Autumn is Here!

There’s a chill in the air which can only mean that Autumn is truly underway. Kalajoki is all berries, yellowing leaves and slightly darker mornings. I love it.

This week was test week in the lukio and so I have found myself back in Pohjankylän and Raumankarin. It’s been strange (but wonderful) working with younger kids again. Since I’ve already told a lot of the students all about England, I decided that it was time to focus upon Scotland which is where I lived for four years as a university student. We listened to the bagpipes, marvelled at deep fat fried Mars Bars and even made our own kilts.

Prior to this week the International Studies 1 classes learning about the USA and doing further preparations for our big party. We’ve got some real artists! We’ve even been making some little trailers for the party so keep your eyes open for those.

In International Studies 2, we’ve come up with a seriously exciting project idea. What is it? Well, you’ll just have to wait and see! .

Last Saturday I visited the local energy event which proved to be extremely interesting. My favourite part was using the virtual reality console - so much fun! I played a toboggan game where you have to tilt your head in order to control the vehicle’s direction while riding along a busy road. I was a bit of a safety hazard…

Things are about to get even crazier though. Next week we’re planning for another lukio project and in two weeks I’ll be flying to Sweden with Tanja and four students for the Nordplus project. Some of us have never visited Sweden before – it’s all very exciting. We’ll be staying in Malmö which will be quite different to the small island in Iceland that we visited last time, I’m sure.

For now, I hope that you all enjoy your weekend! 

Merenojan Meets Maakalla

I couldn’t resist writing a blog post about Monday’s visit to Maakalla which is all things stunning and rustic.

Makkalla from a distance

A group of of students from the Merenojan are part of the International Club which is now focused upon an Erasmus+ project called: “Keep on shining: a project on lighthouses”. The students have visited and are continuing to visit: Italy, Germany, Crete and Spain as a result. Their aim is to explore local lighthouses in different ways with a focus upon history, literature, art, science, and digital techniques.

It only seemed right that we should visit two old islands, including one with a lighthouse, for inspiration: Maakalla and Ukkokala. After taking one large boat to Maakalla, we boarded a smaller one in order to wander around Ukkokala first. This was lots of fun as we got drenched in water! When we arrived, the first thing that caught our eye was the lighthouse of course! The island was full of rugged beauty as well...

On the boat to Maakalla!

The lighthouse!

Ukkokala

After this wonderful first visit, we returned to Maakalla. The church looked like something out of a fairytale while the museum exhibited interesting artefacts from seal hunters. Inside the old vicar’s cottage was an array of books available for borrowing…

The Church

Inside the church

We climbed this ladder to get a better look of the island and (despite my fear of heights) I must say that it was definitely worth it. There was something incredibly peaceful about the place.

It was soon time to go home, however. Following a boat ride back to the mainland, there were plenty of smiles. This had been one very adventurous day!

The Marmite Returns...

These past couple of weeks in the lukio have seen the return of the Marmite, some Japanese visitors, and a lot of play doh.

Last week we welcomed our new batch of International Studies (IS1) first years. It only seemed right that we shared some incredible* Marmite with them. This has become a tradition of mine whenever meeting new students. They couldn’t quite believe it when I exclaimed that I could easily eat Marmite sandwiches three times a day!

*Unfortunately, my opinion on its taste was not shared by too many students :(

This served an important lesson though: that this class is all about exposing ourselves to different things from around the world. Our lessons so far have focused upon getting to know one another. Cue all sorts of crazy games, from making newspaper clothes to acting like Batman to trying to figure out where different songs come from. It was an honour to introduce them to the likes of The Proclaimers, a Scottish band, and Shania Twain. Of course, Ed Sheeran proved to be a popular musician.

Newspaper Kimono

Here's a bit of The Proclaimers! 

It’s always exciting getting new students. However, revisiting last year’s IS1 students (who are now in their second year) has been awesome. We’re currently planning a big project for the school this year while preparing for next year’s Dublin visit - an annual course trip which never fails to impress.

Oscar Wilde in Dublin

We have plenty of travel projects taking place in the school. For example, the Nordplus Junior project is still in progress. Last year’s Iceland trip was amazing and we’re now looking forward to Malmö, Sweden, in October.

Iceland Throwback

Last week, we had some wonderful Japanese visitors who explored the school and the area. The teachers enjoyed a sauna evening where the conversation was broad and the lingonberry cake was delicious. Seriously. In a couple of months, some incredibly lucky Merenojan students will have the opportunity to travel to Japan. Having heard about previous visits, it sounds like they are in for an absolute treat.

Speaking of Merenojan, that is where I spend a lot of my time now. I’m teaching small groups of students English every day and it’s a lot of fun. We’re busy molding words out of play doh, kicking around my precious football to practice translations, and playing with some beauuuuutiful unicorn cards. In fact, all of the students are now acquainted with Sebastian the Unicorn who we like to throw around when asking and answering questions.

Today ended on a fun note with a lukio football competition! The crazy English football fan in me was screaming. 15C were victorious but all of the students played so well - a big congratulations to all involved. Overall, it's been an excellent start to the year...

A New Teacher...

Meet Ahren. He's a new native-English teacher in the area. He'll mainly be working with kindergarten and elementary school children but you might see him around the lukio every now and then! Let's see what he has to say...

