Diary - Page 3 - Culture and History without Borders: Success in Diversity, Diversity in Success - Project chronicle - Part 1 2 Základní škola Přimda, Czech Republic The Primary school in Přimda is a relatively small school located near the Czech-German border. We have about 150 pupils in grades 1-9 (ages 7-15), out of which the older half is going to participate in some of the project activities. There are 15 pedagogical staff and half as many practical staff members. There are nine classrooms, several specialized teaching rooms, facilities for sports and swimming. The school canteen prepares morning snacks and a warm three-course meal at noon. Almost all teachers have a full pedagogical qualification, two of our teaching staff still study at a pedagogical faculty. All teachers keep upgrading their competences via different courses and trainings. We try to approach each pupil as a unique human being. We use modern ICT, there are interactive smartboards, projectors and screens in some classrooms. In their spare time, pupils can attend afternoon clubs where cooking, pottery, singing, guitar, dance and sports are on offer. Our school is located in a border mountain region, in a small community. Many pupils come from incomplete families, some parents are unemployed. The fact that we are a fairly small school contributes to a family-like atmosphere at school. The school is closely connected to the local community and our regular open-house activities (e.g. Christmas singing) are very popular. We organize many sports, agility, academic and art games and competitions. Our pupils have been involved in several international projects such as eTwinning, EDISON (visit of a group of international students) or Janicka, thanks to which we have had a native language speaker working as an assistant with the CLIL method (content and language integrated learning). Each year we organize a couple of theme days promoting multiculturalism. Our school has been involved in eTwinning projects since 2010 and in Erasmus+ since 2015. Thanks to our active involvement in the international projects, we have had the chance to put our work into a broader context and compare it with how our colleagues from other European countries work. Our pupils are successful in various academic competitions (maths, English conversation) at local and regional levels. 3 IC San Tommaso D'Aquino, Italy Istituto Comprensivo San Tommaso d'Aquino is a comprehensive school with pupils between 3 and 14 years old. There are about 800 pupils altogether, 98 teachers and 17 practical staff members. Our strength is the collaboration with many external associations which work with our school to combat the early school leaving. Associations like Mentoring, Bimed, Ispref (all based on volunteer work of many experts that help students in difficulty to grow up and develop personally). The social context of our school is middle class and our school cooperates with other schools in the area of teacher training and we also share projects. We participate at INVALSI national evaluation service. Apart from that, we periodically prepare surveys for students and their families. We've also joined a national evaluation and improving project. Our school has been participating in an eTwinning project called Cultural Heritage of My Country with two other schools from Greece and the Czech Republic. 4 Gimnazjum w Zespole, Mielżyn, Poland Gimnazjum w Zespole is a high school that is part of a joined kindergarten, elementary and high school founded by the town of Witkowo, in the heart of Poland. Our high school has pupils between 13 and 16 years old. There are altogether 260 pupils, out of which 60 are high school students. There are 32 employees out of which most are engaged in the high school. We have two gyms, a playground, a cantine, library, IT room and many other classrooms in the school. Most teachers at our school teach two subjects and are fully qualified. They use innovative and modern methods and are open to learning new things. Teachers pay attention to the individual learners so that they can all be successful and happy. There is a folk dance group at our school called Mielżyniacy, which performs at different celebrations, which gives the students a nice experience. We are a small countryside school that collects pupils from several small communities by bus. It’s a great advantage that we know our pupils from kindergarten age so that they are not anonymous. Most parents work in agriculture, travel to nearby towns for work or are unemployed. That’s why we want to bring our pupils closer to the “big world”. We