Teach Like Finland: 33 Simple Strategies for Joyful Classrooms

Timothy Walker’s book does an excellent job of describing the attitudes and classroom atmosphere that has made Finland’s schools some of the best in the world. His provides practical advice and insights on creating a classroom in which the students are engaged, empowered and enjoy their time at school. I greatly appreciated Mr. Walker’s openness and honesty as he shares stories of both his successes and failures in the classroom. I could tell from the first page that he loves what he does, loves his students and wants every classroom to be filled with joy. New teachers will find many ideas and practices that can serve as a great foundation for teaching. As for those of us with a number of years in the classroom, you will be encouraged by his stories and I am sure you will find something that you can put into practice today. You may want to move to Finland after reading this book, but Mr. Walker’s desire doesn’t appear to be to get you to go there but to show you how you can bring a little bit of Finland’s success to your classroom.

This book was full of insights and made me think about my own classroom. It reminded me of when I felt most successful and when I felt like I was barely holding on. It let me know I am not alone but that there are small ways to get back to the joy of teaching. It was such a positive and motivational read.

Had some great, simple ideas. I thought he leaned a little too much on a few examples, but overall, a quick and enjoyable read with some immediate application for the classroom.

Great read! I know my school has implemented some of these strategies before. It was interesting to read the logic behind the educational decisions. I will definitely be more cognizant of aligning my mind set to this joyous curriculum! It will not only help in my profession but in my life as well.

I loved all the tips in this book. I was able to use them at home during the pandemic to help with our remote learning. I have 3 kids: a 5 year old, a 3 year old and a soon to be toddler to keep busy. The best tip so far has been sending the kids out for unstructured recess to get some fresh air so they are able to better focus on what tasks we are doing that day. My eldest learned how to read and do pretty hard math a lot faster with the tips in this book this summer. It was almost effortless to teach them and was fascinating to watch the kids learn new concepts. These tips also work wonderfully for our Reggio Emilia based way of learning and I was not really keen on pushing academics on kids this young or virtual school, so I was surprised by the energy and love of learning the kids have been showing. Thanks!

Excellent summary of 33 strategies based on the analysis (with personal experience) of Finnish school education system compared to US school system to create an environment of joyful classrooms.

This book was a disappointment in many ways. I would have liked to know the details of the national curriculum so that comparisons could be made with the US Common Core standards. The author states that much of what goes on in Finnish classrooms is independent work, but he doesn't provide sufficient samples of that work. He could have been more informative regarding the grading process and how a student's progress was communicated to parents. He doesn't say whether or not he was well accepted by his Finnish parents, or whether a language barrier posed a problem (are most Finns fluent in English?). My own reading on Finnish education compared to typical American education, especially in the area of math, showed that Finnish children delved deeply into a limited number of concepts, learning them to mastery, while American children were presented with far too many concepts, few of which were mastered. This informed the development of the Common Core standards, but the author does not mention this is his book. We are given peeks into Finnish education, and provided with lots of mostly common sense teaching strategies, but the heart of the matter, that which allows Finland to rise above the vast number of world-wide educational systems, remains mostly undisclosed.

I am in my 3rd reread of this book. Tend to reread it each August before I begin another school year teaching my 2nd graders. Love the author's perspective as being an overloaded American educator and learning so much from the Finland educational system. I find the book validating, inspiring and renewing in my efforts to teach the whole child emotionally, socially AND academically. So worth purchasing to have when you need a lift in your teaching trials.

A must read for all teachers! Walker clearly expresses how you can apply the Finnish educational teaching philosophies anywhere in the world. He walks you through the strategies that will enrich your teachings skills and enable you to instill the joy of learning in your students.

This is must read for all educations from all over the world. There are many practices with student centric and making learning an enjoyful.

What makes Finnish schools so great. I think we often get bamboozled by statistics used to compare Finland to the rest of the world. But underneath the statistics, there are also subtle differences in Finnish teaching that can not be measured. The Author of this book began teaching in US schools before moving to Finland with his Finnish wife and young kids. There he discovered first hand the differences in the approaches Finnish teachers take to schooling. The key differences are surprising, for example creating joy, teachers being less competitive and having a good work life balance. There are a lot of myths that he dispels (Finnish teachers do a lot of summative testing for example). As a teacher I found this a book packed with ideas to reflect on and implement in my classes.

Really interesting

Me gustó bastante! Está lleno de sugerencias prácticas para mejorar el ambiente de cualquier clase y aplicables a cualquier nivel educativo. Pero también hace una reflexión sobre las diferencias entre el sistema educativo finlandés y el resto del mundo y porque algunas cosas pueden aplicarse o no, fuera de Finlandia. Con respecto a la calidad del libro, es bastante buena. Las hojas son gruesas y mate, así que leerlo es cómodo; y la pasta es dura, lo que también protege bastante la edición. Al menos es un libro que yo si he recomendado.