UNDER THE FRAME OF "CREATIVITY UNLEASHED"
CREATIVITY UNLEASHED DISSEMINATION BROCHURE The training course "Creativity Unleashed!"(20202-PL01-KA105-082813) is co-funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Commission.
special thank you for project partners -we wouldn't get such great impact without your contribution. Keep being creative! Active Green Solution, Greece Magisztrátus Alapítvány, Hungary Compagnie Duanama, France Rujienas Novada Pasvaldiba, Latvia Association for the education and development of children and youth AFRIELPOZITIVA, The Republic North Macedonia Asociatia Bistrita Business Academy, Romania Vega Omladinski Centar, Serbia
This publication summarises dissemination activities carried out by the participants of the project "Creativity Unleashed" submitted under Erasmus + KA1. The training course "Creativity Unleashed!"(2020-2-PL01-KA105-082813) is co-funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Commission. More information about the project can be found on the Facebook fanpage of the coordinating organisation: https://www.facebook.com/InstytutInnowacji
1. FRANCE Activities Report Duanama Company: Monika Smiechowska, Jérémie Dessertine The context due to Covid does not promote creativity and increases anxiety among young people who participate regurally in our activities. So all exercises and activities that help increase creativity and imagination are important tools in our work with young people. I. Workshops We set up three one-hour workshops with 7 young people aged 5 to 7 years old and three one-and-ahalf-hour workshops with 7 young people aged 8 and 11 years old, during which we used certain exercises learned during the training " Creativity Unleashed”. These exercises were used during our weekly workshops that we run during the year. We also proposed a small imaginary trip ( using some exercises from this training) to 8 young people from 4 to 7 years old, outside, during the neighborhood festival at the Cité Félix Pyat on the 18 of December. These playful exercises attracted the attention and amused the young inhabitants of this city. The exercises used : different space and floors to imagine and to investigate, changing of weather ( cold, hot etc) We used the following exercises that we learned during the training, in our weekly worhshops. Group 5 to 7 years old Workshop the 30 of Novembre Theme: rhythm and music 1. Exercise to awaken creativity: you throw a ball with a theme and the person says a word in association then throws the ball at another person who says another word and so on. Fairly fun and simple exercise that calls on memory. But which is more difficult for an audience under 6 years old. We accompanied them to help enriching their vocabulary 2. Small rhythmic journey. We have adapted the exercise of this training which consisted of walking while imagining different places (forest, beach, river etc.) to this session by accompanying their imaginary journey with music and the rhythm of the djembe. This built the journey via multiple senses and was very inspirated for our children.
Workshop the 07 of December Theme : imagination 1. Walk in space and change of rhythm 0-5. It wasn’t easy for them to slow dawn and to stop, but after a while they felt the different speed and started to listen to each-over : effect of being in a group and adding up to eachover. After we sked them to walk in the different surface : slippery, hard, with holes, bumps and how they are: heavy, slow etc. This exercise was well received and suitable for this age. The children had a great time, proposed which is a surface and enter in this play easily. It aroused their imaginations. We have also added the work of characters that can be created throuth this way of walking. 2. Storytelling : Everyone in a circle. One person says a sentence and one after adds the continuation in connection, after another and the story is built together. The young people got into the exercise easily, but we saw that they have trouble getting out of the story of the tales they already know and developing the story. The using of the body helped the flow of the story for some and to spark their imagination. 3. Statues to create together: we gave the theme (monster family, farm) and one after another entered to form a statue / image together. A playful exercise, which they greatly appreciated, laughed and proposed themes. This exercise helped to let go and get out of their habit of posture, expression, character proposals, etc. Workshop the 14 of December Theme : Sensory journey 1. Bandmaster : consists in guiding the group which makes the different sounds (vocal, corporal etc) with different signals (more or less loud, more or less high or fast and so on). Each participant can become the conductor in turn. We have seen that for this exercise to be successful, it will require clear signals and instructions and for this age not to add many different signals. The exercise helped to listen to each other, to propose and to feel to be in chorus. It also helped the shy person to propose their sound. 2. Sensory journey, "Camping in the Forest" Cold, hot, rain, hail obstacle (large branch) wind. This exercise, which opens up the imagination and creativity, leaving young people the freedom of their internal journey and working on several senses, was very successful. 3. We created an exercise, which was the continuation of session: session feedback by the sound.
