NEWS FROM EUROPE: COMENIUS PROECT Issue 1

News from

Europe: Comenius

Proect

December 2011

NDedfovem

COMENIUS PROJECT: LATVIA, FRANCE, ROMANIA, FRANCE AND TURKEY

Welcome to our Comenius Project first newsletter! In these newsletters we will attempt to capture all of the information relevant to our project. We will feature; student’s work, project initiatives, country reports, ongoing goals, future meetings, report on country meetings, feedback on meetings and other initiatives that come up.

About Us:

The main purpose of the project is to raise the European cooperation and a healthy lifestyle among students, but also among their families, the local communities and to the wider lifelong learning community.

Our project permits teachers and students to discover the strength of working together, learning from each other and, moreover, provides all participants the possibility of exchanging experiences.

The purpose of sharing new views is to produce enthusiasm and make the learning-teaching process an enjoyable experience for all. The contribution of schools from five different countries will motivate the participating students in the project to continue learning in order to improve their language and ICT skills, because most of the communication between students and

teachers will be based upon modern technologies (e-mails, video conferences, chat rooms). It will have an extra benefit using a foreign language in a real context, away of the limits imposed by a text book.

Our First Meeting in Romania

Our first meeting took place in Novaci, Romania. During the weeklong meeting, all country partners learned about each participating school, country details, goals, aspirations, and overall expectations of the program.

In addition, a mascot and logo, prepared by students, was selected. Students from the school in Novaci gave presentations on what it means to be a healthy student, ways to change bad eating habits to healthy lives, presentations on country partners and a short play on eating healthy.

Country partners were also introduced to various Romanian traditions through music, food, touristic places, history and culture.

We hope you enjoy reading about our activities.

Voices from our partners After our first meeting in Romania, we would like to share with everyone feedback on our meetings, workshops, ideas, and future plans. Here you can read about what our partners had to say about our initial meeting.

Working hard

Let’s review what we learned!

Visiting Romania

Cu sprijinul financiar al COMISIEI EUROPENE in cadrul Programul sectorial Comenius al programului ,,Invatare pe tot parcursul vietii http://ec.europa.eu

Continutul publicatiei reprezinta responsabilitarea autorului si AN si Comisia Europeana nu sunt responsabile pentru modul in care continutul informatiei va fi folosit.

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Comenius is an interesting project because it helps students think about healthy eating choices. – Gheorrghitoiu Radu

I like the Comenius Project because this project sustains the idea that it is important to eat healthy. This project is very interesting because the children can visit four countries and they can learn why is important to be a smart and healthy person. – Buduran Bianca.

The Comenius Project is my favorite project because I can meet a lot of people from other countries. I can learn a lot of traditional things from those countries in the project. like France, Spain, Latvia and Turkey. And you can too. – Limnionescu Antonia

Voices from our Students

Let’s keep working for healthier bodies and smarter brains!

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Students working on the Comenius Project

During our meeting in Romania, we also decided on a logo and mascot that would represent our 2 year project. All proposed logos and mascots were created by students from all partnering schools. We had about 12 submissions of logos and 10 of mascots which we voted on during our meeting. Once the votes were announced we learned that we picked the mascot to be a young girl wearing items that represents all countries involved. The mascot was appealing to all

participants because it encompass all aspects of the project very nicely. The Mascot, seen in the pictures to the right, is wearing different cultural icons of each country and is nicely tied together with the inclusion of each of the country’s flag.

The logo of our project is represented by the pictures to the bottom left, which was also developed by one of the participating students. The logo represents the sense of unity and need for each country to work together to accomplish the common goal. We believe that the metaphor of the puzzle piece speaks volumes about the type of work we would like to accomplish. Each country is a representation of each puzzle piece that must come together to be successful in this project. As a team we instantly agreed that such metaphor was key in the success of this project.

While there were many logos and mascots submitted for this competition, we believed that these two embodied the expectations and visions of the countries involved. We will continue to work with our students to develop more creative ideas that we can use in this project.

We are proud to say that each country had a handful of great ideas for the logo and mascot competition which shows their interest and support in pushing this project forward.

Project’s Logo and Mascot

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As teachers we have been taught that our students should have equal access to the curricula, we should model teaching strategies proven to be effective. Do not forget cross cultural training ,the target tried to be touched by Working together in Comenius project named:

EAT SMART,WORK MORE ,BE HEALTHY!

