Saako olla suomea, Ruotsi?

Olen pikkuhiljaa tottumassa uuteen lukujärjestykseeni, johon on vihdoin sommiteltu kaikki täyteen virkaan vaaditut minuutit. Oman luokkani tuntien lisäksi minulla on reilut sata minuuttia jaettavana muiden luokkien resursseiksi. Valitettavasti en voi enää kutsua itseäni TVT-/mediaopeksi, sillä resursseillani on nyt uusi tarkoitus: FiA eli finska som andra språk eli suomi toisena kielenä -opetus keskiasteen oppilaille (vuosikurssit 4-6). Jännittävää!

Koulumme tarjoaa opetusta päiväkodista peruskoulun yhdeksännelle luokalle asti suomeksi ja ruotsiksi, ruotsin kielen osuuden tasaisesti kasvaessa yläasteelle tultaessa. Koulun tärkein tavoite on tukea ja kehittää oppilaiden joustavaa kaksikielisyyttä sekä ruotsinsuomalaista kulttuuri-identiteettiä. Kaikki oppilaat eivät ole syntymästään kaksikielisiä ruotsin ja suomen kielen puhujia vaan erilaisia kieli- ja kulttuuritaustoja on lähes yhtä monta kuin koulussa on oppilaita. Siksi suomen kielen tason määrittely kunkin oppilaan kohdalla ei ole aivan yksiselitteistä. Heille kaikille on kuitenkin yhteistä Ruotsi asuinpaikkana ja suomalaisuus jonkinlaisena kulttuuritaustana.

Vaikka erikoistuinkin suomen kieleen ja kirjallisuuteen luokanopettajaopintojeni ohella, on pakko myöntää, että nimenomaan oppiaine finska tuntuu tällä hetkellä kaikista haastavimmalta. Se on kontekstiltaan oppiaine, josta minulla ei ole henkilökohtaisesti minkäänlaista kokemusta. Eri Suomesta tilattuja oppikirjasarjoja selailemalla kasasin kokoon lukukausisuunnitelman finskalle, jota keskiasteen viidennellä luokalla opetetaan kouluvalinnan (skolans val) täysmäärä eli 3,5 tuntia viikossa. Tämä ei tietenkään vastaa  Suomessa opetettavan suomen kieli ja kirjallisuus -oppiaineen tuntimäärää, minkä vuoksi kohtasin pienen tuskan tajutessani, että tässähän pitää tehdä suurehkoja valintoja koskien opetuksen sisältöä. Ja jotta voi tehdä valintoja, olisi hyvä tarkentaa tavoitteita: eli mihin tässä oikein pyritään suomen kielen suhteen?

Päätin tonkia Ruotsin kouluhallinnon (Skolverket) sivuja läpi ja katsoa, jos sieltä löytyisi vinkkejä ylipäätään vähemmistökielten opettamiseen. Aiemmin keväällä löytämäni finska som nationellt minoritetsspråk –suunnitelma tarjosi hyvin ympäripyöreät lähtökohdat suomen kielen opettamiseen ruotsinsuomalaisessa kontekstissa. Nyt kun katsoin sivuston uudestaan, sieltä löytyi vuoden 2018 päivitetty versio, joka sisältää selkeästi määritellyt sisällöt, tavoitteet ja arviointiperusteet sekä suomi äidinkielenä että suomi toisena kielenä -oppiaineille. Upeaa! Kiitos Skolverket tästä! Meillähän on siis raamit siihen, miten suomea pitäisi opettaa Ruotsissa ja mihin oppiaine tähtää! Mutta niin, miten se sitten sujuu käytännössä…

Toisin kuin oppiaineilla suomen kieli ja kirjallisuus, suomi toisena kielenä ja suomi toisena kotimaisena kielenä Suomen puolella täällä Ruotsissa finskan ensisijainen tavoite ei ole valmistaa oppilaita Suomen suomalaiseen ja suomenkieliseen yhteiskuntaan. Sen sijaan sisällöissä korostuu ruotsinsuomalaisen kulttuuri-identiteetin kehittyminen ja osaksi suomenkielistä yhteisöä kasvaminen. Moni oppilaistamme jatkaa opintojaan ja elämäänsä Ruotsissa, jossa heillä on hieno mahdollisuus hyödyntää kaksi- tai monikielisyyttään useissa eri työnkuvissa ja vapaa-ajan touhuissa.

Myönnän rehellisesti, että tämän suuren kontekstieron suomen ja finskan välillä sisäistin vasta nyt, kun jouduin tosissani pohtimaan, mihin suomi toisena kielenä -oppijoiden kanssa tähdätään täällä Ruotsin puolella. Suomesta vasta muuttaneena suomalaisena minulla on luonnollisesti aivan eri näkökulma suomen kieleen kuin ruotsinsuomalaisilla oppilailla, jotka eivät ole koskaan asuneet Suomessa tai joiden kotona ei puhuta suomea.

