Ceclavín meeting

The Ceclavín meeting was expected by everyone. In the first place, because of the schools that were going to move to Spain, eager to meet their "friends" (at this point in the project, the word partner is somewhat "cold"). The Polish and Romanian students wanted to meet again and carry out all those plans that for months had been talking with their Spanish guests.

But it was also expected by the educational community of the IESO Cella Vinaria and in it I include the students, teachers, families and institutions. Knowing the treatment received in each of our visits, everyone was prepared to give the best version. All three town halls had been involved in the welcoming events and were going to participate in other activities of the program. The teachers had organized numerous workshops based on the dialogic learning methodology (interactive groups, literary gatherings, ...) that were going to be combined with cultural visits to the heritage that surrounds our towns. The families not only offered us their houses (we had more than twice as many lodging houses as would be needed), but they had organized themselves to hold culinary workshops and had a great meal planned for all the project participants.

Within a week of arriving from the Swieradow meeting, what was a whisper turned into a huge shock. Italy was paralyzed and alerts sounded in all countries. One by one, the different countries involved in the Dialogic Revolution project closed the schools. Telematics teaching was the only resource to keep the education of our students alive.

Each of the schools had to reinvent itself, spending all its time trying to save a school year. Faced with this situation, our project became secondary. And that's how the European Commission understood it, offering all the centers involved options. All four schools agreed to request a 6-month extension. In this, in addition to adapting the activities that were not carried out, we opened the possibility of holding the Ceclavín meeting. However, in these months, the situation was not better than in the spring of 2020.

The arrival of a second and third wave of the pandemic has brought the centers that participate in this project, we have gone from face-to-face to online education line on various occasions. Although the conditions have not been the best, the teachers involved in the Dialogic Revolution project have tried to carry out everything we had committed to. Now, we must be honest and state that due to sanitary limitations, the activities carried out have been distorted. The dialogic methodology is built from interactions and proximity. Computer screens have been a basic and important resource, but they do not contribute or transmit to the same extent as interactions between people. This has been the main reason why the partners have not opted for holding an online meeting.

The truth is that with the final decision to cancel the meeting, all the members of the project felt that they were taking something important away from us. It has been 30 months in which friendships and relationships have been forged that deserved an end according to the experience lived. Almost every week my students send me messages and greetings from Polish or Romanian students. Those messages make me think that the project is still alive and that despite its truncated end, the seed is planted.

For all this, we want to end this section by saying that IESO Cella Vinaria will always have its doors open to our colleagues from Kostkowo, Valenii de Munte and Swierdow Zdroj