Two months. Eight weeks. In about sixty days I will be on a plane with my family on our way to Helsinki then Jyvaskyla to embark on my Fulbright adventure. I feel like there is more I should be doing, yet at the same time I feel like we have most of the big things settled or can’t do much yet. We don’t have plane tickets yet; we are waiting for our Finnish residence permits to arrive but once they are here we’ll be booking flights. We do have a place to stay. The girls are registered for school. Adam researched and found a health insurance plan. My mentor has been in touch several times so I’ve got some ideas of conferences to attend, people to meet and things to see. My fellow Finnish Fulbright friends have been sending group emails about our progress on finding housing, conference registration and the purchase of warm winter gear. It still seems totally unreal to me that my family and I are moving to Finland for six months. The other day I had my first bit of panic thinking about being trapped on a plane for over eight hours (with my two extremely energetic daughters). Then I remembered it’s all for this incredible learning, growing and living experience we will share together.
As I spend some time thinking about what I want to learn about in Finland I’ve thought a lot about my current job and what is going well and what I want to improve. Today I was visited by a colleague of a nearby boarding school and she asked what I would change about our learning support program if given the chance. I’m very proud of my program and the direction it is moving and the progress my students make. My first thought was that I’m always wishing for more time with my students. I also started to mumble something about having more help in the classroom. But then I realized where my frustration lies. I spend too much time having to triage the issues my students bring in, and not enough time preventing the issues from occurring.
I teach learning support classes in small groups. When faced with three students I have to choose with whom to work first. So if one student has history homework that was due the previous day, one has a math test the next period and the third has a history paper due in a week, the student with the math test next period is probably going to get my immediate attention, followed by harping on the student to finish his history homework. The student that I most want to work with is the one with whom I can take the time to outline an essay and talk about thesis sentences, great opening lines, or places to start researching. Instead I often end up breathing a sigh of relief that the paper isn’t due for days and I don’t have to try to figure out a way to work in time for that third student in just forty minutes and can send him or her to try the outline independently. Of course I find time to fit that student in as well and we do get to look at the outline and work on it together. It's just not my first priority of the period.
I would say the majority of my day is spent putting out fires - some are large and require major interventions, others are just little flames but also need immediate attention before they spread. Rarely do I get the opportunity to teach fire prevention. No matter how hard I try or how many hours I work, there are always students falling behind and I just can’t keep them all caught up all the time. Some of the students fall behind because of a lack of their own effort, but most fall behind because they struggle with the executive function skills to plan, organize, manage their time, keep track of assignments, and execute the plans. Of course I try to teach these skills in my classes, but they don’t all stick the first time through...or the second...or the third. Students struggling with ADHD by definition have weaknesses in executive functions that will not just get better by teaching them about a planner. The frontal lobe, the part of the brain responsible for this rational thought, doesn’t even start to develop until age fifteen. It’s not done developing until 25, or often later in students and adults with ADHD. So I’m going into battle against a brain that simply isn’t even ready to absorb the skills I want to teach. So then I’m left with my predicament. And, once again, I’m left with a choice. When a student comes into my classroom and I have forty minutes I can choose what to do. But if the choice is to get the history homework done that was due earlier in the day and try to cram a little bit for the physics test that is in two periods or take the time to make sure the student has written in his planner, has his papers in folders, and understands the importance of making flashcards in advance of a quiz I have to choose to get the work done. I hate that choice. I don’t always feel good about making that choice. I don’t always feel I’m doing right by the student in the long run by making that choice. But what else can I do?
I wonder what other teachers do? I wonder if teachers in Finland find themselves in the same predicament. Do students have the same type and amount of homework? Are students taught executive function skills differently there? What do Finnish teachers think is their biggest struggle? So many questions and I can't wait to get some answers!