Thursday, July 9, 2009

Minutes of Project Meeting Baia Mare 29 May 2009

The second project meeting took place in Romania and was hosted by Mihai Eminescu National College, Baia Mare, Romania.
The participants at this meeting were teachers from the 6 schools taking part in the project:

1. Lycée du Granier, La Ravoire Cedex, France- Coordinating Institution
2. Georg Büchner-Gymnasium, Seelze, Germany
3. Polo Europeo della Conoscenza – Istituto Comprensivo Fumane “Lorenzi B.'' Fumane(Verona), Italy
4. Liceum Ogólnokształcące in Tarnów, Poland
5. Mihai Eminescu National College, Baia Mare, Romania
6. Bursa Polis Koleji / Bursa Police College, Bursa, Turkey

The main subject on the agenda was our third mobility programmed in Seelze.

Dates and Accommodation

We started by agreeing on the dates of the next mobility to be held in Seelze. We decided that teams would travel to Germany on Tuesday 1st December. The official programme will begin the following day (2nd December) and continue through until 4th December. Teams will return home on Saturday 5th or Sunday 6th December. As with the two mobilities held this school year, teachers will be accommodated in a hotel and pupils in host families. The German team suggested a hotel in the neighbouring city of Hannover offering easy access by public transport to the Gymnasium in Seelze.

Work to be prepared before the Seelze Mobility

It was agreed that, in accordance with our Comenius application, activities in the second year would focus on interviews between pupils in each country and immigrants. We discussed the form these interviews would take. The following were suggested; short films with English subtitles similar to the one presented by the French team during the Baia Mare conference, recorded interviews, written scripts presented in direct speech, reports using indirect speech, newspaper-style articles etc. All documents will obviously need to be translated into English so as to be understood by all. Teams from each country will arrive in Germany with these ‘products’ which will be presented to the other groups during one of our meetings.

Website, Blog and Communication

The Romanian team explained that, as stipulated in our Comenius application, they would produce a website so that these interviews could be posted and consulted, whatever the form (video, script, digital recording, newspaper-style article etc.)
All present expressed satisfaction with the existing blog;
http://immigrants-past-and-present.blogspot.com
We also concluded that the initial e-group immigrants_CMP@yahoogroups.com had functioned successfully, enabling all teams to communicate with each other and be informed concerning developments. It will therefore continue to be used next year.

Activities while in Seelze

We then moved on to discuss suitable activities while in Seelze. Time will obviously be set aside for pupil presentations. The German team also agreed that, as initially planned, a round table discussion with immigrants would be organized, possibly with several immigrants addressing the assembled teams one after the other and/or addressing groups of pupils and teachers, thereby offering more opportunity for interaction.
Another proposal was to invite an ‘expert’ on immigration to explain the German context. Other ideas included screening a film such as ‘Auf der Anderen Seite’ on German-Turkish relations to be followed by a debate similar to that organized at the cinema in Challes-les-Eaux. Some teachers expressed the desire to observe at least one class at the Gymnasium.
The German team offered a range of possible excursions (Hannover, the Christmas market in a nearby medieval town, the Museum of Emigration in Hamburg or Bremerhaven etc.)
The German team will build their programme around these activities but in the meantime welcome suggestions from all teams.

Conclusion

All present thought that the first year had been a resounding success.
Activities had been stimulating and corresponded to expectations. Both mobilities had offered pupils and teachers the opportunity to work on a common theme, meet people from other countries, share experiences and learn about other European cultures. On this basis, all expressed pleasure at the prospect of continuing our work next year.

No comments: