The Finnish education system has gotten lot of attention over the years since they leapt to the top of the PISA rankings, and everything about their learning and teaching became a point of conversation for educators.
I have been sitting on this book for a while, and suddenly felt the urge to pick it up and see what I responded to. It’s written by an American who went to teach in Finland, outlining what wet well and what his conclusions were.
The book is full of his honest personal experiences, and split into five sections: Wellbeing, Belonging, Autonomy, Mastery and Mind-Set. It’s full of tips big and small – ones that you could implement yourself in your own classroom, and ones that rely upon much bigger thinking and processing, that you would need school structures to change for, or that would work only with a team of staff on board. Some of the key takeaways for me included:
- The need for students to take 15-minute brain breaks every hour to maintain focus – and that teachers can actually use this to strengthen their team bonds
- Text books definitely have a place – we can neither afford to ignore them nor rely on them totally. Instead we “mine them” for the good stuff.
- Movement and mindfulness have an important place in the school day
- Give students more responsibility rather than have them build up to it – show them you trust them
- Eliminate the stuff that is all style and no substance.
- Have more conversations with your students, about how and what they want to learn and about what they think they have learnt and how well.
- Look after yourself – take breaks and vacations. Don’t feel the need to be competitive with your colleagues as to who is working the hardest… instead work together to support each other as a team.
This is very readable and simply structured. Quite a good reminder of what good practice is and how to sharpen what you are doing now.
Welloflostplots 