Teach Like Finland

33 Simple Strategies for Joyful Classrooms

By: Timothy D. Walker

Narrated by: Walter Dixon

Length: 5 hrs and 36 mins

Publisher's summary

Easy-to-implement classroom lessons from the world's premier educational system.

Finland shocked the world when its 15-year-olds scored highest on the first Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), a set of tests touted for evaluating critical-thinking skills in math, science, and reading. That was in 2001; but even today, this tiny Nordic nation continues to amaze. How does Finnish education - with short school days, light homework loads, and little standardized testing - produce students who match the PISA scores of high-powered, stressed-out kids in Asia?

When Timothy D. Walker started teaching fifth graders at a Helsinki public school, he began a search for the secrets behind the successes of Finland's schools. Walker wrote about several of those discoveries, and his Atlantic articles on this subject became hot topics of conversation. Here, he gathers all he learned and reveals how any teacher can implement many of Finland's best practices.

Remarkably, Finland is prioritizing the joy of learning in its newest core curricula and Walker carefully highlights specific strategies that support joyful K-12 classrooms and integrate seamlessly with educational standards in the United States.

From incorporating brain breaks to offering a peaceful learning environment, this audiobook pulls back the curtain on the joyful teaching practices of the world's most lauded school system. His message is simple but profound: these Finland-inspired strategies can be used in the US and other countries. No educator - or parent of a school-aged child - will want to miss out on the message of joy and change conveyed in this audiobook.

©2017 Timothy D. Walker (P)2017 Gildan Media LLC

Great book for a teacher

This book really helps to think about my classroom practise and gave me ideas to improve my teaching.

Oh how I wish!!

As an educator, I learned quite a lot after listening to this book. I will no longer beat myself up for circumstances that are beyond my control. However, I will do my best to implement as much of these practices as possible moving forward.

The citations drove me crazy!

Great book! Great take-aways! The only negatives were the constant citations. They became a bit distracting. Though I would still recommend this book.

Teach Like Finland?

This book has some interesting ideas, but it is obvious if you really want to teach like Finland, you probably need to move there. Also, I found the content more applicable to elementary grades. The author advocates for student voice, which is good, but in the area of content, I’m the expert in my classroom. I did agree with his approach to text book use-let’s not throw them out, but rather take the content map and allow for creativity and choice within the scope and sequence. I am a high school English teacher. I haven’t seen a text book in years. What I have seen is an environment where teachers pick and choose what they like to teach; young adult lit, anything where we can promote the latest social justice platform, and the list goes on. We are short changing our kids when this happens. Guess what? They are very likely going to read the latest John Green novel, and conversely, very unlikely to read Chaucer or Shakespeare. I would recommend this book because it supports my personal philosophy of classroom climate, but I don’t know if it is attainable broad scale in American schools, where the teacher that puts in the most hours before and after school is celebrated.

Finland...lets go!

Fantastic insight and great ideas! The reader though is so soft spoken it was difficult to hear throughout the book. I tried several devices and all were the same...I don't know if this can be corrected, but needs to be for full understanding.

Inspiring

I will re-read this book to refuel. I liked the pacing and the timbre of the reader as well as the many tips.

Inspiring

As a teacher this book inspired me to continue in the classroom. It affirmed that what we do is the right thing to do!

Very interesting

As a future teacher and someone who has attended school in the US her whole life, I found this audiobook to be very interesting. It gave me a better idea of the kind of teacher I want to be and ways in which I can bring some of the Teaching strategies of Finland into my American classroom. I really enjoyed it

little too technical

Nice but a little bit dry, I expected more of a personal narration. Probably better in written form.

Enjoyable but a tad unrealistic

This was an easy enjoyable read, however, the suggestions made to teachers were idealistic and not pragmatic.