41st Annual Nordic Educational Research Association Conference in Iceland: Preschool Teacher Retention

From March 7th to the 9th, I was at the 41st Annual Nordic Educational Research Association Conference in Iceland (click here to read about the overall conference and the keynote speakers). The 41st annual conference website is found here.

There were about 700 people, mostly Scandinavians, at this conference. In order to present at this conference, the research must be completed either in a Scandinavian country (Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Finland, or Denmark) or the presenter must be connected to a Scandinavian institution.

Since I am a PhD student at Uppsala University, I applied and was accepted to present in a symposium. A symposium is where three or four different researchers give presentations about their own research, normally with the symposium having similar talks.

My research was completed on Head Start preschool teachers and their willingness to stay or leave their employment; therefore the other people who presented with me, also discussed similar themes.

I presented a preliminary analysis on the Lead teachers in 10 Head Start preschool programs in a talk entitled “Simple Requests to Maintain High Quality Teachers- A Qualitative Study on Preschool Teacher Retention.”

There were two Finnish researchers who also presented within the same symposium as me: Sanna Honkimäki and Anne Martin. They are from the Finnish Institute for Educational Research at the University of Jyväskylä. Their research was entitled “Teachers moving to other jobs? Interviews of former teachers in Finland. Much to my surprise, they found very similar results as I did on why teachers would leave the teaching profession–where teachers are stressed, overworked, underpaid, and even in Finland, feel under-appreciated.

Another presenter, a PhD student named Anna-Carin Bredmar, in our symposium was from the Department of Pedagogical, Curricular and Professional Studies at the University of Göteborg (Gothenburg). Her presentation was called “Teachers’ experiences of work enjoyment as an atmosphere–An empirical lifeworld phenomenological analysis.” Her talk was very interesting, as the Finns and I spoke about the negative aspects of the teaching profession, Anna-Carin Bredmar discussed the positive (enjoyment) side of teaching–aka–what motivates teachers to get up and show up for work every day.

See my other posts on Iceland by checking out Reykjavik Iceland, The Blue Lagoon, The Golden Circle, The National Museum of Iceland, and Accommodations in Reykjavik (Boholt Apartments mainly).

I attended a conference called the Nordic Educational Research Association (NERA). See the Keynote Speakers or my research on Preschool Teacher Retention.

Blue Lagoon: Iceland

The Blue Lagoon is a very short trip from the airport and not far from Reykjavik. Flybus takes you to and from there, and you can typically get an open ticket (stay as long as you like and catch another bus).

The lagoon is seemingly in the middle of no where, and they have created a spa-like atmosphere to highlight the tranquility of the hot spring (while maximizing their profits).

Walking down a corridor of rocks, you can feel the anticipation of the Blue Lagoon. Then you get a brief view of the hot spring before entering the modern looking building, complete with a souvenir shop (of course).

Easily one of the best sites to see in Iceland, the lagoon boasts state of the art lockers, where you use a bracelet to lock and unlock your locker.

Like many places in Europe, you have to remove your shoes prior to entering the actual lockers, but then a sign states that “they” arenot responsible if your shoes are stolen. So I just took mine off and put them in the locker instead of on the shoe wrack.

The Blue Lagoon has a fancier restaurant, a casual dining area, and a snack bar. The snack bar is very conveniently located right next to the hot spring, and you can charge your order to your bracelet, and then pay at the front desk when you leave–very convenient to not have to carry around a wallet. There also was a bar out in the water, but this was not open in March.

The Blue Lagoon is about 4 – 4.5 feet deep in most places, going slightly higher or lower depending on where you are. Along the edges are seats made out of rock, while within the center of the spring there are various platforms that most people cozy up to and have a chat.

Many people like the spring beyond the niceness of being in a large hot tub. They say it has healing powers and makes your skin look younger. Because of this, it’s not uncommon to see people with various gels on their face, although not everyone does this.

There is a cave, a man-made waterfall, and three sauna’s at the Blue Lagoon. The waterfall feels great to stand under, allowing the water to massage your shoulders and it sits in between the saunas (which many people didn’t realize existed, so keep your eyes peeled).

There is a regular sauna, heated by throwing water on boiling stones, a steam sauna, and an Icelandic sauna. This Icelandic sauna is a cave that has a wooden floor and through the slits in the wood, steam rises from the heated water below, and creates a sauna. Mind your feet–if you’re not used to sauna’s, your feet can definitely feel the steam.

Here is a youtube video of the Blue Lagoon and some things it has to offer.

See my other posts on Iceland by checking out Reykjavik Iceland, The Blue Lagoon, The Golden Circle, The National Museum of Iceland, and Accommodations in Reykjavik (Boholt Apartments mainly).

I attended a conference called the Nordic Educational Research Association (NERA). See the Keynote Speakers or my research on Preschool Teacher Retention.

Reykjavik Iceland

I recently visited Iceland to attend a conference called the Nordic Educational Research Association (which I blogged about here). Iceland is home to 320,000 people, but their population over doubles because of tourism, which reaches around 500,000 people per year. Historically, Iceland was a fishing country (and is still so today at around 70% of Iceland’s income), but today it has developed good cattle ranches, as well as has pigs, goats, sheep, and of course, the famous Icelandic horse. The only native mammal to the island is the fox, which allegedly crossed over during the last ice age.

It’s not hard to see why, with Iceland’s famous gysers, waterfalls, mountains, glaciers, and volcanoes. In fact, the whole island is made up of volcanoes, many of which are still active today. One of the most famous vocanoes, Eyjafjallajökull, exploded in 2010, leaving many planes around Europe and America grounded because of all the debris. The ash still lingers in the air and is evident as the snow (in 2013) still falls to the Earth partly black.

I spent most of my time in Reykjavic, which is the capital of Iceland and home to 120,000Icelanders. Most people drive cars, as oppose to bikes (because of the enormous amounts of wind) or buses (because Icelanders need vehicles to get around the remote countryside).

Taking a bus from the airport to your hotel is easy (on Flybus). You buy a ticket in the airport (round trip tickets are cheaper than buying one way [each way]) and then tell the bus driver which hotel you’re getting off at. I was quite nervous at first, since the bus didn’t have permanent stops, but it landed right in front of my hotel, per my request!

Naturally, one of the first restaurants I see says American Style. I travel all the way to Iceland, only to have the same cuisine–not on my watch! Having said that, I never saw a McDonalds or Burger King while in Iceland, although I did see Subway–so the Americanization hasn’t completely taken over Iceland…yet.

But then Reykjavik opened up and showed me some of her true majesty. It’s not hard to see why people would live in this picturesque city.

This mountain is called Esja and is a central mountain of Reykjavik. Picnic anyone?

