Early Childhood Education

ECE is not a focus of mine, but I wanted to write about it so that teachers who are interested can have a look.

Here in Finland, one of the big differences is that compulsory education starts a age 7. I am not exactly sure why this is, but there are publicly funded education options for children who are younger than 7. This is called day care or pre-school, and I got to visit one of these schools this week.

Here there are two certified teachers and some assistants. First thing in the morning, children eat breakfast. Breakfast is prepared in the school and has a very un-institutional appearance. (I did not taste the food at this school, but have had many school lunches, all of which were quite good.)

Children gather for morning circle and talk about much the same things you might talk about it a kindergarten or first grade class - the weather, the activities for the day, and the calendar.

















There is lots of time to play with toys, do art projects, and even try out computer activities. The older children today had a 45 minutes lesson on counting and listening to and distinguishing between similar sounding words. The teacher explained that the children work up to sitting for 45 minutes, and that this will prepare them for first grade.

Besides the time in class, there is lots of time to play outside and get involved in self-directed activities. I noticed the children entering and exiting the different rooms and interacting with each other as they wished.

As you can see, the school is a bright, warm, inviting place.





















































Here is some of the work from the students' portfolios.

Time in school - Two 5th grade classes

Here is a rough calculation that shows the similarities and differences between the school I have been visiting (School A) and our school. The graph shows the number of hours/week students spend learning each subject:


And the number of hours/week students are in school and in class (as opposed to breaks/recess/lunch):

Financial resources and student performance

Tonight I feel a little discouraged. I just read through the information on Beaverton School District's website about the dire financial straits we are in as a district and as a state. The numbers tell the story, but beyond the numbers, I feel that the district has the capacity and will to do all they can to make cuts judiciously, with teaching and learning as its highest priority. However, as it is every year, this is a long and drawn out process that puts stress on all 6,000 educators in the district and takes the focus off of teaching and learning. I remember now why I opted to take my professional leave in the spring, to get a break from budget drama and from state testing. Each spring, I feel the frustration of teaching time lost to working out testing schedules, testing multiple times in up to four different subjects, and an overall interruption to the curriculum.

No superintendent or individual at the state department of education has the power to change our budget situation. And, in an increasingly centralized education system, we have little power to redirect our time and attention to teaching and learning from the hours spent in a computer lab completing required state tests.

In Finland, I am trying to figure out how they balance it all. Look at exhibit 1, a table of per pupil expenditures in relation to scores on the PISA. (The PISA is the "Programme for International Student Assessment," the core measurement tool used to compare student performance across industrialized countries. It is developed by the OECD for the purposes of member countries.)



It case you can't read it, the U.S. spends 43% more on each pupil than Finland does. But Finnish students scored an average of 61 points higher than American students did on the PISA math assessment.

How can I reconcile this lower price tag with what I have seen in schools so far? These are beautiful buildings, with ample classroom space, labs, workshops; a wide-array of curricular options, low(er) teacher/student ratios, and well-paid, well-respected teachers. The atmosphere in a Finnish school is not one of rushing about getting from one place to the next, constant assessment, and exhausting schedules. Teachers work hard, but they and their students are much more relaxed.

And teacher/student contact hours are half of what they are in the U.S.? How can this be?

I have my work cut out for me.

Promised snowplow videos

Hi William Walker,

Here are the snowplow videos I wanted to post:

My Fulbright colleague from Olympia

Here's an article from the Olympian talking about my colleague Sarah Applegate who will be arriving in a few weeks.

Google Alerts

This article was emailed to me because I have signed up for a Google alert for the keywords "education" and "Finland." Reading the first paragraph made me laugh.

I haven't yet studied carefully the Common Core Standards, but I did get my hands on the Finnish national curriculum this week, and will make some comparisons of my own. Perhaps that will be the secret to finding the 'educational promised land (also known as “Finland”).'

Languages related to Finnish

Yes, it is true, Finnish is not related to any other European languages except Hungarian and Estonian. Finnish has something called the "partitive" case, which I just learned today in class. Actually, I should say that I was introduced to it today in class.

Here is a helpful map indicating which languages are in the same family as Finnish:



Today I learned how to say "There are four mice." - Kuvassa on neljä hiirtä. That's enough about Finnish for today.

Hello William Walker ES -Greetings from Finland!

Hello William Walker Elementary School! I am writing to you from Tampere, Finland. Tampere is Finland's third largest city. Right now it is covered in snow. Here is a picture that I took on a walk last weekend. Everything is white (or grey).



In Tampere today, the sun will rise at 9:29 am and sets at 3:38 pm. So, how many hours of daylight will I have today? It's 7:30am now, still hours away from sunrise.

Even during the day, it is quite dark here. I haven't yet seen the sun in Finland.

Let me tell you how I got here. On January 4th, I left Portland and flew to New Jersey. An hour later I left New Jersey and flew to Munich, Germany. That flight took almost nine hours. Finally, I flew from Munich, Germany to Helsinki, Finland.




Then I took a train to Tampere, which took an hour and forty-five minutes.

Tampere is the largest inland Scaninavian city. This means that it's is the largest city in the countries of Finland, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, and Iceland that is not located on the coast. There are about 215,000 people here. That's about twice the size of Beaverton, I think.


I live in a small apartment in an apartment building in town. I can walk wherever I need to go. But I dress up in warm clothes before I go anywhere. Here are a few pictures from my walk today:





Next time I will show you the university where I am working and the really cool machines they have in town to remove snow. Let me know what else you would like to know about Finland. I will try to find out. I am learning a little each day, but still have quite a lot to learn.

Here's what the OECD says about Finland

Interesting short video from the OECD that talks about the Finnish system's strengths.

Diane Ravitch wonders if we should care about PISA...

'...Finland is at the other end of the educational spectrum. Its education system is modeled on American progressive ideas. It is student-centered. It has a broad (and non-directive) national curriculum. Its teachers are drawn from the top 10 percent of university graduates. They are highly educated and well prepared. Students never take a high-stakes test; their teachers make their own tests. The only test they take that counts is the one required to enter university.

Last week, I went to a luncheon with Pasi Sahlberg, the Finnish education expert. I asked him the question that every politician asks today: "If students don't take tests, how do you hold teachers and schools accountable?" He said that there is no word in the Finnish language for "accountability." He said, "We put well-prepared teachers in the classroom, give them maximum autonomy, and we trust them to be responsible."

I asked him if teachers are paid more for experience. He said, "Of course." And what about graduate degrees? He said, "Every teacher in Finland has a master's degree." He added: "We don't believe in competition among students, teachers, or schools. We believe in collaboration, trust, responsibility, and autonomy."...'

Read the whole article from Education Week here.

News from the international teachers

I know the Fulbrighters from India, Finland, South Africa, Singapore, Mexico and Argentina have been busy. Here is an article about a visit they made to a Maryland high school. I'm curious about what else they have been up to since arriving in August.

It's Tampere!

I just got my placement: Tampere! Here are some facts about Tampere:

1. It is the most populous inland city of any Nordic country (211,000).
2. It hosted the 2010 world ringette competition.
3. It is nicknamed the Manchester of Finland.
4. Its sister city is Syracuse, NY.
5. There is already snow on the ground there.