Things that we learned at Myllymäki Primary School

     On October 31st, The Believers and the other teachers from Gira Mundo Finlândia 20017 visited "Myllymäki Primary School". At this lovely school there are twelve teachers, ten classrooms and two hundred students from 1st to 6th grade. It is 150 years old!!! During our visiting, we were guided for three 11-12 years old pupils and we got very pleased with them.

     Our "students/guides" presented their school in English and we took some notes about each information given:

•  The classes start at 9.00 and finish at 13.00, 14.50... depends on the day or the grade!
•  English lessons start at the 3rd grade, two classes per week,  and at the 6th grade, the pupils have got three English class per week!
•  At the 4th grade, the pupils can start learning German as extra classes, two hous per week!
• Swedish class is mandatory at 6th grade.
• The pupils also have wood work and metal work classses.
• During the Music classes, the students can learn how to play drum, piano, guitar, bass, and so on!
• Once a year, the students have "The Talent Show" . They perform their talents in groups our individually to the other students.
•  After two classes, there is a 15 minutes break- then the pupils can enjoy themselves playing in the yard or just relaxing.
• They have 50 minutes for lunch.

     While we were visiting the first graders, we could watch a little bit of their reading class. They were recongnizing the letter "T". The teacher invited one pupil to be by the smart board. Then, the girl chose a word to be read out loud to another student chosen by her. Their Finnish book were on the desk while the oral practise was realized! They also sang a song with the sound of the letter T.

     We also watched the English class at the 4th grade. They learned "Days of the week", "Telling the time" and the questions related to the theme "What day is it today" and "What time is it?". During the visiting, we could see that the English teacher didn't speak so much, for less than 20 minutes she explained the subject, showed some examples and put the students to practice until the end of the class, reducing the Teacher Talking Time (TTT) and emphasizing the Student Talking Time (STT). Read more about TTT and STT!
   

Myllymäki Primary School

A little of Brazil on the wall.

          Myllymäki has got a special anti-bullying program called "Verso". The first step of the project is to make the older pupils to guide and to help the younger ones to make the school more peaceful. This is a volunteer project and it has worked because it is very effective. The "theme" of the school is: "Schools on the move and the students are more active"!
       This is a very cozy place!
     
       Later, at Hamk, Mr. Brian asked us to discuss, in groups, which aspects we consider impressioning in our visiting and share them with the big group. So, here are some of our impressions:

• The girls who guided our tour were very well prepared;
• The school is open: there is no one to observe if the students are going out of the school, and there is no worry of someone strange enter the school;
• There are different methodologies: each class has a different way of working;
• The "school grannies" / volunteers: retired people that help in the school;
• VERSO: is a kind of program to deal with some small problems between the students in which older students mediate the conflicts, counselling younger ones, doing a kind of agreement not to repeat the same behavior anymore;
• In the Craft class we found boys making some reflectors and the teachers mentioned that they also can sew, they can knit, as well, and we became amazed of this fact, because we have a quite different reality in Brazil: boys refuse to do these types of handmade, as they aren't "boys staff".
• The School looked like a grandma's house. Students take off their shoes to enter the classes and they move from here to there in socks.

    

   "The school of experience is the most educacional." (Moliere)

       It was very beautiful and impressioning to see, in loco, what we have already heard about Finnish education, even emotional, to experience what is, in fact, the school of experience. The "Learn by doing" process.