Meeting in Latvia
Comenius Meeting in Latvia 21-26 November 2010: Summary and Pictures. The 1st Comenius Meeting in the 1st Project Year was in Latvia, at our partner school in Rudbarzi. It lasted from 21 November to 25 November 2010. All partner schools were participating in the Meeting. There were 27 teachers visiting Rudbarzi at the meeting.
On Saturday 20 November Bulgarian partners arrived, and on Sunday 21 November, all participants arrived in Riga and checked in at the “Old City Boutique Hotel” in Riga. We had the opportunity to get to know the Capital of Latvia, walking around the City Center.
On Monday 22 November, we had breakfast at the hotel and travelled to Rudbarzi by bus which was arranged by our host school. On the way we visited Oskars Kalpaks Monument. We learned that he was the first commander of Latvian Armed Forces.
Lithuanian partners arrived to Rudbarzi. After checking in at the hotel “Kalnamuiza” at Rudbarzi, we went to “Oskara Kalpaka Rudbarzi” primary school. They gave us a warm welcome. We had lunch at the school canteen. The pupils prepared the performance with acting, singing and dancing at the reception. There was a surprise for each partner; the Latvian pupils and teachers had prepared a song from each partners’ country and performed them. That was really great. Thank you very much.
In the afternoon we started the Comenius Project Meeting. This Meeting had an agenda of important matters to discuss in order to get a good start and planning of the 1st Project Year. All partner schools had participants in the Meeting. The Turkish coordinator was leading this Meeting. The visit programme was presented by Dzintars Straus. Then all partners introduced themselves and presented their schools presentations: number of students and teachers, age of pupils, school subjects, timetable of classes, which foreign languages are studied, activities, the surroundings of the schools. Gifts were exchanged. First ideas about the reasons of xenophobia and the ways to overcome it were shared.
In the afternoon there was a dinner (assortment of Latvian homemade food) at the school hall. Latvian teachers and parents organised that wonderful evening for us. Thank you very much for this organisation and delicious food . Teachers from the host country performed traditional dances. Also we had a homework for this dinner: presentation of one song and one game from each country, involving in activities all partners. We demonstrated our traditional songs and dances. That was a great experience and we got the opportunity to get better acquainted.
The morning started with project meeting on Tuesday 23 November. The main objective was to review the appliance form of our project.
Meeting Topics and notes
Review of the work done until the moment by each participant.
Dissemination of the working programme of the first year.
Organising cooperation between participating schools.
General agreements about the proposed activities, objectives, methodology of the project.
Presentation of ideas given by the teachers.
Agreements on pupils’ involvement.
Presentation of the strategies of integration of the project into learning and other ongoing activities in every school.
The Project Website.
The Project Logo.
The coordinator disseminated the working programme, and asked for partners’ suggestions about the programme. Italian partners proposed to determine the dates and places for the meetings in this course:
First meeting in Latvia: 21-25 November 2010
Second meeting in Italy: 13-18 February 2011
Third meeting in Lithuania: 26-30 April 2011
Fourth meeting in Bulgaria: 30 May- 03 June 2011
Fifth meeting in Poland: 03- 07 October 2011
Sixth meeting in Romania: 18-22 February 2012
Seventh meeting in Slovakia: 15-19 April 2012
The final meeting in Turkey: 20-24 May 2012
The coordinator said that she was going to prepare the work programme changing the dates and send it to each partner by email. Each partner school has constituted a Project team, and introduced themselves by email. Each partner school has started to organise exhibitions and displays about the project for parents and members of the local communities. The partners decided to establish email contacts between pupils to improvetheir motivation for learning through direct contact with other cultures , picking up the languages of each other ,and for building relationships with students in other countries. The importance of questionnaires was mentioned. With the help of these surveys, students can communicate what their expectations and interests are concerning the discovery of different European realities.
It was decided to hold the guest students in families of students’ of the host school.
As the project reflects the mission of our schools, it will be integrated into curriculum through different classes (literature, history, religion, social studies, foreign languages etc).
The Project Website is going to be created by Peyo Yavorov Secondary School. It was decided to load the documents of each school to the website. Also the website of each school should be informed about any activity, meeting, teacher exchange etc.
The logo for our Project was selected. The pupils made drawings related to our topic “Overcoming xenophobia”. Each country brought their selected drawings. At the meeting we voted for the partners’ schools drawings. Latvian partner’s drawing was selected as the Project logo.
In the afternoon there were guided tours in Skrunda town and Kuldiga town. We met Skrunda local government council and attended the reception. In the evening all participants had dinner together at Pagrabins Restaurant in Kuldiga. It was very nice and everyone enjoyed themselves.
On Wednesday 24 November, we followed our hosts to their lessons. Each participant attended lessons according to their wishes, so we experienced a typical school day in Latvia. We asked questions to Latvian teachers about their education system.
There was a guided tour of Rudbarzi village. Later there was a trip to Liepaja Town. We were informed about Liapaja by our guide, and explored the natural and cultural heritage of Liepaja. We visited Liepaja Secondary Art School. We had our lunch at Barons Bumbiers Restaurant.
In the evening, there was dinner and Latvian folk dance party at the Skrunda’s Community Centre. Nearly sixty person from different countries, cultures held each other’s hand and danced together. That was really an amazing party. The guests were also interviewed by the local tv channel.
The final day of the Comenius Meeting was Thursday 25 November. We had the final meeting:
Discussion about the content of the following meetings.
Distribution of tasks of the first year.
Suggestions; in the First Meeting Feed Back Form, introducing a traditional recipe was suggested, so we decided to organize International Gourmet Lunch in Italy.
Deadlines of the tasks:
Website is going to be created by Peyo Yavorov Secondary School till 20th of December.
Exchange of pupils’ emails till 10th of December.
Preparing a questionnaire for students of their awareness of other countries, the reasons of xenophobia, their suggestions for defeating xenophobia by Oskara Kalpaga Rudbarzi and Gazi Primary schools till 10th of December, and it is going to be applied in January at each school. The results are going to be analysed in Italy to determine the subtitles of “Peace Book”.
After the meeting, we visited Milk Museum and then it was time to leave Rudbarzi Town, and return to Riga. There was a guided tour in Riga.
We had our dinner at LIDO Recreation Centre and checked in our hotel.
On Friday 26 November, we returned to our countries with wonderful memories.
Thank you very much Latvian Friends