TEACHERS MEETING 1, TURKEY, OCTOBER 2012

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1 E-MAGAZINE. COMENIUS PROJECT SIX LANGUAGES-ONE AIM: LIVE, LEARN AND TEACH NATURAL AND CULTURAL HERITAGE : TEACHERS MEETING 1, TURKEY, OCTOBER 2012 I think the first visit was a bit different because we were going to see each other for the first time in person so we were a bit excited. Although it was planned to be a short meeting, we were able to do a lot. The first day was spent relaxing and seeing some places in Çeşme while waiting for the others to arrive. The second day was very fruitful as we had a long meeting at school and formed our Constitution. We made important decisions for our project. On the third day we had the chance to go to Ephesus and Virgin Mary s House, which was a must for a cultural project like ours.

2 THE WEB SIDE OF THE PROJECT When your project is about cultural and natural heritage, the first and most important thing you need is a website in which you can share hundreds of photos and other documents. As the Turkish team, which is responsible for the website, we decided to set up one that could do this and found a web hosting plan with unlimited storage. Together with the website, we also decided to create a blog so students could make comments on the different visits, etc. The task of building the site was given to our ICT teacher, Mr Mükremin BADEM. He is the hidden power of the website. Although he works at two different schools, he spends most of his time and energy on this website. We appreciate him for not only the things he has done so far but also the things that he has taught us. Every Monday we have a brief meeting at school and he always comes up with fresh original ideas, so we talk about the things we can do on the website. We are fascinated with what he has made so far. And you? EUROPEAN DAY OF LANGUAGES At the end of September students in partner countries prepared a myriad of activities to celebrate the European Day of Languages. Those included: multimedia presentations of chosen European countries (Polish students focused on Comenius partners), presenting visually connotations of European countries on graffiti boards, holding various quizzes on European countries and languages, doing online research connected with the topic and sharing the information with other students (Spain). In France students organized a European meal for lunch with English menus, they also showed a film in English in the afternoon and some classes had to complete tasks based on the movie. In Italy students performed activities that let them become more familiar with Comenius partner countries, focusing in particular on the similarities/differences between the languages spoken in each country. Celebrating the European Day of Languages gave teachers and students an opportunity to promote the Six Languages One Aim project at their schools.

3 Whatever we possess becomes of double value when we have the opportunity of sharing it with others. Jean-Nicolas Bouilly VISIT TO TENERIFE, SPAIN From 13 to 17 November 2012, IES Villalba Hervás, La Orotava, Spain, hosted the first visit of teachers and students. The visiting students stayed with Spanish families, which allowed a rich cultural exchange. Besides, it also promoted the use of English, one of the objectives of the project, as a means of communication. During the week we visited the towns of La Orotava, La Laguna, Icod de los Vinos and Garachico. The Spanish students prepared each guided tour and introduced the different towns and sights. Students also visited the Museums of Flower-and-Sand Carpet as well as the Museum of Ibero-American Art in La Orotava, where they did guided tours and took part in a series of activities. Students and teachers also visited the Ethnographic Museum in Pinolere, La Orotava, where they learned about the old Canarian traditions of food preparation and customs.

4 In school all students took part in workshops about how to make a flower-and-sand carpet, a tradition in La Orotava celebrated in June each year, creating one on their final day. They also prepared, learned and performed traditional dances from the different visiting countries. As a final activity, families, students and teachers were invited to a typical meal from the Canary Islands.

5 COMENIUS DANCES Before the first trip, to Tenerife, all countries prepared a traditional dance. The objective was that students had to teach the other partner students their dances and learn them as well. The Polish students chose Krakowiak, which is one of the most popular dances in Poland. The four students who travelled to Tenerife spent many hours practicing the choreography with some help of one of their friends who danced professionally. To make their presentation more interesting, they even borrowed a traditional costume used for that sort of dance. The students also prepared a PowerPoint presentation about the most popular traditional dances in Poland. In France, students prepared La petite Française (The Little French girl). Students met twice after lessons from 4.30 pm to 5.30 pm. and a folkloric group showed them how to dance. It was for them a lot of fun especially because they couldn't believe they were actually dancing it in public! In Spain, the music teacher met with the Spanish students in the afternoon to show them how to dance the traditional Canarian dances and how to teach the other students once in Tenerife. Also the students from Italy and Turkey prepared their traditional dances and showed them to the other students. Even though some students were initially reluctant to dance in front of the other students, they did in the end having a lot of fun. You can see an example of each dance under the section videos in our website.

