SUOMI

On 4 September, 2006 I started the most exciting adventure of my life – an assistantship in Tampere College, in Finland. I went there thanks to the Socrates – Comenius 2.2b Programme. I stayed there for 8 months having a chance to get to know this wonderful country and of course to expand my knowledge in the area of teaching and learning…………

The landscapes I will never forget, the lake Näsijärvi and the place of my living in the middle of winter

Some information about Finland

Area: 338,144 km²

Population: 5.2 million people

Language: Finnish and Swedish, (many people speak Sami languages, too)

Religion: Evangelical – Lutheran and Orthodox

Finland is one of the most beautiful places in the world. The whole country consists of water and forests and this is just great. You cannot run away from the nature. It surrounds you from each side. Finland has about 188,000 lakes, thousands of kilometers of inland waters and one of the biggest archipelagos in the world. It is such a picturesque place that it is almost impossible to believe that it really exists. Finnish people really appreciate that and they live their lives peacefully, spending whole days in their cottages, on the yachts or boats. Many of them cannot imagine life without sports. They do jogging everyday, ride their bikes or do Nordic Walking. No matter what the weather is like they continue their training every day. And one more thing – SAUNA, which is undoubtedly Finnish way of life. Finns have sauna everywhere, in their houses, block of flats, in the cottages. The majority of parties or business meetings are held there. At the beginning I thought it was strange but I quickly get used to it and took it for granted. Yes, being there was an incredible experience.

Tampere, my host town.

The centre of the city, Finlayson factory

Tampere is the third largest city in Finland with the population of 200,000 inhabitants. It is located between two wonderful lakes: Näsijärvi and Pyhäjärvi. It is famous for its industrial history and many red brick buildings, Pispala area with many wooden houses and the Pyynikki Ice Age ridge. It offers many attractions such as: Särkänniemi Adventure Park, many museums (with one of

the most famous Moominvalley Museum) and observation towers. Many of the world political and cultural conferences are held there, too. Tampere organizes different kinds of festivals, among which there are: a well-known jazz festival, summer theatre festival and Polish films festival. I had a chance to participate in the last one. I was really astonished how many Finns were interested in Polish movie making and how many of them took part in it. So as you can see, Tampere is a city in which you will never get bored.

Visit in the Moominvalley Museum

The school

Three months before going for my assistantship I had been informed in what kind of school I was going to teach. The name Tampeeren ammattiopisto did not tell me too much but you can imagine my surprise when I got to know how big it was and which areas were taught and studied there.

Tampere College is one of the biggest vocational schools of this kind in Finland. It consists of five different institutes, Hervanta Institute, Kuru Institute of Forestry, Pyynikki Institute, Tampere Institute of Commerce and Tampere Institute of Health Care, located in the city of Tampere and the municipality of Kuru. The college has more than 3800 students and 500 staff members. The students study in many different sectors: Natural Resources and the Environment Sector, Technology and Transport Sector, Social Sciences, Business and Administration Sector, Natural Sciences Sector, Tourism, Catering and Domestic Services Sector, Social Services, Health and Sports Sector, Culture Sector. The school also has adult students learning in the sectors such as Business and Administration, Health and Social Services, Forestry and Natural Resources, Tourism, Catering and Home Economics, Textiles and Clothing, Machinery and Metal Technology and Wood Technology. Pretty many as for one school…. But it quickly turned out that teaching there apart from being very demanding was pleasant as well.

One of the places of my work, Hervanta Institute

The tasks

To my main tasks belonged: producing teaching material, teaching English to the Finnish students, teaching English to the immigrant students in the Institute of Health Care, teaching English to the staff of Hervanta Institute. I also taught few lessons of German language to students going abroad for their training period. Within my tasks there were also: giving lectures on my home country; I was incorporating Polish culture, history and language teaching to almost all of my lessons, (additionally there was a preparatory course for students going to Poland). I had few lessons with the special needs students and preparation course of English for the teachers going to England. Any time there was a need I helped in European Union projects. During few weeks I had an individual tutoring for one of the student. At the beginning I also assisted teachers in the lessons. To my additional tasks belonged taking care of the school guests. If there was a group of foreign students or teachers being received by my host school I was always there to help them (leading lessons, checking their level of English, helping with organisational things, etc.).

Me together with my Finnish and immigrant group students

What I gained

The assistantship enabled me to be sure about my future profession; I really want to be the teacher. I learned how to teach, at least it introduced me to the tasks and responsibilities of the future teacher. Very often there was an unexpected situation and I learned how to deal with that, how to make use of something that you were not prepared for. I also met many interesting people who were working as teachers. They alone were a great source of information for me. After the observation of Finnish educational system, the way the schools work I have some ideas about what could be improved in my country. Thanks to my supervisor I got the chance to participate in workshops on Vocational Teaching and Learning prepared by The Council of Europe which was a huge source of information for me. I met teachers from European schools and we could see and compare the differences in our educational systems. It was really fruitful. Apart from that I became more confident about my English, the way of leading lessons, maybe even more organised with the workload. I also met people from the whole world which open my eyes on many things, especially, the necessity of foreign language learning and teaching from the early stage of human development. Undoubtedly, I will use all my knowledge in the future.

Friends

The assistantship was an opportunity to get to know many interesting people from all over the world. Because of the fact that I lived in the students apartment I could meet people having different nationalities, compare our way of thinking, find some similarities and differences between our countries, try to learn basics of their languages and teach them some Polish. It was a great fun.

We could compare our national cuisines, e.g. Finnish, Polish, African, Asian, etc. Together we visited many cities and famous areas of Finland, from the south to the north. We even visited Lapland and of course Santa Claus and his village.

At the Arctic Circle with my friends. (Rovaniemi, Lapland)

I will never forget people and places I visited. It was an unforgettable experience of my life.

Kiitos!