Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

Another year has passed.

In January and February we visited Finland Village to play in the snow and


to go skiing.


March brings spring light and occasinally the kids sit down and read in peace and quiet - honestly.


April is hanami season and the whole Tokyo blossoms in pink.


In May the school year is almost over.


Summer vacation starts in June and Linnamäki amusement park is a must!


In July we enjoyed sunny days in a rented apartment in Helsinki.


In August Samuli stays one or two weeks in Finland while working at the head office .


In September we are back in Tokyo - but Disneyland is not as much fun as Linnanmäki...


October ends with Halloween!


Eating outside is still possible in November.


December always goes by preparing for Christmas and New Year holidays.



Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all our friends!

Ahdas paikka - Low ceiling

Olen kyllä tottunut siihen, että kolautan pääni ovenkarmeihin tai metron kädensijoihin, mutta tämä vessa oli hieman ahdas...

I am used to hitting my head on doorframes or handrails in subways, but the ceiling on this toilet was really low...

Samuli

Highly recommended: "The power of Finnish education"

Riikka's book has been well received in Japan. Finnish Chamber of Commerce and Finnish Tourist Board both recommend it. (To my understanding with the same text, in English and in Japanese).

The secret of the book might be that it was written
- by a Japanese journalist
- from a Japanese point of you
- based on Riikka's "insider information" from the system

Now we also know a bit more about what is in the book, as we received the table of contents in English (see below).

ROSA


The Power of Finnish Education

Contents

Introduction 3

Ch. 1 PISA rated world No.1 in scholarship 15

Why world no.1 in scholarship? 16
Highly qualified teachers promote scholarship 19
The Finnish Education System 28


Ch. 2 The development of excellent teachers 31

Why I became a teacher 32
One-year experience before entering the Department of Education 37
Nurturing highly qualified teachers at the Department of Education 43
From group education to individualised education 49


Ch. 3 Teaching children in ways that they easily understand 53

My first time as home room teacher – of 33 students! 54
Smooth Start to get to know new students 59
Student grouping and flexible scheduling 63
Why mathematics is necessary 70
Pre-graders thoroughly study Finnish 74
Arts and crafts are very popular with children 79
How to teach history 81
Openness to parents is fundamental 82
Children deciding classroom rules 84
The difference between good teachers and not-so-good teachers 87


Ch. 4 Effective on-site support system 93

My image of an ideal teacher 94
School responsibility and parental responsibility 97
Parents’ day questionnaire 102
The support team strongly supports teachers and students 106
What is Special Education? 113
Standards of child evaluation 117
How to deal with children’s problems 120
Taking care of a slow learner 124
How to deal with children who don’t speak 127
A support team result 130


Ch. 5 Teachers must be multi-talented 133

Summer holiday without homework 134
Reusing textbooks 137
Homework is children’s work 139
How to deal with children’s questions 143
The shock of 9-11 148
What we teach in Religion classes 152
Are field trips a nightmare for teachers? 154
Dog owners are good at raising children 159
Children’s problems create monster parents 164
There is no school in the world that doesn’t have bullying 168
Girls bullying is difficult to deal with 172
Nurture pride to overcome bullying 176


Ch. 6 What I felt living in Japan 181

Visiting Japanese elementary school 182
Busy, but a little lonely, Tokyo life 184
Japan – observations of a mysterious country 188
A miracle that Japanese school bestowed on my son 191
I am my children’s Finnish teacher 195
The future of Finnish education 197
A socially supported education system 201

Endword 204

Stop AIDS, but how...

I saw this add on the subway today, and wondered what it says:

"Stop AIDS - Blow dry your hair before using subway?"

Not exactly, but that's what the picture looks like...

Find out more, in Japanese

Samuli

Lounas terassilla ja päivä kaupungilla

Syksy on parasta aikaa Tokiossa. Ilma on kuulas ja kuiva. Illat ja yöt alkavat olla viileitä - marraskuu Tokiossa on hieman kuin syyskuu Suomessa.

Eilen nautimme aurinkoisesta syyspäivästä ja söimme lounaan ulkona terassilla,

kävelimme japanilaisella kauppakadulla,


tapasimme myös Joulupukin
(joka väitti tulevansa Pohjoisnavalta ja puhui vain englantia - siis valepukki!),

Aura tapasi Hello Kittyn,

löysimme paljon suomalaista tavaraa,

ja nautimme kaupunkinäkymistä illan pimennyttyä.

Valitettavasti Oskari haihtui savuna ilmaan!

The Power of Finnish Education - フィンランドの教育力

The Power of Finnish Education is the title of Riikka's new book about Finnish school system, and about her own experiences as a student and teacher. It was published today. It is written from a Japanese point of view by a Japanese journalist based on tens of hours of interviews with Riikka.

One of the chapters is called "Summer holiday without homework" which is something that surprises the Japanese. Not to mention that summer holiday in Finland is 10 weeks...

ROSA


Riikan uusi kirja julkaistiin tänään. Siinä hän tarjoaa sisäpiirin näkemyksen opettajana ja äitinä syihin miksi suomalaisen opetuksen taso on maailman huippua. Kirja on kirjoitettu suoraan japaniksi Riikan haastatteluiden pohjalta.

Yksi luvuista on nimeltään "Kesäloma ilman läksyjä", mikä jaksaa ihmetyttää japanilaisia, puhumattakaan siitä, että kesäloma on 10 viikon mittainen...

ROSA


フィンランドの教育力

ＯＥＣＤ学力調査（ＰＩＳＡ）で世界一を誇るフィンランド。彼らはなぜ学力が高いのか。その理由を、フィンランドの小学校教師で二児の母である著者が語る。「宿題なし」「落ちこぼれなし」は本当なの？　家でのしつけは？　日本の家庭でできるアイデア満載。


【著者プロフィール】
フィンランドの首都ヘルシンキの小学校教諭。１９９５～２００５年まで小学校で教壇に立つ。夫の赴任により一時的に東京に在住。一男一女の母でもある。著書に『たのしい算数　たし算ひき算』（学研）がある。

ROSA

Syksy saapui

Lisää uskomattomia mielipiteitä

Hokkaidon Opettajien Ammattiyhdistys neuvoo opettajia olemaan osallistumatta Opetuslautakunnan järjestämiin seminaareihin englannin opettamisesta.

Opetusministeriön päätöksellä ala-asteilla aloitetaan pakollinen englanninopetus vuonna 2011.

Mutta Hokkaidon opettajien ammattiliitto neuvoo opettajia olemaan valmistautumatta tähän, koska "It's not necessary to attend the seminars because the national debate on primary school English education is insufficient."

Daily Yomiuri 9.11.2008

Pikemminkin olisi erittäin suotavaa osallistua koulutuksiin, koska It would be necessary to attend the seminars because the level of primary school English education is insufficient.

Sauna world record

was made in Japan this week when

"International students from 57 countries and territories at Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University in Oita Prefecture on Wednesday took a sauna together, breaking the world record for the number of people with different nationalities in a sauna at the same time." (See link)

Amazing. They did it in a sauna that fits 15 people.

The students of Otaniemi should be able to break this record in Rantasauna.

Samuli

At a baseball game

We went to see a baseball game at Tokyo Dome this Sunday with Oskari.


It was the second game of the final series and the dome was full (and noisy).


The game was quite nice, but long and slow.


Eventually we had to leave before the game ended, and we did not see the 9th inning and the game winning homerun.



We support Seibu Lions, because their uniform looks same as the Finnish national hockey team, Finnish Lions.

Our team lost, but it was fun anyway.

Oskari and Samuli