Newsletter4 5 (1)

TUDOR ARGHEZI THEORETICAL HIGHSCHOOL,
CRAIOVA, DOLJ

4-5RD Newsletter of the Grundtvig
4-5RD Newsletter of the Grundtvig
Partnership
Partnership

“NO MORE TEARS” 2011-2012

YEAR 2012
YEAR 2012 N 4-5
N 4-5 NOVEMBER March to June
NOVEMBER March to June

NEWSLETTER COORDINATORS:

TEACHERS:
MANAFU GEORGETA-PROJECT COORDINATOR
POPESCU OANA-LEARNER

STUDENT:
GOLBAN CRISTINA-LEARNER

SCHOOL YEAR 2011-2012

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4-5st Newsletter of the Grundtvig Partnership
4-5st Newsletter of the Grundtvig Partnership

“NO MORE TEARS” 2010-2012

YEAR 2012
YEAR 2012 N 4-5
N 4-5 NOVEMBER March to June
NOVEMBER March to June

International Grundtvig project "No More Tears"
CONTENTS
Teacher coordinator Georgeta Manafu
1.THE
1.THE GRUNDTVIG
GRUNDTVIG
PROJECT
PROJECT
“NO MORE TEARS”
“NO MORE TEARS” High School "Tudor Arghezi"
2.PROJECT
2.PROJECT
ACTIVITIES
ACTIVITIES
An internal decision has been issued appointing Ms. Georgeta
3. Conflicts
3. Conflicts
Manafu as the national coordinating teacher of the project on behalf of
4. PEER MEDIATION
4. PEER MEDIATION
the “Tudor Arghezi” Theoretical Highschool. She established a set of
criteria in order to start the implementation team: the staff and the
learners’ group. Each member of the implementation team has been
given certain assignments.
We have worked with the project partners to determine how it
can be disseminated after each project meeting and during the activities
we have held at a departmental level.
The project activities we have held until now have been in
accordance with those mentioned in the application form:
• Each institution has designed a project information board;
• The members of the implementation teams have been appointed
according to different criteria which have been previously agreed upon
by the four participants;
• Each partner has conceived and applied questionnaires in order to
determine the level of violence in their region and interpreted the results;
• The participants have made PowerPoint and ProShow slide shows to
present their activities, as well as the traditions, customs and culture of
their respective region or country;
• Ms. Georgeta Manafu deisgned the project blogspot:
http://grundtvigprojectnomoretears.blogspot.com/

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• We have attended the first transnational meeting in Turkey, organised courtesy
of Seyhan Ilce Milli Egitim Mudurlugu. The Romanian team, consisting of
three staff members and a learner, presented the following inputs:
• The project blogspot designed by Ms. Georgeta Manafu and teh way slide
shows can be posted there;
• Multimedia presentations of the „Tudor Arghezi” Theoretical Highschool,
Craiova, Romania, our customs and traditions and our educational system;
• The results of the questionnaires applied to students, teachers and parents
related to the level of violence in the department of Dolj;
• The activities we have held between August and October.
Each of the four participating institutions has sent its own representatives.
• The programme of the activities at the meeting included: the presentation of
each participating institution, a visit to the Seyhan School Inspectorate and to
a state-funded faculty, multicultural soirées, and workshops related to the
reduction of school and family violence.
• Each partner has been assigned different tasks between November and
February;
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• We have disseminated the first transnational meeting in Adana – Turkey;
• At a local level we have organised the following activities:
o On the 20th of January – the Inter-county Symposium “Initiation in the
ABC of democracy. Social responsibility.”
o On the 17th of February 2011- the County debate “The influence of IT
and the media on adults’ education”
• Between the 21st and the 28th of February we attended the second
transnational meeting in Viena, Austria, where we discussed about the following
presentations designed by the members of the Romanian group:
• Peer mediation training sessions and a presentation of the standard
mediation system, along with its steps and the monitoring and control
activities which have been undertaken so far;
• School and family violence;

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• The activities we had held between November and February: the
symposium, the debate, and the training and monitoring of the peer
mediators;
• Tolerance – a European value;
• Measures that can be taken for the reduction of school violence;
The transnational activity was organised by IFMIC, Vienna, Austria and was
attended by representatives of all four participating institutions. The Romanian
team consisted of three staff members and two learners.
Each partner presented the activities held between October and February, we
assigned different tasks to be fulfilled between March and September 2011, we
attended different workshops related to the reduction of school and family violence,
and had the chance to get an insight of the Austrian culture. The activities the hosts
organised were of an interactive nature. The work atmosphere was open and
intercultural. Each partner school shared its difficulties in reducing school and
family violence and the measures they have taken in order to achieve this goal. We
talked about ways of posting multimedia presentations, articles and the involvment
of the learners on the project blogspot. During our common activities, each partner
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has had the opportunity to learn about the culture and civilisation of the other three
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partners.
The working environment was very cooperative and flexible despite the
international, multicultural and multilingual nature of the team. Thus the
participants have had the opportunity to develop their personal, cultural, social and
civil skills.
• The transnational meeting in Viena was disseminated in March and
April;
• Between April and June we have organized the following activities:
• The county conference – School and family violence, a social issue.
Case studies, held on the 7th of April 2011
• The county workshop – Useful techniques for conflict mediation, held
on the 12th of May 2011
• The round table - Tolerance, a European value, held on the 2nd of June
2011
• The county workshop -“ Violence versus tolerance! ”

