Teacher training event 1
Entroncamento – Portugal | September 4th – September 8th, 2023
The participants were 41 teaching professionals from schools from Yambol, Kardzhali and Sofia – Bulgaria, teachers and researchers from the partner organizations National Association of Resource Teachers, academics from Instituto Politecnico de Santarem, experts from Antalya Directorate of National Education, and, of course – teachers from EB Zona Verde school (Agrupamento de Escolas Cidade do Entroncamento) – our wonderful hosts from Entroncamento who made us feel at home and provided excellent working conditions.
September 4th, 2023
We started Day 1 with the Hopes and Fears session and continued with presenting the project to the participants and the designed products:
The teachers also enjoyed participating the getting-to-know each other and team building activities.
September 5th, 2023
The second day was devoted to presenting the lesson plans in Mathematics for Grades 1 and 2. The sessions were practical showcasing how to teach the topics to the students making use of the designed lesson plans. The teachers stepped in the shoes of students and followed the instructions of the tutors. After each topic there was organized a brief discussion for sharing feedback.
September 6th, 2023
During the third day the teachers were presented to the lesson plans in Mathematics for Grades 3 and 4, and the interdisciplinary lessons in Mathematics and Nature studies designed by Instituto Politecnico de Santarem. The participants took part in the experiments as suggested in the lessons and discussed heatedly the practical implementation of the activities in their classrooms.
September 7th and September 8th
The last two days of the training were very busy. All 20 topics from the NS4ALL toolkit were presented to the teachers, and this was, once again, done in a practical way – the teachers did the tasks students were expected to do, and, even behaved like students – getting distracted, having fun and talking to friends. The simulations were good lessons for both parties: for the teachers who felt what it is like being sitted at a chair for a long time and how this impacts your concentration and attention to the learning process; and for the trainers – to check the level of difficulty and the duration of the described activities in the lesson plans.
We worked hard but also took part in numerous cultural activities – getting-to-know the people of Portugal and the region of Entroncamento, visited really impressive places and made new friends.