Greetings from Porvoo! This is us looking at your way and waving to you from across the sea. Just some small islands in between and a lot of salt water. We are now altogether 14 people. Katriina and I, four boys and eight girls. It is always possible that one or two students will join us as we go.
This beach is close to our school and we decided to walk down there to take some pictures yesterday. Katriina and I gave the students some words in English like for example beautiful, free, happy, adventure and asked them to take photos to match the words. The students made up some words also and took more photos to match the new words. Next week we will try to compose a blog post to show you their photos.
We also talked about our project and about the trip to Latvia in the spring. The students are very excited about traveling and getting to know their peers in Sweden and Latvia. Katriina and I wanted to tell them the ground rules right in the beginning and they all understood that anyone who misbehaves or fails to obey the rules will be excluded from the trip. They were very worried about not being able to speak English, and we tried to reassure them that it is our job to teach them.
We felt much positive energy from this group and the two hours we spent together yesterday seemed to go by so quickly and effortlessly. I think both the students and we teachers share a heart-felt wish and that is to find a way to give these wonderful kids an opportunity to feel that they can succeed and show them that they are citizens of the world.
Can I Help You? - Teacher Blog 
Hello Annika, It was so nice to hear from you!Our school year is also going to start on the 3rd of September this year because the 1st of September is on Saturday this year.
We are busy with conferences and paperwork before we start. Just looking at the photos – how old are your participants of the project? I’m the class teacher of the 7th graders, they are 13-14. I would like to participate with them but it really depends on the age group. We were for 2 days camping at a farm house before the school starts. I’ll try to upload some photos later.
A big smiley and hallo from Sweden! The photos are very nice, indeed! I believe that everything is possible in the world, we just have to follow our heart and never give up. I always remind my students that we all have the freedom to choose which way we follow, but, on the other hand, we don’t have the freedom to choose the consequences. In this sense, we are looking forward to working and learning with/from you, to building “bridges of friendship” over the sea.
And Gaida, my students are also from year 7; I think it will work perfectly, Annika’s older ones can “keep an eye” on the younger “sisters and brothers”! :)
Hi Gaida and Catrin!
It is so wonderful to hear from you after the long summer vacation! I agree with you Catrin, you said it so well: our students will be happy to be the bigger sisters and brothers to your students. Our students are so worried about not being able to communicate that I think that it will be a relief for them to realize that your students are a bit younger. We are looking forward to your posts! These two wordpress -sites that we use (one for teachers, one for students) are also for your use. So you are more than welcome to write your own posts here too. If your students want to post on the same blog with us, you are welcome to do that also. If you’d rather have a site of your own where we can comment, you can easily open one at wordpress.com
Talk to you more soon!
Enjoy the autumn!
Pingback: Student Blog Started! « Can I Help You? – Teacher Blog