Friday 26 June 2015

Last day at School for our Comenius Students in The Basque Country


Last June 19th was the last day at school for most of our Comenius students this year. They got their diplomas and were very happy with their good marks and looking forward to their long summer vacation.



The previous day, on June 18th they presented the Comenius project to all the students who are a year younger, the ones who are willing to join the European Project at school next year. In the following videos, you can see their presentation.





Thursday 11 June 2015

Greek-Hungarian meeting in Greece, March 2015




GREEK-HUNGARIAN COMMENIOUS EXCHANGE PROGRAMM DIARY
Thirty Hungarian and Greek students and five teachers met in Thessaloniki from 14 to 21 March 2015. Students worked very well all together and they had a wonderful time during this week. 
A Greek Student΄s Diary from Thessaloniki
Saturday 14th March

Today the Hungarian students arrived in Thessaloniki. After the airport we went to our houses in order to get the Hungarian exchange students to know to the host families and have a rest. In the afternoon, some guys went to a nearby coffee shop, while others attended to a dance lesson. On Saturday night, we went downtown to enjoy Thessaloniki by night. First we had a walk on the beach and then we “introduced” the Hungarian students to the traditional Greek food named gyros. After that we went to Valaoritou street, where there is a variety of night clubs and bars. We visited one of them where we spent the rest of our night.

Sunday 15th March
Although tired of the previous night we woke up early and started the trip to the archaeological site of Vergina. There we saw the tombs and we had a guided tour through which we learned much information about the ancient Macedonia. At midday we went to Agios Nikolas in Naousa where we had lunch in a traditional tavern. After that we went to the city of Veria for coffee and then we returned back to Thessaloniki. In the evening most of the students went down town.

Monday 16th March
Today was our first workshop! We started working on our collages. Having finished the work for today we went to the church of Saint Dimitrios to see the catacombs; however the catacombs were closed so we just saw the rest of the church. Then, we went to Agia Sofia, another famous church. Our next station was in Navarino square where we stayed for a while to observe the picturesque houses around it not to mention the ancient findings, and then we went to a tavern to eat lunch. After that we went again back to the church of Agia Sofia where we could have access for that time. In the evening we returned back to our neighbourhood, Toumba, where we hanged out till late at night.

Tuesday 17th March
Today it was our second workshop at school. After that we hopped on the bus and travelled to Chalkidiki, where the “TSANTALI Vineyards and Wineries” are. Our guide told us all about the grapes and the procedure till the final product. After finishing with the guide tour in the wineries, we visited Nea Moudania City, also at Chalkidiki , where we took photos of the landscape and had some beverages. At 14.00 we travelled back to Thessaloniki, where he had our lunch. Three hours later we assembled at the Freedom Square in the city center and visited tge Eptapyrgion walls , enjoying the view of the city. It was already dark and we started to feel hungry, so we decided to have some dinner at the fast-food places downtown.

Wednesday 18th March
After finishing our workshops at school, we watched a presentation in the chemistry lab, named “A travel into the Universe, to know the mysteries and the beauties of it”, by “The friends of Astronomy club of Thessaloniki”. By the end of the presentation we had an one-hour break, and right after that we hopped on the local bus of the line 14 to get to the city center, to visit the famous landmark of Thessaloniki, the “White Tower”. After our guided tour in the tower, we had lunch. Our evening was supposed to be continued with a boat trip in the city bay, but unfortunately that was cancelled, due to the bad weather.

Thursday  19th March
Today was maybe the most stressful, but also important, day of the week, where we should finish our project-products and present them to the second senior students. The presentations were held for, more or less, two hours and then we taught the Hungarian students some traditional Greek dancing at school. We had a big break for four hours, where we got ready for the national evening, which took place in the city hall of Panorama city. For the national evening, every family had to prepare a traditional meal and all these delicious dishes were served at a buffet.  Most of the students and some of the teachers got very emotional, after watching the presentations and videos about this brilliant exchange programme the students had made. Some students volunteered to play music as well, and we all enjoyed it!

