Hallo!

Liebe Grüße aus meine Arbeitszimmer!
Lennot kesäkuulle on jo hankittu. Aion viettää myös yhden päivän Berliinissä palatessa. Hotelli sinne on myös varattu. Matkat lennoille ovat vielä varaamatta, mutta onhan tässä vielä melkein neljä kuukautta aikaa.
Saksalaisia kontakteja solmittiin lisää viime viikolla Kroatiassa, jossa neljä saksalaista participanttia tulivat tutuiksi Contest-projektin kokouksessa.
Maaliskuussa Horizont-projektin kautta saamme vieraita kohdekoulustani Bitterfeldistä. Frauke Winklerin
kanssa olemmekin olleet melko tiiviissä yhteydessä ja vaihtaneet omenatorttureseptejä ja -kuvia.
Omat tavoitteeni vierailulle:
-loppukoejärjestelyt ja kokeen merkitys saksalaisessa koulujärjestelmässä
-inkluusio opetuksessa ja mahdolliset eroavuudet loppukoejärjestelyissä
-kesäkuun opinto-ohjelma (tiedän entuudestaan, että melko runsaasti käytetään aikaa koulun ulkopuoliseen opiskeluun; retkiin ja työpajoihin)
-koulun johdon tehtävät loppuvuodesta sekä seuraavan lukuvuoden suunnittelu
-koulun johtamisen erityiskysymykset Saksassa vs. Suomessa

Kysymyspatteristo on jo osittain mietittynä. Laitan asioita etukäteen valmisteltavaksi myöskin. Toivottavasti en kuormita vastaanottajia liikaa koeruuhkan keskellä.

Englannin/saksankielinen tiivistelmä tulossa jokaisen blogimerkinnän perään.

25.5.2016

Almost everything has been done. Travel and accommodations are but: trainconnection from Berlin to Bitterfeld. Finland is not supported country of origin in Deutsche Bahn website when you try to buy a ticket;-)
I met a nice surprise when my colleague Katja told me that there was some problem with her Italian partner and she is joining the company at June. She is going to meet science teachers maybe. We have the same flight from Helsinki to Berlin 9.6. in the morning but she is leaving Germany day before me. One interesting thing during our stay is that football EM starts at 10.6. I suppose that it can be seen in that country where they really have footballculture...
Noch ein fussballspiel!

Allemagne wartet! Frauke und Swen hat mir nette gehilft. Alles ist in ordnung aber: ich könnte kein bahnkarte kaufen im db.de.

Thursday 9.6.2016

We flew from Helsinki to Berlin with Katja. Flight was ok. From Berlin we travelled to Bitterfeld by train. Sven came to bring us to hotel. It was nice to meet him, because we had met over a year ago and after that chanced many messsages.

Our hotel was quite near to the school and Sven showed us a route to school.

In the evening we visited Leipzig and made a sightseeing-tour by bus. City was really interesting and the memorial of battle in 1813 was amazing! Also the old city center was fascinating.

Afterwards we had a barbecue with Sven and his lovely wife and son. Also Jakob ”the fisherman” was there.

We discussed about teachers work, salary, holiday etc. during the evening.

Donnerstag 9.6.

Flug Helsinki-Berlin war ok. Es war ganz windig aber wit hätte keine problem. Von Berlin fährte wir mit dem zug nach Bitterfeld. In Berlin hätte wir ein stunde und halb zeit so besuchte wir Potsdamer Platz und Brandenburger Tor.
Wenn wir Bitterfeld erreichte war Sven dabei. Er wunchte uns hertzlich wilkommen. Wir habt unsere hotelzimmer und Sven schaut uns weg nach Schule. Am abend hätte wir rundfahrt in Leipzig und Barbecue mit Sven´s Familie und Jakob "das Fishermann". Es war ein ausgezeichnet start für jobshadowing visit!

Friday 10^th June

We slept well in our Hotel (Central Hotel Bitterfeld). I made a little walk and jogging in the morning (as usual). Market place was arranged for the day when i passed it.

