On our way to Slovenia; Annebel and Rogier from Montessori College Arnhem and Bob representing the Global Teenager Foundation. Four day to put our heads together and prepare the first step for the Erasmus+ March 2016 application: ‘Mindeful teaching and learning’. Ljubljana, here we come!!

Today Bob, Annebel en Rogier visited the Trnovo secondary school. We were warmly welcomed by the principal Irena and the project team. Teacher and coordinator Darja led us through the school where we’ve visited several lessons. One of the central themes in the lessons was mindfulness. Mindfulness is a mindset where students are fully aware of the things they say and do. For example, we visited a class discussion on gay rights and homosexuality. The class discussed the position whether it is allowed for gay people to adopt a child. What we have noticed in the lessons, is the respectful way in which students interact.

TREES  ARE THE  KINDEST  THINGS I  KNOW (by  Harry Behn)

Trees are the kindest things I know,
They do not harm,they simple grow,
And spread a shade for sleepy cows,
And gather birds among the boughs.
They are the first when day’s begun
To touch the beams of morning sun,
They are the last to hold the light
When evening changes into night,
And when a moon floats on the sky
They hum a drowsy lullaby
of sleepy children long ago,
Trees are the kindest things I know.

After lunch, prepared by students, we got out with two nine graders to discover Ljubljana. They did an excellent job! The dinner was marked for team building.

On the second day of our visit, we searched for common themes for cooperation within the framework of mindfulness and meaningful learning. We started the day formulating expectations and goals. One of the questions that sparked discussion was: what inspires you as a teacher? We found out that the Dutch and Slovenian teachers had the same passion for teaching, and experience the same difficulties. At the end of the day we’ve formulated our common ground, for example: critical thinking, bringing back ownership of learning to the students and allow students to make mistakes. We agreed that meaningful learning requires learning environments that deal with real life problems and that they have to activate students.

Then it was time to explore Tivoli park with Filipe and Juliana… beautiful Slovenian Nature!

Wednesday May 6th

On the third day of our visit we went to the Secondary school for pharmacy, cosmetics and health care (SŠFKZ). After a nice breakfast we listened to a presentation by Alenka Gorjan. She told about the school’s curriculum and the way students reflect on their learning process.
After the presentation we were shown around in the school by three students. We attended lessons in cosmetics, pharmacy and body treatment. What we noticed was that students were practising on each other during the lessons.

At the end of the morning we went back to Trnovo primary school to work on the project proposal. In groups of three, we discussed the content of the application. The leading question was: What do we want to achieve together over the next three years? Bob and Darja supervised the process and at the end of the sessions we designed a framework for the next meeting in October.

We go back to our own schools with the feeling that we have created an atmosphere in which everyone felt comfortable and have created a meaningful plan for mindful teaching and learning and say a big ‘Hvala lepa’ to out Slovenian hosts!