"Young Europeans - Critical Consumers"

Comenius-Meeting Reggio di Calabria December 2007

2008-02-04T14:07:00.004+01:00

Welcome in Liceo Scientifico Leonardo da Vinci

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In our opinion the project stimulated wide discussion and reflection on the chosen theme.The experience of hosting the partners gave us the opportunity to think about our environment and consider our daily activity from a more objective point of view. As always the most exhilarating aspect of the entire experience was the interpersonal relationships established over a remarkably short period. The results were very satisfactory.
The Italian Comenius Group

2008-02-04T14:06:00.008+01:00

I 'll never forget the meeting in Reggio. It was also my first flight and I will never forget the experience. I enjoyed the beautiful view, the weather, food and the company so much! Not to speak about Italian boys! They are really cute:) "
Zsófi from Hungary

2008-02-04T14:06:00.007+01:00

Students discovering the language of their partners by a game.

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How much rubbish in my everyday life? -
Info-points of all parnter-schools

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2008-02-04T14:05:00.005+01:00

My Comenius-experience:

Our journey started at Hanau’s main train station, where I met the other members of the Comenius project who were going to Italy. We were five girls and three teachers and really nervous. After all, we would be in a foreign country soon!
When we were at the airport, we flew to Milan, stopped over there and then continued on to Reggio di Calabria. It was about 20°C all the time we were there.
We met our host families. Most of us knew our partners, because we had chatted on MSN Messenger with them before. Then we had to leave each other – it was time to go.
First it was not so easy to communicate with my host partner, Antonino, and his family. His brother and his mother did not speak English very well. But Antonino was very nice and soon we managed to talk to each other well. In the evening, we met the other German girls and their Italian host partners. We walked through the city, just for fun, and talked and laughed to get to know each other better. Reggio di Calabria is big, with big buildings containing many apartments and narrow streets.
The second day Antonino's mother drove us to the school which was very big, too. In the assembly hall there was a welcoming program. After that, the students from each country – Germany, Hungary, Spain, Denmark, France, Poland and Italy – had to present their project work. Some of them also had a movie to show.
After that, we went to a restaurant in which all of the 50 Comenius participants ate. Regrettably it was too much ... It is definitely a fact that the Italians eat a lot!
Then the different countries arranged their info points and everybody had time to go around and look at them. There was the most going on at the info point of the Italians, who had music there. In the evening, we first went to the Planetarium of Reggio and after that we ate in a Pizzeria without the teachers. It was very funny with all the different countries represented, and there was a lot of talking. Sometimes it was really confusing – I had to speak German with the other Germans, I spoke French to the French boys – I guess trying to understand their English is kind of hopeless –, then I tried speaking Italian with the Italians a bit and spoke in English with most of the other students. We really were an international group and it was a lot of fun.
The mentality of the Italians about the time is interesting. When an Italian person says „we will meet at 9 o'clock“, then this means „we’ll meet around 9:15 or later“! I often observed that we left home five minutes after we actually had to be somewhere! This is one of the main differences between Italy and Germany, I think.
The third day began with watching a film and this was followed by project work. In the evening, some of us went through the city again and I was very surprised to find some German books translated into Italian. But I barely understood them.
There was an excursion the fourth day. We drove to Tropea in two buses where we listened to a tour guide. After that we had some time to spend alone and we went to the beach. I could not believe this was real – it was the first of December and I stood on the beach, with my feet in the water, and it was warm!
When we arrived back in Reggio after two other stops, I was already very tired. But there was a farewell party at about midnight and everybody went there, including me. It was hard to think that this wonderful journey to Italy would be over so soon, but it was. I wasn't very happy. I would have loved to spend more time there.
Saying good-bye the next day was not so easy. I hope to keep in touch with my host partner and I think the others do too. We had to leave, and after stopping over in Rome for about five hours, we landed in Frankfurt and our holiday was really over.

Alexandra Vormberg

2008-02-04T14:04:00.001+01:00

Beautiful Calabria

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Comenius Meeting in Hanau April 2007

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Welcome to 41 pupils and 20 teachers from 7 partnerschools
(Denmark, France, Hungary, Italy, Poland, Spain and Sweden)

Topic: Eating habits in past and present / Healthy eating today

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Opening of the meeting - welcome to all partner-schools

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Presentation of the project-results: Have eating habits changed? Healthy eating today.

