Bits and Pieces of Professional Training Bjelovar, Croatia October, 2018
From 16th to 18th October 2018 the 1st Primary School Bjelovar hosted the first project meeting of the Erasmus + KA2 project "Bits and Pieces of Culture". 11 teachers from 5 partner countries (Spain, Greece, Cyprus, Italy, and Poland), visited our school. The purpose of the visit was to improve the skills and the knowledge of the teachers involved in the project and to agree on the further course of the project, implementation of project activities and planned pupils and teachers' mobility.
1st day The first day of the project meeting started with a warm welcome of the project coordinator Helena Gustović Ljubić, headmistress Tatjana Landsman and the Student Erasmus + Club representative Nina Šignjar. The members of the school choir and their teacher Danica Barišić sang “Ode to Joy“, as a symbol of European unity, multinationality and multiculturalism and one member of the choir played it on the glass bottles.
After a short meeting during which partners got to know each other better and a brief agreement on the further course of activities, the guests enjoyed the sightseeing and visited the mayor's office. Mr Dario Hrebak, the Mayor of Bjelovar, welcomed them and commended the initiative of the teachers for the implementation of this and other projects and promised the City's support in carrying them out. He pointed out that European projects are the only option to advance the education system in a short period of time and to increase the current standard in education.
After the lunch and a short break, teachers returned to school and participated in educational workshops whose themes were: the Twinspace, web tools needed for the project implementation and e-safety. The workshops were held by Rania Bekiri from Greece, Barbara Gluszcz from Poland and Nataša Ljubić Klemše and Martina Supančić from Croatia.
2nd day The second day was spent on a one-day trip to Zagreb. Our guests from partner countries visited the city and attended an educational workshop at the Ethnographic Museum. The day was seasoned with lunch in the traditional restaurant “Stari fijaker“, where we all enjoyed the taste of traditional Croatian cuisine.
3rd day The Italian teacher Licia Arcidiacono held a CLIL workshop on the third day of our guests' stay in Croatia. Later that day, teacher Martina Supančić presented aa educational field trip with the theme of intangible UNESCO heritage as an example of a good practice.
After the lunch in the school dining room, we continued to work on planning the further course of the project, distribution of the responsibilities and duties, and on the agreement on upcoming mobilities in Spain and Poland. Project Coordinator Helena Gustović Ljubić will make sure that all project activities will be held as planned and that each partner country will carry out the tasks.
Our guests liked our school, city, food, and our capital city Zagreb very much. Satisfied, full of positive impressions and ready to work on project activities, they happily returned to their homes, emphasizing that they will remember this project meeting, stay in Bjelovar and friendship with colleagues who will they collaborate on this project for the next two years for a long time.
Project Meeting in Spain Short-term exchange of groups of pupils: Bits and Pieces of Food and Festivals
Last week, from 18th to 22nd February 2019 the 1st Primary School Virgen de Consolación hosted the first Short-term exchange of groups of pupils meeting of the Erasmus + KA2 project "Bits and Pieces of Culture" in Spain. 14 teachers and 30 students from 5 partner countries (Spain, Greece, Cyprus, Italy, and Poland), visited our school. The purpose of the visit was to held the first exchange of students staying with families. An scholarship at Primary Education School Virgen de Consolación, working in international student teams doing different workshops and taking part in cultural trips to Madrid and Cuenca.
Day 1 The first day was spent on a one-day trip to Madrid. Our guests from partner countries visited the city and learned about the most important places, later on we had lunch in a typical restaurant in the city centre and afterwards we came back to Montealegre del Castillo where they meet with the host families.
