Erasmus ZŠ Dolany
From 27 November to 2 December, the first international partner meeting took place within our project “Our common past and contemporary European values” in the Czech Republic. We welcomed our partners in Prague and travelled with them to Dolany to make the travelling comfortable and pleasant. At the same time, during this trip, the pupils were able to get acquainted personally. The pupils already communicated through the Internet before this meeting. The first day of the meeting was devoted to the presentation of the work that each school has done from September to November. At the beginning of the day, guests and their pupils were welcomed in the gym of the school in an oficial way. Even the Mayor of Dolany – Ing. R. Pečinka was present too. Subsequently, there were presentations about individual schools, regions and countries in the classroom. The pupils were also working on designing logos into the project and we also communicated together on the e-twinning site of our project. During the afternoon meeting of the coordinators, the project logo was selected. In the afternoon there was also an excursion around the village to see monuments and attractions of Dolany. On the second day an excursion to the nearest historical town – Olomouc was prepared. Participating pupils and teachers could learn some interesting things about the historical sights and attractions of this city. The outputs and material from this excursion will be used to create a tourist guide. The third day was focused on the traditions and customs of our region. As a result, foreign partners saw the performance of our pupils in local costumes and also they had the opportunity to try them out. They also tried to sing some of our Moravian songs and could join in the performances. In the end there were prepared some quizes on the knowledge of partner countries in the form of a pleasant competition. On the fourth day the program of the meeting was connected with the event of our school, which was the Open Day for parents and the public. Our partners could go through the whole school, pupils and teachers were involved in a wide range of activities that were prepared – Christmas decoration, shooting tournament, ceramics workshop… We also prepared a class for visitors where we presented the existing outputs of our project. It was possible to see videos about schools and countries. In the end of this special day all pupils together performed during a cultural performance for the public. In the afternoon a final meeting of pupils and teachers took place, where we consulted and planned further project activities. In the early evening they all came to the Christmas tree in our village – Dolany to have a chance to see the local Christmas customs and another performance. On the fifth day, a visit to the capital of the Czech Republic and an excursion to the most important historical and cultural monuments of Prague were prepared for foreign partners. The output of this day will then be used to create a tourist guide.
The main topic of the international meeting was to expand knowledge about European History and Culture which is a bridge between all European countries.On the first day, students were given a plan of work and met the representatives of local government and the mayor, participating in an informal welcoming event meeting. Then, the students made a local visit to different monuments in the region and learned about the main historical, economic and geographic aspects of the region. The students had the opportunity to experiment open air activities- canoeing- in Tejo river. The interaction was moved to student and student relation and relied on their communication and cooperation.On the second day, Students and teachers went to the capital of Portugal –Lisbon, and had the chance to visit the main landmarks of the city and also to taste some traditional Portuguese pastry and food. Therefore, students from partner schools saw the cultural heritage of Portugal by participating into a field trip in the city, and consequently, all forms and channels of learning and acquiring information were used e.g. oral, listening, visual and speaking in a friendly environment.Going on the previous schedule the third day was the day of experiencing and sharing among the partner countries the different traditional games. This activity allowed the involvement in a wild range of all the school community in sharing the different cultures and it also allowed a different and universal way of communication.On the fourth day, the students were divided into two groups in order to participate in two different workshops aimed in an artistic way. Students and teachers, gathering information and bearing in mind from the acquired knowledge from the previous activities, participated in a stained-glass workshop. They created art accessories in stained glass. An Art teacher guided all the partner participants in the process of acquiring information by the students who were supposed to select, adjust and gather appropriate information to accomplished their stained glass works. At the same time other group participated in a Ballroom dances workshop. Guided by a dance teacher students and teachers learned some classical steps in different types of world dances.After these workshops all the groups had met in the gymnasium to attend a show of gymnastics, ballroom dances and traditional Portuguese dances, and with this final activity all the partner countries and school community had the chance to know, share and explore the different cultural and artistic competences in a friendly environment.On the last day students were able to accomplish knowledge about a typical day in a Portuguese family, therefore they spent a day visiting further places in the region, monuments, museums and seaside landscapes. They had the opportunity to experiment water sports and typical dishes in the region putting the students and families at the centre of the learning process.The partner teachers also went on a visit in Lisbon region visiting the Portuguese major landmarks and tastes in an environment of sharing the differences and similarities among all the countries in this projectAIl partner schools have been supporting students in acquiring and expanding their knowledge about the European historical and cultural heritage, also in expressing their own identities in multicultural Europe.
In November 2019, from 17th to 23rd, there has been the 3rd mobility planned in the project, the host Country has been Italy (Caserta), our school, “ Istituto Comprensivo De Amicis-da Vinci” has hosted 4 teachers and 10 students from Dolany (Czech Republic) and 3 teachers with 6 students from Baixa de Banheira ( Portugal). The students have been hosted by our students’ families, so 15 students have lived the exchange directly, together with the 7 teachers of the Erasmus staff present in the school but all the teachers and students of the school have participated at the activities planned. In fact, during the visit of the school and during the Leonardo Day organized to celebrate the 500th anniversary of Leonardo da Vinci’s death, children of primary school and students of secondary school have welcomed the guests with a concert, traditional dances like tarantella and songs played by the school little orchestra; then, we have presented some of our lessons in labs, for example experiments in Science lab, painting and drawing activities in Art lab, robotic lessons and STEM activities in Technology lab.
We have showed how our students learn practically, adotpting the methodology of Learning by doing, cooperative and collaborative learning; they have made chemical and physic reactions, has explained scientific topics; we have showed how they learn Art, for example, we have involved the guest students in drawing a Vitruvian Man, considering the rules observed by Leonardo or painting like Leonardo made the fresco ‘The Last supper’. We have showed how our students build and program little robots giving them orders, we have applied Coding rules to a Game about the searching and finding Leonardo’s artworks preserved in European museums and the guest students have played with ours writing Coding lines; we have showed how our primary students work creating Lap books that presented works about Leonardo’s life and works; how they have planned presentations with Prezy or power Point showing information about our school, our most important monument, the Royal Palace, or about Leonardo. Moreover, our students have invented an Erasmus rap inspired to the values focused by the project and they have presented it to the guests. All these activities are normally used at school in Art, Technology, English, Science, History, Music to motivate the students to study in a pleasant and active way, we have just adapted the content to the aims of the project, in particular the Knowledge of our territory, our past and our polymath Leonardo because these are the principal points of the project, so our students have worked on these themes in view of the meeting, integrating them in curricular activities. They have also improved their English competence because they have used it to present all the works prepared for the meeting and to communicate with their guests; then, they have implemented their informatics abilities to produce the digital works, they have been very motivated in preparing the meeting with their teachers, in addition, they have developed social skills staying together, sharing responsibilities when working in groups, keeping in touch with their guests willing to know better one other; summing up, we can say that they have done an important experience, rich in benefits for their integral education. Also their families have demonstrated a great opening in receiving partners and collaborating with school in putting into effect all the program of the meeting.