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All activities have been approved by the Teachers’ Body and assessed according to certain quality
questionnaires.
Within our activities we have achieved the following goals:
1. During the inter-county symposium “Initiation in the ABC of democracy.
Social responsibility” we have fulfilled the following objectives:
• The acknowledgement of the importance of human and cultural diversity;
• The promotion of examples of good practice in diveristy, democracy and
social responsibility;
• The acquisition and materialisation of various methods and techniques that
can be used in order to improve the quality of all out-of-school activities
related to diversity, democracy and social responsibility;
• The identification of ways in which schools can relate to communities in
order to ensure successful schooling.
The result of this symposium was the first issue of the “No more tears” magazine.
2. During the county debate “ The influence of IT and the media on adults’
education” we have achieved the following goals:
• Examples of how the activities which have been included in the national
curriculum can relate to those which have not;
• The acknowledgement of the importance of IT and the media in adults’
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education;
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• The presentation of new teaching, learning and evaluation methods based
on IT which can be used in adults’ education;
• The emphasis on the role of E-learning in adults’ education;
The result of this debate was the second issue of the “No more tears” magazine.
3. During the county conference – School and family violence, a social issue.
Case studies’’ we have achieved the following goals:
• The identification of the main factors which lead to violent behaviour;
• The analysis of the social consequences of a violent kind of behaviour
• The promotion of a set of measures that can be taken in order to prevent
school and family violence
• The consolidation of the relationship between the school, the parents and the
local community
The result of the conference was the third issue of the “No more tears”
magazine
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4. During the County Workshop - Useful techniques for conflict mediation we have achieved
the following goals:
• The promotion of the mediation system as a means of preventing and
solving conflicts in an amicable way
• The stimulation of the civic spirit, of the cooperation and of the responsible,
non-aggressive behaviour within human relationships in school as well as at
home.
• The identification of various mediation techniques and the emphasis on the
training of peer mediators
• Role plays to illustrate these techniques
5. During the County Round Table - Tolerance, a European value we have
achieved the following goals:
• The identification of the main types of tolerance (religious, political, racial,
etc) ;
• The understanding of the concept of ‘’freedom of opinion’’;
• The promotion of intercultural communication in order to help us develop
as European citizens, and acquire a set of knowledge and skills so as to be
able to act within an ever more open, complex environment;
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• The acknowledgement of the importance of the intercultural approach
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within the framework of formal and nonformal education in nowadays’
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international context;
• The acknowledgement of the necessity of developing an active European
citizenship, based on the respect of cultural diveristy and on common
values.
The result of the round table was the fourth issue of the “No more tears” magazine.
6. During the County Workshop -“ Violence versus tolerance! ” we have
achieved the following goals:
• The identification of the effects of a violent type of behaviour in school,
family and the society as a whole;
• The promotion of tolerance, diversity and assertiveness;
• The legal aspects of the prevention of family violence;
• The identification of the influence of prejudices and stereotypes in
intolerant behaviour;

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• The development of social abilities.
The project was disseminated in all four issues of the “No more tears”
magazine, during the teachers’ meetings, on the http://miedolj.forums-free.com/
website, http://tudorarghezicv.blogspot.com/ and on the
grundtvigers@yahoogroups.com chat group.
The project partners used their emails and yahoo messenger ids in order to
communicate between themselves, as well as their own mobile phones before the
transnational meetings.
In order to ensure transparency we posted on the blogspot pictures taken
from the activities we have held, as well as different presentations designed by our
learners.
Due to the activities we have been undertaking we have managed to reduce
school violence this school year.
We have designed a newsletter after each transnational activity. We

therefore have two newsletters, the first one issued in November, and the

latter in March. We have also put together presentation movies, describing

the partnership and the activities that have been undertaken till the date.

The beneficiaries of this partnership are the 50 learners at Tudor Arghezi
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Theoretical Highschool and the partner schools. An internal decision has been
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issued to appoint them as learners.
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All activities involved teachers, students and parents, both from our

school and from the other partner institutions.