See my other posts on Iceland by checking out Reykjavik Iceland, The Blue Lagoon, The Golden Circle, The National Museum of Iceland, and Accommodations in Reykjavik (Boholt Apartments mainly).

I attended a conference called the Nordic Educational Research Association (NERA). See the Keynote Speakers or my research on Preschool Teacher Retention.

 

41st Nordic Educational Research Association (NERA) Conference 2013: Keynote Speakers

The 41st Nordic Educational Research Association (NERA) Conference 2013 was held on March 7-9, 2013 in Reykjavik, Iceland. NERA is also knows by its Scandinavian name Nordisk Forening For Pedagogisk Forskning (NFPF).

The conference took place at the University of Iceland in their Department of Education and at the Hilton in Reykjavik. There were about 700 participants at this conference; most of whom were Scandinavian. The keynote speakers all spoke at the Hilton, while all of the other presenters spoke from the University buildings. 

Despite the two locations, the set-up was quite nice. The Hilton sat about a ten minute walk from Department of Education, allowing participants to breathe some fresh Icelandic air and take a short break from the talks. What I particularly enjoyed though was that the Keynote Speakers spoke for the first half of the day on Thursday and Friday, leaving the second half of the days and all of Saturday to the other presenters. This was beneficial in that many people listened to the keynotes and then were able to either listen to more talks or go site seeing in the afternoons.

There were four Keynote Speakers: Dr Anna Stetsenko, Dr Kristiina Kumpulainen, Dr Diane Reay, and Dr Kristjan Kristjansson. To see their (and all of the NERA participants’ abstracts) click here. To see their actual presentation slides click here.

Stetsenko concentrated her talk on the theories of development and learning, provided a historical background to theory and where we are today with theory, and then challenged the audience to use more theory within their research.

Kumpulainen spoke on the processes of learning and how we go about constructing learning, especially in relation to connected learning.

Reay gave a depressing (in her words) talk on the state of education in England, paying particular attention to elite schools verse common schools and the similarities and differences between those two                                                                                                           educational systems.

Kristjansson presented on the idea of morality in education, especially from a theoretical and philosophical perspective, ending his talk with trying to recruit partnerships from the audience on developing what “moral education” means, as well as trying to set up ways to test moral education.

See my other posts on Iceland by checking out Reykjavik Iceland, The Blue Lagoon, The Golden Circle, The National Museum of Iceland, and Accommodations in Reykjavik (Boholt Apartments mainly).

I attended a conference called the Nordic Educational Research Association (NERA). See the Keynote Speakers or my research on Preschool Teacher Retention.

President Obama on Expanding Early Childhood Education in Atlanta

On Thursday, February 14th, 2012, President Obama visited a Head Start preschool in Atlanta before announcing his plan to expand preschool to all four year old who come from families in low-to-moderate income levels.

President Obama has spoken about expanding Early Childhood Programs before, but has always been met with resistance and this is no exception, as the Republicans in the House are not pleased, saying that this will cost too much money and the effects fade out over time.

The Washington Post has a nice article about Obama’s plan, while NPR provides a nice overview of the topics via the radio. Or click here to see a video of President Obama speaking on Early Childhood Education.

Sweden LOVES Recycling

Coming from the US, where you have to pay to recycle products in many areas, Sweden is a dream for people conscientious about the environment and a nightmare for people trying to learn how to dispose of their trash.

When I first came to Sweden, I was shown around the office, including an entire room that is devoted to the recycling. There is recycling for nearly everything that you’d use on a daily basis! From paper-ware to cardboard to cans to tin foil to light bulbs and batteries. Even the environmentally horrifying styrofoam has a place to be recycled. In fact, at the end of the tour, I asked “ok, but where do I throw away my trash?”

It was absolutely the smallest bin in the whole room! And mainly just used for leftover food.

Sweden’s recycling has been so successful it has had to import trash from other countries in order to power their waste-to-energy program. Read more information on that here.

On sweden.se (specifically, here) there are dozens of various green initiatives that Sweden is involved with–such as leading the EU in eating organic foods, recycling 88% of all cans, and how it gets its title as the country with the highest share of energy from renewable resources.

Swedish Holidays: Fettisdagen (The Fat Tuesday)

Let’s be honest–most in the US know today as a normal day. The smarter than average worker knows that today is Lincoln’s Birthday, and rarer yet, that it’s Mardi Gras Carnival, known to some as Shrove Tuesday (or Pancake Day in the UK) isn’t a major holiday (in fact, it’s not even at the same level as Ash Wednesday), but this holiday packs some carb calories.

This is a holiday that will butter you up, literally, so you can make it through the fasting of Lent.

In Sweden, the concept is the same. Interestingly, Swedes typically eat pancakes as a type of snack/dessert (or possibly as dinner), often with whip cream and strawberries, but no syrup; but not on fettisdagen. On this day of caloric days, it’s all about the semlor (a bun with loads of almond(y) whip cream loaded on it), especially if dipped in warm milk!

Honestly, they taste ok. Nothing amazing, and not horrible (although I heard more Swedes say they dislike it than love it, but most just “enjoy” it, as opposed to love it).

 

 

However, the semlor packs a mere 442; that’s hard to compete with most US fast food joints, where Americans splurged several times a week (let alone having it as a last caloric meal). Such as eating a McFlurry, packed with 710 calories.

Sweden–you’ve been challenged–find a high caloric content food.

One of my personal favorites: Chocolate Chip Cookie Sundae: 1660 calories! Oh so good!

Uppsala Ice Festival (Isfestivalen)

Uppsala, Sweden can be a dreary cold dark place in the

winters. Clouds can consume the skies and the wind can numb your bones. Within this landscape of Scandinavia though, you can find majesty within the snow and ice.

 

It is time for the Uppsala Ice Festival (known as Isfestivalen in Swedish) where about a dozen (or more) ice sculptures are carved and left to be viewed by those transient enough to venture outdoors.

The Uppsala Kommun (Municipality) symbol along with the Isfestivalen symbol:

 

 

 

 

The ice sculptures are mainly located on Svartbäcksgatan (the pedestrian street) where the main shopping centers are, several are located in the city park (Stadsparken), two by the train station (Central Station), and some are located on a bridge crossing Uppsala’s dividing river, Fyris River (Fyrisån) (like this one).

Over the weekend the ice carvers went to work. Such as in the picture below where he carves out multiple faces throughout the ice block.

These ice sculptures really come to life at night, as background lights brighten them, accenting their curious designs.

Here is a photo of an ice heart located in the city’s main square (Stora Torget).

