Kansainväliset apuopettajat

Raquel del Moral, Alexandra Breu, Charlotte Zauche ja Hannes Wehrle kertovat vietetystä ajastaan Nousiaisten lukiossa.

raquel del moral

Comenius-apulaisopettaja Raquel del Moral työskenteli Nousiaisten lukiossa lukuvuonna 2022-2023. Tässä hänen ajatuksiaan kuluneesta lukuvuodesta:

Hello! My name is Raquel del Moral, I am a student from Marburg, a small city in Germany. I am studying to become an English and Spanish teacher. Part of these studies is a seven-week long internship, in which we are supposed to figure out our personal role as a teacher and if the profession we chose suits us. Usually, these internships are done in Germany. However, I decided to go abroad for that experience.

I fell in love with Finland in 2018, when I visited a friend. I have wanted to come back ever since, and this internship seemed to be the perfect opportunity, as the Finnish educational system is highly valued in Germany and I was therefore curious to see why exactly.

I was super nervous on my first day of school in Nousiainen. From what I had heard, trainees are often seen as a burden in schools, at least that was what many of my friends had told me about their internships in Germany. I imagined to be even more of a burden for the teacher collective in Finnland, as I don’t even speak or understand their mothertongue.

Luckily, the staff of Nousiaisten Lukio turned out to be a group of some of the nicest people I have ever met. I was greeted and welcomed incredibly warmly and was allowed to follow the teachers around and learn as much as possible. Additionally, I got to teach so many lessons and try out so many ideas and activities on my own. I was always taken seriously by every single one of the staff members. They listened to me when I was frustrated because something didn’t work out as planned, they supported me whenever I felt unsure about some lesson content, and they made me feel like I was one of them. Furthermore, and most importantly, it was amazing to see how all them love their job and see how much they give in order to be good at it.

I quickly realized that Finnish students differ a lot from Germans. To understand and overcome these cultural differences was quite a challenge at first, but ultimately, I think i managed to find my place. I was able to teach high school classes as well as middle school classes and they made it all so incredibly easy for me to enjoy them. I met curiosity, politeness and occasionally some sympathetic cheekyness. All of them really put an effort in whatever I had planned on doing with them, even though I am pretty sure I shocked and swamped some of them with my “German methods” and ideas.

I feel overwhelmingly lucky to have had the chance to teach and learn in Nousiainen. I learned a lot about myself and my role as a teacher. I regained confidence and the certainty to have chosen the right job for my future. Therefore, I would like to thank each and every person, no matter student or teacher, that I met during my internship. Thank you for teaching me so many life lessons, your culture and even parts of your language, which was hella challenging! You all made it the enriching experience it was and I will always remember my time at your school with a smile on my face. I will come back, for sure!
Kiitos Nousiaisten Lukio and Henrikin yhtenäiskoulu!

Hannes Wehrle

Saksalaisen Hannes Wehrlen kertomus kokemuksistaan kolmen kuukauden ajalta Suomesta:

Moi, Hi and Hallo!

This is Hannes writing, your assistant teacher from Germany. After spending 3 months here in Finland at the Nousiaisten Lukio, I would just like to say thank you, KIITOS PALJON, to everybody: to you, students, to you, teachers, and to you: Finland.

Thank you all, students of the Lukio, for:
working so well when I was teaching you, for giving great presentations about films and art, a special thanks here for introducing me to the art of Vladimir Kush, an awesome artist, who I greatly admire by now (and everybody who hasn ´t done it, should definitely check out his truly inspiring paintings!), for organizing such cool events like Vanhojen Tanssit, Penkkarit and the Sähly Tournament, and another special thanks to the students who came to my Extra English Course, I had a great time with you teaching and talking about such awesome topics like Game of Thrones, How I Met Your Mother and, of course, football.

Thank you all, teachers of the Lukio, for:
welcoming me so openly both in the teacher ´s room and in the classrooms, for letting me come to watch every lesson and every subject I wanted to, for giving me the opportunity to work with so many different classes, for introducing me into the world of teaching via computer: for Wilma, Kahoot, Quizlet, Padlet, Prezi, Socrative and Edmodo, for the great time we had at the Sauna Paroni and Harald, and for answering all the million questions I had.

Now, last but not least: thank you, Finland, for:

Sauna, Sauna and Sauna, the best invention in the world, for Palju, a close second, for a nice, long Löyly, for great food like lihamakaronilaatikko, pulla, karjalanpiirakka, lihapulla, Finnish Kebab (the best I have ever had!), poro meat, and so on, for Lonkero, the best after-sauna refreshment there is, for winter sports like ice hockey, curling and ice swimming, for your beautiful nature with lots of space for everybody, and for everything else.

As you can see, I had the best time here at the Nousiaisten Lukio, and the only bad thing (except for the little disappointing winter) is that it ended way to soon!

But as you all know: ” Kaikki hyvä loppuu aikanaan.”

I wish you all the best!

Your assistant teacher,
Hannes

Charlotte Zauche

Saksassa englantia ja matematiikkaa opiskelevan sekä opettajaksi pyrkivän Charlotte Zauchen muistelua ajastaan Suomessa:

My Teaching Experience at Nousiaisten Lukio

My name is Charlotte, I am 21 years old and I am studying English and Mathematics to become a secondary school teacher at Bielefeld University, Germany. As part of my studies I am required to do several internships at different schools. My personal interest in foreign school systems and cultures of different countries brought me to think about doing one of my internships abroad.

