Comenius Newsletter Spring 2014 - murciaeduca.es · 2014. 7. 2. · Comenius Newsletter Spring 2014...
Transcript of Comenius Newsletter Spring 2014 - murciaeduca.es · 2014. 7. 2. · Comenius Newsletter Spring 2014...
Comenius Newsletter Spring 2014
Development of teaching models to support methodological skills
Idea of the project
Development of teaching models to support methodological skills is a
multilateral Comenius Project 2013-2015 between the following five schools:
1. Grundschule Baiersdorf, Baiersdorf, Germany, homepage: www.grundschule-baiersdorf.de
2. Volkschule Stainz, Stainz, Austria, homepage:
www.vs-stainz.at 3. Eggeslevmagle Skole, Skaelskoer, Denmark, homepage:
www.eggeslevmagle-skole.dk
4. Colegio Rural Agrupado Entretierras Torre Pacheco, El Jimenado -
Torre Pacheco, Spain, homepage: www.murciaeduca.es/crajimenado 5. Wilds Minne Skole, Kristiansand, Norway, homepage:
www.minskole.no/wildsminne
The influence of international studies of educational achievement such as PISA,
TIMMS and the yearly OECD-report has made the schools aware of differences
between the pupils' achievements both inside and between the countries in
Europe. These studies clarify among other things the link between the used
teaching methods and the pupils' learning results. Methodological competence
is an important basis for successful learning. It is the schools' responsibility to
develop the pupils' methodological skills.
The goal of the project is to develop and exchange models of teaching that
concentrate on promoting the acquisition of methodological skills.
Therefore the partners of the project develop together and exchange teaching
methods to increase the pupils' learning strategies. For successful learning it is
important to have the competence to choose between various learning
methods and use them.
Comenius Newsletter Spring 2014
Development of teaching models to support methodological skills
The project focuses primarily on educational, methodical and school
organizational issues that must be discussed by teachers and school leaders,
processed and implemented in the partner schools with students in practice.
Participating primary schools learn from the exchange of best-practice
examples from each other and develop specialized and interdisciplinary
teaching models with the objective of acquiring and promoting method
competence for students mainly aged 6 to 12 years.
The project will therefore give the pupils, teachers and headmasters valuable
intercultural knowledge. These issues will be addressed through the mobilities
and the local activities.
Between the project meetings local activities to similar topics will take place in
each partner region. The link between the thematic project meetings and the
local activities will support and guarantee the systematical progress of the
project.
We will create a website (wordpress) that will be used to produce newsletters
and twitter. This is the way to document the process.
We will produce a conclusion book to implement new teaching models. We will
offer information about our activities to the local newspapers in order for them
to publish articles. We will write summaries to reflect what we have done at
each mobility.
The project will be evaluated (survey) through the qualitative and quantitative
indicators.
Cooperations with universities are planned.
Comenius Newsletter Spring 2014
Development of teaching models to support methodological skills
Preparatory visit in Germany
The first meeting with all the participants in our Multilateral Comenius project
2013-2015 “development of teaching models to support methodological skills
took place in Baiersdorf, Germany from the 3rd to the 6th of February 2013.
Four of the five involved countries met. We had two long days of meetings to
prepare the final application to be sent to our local offices for Educational and
Culture Lifelong learning program Comenius. We learned a lot about our
different – and equal – schools, and discussed both methods of teaching as
well as ways of organizing the schools.
We spent time visiting classrooms at Grundschule Baiersdorf. We started with
a warm Welcome ceremony at the Gymnastic hall, were the pupils had
prepared songs for us, among other things. They sure knew how to talk
English! We also visited classrooms to experience “best practice examples”.
The teacher had prepared activities in German/Orthography with methods
called carousel, STEX, placemat and gallery.
Comenius Newsletter Spring 2014
Development of teaching models to support methodological skills
Additional program during our Preparatory visit in Germany
We also had time for informal meetings with the teachers, both at school and
at dinner at the headmasters home, and we had an excursion to Fränkische
Schweiz.
The Norwegian team left later than the other countries, and therefor they had
the privilege of sightseeing in Nürnberg as well.