6 CHRISTMAS AND NEW YEAR ACTIVITIES: OUR CULTURAL DIFFERENCES One of the activities programmed at the beginning of this Comenius Project was related to Christmas and New Year traditions. The students of every country, except Turkey as they don t celebrate Christmas, were supposed to work in groups and describe the different traditions associated to this time of the year. They worked in groups to prepare PowerPoint presentations or articles about typical traditions cultivated at Christmas season. Apart from referring to the religious and family celebrations, the Polish boys couldn t help putting in the presentation some information about motor sports events which are held at around that time. The presentations were placed in the Comenius blog. In Spain, the students took part in a webquest about Christmas. They were referred to the blog of the project and had to answer some questions about the different countries and look for the cultural differences. In Poland, apart from the articles with information, there was a competition for the best Xmas story. The story was supposed to reflect a typical Polish Xmas tradition in its background. The winner was Sabina Czapla, a 2 nd year student, who later took part in the visit to Italy as a reward. This story is published on our Comenius website.

7 PHOTO CONTEST This year the Comenius students from all partner countries had a chance to discover new talents and skills throughout different activities planned in the project. Photo contest was the one that required not only technical skills but creativity as well. The topic Cultural and Natural Heritage offered a wide range of possibilities concerning the interpretation. All partner countries approached the task individually, some started with practical classes on photography, some had teachers introducing students to the topic of the contest and other gave their students freedom as far s treatment of the topic was concerned. The contest was announced either for students only or for both students and the staff as well. Each country gave their contestants the deadline and the photo number limit. After the deadline all the countries had to organize voting to choose the best three photos from their country. We have organized exhibitions showing either all the photos or the winning ones and the students who won received prizes. Afterwards the winning photos were sent to Turkey - the coordinator of the competition. They were all downloaded on the Comenius website and once again students voted for the photos from each country they liked the most. Ultimately the voting ended with three winning photos from each country which together with short descriptions will be used in the Comenius calendar for This contest was a great opportunity for all of us to appreciate the beauty of our countries and to stop for a brief moment to admire the amazing world around us.

8 LOGO CONTEST In each school, a contest was organized to create a common logo for our Comenius project. The students did some research on the culture and way of living of France, Italy, Poland, Spain and Turkey. Thanks to the Art Departments of the schools, computer graphics or traditional methods, or only with individual creativity, the students showed up with beautiful logos. Some teachers organized it with their classes. Some students came during lunchtime to join this activity. They had a good time, got to know each other and they enjoyed being together working on the same project. The best logos, voted by students and teachers, were rewarded and posted in the school library or hall. The final Comenius winner was the work of Agnieszka Czupala, 2 nd year student, who represented the cooperative character of the project by using the motive of puzzle pieces in her design. She was offered a week-holiday by Mr. Nuri Ertan, in Turkey.

9 EARTH DAY In May, all countries did a series of activities related to the environment. The French school has been working on this project for long years now because it is part of their curricular. This year the students worked on how to eat well protecting their health and the environment. Some of these activities were: 1. A play teaching good food habits: how to eat protecting my health and my environment. 2. A Canadian picnic in which everybody had to prepare a healthy meal. 3. Visiting a local producer of organic vegetables and fruits: the students bought products of the season for the picnic. 4. A healthy cooking lesson of fresh food. 5. Cleaning the rubbish around the school and sorting them out in order to recycle them. 6. Different activities: making objects with the rubbish (pocket money, vase, small windmills ) Spain decided: 1. To work on PowerPoint presentations about the endangered animals and the problems that human beings can cause to them. These were shown to the other classes. 2. The students also planted several Dragon Trees in the school gardens. Finally, students prepared the soil and planted different vegetables and flowers around the school gardens as a way to improve and preserve our natural environment.

