European Voluntary Service

Transcription

1 for European Voluntary Service Lorenz Sahlmann born on 11/09/1990 in Moosburg a.d. Isar, Germany participated as a volunteer in the project Clonakilty Kindergarten - Early Childhood Education in the host organisation Clonakilty Kindergarten. The activity took place from 01/09/2010 to 30/06/2011 in Clonakilty, Ireland. European Voluntary Service Within the European 'Youth in Action' Programme, European Voluntary Service offers young people an opportunity of taking part in a non-profit-making, unpaid activity for the benefit of the general public in a country other than their country of residence. Through European Voluntary Service, young people contribute to social cohesion and solidarity and considerably enhance their personal, professional, and intercultural skills and competences. Essential elements of European Voluntary Service are preparation and follow-up activities in the country of residence as well as ongoing pedagogical, personal, and task-related support like training activities in the host country. European Voluntary Service is carried out in partnership between a young volunteer, an organisation in the country of residence, and an organisation in the host country. It lasts up to 12 months. Offering the added value of a European dimension, European Voluntary Service is quality-checked regarding content criteria and implementation. Anna Adams Chairperson The ID of this certificate is SL8H-G5A8-2BU2-6Y6W. If you want to verify the ID, please go to the web site of Youthpass: Youthpass is a Europe-wide validation system for non-formal learning within the EU 'Youth in Action' Programme. For further information, please have a look at 1

2 This document certifies that Lorenz Sahlmann spent his European Voluntary Service in the project Clonakilty Kindergarten - Early Childhood Education in Clonakilty, Ireland with the organisation Clonakilty Kindergarten. The role and tasks of Lorenz Sahlmann were: As a full member of the kindergarten's staff I worked hours (depending on the rota) a week as a teacher. My tasks included minding the children, playing with them, doing crafts, organising events and activities, cooking, baking, playing music and singing, tidying up and cleaning. In addition, I helped the management committee (parents) with a lot of other work and activities necessary to maintain this community project, such as fundraising, community development, setting up of a web page. Lorenz Sahlmann took part in the following training activities: Pre-departure training: 9th-11th July 2010, Jugendbildungsstätte Unterfranken, Würzburg (Germany) by the German National Agency On-arrival training: 16th-19th September 2010, Emmaus Centre, Swords (Dublin) by the Irish National Agency (Léargas) Mid-term training: 25th-27th March 2011, Emmaus Centre, Swords (Dublin) by the Irish National Agency (Léargas) Return-meeting: 8th-10th July 2011, Bornheim (Germany) by the German National Agency The host organisation Clonakilty Kindergarten offers the following: Clonakilty Kindergarten was developed to provide quality community-based childcare and family support. We enjoy exploring different cultures and learning from each other with a strong emphasis on nature, music, art and crafts. Our activities include summer camps, after-school care, parent and toddler groups and parenting training. The Kindergarten is socially inclusive and open to all children in the community. Our EVS project aims to promote active citizenship amongst young people. The sending organisation of Lorenz Sahlmann was Jugendwerk der AWO Baden-Württemberg e.v. from Stuttgart, Germany. We certify the participation of Lorenz Sahlmann in this European Voluntary Service project Clonakilty Kindergarten - Early Childhood Education. Karen Bean Person in charge of the project Clonakilty, 24/11/2011 2

3 Lorenz Sahlmann participated in the European Voluntary Service project Clonakilty Kindergarten - Early Childhood Education in Clonakilty, Ireland between 01/09/2010 and 30/06/2011. The following summary of Lorenz Sahlmann's learning outcome is the result of an ongoing dialogue process between Lorenz Sahlmann and his mentor Liz Walsh during the whole activity. The following description of learning outcomes is a reflection related to the Key Competences for lifelong learning recommended by the European Parliament and the Council in December Communication in mother tongue From January to June, I voluntarily went two afternoons a week to the Hamilton High School in Bandon, where I coached the pupils who were studying German in order to assist them with their oral examinations. We practised both example exam questions and normal conversations. For that I had to adjust my level of speaking to one which could be understood by the pupils. This turned out to be fairly difficult but makes you reflect on your own mother tongue. The quick switching between English and German proved to be challenging, too. After a longer time of only using English it is difficult to form sentences in your own mother tongue and you tend to use English expressions and idioms, but translated into German. That shows the impact that the everyday usage of the foreign language has and can be seen as a positive sign of my progress in learning that language. By getting to know and using another language, you become aware of your own language's possibilities by seeing the differences between them. I learned to hold German in high regard when I realised its great grammatical and expressional possibilities, which I was partly aware of before, and which I have now rediscovered again. Communication in foreign languages By using the English language both at work and in my leisure time, I improved my language skills, both in speaking and understanding, to a large extent. Not only in everyday conversations, but also in unexpected and unprepared situations, such as at the doctor's or in the bank, when you don't have the specific vocabulary needed. In these situations you learn to improvise verbally. Daily reading in newspapers, books, magazines and text on the Internet helped me to improve my reading comprehension; watching films, television and videos, my listening comprehension. Also, I had to make many telephone calls and send a lot of s in English, so that I now feel fairly experienced with that. Furthermore, I had to deal with the local accent (Cork accent) which can be very challenging. At the Sacred Heart Secondary School in Clonakilty, I gave a presentation about the European Voluntary Service. I learned a lot about preparing and giving a presentation in English. 3