Comenius Newsletter Spring 2014
Development of teaching models to support methodological skills
Scenes from Nürnberg…
Presentation of the 5 schools
During our stay, we also had a thorough presentation of the different schools
that are participating in this project. We had to write a description in our
application – in addition to a presentation for each other.
Veronika from Austria presents her school.
Comenius Newsletter Spring 2014
Development of teaching models to support methodological skills
The German School - Grundschule Baiersdorf
Grundschule Baiersdorf is a primary
school from grade 1 to 4 with about 25
teachers and 250 pupils aged between 6
and 10 years. Baiersdorf (7450
inhabitants) is situated in northern
Bavaria 30 km to the north of Nürnberg
and 30 km to the south of Bamberg. The
school was built in 1959 and has been
renovated between 2005 and 2007. A new sports hall in 2008 and the renewed
outdoor facilities in 2009 have been the last achievements.
We believe that school should be a living space as well as a learning space, so
our main focus is on the pupils’ individual needs. We encourage and challenge
children according to their skills and try to develop their self- and achievement
motivation as much as possible. We try to open their eyes and minds in
different directions. Our school is taking part in contests like “Känguru” for
pupils who like mathematics or the yearly reading-competition.
Comenius Newsletter Spring 2014
Development of teaching models to support methodological skills
Our school day begins at 8.15 and ends at 13.15. Optional work groups are
offered to the pupils in the afternoon such as ballet, choir, computer, theatre,
gardening, pottery, self-defence, basketball, tennis and ice skating. A
mediation course allows pupils to settle their disputes themselves.
Pupils can attend the after school care club until 17.00.
Festivities like our “rendezvous of artists” last summer include parents and
families of our pupils and offer great chances to intensify our relationship.
Comenius Newsletter Spring 2014
Development of teaching models to support methodological skills
The Austrian School – Volkschule Stainz
Primary school Stainz is located in a suburban area in the south-west of Styria.
There are a lot of small schools in our area. The capital of Styria (Graz, 260
000 inhabitants) is 30 km away. We benefit from our regional structures. We
have good connections to parents and to the local institutions. We closely work
together with the school authority; therefore this project is of great importance
for us.
In our school there are 145 pupils at the age from 6 to 10. 12 teachers are
working in our school. A part of our pupils use the childcare in the afternoon,
which takes place in the schoolhouse. At the time there are no pupils with
special needs and with social problems in the school.
Together with our project partners we want to reach the defined aimes and
endorse them in every step. By this project we want to get to know the
pedagological situations of our partners, we want to share our experiences and
we want to improve our own methodological skills.
Team Austria: Walter Eichmann and Veronika Langmann
Comenius Newsletter Spring 2014
Development of teaching models to support methodological skills
The Danish School – Eggeslevmagle Skole
Eggeslevmagle School is a public school situated in West Zealand, Denmark.
We are a Danish school with about 725 students and in this year we are in our
second Comenius project and have some experience with international project
in EU. The students are aged from 6 to 16 years.
Eggeslevmagle/Skaelskoer is a fairly disadvantaged area and a socially
deprived area. The town Skaelskoer has about 6.000 habitants. The pupils
come from the town and the outskirts as well as the countryside areas. We
receive pupils from primary schools from 7th form as our community has
several primary schools scattered in our countryside and our neighboring
islands. We feel the school has a huge responsibility to develop the young
people into tolerant and open-minded persons. We do have a lot of students
who have never been abroad and therefore are very much attached to their
local areas.
The school has developed an international class which has become quite
popular in the region - there are (June 2013) only 4 public schools in Denmark
with international classes - and having a future partnership with other
European countries will give a lot of opportunities to develop our students as
well as our school. We do believe that a Comenius project offers ideal
opportunities and teach our youngsters to become European Citizen and we
think that we can offer a lot to this future project.
Comenius Newsletter Spring 2014
Development of teaching models to support methodological skills
The Spanish School – Colegio Rural Agrupado Entretierras Torre
Pacheco
Our primary school is divided into three branches that are located in three
small villages along the coast of southeastern Spain (In the Murcia Region).
We are located in an agricultural and disadvantaged area with low
socioeconomic status. We have about 190 students and 23 teachers.
