Comenius 2010/2011 NEWSLETTER 2

Transcription

1 Comenius 2010/2011 NEWSLETTER 2 LIVING BY THE SEA Welcome to the second newsletter of the Comenius project Living by the sea. Our group consists of eight schools from Denmark, France, Guadeloupe, Iceland, Ireland, Latvia, Greece and Portugal. This project will be developed between September 2009 and July (winning logo in the Portuguese school) Com enius teachers visit E scola José Carlos da M aia found The Tuesday, deadly our 23rd room duo of (from March met Iceland) 2010 a few of arrived our Comenius at our hotel around 21:00 local time on a beautiful Portuguese evening, Olhao friends. in We Portugal one went that to bed was ready in Ireland for the because start of of the a meeting. lot of pupils coming from realized Denmark, it would Greece be and a meeting France. very After different a quiet from night the we

2 Wednesday, Comenius were officially guests 24th and welcomed March talked 2010 at of an the assembly importance in the of the Escola partnership José Following Carlos for the da school. formal Maia, welcome, where the where principal the greeted attending all the guests tour classes of the gave in school the presents school and to there visit the was hosts for each the we first nation embarked official to friend on a Comenius pupils with a few visiting pupils meeting. went from to When a Olhao. fun the park meeting called Braveland started the along At the end of the day all the guests headed back to Faro for some leisure time. Thursday, The Now it tour was day 25th time March for a field 2010 landmarks. later The trip started trip. by taking The decision the group of our to Silves hosts fortress, was to let an us ancient get to know site of a few Moors of their time best in known Portugal tourist western the part lodgings of mainland of Portuguese Europe, kings. the Cape Following of St. Vincent a big and near great the midday town Sagres. meal we There then travelled we were told the the most history and the Middle fortress Ages, at where St. Vincent, the cape from was where often it called was a The common world s last end. sight of the ships sailing to far parts of the world in The of After where touch a sand the good northerners in stop Portugal! at St. (Iceland Vincent and we headed Ireland) back made to a Olhao, run for stopping the beach, briefly of course downtown because the beach they really city of wanted Albufeira to Cape St.Vincent Silves castle

3 Friday, Following traditional 26th a project March meeting 2010 (including singing and dancing, at the even school giving we the were guests given possibilities a brilliant welcoming of participating show in by dance the hosting shows, pupils, for some full of Then was Maggi) off to lunch this was before their the first group dance took show a ferry and it to could Ilha do of Farol, course a be small seen! just off the coast from Olhao us where Carlos night many belonged the brave to a big guests party went at the to school the top where of an all iconic the lighthouse Comenius on friends, the island. Following da the Maia, farewell the pupils party and at the school parents members had a very of the nice Comenius meal where team thanks went were along to informal given with staff for socializing brilliant of the hosting. Escola where the José project too long!!! master (no names mentioned Niels!) held the Viking (Ireland, Iceland and Denmark) party for ransom, all. was The Saturday, was 27th planned May 2010 That staying meant the Icelandic next week for a delegation in tour his of mother s Olhao, checked but house because out in of Albufeira) Hotel Maggi Santa ran we Maria had into troubles to at miss lunchtime the regarding bus that ride. day, his Portuguese Gunnsteinn visit was (he dropped A brilliant to meeting Faro airport a and good Maggi visit went to great off friends to further had Portuguese ended full adventures. of smiles! M uito obrigad O lhao!

4 Our trip to Portugal! A tale by D anish pupils! We took a train from Aalborg to Copenhagen, very early in the morning the 22 nd of March. All of us were very tired when we arrived in Kastrup airport about 6 o clock in the morning. We ate some breakfast, and waited a long time to check in. The clock was a few minutes to one local time, before we arrived in Gatwick airport in London. In Gatwick we got some time in the shops, and we could relax. It was very nice to have some time on our own. At 5 o clock we should fly from Gatwick to Faro. It took three hours, and the most of us slept in the plane. When we were close to Faro we could see the land with a million of lights, it was a very beautiful sight! When we arrived in Faro, we all were very surprised with the heat! In Denmark we were used to all the snow and cold, so it was very lovely to feel the warm weather again. A bus came to the airport, to pick us up and drive us to our hotel. The name of the hotel was Hotel Santa Maria. It was a very good hotel and we were all happily surprised. We stayed three and three each room, except two boys. When we arrived we were very tired, but also very hungry, so we needed to get some food. Most of the boys went to McDonalds but the girls went to an Italian restaurant. After that we went straight to bed. The Tuesday morning we first ate breakfast at the hotel. A boy from our class had a birthday and we surprised him with flags and a present. We had to take a train to a city next to Faro called Olhao where we should visit the Portuguese school, and meet the students. The students were all very sweet and kind. We ate at their canteen, and there was fish on the menu. After that we went on a tour of Olhao along with the Portuguese students. It was very exciting to see the city, and it s many beautiful buildings. When we arrived back at the school the French students had arrived. They were also very sweet. Four of us stayed with the Portuguese students at night with their families but the rest of us should just eat with them. It was a very nice experience and the families were very friendly. The next day we went to school again. We were showed around at the school by some of the students. Then we should eat at the canteen again. After that, some busses came and picked us up. We were going to an adventure Park, called Braveland. It was a very fun trip! We played paintball and some sports activities, we arrived at the hotel very late and after a long day we were all tired and went to bed. The Thursday we went on a sightseeing trip. It was our last day in Portugal and we were ready to enjoy our last time we had together with the other students. A bus came to the hotel and picked us up. The first sight se should see was Silves. We saw old ruins and a castle, and we ate lunch at a restaurant with all the other students. It was a very big dinner, with 5 dishes!

