Integrating New Students into a School - A Start-up Day

A short description of the day

I was asked to take part in Amok's start-up day for new students at the beginning of the summer. My role was to share my experiences of studying on the course with the new students, and give them some tips about how to complete the studies successfully. There were also three other former students telling their stories. We all came from slightly different backgrounds and studying strategies, and therefore we all had something special to distribute. I mainly concentrated on encouraging the new students to complete part of their studies abroad.

The event was held partly in classrooms and partly in a big hall, where they had built big tents and a Laplander's hut (tepee) for carrying out workshops. The former students were located in one of the tents. There were other people giving out information concerning the studies in the other stuctures, too. The idea was that the new students would visit all the workshops in their study groups. One visit always lasted for 10 minutes.

At the beginning of each visit we had just over a minute per former student to briefly tell about our experiences. Or that was the plan at least. Very soon we found out that we were talking too much and there was not enough time left for discussion.

After the fifth group or so it started to feel that I was just repeating myself. I had to remind myself that the audience was different every time. We had over ten groups visiting us so the day was rather hectic. I personally think that there could have been more breaks between the groups. However, after the event we had a lovely buffet waiting for us. It was nice to exchange some thoughts with the other former students and staff members. I found the atmosphere very relaxed and supportive - Amok must be a really nice place to work.

How I found the day

All in all I found the day very useful. I wish we had have such a day at the beginning of the studies. The new students were interested in hearing our experiences and I hope they got some good tips that will make their studies not just easier but also more efficient. I have always emphasised the importance of international knowledge. It was great to see that in each group there was one or two students showing interest in doing training or some courses abroad. It would be great to hear if there are more students actually going this academic year!

The problem with such start-up days is the amount of information. There is no way one can remember everything the following week. Maybe providing the students with contact information (at least web addresses to our e-portfolios) and photos of the former students would be useful. At least I would be more than happy to reply to some questions afterwards, too (as long as it does not become a daily task).

Organising a start-up day in such a way

I think the start-up day was successful. First of all it was probably a good way to do team-building. In a classroom setting it is difficult to talk with anyone else than the one next to you. Once the whole group is walking around chatting with others become easier. Getting out from a classroom makes learning also more fun which - in my opinion - also provides a better learning outcome. It was also a good way to introduce the new students with such an approach - they are after all the future teachers.

The students had been given some questions they had to find answers to. I am not sure they always remembered to ask those questions though. And if they did, how well do they still remember them? It maybe a good idea to provide each group now with the answers by posting them on Optima (and why not also names and links where to find more information).

All in all I think Amok has improved the start-up day since I started my studies. Yet I think it would be good to have the iVet group taking part in it next time. I am sure they could have the very same workshops in English. This would make them see the big picture and also meet other teachers whose optional studies they will anyway take.

Adopting the approach in my teaching

I think the day was a great learning opportunity for me as well. I got some ideas how to use the very approach in my teaching. So far I have come up with three different situations where I could use it. I think the beauty of the approach is that it can be used in various situations, environments and groups of people. I personally think that learning should be made fun: it increases students' involvement and school attendance. Changing the approach to learning in the classroom setting or having a totally different learning environment is always refreshing. Next I will discuss briefly the three situations where I could use the very approach.

1. Team-building day for my new students

If I was to organise a team-building day for my new students I would divide them in small groups in which they could visit different workshops. I would have workshops run by a student counsellor, a school secretary, a tutoring teacher, a co-ordinator of international affairs and tutoring students. In each workshop they would have some tasks to complete. This way the new students would get to know the personnel and other students. They would also learn more about the school than just by listening some mass lectures. I think this would be a great way to integrate the new students as well as do team-building. It is important to make the new students to feel welcome in order to decrease the amount of dropouts among the vocational students.

2. Introducing the optional studies for the students

In the college I work, we have a day when all the optional courses are introduced by the teachers. I think the day could be organised with this approach as well. In addition to the teachers, the third year students who have already taken the courses could also be there sharing their experiences.