Here are some of the ice sculptures from the Stadsparken (City Park):

 

From theory to practice – A health economic evaluation of a parent training programme in Uppsala preschools, Sweden

At the 2013 Nordic Conference on Implementation of Evidence-Based Practice in Linköping at Linköping University (Sweden), Filipa Sampaio presented a poster entitled “From theory to practice – A health economic evaluation of a parent training programme in Uppsala preschools, Sweden.” Michael Wells (me), Inna Feldman, and Anna Sarkadi were co-authors. (read the abstract from this poster and all of the other presentations from the conference here).

Filipa, a PhD student at Uppsala University, who focuses on Health Economics in Social Pediatrics/Parenting Support in the Department of Women’s and Children’s Health, Faculty of Medicine, eloquently announced her findings from a health economic perspective of the Triple P–Positive Parenting Programme.

(click here to see a pdf of the poster: poster presentation_Nordic conference_22_01_2013)

The main finding was that the Triple P program is effective at reducing child behavior and parental mental health at a relatively low cost; and investment in Triple P is self-financed after 1 year and could amount to greater financial (and resource) savings post-1 year.

The Nordic Conference on Implementation of Evidence-Based Practice (Linköping, Sweden)

The Nordic Conference on Implementation of Evidence-Based Practice was held on February 5-6, 2013 at Linköping University in Sweden. A few hundred (mostly) researchers and (some) practitioners attended this conference where there was plenty of discussion on the state of research within the health field. The Scientific Program and the abstract (listing all of the talks and a brief summary of them) can be found here.

Most of those attending were from Sweden, but other countries such as the USA, Great Britain, the Netherlands, Denmark (and others) were represented; therefore the conference was in English.

Easily the highlights of the conference were from the Keynote Speakers (perhaps not surprisingly).

Trisha Greenhalgh (who loves twitter: find her here) talked about Knowledge Transfer and was easily the most thought-provoking, insightful, and articulate presenter. She presented strong support for qualitative research as a means of generating multi-layered knowledge that is rich with voices from users of services–’all knowledge is collective: Wittgenstein’s three layer: epistime, knowledge; technical and tacit knowledge; and praxis–the practical wisdom. This reminds us that “policy is a contact sport where knowledge is power.”

Another strong speaker was Huw Davies on Organizational Change, where he displayed an excellent use of graphics in his slides with minimal text. He highlighted the challenge of process that engages with values, tacit knowledge and experience; is socially and contextually situated and shared; and may require some difficult ‘unlearning’. If we seek organizational change, then he urges us to move from a mode of simply Evidence-Based Practice to a Mode of Co-production-from bridging to dialogue, although this way can be more difficult to evaluate. Leadership is key in achieving organizational change–make sure someone’s following you.

Overall the conference was decently inspiring and will certainly grow in-depth and knowledge as it has its second annual conference.

Handbook of Family Policies Around the Globe: Lessons from Networking

A couple of years ago I met Dr Mihaela Robila at a conference called the Society for Cross-Cultural Research Conference. By luck, or the fact that we had similar research topics, I gave a presentation with her.

We both were discussing family policy issues–hers on Eastern Europe and mine on Sweden. Two other presenters also discussed their various countries and how family policy affects them.

After the presentation Dr Robila asked if we would be interested in turning our presentations into book chapters. We all agreed that it would be a great idea, and Dr Robila went off to Springer to see if they would like to publish a book on families policies from different countries around the world.

After receiving the go-ahead (that the publisher was interested), she posted on several sites announcing the book and what the criteria would be for each chapter. For example, on the National Council on Family Relations page, she posted a flier asking for interest (and from Springer).

Several researchers responded to her call, and now a 500 page book has been created entitled Handbook of Family Policies Around the Globe. According to the publisher, Springer, the book will be available in mid-June of 2013, and is intended for scholars, researchers, and graduate students who study family policy.

The book contains information on family policies from different countries’ perspectives from 6 continents (aka, all but Antarctica). Of course it doesn’t have every single country, but it does go through dozens of them, including the chapter that I, along with Disa Bergnehr, wrote on Family Policies in Sweden.

12th International Congress of Behavioral Medicine: Child Health Nurses Views on Father Involvement

In August/September of 2012, the 12th International Congress of Behavioral Medicine (ICBM) was held in Budapest, Hungary. The brochure of the conference and the types of presentations given at an ICBM conference is found here: ICBM

The conference itself was ok. It was run efficiently enough and rooms were easy to find in order to listen to presentations. However, what made this conference fun was the location–the conference took place right next to the Castle in Budapest. In fact, there was a beer festival set out right in front of the castle for several days during the conference.

Budapest is also quite a romantic city. The lights on the Castle and bridges at night are breathtaking. Also, moving around the city is rather simple, with lots of public transportation that is pretty cheap. However, three of my coworkers were flashed (during two different incidents) while traveling around the city–one on a tram and one while walking through a park. We were assured by locals that this was not at all common, but it was something of note that happened.

 

At the ICBM conference I discussed via a poster about Swedish Child Heath Nurses Views on Father Involvement.

 

Or it can also be seen in pdf form here: ICBM Nurse Interview Poster Final

Swedish Child Health nurses see an amazing 95-99% of parents of young children (aged 1-5) to analyze the child’s growth and development, provide parents with parenting resources, provide parenting advice/parenting classes, and a number of other things. However, mothers are much more likely to visit these Child Health Centers than fathers are, so I investigated why that might be from the perspective of the nurse.

Three main themes were discussed at this conference: the Child Health nurse’s own agenda, the Child Health nurses perceptions of their own role in involving fathers, and their opinion about the role of fathers. The overarching conclusion was that they appreciated and were happy to see that more fathers were starting to visit them compared to previous decades. However, they stated that they wanted to involve themselves as little as possible in actively promoting father involvement–in other words, they didn’t want to further encourage fathers to come by reaching out to fathers in any way–they mainly sat back and talked with whoever showed up at their doorstep.

Previous research has shown though that if fathers are reached out to, then they will become more involved in their child’s health care. If they are more involved, then they start to become more competent about their child’s health and therefore feel more confident in seeking answers when new issues arise, and are able to deal with their child’s health on a more regular basis than those who never attend and are not involved in their children’s health care.

If Swedish society wants fathers to be more involved, one route might be to have the Child Health nurses actively encourage father participation and involvement.

Presenting at the 39th Annual Head Start Association Conference: Preschool Teacher Turnover Rates

At the 39th Annual Head Start Association Conference I presented on some preliminary research findings on the issue of teacher retention in a presentation called Relationships Matter: Qualitative Interviews with Head Start Preschool Teachers on Turnover Rates.

To see the actual presentation powerpoint, click Teacher Retention Research Results NHSA.