10 Poland and Italy learnt about the concept of Land Art. They went to a local park to create their own works. In the park they gathered leaves, stones, sticks The Polish students created a land art desert island, Pyramids, a resting deer, a star And the Italian students went back to school and created a painting. Turkey had their visiting partners work on traditional Ebru paintings: 2 professionals showed how to do marbling painting.

11 COMENIUS SONG In order to compose a common Comenius song for the project, the music teacher from Spain first created the background music. Then, each country had to write, in their own language, the lyrics suitable for a song under the theme: our cultural and natural heritage. The music teacher also wrote a common refrain in English. The idea behind was that all students had to sing in English the common refrain and then, in their languages, their own part of the song. In order to do this, all students had to meet in their countries to write the lyrics and then record themselves. After that, students had to send to the teacher in Spain their recordings for him to put them together in one common song. Some difficulties arose since some students were not familiar with the software used for recording and also because some students found it really difficult to record themselves. Besides, some countries also commented that their students had found it much more difficult and stressful to sing individually than in a group. As a result, one activity in the visit to Italy was to record the students who had had either difficulty with the recording or with the singing. The music teacher brought all the necessary equipment to Italy and he recorded the students from the different countries. The final product will be presented at the end of next year.

12 VISIT TO VIGNOLA, ITALY From 8th to 13th April, ITIS Primo Levi, Vignola, Italy, hosted the second visit of students and teachers. The visiting students stayed with Italian families, which allowed a rich cultural exchange. Besides, it was also promoted the use of English, one of the objectives of the project, as a means of communication. During the week we visited the towns of Vignola, Modena, Bologna and Florence. The Italian students and teachers prepared the tours and introduced the different sights. Students also visited the Ferrari Museum in Maranello, where they could see the local traditional mechanical technology applied to F1 engines and to exclusive sport cars, and the traditional Museum of Balsamic Vinegard in Spilamberto, where they could learn the secrets of the precious local product and they could taste it as well. In school all students took part in workshops about the Divine Comedy (5 th canto of Dante's Inferno) dealing with traditional aspects of Italian cultural heritage as far as music, language and painting are concerned, and about robotics technology, dealing with the technological evolution of robotics in local mechanical industries. As a recreational activity, meant to enhance friendship, families, students and teachers were invited to a typical evening dinner from Vignola.

13 STUDENTS AND TEACHERS MEETING. TURKEY, MAY 2013 The students, parents and teachers are waiting for their guests eagerly. Here they arrived! After a warm welcome, the guests go to their homes to have a rest after a long and tiring journey but everybody knows that won t be long as both sides are willing to be together at once as they have a lot to talk about. From Monday to Friday, everybody takes part in the planned activities. A visit to İzmir on Tuesday and Ephesus on Thursday gives us the opportunity to see some interesting cultural places. But a trip to Çeşme without having a swim and sunbathe would be incomplete so we spend Wednesday afternoon at Sole & Mare. On Friday all the students are at school for the Youth and Sports Day activities and they really have fun. Time flies It s time to say Good bye to our friends. But everybody knows that this is not the end but only a beginning: the beginning of a life-time friendship. They have already started to make plans for visiting each other again.

14 EUROPEAN HERITAGE DAY The European Heritage Day has been celebrated in different ways in the Comenius countries. In Poland, a group of students searched their local neighbourhoods to find and photograph nice examples of places, objects, etc, important for cultural and natural heritage of Poland. The photos were then made into a poster with descriptions in Polish and English and put on display in the school corridor. Another group worked on a photo album presenting the district of Lubliniec. The album does not only focus on culture and history, but it also gives some basic data about the population, territorial subdivisions, etc.

