The ELA Blog

Teamwork is essential for success in any organization or project. When individuals work together towards a common goal, they can achieve more than they could alone. Effective teamwork fosters collaboration, communication, and problem-solving skills, leading to better decision-making and increased productivity.
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Here we are with our other team! TEAM TENERIFE!

Based in Tenerife, our team consists of Alex Dragutinovic, Valeria Di Bella, Irene Clofent, Elena Lukashevich.
We are happy to work with this successful, enthusiastic, and enthusiastic team. Positive results and happy people are a testament to the power of teamwork and collaboration, and we think our team handled it pretty well.
If you would like to take part in the courses given by our experienced trainers, don’t hesitate to contact us!

Overcoming the tasks that cannot be accomplished individually as a team will increase the motivation of almost everyone and increase the determination to work. Therefore, the job of a good team is always much easier.

Meet our amazing team! TEAM PALERMO!
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Based in Palermo, our team consists of Giulia Amato, Serena Sciarrotta.
We are a diverse group of individuals who are passionate about working together to achieve our goals. We are proud of our team and the work that we do! Together, we strive to provide exceptional courses and deliver outstanding results.
If you would like to take part in the courses given by our experienced trainers, don’t hesitate to contact us!

As we normally tend to do, we start the courses with activities to cut the first turf by giving the opportunity to the participants for sharing their expectations and contributions in this week. As also, we presented the Italian preschool model which opened a door for the members, by presenting a little bit of their work, which consisted in showing us her educational establishment, school schedule, their country model, the types of activities they do during the day, what and how they teach and some personal technical skills. We always think this is a perfect moment for all of us to explore wider and understand other preschool methods in Europe compared to the Italian model.
On the second day, we presented the Montessori model. The best way to explain was by having this excellent opportunity to visit, experience a class day and acknowledge this successful group of schools in Italy (this particular one was Istituto Internazionale Maria Montessori, Palermo) that follow this model and maintain the name, of the italian educator, philosopher, child neuropsychiatrist and scientist, Maria Montessori, the one who created this method. These types of schools are distinguished by a method where the children receive the chance to have some freedom and autonomy to create, discover, experiment, learn spontaneously, in a way that they express their personality and desires. Everyone saw how happy, integrated and intuitive the kids were during the classes, which resulted in a very positive reaction by the participants and also gave a good exchange of ideas between all teachers. We really have to thank Istituto Internazionale Maria Montessori for receiving us so well!
The day after this contact with Montessori, we turned back to some theory, principles and new concepts, to explore non-formal education. However, this preschool method is based a lot on practical tasks, which means, that the best way to understand and respect this process was by doing some activities and games.
It was about time to do a second visit, although in this situation we went to Palma Nana Association where we saw the wonderful pratique of outdoor education. On this day we had a great time and made contact between big natural green spaces where the participants totally understood and felt how cheerful and fortunate the kids were with this teaching method. This morning was intended to give a reflection on how extremely important it is for a child's development to be in contact with nature, feel the authenticity of the real world and get out of some kind of bubble that is specially promoted by the new technologies and is getting bigger and bigger. 
In order to finalise our visits, we went to Istituto Libertà. This school is a completely different type of the other two, in different words, it was a classical Italian preschool. The aim of this visit was to give the participants the chance to compare all these three styles, more specifically the infrastructures, the students' behaviour and the teaching methods. ​

Another week comes to end and it is time for the teachers to get back home and work with a luggage carried with some new tools, perspectives, memories and experiences.
Discover more about this course here. ​

Critical thinking, autonomy, entrepreneurship and leadership mindset is something that students should develop more in their learning process. Creativity is a big key for this and also something that we all in one way or another have in ourselves (some people more than others), but if we never challenge and practise these characteristics with our own selves, it will be more  difficult to create and find successful leaders and entrepreneurs. The aim of this course was always clear, and we tried to facilitate it by giving our participants hints and advice on how to foster motivation in students, how to teach them to deal with failure, be creative and determined.

The course “Teaching Entrepreneurship and Leadership” took place in Palermo from 26/02/2023 to 4/03/2023. We had participants from some various countries in Europe: Antti from Salon Lukio in Finland, Feike from Sint Ursula instituut in Belgium, Jochim and Jeanette from Westminster Law School, University of Westminster in England and with four members from Center of Excellence in Split-Dalmatia in Croatia, Ana, Ruzica, Ivana and Natalija.

Entrepreneurship can be interpreted and defined from a lot of perspectives, with this said, we started to absorb the erudition that each participant has by listening to them, on what they think entrepreneurship is. With this in mind, we were capable of starting to analyse different types and characteristics that make a perfect and not so perfect entrepreneur as so the various methods and mindsets that they use to lead a team or to concretize their goals. We concluded that one very important point in entrepreneurship and also something that should be implemented in the student’s heads is demonstrating that failure is something natural, everyone fails and people learn with mistakes. If this culture ends and starts to be more normalised, students will achieve more confidence to express their thoughts.
Also on this first day, the participants had the opportunity to evaluate their entrepreneur potential from an online questionnaire and right after they put themselves as entrepreneurs, by selling in a very convincing way, why any student should apply to study in their school. We gotta say that we hear very convincing points from everyone!