Many, in fact, most or nearly all preschools have a problem retaining qualified teachers. Many teachers leave after a short period of time, for a number of reasons. This impacts the young child’s learning, since 1) they are constantly bombarded with new teachers and new personalities and new styles of teaching and 2) they are being taught by less experienced teachers.

Teacher retention also affects the parents. In fact, I had several parents tell me that their child had between 3-8 different preschool teachers all within a school year (depending on the parent–of course these are more extreme cases, but it does happen). And parents find it difficult to form relationships with teachers and in turn may not always be the most up-to-date on their child’s learning and what they need to work on at home.

This also greatly impacts the quality of a preschool program: 1) it’s financially costly. Hiring and training new employees is not easy and takes a lot of man hours and therefore money (not to mention all of the benefits associated with that organization, like health care, which isn’t cheap). 2) New teachers typically means less quality, as they are trying to learn how that organization operates, how the children learn and what their needs are, etc. 3) Old employees become fed-up with having to do a greater share of the workload while new employees are being hired and trained (which can take a long time to find qualified teachers)–which can create a snowball effect of having promising, qualified, experienced teachers leave due to (what some term) “workplace abuse”–where they become agitated by not being fully staffed, which impacts them in multiple ways (such as their work load or trying to take vacation).

In other words, the aim of the study was to learn why Head Start teachers would leave and what changes they want to happen in order to continue working for Head Start

So I sought out what makes preschool teachers at our 10 Head Start centers stay or leave the organization. I conducted qualitative interviews using a clustered randomized designed, where I went to each preschool and interviewed one lead and one assistant preschool teacher (all of which were chosen at random from each school) leading to a total of 10 lead and 10 assistant preschool teacher interviews.

The preliminary results showed 4 themes:

In relationships matter, the more influence an individual had with a person, the more important they were towards determining if that person would stay or leave the agency, based on their relationship with that person. So for example, if they were the lead preschool teacher, their relationship with their assistant was the most important relationship in determining if they would stay or leave the agency since they spent the most time together (40+ hours per week). Their supervisor became the next important relationship, as they would typically see their supervisor daily. If they had strong relationships with these people, they typically wanted to stay (and some even stated that the only reason they are still here is because of those relationships–despite any other issues that they may have).

 Another theme on why teachers would stay or leave the agency revolved around paperwork. Preschool teachers have a lot of paperwork to do. And Head Start teachers have more paperwork than other preschool teachers because of all of the federal guidelines. Not surprisingly then, the preschool teachers were stressed about the paperwork. However, not in the way many imagine. The teachers weren’t stressed that they had to do the paperwork. In fact many of them even thought that most or all of the paperwork was necessary and important. However, the teachers stated that they lacked the time to complete the paperwork. And it was not having built-in reflection time that made them stressed about the paperwork, as the teachers either had to do all of their paperwork while the children were in the classroom, while the children napped (which was often confounded by at least one child not sleeping and therefore needing attention, or they had to bring the paperwork home in order to complete it, which wasn’t ideal for their work or home life). Teachers suggested having a half an hour to an hour either before school or after school each day that was built in for paperwork, where children were not allowed to be there (i.e. starting school at 8am, but having teachers start work at 7:30) or to have half or all day Friday to complete their paperwork). In fact, those who had part-day classrooms had Fridays to complete their paperwork, and those in part-day classrooms were much more likely to be satisfied with the paperwork aspect and therefore stay with the company, while those in full-day classrooms never had a break to do their paperwork and were more likely to leave due to not having time to complete their paperwork.

Teachers working with children in a Head Start program are often aware of child behavior problems. There has been a lot of research to support the idea that young children have behavior problems but that those from poor/impoverished families have about three times more behavior problems than the middle-of-the-road preschool does. Teachers often complained about the severity of the behaviors, alluding to acceptable behavior problems and other problems that should be beyond the reach of any preschool teacher who is trying to teach 19 other children with only one other supporting teacher. Therefore, many teachers suggested that not every child be allowed into the program, as they simply couldn’t serve everyone’s particular needs and that some children might be better served in classrooms or schools that deal with severe behavioral problems.

Lastly, teachers required support. The teachers who stated they either received or did not need support said they would like to stay with the agency while those who needed support, requested support, but didn’t feel they had received support were more likely to state that they would leave the agency.

In addition to these four themes, all of the teachers discussed if they viewed their position as a job or a profession. As it turns out, preschool teachers in the Head Start program very much see their position as a career, albeit with some hurdles to overcome. However, they want to stay in early childcare, especially with disadvantaged children, like those in Head Start, for their whole career.

This means that if teachers leave, it’s because their needs aren’t being met, not because they didn’t want to be in this particular field. Therefore each agency should look at what needs the teachers require and then try to satisfy those needs in order to retain valuable qualified competent preschool teachers.

In this case, making sure they are paired up with leads/assistants that they communicate and get along with well, provide teachers time to complete their paperwork, reconsidering child behavior problems, and providing enough support to teachers who request it, taking their requests seriously and providing valuable, applicable feedback to their issues.

Presenting at the 39th Annual National Head Start Association Conference: Enhancing Program Quality

I was working for a Head Start organization at the time of the 39th Annual National Head Start Association Conference in Quality Assurance. One of my job duties was to research problems within the organization and provide feedback on how to correct those problems so that the program would be of higher quality. My boss and I quickly realized that communication between our centers was a problem, since we were completely spread out over 11 locations and two counties within a major metropolitan city.

Trying to drive to all the centers wasted too much time. Conference calls were hard to coordinate and even if everyone could be on the conference call, many of them felt it hard to participate since they couldn’t see the presentations and sometimes had difficulty hearing. Plus we were in the field (i.e. at preschools) a lot and needed to update data on-site in real time.

We (my boss and I) developed a talk that helped to correct these issues, presenting a talk entitled Enhancing Program Quality: Using Technology to Assess Data and Communicate Efficiently. 

We discussed various technology tools that helped made our lives easier, figuring that other agencies may be running into a similar predicament.

We started simple, discussing Google (and Google for Non-profits).

Some of the Google products we discussed were the Google Calendar, Google Documents (now called Google Drive), and Blogger (while simultaneously showing WordPress).

When we used our calendars at work, we realized that we had to be on a work computer in order to update and to check them. This was nearly impossible though if we were out in the field visiting a preschool. So Google Calendar was a great solution. Since many people have smart phones today, we could easily log on using our smart phones and update the calendar as to where we are and what we’re doing, as well as see what other colleagues are doing so we know how to reach them. Everything can be color coded as well, so if you want to put different people in different colors, have a particular color for meetings or specific school locations or vacations–it’s all possible and is rather intuitive.