Day 2 The second day of the project meeting started with a warm welcome of the project coordinator Mónica Marín, headmistress Elena Medina and the Student Erasmus + Club. The members of dancing group danced “Manchegas” which is a typical Spanish dance, some students also played a welcome song with instruments. After this, the students played a City Game in order to get to know the host town better. They played the game in international teams and learn about the history and culture of the host town. They finished the City Game at the Main Square where they visited the mayor's office. Mr Sinforiano Montes, the Mayor of Montealegre del Castillo, welcomed them and commended the initiative of the teachers for the implementation of this and other projects and promised the City's support in carrying them out. He pointed out that European projects are the only option to advance the education system in a short period of time and to increase the current standard in education. Then we returned to school and the students made presentations about Carnival Customs in National Teams. Pupils presented their traditional and modern carnival customs. After the presentations they played a Kahoot quiz with questions about carnival customs of each partner country. After the lunch and a short break, teachers returned to school and participated in a Mask Workshop in international teams and designed traditional masks from all the partners countries.
Day 3 For the Cook Workshop, the students made a traditional dish from the different partner countries in international teams in the school dining room. Pupils brought their simple traditional recipes and by working in international teams they cooked the dishes, made photos of them and after that, they made a common e-Cookbook. Finally they presented both their traditional dishes and masks per countries to the rest of their partners and teachers.
Day 4 The fourth day we did a field trip to Cuenca as it is one of the UNESCO World Heritage Sites. We did a walking tour around Cuenca visiting the most important places such as the Hanging Houses and the Cathedral, after that, we had lunch in a restaurant where we could try some Spanish traditional dishes and finally, in the afternoon, we visited the Arts and Science Museum.
Day 5 The last day, pupils formed international teams and played traditional and modern playground games. They learned about traditional Spanish games in an interactive and fun way. Later they started to make a common Board Game with questions for the first challenge (Geography and Festivals). After that all the pupils in national teams but the Spanish ones, played a Kahoot quiz with questions about Spain in order to check their knowledge of the visited country. Finally both teachers and students did an evaluation survey so to ask for their opinion of the meeting. In the afternoon host families held a farewell party for teachers and pupils and they had a lot of fun. We can say that the exchange has been an incredible experience for the kids. Students´ host families made them feel very at home in their families. In general kids have gained so much knowledge about Spain and they will cherish all the amazing experiences they have had. Satisfied, full of positive impressions and ready to work on the next project activities, they happily returned to their homes, emphasizing that they will remember this meeting forever.
The second short-term exchange of groups of pupils - Zambrow, Poland
The second short-term exchange of groups of pupils took place in Zambrów from 12th May to 16th May 2019 as part of the EU project Erasmus + ‘Bits and Pieces of Culture’, which we have been implementing since last September. 30 pupils from Croatia, Cyprus, Greece, Spain and Italy were hosted by their Polish peers' families, thanks to whom they gained new experiences, learned about Polish culture and customs, developed their language skills, and, most importantly, made new friends.
Day 1 The visitors spent the first day exploring Warsaw, the capital of Poland. They started with a walk in the centre, saw the UNESCO-listed Old Town and the enchanting Royal Łazienki Park. They also visited the best-known and tallest building in the city, the Palace of Culture and Science and took the lift up to the 30th floor to see the city panorama from a height of 114 metres.
In the evening, the participants of the exchange arrived in Zambrów and the pupils got to meet their host family for the first time. Day 2 Monday was a very busy day. In the morning, the guests participated in the welcoming ceremony. They were greeted with welcoming words from the Principal Ryszard Świderski. After that, according to Polish tradition, the school community greeted their partners with bread and salt. The highlight of the ceremony was the show prepared by the Polish pupils and teachers. The visitors could listen to some of the Polish folk songs and see traditional Polish dance. Then the pupils took part in a folk song competition, during which international groups were to present one of the partners’ traditional songs. The competition was won by the group singing the Polish song 'Czerwony Jabłuszko'.