We are involved in a Spanish-English bilingual program, using CLIL
methodology (Content and Language Integrated Learning) to teach in English
for 30% of our curriculum. On the other hand, we teach French to students
aged 10 - 12. At the headquarters of the school (Jimenado) there are 8
classes, 7 of them have same aged students within the class, and there is a
mixed-age class with students of 5th and 6th grades. In the branches of
“Meroños” and “Los Olmos” there are mixed-age classes, i.e. groups including
students of different ages and academic levels in the same classroom.
We are hard-working people who apply new information and communication
technologies, are interested in learning, in seeing our school progress, and in
forming collaborative projects and activities where pupils can be involved in
order to apply what they learnt. We believe that this multilateral project would
help our students to broaden their horizons, know about European schools, to
express themselves in English and to improve their oral skills by talking to our
partners about our country, and our teachers will have the opportunity to
exchange innovative methodological skills to improve academic results of the
children.
Comenius Newsletter Spring 2014
Development of teaching models to support methodological skills
Team Spain: Fulgencio Garijo Castellanos and Antonio Ortiz Calvo
Comenius Newsletter Spring 2014
Development of teaching models to support methodological skills
The Norwegian School – Wilds Minne School
Wilds Minne Primary School is situated in the southern part of Norway. It has
approx. 330 pupils in the age 6-12. The school has about 40 employees, where
25 are teachers. The teachers work 2 or 3 together in teams, but they are also
organized in teams with teachers from step 1.-4th and teams with teachers
from step 5.- 7th.
The school has over the last three years focused specifically on pupils learning
and social skills. We ensure education for all through "MILL", that is Many
Intelligences, Learning styles and Learning strategies - with main focus on
Learning strategies. We have also worked with ICT (using smart boards in all
classrooms) and focused on the management of groups in learning - classroom
management.
Our school has pupils of various social backgrounds. We hope to broaden our
perspective when it comes to teaching Learning strategies when working with
teachers methodological skills. These are connected themes, only different
perspective (pupil-teacher perspective, and teacher-pupil perspective).
Wilds Minne School, Kristiansand, Norway
Comenius Newsletter Spring 2014
Development of teaching models to support methodological skills
School Vision: “Learning and development for all”
Value Platform, "DU = dyktig og unik" (Dyktig –
skillful, Unik – unique)
At Wilds Minne School we are focusing specifically on students learning and social
skills. We ensure learning for all through focus areas MILL (Many Intelligences,
Learning strategies and Learning styles), ICT and focus on the management of groups
in learning - classroom management.
The School was established in 1959, and today there are approximately 339 students
and about 80 of those attend after school daily. Although the school buildings are old,
the school's new outdoor area was completed in the spring of 2010. In 2012 the town
house Roligheden opened, and the school disposes now its own gymnasium in the
joint use of recreational Administration and Roligheden kindergarten. The gym is used
on a daily basis throughout the year, and additionally used as a venue for various
school events. There are approximately 40 employees at the school. The
management, teachers, day-care employees, workers, caretakers and cleaners are
working together for a better environment.
“How do we teach them if we don’t know how they learn?”
“When children do not learn the way we teach them, we must teach them the
way they learn.”
The two quoting’s from Dr. Rita and Kenneth Dunn emphasizes that in all types of
learning we believe it can improve pupils motivation, achievements and self-
Comenius Newsletter Spring 2014
Development of teaching models to support methodological skills
consciousness if they are encouraged by their teachers to use their different skills and
assumptions for learning; their different intelligences.
Wilds Minne School believes that an exchange of experience between schools in
Europe through our project “Development of teaching models to support
methodological skills” will improve the way we already teach our pupils and
furthermore that it will develop their digital competence and language skills.
The objective of the project is to improve and further develop our school’s focus areas
– MILL (many Intelligences, learning strategies and learning styles) through the
exchange of experiences between the schools. Special emphasis will be on
collaboration with other schools who work with learning strategies - to expand
opportunities for students to become familiar with their own learning strategies (own
intelligence), sharing experiences with the preparation of the learning strategy
staircase which our school has developed. The sharing of “best practice” with schools
in Europe will stimulate our students and teachers furthermore.
