First Transnational Project Meeting “Leaders in the Making”
13-14 November 2024, Catania, Sicily
Working on projects is usually an interesting and challenging experience, but it can sometimes be a daunting one as well. That is why transnational project meetings are important. After seeing each other on Zoom or Google Meet and exchanging emails, you finally have an opportunity to meet your partners in person and see for yourselves that you actually share the common energy and ideas that brought you together in the first place.
That is exactly what happened during our first transnational project meeting organised by our partner Giga IH and held in their hometown Catania, Sicily, on 13-14 November 2024. The ten of us (Palmina La Rosa and Salvatore Comitini from IH Giga, Alina Ganj and Manuela Lataretu from IH Bucharest, Iva Meštrović and Karmen Vrhar Šušnjara from Jantar IH Split, Monica Green and Diana England from IH Torres Vedras, Marija Pejatović and Jelena Spasić from Oxford School Leskovac) sat together over a traditional Sicilian breakfast (brioche and granite – a very unusual pair for the rest of us) and introduced ourselves and our organisations. We enjoyed the hospitality of Giga IH for two days while discussing some of the important aspects of our project – digital tools we will use throughout the project, dissemination phases, quality management, impact and project outputs. We divided the work that needed to be done and agreed upon the next steps all with ease, because, as I said, we were a group of like-minded people. We are all looking forward to working on the lesson plans and presentations because we all believe that teaching a language (or anything else when we think about it) is not just about language instructions, grammar and vocabulary. It is also about guiding, coaching and enabling our learners to grow and improve in every possible way.
But the meeting was not just about hard work as our host managed to introduce us to some of the things that the beautiful town of Catania has to offer. It was a pleasure for all the senses – a sightseeing tour around the old part of the town, a dinner in a traditional Sicilian restaurant with some of the finest food Catania has to offer, and a trip to Mt Etna to top it all. From torrential rains during the first day to a sunny day on the beach and then white-capped Mt Etna, united with the shared ideas on leadership and teaching, this first transnational meeting is something we will always gladly remember as the starting point of one, I am sure, great Erasmus project.