Who makes up our team: Students, teachers, parents, local and regional community from :Romania, Spain. France, Turkey and Latvia.

In order to accomplish this need, we will provide diversity training and a look into different ways of the same topic which is to raise of our students’ awareness through the most Powerful instrument: EDUCATION! We must be ready to embrace new ways of thinking, being humbled to share ideas, and finding new opportunities. Being member in this project is not based upon skills and knowledge, is also based on encouragement and exchange, responsibility for the environment health.

I look forward to collaborating on this educational project and to support the needs of our students.

-Carmen Radoi- Director Novaci School, Romania

Happiness comes from Health

The idea of this educational program came two years ago, when my students, at that moment, were only first graders. They were childish shrimps who loved sweets and fast food. Some of them were inclined to corpulence because of the tasty magic juice they used to drink during the break. I was concerned because their alimentation was

totally unhealthy and also the parents were happy with their children eating everything. So, using the slogan that “Happiness comes from health” I started a campaign in order to determine the kids to change their habits.

Our first problem was the alimentation they got at home. I asked the help of a specialist in nutrition who got very involved in persuading the parents. They were asked to come to school without knowing the reason, exactly during the brunch time. Our guest asked the students to show their take-out. From 27 students, only four of them had it. The rest of them were waiting for the break time in order to buy something from the schoolyard shop. While the kids went outside, the adults stayed and watched a short movie that our specialist prepared for them. There were presented cases of deformed children, the main cause being the fatness. It didn’t take long, and the kids came back with chips, pizza, and juice. It was an embarrassing moment for the mothers. At the same time, on the computer played the same images but this time the children were aware of them. The most touching moment was when one of the students identified himself with the fat boy from the video whom everybody laughed at and dishonored. He started to cry spontaneously.

I didn’t say a word. My guest only added that he has nothing else to comment. The following days all the students ate homemade food during the break, moreover they came with fruits. My lesson of good nutritional habit was successful. Today few of them go to the shop. They don’t even buy pizza.

-Primary teacher Basaraba Nusa

I’m little and I want to grow up healthily

Our nice little village, Novaci, is situated on the Parângu Mountains feet and is an important tourist attraction because of the amazing landscapes. People enjoy the nature and the calmness that reigns over this region. We want our children to grow up as strong and tall as the fir, which is a symbol for

Novaci. For being healthy, the students have to learn from the very beginning how to feed and how to take care of their natural area. For this reason, the second graders were implied in different activities such as:

• Planting trees in the school yard;

• Collecting the garbage from Gilort Valley;

• Keeping the cleanness in the class;

• Taking care of the flowers in the class.

For the Comenius project, the second graders of this school got involved in many activities. They, together with their teacher discussed what they should eat in order to have a healthy life. They searched in different magazines information about the role of the fruits and vegetables in people’s health.

After several activities, the students made use of colors to express the joy of fruits and vegetables. With these pictures, we realized a big poster entitled “I’m little and I want to grow up healthily!” As a proof of healthy alimentation, the children drink only natural juice and their take-out is prepared at home.

Respecting this rule doesn’t mean keeping a diet, but represents a way of improving their health. A regular costume of natural products reduces the risk of getting sick. Form these habits to your children because it is difficult to outface the temptation of fast food!

-Primary teacher Duguleanǎ Ileana

Only working as a team can we get things done.

This is my first time working with the Comenius Project and my first time hearing about it as well. I was first introduced to this project by the director of our school in Novaci and was immediately interested in working with this team. My role in the project has been to work and support the students in developing project the students in Novaci can work on to support the theme of this project. I saw, first hand, how important

Feedback from Romania

Voices from our group: reflections on the visit to Romania

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and efficient it is that we all work together to accomplish our goal. Students met after school to discuss different ways that they can demonstrate the importance of a good diet. Students discussed, in English, what the mascot and logo should look like, what to include in the play about healthy eating habits, and who will do which task. The efforts were students led which made the end result that much more rewarding. I am happy to say that the students from Novaci did a great job at demonstrating how group work can lead to a successful project. -Andrea Cristancho

Kindergarten no.3, Novaci

introduces itself

The kindergarten, as the first link of our institutional system, has the purpose and is concerned with introducing the children an advance in an institutional system, this being justified by the fact that the pre-school age represents a essential period for children’s delevopment. The new reform in our education system situates the kindergarten on its first level with the very clear argument that children should be familiarised with scholastic activities for an easier integretion in the learning and educational process. Our classroom is big and bright. Here are the our centers of study: library, arts, science, constructions, play role.