Kun tavoitteet ovat eri, täytyy tietenkin myös oppimateriaalin olla erilainen. Vaikka tunteja on vain 3,5, tuntuu kuin suunnittelisin niitä ikuisuuden etsiessäni ja räätälöidessäni sopivaa materiaalia. Äidinkielen materiaali on luonnollisesti liian haastavaa. Suomi toisena kielenä -materiaali taas on usein suunnattu Suomeen kotoutuville maahanmuuttajataustaisille, joiden äidinkieli on jokin muu kuin ruotsi ja jotka tutustuvat samalla ennestään vieraaseen kulttuuriin. Suomenruotsalaisten suomi toisena kotimaisena kielenä -kirjat ovat yhtä lailla nekin tehty Suomessa asuville ja Suomen opetussuunnitelmaa noudattaville kouluille. Eihän näissä materiaaleissa myöskään puhuta mitään meidän pääfokuksesta eli ruotsinsuomalaisesta kulttuurista.

Raamit ruotsinsuomalaisten suomen kielen opetukselle ovat olemassa, mutta niihin ei ole valettu materiaalia. Seuraavaksi tarvitsisi jonkun, joka ryhtyisi tuumasta toimeen. Sitä odotellessa keskitytään seuraavaan oppituntiin, otetaan jälleen tehtävä jostain kolmesta edellä mainitusta oppimateriaalista ja katsotaan, mikä siinä oli hankalaa tai kummallista.

Onko ruotsinsuomalaiselle olennaista tietää, mikä on Hevoshullu-lehti, Oltermanni-juusto tai Sokos-tavaratalo? Pikaisesta oikeinkirjoituksen kertaamisesta tulikin pidempi keskustelu…

 

Kulttuurikasvatusta ja esikuvia viikon iltasatuna ääneenluettuna

 

Democracy

Using a laptop and calendar for the first time after two months. Back to school.

The new school year is kicked off again and for the first time, I do it as a teacher. I was both nervous and enthusiastic about it. Do I remember to do everything I need to do? Do I even know what I’m supposed to do? Have the students grown during the summer?  How should I decorate my class? What is the beginning of the 5th grade like? The to-do list for the first planning days was endless. But when the students started the school, it felt like everything was back to normal. I got a fresh new start in the environment I already knew. But it’s rapidly changing now. As the Swedish parliamentary elections will be held on Sunday next week, I bet there will be many changes in the Swedish education politics.

Last May when I was given the newest version of the time allocation guideline for the Swedish elementary schools, it was hard to see what it actually means in practice. When I got our schedule for the new academic year, my first thought was: this may be tough. So many hours of Swedish, math, science and social studies, in addition to Finnish, which is the choice of our school (Skolans val*)… Even fewer hours for artistic and practical subjects than before. I was quite shocked when I realized that these subjects (P.E., arts, music and crafts) cover only 12 % of the 5th graders’ weekly schedule. That means 88 % of theoretical subjects! How will the students cope with the long days of studying fact if they don’t get enough time to work with their hands? Obviously, we learn by doing and integrate practical skills in theoretical subjects, too, but is that enough?

Another rather interesting option for this lack of creativeness is the subject called elevsval, ”student’s choice”, a democratic forum provided by Skolverket, the Swedish National Agency for Education. It’s actually not a subject but it has its own block in the schedule. The idea of this class is, apparently, to offer the students a chance to deepen their knowledge in some particular subject of their choice. But isn’t that something they should do in every subject so that they would find their favourite topics and interests? And shouldn’t the teacher give a chance to deepen the knowledge more often than just once a week? I’m still a little confused about elevsval because I think the purpose mentioned on Skolverket’s website is something that I try to do almost every other class after studying the basics of some skill. Furthermore, if I see that a topic is thought-provoking among the students and they would like to know more about it, it’s my pleasure – and duty as well – to give them more information and encourage them to study it deeper. As I do so, the students are given a chance to deepen their knowledge by their own choice, aren’t they? I wonder if the students, especially the younger ones, even know what knowledge to deepen at school without a teacher introducing different topics to them.

”Why is elevsval a teacher’s choice?” (Student, 10)

In essence, the problem is not the idea of elevsval. I think it has a good purpose which should be featured in every subject, in every class if possible. The problem is “the full additional hour” we now have in our schedule since the duration for elevsval was increased from 40min to 60min per week in middle school. After fixing the schedule of my class the best I could, elevsval ended up being the last class on Fridays at 2pm. That got both me and the students thinking: Is that really ”the students’ choice” to be at school until 3pm on Fridays to ”deepen their knowledge” aka studying more? After the first two weeks, it’s deepening their restlessness, that’s for sure…

I would love to give more time to the students to practice their skills in artistic and practical subjects because I believe that’s a good way to enhance self-expression, personal development and confidence. Only if I could give that extra time to deepen the knowledge when it’s actually wanted and needed – for example, by making the 30min music class a bit longer so that everybody could try playing bass or by letting them finish their drawing after the art class for 40min. But I can’t because the practical subjects are taught by subject teachers who have their own schedules and elevsval is my class.