15 In Spain, students found information about different artistic, immaterial and natural World Heritage Sites. Students looked for different kinds of information such as pictures of the sites, location, the reason why they were declared World Heritage Sites, etc. Later, students created power-point presentations and showed their work to the rest of the class. QR codes were created with the pictures for students to download them using their mobiles together with the information of the sites. A competition was organised for students to match the codes to their respective images. Finally, some groups prepared a questionnaire about the different Heritage Sites. In order to do this, they had to read their QR codes with their mobiles.

16 In Italy, there are lots of traditional events taking place on different dates according to the different places. These traditional events are often linked to religious feasts. Each single town and village has a Patron Saint who is celebrated in a particular day. On that occasion you can see a combination of sacred and profane traditional events. Besides religious processions and rites, superstitiously attended by old people and unenthusiastically attended by very few young people, you can see traditional representations of ancient trades and professions (shoemakers, carpenters...), of games and dances. In addition, you can buy local food which is traditionally prepared and cooked according to ancient recipes. In the medieval villages, historical celebrations of peculiar events attract lots of people. At night a fireworks display closes the celebrations. We think in Italy each single village or town has its own heritage day!

17 In France, during the week end of the European Heritage Days, the 2nde SAPAT (Services and Territories) visited many traditional and cultural local sites. They presented them to their friends explaining their main particularities.

18 SCHOOL CALENDAR 2014 The story of the calendar started on the first year (in 2012). The students of the 5 schools were involved in a photo contest on their environment. Each country had to vote for their best 3 photos and they were used to create the calendar. Students who won the contest had to write a paragraph in English to explain the photo. These photos represent cultural or natural symbols of each partner's area. And as much as possible they match the different seasons of the year. The partners used it as a present for the students, their parents, the school professional partners, etc. Six languages one aim: Live, Learn and Teach Natural and Cultural Heritage

19 DOCUMENTARIES ABOUT THE IMPACT OF URBAN DEVELOPMENT IN OUR LANDSCAPES In France, students worked the theme in class because it is one of their subjects: ecology. They worked on the differences of places around the lake in the past and nowadays. Their teachers had them first work on the history of the region to make them understand all the changes in the environment they could observe. They became aware of how important it is to preserve their natural but also cultural surroundings. In Italy, students decided to deal with the impact of urban development in our landscape by comparing the past and present look of some well known areas and buildings in Vignola. What they have mainly pointed out is that several efforts have been made to preserve historical buildings or to rescue old crumbling buildings, but, on the other hand, lands which used to be cultivated and which used to produce the delicious Vignola's cherries have been turned into blocks of flats or into business premises. What is worse, a lot of these new buildings are unused because of the crisis.

20 In Spain, students created a series of powerpoints and videos that showed the benefits of a balanced development and the problems that an uncontrolled one can have on the environment. Students dealt with the topics of urban development, our coasts and seas, energy resources, mountains and agriculture, waste and finally transport. In all powerpoints and videos students tried to show the opposite and confronting points of view of a controlled or uncontrolled development. The Horizontal rain is the cause of the leafy forest. All you can see from the highest places in La Orotava are houses and buildings. n La Orotava, Tenerife The danger of fire is one of the disadvantages of the dry climate in the islands, but fortunately the Canary Island Pine resists the fire thanks to its characteristics. La Palma A beautiful view from the high mountain to the clean sea. All around there are chestnut-trees.

21 In Poland, students started the activity by deciding on the specific topics of powerpoint presentations. One group chose to concentrate on the disposal of rubbish, and the other set out to find examples of how urban development made Lubliniec a better, more liveable place. The second stage of the project was field work taking photos to illustrate the topics. Students found out that there was still a problem of disposing waste: vandals still dropped bags full of rubbish in forests surrounding Lubliniec, also legal dumps created a problem as they produced ugly smell and were themselves polluting the landscape. On the other hand, students took photos of a lot of recycling bins in the area and found out that recycling became a common thing among Lubliniec district households, encouraged by legal regulations. The second group concentrated on positives. Students re-discovered the beauty of some spots in the town of Lubliniec, such as the 13 th c. castle which had been restored after years of neglect, or a newly built town square which replaced an old, muddy and potholed parking space near the centre. The field work and the resulting presentations were a perfect opportunity for the students to develop new sensitivity to the beauty of their area and the need to protect its nature.