3. Presenting the outcomes of group works

I like students doing small researches in groups of three or four. However, they are a bit bored with presenting the outcomes always in the same way (Powerpoint presentations in front of the classroom). I think I will ask them to prepare something different next time. I cannot build up any tents or tepees in our sport hall but surely we can have some presentations outdoors and use our building in a more innovative way than normally. I would like to see if this would make them to prepare their presentations with more enthusiasm. I would expect the audience to show more interest in the presentations too. This would obviously increase learning: they would not just learn the content but also different ways to give presentations.

A Dream Coming True?

A month back I made myself a treasure map in order to visualize my future dreams. In the centre of my map I had a picture of an African girl without education. I have always wanted to do voluntary work but had not quite known how. I do not think I would ever do it through the church -I have an etchical conflict wih the idea of exporting religion. Anyhow, I have now figured out what I want to do: I want to educate children that may not have an access to education otherwise.

In order to achieve my goal, I was planning to take this course. I have applied to it already once, and even got an invitation to an interview. Unfortunatelly - or fortunatelly - I was not selected then, but I am now more confident about my competences in studying in the programme. Now it is time to focus on other things in life though, but I will most likely apply on this course still one day! It would also give me the possibility to do research in the future.

So earlier I thought that I need to complete the Master's Degree Programme before doing voluntary work. But yesterday I found out that one of my studying friends has founded a vocational school in Uganda, and they are more than happy to receive voluntary teachers. I think I will take my family over there one summer, and see how I can help my friend and the local children.

Closing Seminar

Day 1

We are having the last contact days as a whole group, and it is time to reflect our learning during the last 12 months.

We started the day by choosing two postcards that describe us as vocational teachers now and in the future. For me the year has been challenging. Combining two courses, children and marriage, and feeling quilty for not doing any of them well enough, has been hard. Also a serious illness in the family has affected our life.  But here I am, almost at the finish line! Now it is time to relax and spend time with my family. Therefore I chose a nice picture of a parent playing ball with a little boy. That is me for the next couple of months. I will be baking cakes on a sandpit! Anyhow, I will return to work in August. My second picture, a hunting bird, illustrates the next step I will take as a vocational teacher. It is time to start looking for a teaching position soon!

For me the iVet course has given mainly new teaching tools and technology. I have met great poeple and made contacts. I hope we will continue learning together even after the course! I had a great possibility to do my teacher training abroad and experience different school system. My MBA studies will be finished soon, too. They have helped me to gain more pedagogical competence; I understand the world of vocational students better now, and can recognise the factors that put a student at risk for dropping out from school.

I got nice feedback on my pedagogical method of motivating students to take part in a discussion task during the VOCII course. I think VOCII gave me a great opportunity to try teaching in an online environment which is not used for teaching that often (Facebook). I think Facebook is a great tool for sharing ideas and learning together when you want the students to contribute daily for a short period of time. Obviously it requires that the students are willing to register in Facebook. Also Facebook has got its limitations: quite soon the Facebook page starts looking messy, and some content may get missing or finding it is difficult. I would also ask the students to document their learning in another platform due to the limitations of Facebook.

Today we were also practising evaluating ourselves. It was rather difficult! I shall think about my competences in vocational education more later on. I think this blog is a good starting point for documenting my competence.

Anyhow, it is time to go and pick up my children from the nursery. Later tonight we will gather around to one of our fellow students' house and have a barbeque. Time for a party!

Day 2

So it is the very last day, or actually the very last hour together as a STUDY group. It has been a discovery journey like one of us described the last year yesterday. I think I have gained a lot of competence in vocational pedagocy, but there is still areas where I have to develop myself, special needs education f.ex. But I am definately ready to start working as a teacher. As I stated in one of the first posts, I think a teacher is never ready. There is always something to learn. You have to be a life-long learner in order to expect that from your students.

Finally Summer!

We've got finally summer also here in Northern Finland! 

It's soon time to start a summer holiday! But first I'll attend the 'Closing seminar days' of iVet. I'm going to miss all my studying friends! Thanks guys for the great year!!

Then one more optional course (Managing People). I'll leave one optional course (Drama in teaching) for autumn. I'm looking forward to that course!  I've also promised to meet the new students and tell them about my experiences of doing teacher training abroad.  Hopefully some of them will take the challenge, too. Here's a link to an article concerning my practice by the way.

