Fulbright Distinguished Awards in Teaching Program

Summative Report

Martha Infante

Break Time and Nature: The Twin Secrets of Finnish Education Success

United States of America

2017-2018

July 9, 2018
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Program Experience

One cannot begin to digest the experience that is the Fulbright Distinguished Award in

Teaching for the sheer magnitude of the impact it has on one personally, professionally, and

emotionally. But as this is our task, I must begin with deep sense of satisfaction that I have

participated in one of the most life-changing experiences I could hope for as a teacher.

Before embarking on this journey, it was sometimes common that the parents were

unfamiliar with the Fulbright program. They trusted, however, that I was taking a journey for

the benefit of the students, and that I would bring back ideas to improve education at my South

Central Los Angeles middle school. “Que Dios la bendiga,” they told me. May God bless you.

Participation in the August Orientation and the Fulbright Finland webinars empowered

me to undertake the challenge of moving across the world to a place with no friends or family,

only colleagues. The timing of the orientation, and the caliber of the workshops sparked ideas

that I had not considered, namely about securing compensation from your district, were

instrumental in successful planning for a period abroad.

Personal Highlights

First, I personally found so much joy in school visits. Following the advice of Fulbright

DAT alumni, I sent out an entreaty to the contacts provided to me by my faculty advisor,

Professor Bob Foster at UCLA, and my own research, and attached my Fulbright application to

it. I offered to make presentations at schools and 99% of them asked me to make one. It was

after these presentations, when I had made a connection to students, that I was able to
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conduct my research. I offered to present on the topics of California, U.S. Culture, Mexican-

Americans in the U.S., and Donald Trump. The latter was always a popular subject.

My goal was to present a realistic picture of not only successes but the troubles we are

experiencing in the U.S. and to also explain how our system of government is designed to

prevent one person from dismantling our society. Additionally, I shared extensively about the

lives of my students in South Central Los Angeles and made a point of highlighting the talents

that even the most marginalized of Americans carry within. This was my favorite feedback from

a Finnish student after a presentation:

Considering that Finnish students are very quiet, the verbal and written feedback I

received was excellent.

My second personal highlight was developing friendships with my faculty advisor Hanna

Poylio and other Fulbright teachers. We had been advised that our Finnish friends tend to be

reserved and quiet, and we would need to make cultural adjustments to our approaches in
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networking. This was all true. But many times, our advisors are also curious about our lives in

the U.S. and this proved to be the case with Hanna. During our bi-weekly meetings, we covered

not only the goals of my project, but discussed her goals in her career as well. Hanna went out

of her way to make me feel welcome, inviting me to her home, to concerts, office parties, and

other social events. Along with Hanna, I made some terrific acquaintances and have kept in

contact with them through social media.

My third personal highlight was being able to travel through Finland and other Nordic

countries, to get a deeper understanding of life under the Nordic Model. How could I

understand what was happening in schools if I didn’t understand the culture? Traveling to the

Arctic, Ostrobothnia, and Helsinki gave me a wider view of what it means to be Finnish and

allowed me to have conversations with Russians, Spaniards, and Danes about Finland.

Professional Highlights

Networking with some of the most brilliant minds gathered under one roof was a

thrilling experience, and by far the greatest highlight of my Fulbright grant. When we had

meetings in Helsinki for the Finnish Orientation and the Spring Forum, it felt incredible to be

surrounded by talented, driven people whose goal was to learn and better themselves for the

sake of their home communities. Our Fulbright Finland colleagues put together events of

tremendous caliber and being able to network and mingle with researchers and lecturers from

Harvard and MIT was priceless.

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Figure 1 Spring Forum

Another highlight for me was meeting American author Timothy Walker, who has

written extensively about life as a teacher in Finland. I had followed his blog for years and read

his book about Teaching Like Finland and had hoped to meet him during my time there. We

follow each other on social media, so it was not too much of a surprise that he identified me at

the Educa Conference in Helsinki in the midst of 18,000 teachers. As a Mexican-American, I did

stand out a bit. “Are you Martha Infante?” he said in the middle of the exhibition hall. “Tim

Walker?” We were elated to finally meet. We connected again during the Awards ceremony in

May and networked with officials from the Ministry of Education. I thanked him for inspiring my

topic of break time and nature, and he in turn told me that my blog post on the trust in

teachers and schools had sparked an idea for his second book. Only Fulbright could have made

this possible.
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Figure 2 Martha Infante and Tim Walker

During our stay, Fulbright teachers were offered the opportunity to attend the Berlin

Seminar and meet the 550 Fulbrighters doing work in Germany. Together with a fellow teacher

and researcher, we spent a week networking with our colleagues in Berlin and heard a dynamic

speaker named Sawsan Chebli, a legislator of Muslim heritage. Her speech during our townhall

meeting was electrifying. Listening to the student presentations was also heartwarming

because it reminded me of the potential of our youth. It gave me faith that the future of our

country was in good hands.

