Teachers blog
Fostering Motivation to Competence Development
The first day, Thuesday 13.12.2017
Lithuania, Thuesday 12.12.
On the first day of the meeting, the community of Emilio Ferrari organised a series of welcome events for the international delegation. We were greeted by the head teacher, the parents' association, the teachers and the students, who had decorated their school with posters and international flags and presented us with some souvenirs of the school and Valladolid. In the school hall, the students and their music teacher Maria Angeles introduced the music, instruments, and dances of all the regions of Spains. They had even prepared a number of mouthwatering local foods and drinks for the guests to taste!
Our work on the project started with the head of studies Miryam giving a presentation of the Spanish educational system and the school. Then, every school participating in the project was presented with a series of informative slides, photos and videos that the partners had brought from home.
After an impressive and long first day at school, the international and local teachers enjoyed a visit to the Town Hall of Valladolid, where a representative of the city council presented us with special souvenirs, and saw some of the most beautiful and important landmarks of the city accompanied by a very knowledgeable guide with great passion for her city.
The day was finished with a relaxing international dinner at the hotel. The partners tasted a variety of specialties that they had brought from home, sang national songs and got to know each other through informal conversations.
The second day, Wednesday 14.12.2017
Poland Wednesday, 13.12.
Wednesday morning was overcast, light rain was falling. To school we got a little wet even though it was a huge plus- we didn’t get lost.
Wednesday was our second day at school, a very busy day. From early morning, each partner school presented the presentation of the results of the survey "How do you learn best." The results of surveys of different countries were very similar. And the main common conclusion is:
Students learn faster and better when they learn by doing, perform exercises and experiments, become explorers the secrets of knowledge. This attitude motivates them the best and the learning becomes an adventure.
After the coffee break, the next stage of our work began – the presentations of the examples of "Learning by doing". Presentations were made in various ways: images, videos, images and videos. After each presentation there were a lot of questions to the presenter and an interesting discussion was held.
The next point on Wednesday was guests’ participating in the lessons of Spanish teachers. As a host Spanish school is a bilingual school, we had the opportunity to visit biology lesson conducted in English. The lesson was great, and the level of English language of a teacher and students was very high.
On this day, teachers of the host school decided to bring us closer to the Spanish cuisine culture and the whole group went out for lunch to the bar for "tapas". “Tapas "is a kind of Spanish snacks. For the participants of the meeting will be unforgettable tiny bars and delicious snacks. And a fantastic atmosphere!
At 5 pm it was the planned visit to the National Museum of Sculpture in Valladolid. In the museum we could admire the most important works of the Golden Age of the Spanish sculpture in all its diversity: single statues, tombs and setting the altar, and the Neapolitan crib with over 600 figures and additives. The Renaissance sculptures of pine and walnut impressed us the most, as well as Patio Grande- nineteenth century university built in Isabelline Gothic, it is also known as the "Temple of Wisdom". Today, the building is part of the National Museum of Sculpture.
That was a memorable ending of Wednesday, December 13, 2016.The third day, Thursday 15.12.2017
Finland, Thursday 15.12.
On Thursday we started to see presentations of evaluation. It was really interesting to compare different ways of evaluation in each country. After each presentation we asked many questions and talked about presentations and how we could develop it in each school. There is a short summary of conversation in projects website.
After that we had time to distribution of certificates. It was nice and warm happening in the hall of the school. The head teacher gave certificates to everyone and all the teams got also some medal and a really nice painting – a miniature of the painting that is in the wall of the hall. What a great memory to bring back to our schools!
After coffee break we continued to see presentations of "Learning by doing", because we didn’t have time to see all of those on Wednesday. Presentations were again really interesting and after each presentation there were a lot of questions and we again got many new ideas. All the teachers tried played QuizletLive in small groups. It was fun and we would have liked to do it even longer!
There were a lot work on the Thursday and all the coordinators continued to evaluate our first transnational meeting and to talk about the next meeting in Czech Republic. Others had short time to go to hotel and when they came back, we all went to bus for travel to town of Mucientes. We went to hundreds years old vino cellars and saw interesting old equipments and stories of how vino has been made earlier. After that we visited the local vino factory, and we saw how they make it nowadays.
From there we went to museum of music. There were thousands of different kind of music instruments. The owner of the museun had collected sall those traditional instruments and he also show us how to use those! We really enjoyed it.
For a nice ending of the day and whole week we had a delicious dinner in a very nice place. After that dinner the bus brought us back to hotel and we had to say goodbye. It was nice to know that we all will see soon in Czech Republic.
Traveling days
Czech republic, traveling days
On the way
Our adventurous journey towards new experience began early on Monday morning. We were about to visit the first international meeting with our partner schools and woke up tired, but with some sort of excitement. In our minds, Spain, where we were meeting, was a sunny place and we were looking forward to feel its warm touch. Little did we know that the first obstacle on the way will, in fact, be the weather. Due to the heavy fog in Madrid the flight was delayed for almost three hours the most of which we had to spend waiting in a plane. Therefore, we missed the bus we´d booked to Vallodolid but arrived to the platform just in time to catch another one.
It was unfortunate that the fog that lasted for several days prevented us from enjoying the view of our surroundings, nevertheless the difference, in comparison to what we are used to from our country, was striking. After few hours, we jumped out the bus and walked towards the address that was supposed to lead us to our accommodation. Only after we nearly got to the school we realized our mistake, gave the walking with luggage up and took a taxi to the hotel which happed to be in an opposite direction.
It was 7 p.m. and we were finally there. Soon afterwards Trini from Spain came to give us a warm welcome and we knew we are in good hands. Accompanied by Finnish and Polish delegations we went to have well deserved meal and learnt how precious in central Spain is to meet someone who can speak English. It has only underlined the fact that later became even more obvious. The importance of learning foreign languages in order to connect. The fact, what an amazing job Emilio Ferrari school does to run a bilingual program and provide high quality language teaching to raise better language equipped generations got even more striking.
Last thoughts
When leaving Valladolid we all were filled with great impressions and information that we can already use to increase our teaching competences. On top of it we have experienced learning by doing on our own and learnt a lot about Spain the way most of the tourists won´t. We know we have a lot to learn from each other and we believe that together we will be able to reach our goals.