The third short term joint staff training and learning event in the city of
Sibiu has been completed successfully. 19 teachers, coordinators and
participants in the project "Artemotion Xpress in Europe", from each
country of the partnership, met in School Center for Inclusive Education No1, from
10 to 14 of October 2016, to exchange best practices and thus improve the
quality of schools and their teaching methods on their return.
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| Romanian team (Mihaela Muresanu, Mariana Hertoiu – coordinator, Silvana Serb, Bianca Feldera, Daniela Bardas) |
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| Greek team (Micha Mina, Ferentinos Andreas, Kotoula Kelly, Mourelatou Stamoula - coordinator, Giota Gianna) |
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German team
(Helmar Schartner, Annemarie Schunn, Heike Eichbauer - coordinator, )
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| Slovenian team (Tanja Nikolovski - coordinator, Borislava Munda, Alenka Kosem, Tamara Tomasič, ) |
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| Poland team (Agata Wojakowicz, Maria Kukofka, Patrycja Pytlik - coordinator, Urszula Adamska) |
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| Spanish team (Rodrigo Fafian-coordinator, Gemma Bello, Marta Pons, ) |
Our Romanian partners set an example of hospitality, thorough organization,
methodology and teaching techniques. The welcoming of the Romanian partners and
pupils was full of enthusiasm. Their hospitality was warm and sincere. Mariana
Hertoiu, the Romanian Coordinator, with the school’s Erasmus+ team and the
cooperation of their colleagues, prepared a unique program where the planned
activities were truly inspiring, well organized, interactive and absolutely
educational. They were tireless hosts throughout the mobility, full of energy,
enthusiasm and love for their work and the project.
Sunday 9.10.2016, was the day of the arrival in Sibiu of the participants
of every partner school (Greece, Germany, Poland, Spain, Slovenia). In the
evening we were welcomed by the coordinator of the corporate school of Sibiu, Mrs
Mariana Hertoiu and enjoyed a welcome dinner.
On Monday 10.10.2016
we visited the Astra Library where we were welcomed by Sibiu
officials, Mrs.Delia Stoicescu - Special Education Inspector, Mrs. Anca
Voineag, Educative Programs and Projects Inspector Sibiu, County Council
representatives, local mass-media representatives and the Principal of the school
Mrs. Rodica Fagetan. Followed a PPT presentation of the Sibiu School Center of
Inclusive Education No. 1 and the National Education System by Mrs. Laura
Opris.
Afterwards, we arrived to CSEI No1 Sibiu, where we were welcomed with great
enthusiasm by the pupils and educational staff. We tasted salted bread as it is
an old Romanian custom and entered the school. Pupils were holding a handmade
colorful welcome poster.
Later on, our partners gave us a tour around the school to get familiar
with the classes and workshops and to be introduced to the pupils. We also
attended the performance of a group of pupils called “The wonders of the
world”, which was a music and dance activity, and songs sung by pupils while
creating a unique orchestra with simple instruments.
In the
afternoon, we visited Astra Village Museum Sibiu which is an open air museum
where there are workshops, traditional houses and works of folk art. It was an
incredible visit as it showed us the evolution of house architecture and the
environment was magnificent. Last but not least, we had a tour around the
wonderful historical city.
On Tuesday 11.10.2016 we attended a workshop called “How to make a photo
report” and we are all assigned to produce a photo report until the 10th of
November. Daniella Bardas and Mihaela Muresanu, introduced us to a useful
technique of photo presentation through the use of power point where photos and
images can tell a visual story.
A second
workshop introduced by Silvana Serb was the EFT – Emotional Freedom Technique,
where they demonstrated the basic steps for emotional freedom while using the
tapping points. It is mostly a psychological approach to overcome emotional
difficulties concerning a variety of situations eg stress, anxiety, failure,
fears and phobias, chronic health issues etc. EFT is a self-healing and peak
performance tool that brings relief from emotional and physical problems by
using key phrases while tapping on the body’s acupuncture meridians.
Each day, our
well organized program combined school activities with cultural activities
adding to the goals of our project “Artemotion Xpress in Europe” which is
synonymous with Art and Emotions. Thus, on Tuesday afternoon we visited “Carolina
Alba Iulia” Fortress and Turda Salt Mine where our tour guides transferred to us a wealth of valuable information
about the history of Romania, Sibiu and the surrounding area.
On Wednesday 12.10.2016 all of the
participants attended various workshops such as “Magic
circle”, “The heart’s map”, “The heart’s colors”, music therapy, drawing
workshops for emotions by Alexandra Moldovan, Bianca Feldera and other
colleagues.