Finally, my last professional experience that I valued was meeting so many of my Finnish

counterparts. To be able to spend a day in their lives was transformative. I learned that there is

not much difference between their lives and ours. This was good to know, because sometimes

we romanticize what we do not understand. There were so many times the teachers were

talking to or reprimanding students and I felt like I knew exactly what they were saying,
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because I recognized the tone or the context. The Finnish students would be confused,

wondering if I spoke Finnish, but it was that some scenarios are universal.

Not only did I spend time in the teachers’ classrooms, but I joined many of them during

break time and supervision. This gave me a more complete picture of their daily lives in schools.

From their fears of the future of Finnish education (i.e. the transition to electronic testing and

the new integrated curriculum) to their own curiosities about life in the U.S.

The most gratifying aspect of my time with teachers was when I would present to their

first class, and then would ask me to stay the entire day. They would tell their colleagues about

me who would often scrap their plans to accommodate an unscheduled presentation by me.

Considering the preparation that goes into each daily lesson, this was quite an honor. I wrote

about these visits at DontForgetSouthCentral.net

Sharing My Experience

The sharing of my experience started from even before I was awarded the grant. My

social media presence is strong for a teacher, and I hoped to inspire others to consider applying

for a Fulbright in the future. I find that posting during live events gives followers a feeling of

participating in the action. Many teachers thanked me for my frequent tweets, posts, blogs, and

photos. I plan to continue participating in all previous social media and including the #Fulbright

hashtag to reach a specific audience.

There is already a Fulbright effect in my school community. Students are aware that

there is a program that awards teachers the opportunity to study in a different country, and

that teachers are life-long learners. I made sure to stay in contact with students during my trip
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and even sent them a video message under an Aurora. They now know that teachers who look

like them, from the same humble backgrounds and immigrant origins can represent the United

States on a Fulbright fellowship.

Information about the Fulbright program has been distributed to the vast alum network

of former students, many of whom are currently in college. I plan to incorporate elements of

my experience throughout the school year and beyond. Examples of this would be by instituting

a class break time in the middle of the period and taking students outdoors on a regular basis.

My classroom will also be furnished with nature inside the classroom both through a plant wall

and stand-alone plants.

My Sway presentation will be shared with leaders in our district and my services to

present at different schools will be offered during the summer. I have contacted a key board
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member who is interested in learning about my experience. My union is also a place where I

can network with other teachers.

There are many organizations such as the Liink Project from Texas and Peaceful

Playgrounds from California who have also become interested in the idea of increasing break

time to mitigate the effects of over-testing and indoor time in their schools. I plan to join these

organizations and lend my personal experiences in Finland to strengthen their lobbying efforts.

Too often people dismiss Finland’s successes because they are considered too foreign and

different to be applied here in the U.S. My five-month residency in Finland can disprove that.

Project Description

The goal of my final product, a Sway presentation took a very long time for me to select.

There is so much power in a Fulbright inquiry that cannot be captured by a single product. I find

that conversations, networking, posting, and presenting are even more influential ways of

sharing my learning. Nonetheless, the Sway product will serve as a calling card to pique the

interest of my recipients, much like my Fulbright application did when I was making contacts

upon my arrival in Finland.

The presentation is not meant to be comprehensive. Depth was evident in the blog

posts written during my time in Finland. Being able to direct people to my blog has been

achieved, as seen by my analytics statistics. Since January, my site has been accessed over 1200

times, most notably from the U.S. and Finland.