22 TEACHERS MEETING 2, ITALY, OCTOBER 2013 In October 2013 we held our second teachers meeting, this time in Vignola, Italy. We planned and organized the activities for the second year of the programme agreeing on the dates of the visits, the countries responsible for each activity as well as all other matters related to the project. We also had time to enjoy a popular tradition in Vignola since that weekend there were a lot of activities being organised in the town: stalls selling traditional food and wine, shows on how to prepare traditional food, how wine was made in former times as well as shows about ancient jobs which have nowadays disappeared. Finally, we also found time to visit Venice and the Ravenna festival in the afternoon enjoying its music and famous art festival. n

23 INTERVIEWS TO LOCAL PEOPLE In France, 5 students met elderly people in a nursing home (one of their work placement). They asked them for permission to film and they interviewed them on 3 subjects: jobs, environment and school or leisure. The interview lasted for an hour and a half. It was a real human exchange because the elderly people (about 90 years old) were happy to share their past with the young generation. The students too because they discovered the differences with their own modern life. The students planned to play the video at a tea time with other groups of aged people. In Italy some students decided to interview elderly people asking them about their life in the past. The topics they dealt with were school, free time, games and jobs. Elderly people loved talking about what their schools looked like, about how strict their teachers were and how hard their childhood was, as they used to go to school and work as well, helping their parents in the fields or feeding cows, pigs and chickens. They became very excited while telling about the games they used to play with their friends and the ways they enjoyed themselves in their free time. They couldn't stop talking and students had to cut down the recordings... They were shown the videos and they were very surprised and excited about looking at and listening to themselves. Students found this experience moving and rewarding. In Poland students prepared two interviews. One with a local artist who started a gallery in Lubliniec and encourages young people to try their hand at different forms of art. In the interview students ask about the most typical topics, inspiration and the artist s personal biography. The other interview focuses on another topic: teens entertainment in the past. The students interviewed a now-retired former scout and scouting instructor that talks of the most typical pastimes of his youth. Interestingly, as the interview combines students own recordings with bits of original films from the 1970 s, it gives the young generation a little insight of what life looked like in Poland in communist times. The students decided to show this film at the final gala during the Comenius meeting in Poland. In Spain, students were divided into groups and assigned a topic for the interviews. They concentrated on topics such as education, changes in our towns, free time, shops, games and traditions. Each group interviewed an elderly person on one of these subjects. Then, students subtitled their videos into English. All the videos were posted in our school website while two of them were uploaded to the Comenius website. Some of the families from the elderly people interviewed told us how happy they were to be able to have such a video with their elders talking about past times, memories, etc.

24 EUROPEAN BANK OF COMMON WORDS, EXPRESSIONS AND PROVERBS Language workshops had been planned as an activity that would focus on language as a part of each country s cultural heritage. As preparation for the proper workshops, students in each country found a few expressions which used words related to nature (animals, plants, weather). Then, at the final meeting in Poland, the activity was carried out in international groups. Students from each country presented their phrases, the others tried to find respective equivalents, comparing the type of imagery used in their own languages. The students realized that sometimes their different languages were inspired by the same imagery, at other times it was hard to find anything in common. A separate group worked on a poster that would make up a multi-lingual glossary focused on school, and another poster that would illustrate students dream school. Sample 1: expressions with animals POLISH - ranny ptaszek - brzydkie kaczątko - uparty jak osioł - morning bird; somebody who prefers to get up early - ugly duckling; unattractive person - stubborn like an ox; stubborn person Early riser/ early bird Ugly duckling Stubborn like an mule FRENCH - etre un leve-tot - etre un vilain petit canad - etre tetu comme un ami TURKISH - sabah kusu - maymun surath (Monkey face) - keci gibi inatci Olma (to be stubborn like a goat) ITALIAN - chi dorme nom piglia fes ci - il lupo perde il pelo ma non il vizio - testarudo como un muko SPANISH Al que madruga dios le ayuda - patito feo - testarudo como un burro

