Dear Mutalan Koulu,
This is Marta, a Spanish girl who has been learning in your school for one month. It may sounds strange saying that I have been learning instead of teaching as I have been doing my Teaching Practise there, but the truth is that I have learnt more than taught.
I came to Joensuu last August in order to do one year of my Primary Education degree as an Erasmus student and I was looking for a school in order to do Teaching Practise since that moment. This is why when I had the possibility of doing it, I could not deny it and it was in that moment when I first heard about your school.
Mutalan Koulu was introduced to me as a “move” school in which the head master wanted me to be actively working since the first day. As soon as I arrived to the school, I realized what “move” school means. I do not know the theory of this term, but what I have been observing in practise is that the children are constantly moving all around the school in order to develop their daily activities in different places: classrooms, playground, corridors, gym hall,...
But children are not the only ones who are moving during the whole day. Teachers seem not to have any break during the lessons as they spend all the morning trying to do their best at school and being helpers of the students with everything they need. Moreover, they do not only show interest in what they are doing but also in what their colleagues are working on, so they try to collaborate and cooperate with each other. I have to admit these are the most important ideas I am taking back to Spain with me: being helper of my students and cooperate with other teachers.
I came to Finland because of its educational system. I know I cannot change the whole Spanish Educational System and, honestly, I do not want to do that, I would like just to improve it and thanks to all the things I have learnt at Mutalan Koulu I feel more than confident to be able to change little things.
All and all the only thing I can say right now to Mutalan Koulu is thank you, kiitos or even gracias. Thank you for treating me as an equal teacher, to teach me how to work as a community and to show me that language is not a barrier when we have the same aim in our minds and our hearts: children education.
I finish this letter with a Phill Collins’ sentence: “learn how to teach and teaching you will learn”.
Thank you with all of my heart Mutalan Koulu, hope to see you again.
Marta