What did you learn in school today...?

First of all, had a great day at school today - again!

I went to the secondary school to observe a few English lessons in lower secondary school.
Yesterday, I contacted two English teachers, so they were already informed of my presence today, I knew when to come and where to go.

So, to my first thoughts. When I got their email-reply yesterday (yes, everyone I've been in touch with so far in Finland answers on the same day) I was sure they (a man and a woman) were young teachers, around thirty, probable. Down to earth and friendly in their way of writing, so when I showed up for the first lesson this morning I was in for a surprise. BOTH of them are a "bit" older than I expected. I have to say "a bit" because I have no idea what their age is, but definitely older than 30! And don't get me wrong, I mean this as a compliment. Friendly, helpful, interested (and interesting), chatty, calm, wise, in contact with the students... And again.. Don't get me wrong, "old" people can have those qualities as well as "young" people not having them, but my meetings with the teachers at the primary school have made me generalize and think that Finnish teachers in general don't possess all of those qualities, some, but not all.

The teachers showed me around in the English teachers' office where I introduced myself to some other English teachers. Really nice people, all of them, and I'm already looking forward to going back there next week.

I have so much on my mind today, but I'll give you the first thing here and the rest in other blog entries.

For my action research I have decided to write about English coursebooks and how they help develop the pupils' speaking skills.

In case you don't know, Finnish schools almost solely use coursebooks for English. When I compare to Denmark, I have to say that this is a very different approach to English teaching - maybe even the "wrong" approach, but nevertheless, Finnish pupils (and people in general) seem to be quite good at English (spoken English is the only thing I've really observed). The more I get to know about the content and use of the coursebook, the more I fancy them and want to bring the ideas back with me to Denmark. Before I do so, I want to know as much as I can about the books - and that is what I'm going to spend the last 4 weeks of my stay doing.

I can't get more lucky than this.. Do you know who I met in the English teachers' office??? One of the coauthors of the most popular coursebooks in secondary school! She teaches English at the University's teacher training secondary school AND she told me that the first books in the new version of this series were published this year and another coauthor of those books works at the school as well.

So this weekend I have to finish writing my questions for the interviews- and next week, the battle will begin.
Wish me luck!