COMENIUS
“CONNECT FOUR”
PROJECT MEETING
18 MAY 2004
ASKER, NORWAY
St. Bride’s Primary School, Belfast, Northern Ireland.
Ceip Anibal Otero, Ribeira De Piquin, Spain.
Istituto Comprehensivo Di Scuola, Castel Prentano, Italy
Hosted by: Vardåsen Skole, Asker, Norway.
Welcome to “Connect four” project meeting in Asker, 18 May 2005.
The meeting will be held with two representatives from each of the partner countries.
Anxo og Lucia
James and
Giuseppina and
Hege and Sue
Time schedule for the project meeting.
Wednesday 18.05.05 08.30 – 15.15
08.30 Welcome to the Education Offices.
Coffee, tea.
09.00 – 12.00
10.00 – 10.15Morning break, fruit.
12.00 – 12.45Lunch
12.45 – 14.45/15.00
15.00/15.15Back to Scandic Hotel
Our planned project meeting will enable us to work together for approximately five hours.
The suggested program and details of themes to be discussed is to be found on the following pages.
Please look at the themes to be discussed and come prepared.
CONTENTS.
Before lunch.
- Short evaluation of the project activities so far.
- Direct contact classes, how do we anticipate working with this.
- Booklets, to be produced. Ideas from each of the partners.
After lunch.
- The choice of drawings for the calendar.
- The updating of the web site.
- Project meeting in October, Lugo
INTRODUCTION
- Introduction of the planned project meetings by Sue, coordinator for Connect Four.
- A short presentation of participants from “Partner schools”.
We introduce ourselves and share our thoughts on Connect Four so far.
THEMES FOR DISCUSSION.
- Which activities have taken place so far in the school year 2004/2005?
What has been good about the planned activities?
What could have been done differently?
Improvements that can be made make planned activities function better.
- Which activities are envisaged for the remaining part of the school year 2004/2005?
NOTE: ”Activities include those taking place within the participating institutions, as well as mobility activities, i.e. project meetings, teachers exchanges, head teacher study visits. In case of major deviations from the initial plan explain why.” Joint application form section C.
MEETING 3.
- Which activities do you intend to carry out in the course of the school
year 2005/2006 and what are the expected results thereof?
NOTE: Describe the planned activities planned to take place locally within the participating institutions, as well as the transnational mobility activities for staff and pupils. Will there be any specific project results produced in 2005/2006? How do you intend to evaluate the progress of the project and its impact? Will there be any specific dissemination activities of project results, experience and end products? Joint application form section C.
- Evaluation of our first project meeting and head teacher study visit.
- Suggested time schedule for our application for 2005/2006.
YEAR ONE.
Extracts from our joint application for CONNECT FOUR 2004/2005.
Section C. PROJECT CONTENT and ORGANISATION.
Which activities do you intend to carry out in the course of the project?
“Connect 4” will be launched in the respective schools at the beginning of the autumn term. It is important for us that the school community has knowledge of the project, its aims and planned activities for the first year, and its expected duration (2004 – 2007). Due to the varying sizes of the partner schools some pupils will participate to a much greater extent than others.
“Getting to know you”…….Autumn 2004/ summer 2005
Activity 1. “Putting ourselves on the map.”
A worksheet/questionnaire for the core pupils taking part in “Connect 4”. Questions about the partner countries, including; where situated, distance between the countries, size, capital city, population, language, topography, famous people, customs, etc. Through the questionnaires we expect not only to learn what the pupils already know or do not know, but also to awaken their interest and curiosity, the desire to know more. These worksheets will be the foundations for our evaluations as the project progresses.
Evaluation of Activity 1.
What went well?
What can be done differently?
Our evaluation can have an impact on Activity 7. 2005/2006 “What do we know now?” “What would we like to know more about?”
Activity 2.“Connecting 4”
Project boards will be set up and information added as the pupils discover more facts and as we start exchanging information. A map of Europe and the four participating countries will be marked, including their flags and the project logo. The flags from Northern Ireland, Italy, Spain and Norway have been joined together as parts of a jigsaw puzzle connecting each other together, depicting “Connect 4”.
This will remain our main logo throughout the project.
Words in our partner languages, such as greetings, Hello, Welcome, How are you? Happy Christmas, Happy New Year…… etc. will instigate our first language exchanges.
We exchange ideas …………………………………………...
Activity 3.Who or what is this?
Our first exchange of materials will be in October. Photographs will be taken showing part of the school playground, part of a building, part of a room, an employee, a pupil doing an activity etc. These “incomplete pictures” will be given to the pupils to enable them to compile an image of what they think the playground in Italy looks like, or what the school building looks like in Norway, or what job they think the person from Northern Ireland does, or what activity they think the pupil from Spain is doing. The pupils draw the rest of the picture as they see it and write stories about the school, its location, jobs the people do, etc. The teachers will exchange the pictures in their full context and then share these with the pupils after they have completed their work in order to draw comparisons. Books will be produced to show the original photo and the pupils’ interpretations. Copies of the books will be made for all the partner schools. The aim here is to stir the pupil’s curiosity and the desire to learn even more about each other.
We evaluate Activity 3:
How far are we with this activity?
We share thoughts and decide how to produce the books we have planned from our photo activity.
Mobility.
Project meeting in Lanciano 22 – 25 November 2004.
We evaluate, and exchange experiences on our last meeting.
Activity 4. Did you know?