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Teachers evaluating the project-work and the meeting

2007-06-11T17:58:00.000+02:00

Evaluation of the meeting – suggestions for the future

Opening of the meeting as “Warming up” especially for pupils, i.e. games, interactive activities; part of the headmaster perhaps only for teachers

Take care of a good matching of the ages between guest pupils and host pupils

Control of transparencies written by students in the workshops to avoid too many mistakes (by an English teacher)

Meeting in Reggio di Calabria:
Consumer habits and their impact on environment and economy
28th of November – 2nd of December 2007

max. 30 pupils, so 4 – 5 pupils of each country

What to do?
An inquiry in all countries: How much rubbish in my every day life and how to avoid this?
Each school will do this in its own way and prepare a presentation at info-points as usual.

Spain would like to do a common film (DVD). All schools are asked to send videos and/or pictures to Spain before end of October!

Teachers discussing the contents and structure of our "European Cook-Book"

2007-06-11T17:41:00.000+02:00

”EUrecipies – Cooking European”

Each country participates in the cookbook with:
one starter
one main course
one dessert
Each dish should be both traditional and healthy

Structure of the cookbook:
Front page: The art-classes of each country make a proposition for a front page, which is emailed to the other participants of the Comenius-project. When all the propositions have been seen, a vote is cast between the participants about which proposition to use.
Title: “EUrecipes – Cooking European”
General Introduction: Explanation of the idea of the cookbook (Renates version), and the structure of the cookbook (7-12 lines). Written in all languages of the project.
Starters from all the countries
Main courses from all the countries
Desserts from all the countries
Overview of the pages in which the dishes of each country is found (f.ex. the dishes of France located in page 3, 12 and 25), ordered alphabetically

Each chapter (starter, main course and dessert) should start with a page containing pictures of the different courses in the chapter with a little flag in the corner of each picture.

There should be a large inviting picture for each course, and a general short and clear text explaining the dish. Each dish is presented in 2 A5-pages, with text set in 10 pkt. Arial. The right page should contain a large inviting picture of the dish. The left page should contain the text ordered as follows:
1. Name of the dish
2. Level of difficulty of the dish, indicated by one to three flags
3. Ingredients
4. Instructions
5. Fact-box, with special information pertaining to the dish and perhaps explanation of difficult words
There should not necessarily be an exactly similar layout of each page, because the layout of these could reflect the diversity of the countries.

Pupils' feed-back of the meeting in Hanau April 2007

2007-06-11T17:28:00.000+02:00

Comenius-Meeting in Hungary December 2006

2007-01-21T20:58:00.000+01:00

"Young Europeans - Critical Consumers":
Topic: Traditional Food and Eating Habits in the Past

How to inform the school-community about the project and our meeting

2006-12-30T17:00:00.000+01:00

Summary of the feed-back-café
We can inform our school with showing photos. For example one can make a special corner where we can put all the photos of the visit and perhaps some posters too. A power-point presentation can also be presented.
One can also organize a meeting where the pupils and teachers come together and the pupils concerned can report on their experience, show photos, perhaps present their diary.
If a school has a school newspaper one can write an article about the meeting.
In addition there is a possibility to put the photos, videos and texts in the internet, e.g. in the “Comenius Blog”.
Of course we have to tell our friends all about the trip and show pictures and videos.

The presentations of the project results

2006-12-30T04:50:00.000+01:00

Summary of the feed-back-café
There are some good aspects, but also some negative ones, which the students have mentioned. I begin with the good ones.
All students liked the presentations, they were good, impressive, creative, exciting and with lots of decoration (especially Hungary and Italy). Another point which left a good aftertaste was the food. It tasted delicious, but sometimes a little bit strange.
The students gave their presentations in the form of posters, DVDs, power-point-presentations, films and pictures. The students who presented their works were very friendly, and all questions you asked were answered. All in all the presentations were well received.
But there are also some aspects, the students disliked, for example the organisation. It was confusing because in some rooms there were too many people and in other rooms there weren’t any. Perhaps the next meeting could have one separate room for every presentation. Because the students mentioned that the idea of walking around to every group is a good idea.
For the presenting pupils it’s boring to go through the presentation for four times. That’s perhaps the reason why it’s difficult to understand them because they talk so fast. It’s a pity that in some presentation they didn’t say anything at all.
Some students regret that these days are too short to get to know the other students and their cultures.
In a nutshell all pupils liked the presentations and the idea behind them, but the meeting could be still better if there was another concept to show and look at the presentations.

The Hungarian school and school life

2006-12-15T09:07:00.000+01:00

Summary of the Feed-back-café
The school is different of the schools we have in our countries. First of all, it’s very big and even has two buildings with three departments: music, art and dance. But that makes the school interesting as well as the students, they are all very talented and hardworking and it seems that this school teaches a really high level. Because of the huge size of the school there are many (colourful) corridors and sometimes we didn’t know where to go… The bigger building of the school is really beautiful and we really liked being there.

