Project Creativity 4 Sociability, Constanta, Romania

Felix and Sam  were two out of four volunteers, spending 9 months in Romania. Because Erasmus+ is funding learning experiences, through volunteering, look what they have achieved during their stage:

 

Felix, Swedish, 23 years old:

“Improved communication

Assertiveness is all about communication with your surroundings and within yourself, I’ve learned a lot from all the research we made together. Therefore, I improved my emotional intelligence, giving/taking both compliments and criticism, dealing with conflict, emotions and more within this topic. As a result, I realized the importance of inner communication and how it’s linked with your outer communication.

Working with youth

Working in the classroom with young people closing into adulthood taught me a lot. As I worked with smaller children in my other activities it created a clear contrast. The older ones needed more freedom and time to build up trust for an honest conversation. However, it was much easier to go deeper into topics and receive individual viewpoints.

As our sessions had a focus on the students’ cohesion we only leed the conversations and never participated. This resulted in me improving my listening skills and the ability to help the students make their own realizations and reflections.

In addition, I became better at creating a calm atmosphere with a large group of people, gaining their attention and organizing them.

Informal teaching

Through the sessions, I learned to teach through interactive activities rather than purely visual and verbal means.

Talking in front of groups:

As we had a lot of presentations with different classes I grew more comfortable talking in front of people. I could improvise more with time and be less dependent on prepared material.

Cooperating with others

During our assertiveness sessions, we started splitting up amongst each other more. This made it clearer to see which kind of people I worked best with, how different styles of teaching we had. I gained more awareness of how I worked in the classroom and could improve by observing the other ways of working. One clear difference was the speed and formality which I learned to decrease in order to give the students more space.

Learning to learn

We had little knowledge of this topic besides life experiences and had to learn most of it ourselves through research online which I became more efficient with. Thereafter, we practiced our methods in the classroom which thought me things no book ever could teach me.

Working in a group in theater activities:

I gained an awareness of which role I took when we planned and facilitated our sessions. As my awareness increased I improved the weaknesses I found. Noticing I usually took a more passive role by hesitating when expressing my opinion, taking lead or not taking the space I deserved.

Thereby, I started expressing my opinions more but could wait for weeks until I found courage which also improved immensely with time. Equally important, I learned to differentiate between constructive and destructive feedback much better, not taking feedback as personal and saying no when wrongfully spoken to. In contrast, I improved my awareness when I spoke over others which resulted in me listening and giving them constructive feedback more often.

Moreover, I saw that a structure is necessary for an efficient meeting. It’s easy to stray away from the topic even though sometimes this proves useful to boost creativity, the essential part is to find a balance between these. That is to say, going off the topic still has to be about work.

Working with children and youth

Especially young children have a harder time to focus and pay attention, which makes it efficient to have informal learning. I learned how essential energizers are for both the facilitators and the children which we adults could learn from. Teather activities are such a great way to improve the children’s confidence as they had to be in the center of attention. In particular, as the activities are fun, the children seem to forget about the others looking at them. We as facilitators also gained from this as we had to play “stupid” going out of our own comfort zone. I definitely increased my comfort zone in this new territory.

Secondly, I learned that having different age groups at the same time creates a challenge as they need different activities. The older ones get bored as the younger ones couldn’t keep up, however on the plus side they can learn from each other’s differences.

Thirdly, we found new ways to involve the children in the content of the sessions. For example, we based their problems for the fable scripts by having a balloon game, writing a note with their problem and putting it into the balloon. Thereafter, popping the balloon and anonymously read it out loud by someone.

Lastly, I learned how big of an impact parents have when involved with their children. This, of course, depends on the parent but, some could controll their children too much and limit their involvement.

Working with a language barrier

I learned the importance of body language and intonation by communicating with a limited common language. Finding ways to get the message through even when not having the words for it. In addition, I improved my Romanian.

Improvement of adaptation:

Having the cultural difference of not planning beforehand as much in Romania, I learned to balance between having a plan and improvising on the spot.

Research

Most sessions demanded a lot of research beforehand. In the beginning, I could waste time on useless information which I did less with time.

Understanding of theater: A better understanding of how theatre works including: writing a script, how to act out emotions,

create a character and characterize it, plan the scene settings, set up a program for the play, Internation, body language, moving on the stage, connecting with the audience and creating costumes.”

 

Sam, from The Netherlands, 19 years old:

“Agigea Day Care Center:

This place helped me learn so much both personally but also practically. With the research that went into all of the sessions we planned but also learning how to communicate with as little words possible. I have learned a bunch of skills that I did not even think that a person who did this for a living needed.

I have found a new respect for all of the teachers that have stood in front of me in class during my younger years (7-14 years). Teaching something to kids is incredibly challenging but very rewarding when you find out the right way to do so. We had teached ourselves about how to teach kids about wholesome topics in the way that is the most fun and thus in my opinion the right way through non-formal methods or easier said games!

Abilities, skills and competencies:

  •       Having more patience and understanding of individual needs of kids
  •       Organizing and facilitating sessions while keeping in mind what the participants might find fun to do
  •       Anticipating problems and finding solutions for them (communication)
  •       Being able to adapt to how the kids feel on a given moment and change the session plan accordingly.
  •       Being able to take space when I want to and let others take space where it is due during organization and facilitation
  •       Using limited Romanian knowledge to communicate with the kids to settle down and giving basic commands like stand in a circle or to quiet down a bit
  •       Being able to give sessions to kids about varying topics

Assertive training:

I found a new way of presenting complex ideas that felt very comfortable and natural to me and that I thought brought the message across in a light and fun way. I found a way to stay present during presentation that I did not previously had just because we kept practicing. I now can stand in front of teenagers and talk about complex emotional processes in a light and fun way without going on automatic mode and I am quite proud of that.

Abilities, skills and competencies:

  •       Learning about assertiveness and being able to use all that information also in real life
  •       Learn how to properly communicate my ideas feelings and suggestions
  •       Knowledge of organization of a session about life skills for teenager (knowing how to create a nice balance between fun activities, that relate to the topic, and information)
  •       Knowing how to present complex ideas while keeping it fun in front of teenagers
  •       Knowing how to encourage other people to share their opinion in a group: leading a conversation
  •       Ability to encourage the other to explain their point of view fully: understanding and having empathy for other people
  •       Knowledge of allot of different aspects of life and having strategies ready to deal with them in a healthy way
  •       Creating posters with my own illustration to be used during facilitation
  •       Reflecting upon success of a session with another person

 

Theater

Abilities skills and competencies

  •       Being able to facilitate a session for people to use visual arts to express emotions
  •       anticipating how people might respond to different activities and organizing sessions accordingly
  •       Ability to have goals while thinking about what is actually realistically possible (in regards to ending show)
  •       being open minded and patient with people from different backgrounds and creating a middle ground within it
  •       Basic knowledge of different drumming methods and instruments
  •       Ability to facilitate simple drumming sessions to express emotions within young people
  •       Able to teach theater sessions
  •       Able to make simple theater scenes

·        Directing kids in the theater to perform.”