Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Follow up after Greece
As so many of the students in Greece seemed to already be a part of Facebook it seemed only logical to create a community there for them to join. This we have now done and it is called...
Back home after Greece
We are now home again after our visit to Thessaloniki.
The visit has been a great success both for the project and also personally for the students.
With respect to the project we have seen that the work we have been doing in preparation for this visit has reaped its reward. There has been a very high level of preparation, most of the other countries more so than us. Many of them had prepared the activies with presentations done on powerpoint. There also had prepared dances and other things. The planned activities went very well and the objectives, which basically can be summed up as getting the students to relate to each other, have been achieved.
In the run up to the visit my own students had batxillerat exams for the end of the term. Many of them were trying to complete their normal exams plus to pass exams they had failed earlier in the term. All this meant that they had little time for preparation for the visit and some of the project activities they did not prepare before we left. Really though they had no excuses for not having pr went well and theepared something as these things, such as the school system in Catalunya and common and unusual interests, I had asked them to prepare weeks ago. That they didn't was largely their own fault and in fact I had already told them that they would be on their own in this sense. This was exactly how it turned out. On the days of the project activities I only accompanied them on the first part, the word bank. This we had prepared and made a video about so it went very well. When it came to other activities I either chose not to accompany them or I was in a teacher's meeting anyway and they had to get by on their own. Their initial nervousness meant that they were all cursing me roundly but in the end towards the end of the week we saw that they were all able to get by their lack of preparation through their own inventiveness and in fact they were coming up to me after the last activity about school systems saying that they had used the video of the school we put on our page and had done the rest off the cuff but that their presentation "had been the best one."
So in the end the whole thing went very well and they didn't "let the side down" at all.
On a personal level for the students once they got over their original shyness the week was a tremendously positive experience for them. All of them made great friends from among the other countries. Some of them inevitably getting "girlfriends" over the course of the week. All of them were speaking English by the end of the week, better or worse but at least communicating with the other students in a way which I am sure none of them imagined they would have been doing at the start of the week.
To give two examples, Francesc, who certainly has the best level of English out of the students I took, found that on the secong trip we did to Vergina he was actually able to understand and talk to the Greek guide we had. At the other end of the spectrum, Mayte (whose Enlgish is not at all good) was very proficient in learning phrases in Greek and also started to construct basic sentences in English. Abraham, whose Enlglish is equally limited, in the first project activity was seated opposite two Swedish girls and unable to say anything at all. When I went to talk to him they were both listening to the conversations on either side of him and ignorning him completely. I asked him why and he said, "I can't say anything, nothing at all." At the end of the week he was speaking basic English and had even managed to get a Cypriot girlfriend.
Apart from the levels of English I was also very happy with the way in which the week affected all of my students in some way. On the last day there wasn't a dry eye among them. Then in the bus on the way to the airport at 2am there were more tears and most of them insisted I arrange it so that they can go to Germany in November.
The visit has been a great success both for the project and also personally for the students.
With respect to the project we have seen that the work we have been doing in preparation for this visit has reaped its reward. There has been a very high level of preparation, most of the other countries more so than us. Many of them had prepared the activies with presentations done on powerpoint. There also had prepared dances and other things. The planned activities went very well and the objectives, which basically can be summed up as getting the students to relate to each other, have been achieved.
In the run up to the visit my own students had batxillerat exams for the end of the term. Many of them were trying to complete their normal exams plus to pass exams they had failed earlier in the term. All this meant that they had little time for preparation for the visit and some of the project activities they did not prepare before we left. Really though they had no excuses for not having pr went well and theepared something as these things, such as the school system in Catalunya and common and unusual interests, I had asked them to prepare weeks ago. That they didn't was largely their own fault and in fact I had already told them that they would be on their own in this sense. This was exactly how it turned out. On the days of the project activities I only accompanied them on the first part, the word bank. This we had prepared and made a video about so it went very well. When it came to other activities I either chose not to accompany them or I was in a teacher's meeting anyway and they had to get by on their own. Their initial nervousness meant that they were all cursing me roundly but in the end towards the end of the week we saw that they were all able to get by their lack of preparation through their own inventiveness and in fact they were coming up to me after the last activity about school systems saying that they had used the video of the school we put on our page and had done the rest off the cuff but that their presentation "had been the best one."
