EVALUATION OF THE PROJECT “EUROPE IN OUR LIVES” SPAIN 2005

- ACTIVITIES - MEETINGS - SPREADING - OPINIONS

Map drawn in the Art lessons and supplied with lamps in the Technology ones. It was started last year and finished in the current course.

ACTIVITIES This year we have had two types of activities. On the one hand students have worked on the activities that we planned in the meetings, on the other hand they took part in the activities that the partner school teachers had devised for them. Both the activities and the lessons given by the European teachers have made our students acquire the knowledge and insight of Europe, their culture, national character and education system. The students have used computers and Internet to prepare activities to get information and to check their knowledge. The teachers have also used information and communication technologies to prepare material and check the students’ learning. The language used by students and teachers has been English, although the native language has been used in the preparation of some activities. The students have used English as the language to exchange information, so they have acknowledged this language as an important vehicle to communicate. The Areas worked in the project have been Art, Music, History, Civic Education, New Technologies, native language, English, Biology, Environmental Education and Sports While working on the project special attention has been given to the equality of opportunities between both sexes, the fight against racism and the participation of the students from different ethnic groups. They have developed the skill to work in groups. Activities: - Searching for information of famous

singers from each country. - Searching for information of famous

places from each country. � - Searching for information of a

famous person from each country. � - Drawing a picture of a

tale by Hans Christian Andersen.

- Writing information

about themselves to hang on our web page.

- Taking part in

activities related to the culture of the partner countries.

- Lessons given by the

teachers to support the aims of the project.

Products: - Maps of Europe with lamps (it wasn’t finished last year) - CDs with songs of famous

singers. - Posters of famous singers. - Posters of famous places. - Albums of the Spanish

Prince Felipe. - Picture of a tale by H. C.

Andersen. � - Students’ web pages. - Materials and activities for the lessons in the European countries. Writing to a

penfriend, Electrical circuits in Poland. Lecture on amber, Spanish culture and Andalusian gastronomy in Denmark. Cadiz carnival in Germany.

MEETINGS We have held four project meetings during this course. In each meeting we have had action plan meetings, given lessons, attended to lectures to increase our knowledge of the country and its education system and participated in activities in order to acquire the national character. LAST MEETING OF THE PROJECT The last meeting of the project in which we are involved took place the week from the 11th to the 15th of April at our school, IES Francisco Romero Vargas. The attendance to this meeting has been of six teachers from the following European countries: Germany, Poland and Denmark. Six teachers from our school are involved in this project and have attended to the meetings and activities that have taken place. During this project meeting the teachers from each country have given six lessons to students from different levels. The topics of these lessons have been: knowledge of the country (geography, people, music and culture), paper crafts. As well as giving the lessons, the teachers have taken part in other activities:

• Visit to the School of Arts. Last year they attended a talk about our educative system at Jerez’s Centre for Teachers. This year we wanted them to know one of the options the students have when they leave the secondary school.

• Visit to Seville and its fair. Fairs in Andalusia are very different from fairs abroad, so we wanted them to know a fair. The project meeting coincided with the fair of Seville, so we planned a short visit to Seville and its fair.

• Sevillanas lessons. We wanted the foreign teachers to dance in the fair but the lessons were not enough to give them confidence to dance in the fair. �

• Watching of stars. This was an activity that the mathematics department had offered to students.

• Visit to the School of Equestrian Art, equestrian Museum and Carriage Museum. The City Council invited us to this activity.

• Ballet Romeo and Juliet. We were also invited by the City Council.

• Multi-sport activity in Campano, Chiclana. This activity was with third ESO students. We had the collaboration of the physical education department. �

In the meetings we designed the final product: a book. In this we will include opinions, works and spreading of this Comenius project.

SPREADING THE PROJECT We have spread the project in two different ways: EXHIBITIONS The works done by our students have been exhibited in two ways, on the one side, part of them were sent to the partner schools, on the other side, they were scanned and hung on our web page.

The works done by our partners have been exhibited in two ways too, because besides placing them on the walls of the school hall and classrooms, we hung them on our web page too. MASS MEDIA We have used three mass media channels to spread the project. These have been two newspapers: “Diario de Jerez” and “Notici@s locales Jerez” and a local TV channel “Onda Jerez”.

Fernando Herrera Headmaster Antonio Márquez Coordinator

Marta Fernández 3 ESO D

Angie teacher

I liked using the computer with the singers activity. Legoland must be amusing. I enjoyed the lesson by the Germans with all those photos of their town, pupils and sports people. Most Danish children on the web are fair-haired and very pale.

It has been an interesting event in our school having the Comenius Project going on for two years, teachers coming and going abroad, students decorating classrooms and corridors with their Works. We have been pleased to receive the visit of our European colleagues and share with them our teaching experience. As for the teaching staff it has been a bit of a novelty but for the students it has been a complete success. They have been involved in several activities during two years in order to improve their knowledge of Europe and have used the new technologies at their disposal to work on the project and to approach European students and works on the Internet via our web page. School life and education itself get better with projects like Comenius.

It has been useful on every level: personal, human, linguistic and cultural. This experience has allowed our students to know at first hand other cultures through the lessons given by our European partners and through the computer. We expect that this knowledge have made them more tolerant and better European citizens

It was hard to believe two years ago that I could have the opportunity to enrol in such an interesting school project with European colleagues. I have also been lucky to have visited Denmark. What’s more, to have given lessons there. It has been a real pleasure and a gift. I’m very grateful for the warm welcome and the wonderful time that I spent. It has been great to have met my Comenius partners. We have done a brilliant work. I wish we could meet someday somewhere.

Sarai Muñoz 2 ESO A Paqui Domínguez 3 ESO C

Fátima Lancharro 2 ESO A

Manuel Reina 3 ESO C

Jorge Garcés 2 ESO C

José Zúñiga 2 ESO A

Our Danish teachers taught us how to do some arts and crafts. It was very easy and entertaining. We have put them on the walls.

I enjoyed very much when I did the Christmas cards last year. I feel more enthusiastic to know other cultures now.

When my teachers told me that Polish teachers were coming to our school and that they were going to teach us a lesson I liked the idea very much. I felt a bit frightened that I might not understand them. The class was very amusing and they told many things about their school. They showed us some photographs and we were given some candies.

I loved the singers activity because I like listening to songs in other languages. I liked the lessons given by the European teachers because they were very nice.

I have enjoyed my team works about Spain done with my classmates. All our works were given to our peers in Denmark, Poland and Germany. We received their works. It was fun.

Before working with Comenius I didn’t know much about these European countries. I only knew a few things I had watched on TV or read on books. Now I know a lot more thanks to my teachers and the foreign teachers who have visited us.