Young entrepreneurs

If you are interested in business and employing yourself, you can also attend an entrepreneurial course at our school.  Part of the lessons are in English so that the students can learn the basic terms of business communicaton in that language.  Part of the lessons consist of visiting some major companies in this region.

On 26th April the students and the teachers visited Ikaalinen Spa, where marketing director Harri Laine gave us a lively and thorough lecture on marketing and developing new business ideas, especially dealing with tourism.

  

Team spirit of the French group

During the following weeks, we are going to visit some courses and tell you what they are doing. 

One special thing in our school is the possibility to study very many languages.  Even though the number of students who want to study an extra language might be small, they still have the opportunity to learn the language they like.

Maiju visited the French class of the first year students  (at the moment the only students studying French in our school) :

The number of the French students is quite small (3) but despite the small size of the group,  the lessons are held as usual.   Annamari, Kalle and Juuso told me what their French lessons are like.

First we talked about the pros and cons of the small size of the group.  The students found much more pros. In a small group they find it easier to ask for help if they have problems with their studies. They can progress at their own speed and nobody will be overshadowed by the others. They don’t feel any pressure in the group because they have known each other since primary school – everybody feels comfortable and the team spirit is great. It is also really flexible to study in a small group.

Then I asked what kinds of methods they use in the lessons. The teacher, Jaakko Laaksonen, told me that they do a lot of listening exercises and practices with computers – the students use them in almost every lesson.  All of the material is also in a digital form and the students don’t use much paper or notebooks. That sounds great!

Annamari and Juuso are also studying Russian in addition to French - and all of them are of course studying English and Swedish.

I asked them a few more questions:

Do you think you will need French in the future? Maybe in the working life?

-          I might be interested in some kind of international work, so it would be useful to  
       speak French in the future , says Annamari.

To whom would you recommend French studies?

       -          Anybody can study French – all of us have started from the zero, says Juuso.

-          It requires  nerves to study French, it is not the easiest language to learn, Kalle says.

-          French is worth trying and it’s possible to cope with. Don’t be scared of it!,   Annamari exhorts.

After the “interview” Annamari, Kalle and Juuso begin to focus their attention on the vocabulary test which Jaakko is going to have for them. “Good luck!” I say and leave the French students studying.

Maiju Aalto 2A

Gaudeamus Hodie

Gaudeamus Hodie

Let’s be glad today!

Our school is full of sunny, glad and happy people. On Wednesday the 18^th of April some of them shared their happiness and joy to older people by singing. The students of one of the extra music courses went to the local old people's home to spend their lesson there. Their energetic teacher Johanna had planned the program, which included one hour singing to and with the old people. She had also made booklets of the notes, so everyone could sing along. 

They started their show with a song in Latin! It told us what the show was all about: Let’s be glad today!  An hour included a lot. Many well-known, evergreen songs, singing together, tears, laugh and of course, happiness. We made even the sun come out! Some of the old ones were deeply touched, but still they sang with us. The songs were traditional Finnish songs, so all of the audience knew them. The songs may also have reminded them of something from their past.

It was very nice to see how much light and joy we can bring to this world just by singing. The old people were very happy to see us there and wanted to talk with us. It shows how we should not forget anyone, not even those who may forget us in five minutes. This visit gave at least me happiness for the rest of the day and made me open my eyes for the power of music. 

Written by Eeva Linnainmaa, 1B

Diploma in visual arts

Besides taking the matriculation examination in the academic subjects, skilled students can also earn a diploma in drama, sports, music and visual arts.  However, it is not a very common thing for our students to do as it requires a lot of work on top of all the studying.  So it was very great news to hear that Emmi Turppa (3B) just earned a diploma in visual arts, and with flying colours.  She got the very best grade for her work of art.  Emmi wrote a story about heroism and illustrated it in the form of a cartoon.  She then had it printed.

     

I wanted to ask Emmi a couple of questions about her project:

1.  When did you decide to start doing this project?                                                                            
-  When I applied to this school, it was clear to me that I would do this because both of my brothers had also earned this diploma.  On the other hand, I don’t honestly know what kind of reason that is for doing something that requires such a huge amount of work.

2.  So it must have been really hard to find time for creative work while studying for all the other subjects.  How long did it take?                                                                                                            
-  I worked four months on it, little by little. I was awfully busy in the autumn as we always got loads of homework in mathematics. Towards the end, I started to feel bored but, after all, it was great to notice my own progress as time went on and I created more and more pages.

3.  You had six topics to choose from.  Why did you want to draw a cartoon on heroism?
-  I have been interested in the Japanese cartoon culture for a long time.  So that task attracted me more than the others, and I was quite lucky to be able to choose a topic that I was already interested in.  This topic also made it possible for me to deal with the Christian Faith which plays a very big role in my own life.

4. Have you drawn cartoons earlier?                                                                                                      
-  No, this was my very first cartoon.  I usually like to concentrate on one picture for a longer time, so I draw and paint separate pictures and convey opinions and feelings without any text.

