Press release (RO, Monitorul de Suceava): Online conference to launch the “Integrated Children and Youth for a Better World” project at USV
https://www.monitorulsv.ro/Local/2021-03-24/Conferinta-online-de-lansare-a-proiectului-Copii-si-tineri-integrati-pentru-o-lume-mai-buna-la-USVRead More
A “life story” lived with the students of the Manoleasa Gymnasium
The meeting at the Manoleasa Secondary School
from Activity 3.4. Providing anti-discrimination education, active citizenship and the promotion of successful models for children and youth at risk of dropping out of school and/or learning and psycho-behavioral difficulties
My educational experience (Lecturer Dr. Marius Eși [1]) augmented through my participation as a trainer-expert providing health education in the project „Integrated children and youth for a better world”, financed by the call “Inclusive education for children and young people at risk” and implemented within the Local Development, Poverty Reduction and Enhanced Roma Inclusion Programme.
I say that my experience has become richer precisely because I want to reproduce some of the facts and events that took place in the framework of such an educational endeavor. From the very beginning of the meeting, when the 4th graders, my future students for a few hours, were introduced to me by their distinguished teacher, and when I felt a flow of positive energy that would last until the end the meeting.
The place of the meeting was a deeply spiritual one where the Romanian tradition is at home in all its forms: rural time and space, language rich in regionalisms pleasing to the ear, very good communication from all those involved, a beautiful simplicity and a specific wisdom.
From the very beginning of the lesson, my new students proved to be true educational detectives. They were staring at me and scanning me, at first with some curiosity, a slight panic (because their teacher had been gone for a few minutes), but at the same time, eager to know and learn more from me and even about me.
I briefly told them who I was and explained why I was with them at that moment. I spoke to them calmly, with a smile on my face, and during the speech I made another joke, well controlled by me (another subtle moment of breaking the ice), so that I could slightly attract their attention and, why nay, to relieve them of the slight tension and anxiety arising from the fact that they were at that moment face to face with any other than their lady teacher. As I was talking to them, I noticed how their faces showed smiles, they started to giggle, to laugh, to feel good.
After this first step, I moved on to deepening the previous phase, an interpersonal knowledge exercise when I asked them to write their name on a piece of paper and display it on the bench. Then I asked them to introduce themselves, tell me their name, who is their best friend, if they like school, what is their favorite subject, etc. I don’t want to tell you how eager for communication they began to become at that moment and how much they began to tell me about themselves, about school, about their joys. Every time someone spoke I made sure to reward them with a smile or a “Bravo!” full of encouragement and joy. They almost always responded the same way with a smile or a giggle as confirmation that they were feeling good.
Slowly, slowly we moved the discussion towards what was to be the purpose of our meeting, namely a discussion of the ideas of discrimination and anti-discrimination. I was pleasantly surprised to find that some of them were trying to answer my questions about the idea of discrimination. I noticed that on an intuitive level they knew what it was about, they just needed, perhaps, a confirmation, some additional explanations. The surprise was all the greater given that none of these children previously knew what topic I wanted to discuss with them.
After about 5 minutes of discussions, questions and nice and interesting answers from them, I told them that I want to make some teams together so that we can play better. I gave them some colored pencils, crayons and sheets of paper and told them that we would draw and write together later after I wanted to show them two animated videos about discrimination.
Throughout watching the videos, I noticed that my new students were very attentive so that later they successfully coped with the discussion. So, after watching the videos we tried to discuss together the main idea about the message. I want to tell you that I didn’t even get to formulate the question because my students were raising their hands asking me to let them answer, the raised hand being completed at that moment with the request expressed verbally, “I say!”, “I know!” “I want to answer!” s.a.m.d. They were eager every time to answer, to communicate, to talk with me, to explain, to show me what they understood.
I was assaulted, overwhelmed, conquered by their personality, their way of being.
My intervention consisted in the fact that I confirmed most of the answers they gave me, at the same time explaining to them what they saw in the videos. Thus, I tried to explain to them what gender discrimination means, or social status discrimination, discrimination in social life or concepts such as discrimination and anti-discrimination, equality, respect, help, tolerance, kindness, etc.
The second phase then started with team work. Thus, I asked the students to try to draw together what they understand, what they imagine by the idea of discrimination or discrimination. I also recommended them to try to recall images, facts, words, sayings from the videos they saw. And this time I analyzed them very discreetly, sometimes I gave them little advice, suggestions regarding the task they had to perform. I really enjoyed seeing how they talked together, how they drew and colored together, but also how they laughed together.
After the time was up, each team presented their drawing in front of the class. Also, one of the tasks was for each member of each team to say a word or a sentence related to the given task, to the ideas of discrimination and anti-discrimination. Every time one of the students finished speaking, everyone else applauded as a form of reward. Also, at the end everyone cheered for each team.
