Erasmus in schools - school visit in Forssa

On Thursday, the 16th of April 2015 I visited a primary school in Forssa because I was taking part in the Erasmus in schools programme. The school in Forssa is called Vieremän koulu and has about 100 pupils.

The classroom

I left to Forssa at 6.30 am and wanted to take the train from Turku to Loimaa where the teacher was supposed to pick me up by car. Unfortunately, the train was not taking off at 7.00 am because of some technical delays and therefore I had to take a bus which was organised instead of the train. In the end, I was about 40 minutes late and the teacher had to wait for me. Even though it was not my fault to be late I felt quite bad that the teacher got into a rush just because of me but I was really lucky to have such a nice teacher. On the way to the school I talked a little bit to her and found out that she once drove through my home town which is utterly small because she has some relatives living in Vorarlberg.

My school day started with some lectures for the first graders. At first, they had some Mathematics, Finnish and then Music. My main tasks were to help the children which was kind of challenging for me because of the language barrier but nevertheless I managed to say some words in Finnish and use hand signs. Getting involved in this tasks and trying to help even though you can't really talk was in my point of view extremely instructive for myself and my following career as a teacher.
After that, they performed an English and a German song with some movements. The children were quite good at it and I really liked the song and the enthusiasm the children had. Then we went to have lunch at the school canteen and together with the teacher I did the supervision at the school yard afterwards before telling them something about Switzerland where I am studying and playing a word game. 

Verbs for the game

I would like to add here that I think one of the main reasons why Finland succeeds so well in the Pisa studies is due to these breaks. During a normal school day the children would have a 15 minutes break after each lesson (45 minutes). One of the lecturers at my home university told us that an average concentration will just last for 45 minutes and that's why I think that those breaks in between each lesson are really useful. Then it was time for the first graders to go home. After this, I was teaching the 4th graders in English and helding another presentation about Switzerland for another lesson before I started my way back home to Turku.

I highly enjoyed this day at a typical Finnish school and really appreciated the opportunity to visit this school in Forssa. In addition, I liked the idea of working with smart boards in class because it seemed to be effective and easy to use.

Learning Finnish while using the smartboard

If you ever get the opportunity to take part in the Erasmus in schools programme I would highly recommend to take the chance. :)