TOY - Trainers Online for Youth
This is a reference for Charis Charalambous
This course was part of a series of seminars and workshops with local and foreign participants, offered by the Association for the Development of Life Skills on the topics of life skills and social/emotional intelligence. It was the fourth European, week-long training program that the Association hosted and implemented under the Comenius Program. The previous sessions took place in May 2012, October of 2012 and June 2013. This course was aimed at teachers from all educational levels, teacher trainers, parent trainers, careers officers, educational guides and counselors, headteachers/principals/managers of schools/organisations offering education, psychologists, pedagogists and social workers, Emotional Intelligence trainers. Its purpose was to provide participants the theory and practical experience of innovative, interactive and creative methods for teaching and improving intrapersonal and interpersonal life skills, creating better learning environments and offering their learners opportunities for participation and cooperation.
Eight persons from 5 different EU countries (Greece, Iceland, Croatia, Estonia, France) participated in this training.
The methodology used to work on these issues were targeted indoor and outdoor group exercises, power-point presentations of the theoretical background, group discussions and teamwork, group and personal reflection, role playing, observation of individual and group dynamic processes, creative arts, peer support, relaxation and excursions (fieldwork). Other methods included (and were not limited to) story-telling, linguagrams, writing, group sculpting and brainstorming. The trainers made sure to use different educational and commonly available materials that the trainers/participants can easily find in their home country when replicating the methods.
According to the evaluation given by the participants, the course objectives were fulfilled to a very high extent. Those were: To introduce topics of social-emotional nature so that the participants experience them and feel comfortable with them and give them the opportunity to reflect and decide if they can/wish to use it in their work. To introduce the experiential learning methodology so that the participants can experience it, feel comfortable with it and decide if they can/wish to use it in their work. To discuss and reflect on educator competences and appropriate educational settings for the implementation of social/emotional learning. To offer space for sharing ideas and experiences.
The participants were highly satisfied with the NFE methodology used in the course and the facilitation of the group dynamics.
As one of the two trainers of the course, my tasks were the design, preparation, facilitation, and evaluation from the training. In other words, I was involved in the training for the full project cycle.