Our Erasmus+ project starts this week! From the 25th of November to the 1st of December, three teachers are flying to Oporto to carry out the first job shadowing at the Escola secundária Almeida Garrett in Vila Nova de Gaia, Oporto, Portugal. The aim of this educational visit is to look at the ways in which the school deals with different projects, both local and international projects and observe the methodologies that teachers use in the ICT lessons or foreign language lessons, as well as debating and discussing the evaluation methodologies and educational systems of our respective countries.

First day

We are about to depart to Oporto for a week of job shadowing. We are looking to it! Our Portuguese colleagues are ready to show us the different methodologies they are using, their projects and their school management. Elisabete Gomes, their Erasmus+ coordinator , will meet us on Monday. In the meantime, Susana Peixoto, one of the English teachers of the school, will be our guide for the weekend.

Second day

Today is Sunday. We have gone south of Oporto. All the villages are so pretty. Their culture and gastronomy is great! We particularly liked the colourful striped houses in Costa Nova, Aveiro. In the afternoon, we have been working in the hotel to get ready for this week's job shadowing.

Third day

Today was our first day at the Almeida Garrett Secondary School. Ms. Elisabete Gomes, the Erasmus+ coordinator, has welcomed us into the school. She has given us a tour of the school and we have seen that it has a wonderful library and it is full of nice places to study and work. After that, we have had a meeting with Ms. Ana Fonseca, the coordinator of the Eco School project. She has introduced us to the different projects they are working on. They have plenty of projects based on sustainability and international ones too, which make the schools one of the best in town. They are an Erasmus+ accredited school. Likewise, they are working in the Climate for Action international project with schools in Dubai, India and the USA. They are a good example to follow to be able for us to get internationalized. While having lunch with our Portuguese colleagues, we have been debating about education in Portugal and Catalonia. Tomorrow we will gladly continue or job shadowing at the Almeida Garreta School. We are looking forward to it.

Fourth day

Today we have started with a meeting with Teresa Soares, the responsible teacher for the DELF exams at Almeida Garret Secondary School. She has shared all the school experience on the program and their good practice. We have attended English and ICT lessons of different grades. We were delighted to see how our Portuguese colleagues manage their lessons and their teaching methodologies. We have also participated in their lessons and it has been a pleasure for us ! After the lessons we have prepared a presentation for the Spanish lessons that we will attend tomorrow at the school.

Fifth day

On our fifth day at the Almeida Garrett Secondary School we have attended two Spanish lessons. During these lessons we have presented our school and village. The Portuguese students have shown big interest and have asked lots of questions to us. The ICT lesson was about web design. We have also attended a teachers' meeting to discuss the different ways of managing international projects at schools and how important they are for our students' education. The impact that these international projects have in schools is huge and every school should do their best to get internationalized. We can say that the Erasmus+ motto " Enriching lives, opening minds " really works ! We are really happy to cooperate with this Erasmus+ accredited school and our job shadowing is getting better every day.

Sixth day

This morning we have been observing two English lessons, one of the 7th grade and one in the ninth grade, where the students have asked us questions about our school and our school's village. We have also observed the methodologies that the teachers have used to approach the new contents they were teaching. After the lessons, there has been a meeting where we have been discussing the evaluation methods that are used in Portugal and how they are different from the ones we use in Catalonia. We have explained to them our new way of planning lessons in Catalonia though learning scenarios. On the other hand, Julia has been observing ICT lessons which were about GIMP designing and the use of the TEAMS platform to keep students' work and teacher's notes. It is the platform all the teachers use at school.

Seventh day

And the last day of our job shadowing is here. Today, we were awarded our attendance certificates and the deputy board of the school attended our farewell and hoped for us to meet again in further cooperation. We gave them some thank-you gifts from Altafulla. We are so thankful for having had such wonderful hosts this past week. A special thank you to all the teachers who have been with us this week, whether in their lessons or in meetings with them, or those who joined us for lunch or dinner. Thank you, Mr Antonio Paulo Da Silva Mota, the school's headteacher, Elisabete Gomes, Erasmus+coordinator, and the rest of the English, French, Spanish and ICT teachers, Susana Peixoto, José Samapaio, Teresa Soares, Belmira Pinto, Ana Rute Silva, Manuela Jacob, Carla Cardoso, Ana Fonseca, Francisco Veiga, Fernando and Rute Ferreira. They have been all so kind and helpful to us. You will be forever in our hearts.