Internationalization and modernisation of curriculum.

Aims of the cource: 

Early childhood education and early school living.

Key competences

Analysing internationalization strategy

Explore various methods and tools shaping internationalisation policy

Language learning and teachers continuous professional development

French learning activities

Lots of ambitious goals that I went to experience and achieve here.

At the same time it feels awful and good that our courses have now been completed. There have been so many different things that could not even be imagined in advance. Being away from home far away gives you the necessary distance to your life and your own culture.

The nature and lifestyle of Guadeloupe impressed me. Heat, sun, small country, homely, opposites, joyful people, unstressfull lifestyle…

 

Rita, you had a fine and versatile course. You demand a lot from us and maybe because of that we got a lot of it too. All the preparatory work was done well and for the best of all of us.

 

There is already a lot of internationalization in my own school. Making it visible is important. A lot of thoughts, ideas, as well as a strengthening of the work in own school and the other schools on a larger scale, arose from the discussions.

 

In my opinion it was lovely to work in different learning environments. On the other hand it is a small thing but on the other hand everything in the student's life. 

 

Thank you Guadeloupe. I got a lot of what I can share.

What did I learn? 

Our first lesson at the beach was an awesome experience. I might say quite a powerful one. We had a nice conversation and delicious international meal and at the same time we could get to know each other.  We were talking about internationalization and national identity. The nametask was interesting. I am going to use it with my pupils and students as well. 

I noticed quite soon that stepping out of the daily routines gave me much energy. I also felt more creative. I do have to learn to be more open-minded and flexible but I even started to do some plans for the springtime at school with my colleges. 

I`ve learned a lot of the history of the island. And it is, for sure, touching. I`ve been thinking several times of the slavery. It was quite horrible to imagine that human cargo coming from the sea. It is very difficult to understand thinks that happened during those years but we do have lots of terrible things in our history made by human being. I do hope that my generation could do better and I do hope that my children could live in a better world. 

Music is connecting people. We all had that experience when we tried to make music together. Quite challenging rhythms was not easy to learn but hard efforts were rewarded and we could reflect our huge (:D) success with each other. It occurred to me once again that listening is not my way to learn. I preferer seeing and doing. 

Day after day we went to places I have never even dreamed of.  Scottham & al. (2009) says that a powerful experience in a supportive environment can promote deep learning which has a life-long impact. This trip has offered me plenty of powerful experiences. I have also learned many things but maybe the most important one is to understand that it is I myself with whom I have to start to work first. Before I can transform the world, I must transform myself. It won`t be easy but I am already on my way, although at the beginning of the journey. 

 

         All of the topics throughout the course were carefully selected and presented in a very creative way. I liked that every place Rita took us had a meaning for the topic and was an introduction to the topic. By learning about history and culture of Guadeloupe we learned a lot about ourselves. A lot of practical work makes this course interesting and inspiring. There will be so many things that I will be able to use in my classroom and share with my colleagues. 

         The most important part for me and my school is learning how to write an audit and how to internationalize the school’s curriculum. Advice that we got how to improve our eTwinning and Erasmus projects are a great help. A well explained role of international coordinator is something we really needed.

         Overall opinion of this past two weeks is that this is one of the best courses I attended and I have gained a lot of knowledge.

What an amazing teacher’s education! Ten days full of experiences and feeling the nature of Guadeloupe. I came here to learn language and aware my understanding of outdoorlearning. These two aims in my mind I can say I’ve reached those and got a lot more. 

My language skills got better in numerous discussions with European group of teachers. We started by reflecting on our identity as human beings and at the same time expanding our understanding of national identity and ourselves as a European teacher. This course learned me how important is the way how person thinks and acts.

During the course I have also learned to fall into the moment while I was often in the situations and I didn’t knew where I’m going to. Feeling of jumping to the sea from the boat in Caribbean sea aiming to snorkle. I felt strong excitement but when you had done it, you got so much courage. It almost felt like you were winning a competition.

 

I also learned how positive teacher example affects to students. I’m going to concern that in my lessons at home in Helsinki. I hope that my pupils will have more positive and relaxed teacher after this course. I hope I got tools to avoid stress and most important avoid feeling of hurry at my workplace. I promise I will let them more time to wonder environment while we have lessons outside.