Insta-famous!

#blessed

...Most of us have seen this hashtag when scrolling through Instagram. But what is the reality behind the picture? This was the focus of last Monday's International Studies lesson: to think about the extent to which social media really portrays reality.

To start with, we explored Edward Tory Higgins' "self-discrepancy theory". Higgins theorised that the self is split into three parts: the "actual" self, the "ideal" self, and the "ought" self. The "actual" self encompasses all of the characteristics that we or other people believe we have. The "ideal" self concerns all of those characteristics that we wish we had. The "ought" self is about those characteristics that we or other people think we should have.

Taking this idea of how we perceive ourselves and others, I challenged the students to work in groups and make memes based upon how they are seen as students. Here are the (hilarious) results:

We then examined the sense of "perfection" that many Instagram posts promote and how our social media pages may reflect our "ideal" selves rather than our "actual" selves. Naturally, we decided to parody some of the most popular types of posts that you might see...

#fitness #workout #feelsgood #gymtime “#justdoit #getfit #beachbody

Overall, this was a fun lesson with a rather serious message to never blindly trust what appears on social media.

Throughout the rest of the week, there were plenty of other lively things happening. The International Club sessions in Merenojan were a particular highlight, with one group focusing upon finishing a project in order to visit Portugal and the other shopping with me to buy the ingredients for some pancakes! It is, after all, Shrove Tuesday in England tomorrow which is a day when people eat...you guessed it... lots of pancakes. If last week is anything to go by, this week is sure to be another great one! 😄

Finland - You're Amazing!

The whole world has heard about Finland's fantastic education system. Heck, that was one of the main reasons as to why I came over here in the first place. Many wonder what Finland's secret is. Last week, I think that I saw some of it...

On Thursday, the traditional "penkkarit" took place. I didn't quite know what to expect but I did hear the word "exercise" a few times. Little did I know that "exercise" meant crawling under various tables into the unknown (which is a bit of an understatement). Certainly, it's not everyday in the workplace that you stumble upon teletubbies dancing like there's no tomorrow...

...the cast of Narcos making it rain with money...

...flappers who wouldn't have looked out of place in the Great Gatsby...

...2 Broke Girls...

...and an abundance of superheroes among many other famous movie and television characters...

Behind every curtain, around every corner, and under every table there was yet another surreal scene which unfolded before our eyes. I've never seen anything like this in England. It's a fantastic example of how students can thrive when given freedom and responsibilities. The event also demonstrated the respect that staff and students have for each other here as they celebrated and played games together...

It also didn't hurt that, after the show, the students threw fistfuls of candy into the crowd. Yum!

This was not the only highlight of the week though. On Friday, the annual "wanhat" took place. Acting, dancing and all-round brilliance ensued. I must admit that I had to do a double-take when I saw all of the students looking so smart in their suits and ballgowns.

Overall last week was absolutely crazy, completely endearing, and a one-of-a-kind experience. It has only confirmed to me that Kalajoen lukio really is a special school.

Big Brother Is Watching You

This week, my Wednesday International Studies class got a bit of a surprise as they were welcomed into Oceania...

Oceania is the fictional setting found in George Orwell's famous novel 1984. In case you've never read the book or watched the film, it's about a man called Winston who lives in a "Big Brother" society, where everyone's every move is watched and those who oppose the government are punished...or worse.

As the class was ushered into the small room, they were met with posters and messages inspired by the book:

They were given a slightly baffling task to begin with. I told the class that we needed to practice our maths.

"What is one plus one?" I asked sweetly.

Some of the students caught onto my game immediately and answered, "Three."

"Wrong," I said. "It's actually four. What is two plus two?"

"Using whatever logic this is, it should be eight."

"Wrong!" The class frowned as I declared this. "It's five...obviously..."

There is a reason why I was being particularly bad at maths that day. In 1984, it is noted that "freedom is the freedom to say 2+2=4". So, I asked the class to write down lines of the incorrect sums - their freedom "lost" and a false belief complied with. In the meantime, I'd been quite sneaky and asked one of the students to take notes on the behaviour of the rest of the class while I left the room.

After a few minutes, I returned and revealed all. I guided the class through the world of 1984, introducing them to the idea of "newspeak", "thoughtcrimes", being under constant surveillance, and brainwashing. I also noted that in the book you never knew who might be observing you, in turn revealing the notes of their "spying" classmate.

The idea of surveillance, the invasion of privacy and possible loss of freedom were all topics at the heart of our lesson. We examined the extent to which "Big Brother" societies may exist. In doing so, we explored issues surrounding the National Security Agency (NSA) and Edward Snowden. This led us to the idea of valuing security over privacy and vice versa.

I challenged the class and asked them which they valued more: (personal) privacy or (personal) security? The answers were conflicting. We then decided to ask around Kalajoki to gather other views. Students surveyed Lukio and Merenojan as well as customers around Halpa-Halli and K-Market. Here were our results:

Overall, 39/54 of those surveyed favoured security while 15/54 favoured privacy. These results furthered our discussion. Some students were surprised (particularly by the younger generation's answers) while others were not. But why did any of this matter?