So in the end the whole thing went very well and they didn't "let the side down" at all.
On a personal level for the students once they got over their original shyness the week was a tremendously positive experience for them. All of them made great friends from among the other countries. Some of them inevitably getting "girlfriends" over the course of the week. All of them were speaking English by the end of the week, better or worse but at least communicating with the other students in a way which I am sure none of them imagined they would have been doing at the start of the week.
To give two examples, Francesc, who certainly has the best level of English out of the students I took, found that on the secong trip we did to Vergina he was actually able to understand and talk to the Greek guide we had. At the other end of the spectrum, Mayte (whose Enlgish is not at all good) was very proficient in learning phrases in Greek and also started to construct basic sentences in English. Abraham, whose Enlglish is equally limited, in the first project activity was seated opposite two Swedish girls and unable to say anything at all. When I went to talk to him they were both listening to the conversations on either side of him and ignorning him completely. I asked him why and he said, "I can't say anything, nothing at all." At the end of the week he was speaking basic English and had even managed to get a Cypriot girlfriend.
Apart from the levels of English I was also very happy with the way in which the week affected all of my students in some way. On the last day there wasn't a dry eye among them. Then in the bus on the way to the airport at 2am there were more tears and most of them insisted I arrange it so that they can go to Germany in November.
Friday, March 6, 2009
Visit to Greece coming up
I am now well into finalising the plans for Greece, no real problems there, but there have been a few notable things that have happened.
Firstly the fact that Sweden and Italy are not staying with the rest of us in the same hotel. They won't even be in Greece for all the planned days of the project. The final details I haven't had but it appears that they will both be there for a shorter time period because, in the case of Sweden money, and in the case of Italy because the children's parents don't want them to be out of the country for so long.
To be honest I have to say this simply beggars belief,
The Swedes have always said that in Sweden they are obliged to pay for absolutely everything, that they can't ask their students to supplement their trips at all. So they have to be very careful about money and what they spend it on. Yet some of the things they have done bely this completely. Italy on the other hand are just being ridiculous.
The second thing that has happened and has surprised me is homegrown. I have found myself in the situation where two of my students, batxillerat students, have got themselves in trouble at school. One was expelled from school briefly and is now not in a position where she can take part in any school activity until she apologises for her behaviour, and even then it is doubtful. The other case is that of one lad who has now accumulated four "fulls d'incidencies". Three is the limit and so technically he was also off the project. Since I found this out he has had a stern talking to and has had the common sense to talk to whom he needed to talk to and now has only three, and can go.
Both of them show an unbelievable disregard for the consequences of their actions and a remarkable lack of the maturity I would say is needed for studying at the level of Batxillerat.
Co-ordinators beware, there are real idiots out there who will, happily, look a gift horse in the mouth.
I can only hope that if I am fortunate enough to be able to do another project then it will be more well known in school and I will not have to accept all the students who come forward but will be able to choose.
Firstly the fact that Sweden and Italy are not staying with the rest of us in the same hotel. They won't even be in Greece for all the planned days of the project. The final details I haven't had but it appears that they will both be there for a shorter time period because, in the case of Sweden money, and in the case of Italy because the children's parents don't want them to be out of the country for so long.
To be honest I have to say this simply beggars belief,
The Swedes have always said that in Sweden they are obliged to pay for absolutely everything, that they can't ask their students to supplement their trips at all. So they have to be very careful about money and what they spend it on. Yet some of the things they have done bely this completely. Italy on the other hand are just being ridiculous.
The second thing that has happened and has surprised me is homegrown. I have found myself in the situation where two of my students, batxillerat students, have got themselves in trouble at school. One was expelled from school briefly and is now not in a position where she can take part in any school activity until she apologises for her behaviour, and even then it is doubtful. The other case is that of one lad who has now accumulated four "fulls d'incidencies". Three is the limit and so technically he was also off the project. Since I found this out he has had a stern talking to and has had the common sense to talk to whom he needed to talk to and now has only three, and can go.
Both of them show an unbelievable disregard for the consequences of their actions and a remarkable lack of the maturity I would say is needed for studying at the level of Batxillerat.
Co-ordinators beware, there are real idiots out there who will, happily, look a gift horse in the mouth.
