Transnational meetings

iRemember, Kick off Meeting in Rome, Italy
During the 22nd-23rd January 2015, the partners participated in Rome, in the 1st Transnational Meeting, and our partners from Armenia, the A.E.L.L.L. Association was presented on Skype. In this meeting the partners had the opportunity to meet each other and discuss all the guidelines about the KA2 project under the Erasmus+, Strategic Partnership project n. 2014-1-IT02-KA200-003613: project activities proceedings, results, decisions, criticalities, required follow-up activities and tasks, deadlines and an evaluation. In this context the partners learnt how to deal with the Project Management and Implementation, Financial and Administrative rules, had an overview of the project aims, activities and outputs, how to do the Dissemination Report, creating also a Stakeholders Map and a Database mailing list. After the partners established how to promote the Quality Assurance and Evaluation and discussed about the iRemember Methodology: Training for teachers/tutors; Training for students; Laboratory of Memories. The partners decided all the activities to carry on on the next months, planned the Joint Staff Training Event in Madrid, discused about the implementation of the Multiplier Events in each county and decided the dates for the next Transnational project meetings. At the end, they created a workplan to plan the next steps to develop the project.

2nd Transnational Meeting, Vidigueira, Portugal

During the 20th and 21stApril 2015, CEFAE/EPFA received the delegation of the iRemember project. On Monday it was the official welcome reception that took place at CEFAE/EPFA's school with the representatives of the school board, Elisabete Rosa and Estêvão Pereira, of the Municipality of Vidigueira, The Cultural and Educational Chairman, Luís Pestana, and the partners from Italy, Romania, Spain and Northern Ireland. The host partner presented the project in a general way, focusing on its goals and activities for the two years of the project. It was also presented the main importance of this project, of the activities in each country, focusing also on the impact of the project and this kind of partnership on a local, regional, national and international level. The coordinator of the project, Andrea Cenderello, thanked to all the participation and referred the importance of the project, in a local and European levels. The partners presented and shared the Laboratories of Memories topics, providing a description of the topic of its laboratory and the reasons why that topic was selected. CEFAE presented a video; All the other partners presented a PowerPoint presentation about each country Laboratory.
After, each partner described the implemented method and the results of the Focus Group/Interviews. About the Merging of iRemember Methodology key elements the partners discussed how it will be the presentation of: Training programme for intergenerational activities; Storytelling technique; Guidelines for the use of the Land platform. The Playhouse presented and shared their experience about the training for theatre facilitators (detailed the information about the methodology, aims and objectives, in terms of modules, length, skills acquired, learning outcomes, etc.). Ce.S.F.Or. explained the storytelling techniques and the use of the CeltX software. La Sapienza explained how to deal with the platform and they will create a Manual on the use of The Land platform.
After the explanations and discussions, the involved partners in this project decided and planned for the merging of the three elements in a single training process. And after the partners will create a Methodology to adapt to local context.
After the meeting, in the evening, the partners visited the Alqueva Dam, the infrastructure responsible for the changes in the agricultural field in Alentejo region and one of the new entrepreneurism/innovative business in the region, Herdade do Sobroso.

iRemember, 3rd Transnational Meeting in Bucharest, Romania, 29 – 30 October 2015
The third transnational meeting of the iRemember project was held in Bucharest (Romania's capital) on 29 - 30 October 2015. On Thursday, the official welcome reception took place at Capital Plaza Hotel, with a speech of Mariana Matache, the president of EUROED Association (the host partner), who also presented the meeting agenda to all the partners, from Italy, Spain, Northern Ireland and Portugal.
The coordinator of the project, Andrea Cenderello, presented the project in a general view, but also the importance and the impact of the iRemember and the partners discussed about the activities implemented in each country or about the future of the project, upcoming events and appointments in the project’s frame, its dissemination etc.
At the end of the day, the partners had a study visit to the Palace of the Parliament of Romania (People's House), structure built during the communist regime at the request of Nicolae Ceausescu, but currently houses the highest legislative authority of the country (the Parliament).

