6:30 I think the money the school has per pupil is pretty constant all around Finland. As a result, the bigger the school, the more money they have available. As a result, they might afford to get one pool table whereas a smaller school cannot afford that. However, if the school has say 600-800 pupils and one pool table, the changes for any given pupil to get to use it is slim to none.
Great video :) biggest surprise for me about schools abroad has been that kids don't get out at all, just like in italy, russia etc kids stay inside the whole day, so for someone from here that seems extremely odd.
It is so nice that you share your story and I am glad that you have managed to get into the education sector here in Finland. I am finlandssvensk and as you probably know especially in Helsinki there is a constant shortage of workforce Swedish speaking kindergartens and schools. Also I have some Russian friends and it seems that surprisingly many Russian and Ukrainian families have decided to join the Swedish speaking community after immigrating to Finland so maybe there will be a need for a Russian teacher in schools soon? Anyway I am glad that you have managed to get a job and arrange the paperwork. Finland has a lot to improve if we want to attract foreign workforce. "Losing papers" should not be possible in this country and day.
My elementary school (I was born 1992) was usually just 9-13-14 and then just play and sports until 7th grade. We had a football and baseball field and hockey rink but no pool table like in that video.
Curriculum etc. are the same but schools and teachers have room within the given framework. Each teacher has or can have his or her own ways and of course classes can have different kinds of students. It is not highly homogenous situation, if you compare different neighborhoods, schools etc. If you talk to teachers from different municipalities or just neighborhoods, you'll learn about their specific situations and challenges.
@@AlenaTalks Yes, even minorities can have very different subgroups. The Swedish speaking Finns seem to a good example of that. There are groups with different histories and backgrounds. And then there is Åland where people see their identity clearly separate from Finns. Individuals can have complex ties or roots to all these, and still other directions, and be recognized simply as Finlandsvenskar.
Have you been following the discussions about the possibly to not allow students to use smartphones at school? It is a complex topic because students can have very different usage patterns. Dyslexic students can use them as helpful tools etc. But often they can become distracting and addictive with endless gaming and social media usage. Do you have something to share about this topic?
My experience, perhaps outdated, is that schools, and indirectly classes, get funding from the municipality to hire assistant teachers, when there are students who have been diagnosed to have some kind of learning disabilities, as an example dyslexia, or other reasons needing assistance and help. My understanding has been that getting assistants has been tight in just about all municipalities. Main problem has been the difficulty of getting budgeting for it. But also finding suitable skilled people has been difficult.
Yes, I was first hired to help a Russian girl but later on I just became an assisstant for the whole class. And in general we have plenty of other assisstants.
@@AlenaTalks I was looking for some details about Helsinki and saw this from 2019: In the city of Helsinki, approximately 632 school attendance assistants work in Finnish and Swedish and vocational education. There seems to be have been and perhaps is still continuing some struggles in giving job titles and names for educational qualifications. I am not sure what titles to use. There can be people handling about similar tasks having different job titles.
@@AlenaTalks Are you aware of how there there has been wish to use different naming for the job and do you have any views about that? I am not sure how to translate argumentation about naming in different languages, I don't work in the field and know the conventions. But at least in Finnish the previously much used word kouluavustaja seems to have been replaced with kouluohjaaja or something similar. The idea here seems to be to use terminology to help people understand that essentially it is less about assisting than other forms of personal guidance/directing/coaching/supervising...I am not sure what words to use. It seems that, for reasons that I don't fully understand, the word assistant has been thought to belittling. It am not sure that this is actually the main motivation. There might also be underlining a push for this job category and study programs for a higher profile. As an outsider in this field, I don't know but it seems likely.
@@just42tube I don't really know much about the naming. I just heard that my job is called a teaching assisstant or a consultant. In Swedish I'm a skolgångsbiträde or skolgångshandledare.
@@AlenaTalks Skolgånghandledare (koulunkäynninohjaaja in Finnish) seems to be the more current term of the two. I found this: Motsvarande yrke var fram till år 2010 skolgångsbiträden.
@@AlenaTalksNew schools or refurbished schools are individual projects. Different municipalities have difference circumstances and sometimes some things might be private donations etc. Traditionally there has also been parent organisations arranging many things to their school.
First, a clear school ranking was published by YLE in February of 2023. The worst ranked school in the entire country was Itäkeskus, for obvious reasons. Russian children seem to be able to speak their own language. They actually read books and have literary knowledge. Finally, Russian children have manners, respect and diligence.
