miércoles, 22 de diciembre de 2010

CHRISTMAS CARDS

Last year we asked our students what Christmas meant to them. Some of them answered that it was about celebrating the birth of Christ, others agreed that it wasn’t about presents and most of them believed that it was a time to spend with those we love. In fact, it is a time of happiness and peace, and we thought we could share that feeling with the rest of the world. Hence, all the ESO and Bachillerato students at our school have written a postcard to another one in every country in the UN as a symbol of solidarity. The schools were chosen at random in the Internet as well as we included those which belong to The Teresian Association and our ETWINNING PARTNERS. Students were asked to draw a picture and design their own Christmas cards, explaining who they are, what they considered Christmas is and sending their best wishes for the next year.
“Christmas is a time in which families gather together and share their Christian feeling, remembering Christ is born. Furthermore, we share presents, but that is not as important as having the chance of being with each other.
You may not celebrate Christmas, but I want to send you this postcard as a sign of peace and love, because I think all our beliefs, every religion, everything we do day after day, should be focused on trying to turn the world into a better place to live in.”- one of our best students stated.
The representatives of each form show us the letters as a special season’s greeting for you.

El pasado año preguntamos a nuestroa alumnus qué significaba para ellos la Navidad. Algunos contestaron que era la celebración del nacimiento de Jesús, otros coincidían en que no tenía que ver con los regalos, y la mayor parte creían que era un momento para estar con aquellos que amamos. De hecho, es un momento de felicidad y paz, y pensamos que podríamos compartir ese sentimiento con el resto del mundo. De ahí que todos los alumnos de Secundaria y Bachillerato hayan escrito una postal navideña a un colegio en todos los países miembros de la ONU como gesto solidario. Los colegios fueron elegidos al azar en Internet e incluimos también aquellos pertenecientes a la Institución Teresiana fuera de España y nuestros compañeros ETWINNING. Se pidió a los alumnos que diseñaran ellos mismos el dibujo de la tarjeta y que contasen algo sobre ellos mismos y su ciudad y lo que la Navidad es para ellos, incluyendo sus mejores deseos para el próximo año.
“Navidad es el momento en el que las familias se reunen para compartir su fe Cristiana, conmemorando el nacimiento de Cristo. Intercambiamos regalos pero eso no es tan importante como el tener la oportunidad de estar los unos con los otros.
Puede que no celebréis la Navidad, pero quiero enviaros esta postal como signo de paz y amor, porque pienso que todas nuestras creencias, todas las religiones y todo lo que hacemos día a día debe estar orientado a hacer un mundo mejor”- afirmaba uno de nuestros mejores alumnos.
Representantes de cada grupo osan delante de la Catedral con las cartas como especial felicitación de navidad para toda la comunidad educativa y amigos.

domingo, 12 de diciembre de 2010

Las postales - The postcards


Hello friends and thank you for the postcard! We have received postcards from Turkey, Germany and Spain.
¡Hola a todos y muchas gracias por las postales! En la foto podéis ver las postales que nos han llegado a Islandia, nos han encantado.
Un saludo, desde Islandia.

jueves, 2 de diciembre de 2010

The First Postcards

We are 2nd ESO form at Santa Teresa school and we hope you'll enjoy our November postcards. We have already received the ones from Turkey (thanks so much) and are looking forward getting to the rest.

jueves, 11 de noviembre de 2010

EUROPEAN MOBILITY WEEK

One of the activities we have designed has to do with the European Mobility Week. Second Year Bachillerato students (17 years old) read a text about what it is and what it entails and discussed in groups about measures to be design to improve the quality of urban life. They shared ideas and we decided to send them to the European Commisaries.

“After discussing about the European Mobility Day, we have come to some conclusions about how to improve the quality of urban life.
To start with, we think that encouraging people to use public means of transport is of the utmost importance, but they are sometimes expensive and time schedules not always fit citizens’ needs. Therefore, we believe the quality of public transport should be improved by adjusting timetables, increasing the frequency of buses in several routes, and selling tickets at a cheaper price or offering discounts to regular customers. We consider that creating public transport cards which allow travellers add up points every time they use public transport so that they can exchange them for goods in shops or other services, would be also a good idea.
Moreover, more pedestrian and green areas should be created as well as secure places to park eco-friendly vehicles such as bicycles or the pedal-powered transport they use in India (rickshaws). If government subsidies were given to hybrid or electric vehicles producers and buyers were also helped to purchase those products, more people would stop driving ordinary cars or motorbikes.


Besides, the quality of urban life is not just a matter of means of transport. Having clean towns is something which concerns us. We accept it is a question of education but we have to bear in mind that not everybody cares about it. When we are walking on the street we sometimes don’t get to find a bin to throw our waste away. We suggest placing more bins or creating the Binman, a worker who carries a bin with him and to whom you can call to approach you so that you can put your rubbish in. From our point of view, there are two advantages: you create a new job and you make cities cleaner and neater.
To finish with, we would like to add that we all must also save energy to enjoy a healthy and sustainable urban life. Electrical power is expensive and we must care about natural resources. Hence, it would be a good idea to design devices which could be placed in the most crowded areas of towns under the paving stones and which would work as storage batteries. By stepping on those stones, electric power would be generated. We could also install solar street lamps or save money by using led bulbs, which have an energy saving design, in Christmas or other festival decorations, or just replace them with other types of ornaments.
We also encourage governments to organise contests where schools whose students prove to have a civic behaviour can win different prizes which motivate them to be model public-spirited citizens.”

