domenica 29 gennaio 2012

The main goal of our project entitled "Promoting Magic Places in Europe - Living Europe past, present, and future", is to promote interest in the European historical heritage and at the same time enhance the identification with the local and the European community, in the sense of unity in diversity (In varietate Concordia). Diversity is crucial as a counterweight against tendencies towards loss of identity and cultural roots in our age of globalization. Unity emphasizes our common European values as a result of a common heritage from antiquity to today. Our method will involve the promotion of "magic places" in different regions of Europe, places with special historical, archaeological and cultural impact on local communities, which embody parts of both local and European identity. Promotion is understood both in the sense of attracting the interest of our students for places and their physical characteristics, and in the sense of the concept of sustainable tourism, that is the authentic experience of locations in their historical and present cultural dimension, as well as of their people and present way of life, combined with economic aspects like local job markets. Mobilities of both students and teachers across Europe constitute an integral part of our approach, along with the use of information and communication technologies. High school students will participate in activities in multinational teams and acquire active, hands-on experiences by engaging with exploring, evaluating, mapping, meeting volunteer teams, restoring monuments, music, dance and art. Finally, the results of our interaction will reach our schools through products such as a virtual museum, a website, exhibitions, ideas for lesson plans, a celebration "Europe Day", workshops and presentations.
by Oswald Franz











LET'S START A NEW COMENIUS PROJECT WITH 10 EUROPEAN PARTNERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Italy Meeting at ITCG Fermi, 20-27 January 2012

Italy Meeting - Pontedera & Vicopisano

giovedì 12 gennaio 2012

My Ideal Castle Exhibition at the Vicopisano Fortress

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Comenius Workshop on Medieval Writing, Outcomes

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The Meeting in the Czech Rebublic: Annalisa's Diary

Saturday, 22th September 2012. Me and Gabriele, my italian friend, left in the morning from the airport of Pisa with our teacher Fascetti: our destination was the airport of Prague. The flight was ok and quite short (only one hour and half!). When we arrived at the airport in Prague, we had some problems with the address of the hotel, but we solved it in a few minutes. We took a taxi and we finally arrived at the hotel. There were some students already there, we introduced ourselves and then we (the Italian group) went to the centre of Prague for a quick visit. We came back for dinner, then we went to bed.

Sunday, 23th September 2012. We had breakfast all together in the hotel, then we left: we had a big bus, only for us, that took us to Karlštejn: the castle of Charles IV, the Holy Roman Emperor and the King of Bohemia. When we finished the guided visit, we had lunch all together and we left again to Prague, where we had a guided tour around the city. At the end of the tour, we left again with our bus and we finally arrived in Pacov, where we met our host students and their families who were waiting for us. We were all so excited!

Monday, 24th September 2012. We met in front of the school in the morning, then two students guided us in the computer lab, where they showed us the travel dictionary: it was a set of expressions translated form English to Czech that could help us in travelling there. After half an hour, we started organizing a presentation of our countries showing a lot of typical products that we bought before our departure. Before showing those things to the Czech students, we had the welcoming in the school by the headmaster, who invited us to take a walk around the school. When the walk was finished, the European day started: all the students from the Czech school, divided in groups, came to taste and get information about the typical products that we brought. In the "Italian corner" there were a lot of things: pasta, truffles, chocolate, brigidini, cialde and panforte. At the end of the European day, we've been divided in multinational groups to do some activities: we took some photos, then we learnt how to make collages with some photos and how to make nice presentations on the computer. At the end of these activities, we had lunch and we came back to school to make one more collage with the photos of the group (one collage for each group), then we had a very funny dancing lesson. After that, our host students came to school to take us home, we had dinner at home and we came back to school for a big party with music. Me and Gabriele organized another "Italian food corner" with salame, ham, amaretti, cantuccini, bruschette, cheese and some other things that were very successful! When the party was over, we came back home.

Tuesday, 25th September 2012. All the hosted students had to follow their host students in their first lesson at school, and when it finished, we left for Kutná Hora. There, we visited Sedlec – ossuary and St. Barbora castle, then we had lunch. In the afternoon, we visited the historical centre of Kutná Hora and Vlašský dvůr, we had some free time for shopping and we came back home. Wednesday, 26th September 2012. We met in front of the school in the morning and we immediately left for Český Krumlov, where we had a guided tour around the town. We went also to the Seidl photography museum, where there were a lot of old cameras and a lot of old photos: it was amazing! We had a lot of free time for lunch and for shopping, then we came back to school in Pacov. At school, we made a presentation in multinational groups about one of the places that we saw together and my topic was the photography museum. When all the groups were ready, we showed our work to all the students. At the end of the presentations, we went home. 
Thursday, 27th September 2012. We met in front of the school, as always, and we walked as far as Museum Pacov, where the mayor of the town was waiting for us. He told us something about the town, but he was busy and he had to go immediately. When he was gone, we've done two interesting activities: first, we visited an art museum full of Autengruber's paintings and we tried to copy one of them; then we had to make a video where we had to promote some attractions of Pacov: the topic of my group was "culture and sports in Pacov". When we finished, we had lunch together. After that, we came back to school to prepare and cut our videos because we had to show them to all the students. When all the videos were finished, we went home and, at 6 o'clock, we went in a big canteen with our host families, our host students and all the teachers to have the last dinner together. These was the school choir (they sang some Czech songs) and there was some music, so we danced, too. At the end of the dinner, me and all the group of the students left from the canteen to go to the funfair in front of the school but it was closed, so we decided to go to a pub: it was a very nice evening! 
Friday, 28th September 2012. We met in front of the school with our host families because, that day, we had to say goodbye to the Czech students.. We were all so sad! When we left from Pacov, there was a strange silence between us in the bus. We stopped in Blaník to climb a mount: it was very very very tiring, but on the top of it there was a beautiful green paradise! We stayed there for a while, then we came back to our bus and we left to Prague again. Before going to our hotel, we stopped at the station because some of us had to take the train to go to the airport and leave to come back home (it was another sad moment!). After that, we went to the hotel and we had free time for lunch: we ate Mexican food in the centre of Prague and it was delicious! We came back to the hotel and we went to bed. 
Saturday, 29th September 2012. We woke up and had breakfast in the hotel, then we took our luggage and went to the airport in Prague by taxi. We had lunch in the airport, before our departure, then we took our plane to come back home. We were sad to come back home because it was a very interesting experience and I really enjoyed it: my host family was fantastic, Czech people are very nice, and Prague is a wonderful city. I hope to come back there one day! Annalisa Baldelli