Recently, Fulbright Finland Foundation arranged for us to attend the Arctic Summit in Oulu. This prestigious program supports 18 professionals from around the world orchestrating their collaboration on a variety of issues regarding the Arctic. Listening to their research regarding their own individual projects and that of their collaborative cohorts is inspiring proving again that even though our world is so large it can be connected in significant ways forging the path towards a global mindset. It’s this ability to be more than your own research or classroom that truly fosters growth.
At our DAT orientation a component was devoted to this pathway for developing a global perspective. This mindset not only shapes how one might observe and accept their individuality, but also influences the interactions one has with the people around you. This includes the understanding of how far-reaching our world can be.
Since international travel is at the core of my own well being I effortlessly connected to the global mindset doctrine. This perspective allows one to look beyond your own ingrained foundation. By embracing Finland and maintaining the pathway for global thinking I am able to refocus any thoughts of “that’s not how I do it” towards that of recreating questions to ensure better understanding of international teaching strategies.
As an Autism Specialist and Inclusion Facilitator, I have been privileged to be a part of hundreds of classrooms over the years. I have also been fortunate to witness some of the most dedicated teachers meeting students’ individual needs. With this sneak peek into the world beyond my office I am privileged to understand the variety of styles that epitomize a gifted educator. Even though exploring what is in your own backyard is critical to one’s growth and development there must be more to foster success. Educators who travel abroad prosper from different experiences and these experiences only benefit our students, classrooms, and communities. Important themes such as change, collaboration, identity, diversity, risk taking, peace building, poverty and wealth, sustainability and global justice are just the beginning of what can impact our educational programs. This global perspective is an opportunity to develop positive attitudes, important skills, and maintain an active growth mindset which is critical in our world of education.
Over the course of the past week I have once again experienced so much. Me and my family were off to the northernmost part of Finland called Lapland which is also in the Arctic Circle. My mom had a conference in Oulu for her Fulbright which had many fun and educational activities for the families and the researchers. But after the conference was over we were off to Rovaniemi: the official home of Santa Claus.
For the first two nights we stayed in a hotel near the city center and where able to walk around the town. But after that, a man named Jorma came to pick us up. He brought us up to his humble home about an hour away from the city. He had an old beagle called Poncho who at night snores very loudly. Jorma was very kind and guided us cross country skiing and snowshoeing.
While we were in the Arctic we had the amazing opportunity to go dogsledding. When we first got there a happy dog was walking towards us who I later learned was called Cookie. I was able to pet her and rub her belly. The people who worked there told my dad how to control the sled and I sat down with my sister in anticipation of a wonderful ride. Once all the dogs were strapped in we were off! The dogs were happily yapping and running, and the whole ordeal was amazing. When we came to a stop back where we began I was buzzing with excitement from the exhilarating ride.
On our way back down to Jyvaskyla me and my dad shared a cabin with bunks on a sleeper train which was a new experience for the both of us. Overall the trip was a new experience that will stay in my mind for a lifetime.
For my family this past week, a lot was accomplished and a lot was realized. I’m pretty sure I speak for everyone when I say that we had our own version of an ‘awakening’. We’ve spent the last couple of days in a remote forested area in a cabin on the bank of one of the thousands of lakes that cover Lapland.
This was a time to reflect on our own way of life, as we were guided by a native of this secluded part of Finland. We slept in a handmade house, with food that was grown from their garden, and wandered around the forest. I would call this an ‘awakening’ because of how life-changing this experience was. Being filled with this complete and utter peace of living so naturally, simply, and happily was something that anyone, who is ready to embrace it wholeheartedly, is in need of. It’s not that from now on my family will not have to ever endure the struggles of stress, it’s more that this experience taught us how to cope with such feelings so we don’t waste our life away. Directing our life towards what makes us happy is key.
Anyways, during our time up in the Laplands, I came across something that I feel I should have realized before. What I noticed was that animals, no matter where they are in the world, will act in the same ways. A dog will always have a happy-go-lucky spirit, a horse will be calm but strong and beautiful, and a bird will get easily excited over the littlest of movements. This got me thinking, that if a species’ essence is displayed everywhere in the world, what’s the difference with humans? Why are some things about us, like the way we live so incredibly different from each other? Is it language barriers? Is it traditions? Or perhaps society’s hyper-focus on stereotypes that dehumanize us and make us into something alien when really we are all the same.
I don’t have an answer; I’m not sure if there’s just one honestly. But it’s definitely something to think about.
