Guests from North

Who would have thought that Martina Mazal's visit to the Inclusive Conference in Rovaniemi September 2016 caused an huge inspiration among 5 participants from Kittilä. Four special teachers and one councelor started a project named as Follow The Happy Ones (FTHO). Later on, fifth special teacher joined the group and so there were altogether 6 professional educators from Finnish Lapland heading to Vienna a year later.

During last winter, many hours were spent in writing an application to Erasmus+, a project for European-wide cooperation between education organizations, funded by EU. Finally our project was approved and we were able to start preparing our trip to Vienna. Our project was a mobility project and our goal was to observe pedagogic methods and ideas used in Martina's school, Integrative Lehrnverkstatt, using a method called job shadowing.

We are thankful for the help we got from the school in Vienna and especially from Martina. Despite all the rush she undoubtedly had, she always had time to reply to our queries. Martina and Andreas even had time to pick us up from airport on the night we arrived. We felt warmly welcome.

We were curious when we came to the school on the first day of our stay. We knew some facts beforehand, but did not really know what to expect. We found a school which differed a lot from our own. We found teachers who seemed to cooperate very naturally, we found pupils who seemed to know what to do with only a little guidance, and we found an atmosphere which felt supportive and approving. We found a very good work peace.

What we didn't find? We didn't find fine straight lines of desks. We also didn't find teachers standing in front of the class giving lectures. We found what we came to see, we found out that it is possible to organise schoolwork in a very different way than what we are used to. Even the challenges of an inclusive school are possible or even necessary to face differently than what we are used to. The inspiration which started a year ago got more wind underneath the wings. Lots of new ideas were forming during the week we spent in Vienna. Time will show what we can bring along to our own schools.

Many things convinced us and with joy we also noticed little ideas, like empty play cards used in contacting the teacher. But especially the possibility to have a little chat with the headmaster, and to learn about the nature school together with Barbara, had a great influence on us. It was inspiring to hear that the initial idea of the nature school had been along from the early days, but only after many years had come to life. These kind of examples are important to remember: it can take time to change things but it is still important to start working to reach your vision.

Vienna showed us a beautiful face and the nice and sunny autumn weather cherished us during our stay. We were lucky to get some sun before it was time to head back home. The polar night is about to begin and we remember warmly our stay in Vienna, hoping that the collaboration now started will go on somehow some day.