Newsletter3 defc
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The document provides summaries of experiences from students participating in the Comenius Project with the theme "A healthy mind in a healthy body". It includes contributions from Iceland describing their satisfaction with the project and a visit to the Czech Republic. A Dutch student summarizes their positive experience in Breclav, Czech Republic, where they participated in activities like sports day and trips. Another student discusses their homestay experience in Italy. A Scottish student discusses their preparations and experiences in the Czech Republic, including different diets and activities. Finally, a Slovenian student reflects positively on establishing friendships and improving English skills through the international project experiences.
Newsletter3 defc
- 1. Newsletter 3 A healthy mind in a healthy body Newsletter 3 Welcome Welcome to the third newsletter of our Comenius Project “A healthy mind in a healthy body”. Greetings from Iceland 2 My Comenius 2 experience in Breclav Stef, Pjotr, Daan and Jesse from the Netherlands in the Czech Republic. The content of this newsletter focuses primarily on the stories of participating Meeting Rohana 3 students of the meetings in the Netherlands, Czech Republic and Italy. This newsletter includes contributions from the schools that work on our Comenius Project “A healthy mind in a healthy body”. Penicuick High School 4 My Italian experience 5 Slovenian reflections 6 My week at the Wesselinks 8 1
- 2. Page 2 Newsletter 3 Greetings from Iceland Since September 2012 our students, staff and community have been involved in our project ,Healthy Mind in a Healthy Body´or ,Heilbrigð Sál í Hraustum líkama’ like Icelanders call it…we concede that it sounds easier in English. Our first feeling is certainly satisfaction. A great number of tasks have been achieved and we believe that the impact on our lives has been positive. Awareness about different cultures, countries, societies has been developed through cooperation, physical activities and environmental matters. Our school is deeply concerned about the respect of our world and nature and such a project can only reinforce our policy. We, by instance, recently received at a national and international level by the Green Flag award. The Green Flag is awarded to EcoSchools as a mark of high achievement in environmental education and performance as part of the EcoSchools Programme lead by FEE, Foundation for Environmental Education. The Green FlagTravelling has been a cornerstone of this project. We specially aim to mention our visit to Czech Republic and the wonderful town of Breclav. Some wonderful memories of the Czech team are still in a corner of our minds. A country made of soft valleys, green forests and dark blue rivers. Hospitality of our hosts was unforgettable. Back home our students were very keen on asking questions on school system and life in general. We are sure that some of them will have the curiosity to pay a visit to Czech Republic, Breclav and its inhabitants in the future. The Green Flag My Comenius experience in Breclav I was one of the students that took part in the Czech Republic mobility and I would like to write a few lines about the experience: When we got off the bus to get to Breclav I was pretty nervous because I did not know the family or the plane I was going to stay at but, five minutes after I got to their house and I talked to them I felt much better. I was quite tired because of the long journey so I went to bed almost immediately. The following day we got up at 8 oclock in the morning and went to school, where we met the students from the other countries for the first time. We had many different activities but my favourite was the “Sports Day”; we had so much fun playing sport and getting to know each other! Other great activities were ridding a Segway and of course… the barbecue and the party we had with all our colleagues at school. 2 During these days we went to visit Breclav, Brno Spilberk Castle and the Lednice – Valtice area and Castle and many other places and we were pleasently surprised by the beauty of this country. We really got on well with each other and the time we spent there seemed too short. It was an experience I will never forget. I deeply recommend anyone to take part in such an activity if they have the opportunity. Pedro Alvarez –Linera (Colegio San Ignacio – Oviedo - Spain)
- 3. A healthy mind in a healthy body Page 3 Meeting Rohana - Adela Teturova (CZ) It was a mixture of feelings for me at the beginning. I was so looking forward to meeting Rhona and welcome her at our house. And at the same time I was really nervous – What if she doesn’t like me? What if she doesn’t understand my English? At the end it was one of my greatest experience ever. And not only for me but also for my sister, parents and grandparents. We enjoyed wonderful week, had a lot of fun and time was passing so fast. I remember how I saw Rhona for the first time... I was waiting at the platform and when she appeared I wanted to run away as I was shy and scared she wouldn’t understand my English. But I couldn’t because in a while the Scottish teacher asked me where Mrs Uhrova was and I had to take them to the train station main hall to meet my teacher. Then Rhona met the rest of my family. My father who doesn’t speak English could learn some introduction phrase, my mother could introduce herself in a nice way and my younger sister wrote on Rhona’s palm Hello and Hi and she was quiet. In the car I tried to ask Rhona about her journey but I really don’t remember the details as I was really nervous. Soon we arrived home and 3 Rhona could meet also my granny and granddad. Rhona was very nice and polite, everyone in my family liked her very much and cared about her. I had many lovely memories on the meeting at our school. Segways riding, sports day, trip to Lednice, big barbeque party with the concert, trip to Brno. I will never forget of this experience.
