Wednesday 27 December 2017

7th Transnational Project Meeting, 6th Joint Staff Training Event and 4th Pupils' Exchange

The third and final project year started with new experiences, challenges and adventures for our international Erasmus+ Metaminds family in Portugal where 18 pupils and 24 teachers from partner schools gathered on 9 - 15 October for 7th Transnational Project Meeting, 6th Joint Staff Training Event and 4th Pupils' Exchange.
The meeting was hosted by Agrupamento de Escolas No 1 de Serpa, which is the central school of the school group, located in Serpa, a city in the central Portuguese region Alentejo, 220 km from Lisbon and 30 km from the border with Spain.
On Tuesday, the meeting began with a warm concert of Portuguese students, who, together with their teacher, sang and played not only traditional local songs and tunes, but also surprised the guests, performing typical musical pieces of their home countries. Then, the senior students took the visitors, divided in teams, on a tour around their school, which functions in two buildings situated in the same campus.
Soon, after the acquaintance with the school premises, staff and pupils, followed the conference, during which the TEIP Plan at Serpa School Group No 1 was introduced by Lucrécia Fernandez. It was a useful sharing of experience and measures, taken to improve pupils' performance, prevent early school leaving and deal with the problems, faced by Portuguese educators at present.
Later, while the project committee were having their first work planning session, and the pupils, together with their buddies, were having classes, Cândida Santos, a Portuguese teacher, presented a fun way for visiting teachers to relax and cope with stress - laughter yoga. The entertaining event was appreciated and enjoyed by all.
In the afternoon, all project participants, together with the hosts, attended a reception at Serpa Municipality and were welcomed by the town authorities as well as traditional local singers. Then, everyone was invited on a guided walking tour around the town and admired fantastic views from the top of Serpa castle.
In the evening, teachers were introduced to rich Portuguese culinary heritage. The region of Alentejo is known as the country's gastronomic soul and it also produces almost half of Portugal's wine. So, educational wine tasting event with a professional wine expert Joao Pereira Santos was another experience not to miss!
Next day, visiting pupils and their buddies were involved in art, music and dance workshops. Meanwhile, teachers were engaged in a conference, during which the pupils’ protocol – fundamental skill to learning to learn - was presented by Claudia Sabatano. 
In the afternoon, after a few job shadowing sessions,  a public presentation of the teachers' protocol was organised. 
To relax and to reflect on an eventful day, evening in Quinta do Quetzal winery was a perfect choice as we had an opportunity to see beautiful vineyards, to take part in a wine tasting combined with typical  Alentejo wine snacks and to visit an impressive contemporary art centre.
Thursday was dedicated to exploring Évora, one of Portugal’s most beautifully preserved medieval towns with its unique historic centre - UNESCO world heritage, Roman ruins - Temple of Diana, and the Macabre Chapel of Bones. We also visited Monsaraz, a nice walled town on top of a hill overlooking the Alqueva Dam waters.
On Friday, while the Committee were planning the remaining tasks of the project, visiting teachers and pupils paid a visit to the Vocational School of Rural Development of Serpa. Later, the visiting pupils showed what they had learnt during the week: pupils' performance included dancing, singing and acting. The meeting ended with Claudia Sabatano's insightful conference on conflicts and metacognitive strategies to cope with them.
Finally, on Saturday, it was time to bid farewell to hospitable hosts of Serpa and, before going home, to visit the capital of Portugal - Lisbon. It was great fun to admire historical neighbourhoods Alfama and Mouraria comfortably going up and down the 7 hills of Lisbon on board of a Tuk Tuk!
Overall, it was another fantastic meeting of great educational value. Moreover, the visitors from England, Denmark and Lithuania were able to enjoy a week of delightful summer sunshine, having left dull autumn weather back home. All the teams are grateful to the Portuguese partners and especially to João Pereira Santos for this amazing experience!

Sunday 28 May 2017

6th Transnational Project Meeting, 5th Joint Staff Training Event and 3rd Pupils' Exchange



