SYNOPSIS- 2nd COMENIUS MEETING
Monday, January 26th-
As stated in the programme- presentations by several partners- an introduction to the Belgian educational system and a meeting with the headmaster of Zavo who told us some things and showed us a little around the school.
We also set the mobilities for the coming school year 2009-2010.
The first meeting will be held in Olsztyn, Poland from the 4th to the 11th of October 2009.
The second meeting will be held in Roseto degli Abruzzi, Italy from the 21st to the 27th of February 2010.
The third and final meeting of our project will be held in Kärdla, Hiiumaa Estonia from the 9th to the 15th of May 2010. It is imperative that the project coordinator for each partner school be present at this meeting.
Here I would like to state that I think it is very important for all of us to make a great effort to arrive and to depart on the set dates. I have given as the meeting dates the dates we should arrive and depart. It is important for the hosting country that we respect their programmes and try to be there and follow the plans they have made for us. Also as we have accompanying students it is “difficult” for one family to host certain days or certain amount of days and others to host more or less or at different times.
The decision to have the meeting in Poland instead of the UK was due solely to financial reasons as we all believe and Greg confirmed that hotels as well as living expenses wee likely to be higher in Britain than in Poland.
We touched on the subject of the Website and the moodle. Most of us felt that both were needed. The website would be a framework to the project where the presentation of our themes as well as final products would be posted. The moodle would serve as a helping tool for everything else such as didactic material, theme works, etc, including a forum to post comments and use so that communication amongst us is more frequent.
We spoke of the students’ use of the forum and we agreed that we need to have our students use it more. Michal said he would add the two languages that were missing at the writing of this he has already carried through – Greek and Dutch have both been added.
We also talked of the visit to Spain. Jordi has promised to send the draft programme and invitations for those of us who require them for our agencies by the end of February. We also stated that we would be bringing 2-3 students to Spain each. This number should not change and the coordinator of each school should send the Spanish coordinator the number of students to be going to Spain as soon as possible- I think it would help if we write the sex and age of the students we are taking with us.
Tuesday, January 27th-
More presentations as stated on the programme. We discussed the topics we would each be presenting in Paterna which will be as following. IF for some reason this topic needs to be changed please notify me.
Belgium – Block 4- Forests: Deforestation
Bulgaria - Block 3 – Water Boryana can you please tell me the exact topic?
Cyprus – Block 3 Water: Desalination
Estonia - Block 3 Water: Artesian Wells
Greece – Block 4- Forests: Fires and forest life afterwards (reforestation)
Italy - Block 3 Water: Water sources
Lithuania – Block 4- Forests: ecological situation of our forests
Poland – Block 3 Water: Influence of agricultural on water
Spain – Block 3 Water: I don’t seem to have the exact topic – perhaps you can send it to me Jordi
U.K - Block 4- Forests: Sustainable forestry
We will also be presenting our eco map in Paterna. If you check the outcomes as stated in our application you will see that our eco maps need not be COMPLETE at this time. We should have the environmental problems of our areas and the fauna and flora of our area but only that found on land. The sea fauna and flora will be added next year.
Also we said that we would post our suggestions of our local agenda 21 for the first two blocks by the end of February on the moodle.
We also had an e learning session on the moodle though it didn’t go to well in spite of all of Michal’s very hard efforts due to the net connection. Michal has promised to send us a tutorial- hopefully not too diffiult for those who are computer infants, like me.
Wednesday, January 28th-
The final presentations according to the programme. We also spoke of evaluation and other points of interest to the various partners.
As to the evaluation we reached three main points:
A) The time limit allotted each presentation was not respected by all partners. Also some partners presented more than had been planned. This should not be repeated in Paterna, Spain or at other future meetings. We must inform each other about what we will be presenting. If there is a change the project coordinator and the host of the meeting should be informed as soon as possible so the programme can be adjusted.It was agreed that in Spain we, each school would have 15 minutes. Our presentations shouldn't not exceed this time limit
B. Presentation procedure was discussed. We came to the agreement that as this project is mainly for our students it is they who should be presenting the work. We also agreed that each school should try to work according to the level of its students. The presentations do not have to be professional. They should represent what the student’s have done and should be made by them with the teachers overseeing and instructing them. They should be encouraged to present without having papers in their hands. The presentation themselves should contain one or two sentences- very little writing which they should expand on by adding or clarifying the pictures and text. David and Peter told us this is in their curriculum and said they would be willing to provide a workshop in presentations on this moodle. The presentation Spain gave, should be a big example for all of us as besides being both well made and well presented, it incorporated their suggestions for their local agenda 21 into their chosen topic theme.
C) Communication among ourselves was also commented upon. We mostly agreed that there was a lack of communication. Although this is rather to be expected in a project with ten partners we said that we must all try to communicate more often with each other. Jordi suggested that we send on email or even better a post on the forum at the beginning of each week stating what we are doing perhaps at the beginning of each week. We agreed to do this as much as possible and inform each other of what we are doing, material we are using or any ideas that we think may help one another. We should all strive for clear and honest communication which will help all of us and the project function better.
We also discussed student workshops to be carried out in Paterna. It was decided that each school would have the students make a drawing that could be turned into a wall murial- like graffiti. The students should then choose the one they think is best and post it on the moodle. This is all to be done by March 15th. By April 10th each school must vote for the best one and when in Spain the students will draw this on the walls. Also they should try to create some type of spoken message whether in the sorm of a song, poem or a slogan in terms of Agenda 21. The drawing can be on any one of our Blocks.
We also discussed our eco dictionary. We reached the conclusion that it should not be long and it should be – where possible and not all terms are accompanied by some type of photos. – I promised to send you the one I already have and I will do so but I think it needs to be shortened. I will write more on this on the dictionary word file when it is sent.
Thursday, January 29th-
Visit to Brussels and EXPO “This is our Earth”. After Expo free time in the centre of Brussels with the students.
Friday, January 30th-
Visit to the back scenes of the airport where we had a guided tour of “how things actually work, how the planes are taken care of, etc.
