3rd Project Meeting

Short-term students exchange and accompanying staff in San Benedetto del Tronto

The Short-term students exchange, part of BLEND-IT, Erasmus+ project was held in San Benedetto del Tronto, from 4 to 8 May 2015. This event brought together representative participants: students, teachers and staff from all partner institutions involved in this strategic partnership.

The meeting, took place over five days working, with most of the Days consisting on working sessions inside the school and the Second Day taking the form of working sessions combined with a seminar in a nearby University and the Forth Day consisting in a Historical field trip.

Lessons using the Blended methods followed the entire week, with all participating teachers having to teach to the classroom formed of Italian students and guest students. Lessons were taught in English, using the Moodle platform materials and lessons prepared in advance.

The working sessions included the official opening and closing of the meeting, learning sessions using blended learning methods and roundtables for teachers, focusing on discussing all priorities and agendas.

1st Day

The official opening of the Short-term students exchange, Erasmus+ project was held in one of the aula’s at Liceo Classico Leopardi: Mrs. Silvia Fazzini, Italian headmistress has welcomed all partners. Following that, the main items in the agenda were covered:

1. Presentation of all Partner Organizations.

All students introduced their schools and cities and formally initiated the materialization of testing Blended learning methods. The Austrians began with a presentation of Vienna and a movie about their school, while all partners followed with similar materials. PowerPoint slideshows, Prezi presentations and other types were used so as to better acquaint everyone present at the meeting.

2. Spanish lesson by Spanish teachers

Mrs. Maria Teresa Arco and Mr Guillermo Soler presented the objectives of their lesson and they allowed everyone to learn a few things about the others, while practicing easy spanish expressions.

The lesson continued with students listening to Baillando, by Enrique Iglesias, after listening students had to fill in the blanks with a few words missing from the song lyrics.

3. Natural parks, a lesson prepared by Italian and Portuguese biology teachers

a) The lesson was about the local natural reserve called “Sentina”. The entire group of students and teachers went inside the park. Italian students illustrated the different kind of plants and animals.

b) After the lesson the students had to answer some questions about things seen in the reserve. The results of theirs test is on the Moodle platform.

2nd Day

The second day started early in the morning with a short trip. Different activities were planned for teachers and students:

1. Lecture about Student centered learning at the University of Macerata

Professor Paola Nicolini has introduced the student centered learning to the teachers participating at the meeting. Ms. Nicolini concluded her presentation by arguing that Multimedia technology can attract students’ attention easily. Once students are attracted to the multimedia presentation, they are motivated in a way to continue exploring the presentation. When this process goes on, the students are engaged in the learning process.

2. Student orientation at University of Macerata

The students visited the local university, led by a student tutor. They were shown the university buildings and the main courses held there.

3. Italian History Lesson at Fiastra Abbey and Roman Castro

We were shown the Abbey of Chiaravalle di Fiastra, one of the best preserved Cistercian abbeys in Italy, and then the Roman ruins of Urbisaglia, a very complete site with mosaics, wall paintings, amphitheater and other remains.

Inside the Abbey we have learned the history of the Giustiniani Bandini family, and we have enjoyed the silence of the ancient walls and the elegant simplicity of the structure, that leading to meditation.

The local guide was enthusiastic and he has told us a lot of interesting things about the temple ruins. The Archaeological Park of Urbisaglia offered us all the opportunity to make a wonderful walk in the Italian history. It is very well maintained and very accessible, giving the chance to take a look at the wonderful hills of Macerata.

3rd Day

The entire day was spent in the school, and by rotation, teachers from partner countries have had the chance to teach the mixed class of students, using Blended Learning:

1. First aid lessons taught by Edith Conning and Franka Bytebier

The two Dutch teachers had prepared a two hours lesson about First Aid.

2. Lesson about Fractions and Fractals by Iohana Udrescu

The Romanian teacher, Iohana Udrescu has prepared a lesson about Fractals and Fractions. The lesson has began with a short movie aimed at introducing the fractals, later the teacher has explained the students more about this new notion. The methods used in this lesson were group working combined with investigations. Each group presented their discoveries in front of the class and as homework they had to invent their own fractal.

3. Lesson about Logic and scratch by Jose Cruz

The Portuguese teacher has helped the students to learn how to program computer actions, using some logic notions. Movies, tutorials and games were used to create this flipped lesson.

4. Lesson about Reported Speech by Cristina Maia

The Portuguese teacher, has prepared a lesson about Reported speech. Students had to watch a 3 short movies before the actual class and during the lesson they have practiced together the method. It followed a short survey .

