RITAHARJU EXPERIENCES FROM SAN FULGENCIO SCHOOL, ALBACETE
Sunday 29th Oct:
Our journey to Oulu starts at Madrid airport at 8 in the morning. After a long day we arrive in Oulu at 10 in the evening. At last we are in Finland!
Monday 30th Oct:
Our first day at the amazing Ritaharju school. Open spaces, furniture, lightning,... everything has been studied and designed conscientiously.
We meet Marika Kerola,the coordinator of this project, in a welcome coffee. She gives us the timetable and introduce the teachers whose lessons we are going to attend to. I meet Tanja, the English and Swedish teacher I'm going to be with. We will start at 9 and finishes at 14:15. Lunch will be at 11:30, what a change!
Tuesday 31st Oct:
We visit Oulu university Teacher Training School hosted by Markuu Lang.
We have a meeting and we are showed different innovative projects in Europe( AMIGO, ITEC).
Markuu tells us that in Finland they are interested in creating new learning spaces ( as those in Ritaharju). There is a study that shows a 16% motivation increase in students, using these new learning spaces and feeling more comfortable. We also talk about the Future Classroom Lab and the Finnish Educational System.
We have a tour to visit the Teacher Training Primary School.
Wednesday 1st Nov:
Again at Ritaharju School. We want to know more things about it. Marika lets us attending to the groups we want to. She gives us the rest of teachers timetables, so we can see different levels. 1st and 2nd graders groups are in a building opposite the main one. 5th and 6th graders in the yellow building opposite the main one too. In the 4th building 2 km away from the main one, we will find from 1st graders to 6th graders, but no the oldest ones ( 7th-9th), they are in the main building,together with 3rd and 4th graders.
Thursday 2nd Nov:
Today we have a meeting at the 1st and 2nd graders building, with Sirpa, the specialist teacher who is in charge of supporting the learning of reading and writing. Later we have a school tour with Pasi, one of the English and Swedish teachers.
Friday 3rd Nov:
We prepare some spanish typical food for teachers in the staff room. Before this, we play bingo with teachers as they always do on fridays.
Saturday 4th- Sunday 5th Nov:
We spend the weekend at Santa Claus Village in Rovaniemi. A beautiful trip!
Monday 6th Nov:
We spend part of the morning visiting the kindergarten spaces, the library,...
I come back to visit 1st graders again and participate in the religion lesson with the main teacher, Riina, as they are talking about different Christmas traditions. I talk about Spanish ones.
Tuesday 7th Nov:
I spend this morning attending to different lessons with Pasi and Tanja and visiting different classrooms as the science laboratory, the handycrafts classroom,...
Wednesday 8th Nov:
This morning is the one in which we have a school tour at Pohjois- Ritaharjun school ( 2 km away from the main building), hosted by Tuomas. These students are the same age as ours, from 1st grade to 6th grade. We have a meeting here with the principal at Ritaharju, Pertty. A great experience!
Thursday 9th Nov:
We continue attending to different lessons. I continue observing English lessons above all.
Friday 10th Nov:
This is the last day at Ritaharju. Marika, together with Satu ( home economics teacher) and the 7th graders students prepare a special farewell coffee for us. They lay the table beautifully. We help to cook typical finnish sweets.
We feel very happy, thank you for everything!
The spanish teachers say see you soon to the finnish ones at Ritaharju. It has been a pleasure to be here!
Saturday 11th Nov:
This is our last day in Oulu. We spend the time visiting the city and having very good times as we have done during these two weeks in the afternoons.
Sunday 12th Nov:
Our journey to come back home.
I have learnt a lot and will never forget this experience.
KIITOS, RITAHARJU!!