During the activities we have shared examples of good practice in the

reudcation of school and family violence

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Activities which took place between
September 2011 and June 2012

Between the 21st and the 28th of September 2011 we attended the third
transnational meeting in Monterosso, Spain. The schedule of the meeting
included a visit to the Adult Centre of Monterroso, a discussion about the
multimedia presentations made by the learners of this project, a presentation
of the project newsletters, of the peer mediation system implemented at the
“Tudor Arghezi” Theoretical Highschool and of the activities each of the four
partners held between March and September, talks with the inmates, as well as
a cultural programme. The participants were able to see how the Adult Centre
of Monterroso was organized, and the way the staff worked and related to the
inmates. We also talked about the details of the following meetings in Romania
(March - 2012) and Turkey (June - 2012) during which the partners will organize
a contest and an international symposium, draw the final report and analyse the
finite products of the project, the way in which each partner has contributed to
the finite products of the project and their impact on the beneficiaries.
Activities which took place between October aand February:
 we wrote the curricula and the training materials for the mediators’
training course “No more tears”;
 we designed the project for the approval of the ITC and Civil Education
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contest “Multimedia presentations Say NO to violence” , which was eventually
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approved by the Romanian Ministry of Education, Research, Youth and Sports;
we designed the project for the approval of the International Symposium
”Sharing experiences and good practices in the educational process”, which was
eventually approved by the Teachers’ Body of the Dolj county;
we held the “No more tears” training course in order to train peer mediators
(October - November) and their parents (December - February);
we organised and held the following activities:
1.The workshop called - "Assertiveness. Social skills"
2.The round table called - "Examples of good practices in reducing school and
family violence in the EU"
3.The ITC and Civil Education contest “Multimedia presentations Say NO to
violence- the local stage on the 3rd of February 2012, the county stage on the
28th of February 2012 and the cross-county stage on the 19th of March 2012.
Between the 18th and the 21st of March the fourth project meeting within
the “No more tears” Grundtvig Learning Partnership was held at the “Tudor
Arghezi” Theoretical Highschool in Craiova, Romania.
The meeting was attended by representatives of Spain, Austria and Turkey.
The schedule of the meeting included: a visit of the “Tudor Arghezi”
Theoretical Highschool, a discussion on the multimedia presentations made by
the learners in each partner institution, an artistic programme coordinated by
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teachers at the “Tudor Arghezi” Theoretical Highschool involving highschool
students of 16 years old and more, a cross-county ITC and Civil Education
contest “Multimedia presentations- Say NO to violence” consisting of the
following sections: posters, Power Point presentations, spots and educational
projects, another activity held at the Maximum Security Penitentiary , which
included a tour of the penitentiary, a movie session including short movies made
by students at the “Tudor Arghezi” Theoretical Highschool to promote non-
violence, and talks with the inmates. We also visited the Craiova City Hall, the
Metropolitan Cathedral, the central churches, we held the International
Symposium”Sharing experiences and good practices in the educational process”,
as well as a cultural programme.
The main objective of the symposium was to exchange opinions, experience
and examples of good practices in the educational systems in the participating
countries: Romania, Spain, Turkey and Austria.
The results of the project are: the project blog, the project website,
multimedia presentations for the trnsnational meetings and for the
dissemination of the project, newsletters, the brochure called "Examples of
good practices in reducing school and family violence in the EU", the six "No
more tears" magazines, which are guides to promoting the reduction of school
and family violence, diversity, democracy and social responsability, and the
English magazine promoting international exchange ”Sharing experiences and
good practices in the educational process”.
Between March and April 2012 the third “No more tears” training course for
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peer mediators was held at the “Tudor Arghezi” Theoretical Highschool.
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The fifth meeting in the “No more tears” Grundtvig Learning Partnership
was held in Adana, Turkey, between the 6th and the 8th of June 2012. At this
meeting each partner presented the activities held by their respective
institutions between September 2010 and June 2012, their results, the impact
of the project on the learners’ group and there have been discussions about the
final report.
The project in financially supported by the European Committee through
the National Agency of Community Programmes in the Field of Education and
Professional Formation – Grundtvig Sector Programme – Lifelong Learning
Programme.
The information given above is the sole responsabilty of the project
team, the NA and the European Committee cannot be held responsible for the
use and contents of this information.

