From the Avicenna International College (AIC) in Budapest I took part in an Erasmus short term mobility course-called-Soft Skills and Emotional Intelligence for teachers and educational staff– in Palermo, Italy in August of 2023.

The course was organised by the Erasmus Learning Academy (ELA) and led by Ms Giulia Amato. I took this opportunity for a variety of reasons- mainly to improve my soft skills and with a new approach adopt them in the classroom later. I was keen on meeting international colleagues for future cooperation to then organise a range of joint activities together and discover the scenic sites and fantastic gastronomy of the city of Palermo.

Our class had 16 colleagues, most of them came from elementary school and about 30% of us came from high school. The nationality make-up of our class was a mixture of Hungarian teachers (7 of us) and the rest of them came from Belgium, Poland, Portugal, and Romania. We all enjoyed each other’s work during and after our classroom time and we all took advantage of being in a great multicultural environment.

The classes were held from 8.00am to 1.30pm from Monday to Friday. On the first day afternoon-which was Sunday-, first we had a short meeting in our Hotel Europe and shortly after we were taken to a lovely orientation city tour.

In the next four days we have learnt about soft skills and key competences in education. We have also covered the Five pillars of Emotional intelligence; we were introduced to Coleman’s leadership styles and the role of Emotional Intelligence. I really enjoyed learning about the 3 keys conflict management tools along with the stress and time management techniques that I can implement in my classroom. I also enjoyed the practical group work; role plays and simulations.

I was a little bit disappointed since none of the other teachers in my class introduced their schools, cities/ countries with demo materials or videos. I was the only one who introduced Budapest in pictures and in a mini video followed by the introduction of the educational culture at my high school the AIC.

The most memorable parts will remain our class joint activities, the cultural exchanges, all the great laughter and the cultural walking tours in the historical centre of Palermo.

I have to emphasise the outstanding importance of the support of the European Commission who has funded this mobility through Erasmus+, for which I am truly grateful.

This mobility was funded by the European Commission.

The information presented here does not necessarily reflect the views of the European Commission.

written by Monika Posch
30 July – 5 Aug 2023