Saturday 31 January 2009

Thank You, Spanish Friends!


















BARCELONA is my favourite city, especially in combination with your openhearted friendship!

Thank you for preparing our preparatory visit so well!

The first sticking together is very important and it it was a big success! So we are all looking forward to working together!

Regards from snowy Austria, Martin


Congratulations Spain

Heidi and I want to thank you for the wonderfull stay in Folchi I Torres. The visit was well prepared, you have been grate hosts.

Congratulations for the principal and his team, especially to Sonja, Maïte and Montse.

Rita
Principal
De Ganzenveer
Bruges
Belgium

Thank you Barcelona!


Dear friends

Thank you very much for many lovely days in Barcelona.

You did a very amazing job and we enjoyed your great hospitality.

Friendly wishes

Elsebeth and Anne Mette

Saturday 24 January 2009

BARCELONA: SIGHTSEEING

BARRI GÒTIC



Click on the picture for further information.


The Gothic Quarter is one of the oldest and most interesting parts of Barcelona. The square of Sant Jaume was Forum at the time of Romans, and there are many remains of old fortifications still to be seen, for instance the portal of "Plaça Nova". At this square there are as well the Palau de la Generalitat and L’Ajuntament (townhall).In Carrer Paradís, on top of the mountain Tàber, you will find an old millstone. Here were living Iberian tribes long before the time of Roman Empire.At Plaça del Rei there are the the Palau Reial Major, l’Església de Santa Àgata Palau de l‘Arxiu de la Corona d’Aragó, close to it the Gothic cathedral and the medieval palaces of Casa dels Canonges, Pia Almoina and Ardiaca.


PORT OLIMPIC



BORN


WORTH VISITING PLACES IN BARCELONA

THE BARCELONA OF ANTONI GAUDI

Click on the picture for futher information.


Antoni Gaudí was one of the most important modernist style architects worldwide. Many of his most extraordinary works are to be found in Barcelona.

SOME EXAMPLES ARE:

Casa Milà
(1906-1910) , "Passeig de Gràcia 92" The irregularly curved walls of this building remind of dunes in the desert. And the upper end of the façade is the spitting image of the mountains from the background. When it was made, this building was too futurist for most people, and gained the nickname La Pedrera, "the quarry". Today it is considered a landmark work of modern architecture.

Sagrada Família
(1883-1926) , "Plaça de la Sagrada Familia"This great cathedral, inspired by gothic style yet a landmark of modern architecture, is in reality not much more than a facade. Gaudí died before he could finish his biggest and most beloved project, with galleries that should have room for 1500 singers, 700 children and 5 organs.Will the city of Barcelona ever complete this monumental work?

PREPARATORY VISIT IN BARCELONA

DRAFT PROGRAMME
Preparatory Visit in Barcelona
28th January-1st February 2009

“DIVING INTO DIFFERENT EUROPEAN CULTURES”
(Sharing Traditional Customs and Festivities from European countries)

Wednesday 28th January

10 -18

- Arrival to Barcelona
- Transfer to Hotel
- Lunch (On your own)
- Optional: Visit around the town (On your own)

20

- Meeting at HOSTAL LAMI: Initial presentation of the Preparatory visit.


21

- Dinner in “Esplugues de Llobregat” : “MES K VINS Restaurant” (About 20€)


Thursday 29th January

9 -11

- School Visit
- Coordinator School Presentation.
- Presentation of each School Partners.
- General presentation of Customs and Festivities of each country that we are going to share.
- Presentation: Our Comenius Blog

11- 11.30

- Coffee Break.

11.30- 13

- Brainstorming: Project planning workshop.

13- 15

- Lunch at School: “Delicatessens from Catalonia”
(School Invitation: partners and some members of the staff)

15-17

- Brainstorming: Project planning workshop.

17- 21

- Free time

21

- Dinner Proposal : “LA LLESCA” in Barcelona (About 15 euros)

Friday 30th January

9 -11

- Brainstorming: Project planning workshop.

11- 11.15

- Coffee Break.

11.30- 13

- VISIT TO : “Rajoleta’s Museum in Esplugues”

13- 15

- Lunch at School: “Typical Catalan winter lunch: Calçots”
(School Invitation: partners and some members of the staff)

15-17

- Brainstorming: Project planning workshop.

17- 21

- Free time

21

- Dinner Proposal : “FONDA ESPAÑA” in Barcelona (About 18 euros)


Saturday 31st January

10 -12

- Brainstorming: Project planning workshop.

12- 12.30

- Coffee Break.

12.30- 13

- Finish the Project planning workshop.

13- 20

- Lunch (On your own)
- Free time to visit the city.


21

- Proposal Dinner: “MAMASITA Restaurant” (about 20 euros)


Sunday 1st February

- Departures.

Tuesday 20 January 2009

TITLE OF OUR COMENIUS PROJECT

"DIVING INTO DIFFERENT EUROPEAN CULTURES"

Our mascot could be the following:


This is "Tily", one of the workers of the "Rajoleta Factory". He is going to show us lots of things about our history from Esplugues de Llobregat and also from Catalonia. You are welcome to let him know about your own history.
He will be our "messenger". So, it will be very exciting to share together lots of features like festivities, famous holidays, and interesting places we have in our countries.

