we made 200 scones for the English tea party and they were absolutely delicious if I do say so myself...

Here's a link to the recipe if you're in the mood for some baked goodness:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/paul_hollywoods_scones_70005

Of course, every good scone needs its jam and cream too:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/strawberry_jam_82129

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/24566/easy-devonshire-cream/?internalSource=hub%20recipe&referringContentType=search%20results&clickId=cardslot%202

The tea party was a roaring success (especially thanks to our brilliant International Studies students). We had croquet, skittles, and all of the tea one could wish for!

I'm sure that it would have been enough to make the dowager countess from Downton Abbey smile (or at least sternly nod her approval).

Here we are striking our best poses for the newspapers...

Beyond the school, I've been trying some new(ish) things too. On Wednesday evening - for the first time in years - I went horse riding! My horse, Nova, was thankfully very patient (especially during the most awkward horse dismount of the century).

Oh, and how could I almost forget?! I saw the Northern Lights the other day! This was my first time observing the strange green mist-like phenomena so you can imagine my excitement...

Anyway, this week is the holidays so I'll be off to Helsinki. Have no fear though because I'll be sure to keep you updated...

Surprising the Prime Minister...

Lukio is looking ever-so-slightly different nowadays due to ALL OF THE BUNTING YOU COULD POSSIBLY IMAGINE.

Oh, yes, the International Studies 1 students were once again making bunting for next week’s English Tea Party (18/10 13:30-14:00). This meant cutting out triangles upon triangles upon triangles. The finished look, however, is pretty amazing!

Meanwhile, the International Studies 2 students have been directing and acting in order to create videos to showcase Kalajoki’s youth services. Currently, the class has split into two groups: one is creating a video on the local park while the other is creating a video on basketball.

Competition between the two groups is fierce as the one which makes the best video wins...pizza, of course!

Life beyond the school has proved to be awesome too. The other week, I finally got around to exploring the famous beach:

I also met the prime minister (who probably didn't expect the English accent)!

This weekend I’m planning on visiting the local farmers’ market and will begin work on baking 200 SCONES (!!!!!!)...all in the name of the English tea party. 

Watch this space...

English Tea Party!

Brace yourself for the experience of a lifetime...

Kalajoen lukio is hosting an English Tea Party!

That’s right. We’re going to have a crazy amount of tea, scones, games and bunting (oh so much bunting) on 18/10/16 at 13:30-14:00. Where will this most marvellous of occasions be held exactly?  It’ll be in the first floor lobby where you’ll usually find students relaxing between lessons and dreaming of such an event.

Today our International Studies class got to work on preparing for the tea party. Naturally, we had to enjoy several cups of tea in order to inspire our creativity...

Here is a friend of mine, Ahren, from England providing the refreshments:

Some of our class began work on compiling an English music playlist – I’m pretty sure that I heard Rick Astley at some point...

Others created some rather dashing posters...

The rest of the group worked on the bunting which should eventually look something like this:

Look at them painting away!

Finally, we decided that it was time to make our guest feel truly welcome. This, of course, meant offering Ahren some salmiakki...

Did he like it or not, I hear you ask. Well, you will just have to watch the video in order to find out: