Report on visit to Spain

Having emotional excitement of the visit to Spain calmed down, we can give a sober analysis of the Spanish project part.

From our point of view it can`t be described as just impressive but of course highly motivating, educational and in some way even challenging.

It`s not a secret that teacher`s job requires not only a certain amount of knowledge, but demands definite skills of communication, listening, accepting new ideas what has been successfully  provided by this project.

It wasn`t easy to accept that imaginative, artistic and practical hands-on work can inspire life-long learning process. It helps to develop sensory awareness, sensibility, stimulate creativity and imagination.

Thanks a lot to a visual art teacher Jordi Serra for the workshop about how to encourage developing and understanding art forms.

It is known that not every child can express his thoughts and feelings in words, dramatizing is the best learning tool this way. Special appreciation for Celi Graells for her emotional and expressive presentation of pantomime activities developing our creative potential and critical thinking skills.

“Journey to Ithaca”  was the most emphatic, demonstrating not only students` artistic skills but also great cooperative work of teachers. It was seen a team work of teachers of art, music, dance, IT, and so on.

Thanks to Isabel Bravo, the teacher of Special Needs, showing  and explaining in details the importance of diverse approach towards pupils with special needs.

Workshop with robotics, presented by Gerard Descamps was the last but may be the most essential today. Modern children, sometimes called “digitally natives”, seem to know how to operate technology from their birth, but if there is a robotic teacher nearby, their natural skills are directed towards development of their literacy  and other “soft skills”.

All the activities and workshops provided by the Spanish group were aimed to show us how to become more competent to cope with multicultural classes. We can confidently say they achieved their goal, because we didn`t even see a shade of any discrepancy between local children and refugees, it is seen how migrant pupils integrate themselves in school reality.

Finally, we`d like to express our full satisfaction from cultural programme organised by the receiving side: tour around beautiful Girona, educational visit to Dali museum, wonderful trip to Tossa de Mar, delicious food and warm and friendly atmosphere of the visit.