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On Twitter, I have also been sharing prolifically, and these are some of the responses

received:
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Project Goals

In the U.S., schools can work smarter, not harder. Incorporating break time into the

school day is a low-cost, high return investments for cash-strapped schools. My goal is to lessen

the fear that schools have in relinquishing class time to students. It is important to realize the

kids are already not learning. They stopped learning at the 7-minute mark when their brain

failed to get a reset. If the students are already not learning, we have nothing to lose by giving

them a break. Ideally, schools would implement two to four 15-minute breaks during the school

day, not including a 30-minute lunch. My school, for example, already has five 5-minute passing

periods. If each of these were increased to 10 minutes, that would be an increase in break time.

Or, teachers could implement an unstructured break into their class time. There are small steps

schools can take to begin increasing break time, but there must be a vision and a will to do this.
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I plan to be a resource for schools and teachers who are interested in adopting this valuable

practice.

The greatest fear communicated to me by U.S. teachers is that students will not want to

return to classwork after the break. There is good reason to be concerned about this. Our

country does not have a history of ample break time. I propose that secondary schools phase in

break time, as students will have to learn new behaviors. Break times should be scheduled in

between classes to give the students a mental break between subjects. Breaks should also be

considered sacrosanct; in other words, they should not be removed as a punishment. Students

might misbehave if they feel they are participating in a system where they are not guaranteed a

break. They have nothing to lose. But if there is a guarantee of regular breaks, there is less of a

chance that they will act out in one last hurrah.

Topic of Inquiry

My topic, Break Time and Nature in School was selected because of the increased

behavior challenges I witnessed since the onset of high-stakes testing created by No Child Left

Behind Legislation. My students were not performing better when recess time was removed

from the schedule three years ago; in fact, there was a deterioration of behavior and academic

performance. Further, my students lack access to nature. My time in Finnish schools allowed

me to find ways of bringing nature indoors, such as Kuokkalan School:

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Figure 3 Kuokkalan School Inner courtyard

Relevance of Topic

Close to 40% of my students are in deep poverty and suffer food and housing insecurity,

physical and mental health problems, and violence from the crime in their neighborhood. Yet

like all children, they want to learn and want a better life. They just do not know how to get

there. While I wish I could transport Finland’s hot lunches, well-equipped schools, and ample

funding to our shores, I know that is not possible. But I can bring back strategies to give my

students an advantage that might give them the edge they need to make be successful in

school.
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Project Process

My initial inquiry was broader and was ultimately narrowed. I planned to study the

effects of break time and nature on gender equity, but what I found is that Finnish educators

are still pondering the same thing. I did not find enough data to make a contention that break

time shapes gender equity, one way or another. However, I did find ample research through

academic journals and meetings with experts during my time in Finland that break time and

nature are beneficial for the academic and mental well-being of students. In fact, students

themselves spoke highly of break time, for reasons one would not think:

‘’the brain has time to cool down and really think about what we have learned”
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“my brain gets ready for the next class”

“brains need little breaks and anyone can’t sit many hours ☹”
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“you get time to clear your thoughts or forget the previous subject and you have time to think

about the next one”

“you have some time to boost your energy”

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“especially for young children…its’s easier to concentrate”

“our brain would not work after two hours as well”

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Methods
In addition to interviews with students, I shadowed a nature school teacher for two days

in Kokkola, Finland and this gave me insight into how Finnish teachers become experts in

combining nature with the school curriculum. I met with leaders of nature organizations and

movement in school. Many conversations occurred with school teachers, principals, and

representatives from the ministry of education.

Results

Any doubt that the best practices of a top performing country cannot be duplicated in

an urban, public school have been dispelled. As a classroom teacher for 23 years, I recognized

my students in the Finnish classrooms I visited. Our students can benefit from increased break

time and an attempt to bring nature into the classroom or take the students to nature. There is

no reason why only affluent schools should embark on daring ideas or think outside of the box.

While schools like mine in an industrial part of town are limited in local field trip options, it does

not mean that there is no access to nature somewhere in the neighborhood. I am gratified to

learn that a nearby wetlands park will serve as an anchor to a satellite museum from the Los

Angeles County Museum of Art. This will provide more opportunities for students to leave their

classroom and continue their learning outside. If schools commit to taking advantage of the

mild Los Angeles climate through break time and nature, our students are sure to benefit

socially, academically, and mentally. What do we have to lose?

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Contact

Martha Infante, NBCT

Fulbright Teacher

Los Angeles Unified School District

Website: DontForgetSouthCentral.net

Email: martha.infante@gmail.com

Twitter: @AvalonSensei

Mobile: 1-323-270-0588