Friday 20th March
Today it was our trip to the “NOESIS Thessaloniki Science Center & Technology Museum”, where we had a guided tour about “Ancient Greek Technology”, “Classic Automobiles” and “The Technopark hands-on Area”. Right after that we presented once again our products to an English lesson at school. Then we had to write down the evaluation of the whole exchange programme, which was continued by a coffee break. Further up to our guide tour at NOESIS, we had an amazing projection about the galaxies, stars and planets in the Digital Planetarium , named “Miracles in the Universe” , and a second projection about insects, this time in the 3D Giant Screen Cinema room, named “Bugs 3D: Adventure in the tropical forest”. The whole experience was completely majestic! Right after the end of our tour guide, at three o’clock, we returned to school and everybody went home to have some lunch. In the afternoon we had our last visit in the city center, where we spent the whole evening strolling around till late.

Saturday  21th March
This was the worst day of the week, the separation day, the day when the Comenius 2014-2015 programme was finally over. We went to Thessaloniki airport to bid farewell to the Hungarian group.
 Video with Photos

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B46esEjTu8xadWMzVWFMRnZCQlk/view?usp=sharing



 Video with students interviews

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B46esEjTu8xaSEhSZkpWalh2bzQ/view?usp=sharing

Video from national evening














Friday 15 May 2015

Greek-Turkish bilateral meetings

The Greek Comenius team wishes to come in contact with as many partners as possible as our national agency encourages to do so. We proposed to our Spanish, Polish and Turkish colleagues to organise extra bilateral meetings in order to exchange our experiences about the Comenius programme and also exchange our ideas and techniques in teaching and compare our educational systems. We would like to thank both the Spanish and the Polish partners for trying to find ways to realise these meetings. A number of problems though occured like examinations, holiday breaks and there was no time left. Fortunately, Turkey was positive to our request and we successfully organised two meetings, one in Izmir and another one in Thessaloniki. We are very glad to show you the outcome and we hope we will have the chance to work with the rest of you in the future.

1st Meeting in Izmir 26 March-2 April


We reached Izmir on Thursday 26 March, late in the afternoon. We visited the Turkish school three times and we were warmly welcomed by our colleagues with a poster with Turkish-Greek-English phrases. They had prepared many presentations for us about their Comenius products, traditional costumes, their educational system and their school. They had also cooked traditional dishes and they exhibited the custom of the henna night, the night before the wedding at the bride's house. A student played the saz for us and we were also invited to plant friendship trees in the schoolyard. The headmaster was very kind to take us out for dinner and we exchanged souvenirs and gifts. Last but not least, the art teacher gave us a marbling lesson and we all left Turkey with our little masterpieces in our luggage, but most important of all, we left knowing we have made new friends.

1st Meeting Photos
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1XaU3_7yDicUrj815ld_n3JsuKXTqd1cRTVI8SN6UOnU/edit?usp=sharing

2nd Meeting in Thessaloniki 24 -28 April

A few days later, we were very glad to meet our Turkish colleagues again. They had the chance to visit our school and watch the presentations we had prepared for them about the Comenius Project, our Educational system, Greek traditional dishes and drinks, traditional dances and costumes and have discussions on educational issues. They tasted many Greek specialities at school and we also had a night out for dinner and many teachers joined us in a taverna. Our students played and sang a number of songs and danced for them. Finally, we compared the features that make us feel Greek, Turkish or European citizens and found many common values we share, we exchanged teaching techniques and we promised to meet again. It was an unforgettable experience and we thank them for their correspodence.

