In spring season, I traveled to Salamanca, Spain thanks to Erasmus+ programme named ”Educație de calitate ȋn comunitatea ruralӑ pentru incluziunea ȋn ȋnvӑțӑmȃntul de masӑ a elevilor și preșcolarilor cu CES și/sau dificultӑți de adaptare”, no.2021-1-RO01-KA122-SCH-000015645. The duration of the mobility was from 9 to 13 of May, current year. The objective of the programme was that we acquire best practices to create a learning environment for all (once diversity is considered), cooperative work and collaborative learning skills that presents great potential for us, teachers, to actively promote and change the mind-set and life style for our students with SEN, to be more tolerant, among other learners and staff.
I will describe in a few words each of the 5 days of classes and how it went.
On the first day we learned how to create a dynamic but effective learning environment for our students. Day 2 was about Creativity Examples and most important Collective Thinking. The third day was based on Co-operative Learning and how to create an atmosphere of successful team work, involving partners in educational projects. Collective Creativity Techniques and Technology in Enhancing Creativity were the subjects of the forth day of classes. We finished the last day of the project, day 5, with Creativity and Entrepreneurship/ Creativity and Marketing, Successful Entrepreneurs and Course Evaluation. During that day we also had group discussions, reflection and introspection, we shared ideas and we tried to explore ways of determining the way that students of any age learn and how us, teachers, can use this information. We reflected over the importance of the gaps in content lessons/ curriculum design.
My participation in this project helped me to improve my language skills, my computer skills, my communication skills also my organisational and managerial skills and al lot of other things, like safeguarding awareness and capability, self reliance in being in a foreign country, breaking down barriers, improved my adaptability to collaborate and work in a foreign country.
For me, as a teacher for age group between 6-10 years old, was very important to learn more about managing groups of student with different needs and abilities of achievement. I learned a lot about how to adapt didactic materials to the needs of the children. I overlooked the integration of the students in the school environment and how to use my teaching abilities in day-to-day life methods and of course I learned how to include in every class or activity all of my students without exception. I was happy for the new methods that helps me to work better with my SEN students, methods that helps them to achieve information in very interesting and joyful ways, which is more than great.
During this period i also learned to recognize different behaviours that can be discriminative or bullying towards SEN colleague students and to understand the sources causing these in order to develop good practices to prevent or deal with such negative behaviours in school.
I’m grateful to Erasmus + for giving me this big opportunity to grow and learn as a teacher and i suggest to all of you this alternative, it makes a huge difference.