Sunday 20 March 2016

Joint teacher training in Lithuania



We had our 1st joint teacher training programme in Skuodas, Lithuania from 14th to 18th April. Every partner was represented by three teachers so the host Lithuanian team had 15 guest teachers! It was a great week full of activities and great opportunities for professional development.



During the meeting we could get better acquainted with our partner school Skuodo Pr. Žadeikio gimnazija. We received lots of information about its operation and could get a glimpse of its regular activites and programmes. 

During the training event we could work together with our partner teachers in the course of profession workshops. Firstly, we successfully implemented a joint teaching programme, which was a great experience and also proved to be highly informative and useful for our professional development. It was implemented the following way: the six countries were paired up prior to the meeting (Croatia-Hungary, Italy-Spain and Lithuania-Turkey). Each pair needed to prepare a 45-minute long lesson for Lithuanian students using the same text that we had chosen beforehand. The text that we worked on was Aesop’s fable: ’Androcles and the lion’. Each country made a lesson plan and created materials for the lessons and we observed each other. It was extremely interesting to see our colleagues „in action” and see how all partners exploited the same text. we could learn a lot from each other and share good practices and teching methods. We are going to compile all the lesson plans and activities in a booklet. In addition, it was very interesting to see Lithuanian students in their own learning environment and it was great to work with them as they were very well-disciplined and cooperative during the lessons.







Besides the joinet teaching sessions, we created an activity bank for our common reader chosen by the participating students ’The Canterville Ghost’ by Oscar Wilde. The teachers worked in four groups and created activities and lesson plans for pre-reading, while-reading, post-reading and drama. It was very useful and effective as we could share our ideas with each other and create something together.
We also had a session where we showed different digital tools to each other with a view to using them in our project activities. Some of the tools we got acquainted with are Padlet, a Timeline maker, Onenote, Learningapps.com, Easel-y , Ed-canvas, myhistro, and edpuzzle.




 We also had an opportunity to observe lessons. We could see an English, a Russian and an IT lesson, all of which were really interesting. 





On the other hand, we could see Lithuanian students not only in lessons but also during other activities as well. We took part in a ’cultural conference’ where we were given a deep insight into Litnuanian geography, traditions and customs, and we also had a chance to taste some traditional Lithuanian food and drink as well beautifully displayed by students. We were also shown and taught some games and songs and we also shared some games of ours too. It was a great conference!




Also, we had the honour of seeing the school’s drama group’s premiere on Friday. They performed a play titled ’Survival’ which is based on Golding’s „Lord of the Flies”. The performance was excellent! The acting was great, all the students are really talented and have a good sense of stage. The interesting thing about the play was that all the performers were girls in contrast to the original story, which is about a group of boys. Afterwards we had a discussion with the performers and the leader of the drama group about their preparations for the play.


Last but not least, we took part in a ’Brain battle’, which is a quiz game. We played in groups of mixed nationality and the questions were all in connection with the participating countries. It was great fun!
 Naturally, besides hard work we took part in some trips and visits.
On Monday we paid a visit to Skuodas Municipality and met the mayor of the town. We received lots of interesting information about the history of the region and could have an informal discussion with him about our countries and schools.

We also went to the local library, where we found out some information about the history of the library and the different types of projects that the library has taken part in. We also visited the local museum where we saw – besides others- beautiful carvings and paintings, the stone museum in Musedis and the Amber musem in Palanga. We went to the beach of the Baltic sea as well. 
The Baltic sea

The Amber museum


The stone museum


The local library

We had a trip to Klaipeda, where after a very interesting and informative sightseeing tour we went to the puppet theatre where we took part in a workshop about how to make simple puppets and good many great ideas on how to use them. It was a wonderful experience!




We also had many opportunities to taste Lithuanian cuisine, and we all agreed that Lithuanian food is very tasty. We tried cepelinas, which is a potato dumpling stuffed with meat, potato pancakes, cold beetroot soup and many other mouth-watering dishes. 
Cepelinas

Cold beetroot soup


All in all, we had a wonderful time and made the most of time we spent with as the guests of our Lithuanian partners. We had also managed to discuss several issues related to project management and implementation and made preparations for the forthcoming student exchange which will take place in Hungary April 11th-15th.

We are all looking forward to meeting there!



Saturday 5 March 2016

Oscar Wilde: The Canterville Ghost and other stories - Our common reader

We have carried out the voting about our common reader and the most popular option was The Canterville Ghost by Oscar Wilde.
It means that every student will read the book and the teachers will create an activity bank with exercises for this reader during the joint teacher training programme in Lithuania in March. The graded reader can be read online:

http://english-e-reader.net/onlinereader/the-canterville-ghost-stories-oscar-wilde/

Tuesday 1 March 2016

This is our best summary from this 1st students exchange, Families, students and school teachers , really happy this

After a week of intensive work,  the goodbye came to an end , with this summary of happy students and families we would like to thank : Croatia, Hungary , Italy, Lithuania and Turkey for such a great week full of good memories .
Along this week several media in Tomelloso informed about the exchange and the activities carried out :
Monday 22nd

Together for the Literature 

Radio Surco ( Local Radio )



 Last week we lived a special and unforgettable experience, in which we hosted in Spain 25 students from others different countries: Croatia, Lithuania, Italy, Hungary and Turkey.They stayed  in our houses, and we did lots of our diary activities with them.  we also did some lecture' s activities we  visited the Local Library of Tomelloso and introduced some nationals authors. Also we went to visit some important places is Spain and its culture.