The third phase of the didactic activity took place with an active learning method in the center of attention, namely the role-playing game. The three teams were tasked with imagining a discrimination/anti-discrimination situation and presenting it physically. Such a concrete and playful approach was a real success because the little ones like to play, to imagine all kinds of situations. And this time, after the well-deserved applause and after the smiles and joy of the task well accomplished, we moved on to the last stage of the didactic activity.
The fourth phase consisted in concretizing a moment of feedback. Thus, he asked the students to remember what they discussed and what they remembered after the activity. And this time the answers were up to the mark, the students doing very well.
The activity made the time compress and the joy remained on everyone’s faces. At the end of it, we all enjoyed a very good and tasty ice cream, parting with handshakes, with a slight regret and with the hope of an equally beautiful and pleasant reunion in the future. There would be much more to say about such an educational approach, beyond the emotions felt by each participant.
I can only say that I met some wonderful children full of life, restless in the good sense of the word, eager to know, to color, to communicate. They always tried through the behavior they displayed to express themselves in a personal way, to show what they did, what they know or what they learned during the activity carried out. It is certain that the education of children is like a flower, a flower that always needs to be watered, sprinkled with a lot of care and affection, so that it is pleasing to the eye whenever it is looked at. Let’s not forget that education can only be perfected and transmitted through the children we always have close by, beside us, as educators, because, basically, they teach us how to laugh, smile, enjoy everything moment in our own lives.
Suceava, 11.04.2022
[1] Marius Eși is Lecturer in the Psychopedagogical Department of the Faculty of Educational Sciences, “Ștefan cel Mare” University in Suceava, with over 12 years of experience and teaches subjects such as: Didactics of the specialty, Didactics of the field and development in the didactics of the specialty, Pedagogical practice.
Read MoreThe “path of knowledge”, traveled together with the students of Bilbor Secondary School
The meeting at the Secondary School “O.C. Tăslăuanu” Bilbor, within Activity 3.5 – Provision of health, hygiene and nutrition education for children and young people at risk of dropping out of school and/or learning and psycho-behavioral difficulties
My educational experience (Lect. dr. Monica TURTUREAN[1]) augmented through my participation as a trainer-expert providing health education in the project „Integrated children and youth for a better world”, financed by the call “Inclusive education for children and young people at risk” and implemented within the Local Development, Poverty Reduction and Enhanced Roma Inclusion Programme.
I was greeted with many smiles and good cheer at the Secondary School “O.C. Tăslăuanu” Bilbor (Harghita county), where I met a group of curious students eager to learn new things. They welcomed me as if we had known each other forever, I felt a lot of warmth and a feeling of well-being in their souls.
We started with an ice-breaking exercise, where everyone had to introduce themselves and say three attributes about him/herself, then three characteristics of the bank colleague. They responded promptly to both requirements without feeling inhibited or embarrassed at all. Moreover, they knew their colleagues very well, which gave me the impression that there was good communication between them. After this exercise, I moved on to discussing why we were meeting, asking them to engage in all the activities I proposed. We had a unanimous YES.
I handed out worksheets that included information related to body hygiene, home hygiene, physical health, school and playground/park safety. Some applications were individual, others involved teamwork; I was pleasantly impressed by their naturalness, but also by the spirit of solidarity, of helping each other: they lent their carios and colors to each other, they politely waited for their turn to use the coloring tools, there was no envy and malice, only the desire to respond and to be appreciated. They were grateful when I gave them the long-awaited feedback (“Very good!, Bravooo!!!, Wow, what a nice answer!!!”) and they couldn’t wait to see the next exercises.
The atmosphere was very relaxed, engaging, and my discreet interventions had the role of stimulating the discussion. Questions related to hygiene and healthy eating wanted to be answered as fully as possible, and the students had a great need to feel validated throughout our meeting; we took care of this aspect, which was by no means free, but was a consequence of their involvement, of the fact that they responded with interest. They constantly had their hands raised, they found new explanations for everything I asked, they looked with great interest for other examples than those provided by me to show me that they know, that they master a lot of information, but also because that’s how they saw learning, as a total involvement, no mean lines and no raising of the tone.
In the next stage I showed them two short films in which they had to identify what the children were doing wrong. With great interest and innocent pride, they responded very well to this task, being extremely happy that they managed to identify all the mistakes, thanks to the knowledge about hygiene and health accumulated previously.
In the third stage, they proposed a healthy menu that included three main meals and two snacks (an application that they made quickly, with a lot of enthusiasm and with the certainty that they did a good job), including information about calories – which required internet access on the phone.
At the end of the day, I made a synthesis of what was discussed, to fix the notions better and to make sure that they understood it (constructive feedback). I was pleasantly surprised to find that the students had absorbed all the information, and I no longer needed to come up with new explanations.
As a conclusion, this activity filled my soul with beauty, with positive emotions because I connected with innocent young people, full of energy, eager to learn new things, constructive receptive to everything.
