- What
does going to university cost? How many people are there in a class in
Finland? What subjects do you study? What do you do during your free time?
This
kind of questions were asked from me and other Finns on our visit on the
10th of March 2004 to Manual High School, in Peoria, Illinois.
I visited Manual High School during my vacation with my daughter Henrika
from Ylitornio Senior Secondary School and my son Matti from Ylitornio
Comprehensive School. It seemed that the pupils were very interested in
making questions to other young people.
It is
fascinating to learn about the life of people living on the other side of
the world. We visited the groups that are going to have e-mail-contacts
with our pupils in Pello High School. The aim of this project is to learn
from one anotherīs cultures, life, school, politics, social well fare,
free time, entertainment, hobbies etc. At the same time the pupils learn
how to correspond using e-mail and how to communicate with people that you
donīt know beforehand.
Some
of the results of the contacts will be shared in the classes and
videotaped in Peoria. The Finns are planning to share results in the class
and write something about the contacts to the web site pages of their
school.
The
classes we visited were English classes taught by Ms. Dawn Robinson. The
atmosphere in her classes was open, free, friendly and inspiring and the
pupils seemed eager to learn new things and get this new experience. I
understood that these classes had been selected especially for this
project.
Dr.
Heljä Robinson from Bradley University had arranged our visit and contact
to Manual High School and she was visiting with us the class.
Everyone in the class seemed to know their job. The classroom was large
and the chairs were placed all over the room so the pupils had good space
around them. After meeting Ms. Dawn Robinson I have a strong confidence
that this project will be a success and we will all learn new things.
Mirjami Hyttinen
