"Is this difficult to undo?" I asked.
"Yes, very," he responded, and then we continued watching the lesson.
They both asked me how the class compared to the US, and since I don't see myself as a primary school expert, I told them I wasn't sure how to compare accurately. Each teacher is so different in the US, and I found out that was the case also in Finland. After lunch, which is provided for free by the school for every student, I went into the 3rd grade class next door, and the teaching styles were completely different. The set up of the second classroom was a few tables, couches, chairs, big bouncy balls to sit on and kids spread out across the room. The previous room had students in groups of four. In this new room, although I didn't understand what was being said, it felt like the set up of the room led the class to be working on their science lesson as a big team. The teacher was facilitating, but the students were exploring together as one large group.
I left the day with a few things that really stood out to me. They are mostly structural at this point, but I thought they were worth sharing:
1) Since the school provides lunch for all of the students, and they all eat the school lunch, there seemed to be an immediate feeling of equity. I've never thought about school lunch in that way.
2) The students were extremely independent. In addition to calling their teachers by their first names (starting in their first year in elementary school), they knew when and where they needed to be. The students walked to and from lunch on their own. The teacher was the last to leave, because she was talking to me, and the students went back to the classroom and started working on their own. I should also add that when I left school to get on the public bus to head home, a couple of the third graders from my class jumped on the bus with me. Students use public transport, bikes or scooter-sleds to get themselves to and from school at a very young age.
3) The students balance working with play and breaks. It worked out that about every 45 minutes there was 15 minutes of a break put into the schedule. At every break, students quickly put on their winter boots and coats and gloves and ran outside in the snow to play.
4) The concept of play and fun is supposed to be implemented in the classrooms with the new 2016 curriculum. The University supervisor brought this concept up to me, but it wasn't the first time I had heard this. A few other people have mentioned this is the overarching emphasis of the new nationwide curriculum being implemented next year. I am so curious what changes this means for a nation that is supposed to emphasize fun.
I left for the day and thanked the teacher, Sirkka, for allowing me into her classroom. "You make it looks so easy," I told her as I was leaving.
"Oh, really?" She asked. "That's good it looks easy, but it doesn't always feel that way."
I think all teachers can relate to that.