\n\tBetween the 2nd and the 6th of April, ordinary classes were replaced by extra-curricular activities. One such activity involved a visit to the public radio. Virginiana Bogdan, an English teacher at the Maria Rosetti School in Bucharest tells us more about her class\u2019s activities as part of \u201cA Different Type of School\u201d programme:<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cMy pupils are in the 8th grade and, although they don\u2019t yet have to choose their future profession, they soon have to choose a high school that provides them with the training necessary for a future profession. I talked to their parents and decided to introduce the children to other professions than those they hear about every day: doctor, teacher or economist. We also wanted them to do more physical exercise and become involved in more cultural activities. This week, we will be walking through some of the older areas in Bucharest with a guide who will tell us about the buildings and monuments in the old part of the city.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n\t
\n\tThe children naturally welcomed the idea of a different type of school that involved being in the city rather than staying in school. Emilian Diaconu is in the 8th grade:<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cI think it\u2019s a great idea, but I didn\u2019t like that at first we were supposed to stay in school and do all those different types of activities in the classroom. I didn\u2019t think that was a good idea.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n\t
\n\tAlthough she basically agrees with Emilian, his colleague, Teodora has a slightly different opinion:<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cChildren may relax and take part in cultural activities at the same time. I\u2019d also like to go out of the school more, but we have to realise that if all children were on the streets at the same time, there would be chaos. We have to organise ourselves and try to do as many activities as possible in school.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n\t
\n\tMadalina, another 8th-grade student, also believes that innovative and creative teaching methods should be used more often:<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cIf we had these programs more times a year, maybe it would be too much. But two weeks a year is just fine. Plus, it would be nice if we had more out of school activities during the school year.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n\t
\n\tCivil society teaching experts also hailed the Ministry\u2019s initiative for emphasising creativity and innovation. As students spent a week away from their school, in their native towns or regions, the local community also had to contribute. Anca Nedelcu is a teacher at the Faculty of Psychology and Pedagogy and an expert with the The Education 2000+ Center non-governmental organisation. Here is what she told us:<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201dThis programme requires a lot of creativity from the school and the community. We can\u2019t go visit the same places again and again. That is why we need a lot of creativity and different activities. This is why \u201cA Different Type of School\u201d should stimulate not only teaching institutions, but also museums, for example. They should renew their collections and create children\u2019s workshops. Some are already doing this. We should also have a science museum, which we don\u2019t have at the moment, where children can go and see how sound and light travel, for instance. As long as the offer coming from outside the school is limited, the school is left alone with the task of developing children\u2019s creativity.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n\t
\n\tAs students are really keen on changing the way in which classes are held, creativity shouldn\u2019t be limited to one week a year. Here is Anca Nedelcu again at the microphone:<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cSchool should be different. It should be stimulating, fun and creative all the time. We shouldn\u2019t just tick a week of creativity on our requirement list and then go back to the strictness of traditional teaching methods. We should eliminate traditional classes and have more than one special week a year when we can do things differently.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n\t
\n\tSo we can only hope that the lessons in creativity learned during this first week of \u201cA Different Type of School\u201d will be applied throughout the rest of the year.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
All those who had been dreaming about unconventional education methods, with history lessons held on the street in front of heritage buildings or with improvised botany classes delivered during mountain trips, saw their wishes come true last week. For the<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":137714,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[42997],"tags":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-137713","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-society-today"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n