”If we pupils could decide what to do in elevsval, we wouldn’t even have that class.” (Student, 11)

We’ve had a couple of routines in elevsval class. First, going through next week’s topics and homework. Second, watching Lasten uutiset (Finnish news for children by Helsingin Sanomat) and discuss the topics. Sometimes we play games or watch films, sometimes we talk about emotions and social skills. Nothing too heavy but still too much on Friday afternoon. The kids are already looking forward to starting their after-school activities and hobbies, where they usually have a natural chance to focus on their interests and practice life skills.

Next week’s topic will be the elections. I wonder how my students would choose in elevsval if this week the class was about deepening their knowledge in democracy and public participation… Hand voting on staying at school vs. finishing earlier?

”We want to go home earlier on Friday. That’s our choice!” (Student, 11)

 

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*Schools with specialist status in for example arts, sports, language or science, are allowed to subtract minutes from other subjects except for core subjects. The core subjects in Sweden are Swedish or Swedish as a second language, math and English. Therefore, the minutes for the particular subject or subjects are usually taken from practical subjects.

 

Read more:

The Swedish Time Allocation Guideline for Elementary Schools: https://www.skolverket.se/undervisning/grundskolan/laroplan-och-kursplaner-for-grundskolan/timplan-for-grundskolan

Elevsval: https://www.skolverket.se/skolutveckling/anordna-och-administrera-utbildning/anordna-utbildning/anordna-utbildning-pa-grundskoleniva/anordna-elevens-val

Volunteering as a teacher in Cambodia

In the teacher education in Finland, we have a joke that the three main reasons to become a teacher are June, July and August. I have to admit it feels pretty amazing to have such a long summer vacation to truly reset to zero and charge again. I felt like I wanted to try something new. Maybe even do something useful while enjoying my first long summer vacation.

I’ve had this dream to volunteer as a teacher somewhere abroad, so I booked a trip to Asia for 6 weeks and started to look for volunteering jobs on Workaway. Teaching English and IT in Asia sounded like a good choice, so I contacted a small private school called Angkor Legacy Academy in Lolei Village, Cambodia.

I arrived to Lolei late in the evening on Saturday the 30th July and stayed for 10 days. The village is located 15km from the city of Siem Reap. The school provides free English classes at 3 different levels from Monday to Friday for the children in Lolei, aged 5-12. Sovannarith, the founder of the school, also teaches Chinese in the evenings. Luckily, he gets many volunteers year around to help him with the English classes because he is also running a food programme in Lolei to help the people living in poverty. In addition, Sovannarith wants to start computer classes for the children once the school gets a better internet connection and more computers. The local primary schools don’t teach English or computer skills, which are key subjects to get a job and break out of poverty. Find out more about Lolei village and Angkor Legacy Academy (ALA) here.

Angkor Legacy Academy in Lolei Village, Cambodia.

In her blog, Melody from California describes the school, the village life and the work of volunteer teachers as I also find it a year later. You will find her post about volunteering in Lolei here. The muddy rural roads were flooding from heavy rain and drying again, leaving deep tracks on the road. On my first day, we tried to fix the road by digging and filling in the potholes together with Sovannarith, the village kids and the other volunteers to make it more even, and therefore more safe for motorbikes and bicycles. It was amazing to see how eager the kids were to help with sumi hard work even when it started to rain. They knew how to make the most out of it by bathing in the mud puddles!

Fixing a road in Lolei.

Monday was the first day as a volunteer teacher. Since we were altogether six volunteers, three per class, it was easy to split the groups and organise teaching so that everyone gets support with their learning. At the beginning, I found it challenging to get the students’ attention because we didn’t speak the same language. However, I must say I’ve never seen such motivated students to learn English than the level 3 groups (age 10-12). Already after the first day, I realised how good their comprehension was even though we were still studying the basics.

As the volunteers come and go all the time, the students aren’t used to any classroom routines, except saying good morning to the teacher. However, even in 6 days of teaching it was possible to create some small routines to calm down the class and make sure they have a peaceful learning environment. We started with raising our hand when we want to share something and respecting the others by listening what they want to say. They also really enjoyed playing games and singing songs in English. Moving on to a next exercise by clapping rhythms or playing a little game was an effective way to catch their attention. Having these little playful exercises as part of the lesson plan seemed to make a big difference as well to their learning, as these children are used to more formal school culture.

One of the three classrooms at ALA.

Learning vocabulary by drawing together.

With level 3 students I got to try a little bit of programming. As I think programming is more than just learning codes, I wanted to introduce digital thinking to these children. The goal was to understand how you can give orders to the computer by using codes. Since we only had one day for programming, we split the class so that I took two students at a time to play a coding game while the others were learning the directions and orientating in English with the other two volunteers. We played Programming with Harvester, where you practice some basic programming tools like different functions and loops. The students loved it! They got the idea very quickly and were able to follow my instructions in English. I was happy to see so many enthusiastic faces when they cracked the code! ”Good job!” *high five*

Programming with code.org at ALA.

