Oct. 9, 2023
Written by Emilia Baicheva, 9.d class
On Saturday, Oct. 7, students from different schools learned how to improve their school organization. We attended a “Workshop of the Future” and acquired valuable skills for coordinating the work of the Students’ council.
The event was organized by the NGO “FAR” in Burgas.
ELS “Geo Milev” delegated three representatives to the event: Ema Dimitrova (11.e) – president of the Students’ council; Peter Petrov and Emilia Baycheva (9.d) – members of the council. The leader of the ELS Newspaper and the Electronic media club – Valentina Atanasova, also attended the seminar.
First, there was an ice-breaking round. We presented each other and spoke about our expectations from the event. The actual workshop offered three different stages of activities. It provoked a lot of thought on what we should initiate and what positive changes we should possibly provoke at school.
The three stages of the workshop were:
Criticism + Fantasy + Reality
During the stage of criticism, we worked into school teams. Each group had to list the problems at school. Alternatively, we could point out any facilities the school lacked. Everyone was focused on what we disliked and what we needed to change. We were given twenty minutes to finalise the task. Then we went around to look at the other teams’ work.
After we had finished the posters, we gathered in the main room and formed a circle. The coach told us to close our eyes. He wanted us to think about the problems listed, so we focused on everything we didn’t feel okay with. Suddenly, he shouted “Open our eyes and shred the posters into pieces!” It was so liberating! We understood that there is no use in negativism. WE SHOULD OFFER CONSTRUCTIVE CHANGES instead.
At the fantasy phase, the participants were again into groups. However, the teams combined different schools this time. We should DRAW A PICTURE OR A DIAGRAM of our DREAM-school. It could be practically anything. The budget was unlimited! In the end, there were such amazing concepts and each one had its unique features! Some of the works were quite imaginative. Others were a tad more realistic. One was totally eco-oriented.
In the reality stage each of us was given a small piece of paper. We had to put down our own idea for a school initiative. Depending on the answers, we were arranged into new groups. Each team had a different type of project to work on. We had to describe the reasons for the idea, how we planned to develop it and how we intended to make it happen. We decided on the work terms, the exact location, the key participants engaged, the possible mentors, the leaders, and the exact purpose of the whole thing. The answers to those questions were written on a big poster. Afterwards, we presented each team’s idea. The actual project should be realized by the end of the school year.
We also learnt about the structure of the student councils in Germany – how they helped the schools, what their primary job was and how they managed to create a positive impact. The lecturer reminded us about the important role of the student council in our schools. As members, we should fulfill the duty to improve the school communuty.
The seminar ended with words of gratitude and a well-deserved certificate of attendence for each of the participants!
The session was very useful – we enjoyed an engaging and inspiring event! We shall certainly render what we learnt and try to realize the projects we have prepared.