I can only hope that if I am fortunate enough to be able to do another project then it will be more well known in school and I will not have to accept all the students who come forward but will be able to choose.
Saturday, February 21, 2009
Are they really doing anything?
Recently, over the last few weeks, I have found myself asking if my students are actually doing anything. When I talk to them about the project, the different parts of it, what the other countries are doing etc. It seems to me that most of the things I tell them about come as news to them. This is obviously not what should be happening.
I have tried, more than a couple of times already, to get a list of the people with whom they are corresponding. This has been an unqualified failure and to be honest I should have chased it more. I don't know if they are exchanging mails with anyone. Some of them surely do as they ask me about the parts of the mails they have received that they don't understand, others though have as much said to me that they don't write to anyone. In the same vein I received a mail from Nikos, from Greece, that told me he would be sending out a list of the spanish students his students are writing to and would I please check this is the case. I feel he is suffering from the same worry as me. The said mail never arrived either.
Much of the recent work we have done has been relatively easy for the students. The Word Bank has only involved them participating in its recording. The processing of the videos, titles and credits, I have all done myself. The only thing they have had to do themselves has been the creation of a blog and the making of a diary, ok admittedly potentially quite a lot of work. But looking at what has actually been done, they haven't exactly knocked themselves out!
I commented on this with Dominika and she said she had similar fears, but I suspect that she has them for longer each week and also in class and is able to keep tabs on them much more than me. I am going to bring it up in Greece and certainly for future projects I feel that the main weight of the work ought to be on the students not so much on me.
Perhaps the first step in the project could be in the creation of a blog and then the students could add to it, doing things that are progressively more and more complicated and then in the end they would have a "result", a product that would be a history of all the work they had done and could even be avaluated.
Not easy, but something needs to be done I think.
I have tried, more than a couple of times already, to get a list of the people with whom they are corresponding. This has been an unqualified failure and to be honest I should have chased it more. I don't know if they are exchanging mails with anyone. Some of them surely do as they ask me about the parts of the mails they have received that they don't understand, others though have as much said to me that they don't write to anyone. In the same vein I received a mail from Nikos, from Greece, that told me he would be sending out a list of the spanish students his students are writing to and would I please check this is the case. I feel he is suffering from the same worry as me. The said mail never arrived either.
Much of the recent work we have done has been relatively easy for the students. The Word Bank has only involved them participating in its recording. The processing of the videos, titles and credits, I have all done myself. The only thing they have had to do themselves has been the creation of a blog and the making of a diary, ok admittedly potentially quite a lot of work. But looking at what has actually been done, they haven't exactly knocked themselves out!
I commented on this with Dominika and she said she had similar fears, but I suspect that she has them for longer each week and also in class and is able to keep tabs on them much more than me. I am going to bring it up in Greece and certainly for future projects I feel that the main weight of the work ought to be on the students not so much on me.
Perhaps the first step in the project could be in the creation of a blog and then the students could add to it, doing things that are progressively more and more complicated and then in the end they would have a "result", a product that would be a history of all the work they had done and could even be avaluated.
Not easy, but something needs to be done I think.
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
The end of the web page question
Finally it appears that the web page question has been resolved. The problems the project was having centred, in part, on the web pages that still remained to be created. Now we have seen the appearance of two wonderful web pages created by Nikos in Greece and Stella in Cyprus. This, at least for me, was the quid of the former troubles. How can you go ahead with the project when the web pages the work has to be shown on don't even exist?
Now they do.
The Greek page here is really a wonderfully clean neat page that is good to look at and now has all the information it ought to have had from the beginning. I understand that to do this Nikos has had to give up on the person who was helping him and do it all himself. I has been worth the effort.
The Cypriot page is a refreshingly young looking one that shows what can be done with web pages on projects and makes me quite envious.
Now they do.
The Greek page here is really a wonderfully clean neat page that is good to look at and now has all the information it ought to have had from the beginning. I understand that to do this Nikos has had to give up on the person who was helping him and do it all himself. I has been worth the effort.
The Cypriot page is a refreshingly young looking one that shows what can be done with web pages on projects and makes me quite envious.
Friday, January 9, 2009
January 2009
Yesterday was our first day back at school, but it wasn't the "first day back" for the work on the Comenius project.