In the afternoon, after presenting the national costumes of the partner countries, both pupils and teachers took part in the Motanka Doll making workshop during which the participants learnt the rules of reeling the Slavic dolls without the use of needles, crochet, knives, and scissors, and finally were invited to make their own ‘motanki’ using yarn and materials. The meeting was very joyful – we are happy that we could jointly create unique toys with history (all the dolls were dressed in one of the national costumes of the partner countries). Day 3 During the third day of our pupils’ exchange, we experienced nature at its best and stood face to face with the king of the Białowieża forest – the bison! Bialowieża National Park is the oldest national park in Poland, one of the oldest in Europe and the only natural UNESCO site in Poland. It is the most precious area which was created by nature itself without any human intervention. During our walk through the strictly protected area, we were accompanied by a professional tour guide who told us about the best the reserve has to offer. The reserve is inhabited not only by bison but also several other species. Deers, elks, wild boars, wolves, tarpans, Polish horses, lynx, żubron (a hybrid of bison and domestic cattle) live in this area in semi-natural conditions. We also visited the Nature And Forest Museum located in Białowieża. After dinner, we had a lot of fun playing Polish traditional playground games. Day 4 In the morning we practised the steps of our common rap dance and our project song. We laughed a lot and had a really good time. When we managed to be proficient in dancing and singing at the same time, we recorded our achievement :-).
In the afternoon we played a city quest game in international teams and learnt about the history and culture of the host town - Zambrów.
Then we took part in a visit to the town hall to meet the Mayor. Each of us got a present from the Mayor. Day 5 The last day was mainly devoted to the evaluation of the visit. We took two Kahoot quizzes and found out how much we knew about Poland and the folk songs and national costumes of the partner countries. Then we created some questions about music and dance for our board game. Finally, we filled out a survey concerning the meeting in Poland.
The third short-term exchange of groups of pupils - Paphos, Cyprus
The third short-term exchange of pupils’ groups – part of the EU project Erasmus + Bits and Pieces of Culture which we have been implementing since last September- took place in Paphos (Chloraka village). 30 pupils from Croatia, Poland, Greece, Spain and Italy visited Cyprus between the 20th and 25th of October 2019. The pupils were hosted by their Cypriot peers’ families, thanks to whom they gained new experiences, learned about Cyprus’ culture and customs, developed their language skills, and last - but not least - made new friends.
Day 1 The day began with a guided tour at the site of Choirokoitia, a Neolithic village, cited by UNESCO. Afterwards, there was a visit to the medieval Limassol Castle, near the old harbour in the heart of the historical centre of the city of Limassol. Before lunch, the visitors walked around the old town and saw the Limassol Marina and the Old port. After lunch they had a guided tour at Kourio, an important ancient town. In the evening, the participants of the exchange arrived at Chloraka’s primary school to meet their host family. However, they had a stop first at “Petra tou Romiou” (Rock of the Roman), located off the shore along the main road of Limassol to Paphos.
Day 2 After the excitement that followed the first contact with their new friends, guest students and their teachers attended a welcome ceremony at school. The headteacher, Mr Giannis Charalambous greeted them and then Cypriot students presented a short show including traditional dances and songs. After the ceremony, students and their teachers participated to the “City game” aiming to introduce Chloraka to the guest students and teachers. Web quest activities followed in order for the kids to learn about their favorite authors. The kids worked in international teams and created posters and a timeline about each country‘s favorite author. After that, the kids watched the presentations they had prepared about their favorite book before the meeting in Cyprus. In the afternoon, they came back to school in order to make a story through the web tool “Stop motion” using characters from their favorite books.
Day 3 During the third day of this amazing multicultural experience, students and teachers had a field trip to another UNESCO listed site. They visited Paphos Mosaics, which are superbly preserved mosaic remains dating from third to fifth century A.D. After that the students had a hands-on experience by making their own mosaics in a place offering the opportunity to locals and tourists to create Cypriot crafts.