Being together with young Europeans

2006-11-07T17:55:00.000+01:00

Summary of the feed-back-café
Being together with students of so many different countries all over Europe has been a very great experience for everybody who joined the Comenius project, the members as well as the pupils of the Hungarian host families.
Everybody was very open, very friendly, funny and rather nice, it was really a pleasure getting to know everyone.
We learned a lot about different languages and cultures but we also found out, which might be the more important and interesting point that in the end we are all the same. Young students with similar interests like sports and music, parties and cinema as well as shopping, surfing on the internet and meeting friends.
Understanding worked out very well, despite some little problems referring to the different accents of the different countries we all come from or some minor problems with English as English was the main language of communication. Well, as we all liked each other so much we always found a way to talk which was actually very funny sometimes when sentences were translated into three or four languages by different students.
However it offered the chance to improve our language skills and we learned much.
As most of us spoke about two or three languages before the meeting we all learned some new words during the days we spent together because of the great variety of different languages.
All things considered it was a great experience for life we all don’t want to miss and we are looking forward to having the next meeting of our big Comenius family.

Experiences with Hungarian Culture

2006-10-07T17:26:00.000+02:00

Summary of the feed-back-café
All students were very satisfied with their host families because they were very nice and friendly and welcomed their guests with open arms. But the students made also a lot of different experiences while they stayed in Hungary.For some of them the communication was very hard, because some families weren’t able to speak English and so they had to talk with their hands. While school life and the Hungarian students’ life seemed to be similar like in the pupils’ home country, the food and eating habits were different and new. Some of the students liked them very well, but others preferred their own food. Nyiregyhaza made a good impression on the majority, although it was a bit different from some students’ home town. All in all we can say, is that it was a very nice and good experience for the students with a lot of fun and action!

Our meeting in Hungary: echos from the partnerschools

2006-06-03T22:33:00.000+02:00

Dear everybody,
thank you very much for an excellent experience in Hungary. It was really a great experience, not least due to the super planning and kind reception of our Hungarian hosts.
The future of Europe does not look too bleak at all when so many nations and people can get together and get on so well. We wish our politicians would learn from our very good example.
Our students were over thrilled, too, and tell everybody enthusiastically about their fantastic experience.
We are looking forward to seeing you all in Germany and hopefully we are all going even though we know, regretfully, that somebody else should go and have the possibility of the same great experience.
All the best, Pia, Finn, and Georg (Denmark)

Dear friends,
How are you? We are happy that you came back home safely! We also had a good journey in our bus!:).
Once again we want to thank you for a wonderful meeting and a great time we spent together. Special thanks to BEA and EDINA for preparing everything in such a professional way! Please thank the parents and the families for hosting our students! They were really glad and happy that they could spend these 4 days with so many nice teenagers from other countries! We do hope to meet you ALL again in Hanau!! We had a WONDERFUL time with YOU and we hope to repeat it!!
Because Christmas is so soon we want to wish you MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR!! ALL THE BEST IN 2007!!! Take care!!
Best wishes,
Beata, Asia, Renata & the students (Poland)

Dear friends,
here we are in Reggio. Everything was okay with the journey. (…) Thanks to Edina and Bea for the perfect organization of the meeting. The students talked of their experience in Hungary to the other classmates and to the teachers very enthusiatically.
I hope to hear from you soon.
Best wishes
Sabata (Italy)

Dear Friends,
All French team is very happy after this nice meeting !
Thanks a lot to Edina and Bea for organize it with success. All our students are enthusiastic and we too!
Best regards to you, Thierry (France)

Dear friends,
thank you so much for the wonderfull days in Nyiregyháza! Both the students and Ulla and I enjoyed them from the very beginning to the last minute! Thank you, Edina and Bea for all the planning and your patience when we repeatedly asked for things that we could have read on the time-table! And please give our regards and thanks for their hospitality to the families where our pupils lived. Each of our students was convinced that he/she had come to the best and most caring family!
I have understood that we will continue to participate in the project this year and I am very happy to tell you that it looks like if we would meet again in Hanau in spring.With my best regards from a sunny Stockholm,yours, Claudia (Sweden)

Dear Jutta: we also have well arrived home. It was great to meet again and to work together.
Kind regards, Pilar (Spain)

Dear Hungarian Comenius-friends!
Everybody is amazed! The pupils are impressed by the great hospitality of Hungarian families and they are telling their great experience to their classmates. Thank you very much and give our thanks and greetings to all hosts!
With kind regards form the German Comenius-group already developping ideas for the meeting we will organize in spring!
Yours Jutta (Germany)

Meeting in Hungary - teachers in front of the school

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Meeting in Hungary 6th - 10th of December 2006

