Elina Karapalo har en lång karriär som gymnasielärare i engelska. Hon arbetar för tillfället i Tampereen aikuislukio som vicerektor. Förutom Insights-serien har Elina fungerat som läromedelförfattare i Otavas serie Open Road.

Ooops, there goes another day…!” But it goes doing things I love: with the family and friends, and at work with amazing teenagers learning with them new things about languages, the world and life in general. And trying to put all that into English course books with my marvellous colleagues. I now teach at a normal Upper Secondary School, but I have a long history of teaching adult upper secondary school students, upper secondary plus vocational degree students and distance learning students. I was also involved in the previous Otava English course book series, Open Road, and jumped at the chance of doing it again. Times are a-changing and so must we. That alone is enough to keep us on our toes.

Paula Keltto är lärare i engelska vid gymnasiet Vaasan lyseo. Hon är en av författarna till GLP21-serien New Insights, och hoppas att serien ska ge nya perspektiv på engelskstudierna och uppmuntra de studerande till att fundera på vad som händer i världen omkring dem.

I teach English at Vaasan lyseon lukio which is a fairly big upper secondary school in Ostrobothnia. Besides teaching, I am also a censor on the matriculation examination board and I’ve previously worked on the book series Insights and the digital book Abilities.

I enjoy teaching English because the curriculum for English gives me so many opportunities to focus on things that I find truly interesting and important. I can, for example, talk about multi-culturalism and diversity or nature, climate and ecology. We can plan everyday climate actions as a part of our lessons, or talk about current events around the world and analyze their effects. I love the fact that I can get carried away by the themes that our studies include and I can commit to the core values of the national curriculum. Respecting human rights, improving equality and wellbeing, building skills to lead a sustainable lifestyle – these are some of the things that I am passionate about. These are also some of the things that New Insights deals with. I hope our material will help teachers in their efforts to educate the youth, give them food for thought and make them think about what is happening in the world around them.

I grew up a long way from here, in Los Angeles, California. I’ve mostly taught mother tongue English, but also English as an additional language, history, government, economics, information technology, drama and film, plus coaching swimming and volleyball. At some point teaching in Europe seemed like it would be a good adventure, and, dear readers, so it has been. As a teacher, I am interested in asking tough questions and messing about with media and digital literacy. I’ve enjoyed working on this book series, especially collaborating with the other authors. I hope they are as interesting to use as they have been to create.

In the early 2000s, I was living in and teaching English in Los Angeles, California, and I had a mean case of itchy feet. On a whim, I packed up my books and a completely inadequate coat and headed for Helsinki. I regret to say I knew nothing about my new home. In the intervening years, I got married, had children, got a better coat, moved to London and back, and here I am, still trying to make great enchiladas and staying up all night to watch Lakers and Dodgers games.

I spent more than 20 years as an English teacher, both mother tongue and English acquisition, also occasionally teaching drama, history, government and technology courses. These days I am the Diplomas Division Head at the International School of Helsinki, and I teach a Film course. I worked with a great group of educators on the Insights series, and when Otava said they were getting the team back together, well, how could I say no? I hope the series is as interesting to use as it was to create.

Having always had a strong interest in languages and at least according to my loved ones, an eagerness to tell others what to do, I became an English teacher. Nearly a decade of teaching behind me, I can still honestly say I have the best job in the world! I want to be able to provide students, both those who already seem to know it all and those who struggle with foreign languages, with a feeling that they can and will learn more, and that they are motivated to do so. Learning languages can be hard work, but with good and interesting material, it’s not only doable but fun!

Päivi Kuusivaara arbetar som lärare i engelska i Karkkilan lukio. Insights är hennes första projekt där hon fungerade som läromedelsförfattare.

Annukka Suonio är lärare i engelska i Tammerfors. Hon är en av författarna bakom den populära serien Insights, engelska för gymnasiet, och nu också serien New Insights, som följder den nya läroplanen.

I miss the ball a lot when playing golf and more often than not lose the ball altogether, maybe sports aren’t my thing. My passion has always been languages. I’ve studied English, Swedish, German, Spanish, Latin, French, Russian and Japanese and have come to realize that language learning has to have a real connection to your everyday life to be meaningful and interesting.

Being a teacher is great, because you learn new things every day while working together with your students and colleagues. I want to provide all of my students, both those who already seem to know it all and those who struggle with English, with a feeling that they can and will learn more. I’m interested in developing online learning environments and writing teaching materials. And the best part is that you never have to do any of it alone: writing and teaching are team efforts.

Our Insights team received a prize in 2019 (Otavan Kirjasäätiö), but the best prize is the continuous positive feedback you can give and receive in a classroom or online.

Teijo Päkkilä är lärare i engelska vid Seinäjoen lukio. Han har deltagit i arbetet med flera läromedelsserier i engelska och har också varit aktiv inom olika utvecklingsprojekt inom språkundervisning. Nu är han en del av författargruppen till Otavas förnyade serie New Insights.

I’m currently teaching at Seinäjoen lukio, which is a relatively big high school in Finland. The main focuses for me as a teacher have always been how to keep the students motivated and engaged and how to get to be active participants during the lessons. I’ve realized, hopefully, that good learning material and well-planned lessons play an important role spiced with the teacher’s active role in creating dialogue.

This is my fourth book series that I’m working with now, the earlier ones being Culture café, Open Road and Insights. When it comes to projects, I’ve participated in several national and international development programmes and projects spanning from the first European Language Portfolio one to projects with Canadian high schools to develop practices both in the province of Alberta and Finland.