Athens College and a team from Out of Eden Learn, an initiative of Harvard Graduate School of Education’s Project Zero, worked collaboratively to organize the PanHellenic Symposium titled “Slowing down, sharing stories, making connections: Enriching teaching and learning through Out of Eden Learn” that was held on June 17th and 18th. The Symposium was held online and attended by 200 educators from around Greece who were given an opportunity to learn more closely about the programs that Out of Eden Learn offers and well as their best teaching applications.

On the first day of the Symposium, in parallel sessions, Out of Eden Learn trainers Liz Dawes Duraisingh, Carrie James, Shari Tishman, Sarah Sheya, Christina Smiraglia and Madison Sorel introduced participants to the philosophy of Out of Eden Learn through interactive online workshops. On the second day, again in parallel sessions, teachers who implemented the program during academic year 2020-2021 shared its best teaching practices.

Athens College Elementary School teachers, Chrysostomos Lefteratos, Penelope Mpoznou, Eleni Neofotistou and Ioanna Tselenti, presented the Out of Eden Learn program as they had implemented it in their classrooms during the past two academic years.

A short video in which students talked about specific actions associated with the program, what they liked, and what they gained from their participation, preceded the teachers’ presentation.  The interactive workshop titled “Implementing OOEL during the Covid-19 pandemic” had two thematic foci. In the beginning, Mmes Mpoznou and Tselenti presented their work for academic year 2019-2020, which began from face-to-face learning and was abruptly interrupted before transitioning, for the first time, to distance learning. Then, Mr. Lefteratos and Ms. Neofotistou presented the implementation of the program in full remote learning conditions. Attendees were introduced to Program modules and shown indicative work completed by students in sections 3στ and 4στ, while practical issues of its implementation were discussed in relation to the school program, the Primary Years Program, as well as the current curricula.