KARABUK, 2020

             That year, things seemed normal… no one suspected what was going to happen: restrictions, online schooling and many other unpleasant things. My inclusion in this project ‘GRANDIR AVEC LES ECRANS’ came as an invigorating ray of sunshine  in that moment in my life.

            I was lucky, to say so , to go to Turkey, Karabuk, an area which I didn’t know  too much about, but I really wanted to get in touch with the educational system in that country because I had heard very interesting things from my colleagues who had been to Turkey before , due to other Erasmus projects .

           Amazing, incredible, extraordinary, these are the first words that come to mind when I think of that experience. Every day was a new challenge, a new adventure in the world of education. To be honest, I felt like Alice in Wonderland. The teachers at the school we went to, were extremely hospitable, friendly, and  treated us with warmth, respect and tried to provide  us an unforgettable educational experience.

           For me, as an English teacher, it meant an extraordinary opportunity because I interacted not only in English but I tried to ‘steal’ a few words from all my colleagues from the  partner countries. So, my vocabulary was enriched considerably  ,not only in terms of French, but also Turkish and Spanish.

   The second extraordinary thing was the fact that I had the opportunity to visit a private school, to interact and make a mini- exchange of professional experience with the teachers from that school, to make a comparison between what state education and private education means .

     Erasmus projects offer every teacher the chance to grow professionally, to broaden their horizons in all directions (education, culture, traditions, inter-personal relationships), to travel, to make friends for life and last but not least, to realize that the main link among people around the world  is education.

Teacher, Marian Magdalena