Annabella Cant, whom many of you will recall from our 2007 conference, is currently delivering workshops on Imaginative Education in Romania. She writes: “It was such a wonderful atmosphere, and I felt so relaxed and happy doing this! I was impressed with the great feed back and their questions. They were asking when is the next one!”

Annabella returned to Romania after completing an M.A. focused on Imaginative Education at Simon Fraser University and founded a school, mainly for orphaned children, in Cluj, Romania. You can visit her kindergarten by clicking here -- and you can even contribute to the school if you wish!

She describes some features of the workshops she will be delivering in Romania as follows: I started with positive thinking exercises, with inclusion exercises for all the 32 teachers. I made them smile, and know each other through the favorite positive thing that happened to them in the last 24 hours. It worked very well. I arranged them around tables of 6. This mixing process I did though little tickets that contained a logical problem and other tickets that contained the answer. The questions had to find their answers and they had to sit together at a table. It was a lot of fun!

Then I started talking about what we expect from the children in our class and I gave a questionnaire about what we expect from teaching, why we are teaching, what makes us smile in the class. I asked the groups to individually fill in the questionnaires and then discuss together the answers and come up with a conclusion. I wrote the conclusions of each group on the flip chart.

The next part of the workshop I concentrated it on how memory works, a bit about the brain (amygdala and hippocampus) to show them how we store emotional memories and how important they are.

I gave a questionnaire where they had to write down their first three memories of their childhood and the emotions that bring back those memories. Then I talked about emotion in education.

Then, in order to give an example how to transmit information through the emotions created by story, I introduced to them the art of "Storygami", a comparison between teaching traditionally and teaching through story. They enjoyed it very much!

After the break I took them on a trip in history, telling them about Imagination in education. Then I talked about IERG and what the group is doing for changing education around the world. I introduced the 5 understandings, discussed in detail the mythical and romantic ones, and then each group had to plan a lesson using a theme that they were teaching this week in their classes.

All theoretical episodes were interrupted by some fun energizers. It was such a wonderful atmosphere, and I felt so relaxed and happy doing this! I was impressed with the great feed back and the questions of people... They were asking when is the next one :)))