Me at the cabin in Lapland
Sled dogs excited to pull at Santa’s Village, Rovaniemi
Aurora Borealis starts to show above city lights in Oulu
The North! Part One-Oulu (Stu)
The focus on this side trip was life in the far north above the Arctic Circle. We’d traveled by train for Robyn’s Fulbright conference in Oulu which is kind of a jumping off point for Lapland. We enjoyed the Lapland Hotel in Oulu immensely as it afforded a taste of Lapland’s food as well as being well appointed. I knew immediately that this was going to be a problem for me as Lapland food is hearty and very tasty (more about this later, especially if I get hungry writing this…) Food aside, there were three main events our family enjoyed in this charming seaside town.
The University of Oulu hosted the first event which was the symposium of Fulbright Arctic Research In Action: International Collaboration to Address shared Challenges. As the title explains, Fulbrighters shared their projects and collaboration to help the people and the wildlife/resources within the Arctic Circle. Both Meggie and Liam took notes and we really enjoyed hearing how the diverse projects were linked together to gain deeper insights and ideas to help sustainability and the ability to thrive across cultures and geographic boundaries. It was quite a big deal and a sense of urgency came over from the different speakers. I was pleased and more than a little proud that Meggie and Liam were able to follow and have intelligent conversations about the issues afterwards.
The second event was the result of luck and good information from a grantee’s husband who shared about an App that informs if an aurora borealis may be seen in the local area. No sooner had we put this on our phones, than it sent a text saying that the aurora may be seen within the hour. As it was a clear night, we all rushed outside and were rewarded with a wonderful view of the dancing shimmering particles falling to earth in a dazzling green and gold display. The borealis swirled and faded and re-appeared suddenly above even the ambient light of the city. Most of us felt almost giddy with excitement as we rushed through the nearby park to get a better view. I heard later that many have lived in the area for years and had never had the pleasure of witnessing this wonderful event. We felt very fortunate (even Meggie, who’s wet hair from the shower froze into awkward clumps).
The last event was a day spent at the Kierikki Stone Age Center about an hour outside Oulu on the banks of the Lijoki River. 3-5000 years ago, this area had a sea view as the water level was about 300 feet higher due to the fortunate melting of the glaciers at the end of the last ice-age. The center is usually closed this time of the year, but the staff open up shop for specific groups like ours and seemed to take every opportunity to feed us. This was probably a good thing as -18 degrees celsius is no joke when you’re outside for hours as we were destined to be in the afternoon following the museum tour featuring many artifacts discovered at the nearby stone age village. I thoroughly enjoyed the small, yet very well done museum. Even Robyn and the kids who usually last 20 minutes in a museum were engrossed by the artifacts and information in this one. The highlight of the day was the stone-age hunting and gathering competition at the village. The staff were dressed up and had us do the same when split into 3 groups to complete various daily tasks varying from hunting and gathering, to making fire, food and art preparation, and even a snow cave for survival. Liam was our leader and even though we lost overall, he did an amazing job and tried everything. Meg discovered new talents too. As for me, I was struck by the thought that electricity and creature comforts don’t have the same value when they come so easy; ask anyone who has made fire outdoors.
So apparently, jungle birds wake up before dawn is even a faint reality. They also create a lot of sound which is hysterical to listen to as you lay in bed wondering if you are still in dream about The Land Time Forgot. Some birds whistled, others craoked, squawked, whapped and trilled. The best one is a kind of slowly rising whoop unlike anything I’ve ever heard before. It gets so loud that I feared the bird must have exploded in a puff of feathers at the end. Our tent on stilts continues to delight.
We’d heard of a ‘secret’ local’s spot a few miles away located on the foothills of the volcano that was considered a very special place, so we got rudimentary directions and piled into Raul with swim gear and water shoes. The secret spot is actually a small river that flows with water heated by Arenal Volcano. It is as hot as a jacuzzi and is a few minute’s hike from the road where people just park on the shoulder. Nestled in and amongst the jungle, locals have arranged boulders and rocks in the shallow water to create family-sized pools. Melted wax adorns many overhanging branches and rocks as people like to sit by tranquil candlelight at night. We were a little out of our comfort zone as we sat in the river careful not to get any into our mouth or eyes as per instructions (I guess that there can be rare issues with bacteria at times). Sadly, I noticed there was some trash here and there on the shore.
However, after a little while it was actually very relaxing sitting in hot gently flowing water out in the forest and none of us had any ill-effects afterwards I must clarify. In fact, locals swear that the river has powerful rejuvenating properties bringing both physical and spiritual renewal. I’m not sure about the scientific analysis of this, yet I felt great for days afterwards. The place gets busy over the weekends although we had the place mostly to ourselves as there was just one other family who arrived as we were almost ready to leave. They shared that the night before, there were more than a hundred visitors, and the family had to leave without being able to get wet. I think this explained the trash somewhat as people tend to be the same wherever you go. All that being said-it’s definitely worth a visit; just go during the weekdays.