organize a lot of activities and take part in many projects. We use modern technology; all classrooms are equipped with a computer and projector. We have three interactive smartboards. Our teachers use electronic class register and we use Learning Platform. Our pupils pass compulsory exams and their results have been steadily improving in the past three years. We conduct internal testing and compare different test results with those of other schools too. We run internal evaluations and try to improve what needs improvement. This year we focus on the role of homework for pupils and their parents. After collecting answers to our questionnaires we will draw some conclusions. Last year we went through an external evaluation and on the scale from A to E we reached the best two grades, A and B. 5 Základná škola s materskou školou Zubrohlava, Slovakia Our school is situated in the northern part of Slovakia and provides primary and lower secondary education to local children from the age of 5 to 15. Kindergarten and school club are included in our institution. There are 42 employees and 362 pupils in our school. Our own school programme includes Regional Education, Environmental Studies, Developing Personal and Social Skills. We have got a few pupils with special educational needs – we would like to include them in the local activities of the project. The aim of our primary school in partnership with parents, pupils and the local community is to educate responsible citizens. Develop their moral attitudes, ideals and value systems, skills and knowledge necessary for a successful life in a constantly changing, learning, culturally diverse, global society. Students have a chance to develop continuously. As teachers we organize many competitions and activities for our students. Many of our pupils are keen on keeping traditions and traditional ways of living, they like folk culture and most of them have got family farms and grow vegetables and fruits for their own use. However, modern technologies play an important role in their life now and children need to be more motivated to balance the two and maintain traditions and respect the lifestyle of their ancestors. In the year 2014 we carried out a cultural project about Easter in our region together with a Czech and another Slovak school. This year we are working on eTwinning projects 80 Days around the World with partners in Hungary, Greece, Spain, Turkey, Italy, Romania and France and Let's discover school lives of students in Europe with their lesson timetables (where there are 32 different partners involved). 6 TOKİ Şehit Süleyman Yılmaz Anadolu Lisesi Antakya, Turkey TSSYAL is a public state high school situated in Antakya, Hatay, in the southernmost part of Turkey, close to the Syrian border. It has four buildings with 36 classrooms and it also has other social areas such as garden, sport areas, saloons etc. The school is an academic high school, which prepares our students for life and university education. We have 1150 students and 70 employees including managers, teachers and practical staff. Our school building is located on 10000 sqm area. The school has interactive smartboards in each classroom with internet connection and they are used productively by our teachers. Our students are all chosen by an exam conducted by the National Education Ministry. The school is not a vocational school, it is an academic school and our mission is to educate pupils for any university degree. Thanks to our new and modern classrooms and buildings and the expertise of our teachers, we give well-qualified education to our students. Our school has also been chosen a “hygienic school” and got a “White Flag” from the Provincial Education Directorate. 7 Backgorund The whole partnership was formed in several different stages. The original idea to form a strategic partnership came from the Polish partner who approached its reliable eTwinning partners from the Art without Borders project with the suggestion to deepen cooperation via an Erasmus+ project. The Turkish and Czech partners agreed and the Czech partner contacted another set of reliable eTwinning partners from the project Cultural Heritage of My Country. They were from Italy, Greece and France, the latter two of which could not enter the partnership in the end due to a lack of personal and/or organizational capacity. However, a Slovak partner from a Czech-Slovak cultural, literacy and art project (The Bookmark) joined the partnership, topping the number of partners at five. Given the Czech partner’s project experience, organizational capacity, and the fact that it ended up being at the core of connecting everyone, the Czech partner became a natural candidate for the coordination of the project. 