Google Drive is a place where you can go and upload documents. This was extremely important for us, because it allows the users to update data in real time. Moreover, you can check to see who the last person was who updated data and when they did that, so it was easy to determine how new/relevant/complete the data was. Moreover  it’s secure, as a password is required in order to log in and the person running the drive can determine who has access to the drive (and can add or remove people whenever they choose to do so).

Then we described how using blogs (through Blogger or WordPress) could be beneficial for the agency to self-promote itself to the parents, teachers, and the world about the great work that they’re doing. We also described how we used it as another medium, much like Facebook or Twitter, to inform parents about school closings or delays.

In addition to Google products, we also introduced the audience to Ustream, which is like Youtube, except that you can record for however many minutes you need to (while Youtube limits you to under 15 minutes of recording time per clip). We used this in trainings, so that if someone missed a training, it would be recorded live and they could go back and view it whenever they wanted. However, we also used it on conference calls, so people that were in another location could see us live, as we presented the material and therefore be more of a participant. This is tremendous, because now audience members could participate with us, watching us actually give the presentation rather than just hearing it on the phone. Naturally we had to grant them access, but that is easy to do once you read a little about Ustream and how it works.

We also realized that with conference calls, people often felt leftout. That they weren’t getting the same experience as being in the room, and let’s be honest, often did other tasks (i.e. playing with email) while on the conference call. Well now we had a solution. Since our centers were so spread out and not everyone could make it to the meeting place, we actually saved the company money (in not having to pay for people to waste gas), while saving the employees time (on not having to commute back and forth and therefore stay at their center in case they were urgently needed), while making them feel like a participant by introducing them to join me. Join.me is a free site that allows you to do two things: screen share and conference call. So by signing up, they send you a “phone number” that you then pass along to anyone that you want to join the meeting (i.e. email the phone number to the participants). Then they click on the link and they are a part of join me, where you can talk to them and they can see your screen–so as you move through your presentation, they can follow along, seeing all the visuals, and hearing everything you (and others) say during the conference call.

All of these products discussed are free! All saved time, money, and resources! It’s worth looking into to see if they meet the needs of your agency.

The 39th Annual National Head Start Association Conference: The Gaylord Opryland Resort & Convention Center

 

In mid-April 2012 I presented two different research projects at the 39th Annual National Head Start Association Conference, hosted of course by the National Head Start Association in Nashville, TN at the Gaylord Opryland Resort & Convention Center (pictures taken from their websites photo gallery).

The Gaylord Opryland was truly a spectacular venue for a conference. It wasn’t just a hotel with large rooms to accommodate a conference. There was a whole world inside the hotel. The hotel opens up with rooms surrounding the interior, much like a castle wall (although there is no resemblance to a castle wall). However, these rooms are protecting the middle of the hotel, which is filled with shops, dining, exotic looking trees, and even a lazy river, where you can rent a boat and go for a little ride (more made for families with small children than a romantic couple date, but still pretty cool. Plus there was plenty of courteous staff who were able to help you maneuver through the hotel.

The negatives to the hotel though were that you could (and will) easily become lost in the labyrinth within the hotel. After acclimating myself, I ended up having to shift between three different rooms during my stay. The first room hadn’t been cleaned and there were pizza boxes and other food and drink leftovers from the previous occupants. The second room had an amazing view of this (maybe 20 ft) waterfall.  This was great to look at from the balcony, but unfortunately  I could still hear the water crashing down even with the balcony door closed and therefore transfered to yet a third room.

However, overall, the hotel/resort is truly a nice gift to the Nashville area and worth visiting and staying at. Moreover, there are loads of shopping (and an IMAX theater) to be had within walking distance of the hotel, if you’re not satisfied with all of the shopping within the hotel.

 

Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS): National Averages and Region V Averages for 2010

I have written a number of posts on the Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS). This assessment tool for early childhood education seems to be a hot topic, probably because it is often used in ECE research and because it’s mandated by Head Start (feel free to search my blog by running a search on the homepage for other CLASS blog posts for more information on CLASS, what it can do for you, how it’s used, and the benefits of CLASS).

In this installment though I would like to discuss the 2010 national averages of CLASS and the regional averages for Region V. Region V consists of Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, and Wisconsin. To see the full pdf posted by http://www.ohsai.org click here.

The average CLASS scores for the Nation under the three domains are as follows:

Emotional Support:              5.35

Classroom Organization:     4.74

Instructional Support:         3.36

Region V has the CLASS averages under the three domains are as follows:

Emotional Support:              5.41

Classroom Organization:     4.76

Instructional Support:         3.54

This means that on average, Region V is doing better than the national average on all three domains. Despite the numbers being very close (i.e. Classroom Organization is 4.74 vs 4.76), remember that the smallest difference on a large scale (i.e. 10′s of thousands of children) make a big impact on our overall nation’s education scores. And so Region V should celebrate for being better than the national average! Something to be proud of! However, Illinois and Indiana are below the Regional and the National average for Emotional Support; Illinois, Indiana, and Michigan are below the Regional and National averages for Classroom Organization; and Illinois and Indiana are below the National and Regional averages for Instructional Support.

In other other words, Illinois and Indiana need to up their classroom quality. On the other hand, Minnesota, Ohio, and Wisconsin are doing pretty well comparatively.

With that in mind, remember that CLASS scores are out of 7 points on all dimensions (and therefore on all three domains as well). So Instructional Support, for example, as a long way to go before we see the true potential of what excellent Early Childhood Education can accomplish.

Corporal Punishment: Spanking, Slapping, Kicking, Biting, Scratching, Pinching

Corporal Punishment–a term referring to spanking, slapping, kicking, biting, scratching, or pinching another person (typically from a parent to a child).

Around 95% of all children in the US have received corporal punishment at some point in their lives. Preschoolers are the most likely age group to receive corporal punishment and to receive it on a consistent basis (in fact around age 4, about 95% of those children are hit/struck at least once during the year). As children age, parents are more likely to use other discipline measures such as using rewards or consequences such as taking items away or grounding.

Naturally there are loads of research papers out there on this perennial topic (type in any of the key phrases to scholar.google.com to find them).

Three good (and differing) articles are: Ellison and Bradshaw’s (2009) article on religious beliefs, sociopolitical ideology, and attitudes towards corporal punishment, Gershoff’s (2010) more harm than good article, and Landsford’s (2010) article on cultural differences with corporal punishment.

Perhaps because corporal punishment is so prevalent within the US, or perhaps because Americans feel they have a right to choose how to discipline their child, most people in the US argue that corporal punishment should be legal, with little to no interference from the government (until abuse starts). In fact many US parents (and people in general) feel that without spanking their child, their child will grow up to be hoodlums.

