I have to start from the beginning, namely from 2016 when I received an invitation to join the workshop in Helsinki the year after. I was excited already then, not really knowing all the details and whom I would meet, apart from a some people I had met a few years earlier during other conferences or workshops. I was also looking forward to visiting Helsinki “as a tourist” and meeting a former student of mine whom I had not seen for about ten years.
My first and valuable impression, was a relaxed, inclusive and welcoming small enough environment of relaxed professionals, people who “were speaking the same language” as I do. I appreciated listening to a range of interesting presentations, exchanging views and reflections on how and what we think about learner and teacher autonomy, in our own and other settings. Sharing insights into work and practices of others, enhanced my own creative process of adapting ideas in my own teaching, and calmed my continuous appetite to explore what is going on out there. I felt like being a member of a community of practice, even skipping the period of being a peripheral member. We socialized during small and long talks about big things within and beyond workshop premises. Thank you again!
Ewa