Reflection

This week it was time to thank my students for our first semester together and celebrate my first semester as a classroom teacher! It has been an amazing journey so far and I’m very lucky to continue with the same group to the next grade in Autumn. In this, the last post of the semester, I will reflect on my adventure in Sweden so far; why it was a good decision for me to take this job and stay in Stockholm, and how I did as a teacher according to my pupils.

Since I got to assess such a talented class, I thought it would be fair if the students also gave me an assessment. Last Friday one task was to have a feedback meeting (luokkapalaveri) where the pupils would assess their work as a team and my work as their teacher. We gathered in a circle to discuss the funniest things that happened during the semester (the red square), where the students succeeded together (the blue cloud), which 5 exercises they thought were the best (the flower), what the teacher has learned during the semester (green text) and what she should still practise (pink text) and what their team goal will be for the next semester (the flag). Last but not least, they gave a general assessment of my work. I can happily announce that even the teacher passed all subjects with hög grad (check out Assessment) and gets to continue to the next grade!

The assessment form for the feedback meeting with the class.

We had the last day of school on Tuesday. In our school, the skolavslutning is more like a graduation ceremony for the ninth grade rather than Finnish kevätjuhla (“spring festival”) where all the classes perform something to the parents. After the ceremony, we had our own gathering in the classroom. I was extremely nervous the day before when I realised that I was not only expected to give a speech to the students but also to their parents! My first speech in Swedish! Everything went fine though, and the parents were happy as well. How you manage your job as a teacher has a surprising amount to do with maintaining a successful collaboration with the parents, especially when you’re a novice.

In Sweden, the teachers keep on working on so-called “in-service” days after the students are gone. Yes, I will work until midsummer unlike my colleagues in Finland who take off immediately after the traditional spring psalm Suvivirsi has been sung. I guess that makes up for those many holidays we had during the spring semester, haha! I must say that I found these first three in-service days to be pretty calming though. You have time to clean and organise the classroom and your desk. Time to reset and look back on the eventful semester.

So why was it a good decision to stay in Sweden? Firstly, signing my first employment contract as a teacher felt very important as it currently doesn’t seem that easy in Finland. There are many newly graduated teachers looking for their first job with no luck. This, dear Sweden, could be one way to fix the big lack of qualified teachers here. Some Swedish school headteachers have also realised there is a resource of well-educated teachers in Finland. They have organised recruitment events where they try to tempt graduating teacher students, who can speak Swedish, to come and work in Sweden. If you’re ready to go, you may have a chance to negotiate close to a doctor’s salary for yourself. Secondly, it seems more likely to get a permanent teacher’s position in Sweden which is a huge benefit compared to Finland where young teachers nowadays go from one temporary contract to another.

Nonetheless, I can’t emphasise enough how much of a huge challenge it is to start working in another country with different school laws and a different curriculum, where the work is at least partly in a foreign language. I wouldn’t recommend doing this as a first teaching job. There are so many practical things to learn after graduating so it’s good to do at least some longer substitute work in Finland before considering working in Sweden. Otherwise, I can highly recommend doing it! I think it’s eye-opening to see different education systems and learn from them.

The main thing that makes me want to stay in Sweden for another semester, perhaps even a full academic year, is the social integration which in my case was successful. Knowing the language at least a little bit gives you a good start. For Finns, it’s just about daring to speak aloud the Swedish which we have learned in school and forgetting about our thick accent! (You probably guess what the thing I still have to practice next semester is, haha…) Social networking, traditionally or via social media, is said to be hard in Sweden, especially in Stockholm, but once you’re active and open-minded, you’ll find hospitable locals and other like-minded foreigners.

Assessment

As my colleagues in Finland are already celebrating the last day of school, I can at least say this week was the last full week in our school. The pupils, as well as their teacher, are waiting for the summer vacation to start! For me, the last big challenge was to assess the students’ development based on the past 4 months. To be able to do it accurately, I had to study a completely different assessment system and then apply it in practice. What a project, I must say! Anyway, I made it, the kids made it and everybody is now satisfied. Now, some words about the differences between the Finnish and Swedish assessment systems and then I’m ready to pack up the books and take the kids to a couple of long-awaited field trips!

It wasn’t such a long time ago when I was (once again) studying the latest version of the Finnish national curriculum (2014) for some school assignment. Even though I have ended up working in Sweden, it was a good base. There are many similarities between the Finnish and Swedish curriculums, ironically, even so many similarities that the Finnish one has been criticised for taking bad examples from Sweden (Enkvist 2016). Anyway, what I think is different, is the culture of assessment. A simple comparison between the number of pages about assessment in general showed that in Finland assessment was really being put on the table in 2016 when the curriculum was released. In the Finnish Curriculum, there are 23 pages about “Assessment of learning” whereas in the Swedish Curriculum under the title “Assessment and certificate” there’s half a page of text. Is it about finding assessment important or keeping it simple? Best to take a look into the actual content. What’s different between the systems?

