News

This summer, Kedir travelled to his home country, Iraqi Kurdistan, and talked about the motivation method in different contexts. Many people were interested, and it ended up in a tv-interview on Kurdish television, and pictures from our website were shown on the screen. He was challenged on whether we will bring the method here…or rather when we would come. In addition, he was in contact with an organisation called Rwanga which organizes conferences for the education sector, and they were also interested in contact with us. It is exciting to see how this will be continued.

This summer, the SAMM-team and the HBS-leader went to London to two research conferences and presented findings from studies. The study from lower secondary school was presented at The European Conference on Education, and the study from the adult learning centres were presented at The European Conference on Language Learning (Organisator: IAFOR). We had some interesting days here, and we got particularly good response on how we work with life-mastery skills in lower secondary school, and as someone said, this is something that should be done worldwide.

From January, we have met regularly in SAMM development workshop to further develop the project. We started in upper secondary school with this method, and then we introduced it in adult learning centres, and then lower secondary and primary schools, and in this process, it is important to evaluate and adjust as we proceed. This is what we work with in the development workshop. Other participants not present on the picture are Gerd Martina Langeland (Møglestu, project leader uss), Mariette Aanensen (UiA) and Svein T. Heddeland (UiA). To keep focus, we have the plan for the processes we work with on the wall above us. There are 4 main tracks, and these are 1) to further develop the motivation method, 2) to plan implementation in the different contexts, 3) to make a structure that ensures follow-up of teachers and students if challenging health-topics appear and 4) to develop a plan for evaluation and research.

This spring, we have taken the motivation method into new contexts, and given courses for multicultural entrepreneurs in the southern region of Norway through the EVA-centre in Kristiansand (Etablerertjenesten i Vest-Agder). Through the concept idealab, we have gathered people from various cultures who have recently started, or are about to establish, businesses. Below, we can see what the participants considered important when starting a business.

We have so far run the course in Kristiansand and in Arendal, and the feedback from the participants is very positive. As one of the participants said: «It is important to be with others in the starting phase, it feels good not to be the only one who encounters resistance». The course is part of the Agder-counties’ project «Multicultural value creation», and is supported by the Norwegian Directorate of Integration and Diversity.

By May Olaug Horverak

The school year is getting close to an end, and it is time for the SAMM-crowd to gather to go through the year’s activities and say something about were we’re headed in the future. About 50 people that either have been involved in SAMM, or will be involved next semester, were present. THANK YOU to TT Beach for good service and food, we will be back 😊.

It was a magical evening with many exiting presentations from teachers and others that have used the method during the yar. THANK YOU to all the teachers that shared their experiences and that have contributed to adjust and develop the motivation method throughout the year. It is incredibly fun to run a project when having such fantastic people to work with.

The reason that we this year have been able to expand the SAMM project from upper secondary school to new contexts like adult learning and lower secondary/primary schools is that we are part of Healthpromoting Kindergartens and Schools, one of the Norwegian Directorate of Health’s public health projects in Agder, THANK YOU to the project leader of HBS, Eva-Kristin Paschen-Eriksen, who has been a faithful support on the way and that has helped us and motivated us to move forward, we really appreciate it. THANK YOU to other central SAMM-collaborators in HBS; Eva Carmen (Grimstad), Kedir Diary (Lillesand), Anette Lindhagen (Lillesand), Karianne Rosef (Birkenes) og Mariette Aanensen (UiA/Kristiansand), it’s only fun to work with development with you on the team. Another person who deserves a THANK YOU is aour good collaborator in SAMM, psychologist Fagerhaug who contributed this evening with an inspiring appeal, and like someone said, we should have heard it once more so we could take notes. The day after, he came to the lower secondary school in Engesland, and had a good response there as well, many great youths smiled at his jokes.

A last THANK YOU goes to Gerd Martina Langeland, who started the whole thing, and started this journey that SAMM has become; I couldn’t have wished for a better travel companion.

This was a lot of thanks, but after such a fantastic evening, where one after the other tells me what the SAMM-project has meant to them, both in their own and in students’ lives, I cannot do otherwise but give thanks back to everyone around me that contributes to carry this project forward.

