We have just arrived in Sicily to start the first teacher meeting related to our Erasmus project "Environment awareness".
We are visiting Cangiamila ad Indirizzo Musicale school in Palma di Montechiaro (Argigento) which is a small town near the coast.
During the next five days, we are going to share ideas and experiences with teachers from other 4 countries: Poland, Turkey, Italy and Romania.
We have decided to take part in this project because we find quite interesting to introduce Environment Education (EE) in our school.
These activities are planned to have an impact inside and outside our schools, by involving cross-curricular activities in the classroom and local communities’ campaigns .
This project aims to link each other five regions, to get them involved in each local reality through enhanced school curriculum with environmental education.
Objectives:
Interchange experiences and practices linked to EE among primary teachers from different European countries.
Allow the development of digital materials appropriate to the cross-curricular teaching of EE
Develop students’ environmental awareness.
Provide students individual and social responsibility
We arrive at the town hall of Palma di Montichiaro where the local authorities and the Italian teachers were waiting for the rest of members involved in this Erasmus project.
We received a warm welcome from the major and the headmaster of the school.
After that, we went to the school where the youngest students received us dancing typical dances from our countries.
Then, the headmaster introduces us to the teachers and we were able to visit different lessons.
In the afternoon we had visited the monuments of this wonderful city. They were awesome!
Today, we have gone to Realmonte to visit the Italkali which is a Italian salt society .
We had the opportunity to went into a salt mine. It was amazing!
In this mine we discovered the salt cathedral - "Saint Barbara" made by miners lots of years ago.
Then, we went to Porto Empedocle were we could visit the Scala dei Turchi (where we could enjoy its stunning views) and the Pirandello's museum (that was really interesting)
In the afternoon, we visited Favara, where we could enjoy with the ancient stories of the Castello Chiaramonte. We also could visit the ancient library and de mother church. It has been a tiring day!
Today, we spend part of the morning working at school. We had an important meeting with the rest of the teachers to talk about several environment issues. Each partner presents his school and the environment problems in their local cities. We tried to propose solutions to solve these natural problems.
After that, we have gone to The Valley of the Temples" that is an archaeological site in Agrigento. It is one of the most outstanding examples of Greater Greece art and architecture, and is one of the main attractions of Sicily. We have also gone to Pietro's Museum
In the afternoon we went to an oil factory called "San Giuseppe" where we have been able to see how olives can become oil. A really interesting visit!
We have gone to the school early in the morning because we would be able to spend time with the president of the environment association Mareamico of Agrigento, Dr Claudio Lombardo.
He talked about the huge and worrying pollution that exist in the sea. Claudio's organization fights against and tries to solve these current problems, mainly due to oil and placid pollution. The believe that a good way to prevent this problem could be to create an environment conscience in schools, so education is the first step.
Today has been our last day in Sicily. We have had a wonderful time in this small but smart and confortable city. We have gone to the school where students have prepared a living Bethlehem. They looked incredible!
We could also enjoy listening to their school orchestra singing Italian Christmas songs.
After that, we received our certificates and we said goodbye to our partners. Our next staff meeting will take place in Romania during the first week of march.
See you soon!
El proyecto “Environmental Awareness” está cofinanciado por la Unión Europea. Las opiniones y puntos de vista expresados en este blog sólo comprometen al Colegio Divina Pastora de León y no reflejan necesariamente los de la Unión Europea ni los del Servicio Español para la Internacionalización de la Educación (SEPIE). Ni la Unión Europea ni la Agencia Nacional SEPIE pueden ser considerados responsables de ellos.