I've been mainly concentrating on my final thesis recently. I had my second seminar the other day. Still a lot to do, but I'm still planning to graduate from my MBA studies in August. Soon I can put my feet up and plan what to do in my garden this summer! It's time to start writing my gardening blog again.

Have a great summer!

Stepping out to the Real World

Schools are not closed environments. More and more co-operation with the local communities is taking place.

The major form of co-operation between the schools, the private sector, and other working communities is on-the-job learning. All three-year vocational study programs include minimum of 20 study weeks of on-the-job learning.

Other forms of co-operation can include at least:

• final thesis provided to the local organisations 
• student projects for the local organisations 
• teachers' work life experiences 
• curriculum work with the local community 

It is important for a teacher to know what is going on in the "real" work life. It is rather difficult to teach for example customer service if you have not done it ever or updated your knowledge recently. Therefore it is highly recommended to go on a work experience for couple of months, and learn the latest on the field. This will help a teacher to plan courses and lessons, and it will give a teacher many real-life examples to be shared with the students.

A teacher should also be well networked. It is important to co-operate with the colleagues, but also with the local organisations. A teacher with good networks can find visiting lectures and enrich teaching with different kind of collaborative tasks efficiently.

Some students may also need help with finding on-the-job learning placements, and that is when teacher's good networks help a lot. I would imagine that working closely with the real world keeps teaching more interesting and richer.

We were asked to think with whom and how we interact. I interact with many people during the day, mainly with other staff members and students. We usually speak face to face, send emails or phone to each others. Sometimes I also interact with schools abroad or different institutes/organisations in Finland. That takes place usually on phone or via email.

I think face to face is the most effective way to interact. Then you can see the non-verbal communication, too. Phone is quicker than email. Sometimes it is anyway better to use email: you may need evidence on what has been discussed, it is easier to understand the other person in written, or you want to send the same information to many people at the same time.

In the UK schools interact a lot with the local communities. They may not interact as much with the local companies as we do since on-the-job learning is not mandatory there, but they organise events like Christmas parties for the local care homes. I think we could do that kind of "voluntary work" more often in Finland, too. That would increase social sustainability!

All in all, a teacher needs to create and maintain good networks. By doing so the teacher will be able to give more to his/her students, and stay motivated.

Special Needs Education

In Finland everyone has got the right for education. In my opinion this is very important and makes a difference in one’s life. 

Each education provider is responsible for organising special needs education and training and services for students in special needs education and training. The aim is to ensure educational equality and equal educational services to everyone. (The Finnish National Board of Education, 2012.)

In vocational education and training, students with special needs have several possibilities to undertake their studies. They are integrated in the mainstream education if possible. If one is not capable to follow the "ordinary" educational path, there are many alternative ways to be educated. The students may be:

• studying in special needs groups
• studying in vocational special education institutions
• or learning through apprenticeship training. (The Finnish National Board of Education, 2012.)

The starting point, when planning special needs education, should be the student. What is good for this individual? What are his or her personal targets? How can we support him/her to achieve those goals? Does he/she need any other forms of professional help?

Each student in need of special education and training will have an individual education plan (IEP) drawn up. The plan follows the student through his/her education. The plan set out details of:

• the qualification
• the national core curriculum or the requirements of the competence-based qualification observed in education and training
• the individual curriculum
• grounds for providing special needs education and training
• special educational and student welfare services, as well as other services and support measures provided for the student. (The Finnish National Board of Education, 2012.)

My Experiences

Previously I have had students with learning difficulties, hearing disabilities, mental problems and students who have needed an assistant for moving around in the premises. There may have been many other special needs, too, which I have not been aware of. It is up to the student to decide how openly he/she is happy to talk about the special needs. 

I personally think that openness would be good in order to get all the possible support from each staff member. But I can understand that some students do not want to share their personal issues with each teacher.

Some of our special needs students apply through the related flexible application procedure. We decide who we invite for an entry exam or interview. We also offer the study places to those students. Sometimes special needs students may apply through the ordinary procedure. The need for special help may arise only once the school has started.

I am assuming different kind of mental problems play the biggest role in many vocational schools in Finland. Therefore it is great that we have a new law stating that each vocational school should have a psychologist.

