Positive Thinking Nowadays
ERASMUS+ program is the program giving a chance for educators and not only for them to improve different kind of competencies. It is a great possibility to experience different cultures, to meet colleagues from other countries, improve professional knowledge, share the gained experience with others. This program gave a possibility to take part in a course “Positive Thinking, Positive Communication and Positive School Spaces” in Florence, Italy under the project No. 2020-1-LT01-KA104-077734. The participants from Lithuania, Latvia, Spain, Denmark, Finland, Poland enjoyed professional course the whole week with impressive Europass Teacher Academy team.
We have learnt how to enhance positive thinking, reducing negative self-talk personalizing and catastrophizing, practicing gratitude, humor, and mindfulness, and learning the importance of praising ourselves. We have learnt how to practice positive communication with ourselves, our students, and colleagues, learning how to convert a negative, disruptive, un-effective communication into a virtuous circle of positive relationships, referring also to graphic design as a positive visual communication tool. We then expanded to the surrounding environment, the school, learnt about the importance of positive design, architecture, decoration in and outside the classroom, inspired by design psychology principles and driven by the peculiarity of each country and case. We all were involved in an active learning process, also focusing on personal experience and self-reflection, combining cognitive and emotional elements to make the learning process easier and ensure long-lasting retention of new knowledge.
The week passed with very good emotions quickly and very positive. We shared our contacts among participants with ideas for future projects and cooperation possibilities.