Group 8 to 11 years old Workshop the 04 of December 1. Storytelling. Everyone in a circle. One person says a sentence and one after adds the continuation in connection, after another and the story is built together. The young people appreciated this exercise which awakens their imagination and gives freedom to creativity. They saw how history is built together. Then we asked them to use their bodies, that was a little more difficult for some young people. 2. The machine : the young people had to enter one after another and build a theme machine (emotion, situation ans so on) . At first they find it difficult to do the abstract and easy movements, enter into emotions and repeat them. But as they repeat the exercise they have overcome shyness and have learned with their own error, for example that certain positions or movement is hard to hold. They connected more with their emotion. Then we added the voices and were speeding up and slowing down the machine. This exercise helped to feel as a part of a group and a creation, to listen and let go of ideas and daily movements 3. Improvisation statue on a theme Two groups of three and four children. Each group passed one after the other. They sit in a room adjoining the activity room. The passive group is a spectator. Before bringing them onto the "stage" one by one, without those in their group seeing them, an animator whispers in their ear, a theme (the farm , the concert and so on), they must position themselves in front of the youth of the other group, freezing like statues in an attitude in relation to the theme, and each one in the group will position themselves according to how the others are placed, always in the same theme, the goal being to make the spectator group guess the theme of the composed sculpture. This game requires youth to be "engaged", which is why we suggest playing it after a few activities during which they have had time to warm up. This exercise is interesting, insofar as the youth, with some apprehensions at the start, have to show imagination and a minimum of concentration to show a coherent scene. They could see also how the precision on gesture and the place in the space are important to understand the meaning of their scene.
Workshop the 11 of December 1. Exercise to awaken creativity: you throw a ball with a theme and the person says a word in association then throws the ball at another person who says another word and so on. The two themes were "Theater" and "School". The exercise went rather well, with a predilection for the older ones. Indeed this exercise is quickly exhausted for the youngest, because their vocabulary is much more limited. It is interesting to note that this exercise was able to lead the youth to enrich their vocabulary (to help them, we have thus to teach them specific terms in the theater "Garden" and "Courtyard") 2. Association of idea: object that changes meaning. At first the young people found it difficult to take the context of the object they saw, and give it another meaning and usefulness, but as they understood, they had many interesting ideas. 3. Translator/gromlo: a derivative of the translator exercise with the arms. Well appreciated exercise which freed them from speaking, helping to let go and go through the body instead of the word. It helped also for some who are shy to use the voice. This exercise helped one young person to stop explaining everything with speech and long sentence and simplify through the gromlo ( imaginary language) and movement. Workshop the 18 of December 1. Attention work: Objects that pass in different ways, one object is thrown, another is passed to the right and another to the left. We limited this exercise to three objects to suit this age. After the difficulty, some have managed to follow. The exercise caused a lot of laughter and they wanted to continue to improve their-selves . They saw their own improvement and the difficulties. 2. Enigma of a handwritten : they have to imagine the story that leaded to the end’s sentence . We gave two sentence as the end of handwritten "And since then the rooster crows at 6 o'clock in the morning" "And since that time the light in 36 rue Edmond is on" They took this exercise with great enthusiasm. They went keenly into creating the stories and acted them out. They saw that the story must be clear and simple in order to be able to tell it, play it and adapt it to the group. They learned that the idea of each person should be well-respected. We saw the followers and the leaders and we replayed the same scenes to improve them in the following session.
II. Creative Emotonal Journay project. We are working on a toolbox for the EU K2 project Creative Emotonal Journay. We are in charge to give the description of tool as : Brainstorming and we proposed also as a, other tool : Creative Writting. These tools will be used for the methologie of the Creative Emotonal Journay in order to work with youth about the Gender Matters violence and the bullying. This toolbox and this methos will be available on the internet. We are creating this project in the cooperation with 5 orgaisation from Italy: Sciarra Projetti, Spain : Creo Comun, Greece ; Action, Lithouania : University. Evaluation meeting the 8 of November Present : Monika Smiechowska and Jérémie Dessertine Visio : Marion Challet
Monika Smiechowska : I really appreciated this project and its good organization. I learned lots of new exercises that I canuse during my work : workshops, meeting or international project and residency. I feel more comfortable now working in the international meeting or projects. I use also the knowledge from this project in the UE project K2 Creative Emotional Journey : brainstorming and creative writing and in my article about the inspiration. The knowledge about creative problem result I use during our inside meeting and with our partners. I use also more exercises of creative evaluation with my team and youth.