As we mainly focused on the curriculum 2014 during my studies, the importance of assessment is stuck in my head. It should be continuous, comprehensive and clear. Always think about how you justify the assessment. In Finland, the elementary schools can decide whether they use a numeric grading scale (from 4 to 10 where 4 is failed) or a verbal assessment to describe the students’ learning. Also, the grades have specific words to describe them. 7 is for “satisfactory” and 8 is for “good”. Even though many schools in Finland are now increasing the amount of verbal assessment on the certificates, this old scale is still widely used all around Finland and it’s the scale the older generations know, too.

The first big astonishment for me about assessment in the Swedish school system was that teachers don’t give grades in elementary school (this can vary in other cities). Instead, the teacher answers to an assessment argument in each subject: “The student is assessed to achieve the required knowledge in the Xth grade, provided that the development happens at the current rate”. Basically, it asks whether the student has achieved the specific learning goals the Swedish National Curriculum has defined for each subject. As you can see, the sentence became a closed yes/no question when I interpret it the way I did. However, there are three possibilities to choose from when the teacher does the assessment: i hög grad (”highly”), ja (”yes”) and osäkert(this was difficult to translate but it’s something like ”uncertainty”). How do these words describe the development of a student’s learning?

Basically, if the student has done everything that was asked and showed his/her knowledge, the assessment is ja. “Yes, the student achieves the goals”. If the student does more than was required, its i hög grad. My second astonishment was the meaning of osäkert. Can you say ”uncertain” in an assessment? If you choose this option ”uncertain if achieved the goals”, it means that more support needs to be provided for the student after the assessment. It also has to be verbally explained why the student didn’t reach the goal. Why is the word ”uncertainty” if it needs to be clarified anyway?

The third astonishment was that these options don’t match any kind of an assessment scale. What is there between yes and uncertain? Or if there’s yes, where’s no? If a student doesn’t reach the assessment criterion, shouldn’t we be clear about it? ”No” would clearly mean that we must act. We have to define the problem with relevant arguments and find new better ways to support the student’s learning. To me, ”uncertainty” (or “uncertain” or “uncertain if” etc.) means many different options between, even outside of, yes and no. Furthermore, you could also understand it as ”I don’t know how to respond to this assessment argument”, which would make the teacher sound incompetent. What I’m longing for here are the words that describe how the student’s learning is developing. Osäkert doesn’t really help me as a teacher to be specific with the assessment I give or define the best possible support.

Finally, I can understand the pros of the Swedish assessment model for elementary school. Firstly, it doesn’t categorise students as strongly as the Finnish scale has done, for instance, with girls who got 10 in most subjects (”kympin tytöt”). But what about the division between ihg/ja and osäkert? As the point has seemingly been to prevent comparison among students, I can understand why it’s now more difficult with an unclear assessment model. However, I must say comparing and categorising are natural habits for children. They’ll find a way to do it anyway. Therefore, I think it’s very important how we teach them to read and interpret the assessments – not with respect to their peers but regarding one’s own development. Secondly, the assessment should always be encouraging and it should be clear to the student what he/she can do to improve. In the Swedish model the goal is that everyone reaches ja which can be seen as an encouraging goal. Simply do what is expected and you’ll be fine. But what then? I wonder if a student without inner motivation for learning can or even would aspire for i hög grad if ja is considered to be enough. Since there is no clear scale, I wonder how the assessment encourages one to improve after ja and “climb up”. I think it’s one of the most important aims to turn a student’s outer motivation into inner motivation so that he/she would reach for higher goals, step by step.

Anyway, I guess it just takes some time to get used to a new assessment system especially because I haven’t got much of an experience in different assessment models before.

Read more:

Enkvist, I. 2016. Hur tänkte de i Finland? Stockholm: Svenska Dagbladet. Available: https://www.svd.se/hur-tanker-de-i-finland/av/inger-enkvist

Liiten, M. 2016. Ruotsalaisprofessori ihmettelee, miksi Suomen opetussuunnitelma ”matkii huonosti pärjännyttä Ruotsia” – Opetushallitus: Arvostelu ei perustu tosiasioihin. Helsinki: Helsingin Sanomat. Available: https://www.hs.fi/kotimaa/art-2000002917406.html

The Finnish National Agency for Education. 2014. National Core Curriculum for Basic Education 2014. Available: https://www.oph.fi/english/curricula_and_qualifications/basic_education

The Swedish National Agency for Education. 2011. National Curriculum for the compulsory school, pre-school class and the recreation center 2011. (updated version 2016 in Swedish). Available: https://www.skolverket.se/om-skolverket/publikationer/visa-enskild-publikation?_xurl_=http%3A%2F%2Fwww5.skolverket.se%2Fwtpub%2Fws%2Fskolbok%2Fwpubext%2Ftrycksak%2FRecord%3Fk%3D2687

Obstacles

I honestly thought I would write this post about my experiences of the immigration process in Sweden much earlier but I decided to wait until the whole process was done. It took altogether four months before I saw my first teacher’s salary on my very own Swedish bank account. There were some obstacles in the road…

Let’s start with the fact that I’ve lived in Sweden before. When I first moved here five years ago, it took me less than two weeks to register with the Swedish Tax Agency (Skatteverket), get my personal ID number and open a Swedish bank account. Thanks to the EU and the Nordic agreement (no residence permit or complicated documents needed) it was all quick and simple.