Hi, everyone, I'm Ahren. I’m proud to come from the beautiful city of Leicester in England. It’s famous for its pork pies, stilton cheese, gorgeous countryside and amazing sports teams. I could probably spend this entire blog post talking about how Leicester City Football Club and the Leicester Tigers are the greatest teams in the world.

This is a pork pie in case you were wondering:

I'm a keen fan of baking too. In fact, you probably tasted some of my cakes if you attended last year's British tea party and summer fete.

I also love the United States so much - I’ll even be hosting an American themed party in the lukio this Autumn! I’ve visited the USA over fifteen times. As a huge fan of ice hockey and American football, I support the Buffalo Sabres and the Buffalo Bills. I’m still looking for a Finnish ice hockey team to support so feel free to make any suggestions! My love of the USA has also influenced my love of rap and country music (yes, I am a huge fan of Taylor Swift!)

I’ve even worked in some American summer camps. I worked in Texas and High-Rock, Massachusetts, with children of all ages. I taught activities like Outdoors Skills and...you’ve got it...American football. Fun Fact: Lady Gaga went to Hi-Rock before she became famous.

I do have to say that I can’t wait to finally teach in Finland. It’s going to be so much fun and I’m so grateful to be here! See you all soon.

Fun Facts:

Scariest thing I’ve ever done: Skydiving - the part when we were hanging outside the plane and waiting to jump was kind of terrifying!

Favourite book: Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. It’s a science-fiction book in which the Earth ends and one human called Arthur Dent travels around the universe with a cast of quirky characters. It's a lot of fun to read.

Role-models (people who inspire me): My parents. They have done so much for me and I wouldn’t be the person I am today without them.

Weirdest moment: When I was visiting the Kiasma. I walked into a room with a wooden hut in it and spent two hours talking to Shia LeBouf.

HELLO AGAIN!!!

There are certainly lots of new, intriguing and impressive things happening in the school this year! We have so many projects to prepare for with many students getting ready to visit some very beautiful countries. We also have our special morning activities, International Studies and one big American party this Autumn...

Heypa! It's me, Chloe from England in Great Britain. I'm here for another year of teaching, exciting international stuff and pulla (yassss).

Channeling my inner Harry Potter

When I was last in Kalajoki it was graduation time! We don't have anything like this in England, at least not in the city that I'm from. When I finished school, we just had a "prom" (an American-style excuse to wear fancy dresses and ride in a limousine if you're really lucky).

It was awesome to see this Finnish tradition, with all of the students enjoying a very well-deserved day. I especially like the hats that graduates receive. After the graduation ceremony, I attended a couple of houses belonging to the graduates whose parents are teachers here. Again, this was a new concept to me. It was lovely to catch up with everyone and THE FOOD WAS DELICIOUS. I REPEAT: THE FOOD WAS DELICIOUS. I'd never even seen a cake with salmon in it before that day - I'm a fan!

I spent another week in Kalajoki before hopping on a plane for some travelling in Rhodes and Amsterdam. Both are extremely beautiful places.

Some photos from Rhodes:

The Acropolis in Lindos

Some photos from Amsterdam:

The Royal Palace:

Rembrandt Statue:

On a cat boat! It's a boat where an organisation gives help and homes to stray cats. Visitors are free to stroke and adopt them.

The best part was probably when we visited the Van Gogh museum in Amsterdam where they showcase lots of his famous paintings including my favourite: Almond Blossoms.

The rest of my summer was spent in sunny England (no sarcasm, it was actually sunny)! Before I knew it, I was on a flight back to Finland. This time, however, I am not the only native English teacher in the area... More on that later...

Sunshine, cakes and a rat called Gilbert

Last week was sunny, crazy and rather British! After plenty of planning, baking and painting it was soon time for our British summer fete (party) to take place.

Summer fetes are a big thing in Britain and you'll often find them in lots of villages all over the place. At any summer fete you can expect to encounter two very important things: cakes and games. The Merenojan and lukio students soon found out that these games are far from ordinary...

Firstly, we had "Splat the Rat". The game is simple: a toy rat is dropped down a tube and the player has to try to hit (or splat) it! We decided to name the rat Gilbert and, oh boy, he had a pretty rough day. 

Next, we had "Balance the Coin on the Lemon". Many people became quite frustrated with trying to balance a 20 pence coin on the lemon without it falling into the water.

We also had some "Welly Wanging". This game comes from Yorkshire in England (during a time when they didn't really have Netflix to occupy themselves with). We adapted the game so that the players had to try to throw the welly (boot) to hit the target...

We also had games called "Feed the Clown" and "Bell Tower" which challenged the throwing skills of the players. 

During our International Studies 1 course, we decided that we would like to add a charitable aspect to the event - especially after learning about the hardships of refugees. As a result, we challenged players to guess how many sweets were in our jar with all money given paid to the Finnish Red Cross which helps refugees. 

Finally, we included all sorts of cakes including chocolate and lemon drizzle (which is a special kind of lemon cake we make in Britain)!

The IS1 (as well as a few of the lovely IS2) students did a fantastic job in helping to organise and set up this event. Afterwards, we were all quite tired and so decided to relax by the river. Overall, it was one beautiful day!

I can't believe that there is only one day left at school before the summer. Stay tuned for all of the graduation fun!