THE ETHICAL DILEMMA 12th JULY

Trainer: Betty Aggeletaki
THE ETHICAL DILEMMA is a moral situation in which a choice has to be made between two equally undesirable options. There is an inner confrontation. Ethical dilemmas have to do with values. Using them in class make students get involved in the topic, the situation and try to defent their point of view. They are moving!
Our beloved trainer Betty gave us another lesson of good teaching practices and unforgettable quotes: People may not believe what you say but they will always believe what you do".
She made us participate in some ethical dilemma situations which were very enriching.

Betty explained Aristotle's virtue ethics for whom virtue is an intermediate state between the opposed vices of excess and deficiency. Too much and too little are always wrong. We have to find a balance and this is the key of ethical dilemma.
And after discussing and thinking...We playd a game! It was a brain exercise: THE HUMAN KNOT. We made a circle, hold each hand with another person in the circle and tried to undo the knot, which was impossible.
Apart from teaching our subjects, we  MUST TEACH VALUES, RESPECT AND TOLERANCE!
IDEC was piloting a course about TOLERANCE with us for some time that comes from the need to integrate the immigrants that come to Greece from Africa and to live together in a multicultural society. We will never forget how Betty told us to explain  TOLERANCE to our students:

HUMANS ARE LIKE M&Ms

We have differnt colours outside

But we have the same chocolate inside

WE ARE ALL EQUAL

SPACED LEARNING 12th JULY

Trainer: Betty Aggeletaki
SPACED LEARNING is a methodology useful to seize information in long term memory (Fields 2005). It consists of providing information in short busts, spaced over time. The structure of the class time is the following:

1. Teacher presents the information
2. 10 to 5 minutes break
3. Students recall information
4. 10 to 5 minute break
5. Students application of the information

This methodology comes from the need of attracting the students' attention and making them remember. It is proved that our brain cannot concentrate for long periods of time and the results of this method are amazing. It is true that it can be difficult to get the students back to the lesson after the breaks but we will only know if we try!

FAREWELL DINNER 11th JULY

We couldn't believe this was coming to an end! We had our last cultural meeting together at Athens. We did some shopping and went for a walk in the beautiful city and the we met at an open air live music restaurant called Kotili at Monastiraki.

This time we ate  grilled meat as well as Greek salad, grilled vegetables with yummy yogurt sauce and chocolate ice-cream. We drank white and red wine and mastiha.

There were three musicians and two dancers. We danced a lot and we learned the expression: Opa!!!!!!

THE FIELD STUDY & COMMUNITY MAPPING 11th JULY

Trainer: Giorgos Velegrakis
 Innovation has to do with methodology, not only with technology. Take students out of the classroom to see the connections with the community around the school. We take the students out of the classroom to make observation, to get the data we need to prove that our hypothesis is right. The students connect the learning process with the real world. They learn in context through the practice. They show interest and motivation because they can understand what they can see through the experiment. The students' role is more active and long term memory is developed. It is a challenging experience because the students are taken out of their comfort zone. Some challenges the teachers face are: involvement, preparation, organization and management of the activity.
RESEARCH DESIGN is based on the scientific method, which steps are shown here:

METHODS FOR QUALITATIVE RESEARCH:

• Interviewing
• Observation
• Participant observation/Ethnographic research
• Archival research
• Secondary data collection and analysis

COMMUNITY MAPPING

School cannot be isolated from the wider community within which it operates. Cooperation between schools and the community should be fostered to try to solve common problems. At the same time, this constitutes a pedagogical activity. 

A community mapping is a process of participation and identification of common issues. It is a collective design process focusing on how to live shown in a unique picture.

The first step is to identify our COMMUNITY ASSETS (places, things or people that represent the community). We played a game in groups where we had to explain the ASSETS of our city to another pair from another city and then they explained them to the whole class. We learnt about other cities in Europe through this activity.

THE METHOD TO MAKE A COMMUNITY MAPPING

1. Collectively decide the goals of mapping: design
2. Active involvemet of locals
3. Information collection (data, material, evidence)
4. Map creation and presentation

When we make a community map, we have to take into account the SWOT analysis. This acronym stands for: Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. After this reflection, we can understand our community better and try to improve it.

This is something that we should explore more to establish the connection between the school and the community through the school council, where teachers, parents and students are represented and it could be extended to the whole school.

EXAMPLES OF COMMUNITY MAPS:

EJAtlas

Global Landscape Forum