5 After that we took a bus to Sagres. It is the most southwestern point in Europe. It was a very beautiful place, even though it was quite windy. Then we were going to a little city called Albufeira. There we had the opportunity to buy some food for our trip home. We also said goodbye to the other students from Portugal, France and Greece. It was very nice to meet them and we hope to keep the contact with them. The next day was the day we should travel home. We got up very early in the morning, and took the plane from Faro to Gatwick. Again we had some time to shop in Gatwick and when we took the plane from Gatwick to Copenhagen we were all very tired. We took the train from Copenhagen to Aarhus and we had to wait a long time there. We finally arrived in Aalborg at 5 o clock in the morning, and we were all very tired after the long trip, but also happy because we had such a great trip, where we met a lot of new people. We will never forget this and we are very thankful for this opportunity that we got!

6 Im pressions from the trip to Portugal, from the French pupils. Fantastic trip! (Quentin) On the third day, we visited the fortress of Sagres in the Cape St Vincent. It is the place at the far end of southernwestern Europe. I enjoyed this visit because we saw the ocean and the coast, it was a beautiful view! It was great! (Yasmine). This trip was very connected to the project: we visited a lighthouse, we went to a port, we saw the beaches, we went on a boat to an island and we ate a lot of fish! (Yasmine) I was very happy because I met very nice people. It was a magic trip for me! That week was great and a good experience for my English. But I was sad to leave because I made good Portuguese friends. I hope to go back there next year. (Yasmine) At school, we played different games, then we listened to the pupils concert and saw traditional dances. It was good fun and very interesting. (Pauline)

7 Referendum from the meetings in Olhao Proposal for Comenius meetings May 2010 Riga Latvia October 19 th 24 th Greece 29 th of January 5th of February 2011 Guadeloupe( 450 euros from Paris to Guadeloupe, if we are a group of 10) We think it is best to come on a Saturday and go back on a Saturday. Tell Cathrine how many people (men and women). April/may 2011 Aalborg 2 nd week of May June 1 st week evaluation meeting Olafsvik Iceland Websites blogs We will change from Windows live to facebook. Perhaps a wiki with pictures. Newsletter The first is finished and Iceland will make the next one. On the head there should be the Comenius sign. Other ideas: Build a national calendar together with the logos, the national days and so. Evaluation of the second period. All the schools have had a very good working period. At the schools there haven t been big problems with the activities. The pupils have been very motivated, and their work have resulted in beautiful products. We have had some discussions about how to make the collaborative writing. After the time schedule the story had to be finished by the meeting in March. We decided that the schools can choose different models. It is okay to make a collaborative writing story with few participants, so it can be closed to the fixed time. A story is rotating to all the schools, and this story will be finished in the second project-year. It will be okay to wait because this story is closed. The schools have sent photos of the products to the common project web-site (international sites). Some schools have made blogs these blogs can be found as links on the web-site. We have used windows-life as a working platform. It has been very useful, but most of the teachers are using Facebook as a working platform as well. Because of that the participating teachers have decided only to use Facebook from now on. The partner school from Kalymnos joined the project in October. Unfortunelately they couldn t participate in the meeting in Killarney, and it meant that the Greek teachers felt uncertain of what to do. Of course we tried to help them, and from their work we can see they are doing very well.

8 To the meeting in Olhao all schools had to look for the forms for the first year s evaluation. In some countries the forms weren t on the net yet, and in the other countries they weren t identical. We decided to communicate about the first year s evaluation on the net and finish it in the meeting in May. We didn t have the time for finding an evaluation model on the meeting in Killarney. We now have decided to use a Danish evaluation model called Star Model. We have to set up the criteria for success. The coordinators have to send the criteria for success for the project: For the school, for the teachers, for the pupils/students and for the local community Evaluation of the meeting in Olhao All of us felt that the meeting was a big success. The meeting in Olhao was very different from the meeting in Killarney because so many pupils/students participated. It was a very big job for the Portuguese staff to prepare a meeting with so many participants. On the excursions and in some activities on the school both teachers and pupils participated, but during meetings and in the evenings there were special activities planned for the pupils. All were well planned and we were met with great hospitality and kindness. We had two meetings On both meetings we were discussing Comenuias-activities but on the second meeting we were also talking about other activities which can strengthen the cooperation.. Here some conclusions after the meetings and after the week To the meetings about the project-activities we have until now decided that only two teachers from each country can participate. Many teachers want to participate in these meetings. On the next meeting (Riga) all the teachers who want to participate can do it (minimum 2 from each country) There has to be at least two meetings It is a very good idea that each country is adopted by a class. On schools with many pupils a group of teachers (if there for example are 6 teachers from a country) can be divided in two or three groups, so it is possible to adopt more classes It is important to involve parents and people from the local community It is important that the teachers are mixed under common meals It is a important to plan activities where the students can be very active and where they can interact ex. sports, cooking, action parks It is a good idea that the students are communicating before and after the meeting It is a good idea to make a project log-book It is a good idea to make a Comenius-calendar at the school with the Comenius activities and the national days This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This publication [communication] reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.