I have had a chance to make a short questionnaire for local companies concerning their attitudes towards special needs students and their on-the-job learning. According to the results, there is still a lot to do to change attitudes. An extended on-the-job learning period could be very helpful for some of the special needs students, but first the businesses should be assured that the students are capable to carry it out.

References

The Finnish National Board of Education. (2012) "Special Needs Education." Retrieved March 17, 2013 from http://www.oph.fi/english/education/educational_support_and_student_wellbeing/special_needs_education

Teachers Saving the World!

Where is our world going? Here are some issues we are facing at the moment.

“Eleven million children die per year before reaching five years of age.”

“Every 3.6 seconds a person dies of hunger! 75 % of them are children!”

“In 2010, female full-time workers made only 77 cents for every dollar earned by men” 

 

“The Taliban's main fear is not drones but educated girls”

“Worldwide, 126 million children work in hazardous conditions, often enduring beatings, humiliation and sexual violence by their employers.”

 

“Year 2011: 7 606 homeless singles and 423 homeless families in Finland.”

“Growing up in a war zone takes its toll as young play games of murder and mayhem”

  

“World wastes 1 billion tons of food a year”

“World Meteorological Organisation data shows average global temperature to date is 14.45C, higher than long-term average”

Do we want our children to live in a world like this, or should we do something about it? What can we, teachers, do?

Sustainable development has become an important topic for schools, too. It is quite often understood as taking care of the environment (switching off the lights when leaving the room, recycling etc). But sustainable development is much more! 

United Nations defines it shortly: Future We Want. An economically, socially and environmentally sustainable future for our planet and for present and future generations.  

In the schools sustainable development can also mean ensuring a safe learning and working environment. Taking care of the students and the employees. Educating as many students as possible, and ensuring education for all. Making sure no-one drops out.  Responsible education: high quality education, and meeting the requirements of work life.  

Schools should use only reliable suppliers, who have committed to work for sustainable development. Cheapest may not be the best! Schools should also order materials to meet the demand - not more than needed. Less waste, and justified costs!

An individual teacher can teach sustainable development by being a role model. I think teaching the right attitude is once again really important. Yet, it is not enough just to switch off the lights after a lesson. A teacher should give the students ethical dilemmas and challenges - in other words, the students should be challenged to think how to carry out work in a sustainable way.

As a business teacher I could ask my students to come up with solutions to solve problems they may face when expanding a business globally. Are they prepared to give up child labour, hazardous work conditions or black labour even if it means more costs for the company? How would they take care of the environment? I could also use case studies such as IKEA, and collaborate with the local community in order to strengthen the well-being among its members.

Here are couple of links where you can find more practical tips how to teach sustainable development in schools:

http://www.etf.europa.eu/web.nsf/pages/Sustainability_education_How_to_make_it_concrete__EN

http://www.unesco.org/education/tlsf/

Schools Becoming International

Today's schools are becoming more and more international even in Finland. We have students with different cultural and language backgrounds almost in every group. Some schools offer education in English to attract foreign students. Understanding cultural differences has become a vital part of teacher hood.

A teacher needs to know at least something about his students' backgrounds (have they experienced war, what is going on in their families etc), but also the different learning styles of different cultures. In some cultures it is okay to ask direct questions from students, when in some (Asian) cultures that would not be the case. Students from different cultures have also different ways to understand for example teacher's authority and time.

I found this great article on teaching in multicultural classroom. It is full of handy tips for teachers! And here you can find more issues that may arise when teaching in a multicultural classroom.

We were challenged to think how we would teach Finnish to newly arrived foreigners. Here are my thoughts:

If I were teaching a group of newly arrived foreigners, I would first of all get to know their backgrounds. Where are they from, what are their religions, and which languages they can speak. I would also meet each one of them face to face before the course starts. I could find out their personal goals and needs for the course as well as their level of Finnish (maybe some of them know already some basics). After gathering all that information I would plan my lessons to meet their needs. I would also take into consideration their different cultural backgrounds.

By now I would have found out that there is one student who cannot speak any other languages than Arabic. I am not a Finnish teacher, so it is hard to tell what are the best ways to teach a foreign language. I would probably use some cards to teach basic words. Then I would teach phrases like “thank you” and “you welcome” using role-playing. I think the best way to learn different foods would be a task where students write a shopping list in pairs and go shopping together. So I would probably use quite practical approaches.