In early spring the partner schools will send each other a figure, a leprechaun or a troll. The mascots will be used as storytellers to tell traditional folk stories, fairy tales from each of the partner countries. The pupils will illustrate the stories as they see them and a selection of the illustrations will be chosen to make a “2006 Connect 4” Comenius calendar, to be printed in November 2005.
We discuss this activity, share ideas and set dates of exchange for this activity.
Activity 5. Would you like to learn a song, a game or a dance?
In April and May the partner schools will each chose a song, a folk dance and/or a game from their country that they would like to teach to their partner pupils. Music, words, steps and instructions will be exchanged to facilitate the learning process.
We discuss our expected results:
Our plans are; CDs, videos will be made of each school’s efforts for exchange in September 2005.
Other thoughts or ideas……….?
Mobility.
In April the mobility visit will take place with four teachers from Norway who will visit Spain.
Norway and Spain discuss and start plans for this visit.
Mobility.
In May the mobility visit will take place in Norway. Teachers from Northern Ireland, Italy and Spain will meet up first in Oslo before going on to partner school. This is planned to coincide with Norwegian National Day on the 17th May when the country celebrates its independence with processions for all the school children; something we feel strengthens the spirit of Comenius. A major focus of this project visit will be to evaluate year 1 of the project and to plan ahead for Year 2.
We share thought on dates and contents of the mobility visit to Norway.
YEAR ONE What kind of end product(s) do you intend to produce?
A book with photos and illustrations of what the partner schools and surroundings look like and what we thought they might look like.
Each school will have its own “Connect 4” board with relevant maps, logo, flags, national holidays and events, information and news bulletins
YEAR TWO
Plans for Years 2 and 3 will be fine-tuned at a later stage and will hopefully involve video-conferencing as a means of providing more direct and “virtual” contact with pupils and teachers in the partner schools and countries. We also anticipate increased staff mobility.
“Making Connections” Autumn 2005/ Summer 2006.
Mobility.
September 2005. A project meeting is planned for late Sept. and will take place in Spain.
Norway to Spain (2)
Northern Ireland to Spain (1)
Italy to Spain (6, including the principal)
Activity 6.Teaching each other songs, games or dances?
The exchange of words, music and instructions for the songs, games and dances the pupils will teach each other. It is anticipated that the pupils will perform their new songs and dances in connection with the 24th October, United Nations Day. Videos may be made to send to the partner schools with the results.
A collaborative floor game of snakes and ladders can be made, the pieces perhaps consisting of photos from the partner schools.
We exchange ideas based on our experiences so far….. and add details.
Activity 7.What do we know now?What would we like to know more about?
We repeat the worksheets/questionnaire from autumn 2004. This will give us valuable information about what knowledge the pupils have gained and where their interests lie for the development of the project.
Incorporate evaluation of activity 3. Do we need to make any changes?
Activity 8.We connect!
More direct contact between pupils. The school curriculum varies somewhat from country to country but through collaboration we will connect the pupils who will be invited to write letters to each other giving information about each other’s countries, traditions and to send postcards about their summer holiday experiences.
Electronic connections will be promoted to develop and encourage computer knowledge. The use of word processors and internet in order to exchange e-mails, scanning photos, exploring the partner’s web sites Web sites will be developed and used to disseminate information of “Connect 4” and Comenius.
Will some of these ideas be tried out in 2004/2005?
Web site ideas and demonstration from Italy.
Mobility.
Spring 2006. Head teacher visit from Northern Ireland, as yet not planned.
Mobility.
May 2006 in Italy.
Teachers exchange and meetings to discuss and plan the common theme for the summer performances in May/June 2007.
Northern Ireland to Italy (4)
Spain to Italy (2)
Norway to Italy (4, including the principal)
YEAR TWO What kind of end product(s) do you intend to produce?
Calendar for 2006. The calendar will be illustrated with the pupils` drawings and paintings of various traditional stories or fairy tales from all the schools.
A collaborative dictionary . Part of Activity 8? “We connect.”
EVALUATION.
Evaluation of our first project meeting and head teacher study visit.
TIME SCHEDULE.
Suggested time schedule for our application for 2005/2006.
YEAR THREE
“Creative performances on a theme”Autumn 2006/ Summer 2007
Mobility.
Project meeting in Prague.
Detailed planning of the final year – Performing.
A visit to the Comenius Museum.
Norway to Prague (2)Northern Ireland (1)
Italy (2)Spain (1)
Activity 9.We perform! “The final countdown”.
The schools plan their summer performances, incorporating creativity through the mediums of music, dance, drama and the arts.
The detail of this year’s work will be developed in collaboration with the project teams and participating teachers. Themes such as musicals, “Cats”, songs from various musicals, “Around the world in 80 days”, Circus, fairy tales etc. may prove to be possibilities, perhaps even our own “Connect 4” performance. The highlight and culmination of the project will be the performance. This will be shown to pupils, parents and educational authorities at the end of the summer term, May, June or July. The number of pupils participating will vary from school to school, according to size and core group. Some may give solo performances, or classes may perform together, whilst others may involve the whole school. We would aim to enlist external help from teachers at the music schools, dance teachers, artists etc. to give pupils extra support and also, where appropriate, to assist with the making of costumes, props and scenery.
Mobility.
June 2007. The final mobility visit will take place in Northern Ireland where the project was born.
Norway to Northern Ireland (4)Spain to Northern Ireland (2)
Italy to Northern Ireland (4, including the principal)
YEAR THREE What kind of end product(s) do you intend to produce?
A school performance on a common theme, and including songs, music and dance from the other countries.
A joint multilateral project website.
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