That is to say, I basically had had everything I needed to come back here again to work. But somehow it wasn’t that easy to re-register. The first step was to get the ID number (personnummer) which I applied for immediately after I was hired. I asked Skatteverket to check my previous personnummer in case it was still there in the system. No, they didn’t want to do that. They put me in the line for a new personnummer and ID card. After one week, however, I received the exact same ID number I had had before…

Since I had previously existed in the Swedish registration, I thought that maybe my old bank would also find my personal information. It’s not very clear in Sweden whether the banks are allowed to open new accounts with a personnummer only or whether one must have the plastic ID card, too. Anyway, for me, the answer was no. They couldn’t even check whether they had any information regarding my ID number. They told me they needed the number of the ID card to be able to open an account.

When you apply for the Swedish ID card, you must pay for it first. I’ve heard it has been okay to pay from a non-Swedish account which, of course, makes sense as you cannot open the account without the ID card. Anyway, in my case, Skatteverket didn’t let me pay from my Finnish Euro account (no IBAN number, only the Swedish one). Instead, they asked if I know anyone who could pay the fee for me from a Swedish account…

I waited for two months until I received a letter from Skatteverket. It wasn’t the ID card. They just wanted to inform me that they would let me know when the card is ready to be picked up… I wonder if that was necessary… However, there was the number of the card in the letter which got me excited. Maybe I could finally go back to the bank, open the account and get my salary! Well, you probably guess what they said this time. No, they needed the plastic card for opening a new account. It didn’t matter that I was their customer in Finland or that I had been their customer in Sweden before.

Don’t worry, I’m getting closer to the happy end of this story…

Basically, there wasn’t anything else to do other than wait for an SMS from Skatteverket. Since I had already moved twice during the process, I emailed them to make sure they would really send an SMS, not mail, which would take longer time. Luckily, the Swedish Krona has been exceptionally weak during the spring. I managed to get back some of the money I earlier lost in transit when using my Euro card.

Two weeks ago, the miracle finally happened. I came back home from a long relaxing weekend in Åland and found it on the floor – the letter that finally told me my Swedish ID card was ready to be picked up from Skatteverket! (By the way, I never received the SMS they had promised to send… )

The past two weeks have been full of big events. I got the Swedish ID card eventually, opened a new Swedish bank account and learned how to swicha (Swich is an app you need for your social life and coffee in Sweden). I went to Finland for the weekend to get my Master’s degree in Education and celebrate. Perhaps the best graduation present was, however, to finally receive my salary from the past four months! Let life in Sweden finally begin!

Bonus level

After two months of working as a novice teacher, I noticed that something changed in the way I work. I can easily say I handle the routine, I know what to teach and how and I know how to handle my class. Let’s call it as the basic level of teaching. Mastering the basic level you will easily survive as a substitute teacher. But surviving is not mastering. To reach the next level, you will get to the topic that all the exam books in teacher training are about – differentiation. According to my qualification certificate, I master differentiation on paper. And yet, I find myself spending hours on thinking how to support my students’ learning better. How to apply differentiation and intensified support in practice? And is it something I should think about on weekends?

As a novice teacher who hasn’t specialized in special needs education, I was feeling quite lost with different learning difficulties and behavioral disorders. In the beginning, it just felt too much to take everything into consideration. Therefore, I tried to focus on the general support and surveyed the students’ needs. At that point, it was enough. But as the school year is ending soon and the plans for the next semester need to be done, I suddenly found myself in the middle of the Swedish red-tape jungle. This led me to the classic question: Why weren’t we taught anything about this administrative side of a teacher’s job? How to read a diagnose and how to use that knowledge in teaching? At least in my opinion, it would have been a rather useful course to do before graduating,

The fact is, however, that you cannot close your eyes and pretend that disabilities or misbehavior do not exist. They will still be there when at some point you finally have to open your eyes. Furthermore, they won’t disappear if you don’t react to them somehow. So, did my homework and thought what else I could do to support my students. Not only to help them to learn better but to feel better, too. Perhaps this is the deeper level that makes the difference between the position of a permanent teacher and a supply teacher. You take the long-term responsibility for your students. And maybe even a little bit too much of it. Some might even call this as the occupational disease of a teacher.

Sure, as the classroom teacher it’s mainly my business how the students are doing. Also, my wellbeing at work depends on that. But no, it isn’t worth to worry about the bonus level alone at home on weekend. At least that is not how it should go. What I have learned now is that I cannot leave myself alone with problems that should be solved with multi-professional cooperation. The greatest respect for all special education teachers!

