Week #9

(18.-22.11.2024)

My last week! Exciting.

Mäntytie (ES)

The air conditioner is going brrrrr... So they got someone to repair it. I was the only one though that thought it amounted to nothing. And in fact, I think that the sound has gotten louder than before. It also still made the floor vibrate sometimes. Well, one week left! xD

Apart from the repair man distributing dirt all over our floors Monday was just like any other. Reshelving, classes visiting, ... but wait! I had my first appointment for "Book a German!" my program name for visiting classes and talking about German children's book authors. The English School also has German as an elective subject starting in 4th class. (That or French. Obvious Choice.) The presentation went pretty well, it was my first time talking to 10 year olds, it was quite the challenge to keep their attention. The teacher helped me out :) It was easier when I suddenly started saying German words to them. That occasionally won their attention back. Well, now I was a bit smarter than before and I would utilize that experience in the second presentation.

The second job of the day was to count and arrange bundles of flyers for the Scholastic book club event the school is holding every year before christmas. It's a program where parents can buy english books for their children and for every 1€ spent, the library get's 20 cents to spent for new books. This year my mentor decided to shorten the event to one week instead of two as an experiment. So... 6 years, two class per year with roughly 17-25 children. Oh and don't forget the preschool classes. Yes, of course. Later in the day I designed poster flyers for the "International Week of Child Rights" that the school had announced. We collected some appropriate books and displayed them in the hallway.

Display "International Week of Child Rights"

Tuesday was next to the regular stuff very exciting because I was allowed to do a theme table of books that I like and recommend to the students.

One version - the books were going off the table while I was still assembling...!

Next was my second presentation of "Book a German". Now I was ready for the unruly masses! But then the class actually behaved and it was awesome. 3rd years. They were very interested and engaged with a lot with questions. That made me very happy.

After covering or repairing some more books, I went home for the day.

Wednesday, my last day in Mäntytie. After and in between the regular stuff I went to the office and handed back my keys to the building. I was surprised by the secretary with a ton of old school stamps to put in my notebook. My mentor mentioned that I love to collect stamps and tidbits in it and they dug those out for me. After looking at them I am glad that students now look at different stamps under their tests... Very harsh and judgemental angels, I'm telling you. (Quick reminder that the school was founded by Christian American nuns.) The teachers also came to me during lunch break and said goodbye. I will miss their cheerfulness.

For my last tasks I checked the inventory of some technology workbooks and covered and repaired some other books.

Valimotie (MS-HS)

Overnight on Thursday we got a lot of snow and the piles on the side of the streets were piled high. I was forbidden from riding my bike by family rule, so I had to take the bus. It was nice. Punctual, clean, quiet and not heated like a working witch oven.

At work I prepared all the necessary documents for the EU-Team back home and created a collection of books I liked and published it in the library system so students could browse it if they liked.

My last Friday started with a lot of documents to sign and another theme table with books I like. We also had a data protection meeting with a professional to answer some questions. Having people of so many different ages also means a lot of different laws are involved in how much you can say to e.g. get an overdue book back from a student. When are you allowed to involve a parent and when is it illegal? How much are teachers allowed to know? Are names in textbooks okay or do we need to clear those? Do we have to take out old loan slips from books because there are full names on there? It was actually a very interesting discussion. In the end, it all depends on the age of the student. under 14 the parents can be involved, teachers can get lists of book but no names, and between 14 and 18 years parents can only know that their children have "a book". After 18 they are out. Well. Data protection is a bit complicated indeed. I guess my mentor will never get below 400 overdue books.

The big blue one is a realistic and very accurate anatomy book with a lot of pictures!

As a good bye present I got some nice goodies from the school and some nice handmade presents from my mentor. And some Moomin sweets! Even a card that everyone signed. I will miss the nerdy discussions in the teachers lounge and library a lot. Sadly I forgot to take pictures of the presents and now they are already long eaten or in use in all corners of my apartment.

I am very thankful for the opportunity to see such a different library compared to my home library and I will always have some wonderful memories to share.

Now I can take the next step and see how I can help others in my vocational school to successfully find an equally as awesome place in a country of their choice. I hope this blog also helps to get an idea of how things could go :)

But remember: nothing is ever the same in life the second time around.