10 Differences Between Schools In The US & Sweden

hey everybody and welcome back to my youtube channel in this episode we're gonna be talking about ten ways that Swedish schools are different from American schools [Music] the first thing to know about Swedish schools is they have an extreme lack of qualified educators here in this country so as an American coming from the states with the master's in teaching it was very very easy for me to find a job here in Sweden and actually having worked in two different schools both schools were very very easy to apply for and actually get the job so if you're qualified to work with kids it's really really easy to get a job as a teacher over here and that is one thing to consider when you're around the schools a lot of times they have to bring in long term substitutes and have people work at the schools that aren't necessarily qualified teachers to fill in in a lot of roles because teachers are in such high demand here in Sweden in terms of grades Swedish schools are much much different than American schools and the American Way is much simpler in my opinion because we use points of percentages if there's an assignment and you get nine out of ten you've got 90 percent on that assignment and over the course of a term you'll have lots of assignments and your overall percentage of what you've got of the total points is going to determine your grade in Sweden it is completely different it's based on a rubric system so basically the Swedish government has a list of skills that the students need to accomplish and if they are able to accomplish a skill at a certain level we fill in the bubbles so almost every skill has three levels and in each level you can fill in a yellow green or red if the student hasn't accomplished that skill yet so that is one thing to keep in mind that the grades are completely different and it took me some time to wrap my head around it because I first first looking at this gradebook going greens and yellows and reds and different levels and I'm like how am I supposed to give this kid a grade and a B or C and essentially for a kid to get an A in a class they need to have all greens at the advanced level of a skill if they cannot do every single skill on the rubric at the advanced level then they cannot achieve an A in the class also a long line of grades students can actually get an e grade here in Sweden they've got a through F which includes the e and in America we do not have an e grade it's just a through D and then F means fail another difference that is different here in the schools in Sweden is that the student schedules are much much different than what you might be used to in America in America it's much simpler like in high school for example you've got six classes a day each one's an hour long and you go to the classes you go to class to class and then you get done at the same time every day well that is not the case in Sweden the schedules here are all over the place they can be really really confusing and navigate until you get used to it at first but essentially the schedules the kids can get out at different times every day they can have different breaks in the middle of the day for different amounts of time so it's a lot less structured and the same every day like it is in American schools the kids have a variety in their schedule where it is basically a different schedule every day over the course of the week and to go along with the scheduling in Sweden it's actually the teachers that move from class to class and the students are usually housed in a single classroom and that's completely the opposite back in the States because usually teachers have their own room in America and the students will go from class to class visiting each teacher so it is a different way of doing it the teacher is basically their home base they have teacher rooms I'm grouped right now in a room with five other teachers and that's where we go between lessons or when we have our planning time but as a teacher I actually prefer to have my own classroom so that is one thing that I prefer about the American system but there are definitely advantages to doing it both ways one thing that kind of surprised me about Swedish schools and in particular private schools is at Swedish private schools the students do not have to pay to attend it's actually illegal to charge students for school at the lower grades so all of the private schools are funded by the government and the government actually gives the schools a certain amount of money based on how many students are attending the school which was kind of mind-boggling for me because in America most times private schools are very very expensive and just that is one difference that kind of took me by surprise when I first started working in the Swedish school system in terms of my situation specifically being a PE teacher there are a ton of activities that we're doing here in Sweden that I never had training in in America and then I never did in school as a student such as a lot of the winter activities we've been able to do ice skating with art a lot of nature activities like going hiking in the woods and being able to orient yourself swimming is a big part of the PE curriculum here in Sweden dance is a big part of the curriculum here in Sweden as well for PE I never remember having a lot of dance going through school myself and my own PE classes but I actually had to teach dance at my previous school so there are a lot of things that are different in terms of the curriculum and especially some of the winter activities having to teach ice skating I've got a lot of students in my class that are actually better at ice skating than I am because I've only done it a few times in my entire life and I've got several hockey