Goodbye Nadja

Ieri pomeriggio a Guardea, presso la sala Consiliare, ci siamo ritrovati per salutare Nadja Skov Nielsen, l'Assistente Comenius che è stata con noi per due mesi e mezzo. Erano presenti gli alunni della scuola secondaria di I grado, alcuni genitori e professori, il sindaco e alcuni rappresentanti delle associazioni con cui la scuola collabora.

Ha aperto la cerimonia la prof.ssa Francesca Olivieri raccontando l'esperienza con Nadja sin dal momento della progettazione, sono poi seguiti alcuni messaggi degli alunni sia in italiano che in inglese, il saluto dell'amico e regista Massimo Manini e il discorso del Sindaco prof. Gianfranco Costa.

La presenza di Nadja per la scuola e per la comunità tutta è stata veramente preziosa perché ha dato a tutti la possibilità di confrontarsi con una cultura e una lingua diversa dandoci modo di "viaggiare" anche rimanendo in classe. Con Nadja gli alunni si sono affacciati a una finestra aperta che ha mostrato loro un panorama più ampio di quello cui sono abituati e che speriamo davvero non dimentichino, ma che continuino ad ammirare e a cercare di ingrandire attraverso la conoscenza e l'esperienza diretta grazie alle opportunità che l'Unione Europea ci offre. 

Ecco il video con i momenti salienti della cerimonia di questo pomeriggio.

Abbiamo chiesto a Nadja:

What are the advantages of being a Comenius assistant?

"Being a Comenius assistant has given me the opportunity to immerse myself in another culture and it has given me the advantage of experiencing different ways of doing things from the inside and thereby also understand the intentions behind different ways of teaching. When working with the pupils you learn a lot about language similarities and you learn a lot about yourself as a person too. Furthermore it is a unique opportunity to for the pupils to experience the authentic use of English in real everyday communication which is important for a future in an English speaking globalized world".

What will you take back home from this experience?

"During my stay the pupils, the teachers and I have created a lot of fantastic memories and experiences which I can take back home. I have learned a lot about the Italian culture regarding all the many positives but also about the challenges the Italian society and schoolsystem is facing these days. Thereby I also learned a lot about the positives and the challenges of my own culture. I was also inspired by different ways of teaching, for example the use of the programme eTwinning which is yet another great ressource available when teaching any subject.

I have had a once in a lifetime experience and I can only encourage other Italian and Danish schools to read about the programme and apply for an assistant so that other pupils, teachers and assistants can have the same amazing worth-while and educational experience".  

Nel video di seguito potete vedere ed ascoltare fantastiche assistenti Comenius e favolose prof. amiche che vengono intervistate e danno la loro opinione sull'esperienza che stanno vivendo!

Il video è stato realizzato dall'Agenzia Nazionale LLP durante l'incontro per gli Assistenti Comenius a Roma il 22 novembre 2013

NADJA

EUROPE

Happy Europe Day!

Some days ago I asked my students to find info on May 9th. I told them it is an important date for Europe no more!
So they search the net and found all the info to discover everything about it.
Here is a summary of what they found.

9th May is Europe day
This date was decided to commemorate the speech Robert Schuman, French foreign minister, made. He was the first to put forward the ideas behind the European Union such as peace, solidarity an cooperation between its member states.

EU symbols
Motto: United in diversity
European anthem: Ode to Joy composed by Ludwig van Beethoven.
European flag: 12 stars in circle symbolizing ideals of unity, solidarity and harmony between the peoples of Europe.

Other facts about the European Union:

Official languages: 23
Member States: 27, on July 1st Croatia will be the next country to join the EU so there will be 28 states.
Alphabets: Latin, Greek, Cyrillic

For more info on the European Union follow this link: http://europa.eu/

Europe Day

Last week I asked all my students to discover what 9th May is and here is the answer: 

today is

Europe day 

I put here the posters of this year both in English and in Italian.

In the pictures below you can find the explanation of the reason why 9th May has been chosen to become Europe day. You can also discover the other symbols.

I like to end this post with some music



So as today we celebrate Europe let's wish everybody

HAPPY EUROPE DAY!

