Karviaistie School is a special school for 70 students ranging from grades 1-9. They trialled Slam Out Loud as a part of the Helsinki Education Division Tailor Made project.
Karviaistie School
Implementation of Slam Out Loud
place
Karviaistie School
Tailor-Made
Overview
This implementation is a part of the project:
1
Schools
2
Educators
15
Students
Updated
November 2023
One of the key takeaways I have gained from this experience is the importance of consistently implementing practices that develop students' emotional skills, which in turn helps boost their self-esteem.
About the implementation
What did you do in practice?
Slam Out Loud designed a 12-week curriculum focusing on Social Emotional Learning (SEL) through Art for Karviastie School. Each lesson is intended to take 45 min with one lesson taking place per week.
Why did you do this implementation trial?
Anton and Mirka were looking for ways to continue the work that they have been doing as a school to develop SEL skills, to make students feel comfortable and to take action. They were also looking forward to learning from each other and collaborating with Slam Out Loud. One key draw for Anton and Mirka to this collaboration is the opportunity for their students to participate in an international project. Being part of an international project is a rare opportunity for the students at the school, so they really valued the chance to interact with Slam Out Loud team members!
Impact
How did the implementation go?
Throughout this trial, Anton and Mirka have tried several new strategies, some of which they would consider reusing again in the future. They feel that there are definitely practices and methods that they learned throughout the programme that could be used in other situations or classes.
Learning Journey
School Visit
Innovators from Slam Out Loud visited Karviastie School to get a real grasp of the reality of the school environment. They discussed what kinds of themes would be relevant for the students and what types of artwork would be feasible for them to complete.
Kick Off
HundrED facilitated a kick off meeting online with Slam Out Loud (SOL) and Karviaistie School. The purpose of the meeting was to recap learnings from the school visit and start ideating together how they could bring SOL into practice. We discussed everyone's goals and expectations and SOL presented 3 different curricula they offer. Anton and Mirka expressed that Social Emotional Learning through Art would be the most appropriate and interesting for their classrooms. They discussed that they would like to emphasise self-reflection and peer assessment throughout the programme.
Reflection Meeting
HundrED facilitated a reflection meeting during which the Mirka shared that, "Students are quite happy. (The SOL curriculum) It’s simple, it’s easy to go, easy to do, and easy to be creative; at least based on the first practice, it’s about how we use it and make it work; students laughed about this ‘breathing’ activity, so it’s funny for them to follow these ‘rules’ but then they are reminded about this routine and they are learning how to use breathing as a relaxing tool. We hope that it will help with concentration.”
Adaptations
One thing that the teachers had to change were the handouts intended to provide feedback among the students. The handouts were only provided in English, so they could not use them. Instead, they did peer feedback in Finnish by going around, looking at each other’s artwork and giving feedback to one another.
Another challenge was that Mirka’s students cannot read or write yet so it is too difficult for them to fill out a form. Instead, Mirka used a creative work-around - she asked the students to do self-assessment with movement.
Ending Celebration
Karviastie School hosted a showcase in which students were able to display three of their favourite pieces of artwork in the school hallway. HundrED team members attended the showcase in person and SOL innovators joined online!
During the showcase, the students recapped their learnings from the entire programme. Then, they provided peer feedback by putting stickers on each other’s displayed artwork.
We handed out certificates of participation to each of the students. The students were really happy to receive something concrete.
Final Reflections
During our final reflection meeting, Anton shared that today was the first week where they did not have the SOL sessions on Tuesday mornings. Even though they did something completely different, they are proud that the students were able to cooperate and follow instructions quite well. The flow they are now able to achieve with the students is partly thanks to this 14-week project that gave them the opportunity to practise this collaboration and working style.
Location
Karviaistie School is a special school for 70 students ranging from grades 1-9. This school offers a safe and cheerful environment where student wellbeing is the foundational value. Cooperation between students and with teachers is very important at Karviaistie School, so there is no problem with adding a bit of flexibility into the school day and schedule. To account for each individual student’s unique needs, they are each given an individualised learning plan.
Karviaistie School