We went to school at 9.30. At the school we met Dr Appenrodt, who is the principle of Walter Rathenau Europagymnasium. Also Sven Ebel joined us for a while. We had a short planning meeting with Dr Appenrodt and Mrs Trümper for our week here in Bitterfeld.

Today we were allowed to take part of ”Abiturprüfung” where they had spoken exams. We joined tests of biology, art and economics. Students and teachers were well dressed and it seems that students were motivated and under a little stress... But feeling was better when they were told that examination was passed and succesfull. I think that students got good examination of being in front of audience and to have presentations.

In ”jury” there were 4-5 teachers. After presentation and questions they had conversation where they desided the evaluation. Third exam was about art and fourth again about economy. In the art exam student had a presentation about her own opic and after that four pictures was shown to her and she made an explanation about these. I didn´t understand german language enough but i thought that she managed quite good. Next exam about economy was really difficult to me. I think it was about money, marketing, bank system or, eh economy... In fact something was about flexibility in the market.

I think first everybody was excited mainly students. In economy exams teacher made many questions more and students answered fine. Afterwards everybody smiled and were happy. Students got congratulations. I think that is a great tradition but it depends much time and preparation.

In the afternoon Frauke friendly picked us for a trip to Dessau. Target is selected because there is Bauhaus museum. During the trip Frauke told us interesting things about old factories in Bitterfeld. In Dessau we visited really interesting buildings as Martin Gropius Bau. I think my colleague Jarmo could have been interested of that. After museum Frauke rought us to bank of river Elbe. There was a nice cafe and we had a cup of coffee there. We saw different birds and the saddest thing was that we saw when kingfisher flew towards a window. Thanks a lot Frauke that we were able to see Dessau.

Sat. 11.6.2016

Today we visited Dresden. Kerstin and her husband picked us at 9 o´cloch from the hotel. Dresden was really amazing city. Now i know who was the king Augustus. He was the most important emperor of the town in history. We had a city tour by bus and after that a guided tour in historical centre of town. Thank you very much Kerstin and Friedhelm!

Su 12.6.2016

Ensin pitää vuodattaa ihan suomeksi asiaani. Päivän suunnitelma oli ihan vaan viettää päivä ilman erityisempää ohjelmaa ja pyöräillä järven ympäri. Järvi Biitterfeldissä on itse asiassa vedellä täytetty/täyttynyt ruskohiililouhos. Mutta se siitä. Vuokrasimme Katjan kanssa pyörät hotelllilta, jonne ne oli toimittanut rouva järven rannalta. En muista päivävuokraa, mutta harvoin olen tällaisesta kärsimyksestä maksanut. Pyörässä taisi olla viisi vaihdetta, jotka toimivat suuremmalle (alaspäin) vaihtaessa mutta eivät pienemmälle. Vaijerin pikasäätö ei paljoa auttanut. Jarruja oli sekä käsin hoidettavaksi, että myös jalkajarru joka on vihonviimeinen juttu. Kaiken kruunasi täysin pysty ajoasento, "mukavan leveä ja pehmeä" (minulla oli pyöräilyshortsit mukana) sekä väärässä asennossa oleva ja sivusuunnassa heiluva satula. Katja kuunteli minun sadatteluani ensimmäisen puolen tunnin ajan. Hän oli jo hermostua valitukseeni, kunnes annoin hänen kokeilla pyörääni. Hän oli tyrmistynyt ja sanoi että pyörä on järkyttävä. Tästä rauhoituin sen verran, että jaksoin valittamatta loppumatkan. Reitti oli periaatteessa hyvin merkitty mutta meillä oli sen verran hyvä vauhti että harvoin viitsimme perusteellisemmin merkkejä tutkia. Melko hyvin selvisimme. Yksi harhautuminen matkalle tuli, mutta ei siitä sen enempää. Kävimme pikkukylässä kahvilla matkan varrella. Poikkesimme myös kymmeniä metrejä korkeaan torniin lähellä Bittereldiä. Järvellä liikkui pari veneilijää sekä kalastajia. Retken päätteeksi söimme lounaan satamaravintolassa, mutta emme vielä tienneet, että kävisimme siellä uudelleenkin.