5. Lesson about Cryptography by Luciano Zazzetti

The Italian teacher has introduced the concept of cryptography to students explaining what it is, where and when it got started and the difference between private and public key cryptography. Students tried, using simulators online, to encode and decode some texts.

4th Day

The morning was spent with the students in Ascoli Piceno, and the afternoon in the school, where the teachers started discussions.

1. Guided tour in Ascoli Piceno

The entire group of students and teacher went to Ascoli Piceno to visit historical buildings. A guide showed the cathedral of Saint Emidio, a square called "Piazza del Popolo" and an ancient Roman bridge.

2. Discussing methods for reducing absenteeism and for increasing motivation of students

a) The two Spanish teachers had prepared the first presentation about these topics, aiming on introducing us into the background of their school. We have found out the problems that their school is confronting with and some of the methods used to fix these issues: for example struggling to involve more the parents into educational life, having practical science classes, chess, gardening, classical culture etc. Other project is TEI, in which senior students help junior students. Other solutions are mediation, as a way to solve conflicts and problems, music projects. Last project uses by them is TEA (todos educamos y apredenmos), a cross curricular project. The main aim of all these projects is to involve students and teachers.

b) Next, the Portuguese teacher has presented the background of their institution, the absenteeism rate (3%) and the methods used by them to deal with this issue.

c) Following that, we have learnt about the Belgium's school background: the main problems are caused by the problems at home and the cultural differences (there more than 70 nationalities). Their procedure for the students whom are missing classes is very strict; their parents are being called right away, if their son/daughter is missing. Some activities like: games during lunch, meeting for students, guidance councilor, pro-active circle, cozy lunch, free podium etc.

d) Romanian coordinators were next. They have presented some statistical information as well, about the absenteeism rate from schools in Târgu Jiu and then the procedure that is used in order to inform parents and sometimes social institutions, when normal measures do not have positive results.

e) Austrian teacher was next. He presented the problems from his institution, and the two ways absenteeism is being seen, because in his school students may also learn and do their projects from home.

3. Deciding the date of the student exchange hosted by Belgium

The Belgium teachers, proposed 2 weeks to host the students meeting in October 2015, the final decision was 12-16 October 2015. The lessons must be designed to be learnt using I-Pads. The provisory programme for the meeting was presented and discussed. Also the number of teachers and students was established.

4. Monthly timesheets

The coordinator presented the new monthly timesheets required by the Romanian NA, used for recording the hours spent on working on the Intellectual output.

5th Day

The morning was spent with the students in class, and the afternoon in the school, where the teachers started discussions.

1. Lesson about Facebook and data protection, by Georg Blaha

The Austrian teacher, Georg Blaha, told the students about an intiative of an Austrian law student with the title „Europe vs. Facebook“ as the starting point to a lesson about personal data protection. The students informed themselves at the initiatives website and then formulated their own position relating to their use of facebook (nearly all of them are facebook-members).

In a second step they discussed in a forum of the lerarning management system the general aspects of personal data protection and the some of them finally found the time to start searching for their own countries personal data protection law – what rights do they have?

2. Lesson about some application of function and percentage, by Liviu Udrescu

a) The first part of lesson was about notion of function, the teacher told the students how to calculate the number of function defined by two sets with m and n elements and how can use this result in real life, for example how to calculate the number of the phones or the number of the websites.

b) The second part of the lesson was an application about percentage, the teacher showed the students how healthy is their nutrition, and how one can calculate the percentage of proteins, glucides, lipids, and carbohydrates. The students were divided in two groups, and each group received the health nutrition diagram in order to compare their results.

3. Evaluation for the guest and host students on Moodle

A survey was created on the Moodle platform in order to gather feedback from all guest students.

Another one was prepared for the host students.

4. Certification for students

At the end of the meeting all students and teachers received their certificates of attendance and the students their Europass certificates.

5. Teachers meeting

The afternoon was spent in the school, where the teachers started discussions about some managerial issues.

We have discussed about the next activities and a to do list was created:

Fill in the new monthly timesheets
Finish the evaluation report after meeting in Italy
Send pictures and text about celebrating Europe Day
Send proofs of disseminating the meeting in Italy

6. Evaluation of the meeting

The formal evaluation of the meeting was done online after the meeting, with the help of an evaluation form. The participant teachers were given the link to the evaluation form and asked to fill them in.