For more info on the European Union click here and you can find facts and events in English, but if you want you can also change language!

Safer Internet Day - Sicurinrete

Today is the international Safer Internet Day. Here you can see a video in Italian advertising this event.
It is very important to be aware of to "share" and what not. So, watch the video and remember to be careful when you write about yourself on the net.



If you click here here you can find more info in Italian


The following is an excerpt from an article from this website http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/activities/sip/events/day/index_en.htm

6 key tips to help your child use the internet safely

TALK ABOUT THE INTERNET and dedicate time to explore it together with your child. Ask your child to show you what they like to do online, and try not to be shocked or overreact if you do not share the same interests.
STIMULATE YOUR CHILD'S CREATIVITY. Point them in the direction of the best online content to explore for their development or just for fun). Your child can learn and discover new sites, play games, write blogs, create websites. Stretch his or her imagination.
SET UP RULES or BOUNDARIES TOGETHER. When\Where\Why and for how long can your child use their mobile phone or computer? If you listen to your child and establish fair rules, then he or she is more likely to stick to them.
PROTECT PERSONAL DATA and help your child understand that information or photos they put online can remain visible to everybody forever. Help him to set up the highest level of privacy settings on social networks.
THINK ABOUT USING PARENTAL CONTROL TOOLS to automatically filter certain topics (e.g. violence, porn) and limit the time your child will be able to navigate the web.
AVOID HAVING A COMPUTER IN YOUR CHILD'S BEDROOM. Put it in the living room instead. It will make it easier to follow your child's web-surfing habits on a daily basis.

These 6 are tips for parents and adults but I think that even children can keep in mind these tips so to help their friends and remind themselves what is better to avoid!


Here is another video in English this time!

European Day of Languages

Today is the European Day of Languages. In 2001 the Council of Europe decided to celebrate the importance of languages, the importance of being able to communicate among different people throughout Europe.

The overall objectives of this initiative are to raise awareness of:

• Europe’s rich linguistic diversity, which must be preserved and enhanced;
• the need to diversify the range of languages people learn (to include less widely used languages), which results in plurilingualism;
• the need for people to develop some degree of proficiency in two languages or more to be able to play their full part in democratic citizenship in Europe.

You can find more info here: http://edl.ecml.at/

To celebrate this day in the schools of Lugnano and Giove the students made posters with different ways of saying CIAO. 

To create the posters the students:
1. searched the net to find out the official languages spoken in the EU;
2. looked up in online dictionaries the word CIAO in the languages the teachers asked them to find;
3. wrote the word in balloons or in hand-shaped piece of papers and colored them according to the colors of the flag of the country the language is spoken;
4. glued the balloons on the poster, together with the logo and the stickers found in http://edl.ecml.at/.

We also made videos using the greetings we learnt. 

Europe from a very "different" point of view!

I have a friend, or better he is a friend of mine son. He is also my neighbour, in fact he lives in a house opposite my house. 

He is a "bit" strange! Last year he left from Terni and went to Cambridge travelling on foot!

This year he started from Cambridge and went to Norway by "vespa"!

Now I suppose you are wondering: "why is our teacher telling this story?"

For a very simple reason: this man travelled across several European Nations and he wrote about his experiences in his blogs. I think it is worthy to visit the blogs to have the chance to know some European countries from the point of view of a "traveller" of the 21st century!

He writes in Italian so ... have fun reading some of his posts!

This is the link to the blog related to the first experience (Terni-Cambridge)

http://lafrancigenacontromano.wordpress.com/


This is the link to the blog related to the second experience
(Cambridge - Norway ...)

http://dromorama.com/

Festa dell'Europa 9 maggio

"Il contributo che un'Europa organizzata e vitale può apportare alla civiltà è indispensabile per il mantenimento di relazioni pacifiche".
Erano queste le parole che Robert Schuman, Ministro degli Esteri Francese, pronunciò il 9 maggio del 1950. Il discorso che fece è noto come "Dichiarazione Schuman" che è anche considerato l'atto di nascita dell'Unione Europea.

Per saperne di più: http://europa.eu/abc/index_it.htm


Buona Festa dell'Europa!