What is your background and how did you get involved in the project?
Hi! My name is Iciar Doncel Ruiz and nowadays I’m a fourth year student of joint degree of Social Work and Social Education in Pablo de Olavide University. This project was offert by my university and I had been interested in it because I’m doing the curricular practices in highschool in Seville where there are high dropout rates and I think this will be an experience that can give me the keys to deal with it.
How was your experience of the online course and the in person training?
My global experience about the project is great. The online course has been very interesting but if i compare it with the person training I can notice a big difference. In the last part of the project where we have been in Porto, at the same time we were learning, we were sharing a lot of strategies and point of views that give us the opportunity to open our minds and be more prepared to face these problems.
Also, my partners of the project were excellent professionals who had many experiences behind his back, being this a quality that greatly enriched the exchange.
Did you find a favourite topic and why?
My favourite topic was the last of them, bullying. This is a theme that despite our previous knowledge, there are a lot of resources we don’t know (for example, all the types of bullying that there are and some resources to deal with them). At the same time, in the face to face part of the project, we have been working with a lot of dynamics that give us tools and at the same time we have done role-playing that gives us the possibility of empathizing with the kids who suffer this problem.
Can you see yourself using any new practices or changing anything?
Yes of course! All the games that we had done and the ones I hear will be in my “toolbox”. In our work field, we will be always open to innovation and searching for new methods that can be more effective and close with the students.
Did anything surprise you about the topics or participants?
One of the facts that have been more impressive was that in all the countries that we are there, we have the same problems with early school leaving and our students claim the same needs.