InTIME21

InTIME21

Tuesday 2 February 2016

Meeting in Finland

In January 2016 it was time for our next meeting organized in Pietarsaari, Finland.

The meeting was held in two “waves”: The teachers arrived on Thu 14th and left the following Monday while the second wave of students  and accompanying teachers arrived on Saturday evening leaving the following Friday. That meant that the whole group of teachers and students + all the local teachers and students (about 70) spent the greatest day outdoors in Nanoq (The arctic museum) and Merilä (the congregation camp center) also enjoying the beautiful winter landscape and outdoor activities eg. walking on the ice or in the silent forest. One aspect of sustainable development, the key issue of Pietarsaari meeting, is the cultural aspect and that was implemented in our day in the museum and in nature.



During the teachers and coordinators´ meeting they had eg. a chance to discuss the best teaching practices and ideas considering sustainable development, listen to the lectures about Finnish ECO-school in Pietarsaari and Nature school in the neighbor city, Kokkola, and of course plan the future of the whole project. As promoting good health is also an essential  part of sustainable development, the teachers were offered to try yoga and even test their limits - and sure they did: Most of the teachers were brave enough not only to sit in the hot sauna but also take a dip in the freezing ocean at Strandis.  At least the dinner in Ädelbragd in Oravainen on Sunday evening was quite an experience for our foreign teachers: the food offered in the 18th century style and the vividly told details about the fight in Oravainen as part of the Finnish war will probably stay in their minds for a long time.



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The first day of the students´ week was spent in Merilä and as they had arrived late the previous evening, the day was also spent to get to know each other a bit better.

There was a lot of laughter, joy and excitement (and snow fights) in the air as the students and teachers enjoyed this perfect though a bit chilly day outdoors. The weather was almost perfect the whole week: the temperatures varied between -15 to -30, but the cold was not a problem: there were hardly any complaints and most of the people were well informed and well equipped to face the chilly weather.



On different afternoons the students and teachers tried skating in the skating rink, skiing in the school park, took a Nordic walking –tour to music café After Eight and finally sledging in almost freezing temperatures. For most people all the activities were new and exciting, but there were also a few who had tried some of them earlier.





On Monday the actual work considering environmental issues and sustainable development got started. After discussing a very touching HOME-movie (students had watched it at home) and planning posters based on it, it was time to get to work with the main theme during the week and form the international groups. The work started by watching the videos made by each country trying to gather possible environmental problems and choosing one of them to be solved. The students were offered ideas how to think as creatively as possible and the model that they used to analyse the problem and the reasons behind it was called Fishbone analysis created by Japanese Kaoru Ishikawa. The aim was to create 2 different solutions to the problem: both realistic and the futuristic one, and when Thursday finally arrived, we were able to see unbelievably creative solutions and lively presentations, because also the form of the presentation was open.




In addition to this project lasting the whole week the students´ knowledge about the environment and the importance of nature preservation and sustainable development definitely increased when they had a chance to visit Ekorosk, an exceptional waste disposal facility in Pietarsaari. On Wednesday morning the students gave their individual, ecological promises to reduce their ecological foot print and all of them were and are to be seen by everybody else on a big blanket.




Considering the cultural aspect of sustainable development, we wanted the students to present and teach something small from their own home country: That was organized in the form of a short cultural assembly on Thursday morning. 



The grand finale to the whole week was the farewell party and Finnish evening on that evening where the students and teachers had a chance to taste typical Finnish treats, listen to and sing Finnish music, play some games and of course, meet Santa himself!




During the week and project tasks but especially in other activities (ice swimming, evening at school and hanging around together) they created long-lasting friendships and that is as important as any end product of the week – if even more important.

Teija Kauppinen
English teacher
Pietarsaaren lukio