The kindergarten wishes to be a place of calmness and joy, a garden were kids can find their own place and rhythm specific for their personal development. Here the child improves his social relations, his relations with the environment, his competences and he is educated to develop his senses and the physical condition. We developed different educational activities with the children, utilizing efficient strategies, stimulating in this way their interest for learning new things. We, the teachers, we never forget that we aslo had been children years ago. And we think that smiling has unimagined powers when dealing with children. So, let’s not forget smiling!

-Profesor învăţământ prescolar Răduca Magdalena

Impressions

For me, Comenius is more than a project, is my first real experience with intelligent and motivated teachers and students who are disposed to share with the others impressions, knowledge, experiences on different themes. In our case, the subject is related to healthy food and the importance of sports in students life and not only. But our main purpose is to convince and to form our children to have a healthy life-style. I was impressed in a positive way by the complexity of the activities developed in our school and by the immediate feedback received from the students. They took everything as a play, because our strategy was to make the activities as interactive as possible, and also they experienced everything on their own. On the other hand, I was surprised to see how the children from all these countries created their mascots and logos. Comenius was a test of imagination for them and a challenge for us, the teachers, when choosing the best icons for the project. They tried to concentrate in only a piece of paper a concept so complex as the one that our Comenius Project deals with and they really succeed in combining

specific cultural symbol of each country with healthy food. But let’s not forget that Comenius Project is just another important way to improve the knowledge in a foreign language. From teachers to students, we all are implied in an endless communicative process. It is very important to get your students involved in speaking and communicative activities, which sometimes is difficult without a real motivation. So, as a conclusion I could say that Comenius project is the perfect way to keep learning and improving yourself as a student, as a teacher, as a responsible human in your society, as a responsible human for a better change in the future. -Tarfulea Laura Maria

Students from Pociovaliştea learned about the different ways they can be healthy during English class. They were asked to answer the following questions:

What activities can students do to be healthy? What are healthy and unhealthy foods? How can students convince other students to be healthy? What healthy activities do we have in common? As a result students wrote a short play to perform for the coP. Students were motivated to teach other students about being healthy. Students wrote the short play themselves demonstrating their interest in the topic. Applying classroom work to real world activities has been very effective in our student’s learning process.

Feedback from neighboring school, Pociovaliştea

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Our meeting was very successful in Romania, first because it was the first and all we wanted to know our partners, whic h have bee n very nice people, seri ous and very responsible work on their tasks.

Our meeting was the first contact that our project will continue to carry out and complete the next proposed activities. The proposed activities are performed each country all their own.

Perhaps the agenda has been very intense and everything has had to do it very quickly and with little time.

I suggest having fewer activities and so we will have more time to get organized.

We've seen great interest that students have shown in learning another different language than their own. Give them the congratulations.

Overall I really enjoyed our first contact and I thank you for the good reception and the hospitality we've had in your country and especially for the excellent work you have done in spite of the difficult found.

Best Regards,

Aurora, Ana and Mari Carmen.

Our first mobility to Romania in the framework of Comenius multilateral partnership turned out to be an unforgettable and exciting experience. One-

week stay in this country was filled with a wide range of activities, which offered the participants so many bright and colourful impressions about your friendly school, teachers, and schoolchildren, as well as traditions and beauty of this Balkan country.

The first touching impression about this wonderful country was made during the Welcoming party, when schoolchildren dressed up in national costumes awaited us so warmly and smiley in the town and treated us with traditional Romanian homemade bread and salt. It provided truly friendly and relaxed atmosphere and helped us make friends with other people in an easy way.

During our stay in Novaci, which lies in a picturesque and scenic mountainous region, we had a chance to introduce ourselves to our project partners, as well as to find out more about the partner schools and regions they come from. In addition, we could present the results of activities done in our schools during the first two months of the project and arrange necessary details about the future work.