It is very very common that people don't really understand what these ranking actually demonstrate. People are eager to find justification to their own ideas and interpret statistics to support their views. So, actually, school rankings don't usually actually rank schools. They mostly just show how students have done in national matriculation exams in highschool. That is largely effected by what kind of students have chosen the school or have been accepted to that highschool. Schools also get different results from year to year. Not all teachers nor student are the same. Situations change to some degree in all communities. Schools, or actually student populations,naturally reflect the local society and the challenges around them.
Oh, so there is a certain degree of comparison! As for what you say about Russian kids - it's not true for everyone, unfortunately. These days it's quite noticeable how the level of general knowledge has dropped :( But thankfully it's not suuuuuuuuper bad.
@@AlenaTalks There is the national matriculation exam, ylioppilastutkinto, after highschool, which gives comparable data. There are also some other tests to enable comparing different classes. But not standardize test to the same degree and purposes that I have understood to exist in for instance in USA.
As an old fart from the Swedish speaking minority I want to share that usually it is quite a privilege to be able to attend a Swedish-speaking school. In general, kids are more well-behaved and as parents often come from a variety of academic backgrounds there was never an atmosphere of putting one's dreams down. Also, learning English is much easier with Swedish as the mother tongue. I never learned grammar in any language but my English skills surpassed my teachers skills already in fourth or fifth grade. Regarding recess, we were required to go outside if the temperature wasn't colder than -10 Centigrade. About funding, don't know specific examples of schools but a friend's mother ran a kindergarten and since she was very frugal with money the city officials constantly harassed the other kindergartens to manage on similar budgets. I assume that in schools the principals can be quite instrumental in directing the funds as long as the total is within limits? That being said,we certainly did not have such lavish recess entertainment. Great video Alena, keep up the good work!
Well, to be honest, I agree that you can notice people's backround (mostly the fancier side) in the Swedish-speaking environment. Although, I don't have enough experience to compare. And yes, thankfully, Swedish is a lot like English!
Kids these days learn English very fast when playing on-line games and watching movies or series. Yes, Swedish and English are both Germanic languages which of course helps but also my Finnish speaking kids had conversations in English with our family's foreign friends already at the age of 9. And the kids in the school where our kids go to behave really well as well and there is no atmosphere of putting one's dreams down. If I think about myself when I was a kid, I never experienced that anybody would have put my dreams down. All in all, your writing was more about stereotypes and prejudices, and it sounds like you have not had much personal experience with schools of Finnish speaking kids.
@@AlenaTalks There are fairly different types of swedish speaking population in different parts of the country. What you experienced in Helsinki in some school is not representative sample of all. Helsingfors, Österbotten, Åland.... not really exactly similar populations.
As for background this is true for the schools in central Helsinki and some other parts of the metropolitan area. I am from Borgå and there things are already different. Pupils come from families with varying socio-economic backgrounds. Nevertheless the language and culture was the common denominator and the spirit was positive and education good, even if not all kids behaved well in class.
At least back in the day Finnish-speaking schools were far more left-leaning than Swedish-speaking schools. And it's not like Swedish-speaking schools would be right-leaning by any stretch of the word.
Maybe I'm being inappropriate but #multicultural #school's in #Finland (lots of #Muslim and #African pupils) are really bad in every imaginable way. One more thing, those schools that are for #Swedish speaking #Finns are exempt from/don't have #multiculturalism.
Back in the day it was different as language skills were usually better in Swedish speaking schools we were often the primary choice for foreign kids. I assume that this has probably changed due to the massive amount of the so called refugees?
6:30 I think the money the school has per pupil is pretty constant all around Finland. As a result, the bigger the school, the more money they have available. As a result, they might afford to get one pool table whereas a smaller school cannot afford that. However, if the school has say 600-800 pupils and one pool table, the changes for any given pupil to get to use it is slim to none.
This makes sense, yeah. The school I work in is more or less small and maybe that’s why the facilities are different from the one in the video.
Great video :) biggest surprise for me about schools abroad has been that kids don't get out at all, just like in italy, russia etc kids stay inside the whole day, so for someone from here that seems extremely odd.