I think it would be also crucial to teach some basics about Finnish culture. So we could for example have different theme days or visit different places once their language skills were good enough. I would do my best to find a way to communicate with each of them. Sometimes it may require using pictures or speaking simple Finnish, or even using an interpreter.

Going Abroad - Is It Enough?

Schools are pushed by Finnish national board of education to take part in international activities; teachers and students participate exchange programmes that take them to visit other schools or workplaces abroad, or to host visitors from abroad. If one is interested in taking an opportunity to participate in such an activity, a good place to start looking for one is CIMO (and obviously your school's International Affairs Coordinator).

Why do we need such activities?

Finland is becoming more and more international; we cannot avoid globalisation. Our economy need future workers, who have skills and willingness to work globally. We need global understanding how to develop sustainable world.

One can still argue, if taking part in international activities is enough. I do not think so; it is only a start! The national curricula have got internationalism as one of the core subjects. Yet I doubt if all the teachers are really viewing their topics from international point of view.

I found an interesting post about teaching globalisation to business students. According to Pankaj Ghemawat,sending students on short exchange programmes do not really make a difference. He states, that we need to challenge our students to think the opportunities and limitations that globalisation causes to the businesses. Only then they learn to think globally. Here is also a link to an interesting course material, which may help you to think how to teach business studies in global context.

What do individual teachers and students get from becoming international?

Teachers:

• will be better prepared to meet challenges of a multicultural classroom
• will be able to create a supportive learning environment for multicultural student group

Students and teachers:

• will learn about foreign cultures: the people, their history and habits, what could we learn from them?
• will learn how to deal with people from different cultures in the future
• will learn new language skills
• will learn about their own culture: what works, what doesn't
• will learn about themselves: working or studying in a foreign country teaches you a lot about yourself. After going through the cultural shocks, you feel like a winner. I did it! I survived! This will grow your self-esteem. You can read about my personal experiences here. 
• will network globally.
• and finally, all this will look good on one's cv.

Teaching the Right Attitude

What is Intrapreneurship and Entrepreneurship?

Entrepreneurship: someone who is an entrepreneur. A person who starts a business and bears full risk of his failure but also benefits from the success.

Intrapreneurship: someone who has got an entrepreneurial attitude. A person, who works for someone else but with the right attitude that adds value to his employer. Someone who can take risks and be creative and who aims to turn ideas into profitable finished products or services.

I would personally talk about just entrepreneurial attitude and forgot this division into entrepreneurship and intrapreneurship. In today's world both, employers and employees, need the right attitude to be successful in his business or career. Some of us just need to be willing to take also all the financial risks.

Can it be taught?

It is easy to teach how to set up a business, and also all the business subjects such as financing, marketing, operations management etc. It is harder though to teach the right attitude. But it can be taught and should be taught by every teacher regardless the subject or level.

Only by teaching the attitude, we can create more successful businesses. It is important for an entrepreneur to know how a business operates, but without the right mindset he most likely ends up becoming a manager and not an entrepreneur. In my opinion, entrepreneurship education should firstly support the right attitude, and secondly teach business subjects.

I have already covered some ideas how to support the right attitude among the students. You can read more from my previous posts.

According to David A. Kirby (2006), we should focus on developing the following skills, attributes and behavior of successful entrepreneur when educating for (not about) entrepreneurship:

• communication skills, especially persuasion 
• creativity skills 
• critical thinking and assessment skills 
• leadership skills 
• negotiation skills 
• problem-solving skills 
• social networking skills 
• time management skills 

My teacher practice took place in the UK. Entrepreneurship is not one of their core subjects in the secondary education. Even though I was teaching business subjects, I was not expected to teach entrepreneurial attitude or behavior. Still, I could have promoted those skills and attributes by choosing my teaching methods differently.

One group was for example working on a business plan for an existing business. I think creating a business plan is a great way to teach about setting up a business, but it could also be used for supporting creativity. If I had been the one planning the course, I would have asked them to come up with their own business ideas. That would have supported creativity. Now they were just repeating pretty much what the owner of the existing company had told them. Yet, I was challenging some of the students, and asking them to think critically how their decisions affect the business.