- 4. Page 4 Newsletter 3 Greetings from Penicuik High School At five o’clock in the morning on the 28th of May seven yawning students, two sleep deprived teachers and the headmaster himself from Penicuik High School embarked on an adventure. The Czech Republic trip had been long anticipated by the staff and group of seven students that I was a part of. In the weeks leading up to the trip presentations of the theme A Healthy Mind, A Healthy Body were produced, rehearsed and perfected. This involved taking photos of the contents of our fridges after a big shop and comparing them to The Eatwell Plate. On the whole, our fridges provided healthy balanced diets, the most offensive item being a can of Irn Bru. The most enjoyable project we worked on as a group was creating sporting equipment from recycled materials. We created ten pin bowling; the ball was made by scrunching up plastic bags and tying them with elastic bands and the pins from ten two litre plastic The most enjoyable project we worked on as a group was creating sporting equipment from recycled materials. bottles a third full of water. The preparation took many weeks, and a few days before departure we were presented with massive, matching Penicuik High School Tshirts to sport in the Czech school, identifying ourselves proudly as the Scottish group. On arriving in the Czech Republic a team united by the previous weeks of preparation and the giant blue T-shirts tucked in our bags we were each escorted off by a different Czech family. All to stay for the week with Czech pupils somewhere around the town of Břeclav, we were plunged into 4 We all had very different experiences, but they all had the common trait of being very different from our home lives. their lifestyles, their culture, their diets. The diet came as the biggest shock for most; provided with at least four meals a day, plus constant snacks, tea and cake breaks and late night munches, we were turning into a team of walking carbohydrates. A typical meal there was a slab of meat and bread or dumplings,
- 5. A healthy mind in a healthy body Page 5 The village I stayed in, just outside of Břeclav was a wine village, and I got a fantastic tour of the vineyards from my host family. A fellow student of mine was staying in a house decorated extravagantly with stag heads, antlers, framed butterflies, cacti and a boar’s head. We all had very different experiences, but they all had the common trait of being very different from our home lives. When we went to their school, along with students and staff from Holland, Iceland, Italy, Slovenia and Spain, we first attended a performance by the nursery children. They sang us many Czech songs and performed a short Czech play, then presented us with gifts they had made; little clay houses. Next, we got a tour around and it was similar to our schooling in Scotland, however they had separate buildings for seniors and juniors. day, where everyone mingled together, and made friends. We taught each other basic vocabulary from our own countries and by the end of the day everyone had at least ten new Facebook friends. The trip seemed to pass in a blur and before we knew it we were embracing our host families at the Břeclav train station, clutching gifts we had received or were giving as a thank you. We made friends and shared experiences that week that will stay with us for a long time. It was a fantastic opportunity. We also learned how to segway, and aside from my embarrassingly public crash landing, it was a hilarious and highly enjoyable experience. As the theme of the trip was health, we had a big sports My Italian Experience I was sitting on the plane for the first time in my life. And it was amazing. We were flying above the Alps and I couldn’t believe my eyes how beautiful it was:) I lived in a very nice and friendly Italian family:) Morever, they had a really lovely dog which was great. The first nights there I was sad, I felt homesick. However, all members of the family were great and helped me a lot. We started chatting in a dining room I felt much better. Italian school was a bit of surprise, it was completely different from my school. But shorty afterwards I felt like home there, especially thanks to warm-hearted people and a very good programme. I loved mainly trip to Rome. There was a Roman solider who wanted to cut off my head. (He just pretended, of course). I could see Colosseum, Vatican and lots of other remarkable places in this city. I was just a bit disappointed that we didn’t have time enough to visit Spanish Stairs. In short, I really enjoyed it. It was a wonderful trip. → 5 But shorty afterwards I felt like home there, especially thanks to warm
