Enterprising teacher: Dreams Come True...

Let's be honest that we, the participants of the project "Enterprising Teacher" (Galina Safronova, Svetlana Gostishcheva, Tatiana Laada, Khiye Taklai, Inna Gorbunova, Inna Rubtsova), have been dreaming for a long of time of visiting this amazing city, the historical center of Italy with its majestic churches and cathedrals, superb theaters and museums ...

We were very happy that we had a great opportunity to learn from the experience of our Italian colleagues, which will undoubtedly help us make the learning process more interesting and exciting.

We were also pleasantly surprised that the project provided us English language training courses, where we got the opportunity to activate our knowledge of English including the spoken language, since the working language of our studies was going to be English.

There are no words to express how upset we were to get to know that due to the pandemic our trip was postponed from 04.10.2020 to 04.04.2021. There was no certainty that our dream would come true in such a difficult time. But as you know hope is the last to die.

And finally that day came 04/04/2021 ... Leaving behind our worries, anxiety, filling in the travel declarations, testing for coronavirus, waiting for the results, we said goodbye to Maxim Stepanenko, who brought all of us to the airport and wished us good luck. Many thanks to him!

And here we are - on the plane flying to fabulous Florence! Dreams Come True!!!

Don't get used to miracles!

The very first feeling that we experienced on the plane was a big surprise: an almost empty plane - we and a few Italians. Isn't it a miracle?

The feeling of surprise did not leave us during all 14 days that we spent in Italy. But the miracles were different: both pleasant and ... not very much.

We were unpleasantly surprised to learn at the airport that we should stay in self-isolation for 5 days long (!) ... But thanks to the entrepreneurial spirit of our organizers, Galina Safronova and Tania (Office Manager of Europass Teacher Academy), we achieved a "place in the sun".

By the way, about the sun ... It shone brightly and cheerfully on the day of our arrival, welcoming us, but on the other days of our stay, the weather in Italy was in solidarity with our usual Estonian weather.

It seemed strange to us that the streets were deserted, but there were a lot of policemen. The rallies of protesters outside our windows, demanding liberalization, were unusual.

But there were much more pleasant moments than the unpleasant ones.

Of course, it is a pity that due to the pandemic, all the museums and many cathedrals were closed. But we did not lose heart, as it immediately became clear that Florence is an open-air museum, so we began to discover our own Florence for ourselves. We never stopped admiring the magnificent landscapes, numerous sights and beautiful places. We were very lucky that our beautiful apartment, where we lived, was located in the very center of the city in an amazing fairy tale not far from the world-famous Medici Palace.

And on the last day of our stay in Florence, we were fabulously lucky. We were allowed to go on a sightseeing tour around this magical city. We walked through familiar and unfamiliar places with our guide Tatyana Maiskaya. We learned a lot of new interesting things and never ceased to admire and be amazed.

Do not get used to miracles - marvel at them, marvel!

Learning should be fun!

We have learned a lot from our Italian colleagues. The training consisted of two modules. The first module was called "Project management system to improve the quality of teaching", where we learned in practice how to develop school projects step by step. We were devided into two groups, and each team came up with their own project and theoretically brought it to the very final moment..

I especially remember the last lesson of the first module. It was a real holiday! At the beginning our teacher Roberta, who originally hails from Brazil, introduced us to the culture of Brazil, and then taught us to dance the Samba dance, immersing us into the wonderful world of the Brazilian Carnival. Well, we, in return, introduced her to our Estonian culture, traditions and customs, songs, dances and national symbols... And the ending of this unusual holiday was really amazing. Galina Safronova sang a song in Italian, which she learned earlier in Estonia, and we all sang along with her.

We also remember the lessons of the second module "A European School for All Children", which were conducted very emotionally and captivatingly by the teacher Laila, who originally hails from Italy.

In the classroom, we also had much fun, laughed, and even danced when it came to motivating children to learn.

It was very interesting to get to know various methods of inclusive education with new modern Internet platforms. On the final lesson, we designed postcards in a new Internet platform for us, and we presented them to our teacher.

And at the very end, we were awarded certificates of successful study at the Europass Teacher Academy.

Were just colleagues but became best friends.

We, the project participants, have been working in the same school for many years, and it seemed that we know each other well. But, finding ourselves "in the same boat", we realized that we had underestimated each other properly.

My colleagues turned out to be very interesting people, bright personalities, good company, very friendly, sociable, funny, witty and positive people. We complemented each other perfectly, and we all felt amazingly comfortable, interesting and fun together.

And when any difficulties happened, we did not lose heart but discussed them together and made the necessary decisions.

Our stay in Italy would not have been so comfortable if we had not been with Svetlana Gostistseva, an English teacher, who often had to be our interpreter, since we did not always understand everything. And our Sveta was a great translator. She translated accurately and clearly! Many thanks to her!

I would like to say special words of gratitude to our organizer Galina Safronova. We realise that thanks to her and her excellent organizational skills, creative thinking, ebullient activity and dedication to work, our dream to visit Florence has come true.

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

Goodbye Florence! Until we meet again!

The days spent in Florence flew by surprisingly very quickly. Leaving this beautiful city, we felt a little bit sad. It is a pity that due to the pandemic we could not see many interesting places. We reassured ourselves that there would be a reason to come back here again, and maybe more than once...