Day 4 The fourth day was dedicated to comics creation during school time. The kids, working in international teams, had the opportunity to create their own comics, through the web tool “Makebeliefscomix” using their imagination!! The only requirement was for the story to be fun!!! In the afternoon students had free time to enjoy the hospitality of Cypriot families
Day 5 In the morning of the last day kids played traditional Cypriot games. The rest of the day was devoted to evaluating the visit. Students participated in two Kahoot quizzes in order to check their newfound knowledge about Cyprus and the language and literature of the partner countries. Then, the teams created some questions about the language and literature for a board game. Finally, they filled out a survey concerning the meeting in Cyprus. The last night in Cyprus included a farewell party for the visitor students, organized by the Parents’ association.
The fourth short-term exchange of groups of pupils - Misterbianco, Italy
On 2-3-4-9-10 December 2020 the fourth pupils' exchange of the project took place, totally online. At the beginning of the project, nobody could have imagined that this would be running as a virtual mobility but, on the other hand, we feel we have succeeded in "reinventing" the way of "doing Erasmus", facing the problems related to the management of an international project in the middle of a global pandemic by turning critical issues into opportunities. While on the one hand the pandemic has heavily affected the project by preventing a real exchange, on the other hand the virtual mode has allowed us to involve a much larger number of students from the 6 participating countries (about 120, in total).
The mobility was hosted on the Zoom digital platform (Main Room and International Groups Rooms), with the support of the TwinSpace as a reference point for the daily schedule with tasks and links to the materials.
DAY 1 The first day was really emotional for all of us...after a long time, we returned to "do Erasmus", leaving aside the bad thoughts and problems related to this difficult period. With great joy, pleasure and a touch of emotion, the virtual mobility kicked off with an online welcome ceremony. After the welcome and the official greetings from the IC A. Gabelli School Principal, Adriana Battaglia, a group of Italian pupils gave a performance playing, singing and dancing to Sicilian folk music.
After the introductions of the participants to break the ice, the first activity was the CITY GAME, which we transformed into an original virtual tour of the most representative places in Misterbianco...through gamification, students from all participating countries discovered the hosting town thanks to a breakout room full of information and new multimedia contents, accompanied by the voice of Emily, the pupil who played the role of "virtual touri guide". The Mother Church, Campanarazzu, the Roman Baths, Piazza Mazzini, the Museum of Carnival Costumes and much more, in the form of quizzes and games to find a secret code... After the winner was announced, the students interacted discussing the activity they had just done and the main places of interest in the city... and everyone seemed to have had a good time! The first day flew by! It was really nice to connect with our foreign partners again and rekindle the Erasmus magic...
DAY 2 The second day was entirely devoted to the work in international teams, with tasks focusing on the collaborative creation of Google Slides presentations on UNESCO sites and Modern Wonders in Italy, Croatia, Poland, Cyprus, Spain and Greece,. We also worked on an interactive itinerary of modern architectural wonders by using the app Tripline. The six international groups, supervised by one or more teachers, worked in six Zoom rooms to learn about the monuments in each country, decide on how to organise the group work and share the tasks to create the final products remotely using digital tools together. The day was very challenging, but rewarding...There were some technical difficulties (as expected!), but collaboration, communication, creativity and shared use of digital tools are the key words to sum up a fruitful experience!
DAY 3 We started the third day with a "tasty" surprise... the Italian pupils talked about their eating habits through a showcase of some of the most typical Sicilian foods: cornetti, arancini, cannoli, cartocciate, paste di mandorla and frutta martorana are definitely a must when visiting Sicily. Food is an integral part of the Sicilian cultural identity, so participants were given a virtual "taste" in front of the webcam...The food was much appreciated! After that, the activities focused on describing each participant's favourite places, through a digital map created with Padlet. Next, pupils could interact by posting questions and comments on the map in real time. Finally, we talked about traditional Sicilian games: La Campana, La gara dei tappi, Pugnu Cutugnu and Un, Due, Tre Stella. We showed a video tutorial made by the Italian students before the visit to "demonstrate" and explain the rules of the games to their foreign friends. It was interesting to interact immediately afterwards, comparing the games in each country to find similarities and differences. We are looking forward to getting some videos where partners can show us their interpretation of the games!