Joint staff event in Madrid, Spain

From 9th to 14th December 2015, in Madrid, Spain, CECE organized the Joint Staff Training Event (for trainers) in the frame of iRremember Project. The host partners and the coordinator of the project made a presentation of the project’s outcomes and welcomed everyone.
Liam Campbell from the Playhouse, Nordern Ireland, started the program with a general overview of the methodologies that were already developed and also about the way they should be used. He explained and demonstrate the Ice breaker techniques that introduces the participants in storytelling; the name of activity was ‘’I Remember, I wish”.
After his presentation, followed all the partners with their presentations:
CEFAE/EPFA presented the activity ‘’Our Words, Our Story”, a technique that promotes exercices that inspires intergenerational bonding and storytelling. This activity was conducted by Elisabete Rosa and Nelson Filipe Jordao Roque.
The Playhouse After, Liam Campbell, continued to explore our common understanding of key universal themes that are found in stories and real life conflicts with his activity ‘’Human Statues”. It was very entertainning, groups of people were put to emphasize words, concepts, only by gestures as a group statue. Every participant had been envolved in this form of live sculpture.
CECE, Marian Villanueva presented ‘’My environment: The Rural And The City”. Participants were asked to discuss the positives and the negatives aspects of living in a rural or urban area. The worth of the dialogue was considered as a means to empathy and mutual respect. After a very rich day, all have dinner and we became more united.
EUROED Association’ s presented the activity ‘’Șezătoarea’’. The activity started with a brief Power Point presentation of this concept and its traditional aspects; after that, Mariana Matache, the president of EUROED Association, arranged the participants in circle and, while having a cookie and a glass of tea or coffee, the Romanian team started a debate about Comunism and the transition to democracy, the theme of Romania. Everybody saw the importance of standing at the same level, eating and drinking together, creating human bonds necessary for a good environment for storytelling.
After, Liam Campbell continued his exposure on storytelling methodology by underlining the importance of active listening in a storytelling or shared memory environment and its value in conducting interviews: ”Active Listening & Interviews”.
Afterwards, the armenian partener, Arevik Sargsyan, presented the ‘’Ball-bearing” debate. There were chairs arranged in a circle and every chair had a specific topic for disscution written on a card; the other participants were rolling around this circle of chairs. At every turn, participants were enriching the main subject of the workshop.
After, EUROED Association presented the method ‘’Exhibition”. This exploits the power of image, which itself, tells a story.
The partner from Northen Irleand continued the presentation of the methodology with the ‘’Narrative Voice” part. In storytelling the voice of the storyteller should follow the rulles of the art of word. Expresivity of the language, the warm voice are things to consider in atracting the audience interest.
On Saturday, the whole morning was dedicated to the Playhouse activities: “Creative Life Writing”; The second activity had a different approach. Every person was asked to come in front, to bring a very personal object and tell the story behind it. The interesting fact was that this exercise raised the level of trust and friendship between participants; ‘’Conflict Resolution Through Communication”.
Sunday was the day of evaluation of iRemember project. Activities were mainly guided by the manager of the project, Andrea Cenderello, but every participant had the opportunity to speak and share their opinion. The training, the quality of the methodology, the further steps and timings from this point on, were the themes of discussions. At the end, the participants had the possibility to address questions that were answered.
All the partners agreed that the methods presented should be adaptable to local context and to local conflictual experiences.
On Monday, Andrea Cenderello, presented the concept of storyboarding, as a powerful tool to illustrate the action of a narration and also presented the application Celtx as a mean to storyboard.
In the afternoon, Carlo Brunelleschi made a presentation and an exercise about the use of the online platform ‘’The Land’’, that will be used to publish the stories, the interviews and the results of the iRemember project. We all exercised how to use the online platform; we uploaded some stories and pictures to get used to it and we filled a feedback questionnaire in the end.
The day ended with final thoughts from participants concerning the training path for teachers and tutors and the online training for students.
The Joint Staff Training Event was a very interesting and meaningful experience, because everyone had something to learn from each other and to share their thoughts and experiences.
Methodology_ general and local context
After several international project meetings, the partnership was able to disseminate the:
- Intellectual Output One – Methodology;
- Intellectual Output Two - Training Pathway for Tutors and Teachers, in 3 documents: Section 1 – “Storytelling & Narrative” – 20 hours training; Section 2 – “Story, Storyboarding, & CeltX – 13 hours training and Section 3 – “The Land” – 2 hours training, in a total of training of 35 hours.
After, the partners have the opportunity to adapt to local context, according to the theme of each laboratory.
During the process, the teachers implemented an Online training for students that is a merged document that helps the students to gain the essential skills to produce the laboratories.