All these workshops have demonstrated
methodologies and specific art techniques aiming at improving pupils’
expressive abilities, their social relation skills and their social behavior;
they encourage their personal development, the expression of their feelings,
raising awareness, developing social and human skills.
Later on, a
dance workshop was held at the German Forum by Csilla Gaspar called “Dance –
Way of Communication”. All partners participated in dance techniques aiming to
the space orientation of pupils, the gross motor development, the distinction between
right and left side, their emotional expression, rhythm etc.
The second
official transnational meeting of the coordinators was held as it was important
to discuss the so far progress of the project and to plan the future
activities. Thalia our muse and maskot, was delivered by Spain to our hosts, to
explore a new European civilization and to attend new classes and project
activities.
Following, we visited Brukenthal
Museum were we witnessed the development of art through the ages in Romania. The Art Galleries are located inside
the Brukenthal Palace and include a number of about 1,200 works belonging to
the main European schools of painting, from the 15th to the 18th century. The
Galleries also include collections of engravings, books, numismatics, and
minerals.
On Thursday 13.10.2016 an outdoor
activity was held “Feel the arts and express your feelings through our
traditions”. It was a cultural trip to the center of Transylvania, were we
visited Peles Castle in Sinaia Brasov and Bran Castle learning more about
Transylvanian and Karpathian history and the legend of Dracula.
On Friday 14.10.2016, the last
day of the mobility, our hosts had organized a variety of workshops involving
arts and feelings with teaching techniques and methodologies. All partners
where divided into two groups and attended two different workshops.
The first one was a dance, music and art workshop,
where we learned many warm up activities such as:
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“Name by movement” (participants moved their bodies spontaneously to present their
name)
- “Dance stop” (move and dance to music freely
and when the music stops, make a freeze/pose)
- “Dance catch” (1-3 catchers have the goal to
catch the participants by giving them a dance step/movement and facial
expression)
- “Dance theatre”
- “Blind walks” (where we divided into groups of
two, one was blindfolded and the other had to guide his or her partner through
the crowd while using a specific secret to the other participants voice or
noise).
- “Rhythm games”, (we explored simple and more
complicated rhythms and discovered the possibilities of using language
rhythmically).
- Clapping games to explore vocabulary of a
subject being studied (eg learn new words, to practice the proper pronunciation
of foreign language words, to improvise statements about a specific subject
such as feelings etc).
- Dance and music activity
- Art visual activity
The second workshop was called
“Stop Motion” and it was about making an animation movie using stop motion technique.
Stop motion technique is an animation technique that physically
manipulates an object so that it appears to move on its own. The object is
moved in small increments between individually photographed frames, creating
the illusion of movement when the series of frames is played as a continuous
sequence.
We used playmobil figures. We created the movie using Windows Movie
Maker software.
Later on we
visited the “Casa Luminii” Center (“The Light’s house” Center) and were
introduced to the pupils of kindergarten with severe intellectual disabilities.
On the return
to school we attended the performance of pupils in a dance and music show where
they sung traditional songs and danced folk music from Transylvania as a farewell.
The feelings were incredible, happiness, enthusiasm, sadness as the mobility
reached it end but mostly a feeling of fulfillment and a promise to meet again.
At the end,
the participant filled in the feedback questionnaire and discussed the eventual
impressions and conclusions of the whole week activities. The awarding
certificates where given to each partner school.
The last evening and farewell
dinner were truly special. The teaching staff of CSIE No1 Sibiu farewelled us
with lots of modern and folk dance and songs. The strong friendship and bond
between all participants was obvious as we all danced together and shared a
wonderful time full of excitement, happiness and overwhelming feelings.
Our Romanian partners surprised
us once again as at midnight a big birthday cake appeared. Our project
celebrated it first year of implementation and we all wished Happy Birthday
with a special Artemotion Xpress in Europe birthday cake and all together blew
the candle.
Thank you dear colleagues from Sibiu,
Mariana, Bianca, Alexandra, Daniela, Mickey, Silvana, Dany, the principal Mrs
Rodica Fagetan and many other Romanian colleagues, for the great mobility, the
well-structured program, the variety of activities and actions carried out, the
impeccable hospitality, the unique experiences and the best exchange of good
practices. You set an example to all of us and gave us the opportunity to feel
through Art, to communicate, to learn and to know Transylvanian customs with a
unique way while at the same time connecting everything with our project «Artemotion
Xpress in Europe". It was a completely successful mobility that will stay
in our memory forever. Thank you very much for everything.
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| Coordintators |
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| Participants |