On the (unusually sunny) first week of May, the 6th Transnational Project meeting was hosted by Viltis Progymnasium in Panevėžys, Lithuania, involving 22 teachers and 15 students from the partner countries.
Visiting students and teachers were treated to an exciting display of Lithuanian traditional dancing and music, before a welcome from school Director Danutė Valiukienė and a brief introduction to the project from Dr Claudia Sabatano. Every visitor also received a miniature birdbox (made by the Lithuanian students) and I expect these are now on display in homes across Europe!
Over the course of the week, students stayed with families of students from Viltis Progymnasium and took part in their buddy’s classes and social life. As part of the METAMINDS programme, students did activities to develop their cognitive self-assessment, discussed emotions in school and produced a collaborative artwork using colours and emotions. As well as learning about Lithuanian school life, tasting Lithuanian food and learning some “survival” Lithuanian, students made many international friends and were sad to say goodbye! 
Of course, our visiting teachers didn’t miss out! Several professional development workshops were held based around metacognition, including a seminar on reflection, led by Audronė Tichanavičienė, and a workshop on mind maps led by Asta Sakalienė (recognised as one of the top five teachers in Lithuania!). All teachers also attended Claudia Sabatano’s conference on conflict, observed several lessons in Viltis Progymnasium, and played leadership education games with students.
The scientific committee continued developing the training materials for the online teacher protocol and discussed feedback from teachers and students on metacognitive strategies. Work also began in earnest on the tasks that will form the pupil protocol and it was discussed how the project is expected to take shape over the final year.
On the final night in Panevėžys, Viltis Progymnasium hosted a public event as part of the dissemination of the METAMINDS project. Visiting teachers and students were able to show off some Lithuanian language, music and dance skills that they had learnt during the week, accompanied by the very talented students and staff of Viltis! Before the official speeches, each of the partner countries described their school and the aims and progress of the METAMINDS project was shared by Claudia Sabatano and Monica Melloni.
Few of us had been to Lithuania previously, but this trip taught us a lot about the beautiful art, delicious food and turbulent history of this intriguing country (not to mention all the dancing!). On a visit to Anykščiai, we visited a Horse Museum, made traditional bread and saw the work of local artisans, including a weaver, blacksmith and wood carver. On our final full day, we visited the picturesque villages of Kernavė and Trakai, and had a guided tour of the capital, Vilnius, including sights such as the Cathedral, the Presidential Palace and the artists’ Republic of Užupis.
All visitors are grateful to Jolanta and the Lithuanian students, families and staff (Eglė, Jolita, Vilma, Rasa and the others) for being excellent hosts and for teaching us about their country. The next mobility is Portugal – see you there!

Written by Rachel Blackmore

Friday 10 March 2017

5th Transnational Project Meeting and 4th Joint Staff Training Event

19 teachers from 6 project partner countries this time gathered in 3o Gymnasio Edessa, Greece, for the 5th international Metaminds project meeting and the 4th joint staff training event, on 23rd - 28th January, 2017.


On the arrival, the visiting teachers received a warm welcome from the Greek pupils who performed their traditional dances, including syrtaki, of course! Then, they showed us their school facilities and told about school life.


The meeting started with the introduction of the teachers' pilot course on metacognition by Monica Melloni, the general coordinator of the project. Later, all the participants had a Skype conference with Claudia Sabatano, the headmistress of ICS "Giorgio Perlasca" (Rome, Italy), who also gave a lecture about emotions in learning to develop and enrich metacognitive strategies of the teachers, taking part in the Metaminds pilot course. 


Throughout the week, the visiting teachers had an excellent opportunity to do a few job shadowing activities, while the committee (coordinators) thoroughly followed their own schedule, devoting all the time to working on the present and future activities of teachers and pupils.


On Thursday and Friday, the meeting participants had a great honour to meet and enjoy the seminars, given by the expert on metacognition, Anastasia Efklides from Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. Not only did the professor give her valuable advice on the teachers and pupils' training courses being developed by our project teams, but she also took part in the public event for the school community.

  
The Project Dissemination Event took place on 26 January. It was attended by a huge number of 3o Gymnasio teachers, pupils and their parents as well as Edessa municipality members. As usual, Metaminds project teams introduced their schools, towns, countries and shared the joy of the joint work of seven schools from across Europe under the Erasmus Plus banner. After the official speeches and presentations, the hosts gave an unforgettable performance of Action Painting and the school choir sang songs from Greek films.

 
Speaking about the cultural experience, it is impossible not to mention Greek cuisine. During the visit, we have tried a lot of wonderful dishes representing Macedonian Cuisine as the town of Edessa, known as "city of waters", is in northern Greece. The waterfalls of Edessa are the largest waterfalls in the Balkans. The power of water is really breathtaking! To be completely amazed by the miracles of Greek nature, we had an exceptional chance to enjoy Loutraki-Pozar thermal water springs, the healing properties of which have been known since historic times.



Finally, we explored Thessaloniki, the second largest city in Greece, a port on the Thermaic Gulf of the Aegean Sea. The emblem of this beautiful waterfront city is the White Tower, a 15th century fortification, which is contemporary used as the exhibition space of the Byzantine Museum of Thessaloniki.


The meeting in Edessa has ended, but not the project. We have bid farewell to fantastic Greece and said many thanks to our Greek partners Eyanθια Σοφια and Eleni Kalaitzi, knowing that we will meet again. This time in Lithuania.