Photos
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1k3VgnH5vfOLu0U7DZkmzQi_2tiTlJ2hfJyuBPltcODU/edit?usp=sharing

Presentation of the Greek Educational System
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BxIg6nqrfL9vODJhRWFqQXAxU2c/view?usp=sharing

Presentation with Greek traditional food
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BxIg6nqrfL9vR0NDbHR4TXFwZFk/view?usp=sharing

Presentation of Greek traditional dances and costumes
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BxIg6nqrfL9vcjl5U1JLZ2dlZU0/view?usp=sharing











Thursday 7 May 2015

Culture Minister visits IGS Garbsen

 

Today, the Culture Minister of Lower Saxony, Frauke Heiligenstadt, paid a visit to IGS Garbsen to inform herself about the international projects of the school. She was greated with a musical performance by a group of younger students and then guided through the break hall by our headmaster Andreas Hadaschik. In the hall, all the international projects of our school were on display. Of course, the Comenius project was also part of this and when the Minister came to our stall, she was informed about our project by Yasemin and Oleksandr. Mrs Heiligenstadt made a friendly and interested impression and the two students did a great job with presenting the project.









Yasemin and Oleksandr (from left) present the Comenius project to the Minister (second from right).

Sunday 22 March 2015

Trilateral Meeting in Garbsen - Evaluation and Presentation of Comenius in English Classes

The Comenius participants have finished all that work, and they have done it very well.  Students and teachers feel  proud of themselves and of the products they have carried out.
But all that has to be evaluated.
Workshop VI is just for the Evaluation and for the Presentation of the Comenius Projects in Evening classes.

Saturday 21 March 2015

Comenius Trilateral Meeting - National Evening in Garbsen

No doubt, the National Evening is the long awaited event of the week.
Why is it so?
Every country has been preparing something special for the evening. Our hosts offer a buffet to recover from so much activity during the day and week. Music, dances, food, prizes, friendship... enlighten the evening. There are no more countriesonly European friends living in different cities - GetxoBergenHerouville Saint ClairGarbsen.
Just look at the pictures and see.

Comenius trilateral Meeting - Garbsen - 4th Day

It has been a very hard working and ambitious day today. During the Workshop IV the participants have been finishing their works and preparing the presentation.
At 12:30 they have been to the cafeteria to have lunch and after lunch, during Workshop V they have presented their tasks.

Friday 20 March 2015

Comenius Trilateral Meeting - Garbsen. 3rd Day

Today all the participants have been to Berlinan amazing city for all of them. It's the day for the field trip. They have started visiting The Wall Museum. After that, in multinational teams, with a citymap and a camera in hand, they have explored the city.


Thursday 19 March 2015

Trilateral meeting in Garbsen - Second Day

In the following PPT you can see the activities our Trilateral Meeting Students have done today.
First, the students went to regular classes for two periods with their German partners. Later, they started Workshop II and were working during the rest of the morning. At 12:30 they had lunch at the cafeteria. At 13:30 the began Workshop III and were working until 4:30 p.m.
On the other hand, in the evening, the teachers went to see another classical Comenius colleague and friend, Christoph Brehmer  in concert (he was in Getxo two years ago). It is most rewarding to enjoy time with our creative engaged teachers on these special occasions. Congratulations, Christoph!!!



Wednesday 18 March 2015

Comenius Trilateral Meeting in Garbsen - First Day

The First Day of the Trilateral Meeting in Garbsen has been exciting and amazing in many aspects.
At 8:30 a.m.the Headmaster of Geschwister Scholl-Gymnasium, Garbsen welcomed the students from the four different countries: France, Germany, Norway and Spain-The Basque Country at the cafeteria of the school.
At 09:00 the activities for the day started.  Over 100 students went to different rooms with international teachers in multinational teams, according to the activity they had previously chosen. They started with different enjoyable ice-breakings. After that, they answered the Quiz on European Landmarks.


Workshop I started the activities: National Evening, Press group, Photo story, Art, Comic group, Drama/Music group, European game and Euroean Youth Meeting. They were working for over three hours.
At one o'clock p.m.they went by S-Bahn to the city center of Hannover. They had some free time and lunch and made the field trip. They had a rally through Hannover in small groups. They started in the Opera House and the point after the rally was the entrance of Marktkirche (4:30 a.m.)
They had a free time evening.

On the other hand, all the Comenius teachers from the four countries attended an amazing profesional performance of the musical "Rent" directed by the teachers and performed by the students of the School GSG Berenbostel. Amazing, unique, fabulous are some of the adjetives to express the high level of performance. Congratulations!!!