SUMMARY OF THE PROJECT

Our project focusses on developing communication skills, giving our pupils an insight into their culture and those of others. We aim to share our local customs and traditions with 6 different European countries such us Denmark, Belgium, Italy, Turkey, and Austria.

All our school community is involved in our project, and will enjoy working within a culturally diverse team.
One of our basic goals is to promote inclusive education, increasing our pupils’ self-esteem. Newcomers are also conveying cultural richness with their own personal experiences.
Thus, students will become actors of their learning, based on meaningful contents.

As an African say goes:

"You protect what you love.
You love what you know.
You know what you taught."
New Technologies will be our project main support, making communication possible. With them, we aim to enhance pupils’ motivation, social skills, and self-confidence.

We are also involving in this project the town hall and the Museum of Can Tinturé of our city. This collective dimension is given by the implication that the world of ceramics is in our artistic activities. Primary children in CI (First Cycle) and CM (Second Cycle) do Art in English, and use this language as a vehicle of expression. We make clay works every year, and many of them hang from the school walls.

We are immersed in a world of languages; Catalan, as a minority language, is on the signs in the means of transport, along with Spanish and English. We are visually on contact with these three languages; we can compare and learn them. The same happens in other countries.

All of this teamwork which we propose will have a common frame: English is going to be our language of expression and communication to understand other people in a diverse and changing world.

PARTNER: Turkey

TURKEY
School: Imetpasa Ilkogretim Okulu
Contact: Azize and Gulgun

Click on the picture for further information.

PARTNER: Austria

AUSTRIA
School: Allgemeine Sonderschule Steinabrückl
Contact: Martin Frischauf

Click on the picture for further information.

PARTNERS: Italy


ITALY
School: Padre Gioacchino La Lomia
Contact: Barbara Argento

Thursday 15 January 2009

PARTNERS : Belgium

BELGIUM
School: De Gazenveer
Contact: Heidi


Click on the picture for further information.

COORDINATOR SCHOOL: Spain

Click on the picture to visit our school.

The Preparatory visit will be in our school and it will be a great opportunity to get to know each other. We will finalise the Comenius project and exchange our ideas. We are open to all the ideas you have. It has to be presented in February to the Comenius Organization. And, of course we will enjoy a nice weekend discovering the city of Barcelona.

We inform you that our “Preparatory Visit in BARCELONA” will be held from Wednesday 28th JANUARY 2009 to Sunday 1st FEBRUARY 2009.

PARTNERS TAKING PART IN THIS PROJECT:
AUSTRIA/DENMARK/BELGIUM/ITALY/ TURKEY and SPAIN

WELCOME TO OUR PROJECT!

Dear colleagues!

Our names are Montse, Maite and Sonia and we’re writing from “Esplugues de Llobregat”, which is a wonderful town close to Barcelona. We work as English teachers in a state primary school called “CEIP Foch i Torres”. This year we would like to participate in a Comenius Programme. Our main reason for doing a Comenius Project is to enrich the intercultural and foreign language competences of our students giving them a wide perspective on school, on everyday life in Europe and the variety of European culture.

There have been many changes in the schools in our society since we were at school so we consider it very important to give our students all the opportunities that this project could generate. We think with this project we can aim to raise pupil’s tolerance towards other cultures and minorities in their own country.

With this e-mail our school is trying to encourage you to join us in the same project. The objective of this project will be to improve our students’ competence in oral skills in English as a foreign language as well as their knowledge of each other’s culture. This could be achieved through virtual communication, using everything that new technologies are able to offer.

We would like to share our local customs and traditions with you showing you how we run our school. In our project we have the participation of all the members that represent our school: Infant Education teachers, Primary Teachers, and the headmaster and other staff at the school. And, of course, we count on the participation of all the children and parents. So, basically it is a project that involves all the school community and not just the English department of the school.

We think this project will be a great opportunity for the pupils to acquire new knowledge, learn about each other’s customs and traditions and become familiar with the minority languages of the different countries that will be involved. It is important to mention, that our school has a basic goal of trying to promote “inclusive education”. This enables students with disabilities to be taught in the regular classroom. We educate students to be citizens in an inclusive society. In our opinion a Comenius Project will give the opportunity to pupil to increase their self-esteem since they realise that a person with a disability can contribute to teamwork and join international projects too.

Another important aspect in our school are newcomers that apart from learning our school language, also have to learn English. They enrich our culture with their own personal experiences. The project could be another nice opportunity to show and share with you their culture.

In connection with this development it is clear that the project would be nice to motivate students to learn English as a foreign language and also it will reinforce and will widen their social and cultural knowledge. We cannot forget how New Technologies will form part of our project being the main support to make communication possible. It could reinforce the social and computer skills of the pupils while strengthening their motivation and confidence. We aim to enhance new technologies as a main tool to achieve our school goal.

Our objective will improve their social skills, self-confidence, develop intercultural understanding and promote their autonomy as learners.