Throughout the whole of the Christmas period there has been a blizzard of messages flying across Europe all about the participation of the different members of the project. The problems that we have had are probably the typical ones that any project goes through but what has been revealing about this situation is that we have all be unable to avoid them. We are involved in a project in which we hope our own students will see the many things they have in common with students from other countries around Europe and that they will also see the differences, but will see them as being nominal and not fundamental. Yet despite this being the declared objective of the project the teachers involved in it have not been able to avoid differences surfacing that, for a while, seemed to threaten the viability of the project.
Since then things have calmed down, the preverbial water has flowed under the bridge, and I am happy to say that things are now largely back on course.
What has also happened is that among the countries involved a very like minded group has appeared, like minded to the extent that we are already thinking of future projects together. This is good as it promises the chance of running future projects with people who are all working from the same game plan, a distinct advantage.
Throughout the whole of the Christmas period there has been a blizzard of messages flying across Europe all about the participation of the different members of the project. The problems that we have had are probably the typical ones that any project goes through but what has been revealing about this situation is that we have all be unable to avoid them. We are involved in a project in which we hope our own students will see the many things they have in common with students from other countries around Europe and that they will also see the differences, but will see them as being nominal and not fundamental. Yet despite this being the declared objective of the project the teachers involved in it have not been able to avoid differences surfacing that, for a while, seemed to threaten the viability of the project.
Since then things have calmed down, the preverbial water has flowed under the bridge, and I am happy to say that things are now largely back on course.
What has also happened is that among the countries involved a very like minded group has appeared, like minded to the extent that we are already thinking of future projects together. This is good as it promises the chance of running future projects with people who are all working from the same game plan, a distinct advantage.
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
The next stage
After our coordination visit in Poland we are now in the next stage of the project. My intentions in this blog were not really to comment extensively on the activities involved in this particular project but to concentrate more on the problems that have appeared related with running a Comenius project.
At this point of the project I am working on the tasks that the students have to complete and also at the same time on all of the administrative responsibilities connected with the next visit to Thessalonika in Greece. I have to finalise the number of students who are going to Greece, who they are and also which teachers are going to go with me. All of this is needed because I am also looking for the flights for the group. Taking thirteen people to Greece is a bit of a nightmare and after the experience of almost missing the second flight in Stansted to Poland I don't want to have to drag 12 other people around Stansted airport against the clock. To this end I have contacted Inma of Dertotravel in Tortosa to see what options she can offer me for a group reservation in a flight direct to Thessalonika from Barcelona. This has the disadvantage of being from Barna and not from Reus, if it were Reus the kids parents could run them there direct. But the advantage of no extra transfers. I am going to see what prices she can find and I will consider spending more money on these flights than I wanted with a mind to making my life easier. Furthermore I reckon that by the time we go to Germany there will be fewer students to worry about anyway. At the moment I have already lost one, she has left the school, and there are two or three that I haven't seen in days! In addition I calculate that if I have to spend more on the flights then I can always save on the last visit to Cyprus by going alone and saving the money on the other two teachers. After all in the end I am doing the project on my own and extra teachers in an avaluation process seem a little redundant.
At this point of the project I am working on the tasks that the students have to complete and also at the same time on all of the administrative responsibilities connected with the next visit to Thessalonika in Greece. I have to finalise the number of students who are going to Greece, who they are and also which teachers are going to go with me. All of this is needed because I am also looking for the flights for the group. Taking thirteen people to Greece is a bit of a nightmare and after the experience of almost missing the second flight in Stansted to Poland I don't want to have to drag 12 other people around Stansted airport against the clock. To this end I have contacted Inma of Dertotravel in Tortosa to see what options she can offer me for a group reservation in a flight direct to Thessalonika from Barcelona. This has the disadvantage of being from Barna and not from Reus, if it were Reus the kids parents could run them there direct. But the advantage of no extra transfers. I am going to see what prices she can find and I will consider spending more money on these flights than I wanted with a mind to making my life easier. Furthermore I reckon that by the time we go to Germany there will be fewer students to worry about anyway. At the moment I have already lost one, she has left the school, and there are two or three that I haven't seen in days! In addition I calculate that if I have to spend more on the flights then I can always save on the last visit to Cyprus by going alone and saving the money on the other two teachers. After all in the end I am doing the project on my own and extra teachers in an avaluation process seem a little redundant.