DAY 4 On the fourth day, we were proud to show off the natural and cultural beauties of Sicily! A visit to Misterbianco would not be such without getting to know the true spirit behind the local community's passion for Carnival and its extraordinary costumes. We put together a video to show the Carnival parades and the Museum of Carnival Costumes...but that wasn't enough...a wild group of young 'cavemen' broke in and made us experience the energy and light-heartedness of Carnival, thanks to their cheerful dancing.
Usually, one of the 5 days would be devoted to a trip to a local UNESCO World Heritage site...and here again, we could not miss the opportunity to let our partners discover the exceptional artistic, cultural, architectural and natual beauties of Sicily, which right now boasts 7 UNESCO sites. We therefore created an interactive map of Sicily's UNESCO sites with the app Thinglink, through which the students were able to read information and watch photos/videos of the most representative places in Sciily, visited every year by tourists from all over the world.
The day ended with an interactive quiz on Sicilian UNESCO sites, played in random international teams, and the announcement of the winners. All students did a great job!
It was really nice to see so much interest, curiosity and amazement for our land...our hope is that any time soon our friends from Croatia, Spain, Poland, Greece and Cyprus will be able to travel and visit some of these wonderful places.
DAY 5 The last day took us through a whirlwind of emotions: joy, happiness, excitement, but also a bit of sadness...we came to the end of an extraordinary week, which saw our school community at the centre of an international exchange of pupils, albeit in the unusual digital mode. We started off with a 'special' Italian language lesson: our pupils, teachers for a day, got the other foreign pupils to go wild by singing and dancing with them to the tune of Claudio Cecchetto's famous 80s hit, Gioca Jouer...the perfect song to get them to memorise simple verbs through miming actions! Everyone felt the vibe and got involved from behind the screen...!
On their final day, the pupils prepared questions for the board game, the final product of the project. Two interactive quizzes about Italy and Monuments from all the partner countries were played to check what the students had learned over the past 5 days and winners were announced! The partners used a Padlet to write some goodbye messages. At the end, pupils and teachers also filled in an evaluation survey to share their opinions about the experience. We were really pleased to receive very nice feedback from our friends!
The virtual visit was officially closed by the greetings from our headmistress, followed by another performance with typical songs and dances...Our pupils managed to convey all the passion, warmth and energy of Sicily and they were even asked for an encore!
The final greetings were a very special moment...we felt close, despite the physical distance across countries. Unforgettable memories will always remain in our hearts...We feel we have planted seeds of hope, optimism and resilience and we are really proud of what we all managed to do together, as a big international team. Grazie!
The fifth short-term exchange of groups of pupils - Patra, Greece
From 1st till the 5th February 2021 the fifth and last pupils' exchange of the project took place, totally online. It was our second virtual meeting after Italy's last December. So, now, we were prepared and we knew what to expect and make the most of it!
Some partners were at school (Greece, Spain, Croatia, Italy) and some were at home (Poland, Cyprus). The mobility was hosted on the Zoom digital platform (Main Room and International Groups Rooms), with the support of the Twinspace as a reference point for the daily schedule with tasks and links to the materials.
DAY 1 On the 1st day of the meeting, we introduced ourselves (teachers and students) and then we watched a video with a 'Welcome song' by the Greek students. The song was based on a popular Christmas song but lyrics were added by the Music teacher, Miss Stella Koskina, who wished all partners to have a Happy Year full of success and joy.
Then, A City Game (Escape Room game) followed during which the pupils had the chance to get to know Patra and the surroundings doing quizzes that eventually led them to the partner school, the 2nd Primary School of Paralia.
The winners of the City Game were: 1st - Milosz (PL) 2nd - Anna Maria (CY) 3rd - Federico (IT)
The last task of the day was a guessing game, called Pop-up Museum, in which students had to guess the use of cultural items presented by the partners! Some of the guesses were really funny and nowhere close to the reality!!!!! The day ended after 2 full hours of collaboration and communication!