Being in Novaci we could make sure, that school children there had been much involved into the project activities. Their presentations about participating countries and healthy lifestyle were really bright and enthusiastic. It was also obvious that project activities had given them encouragement to show initiative, use English and discover more about participating countries.

It should be noted that due to the thoughtful organization of our stay we had a possibility to appreciate the beauty of traditional music and dance, to enjoy Romanian cuisine, as well as to spot the scenic beauty of the mountainous areas. We also appreciated visits to small towns and cities and enjoyed the beauty of their ancient cultural heritage.

On behalf of representatives of Jurmala Alternative School, I would like to express thanks to Carmen, her colleagues, schoolchildren and everyone who were involved in organizing our stay in your country for your hospitality, warm welcoming, kindness, helpfulness and understanding. We highly appreciate you effort made during our stay. We experienced a wonderful week in your friendly and beautiful country and look forward to seeing you in Latvia.

FEEDBACK FROM FRANCE

When we landed in Bucarest, we've been caught by a strong winter cold but, as soon as we arrived in Novaci area, the very nice welcome of our romanian partners warmed us up immediatly. The first evening was really wonderful, we enjoyed delicious meal, stirring music and happy dances. Right from the following day, we started working and we've realised how much Novaci school was involved in this project. Very conscientious pupils came and presented us their numerous productions about the health and eating. Those work meetings allowed us to know better each others and to set indispensable ajusments concerning the future. Our stay has been brigthned up with interesting tours; we've visited a salt mine in Ocnele and the famous Bran Castle settled in Carpats mountains. The next meeting will be in France and we hope it'll be as great as the one we spent in Novaci.

Létizia and Valérie... the french team!

Novaci kindergarden.

Voices from our group: reflections

on the visit to Romania

Feedback from Spain

Feedback from Latvia

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On thursday morning, we went in Novaci kindergarden. What a peaceful and happy place!

The school is surrounded with a pleasant schoolyard where the kids can relax during the day.

Classrooms are vast and bright. Walls are nicely decorated by the kids drawings, house plants everywhere... it seems to be a place where the pupils are happy to go every day!

We talked long time, in french, with the upper section teacher. She explained us her role and missions in the school. She spoke with great passion about her job and during this time all the pupils were quietly waiting for her, playing together and smiling to us.

After that, we went to the smallest classroom. We've been welcomed with a funny and happy song struck up by all the kids. Mick, the youngest even danced for us...

It was a very instructive and pleasant time.

Létizia and Valérie

At the very beginning of our trip to Romania was just a country which I have never visited before. I was in excitement and joy because I was going the discover the beauties of this secret country. I met friendly people there. They were just like us, not strangers! Their traditional dances and the trips were also great. Days passed so quickly with happiness.

In project meetings, we shared our ideas and voted for the "Bests" Our other partners were friendly, too. We joined the activities, meals, and the trips together. Actually, we were always together during the project mobility.

Finally, as Turkish Project Team, we would like to thank our coordinator Carmen, Andrea and all friendly Romanian teachers who hosted us excellently and made their country "sweet homes" for us. We loved you so much and hope to see you in other meetings!

Harun DOKUYUCU

Coordinator of Turkish Project Team

Feedback from Turkey

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TRADITIONAL ROMANIAN RESTAURANT

Closing Reception To close the week, Romanian host invited the group to attend a dinner at a local, traditional restaurant located in the ski resort of Ranca.

VISITING MONASTERY

The group traveled a few kilometers away to visit a famous and beautiful Monastery. The group learned about Romanian’s religious traditions during this time.

NOVACI’S KINDERGARTEN

The group was taken to Novaci’s kindergarten where they had the opportunity to play, talk and walk around the area.

TRADITIONAL OFFERINGS

Throughout the week, the community of Novaci put together different cultural events where traditional Romanian customs were shared.

NOVACI’S SCHOOL

All Meetings took place in Novaic’s school. Visiting teachers had the opportunity to interact with the students during the break,

attend classes and also meet other Romania teachers.

VISITNG TARGU JIU

We also traveled to the nearby city of Tâgu Jiu where teachers viewed the nationally recognized work of Romanian’s sculptor, Constantin Brancusi.

Cultural Integration A look at the cultural activities that took place in Novaci, Romania during the first Comenius Project meeting.

Rânca, Romania

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