The International Conference in Tapere, Finland was no less than amazing. Huge thank you’s to the European members and congratulations on such an incredible feat! The conference was held at the Couryard by Mariott and was ideal for this group. Our first welcome and all following group sessions were held in the beautiful theatre, overlooking a gorgeous park. All the keynote speakers addressed the theme in one way or another, and I was particularly inspired by the Finnish emphasis on sustainability in a broad sense, not just for our organization but for the environment. A major theme throughout the conference was the decline in membership. President Debbie LeBlanc and Executive Director Nina Scott described our membership numbers as ‘situation critical.’ She asked all of us to seriously consider recruitment of new members. During the final general session, the Norwegian members declared support for women teachers in Afghanistan and we were urged to consider how we might be able to help the dire situation for women in that country. A short discussion also included a possibility for inviting any Ukrainian teachers that may be living in our area to attend our meetings and events. Despite the reality of our diminishing membership, it was (as always) a great opportunity to make new friendships and rekindle old ones. - Joan Kabotoff

The success of any conference is enlightenment. Finnish keynote speakers at the Tampere conference provided a vast amount of information as to the success of their education system. These are some of the highlights. Karisa Laaksonen, Director of the Finnish Institute for Children’s Literature. Laaksonen presented many initiatives to increase literacy. For example, when a child is born, the Institute gives a bag of books to the parents and provides information on the importance of reading to their child. Dr. Carnita Prokki spoke about the extreme importance of teacher training. In Finland, teaching and pedagogy training are the key to success in Finnish education. All teachers have their Masters, except for kindergarten teachers. Professor Minna Huotilaien spoke about her brain research on learning and connecting learning with all aspects of healthy living. Her team goes into classrooms to do the actual brain research on children instead of testing in a clinical setting. Other areas that they are researching include automatic nervous system functions, moving towards life situations and not just classroom work, looking at the fight and flight response in children in the classroom.  - Sharon Rettalack