Sun 12th June

On Sunday we had a biketour round the lake Goitzshe in Bitterfeld. Actually the lake is an open coalmine which was fulled totally by water in flow 2002.
I have no picture about the biketour but i have to say that it was an exciting tour with some little difficulties but ends well!

Mon 13th June

We went to school at 9.30. First we had a little meeting with Frau Trümper and colleagues. I joined Frau Schurak to visit places where the 9^th graders are practising working life skills. We visited four companies. One was a laboratory, where is possibility to exam chemical skills. Also schoolclasses can be brought here to practise. Another two places were chemistry enterprices where were produced for example things for printing. The last place had different measurement technologies for environmental cases. They offered services for other companies. Teacher asked students several questions about job they had done and is everything went well. Students seems to be satisfied to their experience. Meanwhile Katja visited Qcell where they have solarpanelproduction.

In the afternoon we planned our next day. Later in the afternoon we visited Wittenberg where they had Lutherfestival during the weekend. In town we had nice cup of coffee and ”kuchen”. Surprisingly we heard Finnish language in town. A group of youngsters from Oulu had their confirmation camp in Berlin and today they were visiting Wittenberg. And in Wittenberg railway station a helpful pair from Finland helped us in ticketautomat. So little is this world! Martti Luther bring us together...

From Wittenberg we travelled to Leipzig. We had beautiful sights from the memorial tower of ”Völkerschlachtdenkmal”, wich is a impressive place. We had dinner where we discussed about the studyvisit so far.

Tue 14^th June

In the morning we started with a cup of coffee in the office of Mrs Trümpel. Katja went to follow some lessons and i have a conversation with Frau Trümpel and Frau Fuchs about the school administration. I got information about subjects that can be chosen, computer programs that are used to planning, organisation of school administration. Mrs Fuchs gave me an interesting example of how the timeschedule is made. With a great help was student from class 11; Michelle, who had spent a year in Järvenpään lukio. She helped us when she translated difficult words and things from german language to english. Of course she regogniced some words in finnish also.

After that i went to Mr Ebels lesson. We were there both, Katja and me. I showed some information about Finnish education system and some facts about everyday school life in Finland. I also showed a short video, what we made last spring with my students in Contest project. After lunchbreak Mr Ebel showed information about German schoolsystem. Then pupils discussed in groups about the differences. Then they had a short presentation, what they want to change in German system and what is good in our and their system. Some of them thought that a common curriculum in the whole country would be better like in Finland it is. Also many said that free lunch at school would be nice. They made their presentations in english language and they managed well!

After Mr Ebels lessons i went for a while to 8^th graders sportlesson. I showed to pupils how tabletennis is played...(not really).

Later in the evening we had a dinner with headmaster Dr Appenrodt, Frau Schurak, Kerstin und Friedheim, Jakob Ebeling, Sven Ebel and Frauke Winkler. We got a book of region history. The dinner was in that same restaurant where we visited with Katja in our bikecycling tour round the lake.

Wed 15^th June

In the morning i took part of meeting, where studentexamination festival was planned. It was first time in a new building, that´s why many things were discussed about moving etc.

Next we had a meeting about school administration with princible Dr Appenrodt and Mr Patzer. I got really interesting information about ”schuleleitung”. It was really useful meeting for me. I got for example information about:
-how the headmasters and teachers are chosen
-what is the position of Germany "staat" and "landkreis".
-further education of principles
-size of different schools in Sachssen-Anhalt
-diffferences between Staats in Germany in common

And in the end i got an answer to my question: It is quite difficult to find new teachers and specially new headmasters to school.

After that interesting day we went for a trip to Wörlitz garden with Kerstin and Friedhelm. It is an english style garden wich was grounded in 16th century. We went to a rowing trip round the area. Thank you very much Kerstin and Friedhelm again!


Thu 16th June

In the morning we visited the school for the last time. Helka offered again a cup of coffee and we talked about our visit so far. We had an interesting conversation about the differences between schools in Germany and Finland. We both think (me and Katja) that there are more similarities than differences.

In the afternoon we travelled to Berlin and had some sightseeing tour there. I spent there two days and i have to say that the city is too big for two days even i used a bike.