One of the many things that have made career as a teacher at the Commercial College of Iceland has been the opportunity to participate in International cooperation with schools all over Europe, and once in the USA. Currently I am involved in a very large and ambitious Erasmus+ project, titled Young Voices in the European Democracies - with participants from nine countries, and a wide variety of schools. I am now attending my third meeting in Sibius, Romania, I was involved in organising the meeting in Reykjavík and had the pleasure of visiting Sofia, Bulgaria last fall.
The partner school here is Gheorghe Lazăr National College an old school with a proud tradition, whose history mirrors the history of Romania and in particular Transilvania since 1692. The reception by the school has been exemplary, and the fact that the school is downtown a few minutes walk from our hotel is an added bonus.
The winning team of Icelannd, Heiðrún, Helena, Arnór, Hjórdís and Bára |
The parties from the countries were varied, but a clear theme that emerged were young people's concerns regarding the environment, the refugee crisis and the importance of education, a very good example is the German poster.
The beautiful German poster |
Hard work preparing for debates |
The experience afforded to the students and the teachers when such activities are successful (and in fact also when they are not!) are invaluable, and a truer form of education and growth is hard to find - so like I said in the beginning, participating in great projects like this is a very important part of my identity as a teacher and I hope to take part in many more in the future, and encourage educators everywhere to make an effort to get involved in international cooperation!
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