Get Your Hiking Boots Ready

Who said school has to be boring? Not me! And not my school!

We are excited about the beginning of the school year. Why? Because we are starting it off with an exciting and original school trip to Norway.

The Kingdom of Norway was chosen last spring by our students as the next destination. We will pack our backpacks, grab our sleeping bags and tents and head north. But this will not be an ordinary “sightseeing trip.” It will an expedition into the wilderness. After a day trip in Oslo we will head even further north and west to check out the most beautiful natural wonders Norway has. We will travel all the way to Bergen by train and lots and lots of walking.

So get your hiking boots ready because the fun is about to start. 

Grand Opening - 1st Day of School

The first day of school is the first day of an academic year. The timing varies between different areas around the world because of the differences in weather climate, season and culture. A common pattern in North America and Europe is for school to begin in late August or early September, while in the southern hemisphere mid January to early February is common.

This year we once again started on the 1^st of September. However, for us this was a super special day as not only did we kick off a new year but we also welcomed our students in a completely new, modern and large school building. Over the last 6 months and super busy last two months, our staff created a friendly, clean and fully functional new cozy nest. Such large event required an even larger welcome and hence all the students, the returning ones and the new ones, as well as their parents, grandmothers and brothers or sisters all met for the grand opening at 8:45 in front of the school.
Of course, a grand opening wouldn’t be so grand if it didn’t have some celebrities, right? Hence, we were so lucky to have our recently graduated senior Jiri Prskavec come and welcome our students. Without out a doubt, it was most generous of him to spend some time with us and our students especially since has just returned from the RIO 2016 Olympics where he won the bronze medal.
Pictures were taken, autographs were given out, snack were eaten and coffee was drunk…and in the end the ribbon was cut and students entered…
Wishing a wonderful new school year to all… (teachers, students and parents)

 

long school holiday - good or bad?

We are more than half way through our holiday which allowed students to respite from the stresses and struggles of the classroom. Within a few weeks our students will resume classes, hopefully re-energised and rejuvenated to face the books. 

Long school holidays help students clear their heads, relax a little and stretch their brains in different ways.

However, for decades, there has been a lot of debate among teachers, parents, and policymakers around the world, on how long a school break should be.

Traditionally, schooling schedules have long been based more on cultural patterns than on efficient education strategies. For instance, in Iceland it was traditionally timed to allow children to help out with harvest. Other countries have long summer vacations because it is simply too hot to study. In other areas where religion plays an important role in the holiday season, the religion calendar then commands the break, so that students can have ample time to partake in the rituals and traditions of seasonal holidays. This is the case with Italy and the Balkans where school children and teachers enjoy some of the longest summer holidays on the planet.

There are some obvious advantages to a vacation that lasts longer. Families who live a long distance from relatives are able to travel together, sometimes across the ocean, in order to connect with their loved ones. From an educational standpoint, a child that is able to experience another culture can gain valuable language, history, and social skills. The students get to participate in activities that would be difficult to do during a regular school term.

On the other hand, critical academic skills need daily repetition which a modern parent may not be able to carry out at home. For example, students learning to read must practice these skills consistently or the teacher will have to reteach some of the concepts if they stay long before refreshing. The same goes for foreign languages and mathematics facts.

Unlike before, a long study break is more likely to cause students to forget what they have been learning. With the movies and video games, they slip away from study habits and become languid from so much time not working.

Consequently, long school holiday can be either constructive or destructive to our students! But I am still enjoying a long holiday. 

World's Best Education System

Although it is summer and I am currently on holiday, I can’t help myself and just once in a while think about school and my students…

And while day dreaming, I take a look at my kids and think of those that I teach and one thing comes up: in thirty years from now, countries of the world will be governed by today’s youth. Yeah, this means that Honza S or Marek P or Jakub H or those chatty girls such as Aneta or Kamila will be the ones leading and shaping the country. Their thoughts and actions will be shaped by what they know and have experienced, making education, in many ways, one of the best predictors of a nation’s future success. So how well are we preparing them for this inevitable role?

Keeping this in mind, I googled Courtiers with Best Education System….and came across an interesting study…

Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Finland spend the most money on education as a percentage of their gross domestic product, according to the World Bank. Maybe that is the reason why these Scandinavian nations all ranked in the top third, even outperforming Asian nations.

South Korea ranked at number 11, despite the fact that it is the only nations where students attend school each day of the week – I wonder what our students would say if suddenly Saturday and Sunday was a school day too. Japan, which I assume no one is surprised, ranked at number 8, the best of all Asian nations.

