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.