Well we have now returned from the first of our trips within the framework of the comenius project. For the day to day details I am writing a blog which tells (nearly) all and can be found here.
As for the serious side of things the visit was very useful on many fronts. Firstly for the work done on the elements of the project that we have already done, webpages, background work on the countries etc. Secondly it has proved invaluable for the preparation of the next two trips and then finally for the preparation done with regard to the work that still has to be completed by the students in what is left of the project.
Thursday, November 27, 2008
Thursday, November 13, 2008
The day before
This is Thursday the 13th of November, the day before we leave for Poland and our first trip in the Comnius project.
It is an interesting point in the scheme of things. Project wise we have our blog up and running and we have already completed nearly all of the work we have to do before Christmas. Up until only a few weeks ago the only other country with a working blog was Germany. Then Bulgaria got their acto together but Poland and Italy had one but with no students on it and therefore we couldn't run the pen pal network with them. Now in the last week before our meeting sites have appeared in Greece and Sweden too and the others are starting to be workable. The Polish students appeared on their blog last night, I could see them but Dominika couldn't which was amusing.
We have everything prepared for the trip, tickets and all. We have bought a couple of "gegants" to take to the Polish director and a small present for Dominika too, something we thought was important.
We leave tomorrow morning at eight to go to Reus and catch the plane at 10.30. Then to Stansted and another flight to Katowice at 13.40.
I have arranged substitutes for us for this week after not being able to talk to Nuria Estrada about it I managed to talk to the personnel department and they told me to send our details with the reason and the dates of the trip. This I should have done earlier, had I known, as subs are assigned on Tuesdays and Thursdays apparently.
The only real fly in the ointment is that we don't have any of the money!! This is not only us though, Dominika is in the same boat. The money has been approved and is in Madrid but they haven't deigned to let us have it yet. It makes you think that it is sitting in an account somewhere and someone is benefitting from the interest in the meantime.
Still we soldier on.
The next post should be from Poland together with some photos if all goes well.
It is an interesting point in the scheme of things. Project wise we have our blog up and running and we have already completed nearly all of the work we have to do before Christmas. Up until only a few weeks ago the only other country with a working blog was Germany. Then Bulgaria got their acto together but Poland and Italy had one but with no students on it and therefore we couldn't run the pen pal network with them. Now in the last week before our meeting sites have appeared in Greece and Sweden too and the others are starting to be workable. The Polish students appeared on their blog last night, I could see them but Dominika couldn't which was amusing.
We have everything prepared for the trip, tickets and all. We have bought a couple of "gegants" to take to the Polish director and a small present for Dominika too, something we thought was important.
We leave tomorrow morning at eight to go to Reus and catch the plane at 10.30. Then to Stansted and another flight to Katowice at 13.40.
I have arranged substitutes for us for this week after not being able to talk to Nuria Estrada about it I managed to talk to the personnel department and they told me to send our details with the reason and the dates of the trip. This I should have done earlier, had I known, as subs are assigned on Tuesdays and Thursdays apparently.
The only real fly in the ointment is that we don't have any of the money!! This is not only us though, Dominika is in the same boat. The money has been approved and is in Madrid but they haven't deigned to let us have it yet. It makes you think that it is sitting in an account somewhere and someone is benefitting from the interest in the meantime.
Still we soldier on.
The next post should be from Poland together with some photos if all goes well.
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
Meeting plans for Poland
Dominika has been wonderfully efficient again and has sent us all a program for the meeting in Poland. She has also sent us room numbers for the Eureka hotel, the details of the transfers to and from the airport and even advice about the weather and what clothes we should take. Basically it will be cold!! This level of planning is a great comfort and makes life easier for the rest of us.
Speaking of planning I have also received a breakdown of the foreseeable costs for our meeting in Germany!! Katrin has also been marvellous and sent us all projected costs so we can start to estimate our costs and how to distribute the money. This is wonderful as I have been asking myself about how to do this. With these figures I will be better able to see what to ask the students to contribute and how much I can pay straight off.
Let me explain. My idea at the moment is that I will allot a certain amount, say 200 euros, for each student right now. This money will go towards the flight costs and hotel etc. The rest of the projected costs they will have to pay themselves and at the end of the project I will reimburse them the maximum amount possible from the remaining money. So say they start with 200 euros from me, each pays an extra 500 and then finally gets 300 more back. Of course I also need to take into account that costs for Germany might be higher than those for Greece etc.
Speaking of planning I have also received a breakdown of the foreseeable costs for our meeting in Germany!! Katrin has also been marvellous and sent us all projected costs so we can start to estimate our costs and how to distribute the money. This is wonderful as I have been asking myself about how to do this. With these figures I will be better able to see what to ask the students to contribute and how much I can pay straight off.
Let me explain. My idea at the moment is that I will allot a certain amount, say 200 euros, for each student right now. This money will go towards the flight costs and hotel etc. The rest of the projected costs they will have to pay themselves and at the end of the project I will reimburse them the maximum amount possible from the remaining money. So say they start with 200 euros from me, each pays an extra 500 and then finally gets 300 more back. Of course I also need to take into account that costs for Germany might be higher than those for Greece etc.
Saturday, November 1, 2008
Teething problems
Some things have changed since my last post, some good some bad.
The Bulgarians have managed to put the rest of their students on their page together with quite a lot of the basic facts we had to place there. The go into some detail too, though not as much as we have done on our blog. At least my students now have some more people to write to.
Poland have put some of the basic facts on their webpage, albeit very briefly, but no sign of the students yet.
The Italian page is still written mostly in Italian and has provoked some controversy as Nando published our whole Comenius application form on the site, Dominika and the rest of us protested at this as it is our hard work and not something that someone else should be able to just copy and paste. Nando replied that in the end it is published anyway by the authorities and anyone can take it but as Dominika also pointed out, on our application are our personal addresses and telephone numbers too!! He has taken it off the forum.
Apart from that Dominika has been protesting at the lack of movement from most countries, after all only Germany and us really have done what we are supposed to have done so far. Even Dominika herself is behind in the work, though her real complaint is that we have heard almost nothing from Cyprus, Sweden, Greece and Italy. With the first meeting only a couple of weeks away this is a little worrying.
The Bulgarians have managed to put the rest of their students on their page together with quite a lot of the basic facts we had to place there. The go into some detail too, though not as much as we have done on our blog. At least my students now have some more people to write to.
Poland have put some of the basic facts on their webpage, albeit very briefly, but no sign of the students yet.
The Italian page is still written mostly in Italian and has provoked some controversy as Nando published our whole Comenius application form on the site, Dominika and the rest of us protested at this as it is our hard work and not something that someone else should be able to just copy and paste. Nando replied that in the end it is published anyway by the authorities and anyone can take it but as Dominika also pointed out, on our application are our personal addresses and telephone numbers too!! He has taken it off the forum.
Apart from that Dominika has been protesting at the lack of movement from most countries, after all only Germany and us really have done what we are supposed to have done so far. Even Dominika herself is behind in the work, though her real complaint is that we have heard almost nothing from Cyprus, Sweden, Greece and Italy. With the first meeting only a couple of weeks away this is a little worrying.
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