- 6. Another amazing experience for me was the last day in Italian school. We had a five-course dinner and we were sitting altogether at the longest table I had ever seen. The food was delicious and we had a lot of fun. After meal we went to the school garden where Italian students performed traditional dances and music. The boy dancers had very long and funny shoes. They also taught us to dance and at the end we all were dancing together. It was hard to say goodbye. But I have so lovely memories. I'm still in touch with the family where I lived. We write e-mails, talk together via skype. But I miss them and hope I will meet them again. Another great experience for me was when a Scottish and Spanish girls lived in our house during the Czech project meeting. We were really excited about their arrival and my mother who cannot speak English was very shy and nervous. But she handled that perfectly and I think we managed to make girls feel like home. We had a lot of fun together, took many photos. I miss them both. Tamara Svobdova, CZ Slovenian reflections about the first year of our project Last school year I attended a meeting for Comenius project. Before this meeting the teacher and the students made a presentation about how healthy the habits of the students in our school were. We made a survey, talked about results and improvements, and did the presentation. In Holland-that was the place of our meeting- all the students from different countries and schools had their presentations. We all talked about the same topic and it was very interesting to hear what the habits in other countries were. We couldn’t believe that some facts were true. They were a surprise to us. On our trip we met new friends, and I think friendships in each group which travelled together became stronger - we know each other better. When we came home, we talked about our impressions, experiences… We made a poster with the photos of our trip. There is one more positive thing about this meeting: we were in a foreign country, so we couldn’t speak our mother tongue - we had to speak English, if we wanted the others to understand us. We became more confident about our English because we used it very often. I think it was an unforgettable and educative experience for all of us. Meta Mekuč, Slovenian student, SI 6
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- 8. „My week at Visit to th e Netherlan ds the Wesselinks“ I was flying for the first tim I was flying for the first tim e in my life and I had e never been to the Netherla in my life and I had never been to the Netherlands nds before. I didn’t know how Dutch kids would before. I didn’t know how Dutch kids would be like and be like and I was very nervous. When I had a loo I was very nervous. When I had a look at my classmatek at my classmates who were travelling with me, s who were travelling wit me, I wasn’t much calmer becI wasn’t much calmer h aus because they were even mo e they were even mo nervous. Just our teacher wa re nervous. Just our re teacher was completely cal s completely calm, smiling m, and blinking at us on the pla smiling and blinking at us on the plane whenever ne whenever she saw that she saw that we were getting really scared we were . getting really scared. When When I I sawBartt and his family for the first time, I saw Bar and his was immediately calmer…I family for the first time, rea I was immediately calmer…I lly liked them and I was really liked them and I really were. I really enjoye d my And they really were. I rea stay there and could learn a lot. Also about mysel lly enjoyed my stay f. there and could lea lot. I saw places which I didn’t guess I would rn a see Also about myself. I ever .I saw places which I didn’t gue could eat Dutch foo I ride Dutch bikes, visit Amste ss I would ever see. d, rdam and Nemo centre. could eat Dutch food, will never forget. And I ride Dutch bikes, visit Am- I am sterdam and Nemo centre still very grateful to Bart’s . I will nev family which I am still in tou er forget. And I am still very grateful to ch with. Bart’s family which I am Tadeas Figura, CZ ll in touch sti with. 8