Action

Even though the last time we had a vacation was only a month ago, a break from school life feels once again deserved. To celebrate the last day before the Easter holidays and my comeback from a week-long sick leave, I planned Toimintatorstai (not Maundy Thursday this time but Thursday full of action) for the pupils. The idea was to forget the books for one day. Here are two of my ideas for functional education I introduced on Toimintatorstai.

Action reporting

Like in sports reports, the idea of action reporting is to tell the others what is happening in the video you are watching together. I gathered the pupils to sit in front of the screen so that they could reach each other. There is a microphone (we used a whiteboard eraser) going from pupil to pupil to show whose turn it is to report.

First, we talked about reporting, what it means and how it is like in sports news. We have been practising verbs and substantives in Finnish so I gave them two basic examples: something happens or someone does something. As a teacher, I encourage everybody to say at least one thing that happens or name one thing they see in the video. The video I used was only 7 minutes long. Therefore, we also counted how many seconds can one speak so that everyone gets a turn. This exercise is suitable for both L1 and L2 learners since every student defines his/her own level. My favourite videos for this exercise are Shaun the Sheep episodes which are short enough but full of action to report about.

Shaun the Sheep – Chase

Project Easter Grass

It is a tradition in the schools in Finland to practise planting every Easter with rairuoho, ryegrass. I didn’t know how difficult it would be to find ryegrass in Sweden but since I had already decided I wanted to do this project, I ended up asking a friend to bring some ryegrass seeds all the way from Finland. We planted them already two weeks ago so that they had a good time to grow before Easter. This project combines Finnish (or any other language), Arts, Biology and little bit of Maths as well. It is suitable for all grades.

1. Comics. We started by drawing comics with four square-shaped panels. I had drawn and copied the grids of the right size for them. The topic of the comics was obviously Easter so first, we thought about different characters and events related to Easter. Then the pupils drew one sketch version with pencils and one final version with colourful markers.

2. Puzzle. As planting pots we used milk cartons I had collected from the school’s kitchen. I asked the pupils to measure and cut the cartons so that every side had the same length as the comic panels. We cut the panels separately and glued them in the right order on the milk cartons.

3. Plant. Planting ryegrass is very easy and there are many simple instructions – at least in Finnish – you can find online. For our grass it took one week to sprout and grow. We watered the grass every day with a spray bottle and trim it after one week.

4. Share. On Thursday before taking the Easter grass home the kids were, for once, allowed to use their cellphones in the classroom. The task was to take a photo of each comic panel (4 in total) and send them to me via Snapchat. I had, of course, created a separate teacher account for this task. Another option was to send it from home via email with the help of parents. It worked pretty well and the students liked it! At the same time we also practised (social) media skills when testing different perspectives for the photos and learning how to share pictures privately on Snapchat.

The example I made for the class.

April Fool’s Day

Since the April Fool’s Day is officially today, I tested the students’ sense of humour on Thursday with a little prank. I told them that the principal had decided to test all the 4th-grade students with a concentration test because it has been “so restless and bad behaviour lately”. I had actually printed out a test with ridiculous tasks like “go and knock the door” and “make a hole in the test paper with your pencil”. The point was only to read the first sentence that kindly asked the student to read carefully through the whole text. At the end of the test, it said: “Now that you have read the tasks, turn the paper over and raise your hand.” It was very hard to keep the poker face for those 3 minutes until the first one understood the joke. Fortunately, everyone laughed when I started to recite the Finnish April Fool’s poem.

Aprillia, aprillia, syö silliä, juo kuravettä päälle!

Anyway, now it’s time to enjoy the Easter vacation, which in Sweden means not only the holidays but the whole week off! I cannot complain. It’s a perfect time to relax, travel and reload new energy.

Happy Easter! Glad Påsk! Hyvää pääsiäistä!

Character

Start the game, check. Select the language, check. It’s time to choose the character. As a permanent teacher who has his/her own class, you are the closest adult to your pupils at the school. They will turn to you if they need help with exercises, if something happens during resets or if they have social issues. You are the one they lean on and whose advice they trust. But what is the role of a substitute teacher? Who am I from the pupils’ perspective?

When I was working as a teacher on call during my studies, I learned how things are done in different schools and I got to meet many students and teachers in a short time. However, I cannot really say I got to know the pupils I met since I only worked as a short-term sub for different teachers. As a short-term substitute teacher, the goal is different from regular teacher’s. Often you are called early in the morning to jump into the role of the absent teacher. Your purpose then is to make sure the pupils are safe and that they do their daily school work (if some instructions are given). Usually, you don’t know anything about the students’ backgrounds or even their names. If I think about the substitute teachers I had as a primary school student, I must say I cannot recall their names. Maybe I remember some funny things they did. But most often, short-term subs, they come and go and life goes on.