I was also super surprised but vice versa😄
It is so nice that you share your story and I am glad that you have managed to get into the education sector here in Finland. I am finlandssvensk and as you probably know especially in Helsinki there is a constant shortage of workforce Swedish speaking kindergartens and schools. Also I have some Russian friends and it seems that surprisingly many Russian and Ukrainian families have decided to join the Swedish speaking community after immigrating to Finland so maybe there will be a need for a Russian teacher in schools soon? Anyway I am glad that you have managed to get a job and arrange the paperwork. Finland has a lot to improve if we want to attract foreign workforce. "Losing papers" should not be possible in this country and day.
Thank you! Yes, actually, there are quite a few Russians at our school too. Maybe it's because Swedish is easier to learn, who knows😅
My elementary school (I was born 1992) was usually just 9-13-14 and then just play and sports until 7th grade. We had a football and baseball field and hockey rink but no pool table like in that video.
That’s still a decent amount of facilities!
Always good to see a new video from you! I am curious, how is your Swedish progressing?
Hope you had a good midsummer!
It is progressing but slowly, because I’ve been a bit lazy😅 I understand a lot in the school context though
@@AlenaTalks Then I hope it is not words like "surpuppa!" you have learnt in school . ;) Looking forward to see you try some Swedish on video.
Hieno jakso. Kiitos sinulle.
Kiitos!
Nice that you like to live in Finland and that you like your work. It seems so at least.
Yes, can't complain much😄
Curriculum etc. are the same but schools and teachers have room within the given framework. Each teacher has or can have his or her own ways and of course classes can have different kinds of students. It is not highly homogenous situation, if you compare different neighborhoods, schools etc.
If you talk to teachers from different municipalities or just neighborhoods, you'll learn about their specific situations and challenges.
Well, of course, nothing can be totally the same everywhere.
@@AlenaTalks
Yes, even minorities can have very different subgroups. The Swedish speaking Finns seem to a good example of that. There are groups with different histories and backgrounds.
And then there is Åland where people see their identity clearly separate from Finns.
Individuals can have complex ties or roots to all these, and still other directions, and be recognized simply as Finlandsvenskar.
Have you been following the discussions about the possibly to not allow students to use smartphones at school?
It is a complex topic because students can have very different usage patterns. Dyslexic students can use them as helpful tools etc. But often they can become distracting and addictive with endless gaming and social media usage.
Do you have something to share about this topic?
My experience, perhaps outdated, is that schools, and indirectly classes, get funding from the municipality to hire assistant teachers, when there are students who have been diagnosed to have some kind of learning disabilities, as an example dyslexia, or other reasons needing assistance and help.
My understanding has been that getting assistants has been tight in just about all municipalities. Main problem has been the difficulty of getting budgeting for it. But also finding suitable skilled people has been difficult.
Yes, I was first hired to help a Russian girl but later on I just became an assisstant for the whole class. And in general we have plenty of other assisstants.
@@AlenaTalks
I was looking for some details about Helsinki and saw this from 2019:
In the city of Helsinki, approximately 632 school attendance assistants work in Finnish and Swedish and vocational education.
There seems to be have been and perhaps is still continuing some struggles in giving job titles and names for educational qualifications. I am not sure what titles to use. There can be people handling about similar tasks having different job titles.
@@AlenaTalks
Are you aware of how there there has been wish to use different naming for the job and do you have any views about that?
I am not sure how to translate argumentation about naming in different languages, I don't work in the field and know the conventions. But at least in Finnish the previously much used word kouluavustaja seems to have been replaced with kouluohjaaja or something similar. The idea here seems to be to use terminology to help people understand that essentially it is less about assisting than other forms of personal guidance/directing/coaching/supervising...I am not sure what words to use.
It seems that, for reasons that I don't fully understand, the word assistant has been thought to belittling.
It am not sure that this is actually the main motivation. There might also be underlining a push for this job category and study programs for a higher profile.
As an outsider in this field, I don't know but it seems likely.
@@just42tube I don't really know much about the naming. I just heard that my job is called a teaching assisstant or a consultant. In Swedish I'm a skolgångsbiträde or skolgångshandledare.
@@AlenaTalks Skolgånghandledare (koulunkäynninohjaaja in Finnish) seems to be the more current term of the two. I found this:
Motsvarande yrke var fram till år 2010 skolgångsbiträden.
I'm pretty sure consoles and pool tables etc are not that common in Finnish schools. They must have picked a special kind of school for that video 😄
Good to know we aren't the only ones missing out on it😅
@@AlenaTalksNew schools or refurbished schools are individual projects. Different municipalities have difference circumstances and sometimes some things might be private donations etc.