players in my class that are just skating circles around me but you just learn to adapt and make the most of it but it's been a really really cool journey to teach some different things that I would never had the chance to teach in America well I'm interviewed for my new job the principal had talked about one winter safety activity where the students are actually gonna have to jump into a hole in a frozen lake and learn how to climb themselves out and she said that I would have to teach the students that for those of you that know me you know that I'm not really good at cold weather so that's something that I'm not really excited about doing is jumping into a freezing cold lake maybe you'll see a video of me in the future and having to teach that to the students but yeah it was really surprising at first I thought she was actually joking on the interview but it turns out that she was completely serious so that is something but I will be teaching at the schools here in Sweden water safety and how to rescue yourself if you happen to fall into a frozen lake now one thing that is absolutely surprised me about teaching here in Sweden is the amount of planning time that teachers get in America teachers basically get one period or about an hour a day to plan all of their lessons and in Sweden the contact time with the students is only about 20 hours every week so there is a ton of time as a teacher here in Sweden to plan lessons and just go all out and really make those lessons as good as possible because you have a ton of planning time you can do grades you can read into the students check in how they're doing send emails which is really really nice that that is built into the school day and for example on Tuesdays I do not have a single class the entire day every Tuesday is just a plan lesson so that is something that I absolutely love about teaching in Sweden you do get a lot of planning time which is completely mind-blowing compared to what I was used to back in the States as a first year teacher the pay is about comparable to what I'd be making rather and I was teaching in Vancouver Washington or Portland Oregon where I was obtaining my masters and teaching credentials the pay is just about the same but one thing to consider is that the taxes here in Sweden are much much higher overall than what I would be paying back in the US so I actually would take home more money in the US but then again you also have to consider the cost of living and I would probably be spending a lot more money in the u.s. compared to the living situation that I have here I'm able to afford this apartment at a much cheaper rate than I would be paying to live in Portland in Vancouver my hometowns back in the US another thing since we're talking about money in Sweden the teachers actually have a lot of bargaining power to negotiate their own salary and this is something that I was completely unfamiliar with because in America they basically pay you according to the salary schedule and you don't really have a lot of room to ask for a raise or say that you think you deserve more money based on the work that you've been doing and in Sweden pretty much all of the salaries are negotiated and with that in mind because teachers are such an in-demand profession they do have a lot of bargaining power and they're able to earn more money in a lot of instances and in my case I feel like I'm being paid very very fairly for a first-year teacher and so the money that they offer me I didn't feel like I needed to bargain a much higher salary but in the future if I continue to do a good job and I grow and become a better teacher over the years that is something that's really really nice to have an option to ask for a higher salary because in the u.s. you pretty much get what you get and you don't really have a lot of say or a lot of ways of increasing math so that is something nice that I really appreciate is that ability to negotiate and represent yourself and ask for more money if you think that you're deserving of it and the last thing and this is one reason why I absolutely love teaching in Swedish schools is lunch is completely free here it's free for the students and the teachers and coming from America and someone who didn't like to prepare lunch early in the mornings I would basically a lot of times bring nuts and fruit and whatever I could find lying around the fridge that would basically be my lunch every day in the States and here in Sweden I've been lucky that both schools I've worked at I've had amazing school lunches absolutely amazing and the students actually eat with the teachers all in the large cafeteria so it's really really nice you can talk to the students bond with them a little bit and enjoy the free food because it's absolutely excellent and that is one of the highlights for me teaching in Sweden having that free lunch so with that being said those are ten ways that schools are different in America and Sweden if you're not subscribed to the channel already go ahead and do that now you've made it this far so you must be enjoying this content on some level go ahead and give me a like and comment on anything that surprised you whether you're going to school in America or Sweden it's been really really fun to see the differences in the two countries in many many ways the school system being one of those ways so stay tuned for future videos so I can highlight some of the differences between America and Sweden because I've got a ton more videos coming out I'm super excited to share them with all of you guys so if you subscribe thanks so much and I will see you in the next [Music]

Channel: Stefan Thyron

Views: 516,568

Keywords: swedish schools, american schools

Id: lBx-XLV2kvE

Length: 10min 47sec (647 seconds)

Published: Sat Feb 17 2018