Things I’ve Been Learning Lately – Spring 2026

During the first months of 2026, I once again found myself sitting on the learner's side of the classroom. Most of the experiences came through Tallinn Folk High School courses and staff training, while one unexpectedly came from a project I had started together with my own students at Tallinn Polytechnic School.

I’ve ended up using quite a few of these ideas outside work as well. Here are some of them.

Practical Psychology Course

From January to April 2026, I attended the Practical Psychology course led by psychologist Anneli Salk at Tallinn Folk High School. Since I had previously worked on marketing the course myself, it was also genuinely interesting to see who had discovered it through social media campaigns and decided to take their first steps through the doors of the school.

How to Speak to Yourself

One of the ideas that stayed with me most was how important it is to consciously practice gratitude and recognize the patterns of both positive and negative thinking. We discussed how easily people fall into complaint-based thinking during stressful situations, even though it can often be more helpful to reframe thoughts around the desired outcome instead:

“Oh, I have so much work to do”

↓

“Oh, I’ll feel really good once I’ve completed this work.”

Sounds a lot better, right?

We also discussed the different developmental stages of children and how the kind of support they need changes over time. Another memorable topic was communication itself – the difference between what we think, what we say, what actually gets communicated, what the other person hears and how they finally interpret it. It was a reminder that communication is often much more layered and fragile than we assume.

Communicating with Difficult Customers

On 29 April 2026, I took part in a Folk School team training session with psychologist Kaia Kuppart, focused on communicating with difficult clients and handling emotionally challenging situations.

The most important lesson?

They Come in Several Types

The workshop introduced four different types of difficult customer behaviour – from angry and demanding clients to more manipulative behaviour or moments where a person may simply be directing their frustration at the wrong place. Then we explored practical ways of responding without becoming defensive or escalating the conflict further.

One of the most useful reminders for me was how important it is to make the other person feel genuinely heard. Sometimes even small things — reflecting their emotions back to them or paraphrasing what they have said in your own words — can completely change the atmosphere of a difficult conversation and help avoid misunderstandings before they grow larger.

The Useful Part of Difficult

We also discussed how having a clear process for resolving problems can gradually change the way you look at difficult situations. Instead of only reacting with stress or frustration, you begin asking yourself what the situation might actually be revealing.

My actual handwritten notes from the start of the difficult customers training.

Sometimes uncomfortable conversations point toward weaknesses in systems, gaps in communication or opportunities to improve something important. There is often a lot to learn once you put the initial emotional reaction aside. The faster you do it, the quicker you can get to work.

Against the Problem, Not Each Other

The training also reinforced an approach I have generally tried to follow in my own work: solving problems while standing on the client’s side of the situation rather than treating them as the opposing side. Something like: “Look, this is the situation, and we’re in this together. How can we help each other move forward?”

Even when difficult information has to be communicated, the goal should be to create the feeling that both sides are working together toward the same solution. Just find it and get to work.

I like to call it aggressive empathy – choosing to understand someone even when (or especially when) they’re making it difficult.

Supporting Learners with Different Needs

On 5 May 2026, I participated in a training session about supporting learners with different needs. One important takeaway for me was that people should not be approached primarily through diagnoses or labels, but through understanding what they actually need in order to feel supported, comfortable and ready to learn. We all have our own quirks, after all.

At a workshop led by Kaire Bachmann at Tallinn Folk High School. Photo by Markus Karu, my student from Meediakool.

Another idea that stayed with me was how differently all of us experience learning environments. We arrive with different thoughts, sensitivities, expectations and personal needs, and those differences deserve to be acknowledged instead of ignored.

What Do We Need From Each Other?

I especially liked the idea that courses should create space right from the beginning for shared agreements that help everyone feel more comfortable being present and participating. Learners are encouraged to express their needs openly and stand up for themselves without feeling awkward or judged.

Writing down shared agreements in the beginning of the workshop. Photo by Markus Karu.

I appreciated that the trainer brought in the idea of learning as a (difficult) transformative process. It was a nice reminder that learning is not only about gaining knowledge or skills, but also about personal growth and change.

At the same time, that process can make people feel vulnerable, which is why it is important to create an environment where learners feel safe enough to participate, make mistakes and express themselves without fear of being judged.

And Since We Were There…

During the same training day, we also recorded a new episode of Trainer Spotlight for Tallinn Folk High School together with Birgit and Markus, visual media interns from the Meediakool (Media School) programme at Tallinn Polytechnic School.

It was a nice opportunity to combine professional development with a practical media project and involve students in a real production environment.

Learning Through Meediakool Project

A fourth important learning process this spring was connected to Meediakool (Media School) itself, a media-focused initiative developed together with my visual media students from Tallinn Polytechnic School and made public in March 2026.

Meediakool is a student-run (and loosely teacher-supervised) community for visual media students, interns and graduates, where they can share their work, discover projects and find internship opportunities. It also gives students a space of their own to experiment with publishing, communication and running a creative platform.

Advanced classroom management: removing the teacher from the picture. Photo by Markus Karu.

Trust the Process (and the Students)

Working on the project has gradually taught me to trust students more, allow experimentation and accept that creative learning often includes unfinished ideas, unexpected outcomes and mistakes. It’s not something to be avoided. It’s the point.

Instead of hiding those moments, we have increasingly tried to approach them openly and sometimes even humorously as part of the learning process itself. “Forgot to post one photo from a series? Make a new post highlighting the mistake – and add something educational to it.”

Artboard 2026 – a design competition organised by students, with the jury chosen by them too. All it took was just a little push from the sidelines.

I also involved students in real design, photography and video projects that I would previously have preferred to complete myself – including large parts of the Tallinn Polytechnic School film festival campaign and some of my own clients.

Letting go of total control has probably been one of the most valuable lessons of all. The students have rarely done things exactly the way I would have – and that was often the point. Sometimes the best thing a teacher can do is step out of the way.

The Power of Not Overthinking

During a gathering of Estonian folk high schools on 18 June 2026, we were given an unexpectedly familiar creative assignment: create a vision board using collage techniques.

Where do you imagine yourself going? What deserves more of your attention? The sort of questions that can easily send you into an endless loop of overthinking even before picking up the scissors.

I smiled almost immediately. Just a few weeks earlier, I had given a handmade collage poster assignment to my own Visual Media students as part of the Meediakool project. Time limit, finish in class, no homework. Now the roles were reversed. Time to see whether I could follow my own advice.

Instead of analysing every decision, I simply trusted the first ideas that came to mind and didn’t let myself second-guess them. Quite a lot of useful advice for one page.

To avoid getting overwhelmed by the endless possibilities, I limited myself to cut-outs from a single interior design magazine. Speed, momentum, intuition. And simply enjoying the process. Whatever ended up on the paper stayed there.

Dishes? Eating better. Flowers? Beauty in little things. A couch? Rest and taking time for yourself. One image led naturally to the next until the collage was finished.

And doesn’t that sound a lot like creative work in general? Not everything has to begin perfectly. Most things simply need to begin. Perfection can come later. Even if it doesn't, life goes on.