Monday May 11, 2015
Hello Everyone!
So today is Monday and marks my first official day as an intern at Schildtin lukio school! I started my day off early and, after getting ready, headed off to walk to school and was there by 8 AM.
Hello Everyone!
So today is Monday and marks my first official day as an intern at Schildtin lukio school! I started my day off early and, after getting ready, headed off to walk to school and was there by 8 AM.
Immediately, I was shown to the guidance counsellor, Satu's, office. We met and started discussing my requirements for the internship. We came up with plans for my first two steps in making a video for them and then made plans so I can actually teach a lesson to the teachers and students at the school about how to use Prezi (presentation software). This, I will do on Friday and am very excited about since I was not expecting it! After making plans, I was introduced to the headmaster and then the school's community service connection who then gave me a little tour of the school. The school, I learned, is an amazing place and is actually very similar to High Tech High, despite the different schedule.
After this, I found a couple of classes to sit in on and observe. The best one I visited was an English/Finnish lesson. In this class, they were studying Shakespeare which happens to be a specialty of mine. I loove Shakespeare and read/perform it often. More specifically, the class was studying poetry and Shakespeare's sonnet "Shall I conpare thee to a summers day...". I was very excited about this since I know the sonnet very well. Therefore, the teacher asked me to recite the poem to the class (who was having some trouble reading it) and then share what it meant since Shakespeare, especially to non native English speakers, is very difficult to understand. Even for me sometimes. Then, the teachers gave us a fun partner assignment where we were to wtite our own sonnets using the same iambic pentameter of Shakespeare's poem. My partner was also a foreigner to Finland from Hong Kong. We had lots of fun writing our own, slightly mean, sonnet comparing a person to the harsh winter in Finland. We then shared our poems and class was over.
Next was lunch and one of the best (school) lunches of my life! Their canteen is a literal, full sized buffet similar to Souplantation or something! The food was ABSOLUTELY amazing and, best of all, 100% free. I am afraid now that I will never be able to go back to the old, American, and quite vulgar school lunches...
After lunch, we had some free time to hang out, which I did with some of my host sister's (Luulia) friends who were all extremely friendly and fun! I then visited a couple more classes which I found to be strikingly similar to those at High Tech High but maybe not so much similar to other American high schools.
Next was lunch and one of the best (school) lunches of my life! Their canteen is a literal, full sized buffet similar to Souplantation or something! The food was ABSOLUTELY amazing and, best of all, 100% free. I am afraid now that I will never be able to go back to the old, American, and quite vulgar school lunches...
After lunch, we had some free time to hang out, which I did with some of my host sister's (Luulia) friends who were all extremely friendly and fun! I then visited a couple more classes which I found to be strikingly similar to those at High Tech High but maybe not so much similar to other American high schools.
At around 4, it was time to go home and Luulia and I got picked up by her parents. We then visited Jyväskylä's City Center for some shopping. This was very fun and it was so interesting to see all the different shops and malls. The downtown is very, very cute and everyone is so friendly! At H&M, I found a very cute sweater (which I was in desperate need of) for only 10€ so I bought it.