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During our time today, we visited a Forest Kindergarten named LMS SARYNKA. This was a place where the classes and most daily activities are all outside! Walking up to the school we took a path surrounded by greenery. This was a vast contrast from the concrete parking lots that most schools in the US are…Continue Reading Forest Kindergarten and the Jewish Quarter in Prague

Today’s visit included 1) a visit to Smysluplná škola, where we sat in on lessons as well as taught a lesson of our own and 2) a lecture by Anna Donovalová on discrimination against the Roma people in the Czech Republic.  Pictured above: Smysluplná škola. Fun fact–despite resembling a mansion, this building was designed to…Continue Reading New Perspectives on Czech Primary Education (by Cass and Kayla)

To begin our day, our group attended a speech given by the Czech minister of education. This talk was incredibly enlightening, although (and this is anecdotal, but I think I speak for a majority of our group when I say this) it was not what I had expected. We have typically focused on the Czech…Continue Reading Czech Education: a Look on all Levels

After another early wake-up call and the consumption of delicious donuts in the hotel lobby, we set off to see Obchodni Akademie (gymnázium bubenec), a business and airport services specialized high school located in a charming area of Prague. We were guided through the beautiful school while observing students change between classes and prepare for…Continue Reading Studying the Heart of Europe, by Greg and Landon

On our first official day in Prague As the sun beamed in our hotel room this morning we got ready and headed down for breakfast around 8:00 A.M. We left around 8:15 A.M, and rode the tram to Sos Jarov Vocational School.  When we arrived at the school, we were greeted by one of the…Continue Reading Na Zdraví to Our First Official Day in Prague

We started the day bright and early for a long trip to the arctic circle. The first stop on the way was the Pudasjärvi log campus where we were greeted by the vice principal and got a quick overview of the campus. It is the first and the biggest log school in the country (and…Continue Reading Christmas in May? – Leah and Maddie Blog

Today we began our day bright and early by going to the University of Oulu. We toured their campus and were amazed by the lounges for students to work in, as well as a beanbag room to take a quick power nap. Then, we listened to a lecture from Iiris Kivioja about the University and…Continue Reading POV: You’re Paisley and Morgan in Oulu

Hello from Northern Finland! Today we started off by taking a bus to Rantarousti School in Tyrnävä, which is a kindergarten and primary school, grades one through six, with a special education department. After we removed our shoes, the principal showed us all around the facilities, which included many wings of differing grade levels. The…Continue Reading From Schools to Reindeer to the Beach : Day 2 in Oulu

After a night of healthy rest at the Best Western, the group ate a Finnish hotel breakfast and walked to the Oulu 10 building for our first event of the day, a lecture about how assessments are handled in the Finnish education system by presenter Maikki Manninen. The presentation focused on assessments at the national,…Continue Reading Day 1.5 in Oulu

We started our day with a midnight walk to see the northern lights. They were not as visible as we were hoping for, but we still enjoyed the walk! Maybe we will see a better Aurora in Oulu… In the morning, we attended a workshop on phenomena based learning and design pedagogy by Ilona Taimela,…Continue Reading Finland!!! (feat. Kendall and Lucy)