Students Mobilities
Chronological order of our meetings and mobilities:
First transnational meeting - Požega, CROATIA 10-11/10/2016
C1 & C2 Budapest, HUNGARY 12-16/12/2016
C3 6 C4 Lubartow, POLAND 20-24/03/2017
C5 Lefkara, CYPRUS 25-30/05/2017
C8 6 C9 Požega, CROATIA 02-07/10/2017
C6 6 C7 Valenca, Portugal 05-09/03/2018
C10 6 Second transnational meeting - Istanbul, TURKEY 07-11/05/2018
Transnational Meeting in Croatia
First transnational meetings took place at the Požega School of Economics on 10th and 11th of October 2016. Thirteen teachers from five countries involved in the project met in a sort of team building, got together and discussed the activities, new methodologies, project responsibilities, mobility dates, school calendars and other organizational issues. Unfortunately, due to issues of Turkish National Agency, our partners from Istanbul couldn't be with us. We agreed that the conclusions and the work plan would be handed over to the Turks by the Main Coordinator.
Apart from the official agenda, the teachers were given the opportunity to experience the region, and to visit the capital of Croatia.
Mobility to Hungary
December 2016
It was the first international journey and meeting of students involved in the project. As it was noted in the application form, team Turkey wasn't with us in Budapest, but all the rest of partners were there.
Most of activities held in, our host school, as well as in Canada hotel, where the most of students and teachers were situated during our stay in Hungary. We presented each other our schools, towns and countries, interacted in literature quizzes, learned a little bit of Hungarian language. Students also presented their work on origins, and discussed about the similarities and differences between nations' origins.
One day trip took us to Benedictine Pannonhalma Archabbey, UNESCO World Heritage Site with a splendid library and great cultural and literacy tradition. Later that day we visited Győr, an important county town in western Hungary.
Teacher involved in project attended training based on Media and Language Learning Literacy.
Despite the cold, it was a week where we could enjoy the Christmas fair in the evening, or, how Hungarians would say, Karácsonyi Vásár, . The magnificent palaces, the richly decorated streets, the royal Buda, the metro rides, are all events that most students experienced for the first time in their lives. A very interesting and full of activities week in which we starting making friends from everywhere.
Mobility to Poland
March 2017
The second mobility of the project was organized in Lubartow, a charming Polish town. The students were accommodated in Polish families who received them very warmly. Finally, it was the meeting all partners gather together.
Mobility began with visiting the school and getting acquainted with the Polish educational system. After that, we got delighted with the play based on the comedy of William Shakespeare. The Polish pupils performed the play in English.
Students presented each other their outcomes made by studying origins: picture books, posters, photo stories, fanzines, short movies, etc. They also presented one work of contemporary literature of their nation, based on old one, on origin.
We learned useful basic things from the Polish language, which made it easier for us to understand during the upcoming days of our visit. Our hosts led us to visit the cultural, historical and natural sights of their town. Then we spent one full day in Warsaw where we visited the old town core, where the guide explained the legends related to different places of the old nucleus, and then we visited the National Polish Library. One afternoon we also visited the old town Lublin. The students enjoyed those visits very much and all the activities were fantastically planned.
Throughout the week a series of meetings for teachers were prepared, based on Multiple Intelligences methodology, and finished with acculturation workshop.
Mobility to Cyprus
May 2017
In Lefkara took place the third mobility of BookPals project, staff training events in which were involved only teacers of our project. Ten teachers from Portugal, Croatia, Hungary, Poland and Turkey came to our Cypriot partner Perifereiako Gymnasio kai Lykeio Lefkaron.
The rich program consisted of a presentation of the Cypriot educational system, a presentation of a new curriculum of literature in Cypriot schools, workshops on the influence of Homer's Odyssey as a source of European literature on the national literature of participating countries in the project, meetings and talks with two Cypriot writers about their works, literature, language and cultural identity and how to promote creative writing activities, Bildungsroman seminars or novels at the Cypriot University in Nicosia, film director meetings, lectures and workshops on literature and new technologies. Lecturers were high school professors / master of literature and university professors from the Cypriot or Greek universities.
In addition to the academic work of the program, we had the opportunity to feel the hospitality of the hosts who introduced us to the way of life, tradition and sights of East and South Cyprus and its capital.
Mobility to Croatia
October 2017
The third exchange of pupils and the fourth joint staff training event took place 2nd -6th October 2017 in Požega, Croatia. Sixteen students and ten teachers from five partner schools were hosted. The topic of the week was the development of visual literacy and all the activities were aimed at staging a multinational theatrical play. Students participated in professionally guided drama and art workshops, had daily play rehearsals, produced a showbill for the play, and partook in a literature quiz at the town library. We visited Zagreb and the National and University Library, a literary evening was organised where students read poetry in their languages. Teachers were educated in the fields of visual literacy and were involved in the Visible thinking and Thinking routines in literature classes lecture and workshops on Croatian language and ICT presenting free web tools that can be used for quiz or test-making. On the last day, four multinational teams staged four different performances at the town theatre and the audience voted for the best one.
Mobility to Portugal
March 2018
The fifth mobility took place in Escola Básica e Secundária Muralhas do Minho in Valenca.
Teachers and students worked together in teams to finish as many challenges as possible.The activities took place in three different locations, and the final product was a video made by each team. Teams coordinated different skills and strengths in pursuit of a common goal. The game gave the participants a new experience at working on a task, and improved confidence in their ability to succeed.
Plickers
Each student was given a card with a unique code. The code had four sides, each lettered A, B, C, and D. Students held their cards so that the letter they chose to answer the question with was at the top of their card. The teacher then used the app on his smartphone to slowly scan the room. The app recognized the cards, and captured the answer that the students chose.
Fun activities in the library
We were solving quizes and puzzles created by our host with the help of the web tool Discovery Education Puzzlemaker: Game Based Learning.
Visits
We visited Porto and Livraria Lello, one of the most beautiful libraries in the world, Viana do Castelo and two nearby towns in Spanish Galicia, Bayona and Vigo.
Transnational meeting and teachers' training in Turkey
May 2018
All six coordinators and other BookPals staff met for the last time to discuss the tasks already completed and those that need to be done before the project officially closes.
Our magnificent hosts prepared presentations about Turkish literature, visits to writers' museums, workshops on Turkish language, a folklore show, an interview with Turkish writers to discuss Istanbul in their literary works, a workshop on drama improvisation techniques at a local art centre to improve and expand the knowledge and creativity of teachers, an ICT workshop on TES Teach, a free digital tool which enables teachers to easily prepare digital teaching materials using various resources... Teachers prepared and conducted lessons with Turkish students using different types of pre, while and post reading activities, all based on Aesop's fable Androcles and The Lion.
We had an opportunity to visit some of the most impressive and breathtaking historical sights in Istanbul.