On Sunday, 21 we were very nervous because the students arrived to Spain, and we decided to went with our teacher Ana Maria to picked up them in the Adolfo Suarez's airport. In the airport we had to went to three different terminals, because each country arrived in one different terminal. When we picked up all the students, we returned to Tomelloso. And then we came to our houses. In my house, Vincenca and me unpacked her suitcase and then we had  pizza.

On Monday, 22, We went to the school at 8:30 and in there, we did a presentation activity in which the students of each country presented his school and a little part of his town. Then we went to the Town Hall and the mayor of Tomelloso welcome the students. After that we went to visited " La posada de los portales" because it's the oldest monument in Tomelloso. Then we lunch with my family a typical food of Spain "Potatoes omelet". At four we went to drank a coffee with the others students, and we learnt some words and expressions of others languages like "merhaba"(hello in turkey). Then we went to the sport centre and finally, Vincenca and I went with my mother to bought some food for that week.

On Tuesday, 23, we also got up at 8:30. We went to the Local library with our classmates and then the students of each country introduced two national authors, a classic author and a contemporary author, with his respective book. We lunch in my house, and then, at 17:00 we went with the other students to visited a famous museum in Tomelloso (El museo deal carro). After that we went to eat  a pancake. And finally Alicia, Maria and I taught them our flamenco' s class and some flamenco' step. That was  fantastic, we laughed a lot!

On Wednesday, 24th , We stayed  all the day in Madrid for this reason we had to get up very early. When we arrived there  we spent all the morning doing a gymkhana at The Literary Quarter, in which we recognised some of the most famous authors in Spain like Miguel de Cervantes, Calderon de la Barca, Quevedo..... Also we walked through the main  streets of Madrid. After that we went to have  lunch in the centre commercial "Parque Sur" and in there we bought lots of things. Then we returned to Tomelloso.

On Thursday, 25th we went to visit one of the biggest wine cellar in Europe, and in there we learnt the process production of wine. Then we went to Argamasilla de Alba, and there we visited The Medrano's cave ( the cell where Cervantes was imprisoned ) and we did the route of Don Quixote.

On Friday, 26th We visited  Toledo. In there, first we visited The public Library of Castilla-La Mancha, it's in Alcazar de Toledo, and when we finished visit the Library we went to saw the mosque of Toledo. Then we had free time, and we were shopping in Alcazar de Toledo and then we went to had lunch. We returned to Tomelloso soon, and I helped Vincenca to pack  her suitcase, then we went to dinner to Burger King. After that we stayed in Alicia's house a few time, and the we came to my house.

On Saturday, 27, we were very sad because all the students came back to their countries. We picked them  up to the main square and the bus got  them to the airport. Then we had only one goodbye more : Italy . They were the last ones leaving .. It was very sad morning  because everyone had left for their countries and we became  very friendly.

Now, we chat with them every day, and  in summer some of our friends are going to come to Spain to visit us.
THIS WEEK HAS BEEN AMAZING !!!!

                                                                                                              Elena Serrano Lara

Voting for our common reader

Voting for our common reader

Please choose the book you would like to read! Please choose only ONE! Thanks a lot!

Emma Woodhouse is beautiful, clever and rich. She lives with father and her teacher, her mother died and sister married and went to live with her husband. She has never thought of getting married herself. Instead, she amuses herself by trying to arrange marriages between her friends and neighbours. Although Emma still young and knows a little about the world, she thinks she always right. As a result, Emma makes a lot of mistakes and causes more problems than happy marriages. Because she is so busy trying to arrange other people’s lives, will she lose her own chance of happiness? Will she make all her relatives happy or sad? Will she ever married someone or no?

For a long time a ghost lived in the Canterville castle. He killed many of generation who live there. Eventually the house has been sold to others. Soon after a new family arrived to live at castle and sat down to dinner. They saw a red stain on the floor. Later they learned that a blood stain is belongs to killed wife of ghost. Father cleaned the spot, but the next day it appeared again. Every night the ghost was wandering through corridors bothering the family. The next night, when the ghost began to walk again, the father suggested him lubricate the chain by oil. Ghost became very angry and decided to take a revenge.

Holmes had been informed about next murder in Herefordshire and went to Boscombe Valley in that community. Mr. Charles McCarthy had been killed by his own son. At least son was the prime suspect because all evidences were leading to him. But James was denying a charge. He told that accidentally met his father in the wood that day and they quarreled. The quarrel was because of son’s fiancée. Mr. Charles chased away his son. When James had gone out not far from that place he heard a scream and ran back. McCarthy had been killed and his last word was “a rat”. Nearby of Mr. Charles’s body was laying a cloak, but that thing had disappeared later and James noted it.