Jérémie Dessertine When I came back from this project, I was filled in lots of energy and inspiration, that I use in my music work. I felt also more comfortable in the international team. I use this experience in the international residency in October with Duanama. Unfortunately in the cultural and sanitary context in France is difficult to lead the theater workshops and to keep the creativity spirit and team. Thanks to this project, I could lead 3 theater workshops in witch I proposed the exercises learned in Poland. It was an opportunity for me to work with youth and to share with them my experience. Marion Challet During the training in Poland I led some exercises so I feel more confident with me about doing this with my colleges at the Theater School or the children. This project help me boost my creativity especially in a way that classic learning did not teach me. Therefore I believe that it will motivate me someday to help other people to interact with learning in a more creative way so that learning can also be fun. I understand that for some people classical learning fit them perfectly, but for a majority it does not. We need to think about a new way to teach, beyond what we already know. Creativity is the visionary path to a better understanding.
2. GREECE On 15/10/2021 we had our first meeting as a team in Serres, after the training “Creativity Unleashed”. During the meeting I shared the overall experience of the training along with some photos and videos from the sessions. Regarding these, we plan our next moves for an event we are organizing for the end of the month and how we can implement the tools and the activities that are gained through the training.
As an informal group of young people we focus mostly on local environmental actions and we try to raise awareness about climate change. One of the ways we are using to achieve this, is the clean ups. That’s why we met once again in one of our favourite places, Kerkini Lake, which is a place with rich biodiversity. Kerkini is a rural area 30 km away from Serres. Our team, Active Green Solution with the support of local youth and groups, organised an event open for all. The participants were mostly young people from the villages around, along with people that traveled from Thessaloniki and Kavala specific for this event. That was the 3rd time in a year we were visiting this place, after our last visit in May and the results were unfortunately four times more than the last time. 16.000 lt of trash were collected in total from the whole area around. To achieve this, 45 volunteers were divided in 4 groups and with the help of locals they transferred us to the spots of action by trucks. After 3 hours of work, we gathered all together in the place where the final event followed. To reward the volunteers, local people had organised for us an open kitchen. That was the time for socialising, games, food and dance. Our team facilitated the activities and we applied some outdoor activities that we have done back in “Creativity Unleashed” T.C. At the same time a lot of people were curious about the non-formal education and it was a good opportunity to share information about how Erasmus+ Program works and the educational opportunities we offer as a team. Approximately 30 young people participated in this after cleaning event and we believe that everyone enjoyed it. We think that the tools we learned during the “ Creativity Unleashed” T.C. gave an extra added value in our events and we think we will keep using them in the next ones that we will develop through the ESC Solidarity Project we are running.
Photos from our event/workshop at National Park of Kekrini Lake on 31/10/2021.
Video call from the greek team on 3/11/2021 about our progress in creativity challenge and a reflection of the overall experience so far.
3. HUNGARY Eniko's Testimony and dissemination: After the “Creativity unleashed” erasmus + training program I had several experiences, which was really important in my life. When I arrived home I realised that I changed a lot. In most of the situations I became more open and brave. I can stand up for myself easier. I can also get on well with others easier than before, which is really useful at my work (I need less time to become friends with someone than it was in the past). In my opinion I also became more creative after the training program: I ride horses since 10years and since Poland I am able to find more interesting tasks for the horses while I’m riding them. I often take care of a little child and with him I can also use my wider creativity. After Poland I did a meeting with a group of friends, where I told them several experiences what happened to me during the Erasmus. We did the meeting online (first with 7people). They were very excited and interested about the project. I did another meeting online with another group of mine (group of 10, with my riding teammates). They all said it was really worth to go and they really want to go to a similar erasmus program in the future. At work I also talked a lot to my workmates about the other countries from my team. There were few days when they all tried to learn the languages (i tought them how to count from one to ten in different languages, and I also tought few great sentences to them, which I learnt in Poland from my groupmates). The whole task was really good andfunny at the same time, but the most funnier part of my creative challenge was some dancing activities: in Poland at the last day of “creativity unleashed” I learned a greek dance, which I showed to several smaller and bigger groups at home. It was such a pleasure to show them the steps, we had really good time together all the time. It was suprising, that some peolpe from the group (who didnt want to dance at the first time) joined us and at te end we all danced together. Since Poland I am in contact with several people from that programme, too. With most of them we discussed to meet later. We will visit each other at everyone’s home country.