Of course what the literature shows is that those who use corporal punishment are much more likely have children who grow up to hit others (as that’s what they’ve been taught to do when someone does something they do not approve of) (see Gershoff 2002 for more information on children’s aggression stemming from being spanked).

So far, the debate in the US has centered around the parents’ rights to discipline. But do children have rights? Should children have the right to not feel physical pain from the people who are supposed to love them the most and to whom they have to entrust with their lives and development?

Corporal punishment is a slippery slope between trying to achieve quick behavioral changes in your child and abusing your child; the line can be very thin and grey.

Sweden, a country in Europe, has a law prohibiting the use of corporal punishment. Durrant–a widely known parenting researcher states that amongst children under five–in the US there were 723 children killed via child abuse, while only 3 in Sweden. A typical response would be because those who use corporal punishment are more likely to abuse their child (potentially killing them) than those who don’t use corporal punishment.

According to the Kids Count Data Center, Indiana, where I live, had 2,451 child abuse cases in 2010 alone (click on the link for other states).

Despite the US having more children than Sweden, Sweden still has (and historically has had) a lower rate of child abuse (based on the per capita basis). Perhaps creating children’s rights and emphasizing that children have a right to live without feeling physical pain (much like adults get to experience–since hitting an adult is called assault and is a felony), the US may have less child abuse cases.

If you need more information on spanking, please feel free to write a comment.

Average Age at First Marriage

People are often curious about when they are supposed to get married. Other people then respond–Whenever you want! Whenever you’re ready!

But has that always been the case?

Using US statistics, infoplease.com states that in 2010, the average age at first marriage for men was 28.2 while the average age for women was 26.1.

In 1990 the average age was 26.1 for men and 23.9 for women. That’s about two years less for both men and women.

The numbers continue to drop until the 1950s, when they reached an all time low (for the modern era) with men marrying on average at age 22.8 and women at 20.3.

However, then the numbers tend to shoot back up. For example, in 1890 the average man married for the first time at age 26.1 and women at 22.0 (about the average age for men and women 100 years later!).

So why the flux of age when marrying?

Currently both men and women are attending colleges and universities and choosing to delay marriage by at least four years. Many of whom state that they want to find a job and settle in before marrying, hence waiting until their late 20s for men and mid-twenties for women.

In the 1950s though, people weren’t attending colleges and universities in the same numbers as they are today. In fact, many women did not higher education, choosing instead to be a stay at home wife or mother. Why? Because this was an era where families could support each other off of one income. Why? Because the industrial revolution had taken off, with a flurry of high paying, lower educated jobs–compared to today where the higher paying jobs require higher educations.

So why delay marriage in the 1890s? Well, the industrial revolution hadn’t yet hit. A single person couldn’t make enough money to support a spouse and children. In fact, in this era, it wasn’t uncommon for children to be working–either in the fields or in the factories. So both men and women had to work in order to support themselves, hence delaying marriage.

Do commercials promote gender stereotypes?

The Superbowl recently came to Indianapolis in 2012 and with it came lots of funny commercials. Most of the commercials were gender neutral, that is–they showed only the product, with no people, or the commercial was about a product and an animal. This year’s Superbowl contained many commercials with dogs (and no people), for example.

M & M came out with a commercial though that most people thought was one of the best commercials during the Superbowl.

This commercial displays women talking, while one man laughs at the brown lady M & M, allegedly thinking that she’s naked. The brown M & M silences the laughing man by saying that she is just brown, not naked. Then a red male M & M enters, sees the brown M & M and thinks it’s “that kind of party” and quickly loses his outer shell, much to the dismay of the brown M & M.

The subtle meaning behind this cute and quirky commercial–women are sophisticated, out for a nice time, with glamorous gowns and glasses on, while the men are bubbling idiots, who only think sexually.

The bigger question is then asked: are commercials sexist? And do they promote gender stereotypes?

In other words are commercials more like:

“With kids, teens, pets, and husbands, ever wonder how you can keep your house clean?”      -Stanley Steemer

Or are they more equal (or at least, those who make the mess, clean the mess), like in this commercial by Clorox:

Gentry and Harrison (2010) researched this topic, finding that although the woman’s role in commercials is changing, fathers (males) are still being gender stereotyped.

What this means–in commercials and on TV shows, women are seen as being competent in their careers, while managing a home and the children, while the men, who still work, come home and relax, often neglecting the housework and children. Or if they try to do chores or interact with their child, they mess up, much to the dismay of the mother/wife.

The question then becomes–Do commercials and TV influence real life? Many researchers think so—leading some to call for change: if you want equality, then maybe it wouldn’t be a bad idea to show parents working together for the greater good of their household.

 

Social Networking at Work

Many adults like to jump on social networking sites while at work. However, some companies have strict rules against logging in to social networking sites like Facebook, even when employees are on break or lunch.

DiMicco et al. (2008) conducted a study of people using social networking sites while at work. They found that the workers actually used the sites to communicate and maintain relationships on a personal level with their co-workers, especially with those whom they had weak relationships with. Workers also used the sites to promote their different work-related projects.

Perhaps it’s not always a bad idea to limit people’s social networking–after all, having strong relationships with coworkers helps to retain employees.

Research on Early Childhood Education and the Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS)

The Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS) is a popular tool for assessing the quality of classrooms. Moreover, school readiness is a hot issue among early childcare providers, especially Head Start.

Even President Obama has chimed in on the importance of early childhood education with respect to Head Start.

Below are links to some research on early childhood education and the quality of classrooms through different dimensions, especially with respect to the Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS). These research findings help show the importance of having quality within preschool classrooms.

Mashburn et al. (2008)

Pianta et al. (2005)

Raver et al. (2008)

Pianta and Hamre (2009)

Pianta (2003)

Gromley Jr, Phillips, and Gayer

For other blogs on the Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS): click here to read a synopsis on CLASS and other early childhood assessment tools, click here to see the breakdown of the CLASS content (the domains and dimensions), click here to read more about Dr Hamre’s work regarding CLASS and academic achievement, or click here to read about how to implement CLASS.

Childhood Obesity: Strong4Life Campaign

In Georgia nearly 40% of children are overweight or obese according to strong4life.

Currently they are running several tactical ads to help curb the overweight/obesity epidemic.

There are several other strong4life campaign commercials that can be found on YouTube. ABC News in Atlanta did an expose (as shown through Yahoo! News) on the strong4life campaign.

Do you think that these tactics are effective? Why or why not?

New Year’s Resolution: Get out of Debt

Every year people come up with New Year’s Resolutions. According to About.com in Pittsburgh one of the top 10 Resolutions is to Get Out of Debt.

