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ERASMUS+ teachers’ project

ERASMUS+ teachers’ project - „Emotional Intelligence”, Lisbon - September 2023

Lisbon greeted us – Katarzyna Wesołowska and Agnieszka Bednarczyk, two teachers of English from III Colonel Czachowski Grammar School in Radom, with summer weather and full sunshine. After accommodating, we started exploring the neighbourhood and the city centre. The next day, we went to Cascais – a tourist attraction on a train ride from Lisbon. In the evening we finally met our mentor and trainer - Filipa Marques, and four other participants of the course – two ladies from Finland (Anne and Taija) and two girls from Bulgaria (Alexandriya and Janet). We had an official welcome dinner consisting of typical Portuguese dishes and desserts. Yummy!

Starting from Monday, we followed a routine of having training sessions from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. in a hotel walking distance away from our accommodation place and doing sightseeing in the afternoons and evenings. Every day, Filippa greeted us with a big smile on her face, some good words, and a bunch of theoretical information on emotional intelligence combined with some practice. She was well-prepared and eager to get us involved in the process of training as much as possible. Every morning, we were told a short story by Filipa to illustrate what she would teach us that day. We were also shown how to bring some aspects of the vast knowledge of emotional intelligence into the classroom. The practical part of the training gave us a lot to think about, not only in the context of our work but also in personal aspects. To our surprise, there were some tough moments to deal with. We also had some dancing warm-ups Anne gave us, especially in a critical moment of feeling sleepy.

In the afternoons we had a unique opportunity to do Lisbon sightseeing the way we felt right. One day, we were taken on an hour-long tour of Lisbon by tuk-tuks. It turns out that tuk-tuks are pretty popular in Lisbon as a tourist attraction. Once, the four of us – the Polish and the Finnish teachers - took a trip to Sintra, where we got lucky enough to be led by a history professor who introduced us to the story of founding Sintra. As participants in the Emotional Intelligence project, we got a voucher for a free boat cruise, bus ride tours as well as tram tours.

Our final day of emotional intelligence training ended with the official photos, receiving certificates, making Porto farewell toast, hugs, and wishes.

Lisbon bid us goodbye with a beautiful, pink sunrise as our flight took off from Humberto Delgado Airport around 7:20 a.m.