All in all for me this erasmus program was one of the best decisions of my life: before it it was really hard for me to “jump” into the unknown, to travel abroad and to leave my horses, my work and so on at home. But since this few days I realised that good things can only happen if I am open to change. After Poland (when I learned these things from myself) I got a new possibility: 1,5months work in a different city. I had only 2days to decide: go or stay at home. This is my dream job since I was little, I accepted it, but I am sure if I miss the chance to go to Poland before it, I wouldn’t have been brave enough to accept this other work for a month. All in all I am really thankful for Creativity Unleashed program and I really hope I can go to other erasmus in the future again.
Karina's dissemination: I’ve achieved to meet with my friends online, taking in consideration current situation, I’ve shared with them some tools which we’ve learned at our project, like: blackout poetry, “Machine”, “6 Thinking Hats” from De Bono, freewriting and storytelling. We all work in the same field, but each of us has found different ways to implement this tools in our lives. Some really enjoyed blackout poetry to use it while reading news to exceed level of stress due to bad news, some enjoyed “Machine” and “Just dance”, which we had at our free evening, because they could do it with their kids and family. Some liked De Bonos “Hats” as it helps to solve issues at work.
4. LATVIA BRAINTIVITY (brainstorming+creativity) 13.11.2021 - 12.00-12.40 How it all started: We did one meeting with our sending organization, and we explained our conclusions after the training in Poland. After that we decided to apply the tools we learned there. And we started planning how to do it, because the situation in Latvia was very bad and we had a lockdown. For this reason we decided to make a zoom activity. We wanted to try to brainstorm about activities that teenagers want and can do in covid situation and also we wanted to practise creative writing.
What we did? We met with them by zoom, we didn’t get as many participants as we expected, but still for us it was a lot of people. And also we had to do everything in 40minutes, because we didn't get a zoom premium. So we did 15mins for the first activity and 25 mins for the second one. At first we presented the training and what we did one week in Poland. We showed journaling notebooks, pictures of our training and formal and informal activities. After that we presented one problem and we did one brainstorming to achieve creativity problem solving. We used the same problem that we did in our training about interest in classical music. They proposed a lot of different solutions like : - thematic night (using disney songs)go to schools/youth centres etc. - to introduce classical music for youngsters - use headphones to listen many different kind of silence concerts - do concert more interactive - use different spaces (museums, coffees etc.)
Later we tried to do creativity writing. We started explaining our idea and showing them some examples. And when we started with that then we showed them different pictures like we did in Poland. Our pictures were
We were surprised by the results. At the beginning youngsters were very negative about the activity, because they said they do this kind of thing at school and it’s boring. But after we explained our idea then they started to follow our instructions. We gave them the opportunity to say outloud what they writed but only 2 people wanted to do it. The first of them started talking about how it was confusing for him because he had to think about what he wanted to do in the future and he had too many options and he was sad and happy at the same time. And the second one was too deep for us. Because she talked about how she found connections between her feelings and what had happened in the past. Our conclusion: For us it was interesting, because we had the opportunity to change roles and in Poland we saw adults thinking and solving problems. Now we saw how youngsters think. We saw that youngsters were more creative, but adults were more productive. We learned and saw another point of view what we have never thought of before. Maria del Mar Martinez Nosti Karoliine Tross
5. NORTH MACEDONIA Meeting within the organization and workshop for the youngsters In the month of November, in my home town I had a meeting with young people from different organizations, as a representative from my organization “Afriel Pozitiva”. An Organization for sustainable development from Gevgelija that works very often with young people (mostly highschool students), invited me to do a workshop with youngsters and challenge them to be creative by sharing my experience in the training in Poland and by using my creative skills and ideas to inspire them. On our first tribune with highschool students from our local High School I introduced myself and my Association for education for children and youth “Afriel Pozitiva” and I spoke about my participation in Erasmus Training Course with a topic “Creativity unleashed”. My personal challenge was later on when I listened to all of the 20 young people about the needs they have and the problems they face here in Gevgelija as young people, and encourage them all to suggest and come up with creative ideas on how to spend their free time, while being away from phones and any kind of technology, but sports, cinema, theater, cultural activities and socializing. The aim was to understand that when they separate themselves from the constant use of phones, they will start enjoying life again and use their creative energy once more, like that time when they were children. On the brakes and after the tribune I was pleased to speak with most of the youngsters and share my experience with Erasmus, I was very happy to see that they are interested and that they started to ignite their creativity in the place where they live on being more louder and more persistent in demanding their rights as youngsters.
