Embedded Files
At about 8:15 to 8:45 on Tuesday morning, partner teachers and pupils as well as the Greek pupils and teachers gathered at Yiannis Ritsos Cultural Center of Aigaleo. Vice Mayor had arranged to have the space of the Centre at our disposal and provided us with all necessary equipment in order to hold our Comenius work meeting there, as our amphitheatre was not yet repaired after the damages that were caused to its equipment last year.
Around 9:00 we welcomed our guests to the 4th meeting in Aigaleo, Greece. We were honored by the presence of the Mathematics and English Councilors of Athens C Department of Secondary Education who joined us in welcoming our guests and wishing us success in our works.
Additionally, Vice Mayor Yianna Xristoglou, having supported us a great deal with technical stuff, spoke on behalf of the Town Hall staff, and commended our attempt to approach the concept and the real function of our ideal city, YoUtopia. She confirmed that this is the main significant goal of the City Town Hall programme too, and it’s what should occupy our minds and thoughts towards the creation of a better city and society without prejudice and injustice among it’s the community members. Equality among all citizens is what we should all work on, promoting cooperation, collaboration, tolerance, volunteering free of bias and prejudice in all levels of social relationships.
Moreover, Mrs Skoufi –Katsidonioti Dimitra, ex Administrator of the 2nd Beaureau of Secondary Education in the area and current coordinator of O.C.E.A.N , a non government organization that supports and promotes educational methods and procedures internationally, was present both in the opening and closing of our works. She referred to our cooperation since the start of our Comenius Programme, when last year we had been invited by them to present our work to an International meeting “Days of Youth” with researchers from 15 European Countries.
Headmistres Dionysia Gouskou and subheadmistress Kapetanidou Theodossia also welcomed the YoUtopia Family and our partners. Aggeliki Papaspyropoulou and Christos Pantelis, teachers participating in the Comenius gave us their wishes for a successful currying out of our works on Appearance Based Discrimination. An English teacher Marica Katsarea, ex colleague of ours was present to helping with translations as well as Eleni Nikolaou working at the Aigaleo Municipality translator shared with us the welcoming of partners too.
From 9:30 to 10:30 France- Italy-Czech Republic and Turkey presented their inquiry on Discrimination of Looks.
During 10:30 and 11:00 we had our coffee break and all participants were offered traditional home- made sweets, snacks and cookies, as well as coffee and refreshments. We continued with presentations of inquiry till 12:30 when we left the Center for a meeting with Aigaleo City Mayor, Mr Dimitris Birbas. There, we were all welcomed by the Mr Mayor in the press room of the Municipality and he expressed his positive thoughts for what we have been doing as School Partnership. We all attended a documenter on Aigaleo History and left with nice impressions of the Mayor’s hospitality.
We used in all our outings the metro lines which served us effectively, as we could save ourselves from high traffic in the streets.
We left the Municipality at about 1:30 am and we had a 3 hours break before we return for the rest of our presentations at Yiannis Ritsos Center. Pupils had lunch with families and teachers enjoyed a meal at Dafni Pavilion Restaurant in the shade of high trees near Dafni botanical grove. We also visited the UNESCO’s PROTECTED WORLD HERRITAGE Dafni Monastery, an 11th-century Byzantine one. We could only have a view of its surrounding space, as the monastery is under restoration after the destructive earthquake of 1999 in Athens.
By 4:30 we were all back for the afternoon presentations of Twinspace Summaries and Questionnaire on Appearance Based Discrimination. This was done in international teams as certain countries had undertaken to work out a part of each the two tasks. Some partners presented some extra videos of interviews or their own questionnaires on Discrimination of Looks or descriptions of film watching.
By 5:30 we had finished all kinds of presentations and then a carrier advisor and expert on Special Education proceeded with a live workshop as a relaxing feedback of what we had been all day negotiating. Pupils and teachers formed groups and they collaborated on a task that finally proved whether we realize what appearance discrimination is and whether we are ready to apply the principles of equality and justice for all, or we are far from adopting it literally in our lives.
By 6:30 we were free to leave Yiannis Ritsos Cultural Center having shared unique moments of common work on Appearance Based Discrimination. Definitely this superb work left it’s signs to each one of us, and brought about feelings of pleasure and joy for such a harmonically co-working among the members of YoUtopia Partnership. Late in the evening all teachers tasted nice food under the Acropolis Hill.
Welcoming of partners
Municipality
Page updated
Google Sites
Report abuse