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| The new "Olds" at Schildt Upper Secondary School, Jyvaskyla |
Being wrapped up in the cozy cocoon of Finnish schools
(wearing socks instead of shoes, eating a daily hot lunch, and hearing the happy
buzz of children), it is easy to forget that Fulbright is more than just
teachers working on inquiry projects.
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| Schildt has merged and will be known as Gradia next year |
These last two weeks swiftly reminded me that Senator
Fulbright left the world an incredible legacy, and that almost half a million
people have participated in cross-cultural exchanges since the program’s
inception.
Fulbright Finland’s Spring Forum
The Fulbright grantees in Finland are located in a number of
cities. For the first time, students, teachers, and scholars from the U.S.
gathered for three days of learning from each other.
For those of us fortunate to attend the separate workshop
“Making Democracies Resilient to Modern Threats,” we enjoyed the added bonus of
hearing an impressive panel of speakers from the U.S. and Finland.
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| Terhi Molsa, Executive Director |
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| Panelists from Harvard, MIT and Columbia |
Speaker after speaker addressed the issues causing the rise
of misinformation, political polarity, and problematic populism. It truly made
me realize that teachers now, more than ever, have such an important duty to
increase the teaching of critical thinking and digital literacy.
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| Distinguished audience as well |
Frustration builds within me when I remember that back home,
most teachers do not have the freedom to deviate from the tested curriculum.
Testing really needs to be reduced and/or fully removed from schools. Teachers already
assess on a daily basis, and parent conferences are more authentic and
meaningful than any standardized test score.
Did you know that standardized tests were never designed to
measure teacher effectiveness? Yet some states use them to determine a
teacher’s pay and assign schools a ranking or a label. I wrote about that
experience here. We are adding gratuitous stress to both students and teachers,
and real education is missing the opportunity to grow in our unique American
way.
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| The accomplished Kerry Piggot was my partner in the presentation |
The next two days involved sharing our preliminary findings
of the work we are doing in Finland, and in short, it was just FASCINATING to
hear what others are doing. From solar energy, to quirks in physics, to
sustainability, and to education, the Fulbrighters really went deep into their
fields of expertise and did an excellent job making their presentations
comprehensible to each other.
As a bonus, all our meetings were held in some breathtaking
locations.
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| Tiffany Viggiano presenting her project |
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| Fulbrighters doing a STEM experiment |
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| Sustainability Presentation |
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| A commander from the Coast Guard also on a Fulbright! |
Upon completing my presentation, I received immediate
feedback from both my colleagues and members of the audience. I made the
acquaintance of Dr. Juha Valtonen who is aSenior Lecturer in Didactics of Physical Education at the University of Helsinki. “Your hunches
about break time improving student performance are correct! There is a lot of
research that backs this up. I would love to share some with you. Also, you
should look into the work of Texas, they are one of the first states to make a
return to recess.” This sharing of knowledge and insight is what these forums
are all about.
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| Terhi Molsa, leader of the fabulous Fulbright Finland team that brings it all together |
Workshops that start on time, are masterfully facilitated,
and whose logistics are planned to the T give this sensei deep satisfaction. What a
once in a lifetime experience to live in this wonderful country and see Finnish
excellence in action.
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| Fulbright Finland 2017-2018 |
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