Teach Like Finland: 33 Simple Strategies for Joyful Classrooms pdfdrive com

Happiness Track (2016), recalled her early experiences as an intern working for
a large newspaper in Paris, France. In the early morning hours, she would make
trips between the second floor and the basement transporting memos and other
items. On the second floor Seppälä observed many American writers in cubicles,
while in the basement she found working-class French press workers:
On the second floor, you could feel the tension in the air. The floor was
quiet except for the sounds of typing and printing. The editors—most of
them overweight with dark circles under their eyes—were huddled over
their screens, keeping to themselves and eating pizza at their desks. But
in the basement, the mood was downright festive. French wine, cheese,
and bread were all laid out on a huge table . . . Soon, I found myself
wishing for more reasons to join that joyful atmosphere.
Working at the newspaper, going back and forth between these two
groups got me thinking: Here was a team of people—editors, writers, and
press workers—working through the night to finish and distribute a

---

newspaper by dawn. Yes, it’s true that the two groups performed
different tasks and came from different cultures—but they were both
working to meet the same urgent deadline . . . Night after night, despite
the challenges, both groups successfully completed their jobs. Yet they
went about it in opposite ways: one group was stressed, burned out, and
unhealthy looking; the other happy, energetic, and thriving. (p. 1)
When I first read this passage in The Happiness Track, I immediately
thought of how closely Seppälä’s description of the newspaper’s second floor
mirrored my experiences within American schools and how her portrait of the
printing room paralleled my experiences within Finnish schools. Like the
American writers and the French workers, teachers in America and teachers in
Finland are working to meet a similar deadline—to get kids to learn every hour,
every day, every year. But, in my experience, the process in which that deadline
is met typically looks quite different in these two countries: one teaching
approach seems faster, harder, and more achievement focused, while the other
seems slower, softer, and more well-being focused.
“Decades of research have shown that happiness is not the outcome of
success but rather its precursor,” writes Seppälä. “In other words, if you want to
succeed, you have to be more like the French press workers in the basement”
(2016, p. 7).
The foundation for experiencing happiness is having our basic needs met, so
adequate sleep, food, water, clothing, and shelter are prerequisites for ourselves
and the students in our classrooms. In developed nations, like the United States
and Finland, teachers are not generally tasked with caring for children who enter
school with unmet basic needs. That said, more than 16 million U.S. children—
about 22 percent of the overall population—come from families with incomes
below America’s federal poverty level, according to the National Center for
Children in Poverty (2016), and I recognize, sadly, that a significant portion of
America’s student population experience food insecurity or even homelessness.
This situation, where children enter classrooms with unmet basic needs, is
uniquely challenging, and I’m not in a position to offer advice. What I can
suggest, though, are several strategies I’ve learned in Finnish schools that
promote the physical, emotional, and mental health of teachers and students.
And these simple steps, ultimately, improve the quality of teaching and learning
and make our classrooms more joyful.

---