Traditionally there has also been parent organisations arranging many things to their school.
First, a clear school ranking was published by YLE in February of 2023. The worst ranked school in the entire country was Itäkeskus, for obvious reasons. Russian children seem to be able to speak their own language. They actually read books and have literary knowledge. Finally, Russian children have manners, respect and diligence.
It is very very common that people don't really understand what these ranking actually demonstrate. People are eager to find justification to their own ideas and interpret statistics to support their views.
So, actually, school rankings don't usually actually rank schools. They mostly just show how students have done in national matriculation exams in highschool. That is largely effected by what kind of students have chosen the school or have been accepted to that highschool.
Schools also get different results from year to year.
Not all teachers nor student are the same. Situations change to some degree in all communities. Schools, or actually student populations,naturally reflect the local society and the challenges around them.
Oh, so there is a certain degree of comparison!
As for what you say about Russian kids - it's not true for everyone, unfortunately. These days it's quite noticeable how the level of general knowledge has dropped :( But thankfully it's not suuuuuuuuper bad.
@@AlenaTalks
There is the national matriculation exam, ylioppilastutkinto, after highschool, which gives comparable data. There are also some other tests to enable comparing different classes. But not standardize test to the same degree and purposes that I have understood to exist in for instance in USA.
As an old fart from the Swedish speaking minority I want to share that usually it is quite a privilege to be able to attend a Swedish-speaking school. In general, kids are more well-behaved and as parents often come from a variety of academic backgrounds there was never an atmosphere of putting one's dreams down. Also, learning English is much easier with Swedish as the mother tongue. I never learned grammar in any language but my English skills surpassed my teachers skills already in fourth or fifth grade. Regarding recess, we were required to go outside if the temperature wasn't colder than -10 Centigrade. About funding, don't know specific examples of schools but a friend's mother ran a kindergarten and since she was very frugal with money the city officials constantly harassed the other kindergartens to manage on similar budgets. I assume that in schools the principals can be quite instrumental in directing the funds as long as the total is within limits? That being said,we certainly did not have such lavish recess entertainment. Great video Alena, keep up the good work!
Well, to be honest, I agree that you can notice people's backround (mostly the fancier side) in the Swedish-speaking environment. Although, I don't have enough experience to compare. And yes, thankfully, Swedish is a lot like English!
Kids these days learn English very fast when playing on-line games and watching movies or series. Yes, Swedish and English are both Germanic languages which of course helps but also my Finnish speaking kids had conversations in English with our family's foreign friends already at the age of 9. And the kids in the school where our kids go to behave really well as well and there is no atmosphere of putting one's dreams down. If I think about myself when I was a kid, I never experienced that anybody would have put my dreams down. All in all, your writing was more about stereotypes and prejudices, and it sounds like you have not had much personal experience with schools of Finnish speaking kids.
@@AlenaTalks
There are fairly different types of swedish speaking population in different parts of the country.
What you experienced in Helsinki in some school is not representative sample of all. Helsingfors, Österbotten, Åland.... not really exactly similar populations.
As for background this is true for the schools in central Helsinki and some other parts of the metropolitan area. I am from Borgå and there things are already different. Pupils come from families with varying socio-economic backgrounds. Nevertheless the language and culture was the common denominator and the spirit was positive and education good, even if not all kids behaved well in class.
It's not really different, Swedish and Finnish speaking schools are pretty much the same
At least back in the day Finnish-speaking schools were far more left-leaning than Swedish-speaking schools. And it's not like Swedish-speaking schools would be right-leaning by any stretch of the word.
That's what I thought!
Maybe I'm being inappropriate but #multicultural #school's in #Finland (lots of #Muslim and #African pupils) are really bad in every imaginable way. One more thing, those schools that are for #Swedish speaking #Finns are exempt from/don't have #multiculturalism.
Back in the day it was different as language skills were usually better in Swedish speaking schools we were often the primary choice for foreign kids. I assume that this has probably changed due to the massive amount of the so called refugees?
Why so many hashtags😂 and yeah, it's inappropriate.
@@AlenaTalks Hashtags are a good way to link. I'm politically incorrect, but have you seen what is happening in France?
Homegrown Finnish speaking kids can be brutal and cause a lot of trouble in the class room.
@@fortuna7469 In civilized human groups maybe 10% are violent and brutal but in uncivilized human groups 90% or more are violent and brutal.