Setting the Flame alight!

How do people find the time to write blogs? Rather like making a New Year's  resolution best intentions fall by the wayside under the pressure of real life events and responsibilities. As it is, little of 2017 now remains - so here we have an "Old Years reflection" after a successful year where the In Others' Shoes project team has been founded.
From initial tentative contacts we have moved on through the preparation, bright ideas and possibilities stage to getting things underway for real. Our first transnational project meeting was a great success  in Bobingen, Germany. This was largely due to the wonderful welcome and hospitality we received and the high level of commitment, honesty and motivation shown by all of our partner school coordinators. No project launch is ever simple but thorough preparation gives the best chance of success. There are no short cuts but building positive relationships is essential, and a great start was made.
The early days of any partnership tend to be full of energy and life, rather like a young river springing up high on a mountain side, and we found this analogy to be true. Lots of humour, laughter, questions and chats punctuated our time together.
Day 1 consisted of project partner introductions with short videos, presentations and sharing to find out about each other and what we bring to the project. There was much to discuss and think about before we moved on to looking at the key elements of the project plan and how it can be moulded to fit the capabilities and priorities of each partner.
Day 2 we dug a little deeper, exploring what global citizenship education can include. Time was spent thinking about how we can share the project aims within our school community, starting to plan student activities and partnerships, considering practicalities around training events, travel etc
There really was a lot of information to cover in two or three short days. The good news is we will be meeting again very soon for our first learning event in Derby where we launch the professional development activities for teachers, which lies at the heart of the project.
Meeting people with passion, enthusiasm and commitment reminded me of an old teachers' saying  "children are a flame to be set alight not a vessel to be filled with knowledge" - hopefully our project can help inspire and educate young people. That is what it is all about. However, meeting teachers ready to light the flame, who share a hunger to teach and learn together, that is a real source of inspiration in itself.
​Thank you one and all and see you soon!

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