The next day, we took a hike around the base of the volcano at Arenal Volcano National Park. The trail follows the lava flow that blanketed the surrounding area in the eruption of 1968. There are steep sections providing wonderful views of the park and region, and also low-lying parts that wind around the lake. This was great, because there were toucans (our first viewing) monkeys, and a colorful tree viper that all make use of the lush forest around the lake. Of course, there were several colonies of the industrious leaf cutter ants whose trails and tunnels sometimes run for hundreds of yards. It was a great three-hour hike which can be extended to double that if a greater challenge is desired.
Note: There is a nice cafe at the park for food and drinks, but this is not always open. Hikers should ensure they have plenty of water and some salty snacks, and take bug spray for the lower trail around the lake as the mosquitos can be quite bothersome. The lower trail loop is great for even younger children.
Our time in this area is winding down. We have managed to stay in a great location and feed ourselves in order to keep a very tight budget. Essence provided an up close and personal interaction with local wildlife as well as information and views of a working fruit and coffee plantation. Even though the local store keeper couldn’t understand the concept of a drought while we discussed the merits California and Costa Rica, everyone was friendly and helpful. This is part of the backpacker or tourist trail, but only mildly so. No hard sells for experiences or tours.
So this is how they grow…Coffee’s not quite ready yet!Familiar, yet still pretty
This week I have once again tried some new things. On Friday my new found friend and I went to a sauna after swim class. It was interesting to experience the heat that they endure as well as the cold. The sauna helps the body in many ways. For example, I am usually very sore after swim, but I was less sore because the sauna released the tension in my shoulders and lower back. Afterwards, I felt invigorated and glad to have tried that with a friend.
On Saturday, my family went to see a snowboarding event. They had made a course downhill near our house. It had a few jumps and many twists and turns. I stood up on a wall to get a better view. I could see the start and the Finnish (pun intended). All of them were amazing and it was so cool to see such a new sport.
While I am on the topic of snowboarding my sister and I went for our first lesson today. We were amazed to find that it is very similar to surfing. I practiced turning which was just moving your hips and leaning. We also practiced stopping which is very important. By the end I was starting to get the hang of it. When I turned in my board I was incredibly tired.
The Least Restrictive Environment, known as LRE, is an ingrained component for any educator working with students with special needs. Having the privilege to have been one of the esteemed Dr. June Downing’s graduate students, I was taught about LRE and inclusion from the very beginning of my career. At the time (over 2 decades ago) this was a pioneering way to educate our students with intensive needs. Inclusivity was the mainstay of her program, and in turn we were instructed to teach all children in their LRE. June was a dedicated proponent of inclusive education, viewing access to general education program and peers without disabilities as best practice, as well as advocating for equality. She never let us a finish a project as there were always improvements that could be made to ensure it would continue to meet our students’ needs in their LRE. I think back to her multicolored pen marks on our projects and papers continually asking us to dive further. Our cohort proudly called ourselves “Junies” and whenever we reconnect after long periods, we have a special connection grateful that we learned from the one of the most influential inclusion specialists of our time.
LRE is a vital component in the development of an Individualized Education Plan (IEP) and plays a critical role, influencing where a child spends their time at school, the services provided, and the relationships a child develops within their school and community. Collaborating with IEP team members about a student’s LRE is always interesting as the team determines what supports are needed to ensure our learners are able to spend as much time as appropriate with their neurotypical peers and classroom settings. As each student is unique, these collaborative discussions have a multitude of variations embedding general education, systematic instruction, modifications, social skills training, and so forth.
In Finland, they use the same terms of inclusion and least restrictive environment that are a foundational component of special education back in the States. Yet here the Finnish perception or perhaps definition of LRE is different. It feels like being in an alternate universe because the same terms are utilized, however their interpretation and implementation is contrasting. Maybe because special education and inclusion are my greatest area of expertise, I find these subtle differences thought provoking while perhaps to someone else they sound and appear to be the same. So many components of the Finnish educational system are amazing and I am eager to bring these back home to share with my colleagues. However, this particular aspect has me a bit turned around. They routinely utilize separate schools, separate buildings (though perhaps attached to neighborhood schools via locked doorways), and separate classrooms for 100% of the day for students with mild to severe disabilities, yet Finnish educators refer to this as inclusion. Yep, it’s perplexing.
In Finland I have observed excellent teachers of students with special needs implementing evidence-based practices in a calm and caring environment. I have had brilliant conversations about the best ways to support students with intensive special needs. The Finnish educational system ensures there are more than enough appropriate supports for their students served by highly regarded teachers all with master’s degrees and instructional assistants who have gone through 1-2 years of certificated training. The supports, materials, and classrooms are chock full of the evident dedication that students receive what they require to be successful.
However, I’m curious as to where students who have more intensive special needs receive their education. I find myself biting my tongue at each school site. Finnish educators have warmly welcomed me into their schools to observe and conduct professional conversations. Yet I desperately want to help them understand the possibility of implementing a different variation of inclusion throughout their students’ school days.