Laboratory of Memories_starting

During the months of February, March and April, all the partners started the Laboratories of Memories, where senior and young people joined together and had the experience of sharing experiences. The process started with several icebreaking activities and, according to the online training for students, the young started doing interviews, recording in video and taking photos. Senior people had the opportunity of telling their life stories. Students taking part in training on Storytelling Techniques, Active Listening, Storyboarding and interview skills were guided by the Facilitators (staff/teachers involved in this project). In this activity participated 6 seniors and 6 students, in each country.

Multiplier events:

Bucharest
On 12.01. 2016 the EUROED Association from Bucharest in partnership with Drajna Cultural Center and ‘’Platon Mocanu’’ Secondary School from Drajna, Prahova county, organized in Drajna de Sus School, a multiplier event in the frame of iRemember project. Mrs. Mariana Matache, president of EUROED Association made a presentation of the iRemember project: the aims of the project, its development stages, who are the participating partners, which are the results until now and which are the steps that will take place in the future.
Mr. Gabriel Coman, a member of the Local Initiative Group from Drajna, made a presentation and then screened the movie “Once upon a time - Communism’’, directed by himself and produced in 2009 by the students of 7th grade of Drajna de Sus Secondary School. After that, it followed a World Cafe workshop with the theme ‘’The Communist regime and the transition to democracy’’, where people were divided into six groups and at each table was assigned one host, the others were appointed ambassadors. From the 12 questions selected were chosen 6, each host receiving one and the teams of ambassadors answered and discussed, by rotation, all these questions. There have been interesting and interactive discussions, different opinions between generations, young people had the opportunity to learn new things. The second part of the seminar began with a photo exhibition, entitled ‘’The civilization of the eye - signs of change’’, in which the author approaches the theme of the Romanian village depopulation in Drajna. Also, the ‘’Șezătoarea’’ was a good opportunity to discuss how popular customs and traditions were preserved regardless which political regime rules. The conclusion that everybody agreed was that the traditions are the most invaluable wealth that we have and defines our identity as a people. The event was attended by 50 people of different ages and professions, 31 of them from Drajna and 11 from other Local Initiative Groups in the region, which deals with the Adult Education from Plopeni (4), Bertea (2), Cocorastii Misli (1), Izvoarele (2) and Maneciu (2), 7 people from EUROED Association and 1 person from the USA.

Derry
Major iRemember Storytelling Event held in the Playhouse, Derry, Northern Ireland The iRemember concept of underling the power of intergenerational stories to explore contemporary history in conflict and post conflict regions took its first giant step forward in Derry, Northern Ireland on Oct 2nd this year. The iRemember storytelling event, presented to a packed theatre, featured presentations from noted speakers on storytelling, a puppet show on myth, narrative song, drama and an interactive theatrical workshops. The event, which featured schools from across the Irish religious divide, FE and university students, lecturers, facilitators and the general public placed fun and focus upon new approaches to teaching, learning, and preserving stories. There were 8 different nationalities in attendance, and the event was broadcast live to European iRemember partners in Armenia, Italy, Portugal, Romania, and Spain. Keep checking these pages for more updates – iRemember: discovering pathways to storytelling and documenting hidden history.