‘Together apart. Mobility in times of COVID-19’ is a collection of testimonies about how people experienced the COVID-19 pandemic and especially how it impacted their ability to move freely.
It is a project developed jointly by the European Parliament’s ‘My House of European History’ online platform and the House of European History. The House of European History is a forum for learning, reflection and debate that aims to present European History in a way that raises awareness. Visit their official website in order to learn more about the interesting upcoming transnational collections, exhibitions and events.
Fifteen people from Italy, Romania and Sweden, at different stages of their lives, share how the lockdown and COVID-19 restrictions changed their daily lives following the outbreak of the pandemic in March 2020.
Carole’s Story
This article is dedicated to Carole, an Italian teacher who shares her story about the obstacles she dealt with during quarantine in Italy. How can you possibly teach sculpture remotely? It sounds impossible! Carole Peia, from Italy, recalls the challenges she faced as an art teacher. She really had to reinvent her teaching methods and adapt the teaching materials she used in all her classes during the pandemic. The results, however, amazed not only her but also her students.
Through the online classes she held during quarantine, Carole found it difficult in the beginning to teach her class online. Nonetheless, later on, she found it rather rewarding, since her students started to find new creative ways to complete their projects. This entire process made them more organized, strengthened their imagination and equipped them with new sets of skills.
Although there were several challenges they had to overcome day by day, the students quickly adapted to a new environment and had a creative breakthrough that helped them to focus on their designs and get to know themselves deeper.
Below you can find some of the artwork Carole’s class created during the lockdown, while studying from home:
The road has not been easy, sometimes the lack of creativity made its appearance, but the outcome and lesson was more important: In life, you do not need a lot to be happy. Staying at home was an opportunity for Carole and her students to explore new insights and see everyday things through a different angle, noticing details that were invisible before.
If you are curious to learn more, watch Carole tell her story in the interview she gave for ‘Together apart’ in June 2021. You can pick the subtitles of the language of your preference.
In addition, you can find and watch all the stories of the participants in all 24 EU languages on the ‘My House of European History’ platform.
© Images provided by the interviewee to ‘My House of European History’ – 2022
Written by Ioanna Mavridou
Ioanna holds a Bachelor’s degree in Translation from the Ionian University in Corfu and has also studied her Master’s in Communication at Gothenburg University in Sweden. A digital communications enthusiast, she has completed a professional Social Media & Digital Marketing certification. She speaks Greek, English, Swedish, German and Russian. She is a Communications Trainee at the Terminology Coordination Unit of the European Parliament.