4 In addition, I met up with my French colleague every week for a "French evening" to practice my spoken French. Digital competence As part of my work in the kindergarten's committee, I was entrusted with the task of setting up a web page to represent the kindergarten (The result can be seen at I did that job together with another member of the committee who is a professional illustrator and who did the artwork. At first, I had to do research on the Internet to see what content we might need. Based on that I came up with ideas for the design of the web page which I then implemented as a template for the Content Management System with the latest web-technology: HTML5, CSS3, Javascript (with jquery library) and PHP. I had some experience in web programming before, but as the technology is developing so quickly, I had to refresh my knowledge and familiarise myself with those new technologies. At a committee meeting, I had to present the final result to the parents and staff. They were really impressed and very much appreciated my work. Social and civic competences Through my daily work with children and the situations which arise in the course of that, I learned a lot about how to deal with them: Pedagogy through hands-on experience as opposed to textbook theory only. It showed me that improvisation as a combination of common sense and experience is very often more important in everyday life than doing something according to strict rules. When you start into a group of children you have to find your position: you are the teacher but you still want to be their friend. It's challenging to be authoritarian, friendly and caring at the same time. It needs empathy to work with children: motivating them, solving conflicts, being patient. Working in childcare and dealing with those scenarios given above was fairly new for me. Anyway, I gained much experience and I really enjoyed the work, so now I consider myself to have been successful in that job. Sense of initiative and entrepreneurship I organized various events and activities for the kindergarten throughout the year, such as our participation in the St Patrick's Day Parade, a French-German week for the children and much more. In doing so I learned how to plan, prepare and organise such events. In the weekly staff meeting I learned how to bring in criticism and mention problems in an appropriate way and how to bring in my own ideas. I had been thrilled by the Irish drum, the bodhrán, and had been thinking about learning it for quite a long time, when I heard a local musician playing it in a pub. I asked him if he knew anybody who gave lessons. He offered me to give me some lessons for free, because he was quite impressed that I would like to learn playing it. That way I learned to play the bodhrán. I learned that you just dare to ask... This is just an example out of many situations in which I learned that you should use every opportunity which presents itself, even though you sometimes need to be quite brave to get to it. 4

5 Cultural awareness and expression Only when you leave your own familiar surroundings will you be able to become more aware of your own culture. By noticing that something that you took for granted is absent or completely different in another country, you realise it to be an idiosyncrasy of your own culture. I experienced this several times. It is very interesting to get to know foreigners' view, perception and stereotypes about your own country. They unveil a new point of view and make you reflect and become more tolerant towards other cultures. In order to really get to know a foreign culture, you have to become a part of it. By getting to know local people, participating in various projects, joining the gym, dealing with Irish music and literature, etc, I dived into the Irish culture, integrated myself and became involved with the local community of Clonakilty. Furthermore, I got to know a great deal about European cultures by meeting up with other European Volunteers doing an EVS in Ireland. Despite all the differences, you can still see some common features in all those cultures, which make us somehow belong together. Other specific skills I was involved in the selection of the EVS volunteers for the upcoming year. That job included identifying what the kindergarten expected of the applicants, looking through all the applications, answering applicants' questions, interviewing the final candidates on the telephone and finally selecting the two new students. In doing that I learned a lot about what makes an application stand out in comparison to others and how to judge a person by their CV and motivation letter, in order to find the person which best suits our project. We confirm the mutual process of reflection during European Voluntary Service. Lorenz Sahlmann Volunteer Liz Walsh Mentor of the volunteer Clonakilty, 24/11/2011 Further information and original documents on the Key competences for Lifelong Learning can be found at: Further information about the EU 'Youth in Action' Programme can be found at: and about Youthpass at: 5