Thursday 5 March 2015

News from Getxo before the Multilateral Meeting in Garbsen

Since January, our students from Getxo have been working via the internet on the Timeline of the European history. Our History teacher, Nerea Acebo, previously gave them an introduction to this period of our recent history. They have been researching on historical and cultural backgrounds  of the EU from World War II to nowadays by decades.
Finally, they have also refreshed the Comenius Corner, prepared some questions for the quizz on European history and rehearsed the song to be sung altogether in the Multilateral Meeting in Garbsen: Welcome home, to Europe, which we expect to sing altogether with the other participating countries.

Monday 2 March 2015

A Greek student's diary from Boudapest


A rather unexpected experience (Saturday)
The Comenius team arrived at the airport on time, checked in and waited with anticipation for their flight. Unfortunately, there had been some technical problems with aircraft and we were delayed for two hours and this was a terrible experience. The good part is that we ate some free sandwiches. At 15.20 our plane took off. When we reached our destination we were so nervous but our Hungarian friends embraced us warmly and made us feel relaxed. After the first meeting with the family, we went out all together to have a first impression of the town. At 11 o’clock we returned home exhausted from a day full of happiness and surprises.

Meeting the Hungarian culture (Sunday)


Well, this day was full of tours. First, we visited the amazing Heroes’ square.  It is such and impressive monument and the people which was built for totally worth it.  The Hungarian students helped us to learn more about the monument and generally for the Hungarian culture. Right after that we headed for the Houses of Parliament. This building has a beautiful and rich architecture. We saw the enormous room, where conferences are taking place and we were all taken away by the gold of this building. We continued with taking a quiz outside Buda castle in order to discover the place around it. Finally, we got home, ate lunch and went out.

Monday

We arrived at school early in the morning (8.15) and after taking another quiz about the origins of the school we visited English and chemistry lessons. The second one was rather impressive as the teacher made some experiments for us. Then we played an introductory game in which we got to know each other better. We continued by having lunch and working on our project. Finally we enjoyed ourselves at the Hungarian night.

Tuesday

Tuesday was full of interesting things to do. Firstly, we worked on our workshop and then we departed for the Greek village Belloiannis. There we took some interviews, we learnt about its history and the Hungarian students had the chance to visit an othodox church. The highlight of the day was the visit in Aquaworld where we had the time of our lifes.

Wednesday

At 8.15 we visited Deak square in order to do some sightseeing. After that we visited the marvelous palace of Arts.. Then we returned to school and kept working. The day ended with a night out.
 
Thursday

The day started with the final steps in our workshop. After that we visited the picturesque village Szentedre where we had the opportunity to taste marzipan. Lastly, we enjoyed a folk dance show and we got the chance to dance with our parteners.

Friday
The first thing we did in the morning was to present out workshops to the English students. Next we had some sports program in which the girls played volleyball and the boys played football. Then we had some free time to do our shopping for souvenirs and gifts for our families. After this we met again all together and we took a boat trip in Dounabis,which was a fantastic experience.
We finished our day with a moving farewell party,as we knew our time together would be over in the next day.

Saturday
Nothing good lasts forever. We packed our suitcases and at 7 o’clock we arrived at the airport. We said goodbye in tears and we took our memories back in Greece.


Saturday 7 February 2015

GERMAN TEACHERS START WORKING ON APPLICATION FOR ERASMUS+


On Thursday and Friday this week, the German teachers started working on the application for the new project. As Comenius had been replaced by Erasmus+, many changes had to be recognized.


First of all, the new project has to deal with youth unemployment. Further, the funding will be different. Nevertheless, the project will again run for a two years' period and will be structured very similar.


We managed to complete and submit a so-called "pre-application". The national agency will soon give feedback that might be useful for completing the proper application, which is due in late March.


Hence, we need to meet for a few more times within the next weeks, but we are confident to successfully accomplish this demanding task.