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Thursday 7.12.
Opening of the project meeting
Who is who?
1) short presentation of all delegations and their schools (max: 3 transparencies for each school)
2) Information about the Secondary School of Art, Dance and Music
Tour of the school building (?)
Coffee-break /Installation of the first 4 info-points
Food-market (1)
(may be after lunch):
first 4 schools presenting their results to the second 4 schools turning from info-point to info-point
Lunch / Installation of 4 info-points (one for each school)
Food-market (2)
second 4 schools presenting their results to the first 4 schools turning from info-point to info-point

Friday 8.12.
Students
1) workshops with dossiers of food-market
presentation of the results of the work-shops
2) feed-back-cafés
3) articles for the web-log
Teachers
1) How to realize our European-Cook-Book (contents/structure
lay-out, illustrations, printing)
2) planing of the meeting in Hanau
3) preparation of the application for the last two periods

THE PROJECT

2006-05-28T08:30:00.000+02:00

The project „Young Europeans - Critical Consumers“ will deal with consumer habits of young people. Based on their experiences in everyday life the adolescents should become aware of the influences which shape them.By comparing similarities and differences with their European partners they should learn to understand each other better and to understand the influence of consumer habits and commercialised culture on their every day life, their opinions and consciousness.The students should also become more conscious of the impact of their consumer habits on environment and economy. In this context they should inform themselves about conditions of work and production as well as trade relationships between European countries - especially those of the project-partners - and world trade relationships.In order to find their individual and European identity by looking at their consumer habits they should also inform each other about alternatives of consumption (ecological production, products of fair trade …) and national and European laws to protect consumers.

Hungary and Poland also accepted!!

2006-05-28T08:29:00.000+02:00

Dear Comenius-friends,
It is a great pleasure for me to announce you that the project has been accepted in 7 countries. So I am very happy to welcome our new partners from Denmark and Poland, - I am very sorry for Sweden, but I am sure it will work for the second project-period.
Remember that the first meeting will not be in Reggio but in Nyíregyháza/Hungary as we agreed in Nîmes, and I hope that the Swedish partners can manage to come to the meeting as well.
Yours Jutta

Good news from Italy

2006-05-28T08:23:00.000+02:00

Dear Comenius friends,
I'm happy to tell you that the Italian Comenius project has been accepted by the National Board. We'll work and share European experience all together again.
Happy summer holidays.
Yours
Sabata

France accepted by National Board!

2006-05-24T15:54:00.000+02:00

Dear friends,

I'm very happy to tell you that French National Board has accepted our school for the new project!

Best regards to you from Monique, Sylvie, Colette, Jean-Luc, Sandy, Alain and Thierry (coordinator of France) .

News from Italy

2006-05-24T15:39:00.001+02:00

I hope you are all well.
The Italian Agency accepted our project "with reserve" this means that they don't know if the have the money to finance it.The headmaster and I are going to meet next Monday to ask the national board for more detailed information.The problem is that other two Comenius projects have been peresented from our school and they are "prioritari".
I hope that we'll be accepted in the end.
Waiting for good news
Best Wishes
Yours
Sabata

News from Hungary

2006-05-24T15:35:00.001+02:00

Congratulations to everybody who has been accepted for the new project. Some information about ours. We are still waiting for the result. In Hungary there are two stages to accept a project: the first is the form, the second is the content. We are accepted on the first stage, but the National Board hasn't decided yet considering the content of our new project. We are patient, perhaps the long time means success. Good work.
Bye! Edina

Sad news from Sweden

2006-05-24T15:35:00.000+02:00

Mail from Claudia:
(...) As for Sweden, we have not been so lucky. (...)
Of course we were very disappointed when we received the message last week. I have been talking to our headmaster, to the Comenius-group at Frans Schartaus gymnasium and, last not least, to the Swedish National Board. Everybody told me not to give up. So we have decided to follow the project as closely as possible and try to find other ways of financing our participation. Next year we are going to apply once more for the membership (...)

Denmark accepted by National Board

2006-05-24T15:33:00.000+02:00

Congratulations to Georg and Pia and welcome to the club!

Germany accepted by the National Board

2006-05-16T10:29:00.000+02:00

Jutta, coordinator of the project, opening the meeting in Nîmes.

Spain accepted by the National Board

2006-05-16T10:24:00.000+02:00

Pilar, coordinator of IES Cid Campeador, with two of her pupils presenting project-results at the meeting in Nîmes

2006-01-23T17:33:00.000+01:00

EUROPEAN FAMILY - HANAU
December 05

APPLICATION

2006-01-23T16:56:00.000+01:00

The application has been done by eight partner-schools all over Europe.
Good luck for everybody!
With European greetings!
Jutta
(coordinator)