A Tampere pre-schooler dressed for a May Day recess.

In the spring 2001, seven U.S. educators headed to Finland for a ten-day professional development program, during which participants visited a variety of geographical and educational settings. Many of the Finnish educators who had participated in the Vermont-based program in the fall of 2000 played an active role in the homestays and professional site visits, providing the program with the quality of a true, two-way exchange. Though the program was based in Tampere, U.S. participants spent time in other parts of the country -- way up the west coast in Lohtaja, in the central city of Kuopio, and on the archipelago off Turku. Participants spent time observing and teaching in classrooms, visiting early childhood education settings, and learning about Finnish approaches to special education.

Four of the participants were educators from Mater Christi Elementary School in Burlington, Vermont. Upon their return to the U.S., the foursome collaborated on a Power Point presentation, which they presented to the school board in early June. Below are a series of photos taken by the Mater Christi participants and used in the presentation. Thanks to Joanne Booraem, Jennifer Caron, Ruth Gminski and Pamela Quinn for providing these visuals!

Project Harmony would once again like to thank all those Finnish educators who took part in the Fall 2000 program in the U.S. and who helped make the Spring 2001 program in Finland a success. You were wonderful organizers and gracious hosts!

Photo Album
(Click on a picture to enlarge it.)

Finland -- the Land of Lakes ...	... with plenty of urban hubs as well.
Joanne Booraem teaches about the seasons in Vermont, complete with maple sugar sampling.	Rye bread and crackers are staples of the Finnish diet.
Home to Nokia, Finland is overflowing with cell phones. Here, Joanne's host mom and sister chat simultaneously (but at least not to one another!) Many of the U.S. participants were intrigued by the recess system at most Finnish schools: children take a ten-minute playground break between every class. Getting snow gear on and off in the winter may be a bit of a hassle, but most participants agreed that more frequent opportunities for releasing energy and breathing fresh air would be an improvement.	Besides its high cell phone per capita ratio, Finland is known as a high-tech leader in Europe. Computer access and use in the classroom is common, and the Internet is frequently utilized by students and educators as an educational tool. Here, Riitta Lundberg, participant in Project Harmony's U.S.-based program in Fall 2000 program and host to U.S. participants in both 2000 and 2001, works with her sixth grade students. A pen-pal response from a Finnish pair of boys to Willy, a Mater Christi student.
Certainly not all Finns are blond, but there were plenty of toe-headed students in this class visited by participant Pamela Quinn. Jennifer Caron, a guidance counselor at Mater Christi, joined her host's class on a four-day biology excursion, during which Jennifer was able to interact with the high schoolers and gain an extramural perspective on the Finnish education system.	May Day ("Vappu") celebrations take over for a full twenty-four hours in Helsinki and other cities and town throughout Finland. People of all ages wear their white hats received at high school graduation, and first-year engineering students (dressed in colorful coveralls) pile into big, cherry picker-like baskets and get dunked in icy bodies of water. Quite a spectacle! Jennifer gets put to work at the summer home of her host's family.
Some of the participants were able to travel beyond the Finnish borders. Ann-Marie Parker, who was hosted by the two Finnish educators she hosted in Vermont last fall, traveled to Stockholm, Sweden for a day. Pamela Quinn took this photo during her visit to the capital of Estonia, Tallinn.	Finnish is a unique language, with similarities only to Estonian and Hungarian. Though it uses a Latin alphabet, very few words contain Latin roots. Swedish is the second official language of Finland. Luckily -- and partly as a result of speaking such a complex native language -- many Finns are fluent in other European languages, English leading the list.