5. Was it difficult to create the story?  How did you get the idea for it?                                            
   - At first it was difficult as I didn’t know how to approach such a large concept.  I got the idea one day when I was walking my dog as usual, pondering my more or less profound thoughts.  I just started to look at the sky and interpret it in a symbolic way.  At first I looked at it in the same way as you do in the beginning of my book but then I realized something and you can find this final interpretation in the end of my cartoon.  I noticed that this was a good starting point for the cartoon, and these thoughts formed the frame work for the story.  After this basic plot, the rest of the story came quite easily, e.g. bullying which has been a very actual topic for a long time.  (Even though in Zenith’s case it was more about discrimination than about active bullying by calling names etc.)

                                                     The first page of the story.

6. The name of your cartoon is Zeniitti (the Zenith).  What does is it mean?
-  The zenith is the highest point in the sky, directly above you. The term is used in astronomy, so with it I was able to combine science with my art.

7.  Are you going to apply to study visual arts, will you become an artist?   
- No, I’m not.  I don’t think that’s the way to help other people, especially now that Finland is full of talented artists. But I will go on drawing and painting on my own.

8.  To whom would you recommend this kind of project? 
 - To all students who are interested in visual arts, ready to work hard and develop.  When you work for this diploma, you have a great possibility to learn everything, from different visual techniques to drawing the human anatomy in the correct way – whatever you want to learn.

9.  Any other
comments?                                                                                                                                
  -  The aim of my cartoon is to make the readers think about heroism themselves to find out who their own heroes are. My own opinion is very strong but the readers may and are allowed to disagree.

So if you want to have a closer look at Emmi's book, you can find it in the school library.

Matriculation examinations

The past few weeks after the winter holiday have mainly consisted of the matriculation examinations.  The third year students have been busy cramming for their final exams and sitting in them for six hours every second day.  The teachers, on the other hand, have been marking piles of papers.

                              Third year students are getting ready for their exam on 14th March, 2012. 

Most third year students will finish their matriculation exams on Friday, 23rd of March, with mathematics.
A handful of very industrious ones will still take Russian or French exams on 26th March.  After that the third year students are free to go, and we'll meet them again in the graduation ceremony at the beginning of June.

The old dances, the best day ever !

The best thing at senior high school takes place in the second grade. In February the third year students leave school and the second year students become the kings of the school. This is so great that it has to be celebrated by dressing at least like the royal!

On February 17^th all the girls woke up between five and seven, the guys a little later. All the girls were like princesses! The dresses were of all colours and everybody had their hair done beautifully. Guys were handsome in their black suits and it kind of felt as if dressing in fancy clothes made them behave like gentlemen! 

                                 The celebration started with drinking a toast to the new oldest students.

First in the morning we danced to the younger senior high school students and the junior high school. The first year students had decorated the gym so it was easy to get in a good mood. 

 

Then we went to perform to Kyröskoski primary school where we also danced the cicapo-dance as an extra performance with the sixth grade pupils. 

Some of us were also dancing in the nursing home, health center and kindergartens. 

In the evening, there was the proper prom where our parents and relatives had been invited to. We, the old ones, were dancing eight different dances to the audience (at least those danced who didn’t have a foot in a plaster).  At the end we also danced with our parents and some brave ones asked their teachers to dance, too. 

A lot of time was reserved for photographing and of course there were dozens of people who wanted to capture this memorable day.   

After the official party at school we headed for a restaurant and enjoyed the good food. Then we went to have fun with each other to the place we had booked for us. And what happened there - only the people who were there know … 

None of us will ever forget that day. This is our time. We are the young ones now. And also the old ones but however… So, thanks to all who made this day possible! And thanks to all the second year students, you made this day outstanding!

Written by Maiju Aalto, 2A

The farewell party of the third year students

Out with the old, in with the new

Thursday 16^th of February was the day of the third year students. It was the last day of school for them before the studying break for the matriculation exams and leaving our high school behind. They had made a lot of work before the day. They had planned and practiced, laughed and filmed a lot and it was worth it.

Right in the morning all of the other students went to the gym. Soon the third year students arrived. They had dressed up like in the army, and were marching and singing, just like they do in the army. The gym had been decorated with a camp, a “Happy Place” and “The Bad Place”. Their show’s main point was, as always, to make fun of the teachers, and make the students look like a winner. So they did. 

The teachers had to play a short play, dance and use their own skills to beat the students. But, as you can guess, they didn’t succeed. The students were the winners and all of our teachers had to go to The Bad Place.

 

Of course, always when something ends, you have to even try to make people cry. So the third year students sang to us about their high school time. If somebody didn’t cry after the song, at least the video made them cry. On the video were baby pictures of the students. They were cute, as babies always are, and you could hear “awwwwww” -sounds from the audience. 

The third year students remembered the teachers, but they didn’t forget us, the first year students, either. They had messed up the hallway and we had to clean it up. Luckily it was only ripped newspapers and toilet paper. 

We saw an interesting and funny video, of course, made by the third year students. They had played and filmed a play, where they were playing the teachers. It made all of us laugh, because they were just like the teachers. They had also filmed ordinary school days and each-others in the school.  

At 12.00 started the thing everybody had been waiting for. A decorated truck came to the yard and the loading began. The third year students came out one by one and jumped on the truck. They were also throwing candy at us “little ones”. When everybody was on the truck, they left, still throwing candy. They went to other schools like elementary and vocational school to throw candy and show their outfits.

The old ones are gone, and now the second year students are taking their place and power. We first year students are waiting for the fall and new students to come so we won’t be the youngest anymore.

Written by Eeva Linnainmaa 1B