25 Sample 2: expressions with weather imagery: POLISH Burza w szklance wody storm in the glass of water a lot of noise about nothing Storm in a teacup FRENCH Faire d un rien une montagne. (much ado about nothing : to make a matter of no importance into a real problem) TURKISH Bir bardak suda firtina koparmak Storm in the Glass of water ITALIAN Non fare di un granello di sabbia una montagna Don`t turn a grain of sand into a mountain SPANISH Hacer una montaña de un grano de arena To make a mountain from a grain of sand Sample 3: expressions with flora- imagery TURKISH Yaprak gibi titremek Tremble greatly, especially from fear To shake like a leaf POLISH Drzeć jak liść (shake like a leaf) ITALIAN Tremi come una foglia SPANISH Estar como un flan FRENCH Trembler comme une feuille School: multi-lingual glossary

26 VISIT TO ANNECY, FRANCE France : 17th to 21st February We were excited to receive our students and teachers partners. We only crossed our fingers for the weather to be nice: it was splendid! What a wonderful week we had! On Monday we divided the students: - the 1 st group prepared our lunch: they cooked a local dish La Tartiflette. - the 2 nd group made traditional apple juice. In the afternoon, we walked along the lake and visited the old town of Annecy. n Our Turkish friends arrived in the evening. On Tuesday: we went to a typical farm. We tasted homemade cheese. And in the afternoon, the partners tried Alpine skiing in the Semnoz. On Wednesday, the students had 2 workshops to start the day: recycling and cooking gingerbread with the honey produced at the school ISETA.

27 A paret competition was planned for the afternoon. The students and teachers discovered a very old sledge which was used in the mountains. On Thursday, after meeting the other French students in class, each partner spoke about the environmental problems or solutions in their own country. We went up the Semnoz again in the afternoon. We walked with snowshoes. We built a huge igloo and enjoyed ourselves on sledges. And at night we had a farewell dinner.

28 VISIT TO LUBLINIEC, POLAND It's time to say goodbye the final meeting in Poland. It is so difficult to believe that the two years of our project is almost over. It seems just yesterday that we were working on the application form doing our best to make sure it would be accepted by our National Agencies. We were anticipating the first Comenius visit when we would finally meet the people behind the names. And now we are at the finish line just after the final visit in Poland. All the preparations were long and stressful as we were aware of the fact that is was going to be the last meeting. The biggest worry for us was the weather as it rained heavily and it seemed that it may cause us some problems. Luckily, Polish May showed its beauty and high temperatures. The first day of the visit was spent in Lubliniec, where we had a tour around our school and town. Our friends from Turkey, Spain, Italy and France had a chance to try our local cuisine and take part in workshops where they could show their artistic skills and paint on clay tiles. On Tuesday, after two lessons in the school we went to Częstochowa, where we visited the monastery and the city centre. In the evening, we relaxed during a bonfire in our beautiful forest. We sang, ate delicious sausage and salads and enjoyed a lazy evening. The highlight of that day was probably the police escort that helped us to cross the road. I think that Polish police officers and traffic wardens had never before felt so famous. Wednesday was the Cracow day. The students first took part in a city game in the Jewish district Kazimierz, they performed different tasks trying to identify the bad character that was a threat to one of Cracow s monuments. They also had a chance to see and learn about the most important historical places in the city. On Thursday, everybody took part in language workshops, we were trying to find some similarities between our languages and expressions connected with animals, plants and weather. One group had also prepared a presentation concerning their vision of a perfect school and a word bank with school vocabulary in different languages. In the afternoon, we visited Koszęcin the place connected with Śląsk - a famous folk group dancing and singing traditional Polish music.