Raini and Sienna, Minna and Kathy and Jaana and Yiwen kept in touch during the Spring 2016 via WeChat. WeChat was the best option, because it worked both in China and Finland. It was also possible to use the Web WeChat with the computer, so it made communicating and sending attachments more convenient.

In China the volunteers also created the Finland-China chat group, that we used to communicate and share information about the conference. Tiina, Raini, Minna and Jaana also had their own group, that was easy way to keep in touch and share pictures while everyone was in the different school building.

All Finnish-Chinese co-worker pairs wrote their project plan together about the theme that was suitable for both countries, for the students of both teachers and also for professors and team leaders in both countries. During the Spring all pairs chatted, sent attachments, shared ideas, improved the project plan many times and also Minna and Raini had a few Facetime voice calls with their partners before the Finnish team arrived in Beijing.

After arriving in Beijing the Finnish team meet their Chinese partners for the first time. It was exciting moment for them all! After talking and getting know each other a little bit better, pairs started their work with students. All 25 students were at first very excited, because they didn’t know each other or even the Chinese teacher. That’s why on the first lesson we had to get to know each other by playing different kind of “getting know each other” games. The students also made the name tags by using their English name.

All teachers and students worked together in Beijing for 3-4 days before the demo lesson. During working Chinese professors and Tiina gave them advices how to improve their project and also told them how well all pairs worked together. It was nice to get positive feedback, because all teachers worked hard before and after arriving in Beijing.

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After every hard working day we had dinner with Chinese or Americans. In Beijing we got a chance to have a dinner in Mongolian Hot Pot restaurant. Guali ordered us the traditional Chinese food, f. ex. boiled chicken legs – that was new for all of us. During the dinner time we enjoyed also a traditional Chinese performance and saw how the noodles were made longer and longer. On the another evening we had dinner with our Chinese teacher partners. Then we tasted the Beijing roasted duck – it was so delicious and we also liked a lot of the dessert called “Bomb”.

It is a fine opportunity to work with a colleague and a class from China. My students have asked lot of questions from their new friends, like: How long are your school days? What is your favourite movie? What hobbies do you have? It is good to see that there are things that are pretty much the same in both countries but also to see and to understand the differencies. My students were quite amazed about schooldays in Beijing: 5th graders have eight school hours per day!

My students have made A3-sized postcards to their friends in Beijing. I will take them to China as a souvenir from Finland.

Raini Sipilä, SYK

A lot of things has happened this spring between Helsinki and Beijing. I have got WeChat -messages nearly everyday from my Chinese colleague Sienna,  my class has worked well with the theme Nest and now Sienna’s class in Beijing has started the project aswell.

Today we finally met: a FaceTime call let us talk face to face. I think it is marvellous how technology helps us to build relationships between people from different parts of the world. I and Sienna had a wonderful conversation about our schools, our jobs as teachers, and about becoming GEC Conference. We decided to meet at least twice before our teaching demo. We also decided to make another FaceTime call on next Monday so that our students could see each other and ask some questions. It is nice that the same project is happening in Finland and in China at the same time!

Raini from SYK

Co-operation with Chinese colleagues has started slowly. I think the main problem was that I didn’t success to create a GEC-email account – so my Chinese colleagues perhaps thought I was too lazy to answer their e-mail. But as the summer – and the GEC Conference – gets closer the more we chat  – by WeChat.

My Chinese colleagues are Ms. Xiaoshuang Xi and Ms. Haijing Du from Beijing Zhongguancun 4th. Primary School. I have chatted mostly with Xiaoshuang (Sienna) and we have thought our project based learning unit. At the moment it seems that our topic will be a Nest. It will be marvelous to see what will happen in Helsinki and what will happen in Beijing. This is a fine opportunity for me to see how things work in China and how I and my Chinese colleagues will build a project together.

My 3rd graders have made video and Power Point -presentations about Helsinki. I have tried to send them to China, but for some reason I haven’ t succeeded. But we keep on trying!

Raini Sipilä, SYK

Innokas Network was invited to take part to the Finnish Education Conference in Hong Kong in February 2016. There were up to 10 representatives from cities and comapanies from Finland.

The Conference was hosted by FinnCham’s Education Committee and it was the first ever in Hong Kong. There were over 120 guests including local media. We were welcomed to the Event by Stuart Patton, Chairman of Education Committee, Finnish Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong and Jari Sinkari, Finnish Consul General to Hong Kong & Macao.

There were three key note speeches, Innokas Network was one of them. The presentation was based on the Innovative school model and it covered experiences and best practices in innovation and technology education and 21^st century learning all over Finland.  As part of Espoo delegation the presentation also covered some best practices and projects in Espoo schools. There were two other key note speakers, Kristiina Erkkilä, Director of Development for the Education and Cultural Services from Espoo and Hanna Wirman, Research Assistant Professor, School of Design from Hong Kong Polytechnic University.

Edutech companies, Fun Academy, Mobie Oy, xEdu, Carbon to Soil, Solu, Skillpixels & Headai presented Education Technology Perspectives from Finland.

During the travel we visited some schools and after school tutoring company in Hong Kong. It was very interesting to experience a very different school culture. Assessments are in a very big role in Hong Kong and there is a need for a reform. Especially parents are worried because of the pressure of exams. They feel that children do not have time enough to relax and play and they are all too exhausted. Some schools have already began the reform process and they are making learning more joyful.

During the travel there were many conversations on possible ways to integrate Finnish edutech tools into Hong Kong, and how to collaborate and learn from each other moving forward. One possibility in school level is twinning between schools. Jalavapuisto School in Espoo as part of Global Innokas Network was planned to begin a partnership with The Mission Covenant Church Holm Glad No. 2 Primary School.

In March two visitors from Hong Kong, Stuart Patton, Chairman of Education Committee, Finnish Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong and Nicholas Wang from EDiversity Committee visited Finland and there was a possibility to visit Jalavapuisto school. Teacher Hanna Mäkynen gave a tour around their school and discussion on partnerships was going on. We’ll stay on waiting to hear more of this school partnership.

Best wishes from Hong Kong and Global Innokas,

Innokas coordinator Minna

At last Global Innokas -meeting teachers from different parts of Finland gathered together, had great conservations but also built mental bridges together. The idea of ‘Our Neighbour School’ started to grow in teachers’ minds: we decide to connect our classes here in Finland by FaceTime and Skype. We didn’t tell our pupils what part of Finland we were going to connect them; they had an opportunity to make up some questions to find out the city where the other class was.

So during past couple of weeks pupils in Helsinki have been searching Finland. Boys and girls have made little presentations about Helsinki and we will send them to both Oulu and Hankasalmi. Today we saw a wonderful trailer made by Hankasalmi teachers and pupils!

We had difficulties with Skype: weather we saw only picture or just heard voices. We’ll try again! But FaceTime worked fantasticly. Pupils in Helsinki were really exited to talk with pupils from Hankasalmi. This work will continue!

– Raini, SYK