Finland was one of my close-pitch selections and I was very happy when I got the confirmation to join the teachers at Nousiaisten Lukio for 9 weeks in the spring term. Right from the beginning I felt welcome and I was showed around and became acquainted with how everything works in the daily school life. To be able to also assist at Henrikin koulu was an opportunity which I was very grateful about. So I got the chance to gain experience with students of a wider age range as I will be teaching students from age 11 to 18 in Germany. During my 9 weeks´ internship I followed several lessons in English, German and few in Mathematics and also helped to plan, asses and also taught lessons myself. I found not only the school system to be very different to the German one but also the teaching style differs. It was very interesting to experience how a different culture, school system and mentality can influence the style of teaching and learning. I most enjoyed the teaching and learning atmosphere. The thought to call a teacher by their first names never occurred to me because in Germany it is a matter of respect to address teachers by Mr/Mrs and the last name. However, I felt that the Finish way of address creates a nicer learning atmosphere and lowers the students´ anxiety to e.g. ask the teacher questions. Personally and for my future career I can say that I gained lots of experiences. Whenever I spend time abroad I train my cultural awareness that will help me to teach a class with students of different cultural background. The high standard of technical equipment really surprised me, but I came to see the benefits to use various programs for teaching purposes and I will definitely take that as inspiration for my future career.

But I also had some difficult times during my internship. That was whenever being confronted with not being able to speak and understand Finish. It was interesting to see however how the mother-tongue influences the learning of English. Learning the use of articles in English seemed harder for Finish students than Germans because in German you are used to many more articles. I was also fascinated how German is learned as a second language and to be honest I did not only learn some Finish words in German classes but also some interesting grammatical items about my own mother-tongue that I never paid much attention to.

With my last words I want to thank the teachers that dedicated a lot of time to my internship. It was really great to be able to gain new teaching experiences under very good mentoring. And thank you to all students who were very open-minded to a teaching assistant being around.

Everybody keep up the good work!

Charlotte Zauche

Alexandra Breu

Comenius-apulaisopettaja Alexandra Breu työskenteli Nousiaisten lukiossa lukuvuonna 2012-2013. Tässä hänen ajatuksiaan kuluneesta lukuvuodesta:

Minun nimeni on Alexandra ja minä olen saksalainen Comenius-apuopettaja Nousiaisten lukiossa. Minä olen kotoisin Mainzista Saksasta, mutta nyt asun Turussa. Saksassa olen opiskellut politiikkaa ja saksan kieltä Johannes Gutenbergin yliopistossa. Olen työssä Nousiaisten lukiossa ja opetan saksaa ja englantia siellä. Minä pidän matkustamisesta ja kesällä haluan matkustaa Itä-Suomeen. Kesällä myös haluan jatkaa suomen opiskelua, koska minusta suomi on kaunis kieli.

Why did you decide to come to Finland? This is the question I’ve been asked most during my nine months stay in Nousiainen and Turku. So, why Finland: I wanted to see the north of Europe, experience the northern European culture and since I really like the Finnish language (and I’m still trying to learn it) it was a very easy decision for me to apply for my Comenius assistantship in Finland. The Comenius exchange programme is a project funded by the European Union to promote cooperation between schools and it supports future teachers from all over Europe to spend 3 to 10 months in a host school abroad and to assist in teaching.

After graduating from University I wanted to gain some work experience abroad before becoming a “real” teacher in Germany and I wanted to experience a new country and culture. So, the Comenius assistant programme was a great opportunity for me to get teaching experience abroad, to travel Finland, to learn a quite unique European language and to get introduced to the Finnish culture. In the same time, I enjoyed teaching German and telling the students about my country and culture. Since I gained so many positive experiences through my exchange, I’m really glad that I have the possibility at the Nousiaisten Lukio to teach “International Europe” as a subject, to offer an European Film Club in the afternoon and to organize European events and exchanges. We got to celebrate Europe and the EU during the school year. “Puhu minulle” was the motto of the European Day of Languages on 26th of September 2011, so the students shot a video presenting the wide range of languages they can study here at the Lukio. Attending the National Session of the European Youth Parliament in Raisio showed the students, that they can play already an active role in the European Union. By using the online platform etwinning in the English and International Europe courses, the students worked together with a partner school in France and experienced a possibility to get in touch with their European peers through studying together. To have a look beyond the EU’s borders we got visited by exchange students (e.g. from China and Japan) during the school’s language week in April 2012. The exchange students presented their mother tongues, talked about their traditions and cultures and gave lectures in English on various topics. Also in April, three students of the lukio travelled to Brussels to take part in the event “Your Europe, Your Say” organized by the European Economic and Social Committee and to discuss the Committee’s opinion on Rio+20 and to bring in their own ideas and amendments.

Being a Comenius assistant includes as well learning about a new school system. For me it is a very nice experience to work in a Finnish school that differs quite a lot from German schools and I’m looking forward to bring my positive experiences from the Nousiaisten Lukio to Germany. And for sure, I really enjoy taking part in all the school activities and to learn about the Finnish culture by experiencing traditions and celebrating Finnish holidays. Now, at the end of the school year I’m still absolutely positive about my choice to spend my Comenius assistantship in Finland and above all I fell in love with the country and its people.