Erasmus+ project: Students' mobility in Potsdam, Germany

Tuesday, 23.09.2025

The sun woke us up early and so we were ready for an early school start. This morning we did a lot of project work. Even though I say work, it was not really hard work. We were thinking about how it makes us feel when we move at school and when we don't. We created some posters with keywords to display our feelings.

After lunch, the German team prepared a digital tour of Potsdam for us. Potsdam is a great town, it was part of eastern Germany, but you cannot really see the typical eastern germany houses. The centre is very nice and full of small houses, there is also a dutch quarter, which was built for the dutch craftsmen. There is also a Russian quarter that was again built for Russian soldiers. And Potsdam has many many castles and parks. It is a very beautiful city and we were very lucky with the weather as well.

So walking around the city was great, we saw many buildings that we would never find in Finland and the spirit of history was really putting us in awe.

In the evening we again spent time with our host families and they organized for all of us some grilling so we spent some more time together getting to know each other, dancing, singing and laughing.

Wednesday, 24.09.2025

German schools, just like in Finland, start at 8:30. So we were ready at that time to start the day with some physical activity. We went to the gym and did volleyball, yoga and other sport activities. We were testing if learning while moving would be easier and work better. We were playing a game and at the same time learning to count to 12 in French. Assigning a number to each move that we then repeated many times actually did work quite well and we realized that this could be a good way to learn.

After lunch we continued with the sports activities and went to the park to play some more volleyball and other sports. It was nice weather and just playing games in a park was a great way to end the school part of the day.

The evening we again spent with the families, where we started to feel like at home after the 3 days. We already know it will be very hard to say goodbye.

Thursday, 25.09.2025

Being so close to Berlin (Potsdam is only 20 km away) and not going to Berlin would be crazy, and so we were very happy when the German school organized a trip to Berlin for us. The German students had to stay at school, so it was only us and the Norwegian that went to Berlin.

Berlin is a strange city. It seems not to have a real centre, but instead many areas which each have their own centre. I guess that is what happens when almost the whole city gets rebuilt from scratch and also is split in two by a Berlin wall.

We started the tour by the Reichstag and then continued to Branderburger Tor, the monument of holocaust and then we walked the Unter den Linden street around the Humboldt university, the cathedral and the red townhall all the way to the Alexanderplatz. That is a square with a big TV tower and the world clock. 

It was interesting to observe the city and the difference between east and west. Like crossing to the Alexanderplatz it was clear we were coming to the east germany area. 

We had some time to walk around, grab a coffee and do some shopping and then our teachers brought us back to Potsdam. We spent another evening with our host families, and had another party with lots of food, music and good times together.

Friday, 26.09.2025

The last day in Potsdam has started and from the morning we are already thinking about the sad fact that tomorrow we have to leave back to Finland. 

But before we left, there were some more fun activities to take part in.

We started the day with a skateboarding workshop. We got a professional skateboarder to come to school, we each got a protective helmet and a skateboard and learned basics from how to hold it to be cool, how to lift it with our foot and then how to jump on it.

We had some falls, some bruises, but after a little practice we started riding the skateboards like professionals. After two hours we even started to practice some jumps.

After that we started preparing for a school festival, where we had our own booth presenting Erasmus+ and our week and the theme results.

The school festival is something German schools do every year. Every class has their own table or booth with various activities and they invite all the students, teachers, families and other people to attend and support the school. There are games, there are some foods and concerts and many many people.

After this, we went to spend last evening with our families and then the next day traveling to Finland, back home.

The whole week was great, we felt we made some new friends, we got to think about how much better is school with a sports approach to teaching and learning and we gained some new digital skills while working on the projects.

We also learned about German history and culture and the school system and got to try skateboarding and dragon boat rowing.

During the week in Potsdam we learned the effect that integrating movement or sports into education can have. It can increase productivity and improve memory and also has a positive impact on well-being.

We learned the importance of democracy, freedom and EU values in contrast to Berlin as a divided city and the stories of its inhabitants.

We observed a student festival, an event organized by students to collect money for their trips and other events. Thai is a great way to fundraise money and we will organize the same at our school.