Many Americans are in debt and many of those debts are due to student loans. In fact, according to Boushey (2003), college loans are up 85% compared to a decade ago. Boushey continues on to say that even though student loan debt may be good debt and may lead to higher paying employment, it also may have adverse effects because of the economic recession.

This may influence people to seek out financial literacy help. As Lusardi and Tufano  (2008) have found, the people who may need the most financial literacy support are women, the elderly, minorities, and low income families and the wealthy.

Some websites to help with Financial Literacy are:

The Government’s Financial Literacy Website:

http://www.mymoney.gov/

Financial Literacy Month

http://financialliteracymonth.com/

Certified Public Accountants:

http://www.360financialliteracy.org/

Federal Student Aid:

http://studentaid.ed.gov/PORTALSWebApp/students/english/financialliteracy.jsp

National Financial Educators Council

http://www.financialeducatorscouncil.org/

Jump$tart Coalition for Personal Financial Literacy

http://jumpstart.org/news-releases.html

Employment Weight Loss

January is a time when many people start focusing on their bodies, dropping the holiday pounds, and making resolutions to live healthier lives.

Companies also benefit from having healthy employees, as they take fewer sick days, they work more efficiently, and they use less medical benefits.

During the fall the agency I worked for had a Commit to Fit program, where we introduced to employees many of the parks located in Indianapolis, by having ‘walking outting’ every Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday for 6 straight weeks. Participating was voluntary, and they could go as often as they chose. This was done to accomplish at least three goals: 1) to help employees lead active lives; 2) show off Indianapolis’ amazing park system; and 3) to bond with other co-workers.

This winter we are instituting healthy initiatives that are in-doors, such as aerobics and Zumba classes (taught by employees who have a passion for this), as well as team sports, like volleyball and kickball (purchasing supplies for these games are relatively inexpensive and a great way to establish camaraderie).

Anderson et al. (2009) conducted a literature review of employment programs offering health initiatives and their effects. They found that there are moderate effects from healthy initiative programs. So, if you’re considering getting your employees healthy in the new year, come up with some great winter health ideas–it just might help your waist line and your bottom line.

The Golden Circle Tour: Iceland

The Golden Circle tour in Iceland involves seeing three main sites: Thingvellir National Park, Geysir Geothermal Area, and the Gullfoss waterfall. After seeing these three sites, our bus continued onward to a skiing resort, Skíðaskálinn Restaurant, where we had dinner. Be the time we were back in Reykjavik, 8 hours had passed, and the time definitely flew by.

The Thingvellir National Park contains the original site Iceland’s parliament, which is the oldest existing parliament in the world. The site offers an amazing view of distant mountains, another view of more mountains opposite a lake swarming with fish (especially brown trout), the Icelandic Prime Minister’s summer house, and a rock wall, where Icelandic chieftains (or old-fashioned politicians) would shout so that the whole crowd could hear them from the echoing of the walls.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is also a wishing well (wishing river) where people toss coins in and make their wishes.

 

The Thingvellir National Park lies on the American and European plates, which are slowly (a millimeter each year) drifting apart, and therefore expanding Iceland. The park is often referred to as an Icelandic forest.

The joke goes: Do you know what to do if you get lost in an Icelandic forest?

Answer: You stand up.

This is because the trees grow more like shrubs because of the immense amount of wind that flows through Iceland; thus taller trees become uprooted.

 

As we left the Teutonic plates, we headed for the Geysir Geothermal Area. This area is filled with multiple geysers including the largest, called Geysir (and from which other geysers get their name), which shoots about 40-50 meters, and Strokkur which shoots water about 10-20 meters most of the time (although has been known to go higher). Geysir used to shoot up regularly but lately shoots up quite rarely, while Strokkur shoots every 5-10 minutes. However, capturing a great photo is not easy, but is intense to watch the geyser do its build up before erupting.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then we drove off to the epitome of Icelandic greatness: Gullfoss. For waterfall lovers, Gullfoss puts Iceland and Europe on the map, as it’s more powerful than Niagara Falls! One person, a German day tourist, is said to have died while visiting the falls, possibly by going off the paths and not following directions. Aside from him, no one has ever perished from these falls.

English businessmen tried to set up some energy businesses by utilizing the falls.  Tómas Tómasson, who owned the falls, was offered a huge sum of money by an Englishman for the falls, but turned it down saying “I do not sell my friends.” Sigríður Tómasdóttir, the daughter of Tómas Tómasson continued the fight for the falls, having to battle powerful businessmen and politicians in order to preserve the falls, which eventually she did and  is seen as a modern day ecological hero.

We then headed off to enjoy a wonderful dinner at Skíðaskálinn Restaurant, after driven through several small towns, seeing many more mountains, volcanoes, greenhouse gardens, and the Icelandic scenery. One area of contest right now is that some Icelanders are planting tree farms with non-native trees–aka trees that grow tall. They are planted in rows near the roads, which helps limit how much snow falls on the roads, but some Icelanders started to feel claustrophobic because they couldn’t see for kilometers upon kilometer into the distance to see the amazing Icelandic sunrises and sunsets (Icelanders are just used to flatter terrain [minus their mountains]).

See my other posts on Iceland by checking out Reykjavik Iceland, The Blue Lagoon, The National Museum in Iceland, and Accommodations in Reykjavik (Boholt Apartments mainly).

I attended a conference called the Nordic Educational Research Association (NERA). See the Keynote Speakers or my research on Preschool Teacher Retention.

2nd National Health Economics Conference: SHEA

On March 14th-15th 2013, the 2nd National Health Economics Conference was held by the Swedish Health Economics Association (SHEA) at Linköping University.

The Swedish Health Economics Association is called Svensk förening för hälsoekonomi in Swedish.

This is a two day conference, comprising around 120 people (mostly Health Economists from Sweden), with presenters mainly speaking in Swedish, although some of the talks are in English. To see the program guide, click here.

The conference unites most of the Health Economists in Sweden to discuss their latest research and work, as well as allows them to network with similar like-minded people.

My colleague and PhD student, Filipa Sampaio (main presenter), our advisor, Dr Inna Feldman, and I will present a paper called “A cost-effectiveness analysis of a parent training programme to prevent child behaviour problems. (En kostnadseffektivitetsanalys av ett föräldrastödsprogram som ska förebygga beteendeproblem hos barn).”

Dr Inna Feldman presented another talk (a poster) entitled Hälsoekonomisk utvärdering av Artrosskola I primävården.

The National Museum of Iceland

The National Museum of Iceland is worth checking out if you want to see a history of Iceland from the founding of the country through the modern day (seriously, they had video games and VCRs from the 1980s and laptops and cell phones from the 1990s).