Thursday, November 27, 2008
So that was Poland
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.
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 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.
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
End of October
We are now at the end of October and after a very hectic week I have finally found a minute to write something here.
Bulgaria has a homepage, and as I have just checked, it also has the details of half a dozen students so they are starting to move, that is great. 
This afternoon I have received a mail from Italy with an address for their page but it is an online generated forum and is a little difficult to navigate around. Additionally it is full of posts in Italian and I don't really know what is going on in each section.
As for Comenius this week I am not having a meeting, this is mainly because we are well advanced with the work and it seems pointless to get everyone together just to answer mails. I have found the time to send Dominika the summary of the questionnaires that the students completed and also three logos, the only ones I have been given.
I have my group sending and answering mails to the German students. These are the only ones they can correspond with at the moment but at least it is going well. They have also been surprised to see that the level of the Germans is not really any different from their own. I think everyone expected them to be fantastic.
Administratively I am still waiting for the money to appear, I know that the Germans and others have received their 80% already so I suppose that we should get ours soon. I have to send a list of the teachers who are going on the trips to Ensenyament but how I am supposed to know who will go to Cyprus two years from now I have no idea.
I have got together a list of contacts for publicity, newspapers, radio stations and even TV. Now it is a question of contacting them and getting them to come and have a look at what we are doing. I have drawn up invitations for the Mayor of Roquetes, and other dignataries, along with all the parents but now we are so close to the trip to Poland in November that I don't think it is worth doing the inauguration now. I have decided to wait till we have got back, then I will have more material to show people and I also hope that the other countries will have their webpages up and running. At the moment Germany and us have a working page.
Bulgaria has a homepage, and as I have just checked, it also has the details of half a dozen students so they are starting to move, that is great.
This afternoon I have received a mail from Italy with an address for their page but it is an online generated forum and is a little difficult to navigate around. Additionally it is full of posts in Italian and I don't really know what is going on in each section.
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
First steps
I haven't written for a while as we have been busy with the first steps of the project, the actual project!!
It seems odd that finally we are actually involved in the work of the project itself.
Well anyway as I think I have said I have 4-5.30 on Thursday afternoons for the project with the students in Informatica 2. Not the best place as it is hard to use the projector but it is good enough. We have already completed several of the first steps of the project.
We have created the blog, even though Dominika wanted a webpage not a blog, and I have managed to include photos of all of the students on the blog. I have insisted that they be careful to give me decent photos to post on the blog as I know that some of them love taking pictures of themselves and others hate it. This led me to think that if some of them on the page look great and the others look like real morons they would not get the same level of attention from the students of our partner countries. Still now it is done and they have all posted photos of themselves and a short bio on the page.
Initially I thought that the pen pal network would be administered by Dominika, precisely for these reasons. But she has decided that they can all write to who they want to. Fair enough we have started to do just that though at the moment it is only the Germans and us. Poland and Bulgaria have web pages posted but there are no details on them and no one to write to. Still in our last meeting I was able to see that some of the students have already received mails from some of the Germans students and had to reply to them. I have insisted on receiving a copy of everything written by them... because I trust them about as far as I can throw them. Some like Ferran are already seeing this as a great chance to "pull" a foreign girl and their mails read the same way as a dating page!!
Apart from this we have also completed quite a lot of the work that has to be done about basic facts about the country. This has been a mixed success as I have received one piece of work that has been through a translator online and a couple more in Catalan!! I have now reminded them that I need it all in English and they have to write it themselves. The second part of this work has been shared out and I am waiting for the results now. We have only produced a couple of logos that are really worth it and I will send them to Dominika when I get a moment to scan them.
I have also asked the students to think about the contents of the exchange box and I have to chase up on what they think this week.
It seems odd that finally we are actually involved in the work of the project itself.
Well anyway as I think I have said I have 4-5.30 on Thursday afternoons for the project with the students in Informatica 2. Not the best place as it is hard to use the projector but it is good enough. We have already completed several of the first steps of the project.
We have created the blog, even though Dominika wanted a webpage not a blog, and I have managed to include photos of all of the students on the blog. I have insisted that they be careful to give me decent photos to post on the blog as I know that some of them love taking pictures of themselves and others hate it. This led me to think that if some of them on the page look great and the others look like real morons they would not get the same level of attention from the students of our partner countries. Still now it is done and they have all posted photos of themselves and a short bio on the page.