Lector univ. dr. Monica Turturean
Suceava, 28.04.2022
[1] Monica TURTUREAN is Lecturer at the Psychopedagogical Department of the Faculty of Educational Sciences, “Ștefan cel Mare” University in Suceava, with over 12 years of experience; teaches subjects such as: Educational Psychology, Intercultural Education, Curriculum Theory and Methodology , Theory and methodology of training, Theory and methodology of evaluation. http://www.dppd.usv.ro/dppd2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=14&Itemid=16
Read MoreInclusive Education and Skills for a Democratic Culture, Wergeland Center – Oslo
At the end of March (March 24-27, 2022), school teacher Adriana Mititelu (Tulcea county) was selected to attend a training session in Norway, provided by the European Wergeland Center in Oslo. On this occasion, she sent us some information about the activities she was involved in:
As a participant in the project Children and youth integrated for a better world , I learned with great interest about the opportunity to participate in training session in Norway on a topic of real interest and of great relevance Inclusive education and skills for a democratic culture. With some reluctance I filled out the registration form and here I was selected among the 24 participating teachers.
In the first day, I participated to the course held by Elizabeth Kasa, trainer from of the Council of Europe, namely Inclusion and the reference framework of competences for democratic citizenship. Emphasis was placed on: clarifying the terms exclusion-segregation, integration-inclusion; the role of the EU in the inclusive education approach and the Salamanca Declaration (1994). The Declaration promotes the principles of integration and the recognition of the need to act for the creation of “schools for all”, institutions that include all children, with respect for differences between them, support students in the learning activity and respond to individual requirements. It was insisted on the idea that an inclusive school must include in the education process all children, regardless of physical, intellectual, social, emotional, linguistic or other conditions.
There were discussions related to the difficulties faced by teachers in Romania/Norway and the conclusion was that Inclusion does not take place until the school culture changes (in terms of values, behaviors and approach).The program of the second day was related to the Whole school approach, trainer: Valentina Papeikine, Wergeland Centre. WSA involves the involvement of ALL members: school administration, teachers, students, parents, local community members.
- at the level of teachers: curriculum, methodology, extracurricular activities, the inclusion of activities that involve the development of democratic skills in the act of teaching, interdisciplinary activities
- at the administrative level: student involvement in school decisions
- at the community level – involvement of parents in the decision-making process, interschool partnerships, partnerships with local institutions.
- examples of good practice/Norwegian experiences
- a major goal for Norwegian education throughout the 13 years of schooling is language confidence and belief in one’s own culture as a basis for identity development, respect for other cultures, active social participation and lifelong learning
- The role of teachers is essential to an effective education system (they have the power to bring about change – to make students and parents feel heard and valued)
Also then, we participated in a role-playing game, in which we were divided into groups of trainees, organized as teachers, parents, principals, students. Each group had to establish three fundamental needs for the school, and at the end a priority need was negotiated between the groups. Given that a former graduate of the school wanted to grant a sponsorship of 25,000 euros, a dialogue took place with the sponsor, each trying to convince him of the need considered the most important.
The third day was dedicated to the education of Roma children and their integration into the collective – trainer: Ramiza Sakip, from Council of Europe. The discussion looked at the UNICEF and UNESCO framework regarding the integration of Roma children and recommendations regarding the approach of meetings with parents and the integration of Roma students into the collective.
- A positive atmosphere, encouraging cooperation and a sense of belonging to a group. The feeling of belonging to a group helps to increase self-confidence and reduce the fear of failure in completing tasks. Ways to promote group cohesion: interactive group activities, games or sports activities.
- Let’s make sure that all children feel special and valued by formulating positive assessments at all times, without making comparisons between children, without creating hierarchies in the group. You can design activities that make each child feel special.
- Stimulating children to develop independent thinking, make decisions and find solutions to problems. If a task is perceived as too difficult or if problems arise within the group, instead of rushing to give solutions or decide what you think is appropriate, it is preferable to ask questions and offer alternatives.
- Avoiding negative judgments and evaluations of their performance and choosing positive wording. If a task is not successfully completed, instead of saying “try harder next time,” you can choose to conclude “we’ll have to find a better way to learn how to do this”.
- Providing opportunities for mutual aid. By creating situations where children have the opportunity to help a classmate and be helped, you boost self-esteem and encourage pro-social behavior.
- Connecting educational activities with cultural elements with which children are familiar. In particular, the inclusion of links with Roma culture will have a positive effect on the self-esteem of Roma children, but it will also facilitate the learning process (it is easier to learn starting from something familiar) and develop positive attitudes in other children.
- Children will be encouraged to relate to positive role models. It is useful to involve Roma adults who can represent successful role models that Roma children can identify with, for example, with young Roma who recognize their Roma ethnicity and who can also speak Romani.
Prof. înv. primar
Adriana Mititelu
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