Day 6

Today is really when it all begins - the work of the design process. The title of this summit is The Global Student Leaders Summit - Innovation and the Future of Education. Students are working in groups to identify, empathize, define, ideate, prototype, and evolve. What, you ask? The future of education, of course. Throughout the day we listened to people such as Sir Ken Robinson and Brandon Busteed from Gallup education, speak about ways to shift the paradigm for our schools, from an emphasis on student weaknesses to strengths, conformity to personalization, and college readiness to preparedness for life. Students interacted with other students, and educators worked (and danced) right along side of them. The kids are incredible - engaged, having fun, and being creative. I think this is what education should really look like everyday in our schools, not just in Davos, Switzerland!

Day 5

Early start today. VERY early start. The group of us headed out by bus to the Helsinki airport to the next leg of the trip. Talk about an efficient system - at the airport you do everything yourself - there are kiosks for self- check in much like in Philly, but the machine prints your boarding pass and your luggage tag, you then scan both at the counter, put your bag on the belt, and you're off! One thing I noticed, too, in Europe - security agents are extremely polite - they even ask you if they can check your bags!
After another smooth flight on Finnair to Zurich, we boarded buses and traveled through spectacular scenery for 2 hours to get to our destination, Davos Switzerland. I think the songs from The Sound of Music were running through everyone's as we saw breathtaking scenes of the snow-capped Alps. I was so captivated by the clear running river and gorgeous blue-green lakes (I guess it's the Biologist in me).
We arrived at our Sheraton to a scene that doesn't compare with anything I've ever seen before. There was even a golf course right across the street from our hotel! The weather was great, we spent the afternoon walking the streets of town, which is very well known for its winter skiing and hosting the annual global economic summit. In fact, that is where the conference is being held.
Finally, the conference began in the evening - some 1200 high school students who have been traveling this past week through Europe will be working in groups on a challenge to design an education system for the future. I can't wait to see the 106 projects!

Day 4

Our day started just a bit later today - good thing, too, since several took the opportunity to mingle with the Finns and other Americans at the local establishments. Remember, it's still light outside at 11:00 pm so young people are everywhere on the streets until who knows what time. Our busses took us back to the Ministry of Education where we heard about the latest research being done at the U. of Helsinki on brain based learning, especially with language and music (song). Interesting findings, most definitely adds to the argument of adding more music to the school day, both formally and informally,. How about we break out in song instead of bells for the changing of classes? 😃

The majority of the afternoon was spent on everyone's favorite travel hobby - SHOPPING! We headed down to the harbor where kiosks galore sold everything from traditional Finnish made goods to fresh salmon, and much more. An additional stop later at the Hard Rock Cafe and I was done collecting gifts from Helsinki.

In the evening we spent time debriefing in groups on our Take-always from the past few days. We gained some very interesting perspectives on how each other plans to use the information we learned this week when we head back to our schools and districts, and states. 

Day 3

Before I go into the day's events, let me tell you a little about the makeup of this group. There are about 70 of us here in Helsinki, most of us are administrators at some level - pretty many are curriculum folks like myself. There are a few principals, superintendents (ranging from those who have 250 students in a district in Wyoming to 53,0000 in Florida. Not many teachers, but those that are here were TOY (Teachers of the Year) in their states, mainly from New England. There is a gentleman who works for the Wisconsin Board of Education who is originally from Germany, and a woman who has lived in Sweden for the past 15 years who, you'll never believe this, at one time lived in Danvile, PA, as her father was the CEO of Geisinger! All are amazing people, and worth having a conversation with. I am learning so much from them!

Today we heard from the Head of Statistics for the Finnish National Board of Education, and from Dr. Mari Meri, Professor at U. Of Helsinki, who spoke of the teacher education system. After lunch we visited Rovio, creators of Angry Birds, and played with a new tool they are creating to evaluate the use of gaming as learning tools. Dinner was in a restaurant filled with farm memorabilia - old tractors, milk buckets, cow figures, etc. very interesting. the town is busy at night - walking home from one of the local establishments at 11:09 and it's still light outside!

BTW, the real info on what I have learned about the Finnish system will come at a later date,  when I have time to synthesize it. Fascinating stuff. Glad I took this opportunity to learn.

Day 2

Well, my pillow sure did feel great last night! Somehow, though, I woke up at 0321 and guess what - it was getting light already! Gotta love the northern latitudes!
After a great breakfast, we headed to the Ministry of Education in Helsinki to hear about the changes the Finnish system has undergone, and will continue to undergo as they prepare for a new national core curriculum in 2016. There's so much to say about the differences between our system and theirs, and yes, even some similarities, that it's best if I leave that up to another time.
We then went to visit a Finnish comprehensive (grades 1 through 9) IB school and heard from two panels - one made of teachers, including 2 American teachers who are teaching in Finland, and also a panel of administrators - the principal of the school, another from a neighboring High school, and a representative from the Helsinki Education system. Fascinating how well- respected the profession is here, but how difficult it is to enter.
Touring the school, we all found it interesting that students and teachers get a 15 minute break every hour or so. This is seen as a time when teachers can meet and discuss curriculum and students, and students can go outside and have play time, which is so very highly regarded here. Also,  though it depends on the grade, students may attend school from 8:00 until 1:00. If you factor in lunch and breaks, teachers maybe have a 5 hour day!
After a brief tour of the city and dinner (ate my first reindeer), we took a ferry ride to Suomenlinna Island, I fell again into bed, tired from the day's events.

Day 1

After a long day of flying we are finally here in Helsinki. We flew from Philadelphia to Brussels, then had a short layover before getting on Finnair for the flight to Finland. Security in these airports was nothing compared to what we are used to in the U.S. - what a breeze! We were met at the Helsinki  airport by two of the EF tour guides, who arranged for a cab to take us to the hotel. Weird seeing signs everywhere in a language that you can't make out a single word - what's with all the double vowels and umlauts or whatever they are? After a quick freshening up, we met the other conference goers for a cocktail reception in a room that overlooks the city. Beautiful view, but of a rather modern city - no real signs of any old architecture. We are split into groups, and our guide Daniel, who works out of the Paris office, walked us to a restaurant for dinner. Good food - salad, pork, and a dessert of some sort of light cake or crepe with berries. One of the people at our table was the superintendent in the Kissimmee area of Florida - enrollment around 53,000 students. It was interesting to hear her struggles as the first Latino female in that role in the entire state of Florida!
A quick walk back to the hotel, where, after touching base via FaceTime with my husband, I fell into bed, but not before I tightly closed the drapes, so the light (even at 11:00 at night it's still light here) didn't come in.