New Voices in the European Democracies part 2 - Debate finals and end of session

On Thursday, 10 March the finals of the debates took place. There were four debates that were carried out simultaneously in four locations, so arranging the whole event was a bit challenging and was carried out well. Unfortunately I was only able to attend the beginning of one of the sessions, where they debated whether refugees weaken democracy in host countries.

On the whole it seems that the debates went well, most of the speakers were Icelanders and Romanians. This activity was well organised. Nevertheless it is difficult for those who have lower English skills, and in a mixed group this is a challenge - were the element of competion, while adding a level of excitement, also can cause problems. Ways to solve this could be to allow one speech in mother language per team, or to allow alternative methods of delivery, using pictures, movements or whatever.

The last activities, on Friday, 11 May were a short introduction to Appland by me, an interesting film and rap from the Spanish team on what weakens democracy, and a film presented by Turkey on the same topic.

The social aspect of the visit was a great success, the students from Iceland were very happy with their hosts and sad to leave, and the teachers were treated to a number of very interesting tours, entertainment and amazing feasts! Takk fyrir okkur!! Below some pictures from the debate session I attended