9 WORKSHOP 1 – Visiting museums, sights and archaeological sights WORKSHOP 1.1 Museum in Tachov 1.1.1 Archaeology, Prehistory, Hussites’ wars 20th October 2015 Pupils from Přimda (6th and 7th grades) visited the museum and archive in Tachov on the 20th October 2015. Pupils from the 6th grade have learnt more about the prehistoric times in our region and about the archaeology about museum and its employees. Pupils from the 7th grade have learnt more about crafts and guilds and about the Hussites' wars in our region. Both classes have learnt interesting things about archive and its organisation. Die Schüler aus Přimda (die 6. und die 7. Klasse) haben das Museum und das Archiv in Tachov am 20. Oktober 2015 besucht. Die Schüler aus der 6. Klasse haben mehr über die Urzeit und Archäologie in unserer Region und auch über dem Museum und seinen Angestellten gelernt. Die Schüler aus der 7. Klasse haben mehr über den Gewerken und Zünfte und auch über den Hussitenkriegen in unserem Gebiet gelernt. Die beiden Klassen haben auch viele interessante Sachen über dem Archiv und seiner Organisation gelernt. Přimdští žáci (6. a 7. třída) navštívili 20. října 2015 museum a archiv v Tachově. Žáci 6. třídy se seznámili s pravěkem našeho regionu a archeologickými nálezy z Tachovska a dozvěděli se více o museu a jeho zaměstnancích. Žáci 7. třídy se seznámili blíže se středověkými řemesly a cechy a dozvěděli se podrobnosti o husitských válkách na Tachovsku. Obě třídy se také dozvěděly mnoho zajímavého o archivu a jeho organizaci. 11 1.1.2 Enlivened sightseeing 7th November 2015 Pupils from Přimda visited the enlivened sightseeing in museum in Tachov on the 7th November 2015. Children have learnt more about the life many years ago. Die Schüler aus Přimda haben am 7. November 2015 die "belebte" Besichtigung des Museums in Tachov besucht. Die Kinder haben mehr über dem Leben in den vergangenen Jahrhunderten gelernt. Žáci z Přimdy navštívili 7. listopadu 2015 „oživenou prohlídku“ v museu v Tachově. Dozvěděli se více o životě v minulých staletích. 12 1.1. 3 Crafts and industry, Jews in our region 25th February 2016 Pupils from Přimda (8th and 9th grades) visited the museum in Tachov on the 25th February 2016. Pupils from the 8th grade have learnt more about crafts and about the development of industry in our region. Pupils from the 9th grade have learnt more about Jews and their fate (especially during the II World War). The both groups filled in interesting worksheets with these two topics (industry / Jews). Die Schüler aus Přimda (die 8. und die 9. Klasse) haben das Museum in Tachov am 25. Februar 2016 besucht. Die Schüler aus der 8. Klasse haben mehr über den Gewerken und über der Entwicklung der Industrie in unserem Gebiet gelernt. Die Schüler aus der 9. Klasse haben mehr über den Juden und ihrem Schicksaal (besonders während des 2. Weltkrieges) gelernt. Beide Gruppen haben interessante Arbeitsliste mit diesen zwei Themen (Industrie / Juden) ergänzt. Žáci z Přimdy (8. a 9. třída) navštívili 25. února 2016 museum v Tachově. Žáci 8. třídy se dozvěděli více o řemeslech a rozvoji průmyslu v našem regionu. Žáci 9. třídy se seznámili blíže s historií Židů na Tachovsku a jejich osudem za 2. světové války. Obě skupiny vyplpovaly zajímavé pracovní listy týkající se uvedených témat (průmysl / Židé). 14 WORKSHOP 1.2 - Museum in Pilsen 27th November 2015 We visited the Museum in Pilsen. We did some workshops at the museum learnt and we've learnt a lot about prehistory and about the Middle Ages. We worked as "archaeologists", made jewels from copper, tried to grind the flour, worked as medieval printers,... It was fun and we spent a good time there. Wir haben das Museum in Pilsen besucht. Wir haben an verschiedenen Workshops teilgenommen im Museum und haben viel über der Urzeit - und über dem Mittelalter gelernt. Wir haben als „Archäologen“ gearbeitet, haben Schmücken aus dem Kupfer gemacht, haben das Mehl gemahlen, haben als mittelalterlicher Drücker gearbeitet,… Es hat uns Spaß gemacht und es hat uns wirklich gefallen. Navštívili jsme museum v Plzni. Zúčastnili jsme se různých workshopů v museu a naučili se spoustu nových a zajímavých věcí o pravěku a středověku. Seznámili jsme se s prací archeologů, vyráběli šperky z měděného drátu, mleli mouku na kamenném žernovu, pracovali jako středověcí knihtiskaři, zkoušeli jsme napsat listinu brkem a připojit k ní pečeť. Workshopy byly zábavné, bavily nás.
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