My Fulbright host at JYU and I have been discussing these findings. Our conversations are invaluable as we collaborate and develop a plan of how to share this information and create new protocols. We decided on videotaping one of my lectures with a question and answer section as a jumping off point to lead the way to further discussions with their teacher candidates. After being given student case studies by a doctoral student from her current research, I will share in this controlled and open setting about how this student can be successfully included within their general education setting. I feel like a kid in a candy shop because I love this! I can’t wait to have the opportunity to help the educators in Finland understand perhaps an alternate setting in which they can begin to educate their students in what can be an empowered use of LRE.
It’s been great recreating ourselves to fit into the Finnish culture. My mom and I have been going on long walks and a couple of days ago, stumbled upon this really cute, homey coffee shop that we later brought the boys to so we could all enjoy live music by a three-person local band that was playing. It was very merry and comfortable to snuggle into a deep couch in the corner of the shop, and listen to the accents of the singers perform American songs from the 80’s.
We don’t have a car, so it would seem we walk everywhere we go -no matter how far truly- out of necessity. But really, we wouldn’t want to travel any other way. We have to walk across town to get groceries and not think twice about it. Mom and I were laughing earlier about how we would drive down to Costco back home, which was only down the road. We hope to bring this more natural, simpler, and healthier way of going about to CA, even though it’s harder because the towns are built in a really spread out way that’s really meant for cars. If you look at the streets here in Jyvaskyla, you would notice that the sidewalks are the same size as the road which is completely foreign to us because sometimes roads back home don’t even have sidewalks.
The weather here continues to be in flux mirrored by our feelings this past week or so. At times each of us have been challenged by negative thoughts or doubts of one sort or another. Staying in one place for such an extended period of time has an interesting impact that is somewhat different from those on our usual shorter summer travels. These impacts are are varied and can lift spirits or taint one’s day if allowed. To be sure though, spending an extended period of time in a different country by its very nature permits more introspection of long and short term goals as well as potential desires or lifestyle changes. It is easy to move from living in the moment to dwelling more in the future or the past, both of which can make a person feel adrift or unsettled.
I notice that the Fulbright grantees appear to be moored by their projects and are at times more tethered against the flow of unsettling emotions. However, I’ve heard that their findings are often surprising and can bring their own pull of considered career shifts and/or changes in their usual classroom realms. As for family members who have accompanied them, those with hobbies and projects of their own have a familiar way of engaging themselves which, I believe, makes transitioning to a new country and different daily demands smoother and less disruptive, if not more rewarding. Both my children have started engaging in familiar physical activities similar to home as well as creative projects in Finland for this very reason. Structure brings a foundation of security and contentment, and when combined with opportunities for exciting new experiences and creativity, enhances a sense of fulfillment and well being. I am proud of my family for this as it has helped offsetting feelings such as homesickness and anxiety about the future. In fact, they are now venturing out confidently on their own each day and are becoming much more emotionally balanced.
I guess that is why Finns value hobbies and activities so much, and why most people have at least one that they engage in several times per week, such as playing a musical instrument or producing art or homecrafts. The healthful value of hobbies and activities are widely recognized here and is probably why a Finn is more likely to ask another about their hobbies than what they do for a living; the positive aspects of the hobby or chosen activity speak more about how the person elects to spend their time and so what they are like as a person.
As for me, I have to remember that moving to a new country for more than half a year does not automatically allow you to leave your innermost thoughts and beliefs back at home. You bring both your physical and spiritual baggage with you. It’s all about being content and productive in the moment and making positive choices each day that will enhance this gift of perspective that distance and time offers.
My family has officially gotten into the groove of living here. At first, going around town was an adventure and you didn’t know what you’d find but now, since I have ventured out quite a bit, small things like finding a bridge aren’t a huge discovery anymore. That being said, we of course go out and about looking for cool museums, new cross-country ski trails, etc.
This week, we went to a natural history museum that contained all sorts of information, my favourite part was looking at all the native animals here. This museum is right next to our house. The building (of which the museum is the entire bottom floor) extends vertically about 6 stories, and since it’s on top of a hill makes the entire city visible from the top.
I’ve recently been enjoying going on walks around the lake by myself. I’m not sure if it’s because our apartment is so small that I just need my space out in the fresh air or something else, but it’s very pleasant and refreshing. This past week was the hottest its gotten in winter here for 70 years. But, it’s finally starting to get cold again, meaning all the wet slush is now ice, making wherever you go turn into a ice skating rink, in the form of a sidewalk. My brother and I have been joking around saying that their are only two kinds of shoes that work if you want to go outside, ones with spikes, or ice skates.
It feels good, to be fully settled in now, and calling Jyvaskyla home.