Conflicts

Teacher Georgeta Manafu
High School Tudor Arghezi
Teacher Marinela Calangiu
C.C.D. Dolj

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PEACE is a process by means of which we respond to conflicts and diversity with
tolerance, imagination and flexibility; WAR is a product of our intention to crush diversity
and intensify conflicts by abandoning the peace process. (George E. Lyon)
The aggravation of aggressiveness and violence is one of the most serious
problems in today’s society. In order to prevent school violence we need to take
a set of measures so as to prevent, monitor and fight it.
Our reactions towards conflicts can be divided into three categories:
• Delicate reactions: stepping back, ignoring or denying
• Harsh reactions: threatening, aggressiveness or anger
• Principle-based reactions: understanding, respecting or solving
When choosing a way to solve the conflict it is very important to identify its
origins.
Its origins can be:
• Limited resources: time, money or assets
• Unfulfilled basic needs: sense of belonging, power, freedom or good
mood
• Contrasting values: convictions, priorities, principles or beliefs
Mediation is a communication process by means of which a group of people
find themselves in a situation of peacefully solving their own conflict, by and
with the help of a third, neutral party. This neutral person is the mediator.
When a conflict is solved within the school area, by another student, the latter
is called a peer mediator.
It is very difficult, even impossible to open a locked door (if you are not
really, really strong). But if you have a key to put in the look, you twist it and
the door will open. Sometimes, when friends are fighting, they are like locked
doors: they do not listen to anyone and they do not open. If you have the key of
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your friends’ thoughts, you can help them solve their problems. Fortunately,
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there are keys which can help you help your friends. You can’t touch them, but
you can learn how to use them. They are very important because they make
friends and colleagues talk openly about their conflicts. The five keys are:
Do not judge. Peer mediators are impartial, even if they think that one of the
parts is right or wrong.
Do not give advice. Sometimes peer mediators can think of solutions, but they
must not suggest anything to those involved, it is their conflict and they have to
solve it themselves the way they want to. This is the only way to make them feel
responsible.
Be equally empathic. An empathetic mediator tries to understand the
people who were involved in the conflict putting himself into their respective
place. Avoid taking sides, but try to understand the way in which both of them
think and see things.
Keep the confidentiality. People feel better when they talk about their
feelings and problems, if they know that the peer mediators will not tell the
story to anyone.
Show that you care. Within the mediation process, the mediators also
take people into account. They do everything they can in order to help the

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others reconcile and solve their conflicts. If the mediators respect the mediation process,
the others will trust that using it will help them solve their problem.

PEER MEDIATION

Prof. Popescu Oana
Liceul Teoretic Tudor Arghezi, Craiova
Prof. Avram Florenţa
Liceul Teoretic Tudor Arghezi, Craiova

Acknowledging the fact that violence is, unfortunately, present in our

day-to-day life, our school is trying to implement a system of peer mediation.

It basicly means students solving problems between themselves. When

there is a conflict between two students, the peer mediators (always in a team)

meet the victim of the aggression (either physical or verbal), then the alleged

aggressor, then both sides of the conflict and try to make it end peacefully.

There is a standard procedure when meeting the victim, consisting of six

steps:

1. Introduction (E.g. Hello. My name is ..., I’m a peer mediator, and this

is my colleague, .... he’s not going to say anything, only make some
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notes.)
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2. Describing the facts (E.g. From what I’ve heard, you were involved in

a coflict yesterday. What happened exactly?)

3. Determining the emotional impact on the victim (E.g. How did this

make you feel?)

4. Determining the emotional impact on people close to the victim (E.g.

How did this make your mother feel?)

5. Finding a solution (E.g. What should your colleague do for you to

forgive him?* if the victim cannot or will not suggest a solution, the

peer mediators will appeal to the authorised school staff)

6. Making an appointment with both sides to actually mediate their

conflict.

Meeting the aggressor also consists of several stages:

1. Introduction (the same as when meeting the victim).
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2. Understanding the cause (E.g. What made you do it?)

3. Detailing the emotional impact on the victim (E.g. Your colleague told me he felt.......)

4. Detailing the emotional impact on people close to the victim (E.g.

When your colleague got home last night, his mother.......)

5. Presenting the victim’s suggestions (E.g. Your colleague agrees to

make peace with you, provided that you... * If the aggressor refuses

the solutions presented to him on behalf of the victim, the peer

mediators report it to the authorises school staff and let them solve

the case)

6. Making an appointment with both sides to actually mediate their

conflict.

The restaurative meeting takes place after determining a convenient

moment for both sides. It is attended by the peer mediators and by those

involved in the conflict. Should the victim or the aggressor require the

presence of a parent/ teacher (an adult), an authorised member of the school

staff will also attend the meeting, since students are not allowed to deal with

adults directly.

This meeting normally ends in a reconciliation, provided that the aggression
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should not happen again. The perpetrator is not supposed to have display the

same negative attitude towards either of his colleagues, not only towards the

current victim. After a certain number of bad occurences which are only known

by the peer mediators, the student is registered in a permanently updated

database, and is subject to gradual sanctions, depending on the gravity and

repeatedness of their aggressions. Such sanctions range from getting them

involved in extra curricular activities, to spending an extra amount of time in

school, or to having them expelled for a given number of days.

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