Initially I thought that the pen pal network would be administered by Dominika, precisely for these reasons. But she has decided that they can all write to who they want to. Fair enough we have started to do just that though at the moment it is only the Germans and us. Poland and Bulgaria have web pages posted but there are no details on them and no one to write to. Still in our last meeting I was able to see that some of the students have already received mails from some of the Germans students and had to reply to them. I have insisted on receiving a copy of everything written by them... because I trust them about as far as I can throw them. Some like Ferran are already seeing this as a great chance to "pull" a foreign girl and their mails read the same way as a dating page!!
Apart from this we have also completed quite a lot of the work that has to be done about basic facts about the country. This has been a mixed success as I have received one piece of work that has been through a translator online and a couple more in Catalan!! I have now reminded them that I need it all in English and they have to write it themselves. The second part of this work has been shared out and I am waiting for the results now. We have only produced a couple of logos that are really worth it and I will send them to Dominika when I get a moment to scan them.
I have also asked the students to think about the contents of the exchange box and I have to chase up on what they think this week.
Friday, October 3, 2008
Admin details...
Ok so the contract has been signed and completed and sent off.
I have been on the net and reserved the flights for the visit in November to Poland. I am going with Guillem and Salome, Guillem is from the music dept and Salome teaches English with me. There is the hope that Guillem and I can use this visit to organise a music trip to Poland for the orchestra this year, a sort of English Music combination, and that is why he is coming along for this trip. Music, after all, is very transversal.
Unfortunately we will be away for nine days in total!!! The flights out are no problem, although we have to take two to get to Katowicwe! But on the flights back here we have to spend one night in the UK in Stansted. Of course as that is where I am from it presents no problem, I will phone one of my uncles and impose upon him!! The only other bummer was that I had to pay for the tickets myself and then ask for the money back, no problem except for the panicky phone call from my wife when she went to the bank and saw I had spent 700 odd euros on something!!
I have spoken to Nuria Estrada about all the things I needed to checl, basically she doesn't want to know, she has enough paperwork already and only wants to contact with us when she wants to. Fair enough that means I am on my own and responsible for the whole shooting match. Chould be fun.
I still have worries about things, we will just have to see how some things pan out.
I have been on the net and reserved the flights for the visit in November to Poland. I am going with Guillem and Salome, Guillem is from the music dept and Salome teaches English with me. There is the hope that Guillem and I can use this visit to organise a music trip to Poland for the orchestra this year, a sort of English Music combination, and that is why he is coming along for this trip. Music, after all, is very transversal.
Unfortunately we will be away for nine days in total!!! The flights out are no problem, although we have to take two to get to Katowicwe! But on the flights back here we have to spend one night in the UK in Stansted. Of course as that is where I am from it presents no problem, I will phone one of my uncles and impose upon him!! The only other bummer was that I had to pay for the tickets myself and then ask for the money back, no problem except for the panicky phone call from my wife when she went to the bank and saw I had spent 700 odd euros on something!!
I have spoken to Nuria Estrada about all the things I needed to checl, basically she doesn't want to know, she has enough paperwork already and only wants to contact with us when she wants to. Fair enough that means I am on my own and responsible for the whole shooting match. Chould be fun.
I still have worries about things, we will just have to see how some things pan out.
Friday, September 26, 2008
First meeting of the Comenius group
Yesterday afternoon I had the first meeting of the group. Not what you would call a tremendous success as most of them didn't come!
Four of them excused their absence beforehand but quite a lot simply didn't come because they had other things to do. I will have to make clear to them that this really isn't an optional thing and that they will have to attend. As it is I have made up an attendance sheet so that they will have to sign every time we have a meeting.
The meeting itself with the people who attended wasn't too bad, I did most of it in English but some of them, Ferran and Mayte, got lost immediately and I had to repeat a lot of it in Catalan. We did get the basics done, I have told them all to create a gmail account and I handed out the questionnaire and explained how to fill it in.