Iceland was founded in the late 800s-early 900s and when the land was claimed, some people claimed huge chunks of the land, some of whom were women. So perhaps it is no surprise that today Iceland is one of the most gender equal countries in the world (as are the other Scandinavian countries).

                                           The Viking Icelandic people were not born with a silver spoon. They had a taxing life and left mainly from Norway, seeking a freer life, often

stopping in England and Ireland, picking up people (sometimes as slaves) as bringing them to Iceland. And a few of the native inhabitants were Swedish. Later, Englishmen would move to Iceland on their own, often because they would use the great fishing waters off the Icelandic coast, and sometimes create settlements within Iceland. 

Iceland has always been a peaceful country. In fact, today they don’t even have a standing military. Partly because they are only a country of 320,000 people, but also because they have made agreements with America and Europe for times of war. In fact, both the USA and England have built airports in Iceland, and because of wars, especially WWII, Iceland has a lot of its infrastructure (i.e. roads and bridges).

However, because of tensions between the Icelandic people and English fisherman, the Icelandic people created their own weapon. It’s the only war-weapon Icelanders have ever created: a hook-anchor-like object that would cut through the English fishing nets,allowing their fish to swim free. So even their only weapon didn’t physically hurt people.

To see a basic history of Iceland, click here.

Leaders of Iceland:

After different chieftains of Iceland couldn’t agree on who would lead the country; constantly battling for power, they agreed, with some dissents, that the King of Norway would lead the country. In 1380, the Norwegian King died without a son and so the Kind of Denmark took control of Norway and therefore Iceland (and Sweden). However, Denmark didn’t need Iceland’s fishing or wool and basically didn’t use Iceland for much at all–which of course impacted Iceland.

Iceland eventually gained its independence on June 17, 1944.

A couple of decades before their independence (1897), Iceland created a blue and white flag, with the blue standing for the ocean and white for the glaciers and mountains. When they gained independence, they added in the red cross within the white cross. The red indicated the volcanoes of Iceland. The cross is in the flag because around year 1000, Icelanders, who were heathens, were pressured by the rest of Europe to convert to Christianity and so they did in order to continue doing trading–religion comes down to money.

There are other meanings and adjectives associated with these colors. Click here to read more about it.

 

 

 

See my other posts on Iceland by checking out Reykjavik Iceland, The Blue Lagoon, The Golden Circle, The National Museum of Iceland, and Accommodations in Reykjavik (Boholt Apartments mainly).

I attended a conference called the Nordic Educational Research Association (NERA). See the Keynote Speakers or my research on Preschool Teacher Retention.

Iceland Air

Flying isn’t always fun and luxurious  In fact, often it’s cramped, with poorly circulated air and you end up sitting next to someone who’s constantly coughing.

Well, Iceland Air can’t eliminate the casual cougher, but it does provide you with plenty of amenities. I’ve been on several airlines that fly you for 2-3 hours, and none match Icelandic Airs.

Of course you have the traditional free drinks, the meals that cost money, and the in-flight purchases that you can make on all sorts of good. The leg room is about the same as most other planes, although I did feel a little more spacious. They had footrests that you could use or not use. I typically didn’t, but I found out that putting the footrest in the downward position secured my belongings that I had stored under the seat in front of me, so nothing shifted around. And the staff was quite courteous, responsive, and helpful on this flight.

The three biggest highlights though are that you can watch movies/tv shows/play games/etc on demand. I love that I can stop/pause/start a movie whenever I want to. I hate flights that play on a continuous basis, so when the first show ends, you have to time it for when the next show you want to watch will start. And better yet, they have a regular earphone jack, so no need to buy headsets–just bring your own. If you do forget yours though, they cost all of 6 Euro, and the profits go towards benefitting children. Win-win with Icelandic Air!

On top of that, there was a flash drive connector, so if you didn’t have any battery power left on your mobile device (i.e. computer), you could still read files or look up pictures on your flash drive (never tested if movies worked–should have done that!).

But the most convenient feature was the table you have for your food. Whoever designed them was a genius, because they put enough space on the table so that you could sit your 15 inch laptop on it without having to tilt the monitor towards you. Amazing and welcomed!

I also loved the Icelandic Airport-especially since it was so easy to go through security (literally no one was in line when I got there at 10am)! The whole days flights are located on one screen!

And just found it humorous that since everyone has tofly internationally out of Iceland, they have security booths in every section of their terminals, even if no one is working them.

Reykjavik Iceland: Bolholt Apartments

If you’re looking for a nice hotel to stay in while in Reykjavik, Iceland you may want to stay at another accommodation. But if your goal is to save some money, have a decent place to sleep and have a great view, then welcome to the Boholt Apartments.

Notice that the name “Hotel” is not in the title. That’s because this is an apartment building, and up on the fourth floor is an open door with all of the “hotel rooms”. It’s not a hostel by any means. But there are no workers here (well a cleaning person, but you never see them). This cuts down on costs, with the room costing 426 NOK per night ($74 per night….compared to the Hilton [$158] or Hotel Reykjavík [$121]). Honestly, the Hilton is amazingly nice, but it is double the cost. Hotel Reykjavik though–is not nearly as nice at Bolholt–from a room perspective.

That means that your key is sitting on a desk with your name written on it. The internetusername and password are on the inside of the door to your room and should anything arise, there is a phone number that you should call posted in the “lobby.”

When I was first dropped off by the bus, I walked in and didn’t know where to go. I aimlessly started up the stairs, as it was the only direction to head. I started to panic, wondering where I’d sleep that night, because I didn’t notice that I had to go to the fourth floor. But I found it!

The room was more than accommodating, having four beds, a sofa, a kitchen, and bathroom. I immediately noticed a smell coming from the water, and later learned that Icelandic water (although boasted as amazing and pure) often as a rotten-egg-like smell to it. This isn’t true in the airport, but seemed to be true in several other places that I visited and was even commented on by a tour guide who said she doesn’t even notice the smell anymore. 

The Boholt has amazing views, much like the other hotels in the area–so why pay more for similar views?

Overall, the stay was quite pleasant, and everything worked (keys, internet, cleanliness). The only negative was that I heard people coming in later at night who talked in the hallway. Thankfully people are pretty respectful and go to their respective rooms so it wasn’t so noisy.

 

See my other posts on Iceland by checking out Reykjavik Iceland, The Blue Lagoon, The Golden Circle, The National Museum of Iceland, and Accommodations in Reykjavik (Boholt Apartments mainly).

I attended a conference called the Nordic Educational Research Association (NERA). See the Keynote Speakers or my research on Preschool Teacher Retention.