On the top.. or are we?

I've been doing some research of Finnish education. 

'' Finland has become the go-to place for education reformers all around the world '' was said in one article  I read. '' What the U.S. can’t learn from Finland about ed reform '' I am a finn but I never knew that in Finland education is that quality and I didn't have anything to compere to. 
I found a list of things that are good in Finnish education: Well-being of children, funding of schools, education as a human right. 

In my opinion we Finns are very lucky people because in Finland comprehensive school is possible to everyone. Education is possible to everyone no matter your background. We don’t have to pay for our education either so it doesn't matter if your family is poor because you can and you still have to educate yourself. After comprehensive school you can do what ever you want to do but of course there are different limits on that also. You can go to work but nowadays it is very hard to find a job where you wouldn't need any education except comprehensive school. Most people apply to some high school or trade school where education takes usually three or four years. After high school or trade school you can go work or educate yourself more. In Finland many children usually want to be a doctor, a vet or a teacher. Those careers are very respected and require high education.

Finnish children start school at the age of seven. That age than in England for example. But in my opinion that is maybe the best age when a child can go to school because she or he is mentally and physically ready. I don't think that a four- or five-year-old child is that ready yet. There was one article: '' What Makes Finnish Kids So Smart? '' There were few facts about Finnish kids: that Finnish teen are among the smartest in the world, the Finns won attention with their performances in triennial tests sponsored by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, a group funded by 30 countries that monitors social and economic trends,  Finnish youth, like their U.S. counterparts, also waste hours online. They dye their hair, love sarcasm and listen to rap and heavy metal.

Even though our school days aren't that long comparing to other countries, it doesn't mean that we are lazing around. In many other countries they have cheerleading groups, football teams, orchestras etc. But in Finland we don't have that kind of hobbies at school but we do those things in our free time. And that's one thing that makes our school days shorter. 

 I think one thing that affects having enough strength to get through whole semester is our long summer holiday and other shorter holidays for example Christmas holiday and autumn holiday. Our summer holiday lasts two and a half months so it's a very long holiday. Many young people have a summer job which means that we don’t just lie on the beach our whole holiday we are also working. But of course we do have a lot of free time. 

Finnish Street dance Championships

Last week's Friday I went to Tampere to compete at the Finnish championships. We drove there by car with some of my dance crew dancers Siri, Oona, Ida, Sofia and Emma. I was very excited because this competition was something I had waited for a long time and trained a lot.

When we were at Tampere we went to sports hall called Pirkkahalli where the competition was arranged. We didn't have any competitions on Friday but there were already competitions on. So we went to watching them. There were really good dancers. It was really amazing to see so many people who love dancing as much as I do. At 8 o'clock we went to our dance teacher’s cottage to train even more and to sleep because the next day we had to wake-up at 5.30 o'clock because our competition started so early. Here is a photo of the cottage where we slept... we didn't have that much space.

 There was a lot of audience as you can see.

Here are some photos from the competitions.

Our dances went well. I am really proud of myself and our whole crew. In the showcase category we came 9^th out of 50 group. And in the formation category 12^th out of 30. And with showcase we won circa 40 crews and those who were at the top 6 were all almost professionals or almost professionals. It was really amazing to get that far!

Rainy or was it sunny?

Last week the weather was strange, it has been really warm and sunny but the next day it could be cold, dark and rainy. I started to think if the weather really affects to our moods significantly? Well I can't tell you the right answer but I've noticed that it really does affect to my mood because when it was sunny, bright and warm I felt happy but the next day when it was cold, rainy and dark I wasn't feeling so happy infact I felt miserable.. What do you think, does the weather really impact our moods? 

It's raining men!... hopefully not.

My busy week

Last week was really busy because I had so many dance trainings. We have competitions next week and I am really stressed about that and of course this is my last period at school before summer holiday so I want this period to go well and I wan't to get good grades. At weekend I had my little sister's birthday party and that was really fun. I didn't have time to do anything else than go to school, trainings and work that's my ordinary week.

You are what you know

We are all really different. We have different kind of hair, our own style, own way of talking and different friends. But there's something that we all have in common and that is learning and knowledge. You can be anywhere around the world but you still have your knowledge.. no one can take it from you. Of course education is really different for example in Kenia than in Finland and everyone doesn't even have the chance to get educated.

 by Seema K K

by Sailing "Footprints: Real to Reel" (Ronn ashore)
A human is a really wise creation. Human has developed a lot by increasing their knowledge. Nowadays it's not rare to be highly educated. Certainly it needs a lot of work to get there but it's worth of it. There's no effortless way to get to the top but you just have to enlarge your knowledge, study hard and keep your motivation up.

 I think that the claim ''You are what you know'' is true because we learn new things everyday.What if I got stuck where I am now? If I don't learn anything new anymore it would be awful and miserable. I think that our minds would be terribly blank without learning.

by Jennuine Captures
Anyhow learning isn't just studying because we learn new things from ordinary things like I really don't buy that you could learn emotional things from a book and study them. I think that things like that you really have to undergo. You don't learn to love by reading a book or to miss by studying.

Feeling the beat

Dancing isn't just a hobby. For me it's more like a lifestyle. When I dance I feel euphoric. There are also days when I think ''Why am I dancing this hard I'm not good enough'' But those feelings usually disappears away quite quickly. I couldn't live without dancing anymore. When I dance I get rid of all the stress I got and for a little while I don't have to think about my school pressures or any drama that I have had with my friends. I can just relax and clear up my mind. Of course dancing creates its own pressures but it really isn't the same thing. In my opinion dancing isn't just a hobby or sport it can be really beautiful and interesting art. A dancer needs sufficient dedication, flexibility, coordination and sense of rhythm.

I've been dancing since I was two years old. My mother put me into a ballet class and it was more playing than dancing. When I got older I went to dance ballet at The Turun seudun Tanssioppilaitos it's a ballet school. I danced ballet there until I was nine years old..  I thought that there wasn't enough dancing so I said to my mom like this ''I want to change to the Showdance Studio Taina Kovalainen because I like outgoing music.'' Then I really didn't like ballet so much but nowadays I regret that I stopped ballet then because ballet is important base to dance styles. So I and my sister changed dancing schools, which gave me a chance to try many different styles, for example hip hop and show dancing. 

Nowadays I am a sixth-former but I am still dancing and reaching to the stars I guess. I am really ambitious and I want to excel. My future goal is to get to the world championship competition. In this May I am going to the Finnish Championships and if we would win we'll get to the word championships  but it's a long way to go and it needs a lot of hard work.

Hope you'll enjoy the video.

First thinking then sinking

When I was four or six years old we had a gottage and I don’t even remember where was it but I do remember some highlights from there. It was really nice and calming place and even tough I was that young I do remember a lot of things from there. The cottage was in a little island and there was no one else but us. So because it was in a island we had to always go there with a little rowing boat. One day we went bouting. When we were in the middle of ocean we saw a mediheli and we thought that someone was in a danger and we all were just looking to the sky. All suddenly I watched to the bottom of our bout and I saw that it was filling with water and I said to my mother ‘’Why is there water in our bout?’’ And then my parent looked to the bottom and they noticed that we were sinking. We had forgotten the plug to our gottage with would had prevented the water coming into our bout. We realized that we were in a hurry otherwise we would had sinked. We rowed very fast to our cottage and we pulled it trough but it was really close that we would had been the ones who would needed the mediheli.