If I had have more lessons with the same students I could have carried out a coursework, where the students had been asked to:

• take roles (who is the leader, who makes sure the task is done by the due date..) 
• manage the time 
• solve a problem and think critically 
• be creative and take risks 
• communicate as a group 
• assess the process and the final products

I used role playing in one of my lessons during my practice. I could have used also for example debating and networking tasks.

What kind of effect would the development of Intrapreneurial skills have on me as a teacher? Person?

I think I have the right attitude. I am willing to take risks and be creative in my work. I am also motivated. As a teacher this may actually cause me some problems: I find the school world being a bit too slow and bureaucratic sometimes. Anyway, I will keep my motivation up. Only then I can show example to the students.

References

Kirby, David A. (2006) "Entrepreneurship education: can business schools meet the challenge?" International Entrepreneurship Education. Issues and Newness. Retrieved March 14, 2013 from http://www.google.fi/books?hl=en&lr=&id=8FCUJQYaufYC&oi=fnd&pg=PA35&dq=teaching+entrepreneurship+to+business+students&ots=pewqUFl3CI&sig=Vo3TQZc6XT7W1r5Ds8Moiod-mKM&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=teaching%20entrepreneurship%20to%20business%20students&f=false

Back Home!

I am back from the UK. You can read about my experiences from these two diaries.

1. Observation and teaching (in English)

2. Travel diary (in Finnish)

Less Than 3 Weeks to Go!

Only 3 weeks left before my teaching training starts! I started a travel diary yesterday.

It's in Finnish this time, hope you enjoy!

I will write a short summary of my exchange on this blog as well.

Classroom Day 3 and Getting Ready for the Training

We had the third classroom day yesterday. It was so great to see the other students f2f and not just online! We started to plan our next course. I think it is going to be an interesting one!

We were asked to write a poem about yesterday. Here is mine.

Fellow students

Inspiring, Creative, Challenging

Laughing, Talking,  Learning

Friends

Yesterday I learned a new presentation method: Pecha Kucha. It was pretty fun yet challenging. I did not have time to practice mine, and I was a bit lost every now and then with my pictures. That made me "to hide" behind the teacher's desk with my notes. Well, I took the risk and learned from it! 

I did get some slightly odd feedback about my presentation though. My pronunciation was described "so funny" and it was seen as a disadvantage. I think it would have been better to say something like "pay attention when pronouncing certain words", but now I feel as if my way to talk is really horrible. Would be interesting to know how to start improving my pronunciation then.. After all, we are non-native speakers, and I strongly feel that being able to communicate is much more important than pronouncing each word correctly... 

Hopefully my poor students can still listen to me. I have a funny feeling it is mainly the other Finns who are so keen in judging someone else's language skills. And then we wonder why Finns are shy to speak foreign languages... Anyhow, I learned from this experience never ever to comment about my student's pronunciation since I will not be teaching English but in English. I did get some good constructive feedback too: I shall remember to pay more attention to the non-verbal cues in the future!

Last night I also booked the flight tickets to the UK. I am so looking forward to my teaching training, yet a bit nervous.

Teaching Practice

My next challenge is the teaching practice that takes place end of Febryary / beginning of March in the UK. If you are interested in reading more about my experience, please go to the page "Training abroad". I will not be mentioning the name of the school here,  but I can tell you that it is a state school in Essex offering for example A-levels and Applied A-levels in Business. In the Training abroad page I will be writing a diary during my training. 

So my next step is to finish my core plan, and make an online questionnaire for the students in order to learn to know them a bit better before my training starts. I shall also learn more about the Britain's school system: GCSE, GCE, A-levels, Applied A-levels, exam boards... They are all new to me..

I had lack of motivation towards these studies in the beginning of this year. It feels as if nothing was going smoothly from my home institution's side. There is too much hassle due to lack of information, and it has an effect on not just motivation but also graduation. I for example will not graduate this year. It is a shame, but on the other hand making that decision took pressure off from completing everything this year. 

Our study group is great though, and they helped me to get the spirit back! A good tip for all study groups: set up a closed FB group where you can communicate with each others! It is not just good for keeping up the motivation, but also for sharing information when the situation is unclear.

But I got my motivation back when I started writing my core plan. I am looking forward to my training. Luckily I have got a very good supervisor in the receiving school!