It listed Finland as number 1 and Iran as the last. Although ranking Pakistan as the second to last, was no surprise, it suddenly made sense why the young female student Malala Yousafzai (who won the Nobel Prize for her advocacy in fighting Taliban restrictions of females attending the school) should be taken more seriously.

So I searched some more…and turned towards UN or UNICEF to help me get some statistics.

All those studies also confirmed that Scandinavian countries, leading with Finland, are simply the best, shortly followed by South Korea or Japan.

So my curiosity took the best of me… and I then googled: Why is educational in Finland so good? And after several hours of reading several points kept repeating itself over and over.

·         Schools in Finland have a different approach. Instead of control, competition, stress, standardized testing, screen-based schools and loosened teacher qualifications they focus on warmth, collaboration, and highly professionalized, teacher-led encouragement and assessment.

·         While the school in Finland have the latest technology, there isn’t a tablet or smartphone in sight, in any of the classrooms, just a smart board and a teacher’s desktop.

·         Children are allowed to slouch, wiggle and giggle from time to time if they want to, since that’s what children are biologically engineered to do, in Finland, America, Asia and everywhere else.

Obviously, there is a lot more that one needs to keep in mind when comparing educational systems: culture, poverty, race and even history as it has such an enormous influence on the nation. However, that would become way too long… and I am on holiday after all J

"Are we there yet?" - how to survive the last month of school

“Are we there yet?”, “are we there yet” … we all have experience long car rides with little ones in the back seat, expressing their eagerness to reach the final destination. In a way, for teachers, that car ride is the month of June. The anticipating and impatient faces of the students counting the dread hours till the 1^st day of the summer holiday. There is a bit of that never ending stress that we need to teach them just a few things more, that we can test them of just a few more questions and that we can just cram a few more facts in them… all while the sun is shining, birds are singing and the breezy fresh air makes them want to jump and run outside.

Well, a few days ago we, teachers, gave up. We took the whole school out. We organized a Sports Day filled with athletic competitions and prices. The students were divided into groups of 5 or so and were asked to walk from station to station and “compete” in some activities that were prepared by different teachers. Given the fact that I am not the most athletic person, I chose Musical Chairs. Oh, also because my colleague Tom can play the guitar really well J So music and sports, there is no better combinations. Couple of hours of pure fun, laughter and jokes. It was certainly a nice way to take a break from all those last minute tests. After that, the school organized its first ever Talent Show – and may I say I am very proud of my students.  The Gymnasium students did a great theatrical performance and the two boys from my basic class gave an outstanding piano concert! Good Job! 

Škola v Přírodě

view from our cottage - breathtaking

When I first arrived in the Czech Republic my oldest son was 7 and immediately started 1^st class. Immediately I learned that the school organizes something called “Škola v Přírodě“ (school in nature.) As a newbie in the Czech school system and as an American I didn’t understand why would a school take away a whole class for a week somewhere into the nature and hang out with them… where is the learning part? And then year after year I learned to appreciate such activities not only as a parent (because a week without my son was just heaven – an I do love him dearly) but also as a teacher as I learned to value what the students were learning during that week… It was out of school, it was fresh and clean, it was social and adventurous, it was independent and fun….

our cottage

This year, I decided to take my class to such a trip. We chose to go abroad yet not very far to keep the cost at minimum. We chose the neighboring country of Slovakia and their famous High Tatry Mountains. It was 3 nights and 4 days of living in a tiny little clean cottage, eating good Slovak food such as ….. and walking and walking and walking…. Lots of hiking which we all very much complained about yet would do it again if asked J I think the only thing I would do better next year – is to assure that there is no internet or WIFI there…(yeah, the students would cry…) 

 

Cyberbullying

This week I will not write a silly happy blog about fun activities or reflections. Rather I will focus on a topic that is rarely discussed yet according to statistics it is becoming more and more frequent.

Cyberbullying is the act of harming or harassing via information technology networks in a repeated and deliberate manner. According to U.S. Legal Definitions, "cyber-bullying could be limited to posting rumors or gossips about a person in the internet bringing about hatred in other’s minds; or it may go to the extent of personally identifying victims and publishing materials severely defaming and humiliating them."

^It is becoming  so frequent in schools across the globe that there have been several organizations formed with a goal of informing students that this is a crime as well as preventing it as much as possible. In United States there is a Cyberbullying Research Center and in the UK a non-profit cyberbullying association informs parents, teachers and students themselves about this very serious issue.

Please visit such pages as http://www.bullying.co.uk/cyberbullying/ or http://cyberbullying.org/ in order to futher educate and possibly help a child, your child or any child better cope with this issue.