One student summarised, "You never know who might access data on you and what they might do with it."

Irrespective of where people stand on the matter, it is certainly something worth thinking about...

Truths, Lies and Freedom

In International Studies, we started our lesson with a game. I got the idea from the UK TV Show "Would I Lie to You?" It's all about contestants trying to guess whether others are telling truths or lies. One contestant will read out a statement and the opposing team must question them about it. This of course gave way to many funny moments with our class (one student had to lie about how they would NEVER go to sleep before midnight, for example).

These games are always a good way to get the class talking and bonding. It did, however, also encourage the students to think about the terms "truths" and "lies". We noted that in our society, we are relatively free to pursue truths and to question what is happening around us.

Continuing with our North Korea topic, we realised that this is not the case there. In order for the students to learn more about the country in terms of its relation to human rights, I set up a fact-finding treasure hunt. I hid twelve facts about North Korea around lukio, Merenojan and even by the library. The students had to follow the trail of clues to collect all of the facts. With the class split into two teams, things certainly got competitive. Here we have one team hiding from the other...

Once all of the students had returned, I asked them to read through these facts carefully. They then had to sort them into categories in terms of whether they related to: the government, the media, world relations, and/or crime and punishment.  This was when the real thoughtfulness began. As we explored these issues more deeply, watching a YouTube video of North Koreans who had experienced the regime, the students began to realise just how many human rights are being broken across the world right now.

One student said, "We've been talking about these issues but can we DO something?"

This was such an important moment and I'm so pleased that the students are asking what it is they can do to help with the plight of others. We will certainly be exploring this question further on in the course...

A Truly International Week

This week has proven to be another busy - but very exciting - one. After all, lukio has been hosting visitors from Sweden, Iceland and Latvia as part of the Nordplus Project that some of our wonderful students are involved in. This is an opportunity for the students to travel to these different countries, form new friendships, and complete a project independently.

On Monday, it was all about the group getting to know each other. Ice-breakers (games) were of course the answer! After learning each other's names, the students were split into groups and tasked to create marshmallow and spaghetti towers...

They also played some Spoon Assassin. The aim of this game is simple: chase your competitors and tap them with your spoon in order to "assassinate" them and take their spoon. The winner is the person who finishes with all of the spoons. Rules like "you're immune from being "assassinated" for 5 seconds if you take off your shoe and wave it in the air" make the game all the more ridiculous!

Afterwards they attempted to make a container that would keep an egg safe from breaking if we dropped it from a high place. Three out four of the groups managed to keep their eggs safe which is a massive success if you ask me!

After all of these crazy challenges, on Monday evening, our Finnish students and Nordplus visitors provided and tasted popular food from each country. There were some seriously delicious offerings...

Aside from this incredible week of project work, the International Studies lessons have continued as usual. On Wednesday, we carried on with our topic of "Freedom". For starters, the class was split into four groups and given the task of role-playing: a democracy, a communist state, a dictatorship and a monarchy in order to grow more familiar with these key terms and systems. For example, the "communist" group was tasked with announcing to the class that all must hand in their pencil cases in order for the equal distribution of standard pens for everyone.

The activity was an interesting one, making these terms more memorable. Nonetheless, the tone of our lesson changed as we explored the sometimes harsh realities of this world, paying attention to the situation in North Korea. One student summarised their feelings with honesty: "These things can be overwhelming if you think about them and so sometimes it is easier not to think about them."  However, we all realised the importance of awareness and the platform that our class gives for this.

Certainly, these past few days in particular have provided the students the chance to be open to and discover more about the world around them and that is simply invaluable.

Who Are You?

This week has been absolutely packed to say the least.

For starters, the IS2 class got to send off their DNA samples to be tested. Big stuff! Through doing this, we're hoping to break stereotypes and discover what it really means to be "Finnish". It's not everyday that you get to address the question of who you are. To be continued...

Elsewhere, in Wednesday's IS1 class we began another topic. This is one concerns "freedom". To begin with we examined human rights. In groups, the class decided which five human rights (from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights) they would establish on a new planet - because you never know when you might find yourself in charge of a civilisation far, far away of course. After also role-playing a court case concerning freedom of speech, they categorised certain situations (such as "killing is wrong") in terms of whether they should apply all the of the time, most of the time, some of the time, or never. This garnered some seriously interesting conversation.

Beyond this, Merenjoan koulu experienced its own tea party on Friday. We had roughly 100 brownies on offer as well as some jam cake (these naturally disappeared within about five minutes). The students also tried their hand at some croquet and bowling with some very impressive results.

The only not-so-great part of the past couple of weeks was that I experienced my first slip on Finnish ice. If I'm honest though, I was sadder about dropping my sandwich than landing on my back. So, I guess, here's to a week of not slipping (hopefully)...