DAY 2 On the 2nd day of the meeting, we started with Patra's Carnival, the biggest festival in the city! We watched a video that showed the History of the Carnival as well as what modern Carnival looks like in the city. The video is published by the City's Carnival Committee. Then the students played a game on Patra's Carnival. Finally the Greek students had prepared a Carnival dance they showed:
The meeting continued with our 'Photo Competition'. The students voted for the best photos of the 4 elements of Nature in a padlet.
Next, it was time for the 'Recreated paintings'. The students watched photos of 2 recreated paintings/sculptures from each country and searched the Internet (as fast as possible) to find the name of the painter and the title of the painting! A great way to learn more about each country's Art! A game followed with all the recreated paintings which ... were amazing!
Finally, the Greek students showed their partners traditional Greek Games they play in the playground and held a poll asking them which of the 5 games they liked the best!
Then everyone watched a video with the Spanish students playing the Italian games DAY 3 On the 3rd day of the meeting, we were divided into 6 teams (as in the 6 partners) and each international team entered a different ZOOM room with the country's teacher responsible for the tasks. The first task was the creation of online collaborative posters with the tool https://www.postermywall.com/. Each poster described a painting/sculpture and each country had chosen 2. The group members had to download the 2 images, find information on the Internet about them and add it in the poster. It wasn't an easy task as all this collaboration and communication had to be done online!
The second task was the drawing of a painting suggested by each partner country. So the group members continued with their group and drew the country's painting adding it in a padlet. This was a very creative task which excited many although some expressed their lack of skill!!! Yet, the padlet had many different efforts!!!
DAY 4 The 4th day of the meeting began with a traditional Greek song. Then there was a 'traditional dishes' exhibition, where the Greek students presented some of the most popular dishes of their country.
A quizizz followed with questions based on the presentation.
The next task was watching a common Google presentation with memes that all partners had added. It was a huge presentation as many students loved the task and it was definitely a very funny one!!!!
Having filled our padlet with drawings from the previous day, it was time to look at them closely and grade the artistic skill of the students. All paintings got 1-5 stars as well as comments!
'Art Walk Festival' is a great event in Patra (for the last 5 years) as street artists draw huge walls of blocks of flats changing the colour of the city! A short video the partners watched shows this amazing work!
The final task of the day was the selfies, a very popular pastime of young people! But we wanted our selfies to look more like a painting!!! So the students took their selfies and uploaded them on https://goart.fotor.com/ choosing a famous painting and then looking at their selfies changing into the style of that painting! The result was so beautiful and surprising that they were all excited and filled our padlet with their 'artistic selfies'!
DAY 5 On the 5th and last day of the meeting, the Greek partners showed a video with a traditional song, called 'kalinifta' that comes from the villages of Southern Italy around Solento and the lyrics are written in 'Grekanika', a mixture of Greek, Italian and local dialects. Then, the first task of the students was to add 10 questions and answers in their common Google Doc about 'Painting & Photography' of their country. Then, a quiz was given to all the students (and teachers!) with questions on the visit's topics about all 6 partner countries. The winners were: SergioSP, Andreas/Giorgos GR/ Athina/Rafaela GR. The winners of the 'Photo competition', the 'City Game Escape Room' and the 'Draw a famous painting' were then announced and given a digital badge! Another quiz followed with questions about the host country, Greece, and everything that was presented to the guests! The winners of this game were: Matija CRO, Alex CY, Malgorzata PL. All the participants then completed the Evaluation Surveys and added some posts in the page's Twinboard with their impressions of the meeting.
A final video was shown with moments from the whole project and the project coordinator, Miss Helena Gustović Ljubić ended the meeting with a very emotional 'goodbye' speech!
This project has been funded with support from the European Commission.