Conducting workshops.

Creating and conducting team building workshops is a hard work that needs a lot of skills. In order to make it better, it is good to reflect. So here we would like to give a piece of advice on how we can improve our skills in conducting workshops. 

 - It is obligatory for the audience to be quiet when the conductor is giving instructions, 

- The speaking person must speak loud and ask the group if the instruction is clear. If it is not, explain one more time, 

- It is good to show how the workshop is working before actually starting to practice, - In international groups people from one country can help each other to understand the instructions clearly, 

- In the group of new people it is advisable to repeat each other's names before starting the activities, 

- We need to 'wake up' the group before staring the activities, thus we use sport games called 'energizers', 

- The conductor must not scream during giving the instruction when the group is too loud. It is better to stay quiet and wait till the group calms down,

 - Before starting giving the instructions, you need to check the area if it is good and well-prepared for your exercise, 

- Be sure that people in your group have comfortable conditions to perform the activity, 

- Before helping the conductor, make sure that your advise will be relevant and will not disturb him or her. However, the main advice for you is having fun and socializing.

Czytaj więcej »

Crazy walk in the forest at night

It was a usual Friday and we done everything what we had to do. Andrzej came to us and said ‘we must go to the forest'. We was surprised, but we thought it was nice idea. We went to our rooms for warm clothes. Then Andrzej split us to the 4 people groups and in this groups we went to the forest. When we went to the forest it was darkness and the some of us were afraid. We walked and Andrzej told us what we have to do when we will see a bear. After this short story we continued our walk and we went to the beach. When we came we saw that Andrzej pretended to be dead. It was really crazy. After this we had to stay in the line and Andrzej made a video with us. Then we returned to the center where we are sleeping in this project. It was really cool and crazy travel.

Czytaj więcej »

Fears, expectations and contributions.

During our third day of the projects we had workshops about what we fear the most during next days of the project. What we expect to gain in the meaning of learn and what can be our contributions for the project to make it better and on a higher level.

We had a lot of common fears, contributions and expectation.

Starting with expectations a lot of us want improve our language skills to be closer of speaking fluently. Many from the participants also came here to gain an experience in debates and as our project is about debates it is a perfect place to gain this kind of experience. Except the previous two a lot of participants wrote that youth exchange is a perfect opportunity to get new friends and to exchange culture fun facts about polish and ukrainian culture.

Talking about fears. The main fear is the ability to communicate in english. A lot of participants are afraid of speak as in many cases it is their first time when they have possibility to use english to communicate with other. Participants wrote also on the papers that they have a fear of being not understand and not accepted to the rest of the group.

Some of ours participants wrote also about being not treated seriously by others. Only a few wrote about being hungry and about being bullied.

During the reading of their fears Me and Weronika were trying to dispell the fears and as the next days showed we made it!

Taking to the contributions. It seems that our project has very differential people with many diversed skills. Few people wrote that they are good at taking photos. As we asked our Ukrainian partner, organization Creativ, for diversed people in debating we have them. Many among us has already taken part in debates and they are very likely to spread the experiences and skills with others. Also, many of us are very good at writing articles, painting and conducting the workshops. As they next days showed their experience was very important to rise the standard of our project. As a very interesting fact I can say that we have also one poet in the group who is very likely to help us with work during project. 

Czytaj więcej »

Group article about accommodation

Witamy w zaciszu!

       Our group traveled into Poland in order to develope debates skills. After the Arrival into przemysl we were pleased  to reach the Zwierzyniec in a comfortable bus with the polite driver. In this town we were accommodated into cosy hotel “zacisze”. This place is famous for its fresh air and beautiful natural views which we could see from our balconies. Besides the apartments are really great and have enough space. Each of us had an opportunity to live with our polish friends, that helped us to improve intercultural communication.

        The hotel offers small gym, sauna, pool, conference hall, playground and relax zone, where you can have bonfire at night. Also there is a restaurant, where we have breakfast, lunch and dinner cooked in polish traditions. Working here on our project is a great pleasure, especially when we have walks at national park. 

        Light and friendly atmosphere will make our project “let’s debate” really successfull.

Czytaj więcej »

Introduction.

During the Project ‘Let’s debate’ we want to discuss the issues which are important for us, young Europeans: active citizenship and chances of young people in present Europe. We will discuss topics with proven non formal education methods, advertise and disseminate the results.
It will be our input in decreasing of tensions which are more and more visible in Europe nowadays.
Oxford debate will be the main topic of our meeting. Our experiences with this method prove that every time we are using it, we are able to develop knowledge in frames of discussed topic, develop skills of cooperation in group, increase self-confidence when it comes to being in ‘public speaking’ situation, increase language skills on high level and to learn about the critical approach in discussion.

Development of all these skills will increase our chances on labour market and help us to decide about our future more consciously. We want to be the example of non-conflict cooperation for Europeans.

Methods:
Integration games,
Team building,
intercultural communication workshop, orienteering game,
reflection groups,
debate workshop,
oxford debate,
brainstorming,
intercultural simulation,
World cafe,
press conference,
city game,
presentation,
discussion,
trip,
exhibition.

Czytaj więcej »