The fun part was when Mayte wanted to create a mail address called maytetas@gmail.com, I had to explain to her that this is not the sort of image we really wanted to present to the rest of the participants. She was unfazed but happily settled for mayteroq in the end. Mariona insisted we took a photo of the three of us on the first day and so we have been immortalised thus;
Who can guess which is Mayte? No prizes I am afraid. Mariona saw this photo and felt that she was being outshone by Mayte so we took another.
Today I have been doing documents for the students, I get the feeling that I have to make this appear official to them as soon as possible so they develop a work ethic for the project. Mayte and Mariona were just a little to "happy" yesterday and of course many of them just didn't come. I will allow a couple of weeks before really coming down on them hard in any way but in the meantime I want them to have to sign forms, fill in things and have to read the noticeboard so that they get a feeling of the official nature of what we are doing.
As for other things, the contracts have been sent off to Madrid, I hope, with a covering letter so that is done, now we just wait. I have commented briefly with Mª Jose about an official opening for the project and she said we could even get the Mayor of Roquetes to come. That would be good as if he comes it means photos and appearing in the press. I asked for "permission" to start working on publicity and she said I can do what I want. As a result I have to phone the local radio station as I want to appear on it to talk about the project, maybe take a couple of students too, and I will have to contact the local papers too.
I have talked with one of my colleagues, Batiste, about a webpage. He and I are in the middle of redesigning the school's webpage and he says that it wouldn't be too difficult to make up a webpage for the project if that is what I have to have. I am quite happy with the blog but if everyone has a page and Dominika asks for that then I will have to do something about it I suppose. We are trying to find a moment to meet and do something about it.
Four of them excused their absence beforehand but quite a lot simply didn't come because they had other things to do. I will have to make clear to them that this really isn't an optional thing and that they will have to attend. As it is I have made up an attendance sheet so that they will have to sign every time we have a meeting.
The meeting itself with the people who attended wasn't too bad, I did most of it in English but some of them, Ferran and Mayte, got lost immediately and I had to repeat a lot of it in Catalan. We did get the basics done, I have told them all to create a gmail account and I handed out the questionnaire and explained how to fill it in.
The fun part was when Mayte wanted to create a mail address called maytetas@gmail.com, I had to explain to her that this is not the sort of image we really wanted to present to the rest of the participants. She was unfazed but happily settled for mayteroq in the end. Mariona insisted we took a photo of the three of us on the first day and so we have been immortalised thus;
Who can guess which is Mayte? No prizes I am afraid. Mariona saw this photo and felt that she was being outshone by Mayte so we took another.
Today I have been doing documents for the students, I get the feeling that I have to make this appear official to them as soon as possible so they develop a work ethic for the project. Mayte and Mariona were just a little to "happy" yesterday and of course many of them just didn't come. I will allow a couple of weeks before really coming down on them hard in any way but in the meantime I want them to have to sign forms, fill in things and have to read the noticeboard so that they get a feeling of the official nature of what we are doing.
As for other things, the contracts have been sent off to Madrid, I hope, with a covering letter so that is done, now we just wait. I have commented briefly with Mª Jose about an official opening for the project and she said we could even get the Mayor of Roquetes to come. That would be good as if he comes it means photos and appearing in the press. I asked for "permission" to start working on publicity and she said I can do what I want. As a result I have to phone the local radio station as I want to appear on it to talk about the project, maybe take a couple of students too, and I will have to contact the local papers too.
I have talked with one of my colleagues, Batiste, about a webpage. He and I are in the middle of redesigning the school's webpage and he says that it wouldn't be too difficult to make up a webpage for the project if that is what I have to have. I am quite happy with the blog but if everyone has a page and Dominika asks for that then I will have to do something about it I suppose. We are trying to find a moment to meet and do something about it.
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Mª Jose
Today I have spoken to Mª Jose about the contract and everything and there is no problem at all there. I want to phone Nuria Estrada to confirm some things, things that I think I am clear on but I want cleared, but this apart I will fill in the details of the bank account and get Francesc to sign them asap.
Friday, September 19, 2008
Completing the contract
Today I have seen and talked to Tere about the contract and what we are going to do with the money. The school apparently only has one bank account, why does that surprise me? And everything that the school receives has to go through it. So I have taken the details and I will use them to fill in the forms. They then have to be sent off to Madrid, once Francesc has signed them, and then we should receive one copy back and THE MONEY.