At the beginning of this job, I was often compared to the permanent teacher by the children: ”you have the same shirt” or ”we used this app with her too”. That is, of course, a good thing. Finding similarities between me and the permanent teacher makes the pupils feel safe. Also, I felt safe when hearing ”ihan sama ope” (literally translated ’the same teacher’) because then I knew I was doing it right.

Now I have been working at the school for one month. (By the way, I cannot believe how fast it is going!) At this point, I realise I’m not only a walk-in-walk-out substitute teacher whose purpose is to replace the regular teacher. I actually have my own pupils to take care of for a longer time and I can do it my own way. The children are realising the same as well. We are little by little getting used to the mixture of the old and new routines. Furthermore, this week I noticed we have begun to trust each other more. If they wouldn’t trust, they wouldn’t protest. This is at least what I try to believe now when the kids have started to tell me ”I don’t care, teach” (ironically, ”ihan sama, ope” in Finnish).

Finally, what is the difference between a regular teacher and longterm substitute teacher? Once we are settled into our new routines and we have begun to trust, we get more responsibilities and rights concerning each other. During the first month, I’ve gathered a better understanding of the students’ ability and skills which gives me tools to evaluate and support them academically. Concurrently, the children come to tell me about more personal matters and ask for advice. Even though I’m extremely tired after these two weeks of protests and testing, I’m happy to see the sign of ”we take you as our teacher”.

Language

After sportlov I’m feeling much more confident with everyday routines at work. It’s time to focus on the special features of this new learning environment. As I’m a new teacher in another country using two foreign languages in addition to my own native language, it will still take some time to settle into this position. The motivation for being fluent in Swedish is now higher than ever because it would definitely make the work easier for me. To understand the students’ communication and their culture is one of the most important things in teacher’s work, if not the most important one. But what is the communication like in a bilingual school? How does it work to teach in two languages?

In a bilingual school, instead of one teaching language, there are two languages with academic status, which is why the lessons are usually given in both languages, more or less at the same time. The exceptions in our school are of course the Finnish and Swedish lessons where everything is in one language. The goal of this particular type of bilingual education is so-called additive bilingualism. Basically, it means that the aim is to improve two languages simultaneously and give the students good academic skills in both the major language (Swedish) and the teaching language (Finnish). Additive bilingualism is often applied in minority language schools, such as Finnish or Sámi schools in Sweden, to support the status of the national minorities.

But how to teach in two languages simultaneously? It is still a mystery to me how it is supposed to work fluently. At first, I thought it would be something like CLIL or language immersion where the goal is also to improve two languages. However, the difference to bilingual education is that the teaching language in these cases is not the students’ native language. For example in Finland, the language immersion programs (kielikylpyluokka) in Swedish are designed for children whose parents are Finnish speaking and who speak Finnish as their first language. The same with the CLIL programs in English – the students don’t speak English at home, but they learn it at school where it’s integrated into different topics. In these programs, the teacher can (in most cases) assume that the teaching language is new to all students. In bilingual schools, however, the students’ level in the two teaching languages varies. And what I’ve learned this far is that it varies a lot. Like most of the schools in Stockholm, also ours is multilingual/multicultural, not only Finnish and Swedish. Some students might even speak three languages at home in addition to the two spoken at school. Therefore, it can be very hard to define which language is the student’s “first language” (L1) and which one should be taught as the “second language” (L2). I’m getting a bit lost here with all the different concepts so let’s go back to practice.

For those students who are fluent bilinguals (both FI and SE as L1), it’s not a problem to switch between languages during the lessons. For instance, if we read a text in Swedish, the bilinguals can continue talking about it in Finnish without translating. However, I was surprised how much we need translating after all. It seems to be very important and interesting for the pupils to compare the languages. I started to question the method where the teacher should not translate but stick to the teaching language and explain the difficult words with that. If there’s a translation that means the same, why not to switch the language and translate? The translations are especially needed in math and science since the students should learn the important concepts in both languages. Usually, we mix Finnish and Swedish material depending on the topic. For those students whose Finnish is much weaker than Swedish, we have the exact same math books translated into Swedish (Tuhattaituri/Karlavagnen). Furthermore, I sometimes give instructions in both languages to those who need it. However, as I’m not bilingual (FI/SE) myself, I’ve still got a lot to do with my Swedish to be confident enough to teach fluently in Swedish.

If we go out from the academic world and listen how the pupils talk, we’ll find a third language spoken perhaps even more than “pure” Finnish or Swedish. On my first day, the students showed me a little dictionary of the language they speak with each other. They’ve started calling this mixed language as Swefi, meaning Swedish-Finnish spoken by the Sweden Finns. Mainly it’s Swedish with Finnish grammar rules, which makes funny combinations like “vessata” (means “to sharpen a pen” but to a native Finnish speaker like me it sounds more like “need to pee”). I think learning Swefi is the key to good communication and cultural understanding with the students. So the goal is set! Let’s see how it goes!

#ArmMeWithCommunication