The secong time, again I was invited from the Organization for sustainable development, this time there were guests from EU projects and the tribune goal was to promote erasmus programs and projects and get feedbacks on how frequent youngsters from Gevgelija are introduces to erasmus projects and programs. I was invited as a representative of an association that has participated in Erasmus projects before. My challenge was that for now my Association is the only one that has participated in Erasmus projects till now. People were astonished surprised to hear that there is an Association in Gevgelija that is connected with Erasmus Projects and I gladly answered all of the questions they had and I offered my cooperation in future for those who showed interest in participation as a young representatives. Big interest showed the teachers from the High School in Gevgelija who participated in creative discussion. I was very happy and satisfied to be part of these Calls, because for me they ment incouragement and they awakened the consciousness to work with young people who wants to progress and thrive. I’m glad I opened up a new door for them where they can use their ideas and creativities by being part of Erasmus Projects. To summarize, I had a meeting with 5 NGO’s where we talked about the ways and methods for developing the needs of young people. I spoke with oround 20 young people, I inspired them and challenged them to be creative, which was very challenging having the fact that they are highschoolers and their ideals can be very variable and specific.
6. ROMANIA 1.We had a zoom meeting upon arrival (15.10.2021) with our organization's volunteers where 10 people were present and we discussed the project, shared the good practices, methods and new skills acquired during our Training Course. We emphasized on sharing the creative methods on working with youngsters that we discovered during the training and as we expected these were very well We organized a workshop for 10 people, mostly students and highschool graduates on the topic of creativity and how it can be used in their field as we often meet the need to be creative when we face new situations or when we have to solve a problem. After that, we launched a challenge: to write on a piece of colored paper a word think of when they hear the word "creativity", using the the brainstorming method. The people who participated were very pleased with this method, being eager to participate in such projects in the future
7. SERBIA As a group, we decided to finish the tasks on our own, due to the geographical proximity of our cities in Serbia and limited time to organize the event. We live far away from each other and having three different events seemed to be the best solution in these circumstances(pandemic and wintertime that makes it harder to travel and organize in-person events). Another reason is that we wanted to cover different age groups and people from different regions, and that was possible this way. Another huge reason to do it separately was the fact that we wanted offline events, in a friendly and comfortable atmosphere. Together, we decided to inform our local communities about the possibilities that Erasmus projects offer to young people in the whole of Europe, no matter if they live in the EU or not. Erasmus projects are also available for people outside our continent that making it even more adventurous, educational, and promoting multiculturalism on a higher level. Since the project is for all groups of youth, not just those who are in the education system, but also those who are working, each of us decided to focus on one specific group. Aleksandar was focusing on students since he is a student himself and finds it the most convenient to share his story with his colleagues. Marija chose to focus on high school students because she thinks they lack this kind of information and that they would highly benefit from going to projects, especially when it comes to their career choices and increase of awareness about social issues around the globe. Katarina’s focus was young professionals, people under 30, who are currently working but would like to learn some soft skills, practice English and enrich their CVs with some new experiences. Overall, we noticed that people are delighted to hear that there is this kind of opportunity for them. We gave them all the needed information, links and shared our stories, to motivate them to try something like this in the future.
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