One immediate hiccup is that even if we had to money now we need to book the flights with a credit card and the school doesn't have one. Tere said that she is always asking for one but that the bank refuses to give the school one because two people have to sign on all school cheques and transactions. This seems strange as as she says a company is in the same situation and yet has no problem with issuing its people with credit cards. So anyway when I want to book the flights I will have to do so with my own card!
With regard to the flights I think I will book multiple flights through Ryan air, we will have to go to Stansted and then to Katowice through Stansted. This is no problem on the way out but on the way back we will have to leave a day later, on the 22nd, and spend the night in the UK as there is no continuing flight back to Reus. So this will add two days to the original seven and we will be back on the 23rd. I will have to look to see if this is just silly, I am not sure at the moment. After all if we have to come back on the 23rd we might as well stay in Poland and come back on Wizzair on their Sunday flight, the only problem is that it goes to Girona!
A little more study is called for and then I will have to book them, this week if I can.
One immediate hiccup is that even if we had to money now we need to book the flights with a credit card and the school doesn't have one. Tere said that she is always asking for one but that the bank refuses to give the school one because two people have to sign on all school cheques and transactions. This seems strange as as she says a company is in the same situation and yet has no problem with issuing its people with credit cards. So anyway when I want to book the flights I will have to do so with my own card!
With regard to the flights I think I will book multiple flights through Ryan air, we will have to go to Stansted and then to Katowice through Stansted. This is no problem on the way out but on the way back we will have to leave a day later, on the 22nd, and spend the night in the UK as there is no continuing flight back to Reus. So this will add two days to the original seven and we will be back on the 23rd. I will have to look to see if this is just silly, I am not sure at the moment. After all if we have to come back on the 23rd we might as well stay in Poland and come back on Wizzair on their Sunday flight, the only problem is that it goes to Girona!
A little more study is called for and then I will have to book them, this week if I can.
Thursday, September 18, 2008
We receive official notification
Now it's official, today Francesc told me to look at my mail whilst passing in the corridor and Mª Jose said there was something about the Comenius and lo and behold... the contract has arrived.
This was last thing this afternoon and really I haven't had time to do much more than print out a copy and glance over it. From the little I have seen it is an official contract in which all our obligations are set out and that basically what it adds up to is that we get 80% of the money now but God help us if we can't justify how we spend it as then the school will end up paying for everything.
I will read it further this evening and talk to Mª Jose and Tere Sabate (the school secretary and sort of treasurer) tomorrow.
This was last thing this afternoon and really I haven't had time to do much more than print out a copy and glance over it. From the little I have seen it is an official contract in which all our obligations are set out and that basically what it adds up to is that we get 80% of the money now but God help us if we can't justify how we spend it as then the school will end up paying for everything.
I will read it further this evening and talk to Mª Jose and Tere Sabate (the school secretary and sort of treasurer) tomorrow.
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Oooops, small problem
These things are sent to try us I suppose. Out of interest I checked the price of tickets just now on wizzair and it seems that there aren't flights on the 14th and 21st, the nearest I can get are two days before or after these dates.
I am not sure how to solve this as with other airlines I am going to be charged the earth!! We will see, perhaps we will have to go wednesday to wednesday and miss that last two days with everyone else, after all, needs must when the devil drives.
I am not sure how to solve this as with other airlines I am going to be charged the earth!! We will see, perhaps we will have to go wednesday to wednesday and miss that last two days with everyone else, after all, needs must when the devil drives.
It's official!
Dominika has sent a mail to everyone today making the dates for the visit in Poland officially the 14th to the 21st. This means that if, IF, I had access to the money I could reserve the tickets already.
She has also confirmed that she wants us all to book into the Villa Eureka, this apparently is in the centre of her city and only two minutes away from her school on foot.
She will make the bookings necessary here and let us know when it is done.
So now I just wait, though I think if I don't hear anything by Thursday I will ask the school if they will advance me the money... though whether they will or not I have no idea.
She has also confirmed that she wants us all to book into the Villa Eureka, this apparently is in the centre of her city and only two minutes away from her school on foot.
She will make the bookings necessary here and let us know when it is done.
So now I just wait, though I think if I don't hear anything by Thursday I will ask the school if they will advance me the money... though whether they will or not I have no idea.
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