Photos by Svein T. Heddeland and Kedir Diary

In February, we had a new round with Fagerhaug and lectures for both parents and students. We started the two-day roundtrip with a lecture for parents at LUS – Lillesand Lower secondary school, where close to 100 people met Wednesday 13. February on the evening.

The trip continued the next day to Birkenes, and Fagerhaug gave a lecture to all the students at the adult learning centre in the cafeteria of the town hall. In his lectures, Fagerhaug challenges his audience to take control over, or to «design» their own lives, and create a balance between the inner world, the outer world and the digital world, which is taking over more and more in people’s lives.

He also challenged the students at the adult learning centre to go out and talk to others, and to defeat their own fear of what others think. Another one of his main points was that it is important to keep a focus on the road instead of the ditch, in this case, to have focus on what you know for certain rather than focus on the insecurity of the situation. «You are here, you attend school, you learn Norwegian»…these are things we know for certain.

Many people showed up at the city hall, in addition to teachers and students, many people from the local municipality administration showed up; the mayor and other leaders in the administration, and other representatives that know our student group.

The last stop on the roundtrip was Valstrand lower secondary school in Birkenes. Here, Fagerhaug talked with youths facing important choices in their lives. Also here, many people smiled and laughed during the lecture, and the event was a success. Some students mentioned that learning German was an obstacle in school, as they found it difficult to master this well, and again, Fagerhaug challenged the students to do what they feared. «Walk around the hallway and speak in German, then it could be fun, but you should perhaps wear earplugs, so people around you don’t think you’re completely crazy».

Wednesday 28. November Birkenes-parents filled the blackbox at Valstrand cultural arena to listen to psychologist John Petter Fagerhaug talk about motivation and life mastery in school. It was both inspiring and engaging to hear about how one can work with changing thoughts and patterns to experience more joy and motivation in the everyday, and parents contributed with a lot of good comments that Fagerhaug could «play around with». This was some of his message, that it is important to be able to «play around with» thoughts and perceptions. This was a new type of setting for the psychologist in our project, giving a lecture to parents with a focus on motivation work for children and youths, and we were curious about how the message would be received. Judging from the response, this was very successful, and something we hope to do more in our project.

Written by Knut Erik Vikan and Oday Bin Khadra, 2MK/STC

A large and varied group of over 70 people met to the motivation method training-conference at Møglestu in October. The projectleader and other central representatives in HBS in Agder were there, teachers from different school levels, and many others interested in the work at Møglestu and the adult learning centre in Birkenes came to learn about our method. Also in the health field, there is interest for the method, and both a psychologist and a doctor in the local community took time to come to the training conference.

The audience was really enganged, and many teachers asked good questions during the conference. The teachers from the schools in Birkenes were challenge to join us and try out the method at different levels in school. The main message to the lecturers was that students need to take responsibility for their own lives, their own learning, and in particular, their own motivation, a message that was well received by the audience. We have experience ourselves from working with this method, and we think it can help many people.

Photo: Oday Bin Khadra

Friday 21. September, in full autumn storm, we had an interesting visit in Birkeland when a group from Statped came with a «delegation» from the Netherlands, consisting of teachers and other staff working with special needs children. They came to hear about the motivation method that we start with this autumn in schools in Birkenes and Lillesand, and that we have already started using at Birkenes Learning Centre. The local newspaper Lillesandsposten also came and covered the event, and we had a full page coverage.

Thursday 13. September there was a kick-off for the public health project Healthpromoting Kindergartens and Schools (HBS) in Lillesand, and we presented our 5-step motivation method for many interested listeners. The motivation project, that started at Møglestu upper secondary school, has now been expanded to Birkenes and Lillesand municipalities. We have already started at the adult learning centres, and hope to start in lower secondary school and in primary school during the autumn. On the picture: From the left: Gerd Martina Langeland, lektor at Møglestu and projectleader of SAMM in upper secondary schools, and May Olaug Horverak, project leader of SAMM in adult learning and primary/lower secondary school, Birkenes. From the right: Kedir Diary, social worker at Lillesand adult learning centre, and contributor to carrying out the method at the adult learning centre in Birkenes and Anette Lindhagen, social worker in Lillesand municipality and projectleader of HBS in Lillesand.