After the Global Forum- Story of a Winning project

Five years ago I went to an job interview. At that time I had no idea that the interview would completely change my professional life. I was accepted to the job and my journey in Patamäki school started. For five years I've been really fortunate to work with the most amazing group of Educators. We are not just some teachers working in the same building, we are a really tight community that wants to work and learn together.

The real leaps of innovation we've taken in the past two years after our school was accepted to the Partners in Learning community as a Pathfinder school. We felt honored and during that year we learned a lot about the 21st century skills and the use of ICT in education. Even though we had always been an Innovative community, we realized how much further we can go. We wanted to do something that would give our students some totally new learning experiences. That was the main thought behind Patamäki corporation.

As some of you already know, I didn't do the project alone. I had two incredible partners who I want to introduce to you. Mr. Jukka Miettunen, our pedagogical manager, was the teacher who started the Kodu coding club in our school and trained the Kodu coaches. Based on that work and the thoughts of entrepreneurship my other colleague Mrs. Kaisa Loponen created the original idea of the project. Mrs. Loponen and Mr. Miettunen led the work of the game companies 3rd and 4th graders founded. Me and my 1st grade students were really proud to found the subcontractor companies to the corporation.

As I was the one chosen to the Expert Educator-program, I also got the chance to represent the project in the Global Forum. What most of you don't know is that as I was standing on the stage and receiving the prize, I wasn't there alone. I had my colleagues and about 70 students with me. After this school year our school is been closed and our community breaks up. Our work continues in different schools in our city but the memories of our amazing experiences together will stay alive for years and years to come!