In order to understand the ideas of each entrepreneur, as conditions to go forward, in the second day we presented a model called SMART (this one, tries to understand in a very complete way if the goal is achievable) and another one, more related to organising plans on how this process is going to be developed, the CANVAS model. Our methodology in every course is to provide the interactiveness with all the participants. We do that with some activities to give them the opportunity to express their knowledge with each other. The activity that standed out the most was with the second model mentioned, CANVAS, where the teachers had the chance to choose between two companies and had to explain the business process with this model.

One thing that is to bear in mind as an entrepreneur is creativity. This feature gets richer by putting someone in a position where they really have to use it. Having said that, we did some activities to exercise this part for every participant. Fortunately we saw many teachers developing this task very well! 

The world is surrounded by bosses, but not every boss is a leader. By saying this, we analyse what distinguishes them, also what defines a good one and the good attributes that can give to a team. A leader is not someone who gives you orders, but is someone that encourages, teaches, accompanies and helps you to find the track for the good success of a group. We hear from the participant’s leaders that they admire and the reason for choosing these noticeables persons.
Finally, we look over for a very important skill in an Entrepreneur, assertiveness. By this, we tried to explain that a person with this skill is better balanced from someone who only is passive, passive-aggressive or aggressive. Especially from this last one, which is very different and shouldn’t be confused.

At the end of this week, we ended with a sensation that time was a little short for these participants, only because everybody contributed and gave us so many interesting perspectives that we felt it could extend a little more. But, we believe that all this knowledge will be very well implied in their countries!

​Discover more about this course here.

Regardless of your profession, one of the ways to reach the result in the shortest and most efficient way is good teamwork. A good team is behind successful work, and good works always stand in front of a good team.

We are here with our team members. TEAM BOLOGNA!

Based in Bologna, our team consists of Francesco Tarantino, Sara Natalini, Isabel Martinez, Susanna Esposito, and Martina Granata.
Each member of our team has developed themselves in different fields, had the opportunity to try their experiences in the various areas.  They are ready to share the new information they have learned with you, our esteemed participants.
If you would like to take part in the courses given by our experienced trainers, don’t hesitate to contact us!

Formative assessment is ranked among the most effective instructional strategies, with its ability to take place in all steps of students learning process, from activating prior knowledge, to monitor progress, to feed-forward on the learning journey. With a mix of theoretical and practical activities, our participants can reflect on how to improve their awareness of students' understanding through effective and easy assessment and feedback strategies.

The new edition of the course “Effective formative assessment and feedback management in education​” took place in Bologna from 26/02/2023 to 04/03/2023. The participants came from all across Europe with Louise, Pernille, Tine and Anders from Nørresundby Gymnasium & HF in Denmark, Valentīna, Andrejs, Jeļena, Irina from Krāslavas Varavīksnes vidusskola in Latvija, Eefje, Jojanneke, Chantal, Soumaya and Ron from SG de Overlaat in the Netherlands and Agnes from Windesheim Honours College in the Netherlands.

The course started with activating participants’ prior knowledge on the topic of formative assessment, they were asked to share what they already knew about it and to share their learning intentions for the training week. The first topic discussed in the course was the assessment cycle and the difference between formative and summative assessment. Throw group brainstorming and digital quizzes participants revised the most relevant differences between these two types of assessment trying to identifying he goals and characteristics of each type of assessment. This was also an opportunity to share challenges, doubt and questions on the course topic.

Participants went on discussing about the main tools and types of formative assessment that could be integrated into the teaching process. Focus was put on the most relevant digital tools that allow teachers to monitor real time students’ progress and understanding on a topic, but also to run entry and exit tickets to activate students and make them reflect on what they are learning.
Feedback as one of the most challenging and important formative assessment strategy was another important focus of the week. Group discussion and role plays helped the group to identify the do’s and don’ts of feedback, establish a protocol for giving effective and constructive feedback but also a mindset and attitude for receiving it. Through an engaging challenge, participants were also led to think about the importance to spread a growth culture in the classroom, one in which feedback is seen not as a punishment but as an opportunity to grow and an act of care.

Besides teacher-student feedback, the opportunities for students to become instructional resources for one another should be well taken into account. Participants tackled this topic through exploration of practical strategies to promote peer learning and feedback. They also shared their experiences in providing rubrics as display of the assessment criteria for all students to take ownership of their learning process but also as a tool to provide a safe peer assessment environment.

In order to improve students and teachers ability for self-checking, the topic of self-assessment led us towards the conclusion of the course. Self-awareness and self-motivation could be powerful both for students to be more engaged and committed in the learning process but also for teachers to evaluate their teaching practices. With these ideas in mind, participants held a self-reflection on the training week and discussed about upcoming goals and intentions to put into practice the knowledge learnt.

Discover more about this course here