ODDience2030 teams met each other this time in Bucharest where we participated in a workshop of four full days led by Andreea Gatman. The Finnish team consisted of two special needs teachers Nina and Hannele and Arts teacher Maija.

In the workshop we did numerous practices where we were getting in contact with ourselves and others. Some of us met the limits of our comfort zones and some went over to the other side with flying colours. And it did us good. We have our personal limits in different places. For some it is a challenge to take off their shoes and stand in the middle of others in just their socks during the workshop, for others sitting on the floor is nearly an impossible task and then it might be absolutely frightening to be quiet and just look the other person in the eye.

The concept of time was contemplated. We asked ourselves why we are in such a hurry all the time. The sense of hastiness prevents us from feeling and thinking, it makes us do silly things, to lose the essential.

button up their coats and put a hat on.  But now we have warm summers and warm Septembers. Soon we will have to find new jokes.

We practiced communication without words through doing and body language. We created some kind of presentation of our thoughts and aims by using pencils and natural materials like sticks, stones, plantes.

And a lot more. We did so much that all will not be remembered by everybody but we all will carry some things with us into the work and our lives. And any way we all forget most the things that happen to us not to mention the things we just see or hear.

Someone might ask themself what do staring, taking positions or building some strange gadget of sticks and stones have to do with teaching or learning. And I could answer “but it does!”

People communicate with their whole body and we know that if the non-verbal message is not coherent with the verbal message the words won’t be believed. The body is worse a liar than our speech. We can tell lies but the body reveals the truth. For the most part we are unaware of the messages our bodylanguage sends. If a teacher doesn’t understand this mechanism and somehow tries to work against their own values or or principles their teaching suffers and so will the learning suffer.

ODDience is looking for sustainable ways to teach and to learn. Sustainability is not just about recycling and protecting the nature it is also about sensible use of human resources. By respecting each other we get permanent results and might even discover something totally new.

Going to a new place to learn new things is a challenge AND very rewarding. The workshop already a thing for itself (das Ding an sich) but then you have all the other things to solve. How to buy tickets for the metro? Wich way should we go? How does the toilet work? How do I go across the street and stay alive? Where’s breakfast? What does the sign say? Do I need to tip the server? How much? Was it too much? Was it too little? Do I greet people by shaking hands, by kisses or hugs? Why is the lift not moving? Why isn’t it stopping? Where do I stamp this ticket? Do I have to negotiate the price for a taxi ride? How much? Is it cold or warm outside?

Boy do I love routines when I’m back home! 

Romania’s history is long and rich. Bucharest used to be called Little Paris for its beautiful parks and houses. Past times have left their marks on buildings and people, equality is still a dream, life is not easy for all in Romania. The experience was interesting, intense and left me with a lot of thoughts. 

Our luggage went missing both on our way to Bucharest and from Bucharest. Having arrived in Bucharest I went looking for a place to report missing luggage. I saw a sign saying something about baggage and luggage, went in and got a question from a lady: 

“What airline?” 

“KLM” 

“Corridor” was the answer. No smiles there. 

Flying back I was looking for a same kind of office in Helsinki and saw familiar words luggage and baggage.

“What airline?” (in Finnish) 

“Air France”

 “Next booth”. No smiles there either. 

What can you do? I had to laugh. 

Based on the 67 registered teachers for the training program, when invited to reflect on what is the future they imagine for students learning with Sustainable Development Goals, most of the teachers prioritized critical thinking and creativity.

This data is reported before there was the strategic partnership decision based on project audit to choose 2 transversal competencies for a more directed outcome.

Here is a word map created by teachers answers before the program started (from January 2024)

After each of the 4 modules, the assessment confirms the intention of prioritizing creativity and critical thinking. 

Based on the toolkit to support each of the 4 modules, when asked “What is one thing that surprised your attention during the module” the majority chose creative tools for the classroom. Here are some of the teachers’ answers.

“I had the the ability to imagine just with the use of words, texture, learning with 5 senses as inward-outward attention”.

“ An individual’s perspectives towards a thing around them, following small steps that lead to a very thoughtful product, mental imagery and the power of imagination”

Some participants, reported in blog articles or through assessments, the state of confusion, more or less tolerated at some critical points.

Self reflecting, later on, they identified external factors-distractions, as being causes that made their learning harder or stopped it. 

First emotions behind the creative process is the confusion, and tolerating, by which we mean having practices to stay and investigate gather new data (Hayashi, 2021, Kumar, 2021). Engaging pedagogies defined as this state of caring about what we learn and teach in the classroom, hence we teach students to tolerate confusion to unlearn in order to be ready to learn again, one cannot know how to hold confusion, without experiencing on themselves (Lonka, 2018). 

In the process of “getting back” to clarity and coherence “that feel safe zone”.

We learn to offer grace to ourselves, and “trust the process” as preconditions of this work with emerging strategies. Grace is defined by vulnerability in the words of researcher Brene Brown “staying with all that comes at the limits of our comfort zone”, and where the learning zone starts (Vygotsky). 

Facilitation, as the etymologically means “a certain ability to feel at ease  with what otherwise is hard or difficult work” and this speaks about the inner process, of the teacher as part of “teaching with Sustainable Development Goals.”

“In the end what we want from this creative pedagogical prototype of a lesson, is for the students and teachers to have an image of us valuing connection, beyond all tasks, beyond the result, to have this agreement.”

(Marie Alice Moreira, teacher from Bel Orme)