Piloting activities in Romania started on January 26th, 2022, with the piloting kickoff meeting organised for the teachers (initial users) involved in the pilot activities at national level. In the first phase of the AMeLiE pilot, the five teachers that were selected, implemented with their students during the school hours some of the worksheets which are part of the “Manifesto of non-hostile communication” that was developed by our colleagues from Parole Ostili.
The worksheets and training materials that were selected until now to be used within the classroom, were the worksheets for ages 14 – 18, most of the worksheets being implemented with high school students. The most implemented worksheets were:
- Our campaign for the Manifesto
- Listen to understand
- Words in a …jar
- Let’s take measures against cyber-bullying.
Feedback received from teachers after the implementation of the training materials was positive, students were very receptive and actively involved in the activities proposed. Based on the topic proposed by the teacher, they developed a lot of materials as images, videos and posters.
Our campaign for the Manifesto was the most used worksheet and the one that generated a lot of interesting discussions among the students. The success of the activities developed around this worksheets is sustained by the feedback provided by teachers at the end of this activity:
“The Parole Ostili Manifesto generated deep conversations upon its ten principles. In the end, the teenagers have noted on a piece of sheet their favourite principle or a few words that can help others to fight against very disturbing growth of online hate-speech”.
“When applying the worksheet in class, the students agreed very much with the 10 principles of The Manifesto of Non-Hostile Communication and were very creative in creating slogans based on them, namely:
- Post only what you can say out loud
- Don’t offend, think twice before saying something
- Words that offend you, don’t use them on others
- You are what you post.”
“My students were very pleased to create different posters and videos around this worksheet. Firstly, in the classroom, they all took part in this activity, divided in groups of 5 or 6. They talked about the ten principles of the Manifesto. Only some of them were reluctant at the beginning, after a while, they interfered in the conversation and even gave pertinent examples. The “homework” was to create posters and videos, which they did very well”.
Teachers adapted the activities that were used in the class, and they were surprised to find out that students felt relieved when they discussed about the use of the hurtful words. Some students noticed that other colleagues were offended too and had the courage to write down the words with which they were offended. This activity was good for them because they did not have to say their name, just write down the words with which they were offended and felt relieved to talk about it. Discussions about this kind of behaviours can be beneficial for students, especially when you are not telling names, but stories that can happen or real life stories.
Teachers were also testing the AMeLiE platform and provided feedback regarding platform functionalities, what works for them and what can be improved. They are now ready for the next stage of the pilot – Expand the AMeLiE Virtual network.