The students sent these ideas to some of the EU Commissaries and THEY GOT A REPLY!!!!!


On the 8th of November we decided to think about and discuss the problems resulting from hatred and xenophobia towards other nations. We referred to International Day against Fascism and Antisemitism (9th November) to express out concern and commemorate all Nazis victims around the world. The memory of the Second World War tragedy is still vivid in our minds, so we need to be aware how important it is to call for peace among nations, wipe out prejudice and ungrounded fear toward cultures we have little knowledge about.
As members of united Europe, I and my students strongly believe that being tolerant and respectful toward others is the greatest gift and a way to bind the European nations together and build bridges for the benefit of mutual cooperation and understanding.
We are proud to be a part of United Europe and thus we say “no” for those supporting adverse ideologies and wars.
In the class devoted to the problem of Fascism and Antisemitism “Stop Racism” workshop) we read campaign information, defined notions such as Racism, Xenophobia, Antisemitism and thought how to prevent these phenomena regionally. Moreover, as a part of the Polish education the eldest school pupils went on a trip to the Auschwitz- Birkenau Museum (the German Nazi camp) to see and learn about the place that claimed thousands of humans’ lives during the Second World War (1939-1945).
Here are the photos of pupils of Gimnazjum 12 w Zespole Szkół nr 2 in Tychy (Poland) taking part in the project holding posters of the Campaign.
There are also photos copyrighted from Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum. All photos are property of the Museum and may be used for strictly educational purposes only. Source: www.auschwitz.org.pl
We are greeting our friends from all schools participating
Hanna Kałamaja and 3c / 3b pupils: Martyna, Wioletta, Michalina, Ewelina, Karolina, Zbigniew, Patryk, Ryszard and Marcin. :)
http://www.slideshare.net/secret/jPkGXzIDUc1Hs7

EUROPEAN DAY OF LANGUAGES




Last 24th September 1st Bachillerato and 1st Primary Education students celebrated The European Day of Languages together running a Storytelling session. They did their best trying to promote language learning and small children really enjoyed the programme. Little Worm, The Hungry Bear, Mary’s Forest and Fish Love, which had been written by the pupils themselves, proved to be catchy and entertaining stories as well.
The general objectives of the European Day of Languages are:
• Alerting the public to the importance of language learning and diversifying the range of languages learnt in order to increase plurilingualism and intercultural understanding;
• Promoting the rich linguistic and cultural diversity of Europe, which must be preserved and fostered;
• Encouraging lifelong language learning in and out of school, whether for study purposes, for professional needs, for purposes of mobility or for pleasure and exchanges.
'Respect for others’ languages, cultures and identities is a precondition for creating a European space for mutual respect and cooperation in Europe', said Minister Miloshoski, Chair of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe.
On the occasion of the annual European Day of Languages celebrated throughout the Council of Europe's 47 member states, he stressed that: “Linguistic intolerance and insecurity are best countered through language learning and intercultural understanding, or 'compréhension' in French, or 'skilningur' in Icelandic, or 'mõistmine' in Estonian, or 'tuiscint' in Irish, or 'zrozumienie' in Polish or 'razbiranje' in Macedonian.”



El pasado 24 de septiembre los alumnos de 1º de Bachillerato y 1º de Educación Primaria celebraron juntos el Día Europeo de las Lenguas en una sesión de Cuentacuentos. Los mayores se esforzaron en intentar promocionar el aprendizaje de idiomas y los más pequeños se divirtieron con el programa: El Pequeño Gusano, El Oso Hambriento, El Bosque de María y Amor entre Peces, que demostraron ser historias tan entretenidas como atractivas.
Los objetivos generales son alertar al público sobre la importancia del aprendizaje de idiomas y diversificar la gama de lenguas, a fin de incrementar el pluringüilismo y la comprensión intelectual; promover la rica diversidad lingüística y cultural de Europa; y fomentar el aprendizaje permanente de idiomas dentro y fuera de las escuelas.
'El respeto por las lenguas, culturas e identidades de los otros es una condición previa para crear un espacio europeo para el respeto mutuo y la cooperación en Europa', alegó el Ministro Miloshoski, presidente del Comité de Ministros del Consejo de Europa.
Con ocasión del Día Europeo de las Lenguas, que se celebra anualmente en los 47 Estados miembros del Consejo de Europa, Miloshoski afirmó lo siguiente: “la mejor forma de combatir la intolerancia y la inseguridad lingüística es el aprendizaje de lenguas y la comprensión intercultural, o compréhension en francés, o skilningur en islandés, o mõistmine en estonio, o tuiscint en irlandés, o zrozumienie en polaco o razbiranje en macedonio.”

domingo, 7 de noviembre de 2010

Welcome to the project


As teachers, we sometimes feel that students do not really know how useful learning languages is, and they consider the rest of the European countries are so far away. They don’t even realise that this is a rich and varied continent where traditions, peoples and cultures melt together, that we all are very different but not as much as they believe. We want to create a new comparative exploration of Europe. The main objective of this project is to provide a general overview of the different countries in the EU and create a lively space in which students can share their ideas with their mates in other regions, to exchange experiences and gain motivation. It aims to rise awareness of the importance of getting to know other cultures and be tolerant and try to understands other people’s ways of life. Besides, this project seeks to develop a way of teaching and learning a foreign language in a cooperative learning basis, so that students with intellectual disabilities or learning difficulties can also participate.