We want everyone to feel comfortable in a good and safe environment, both physically
and mentally. Wilds Minne has been an LP-school (Learning and Pedagogical analysis)
since 2006. Kristiansand municipality developed this model further from 2012 in order
to make sure all schools in the municipality use a certain standard when it comes to
working with the students' learning environment. All teachers at the school are
familiar with the model. It is not a teaching program, but a discussion model for
teachers, technicians and assistants in schools - to ensure good monitoring of pupils'
learning environment.
Comenius Newsletter Spring 2014
Development of teaching models to support methodological skills
Overall ambition for FLiK in Kristiansand is an inclusive learning environment for all
children and youths in Kristiansand. The moral purpose is that every child and student
shall realize their potential for learning and growth, ”No child left behind.”
International, national and local research emphasizes the significance of learning
environment in terms of learning development and student achievement. Purposes are
to establish a common developmental and educational platform for improving learning
environments for all children, students and professional adults. We want to create
practices that can effectively respond to child/student diversity, identify and replace
”wrong drivers” - policy forces that has little chance of achieving the desired results -
with ”right drivers” that ends up achieving better measurable results for all children
and youths..
Effect targets
Enhance social and academic learning outcome.
Reduce scope of segregating measures for children who may need extra
preparation.
Create learning communities that provide experienced affiliation - reduce bullying.
Comenius Newsletter Spring 2014
Development of teaching models to support methodological skills
Partners in the FliK- project are
1) Laboratorium for research-based school development and pedagogical practice
- LSP), University of Aalborg.
2) Center for practice-oriented educational research, University college of
Hedmark
3) The University of Agder (situated in Kristiansand)
Team Norway: Hamed Dawood and Eirik Nørskov Nielsen – and Jorunn Aanensen Kalvik (photographer…)
Comenius Newsletter Spring 2014
Development of teaching models to support methodological skills
1st Comenius Meeting in Denmark
Summary by team Spain
Teachers of the Danish Center "Eggeslevmagle Skole" welcomed into this
meeting twelve teachers from all the countries members of the Association of
education.
The first activity was an interesting welcome that students of the higher grades
offered about their country, their culture and their school.
Activities included the participation of teachers in various kinds of different
educational levels, to apply different methodologies in various curricular areas.
In 0th grade we observed how students used laptops; these laptops are shared
by several classrooms. The use of the PDI for reading a story (2nd grade) or
PowerPoint presentations to support the explanations in science (8th grade) is
part of the daily development of classes. Students work in various groupings -
large group, small groups, in pairs and individually – and computers remain a
common tool. At higher levels the students carry their own computers to
school. In 4th grade teachers could observe how students worked chronology
(timeline) simultaneously performing different tasks with computer and text
books.
Another lesson that teachers could take part was Maths in 8th grade. Students
- in pairs - worked calculation of probability with dices, recording the results on
their computers and then explaining its findings obtained through practice. In
this classroom it is important to highlight the continuous interaction between
students and teacher and the fact that is was developed in English.
In 7th grade students developed a cooperative work about richness and poverty
in the world. To carry out this project they worked on their computers,
searching information and creating their own reports to make the final
“newspaper”, using TITANPAD.
Comenius Newsletter Spring 2014
Development of teaching models to support methodological skills
Spanish Team
Fulgencio Garijo Castellanos
Belén Celdrán Gallego
José Luis Navarro Gil
1st Comenius mobility in Denmark, 07.-12.10.2013
Summary by team Germany
Preparations organized by the host
Accommodation: We enjoyed the nice view to the sea and had a
comfortable stay at Hotel Kobaek Strand.
Food: The selection of restaurants and the selfmade snacks made us feel
welcome and like real vikings.
Cultural Program: The Program was very well chosen and had a lot of
variations. The viking museum was one of the cultural highlights.
Eggeslevmagle Skole
Setting: We have been impressed by the huge school area and the
buildings where the kids have many opportunities for being active.
Comenius Newsletter Spring 2014
Development of teaching models to support methodological skills
Technical equipment: Smartboards and laptops are installed in all
classrooms. We discovered consequent learning and early media
education.
Classroom hospitation – the lessons
The teachers gave a lot of positive feedback to the students.
The lesson program was visualized for the students.
Pupils talked about their learning processes and progress.
A lot of pupils had Impressive English skills.
The used method of “project work” was very motivating for the pupils
(topics: Christian IV, food).
Teachers and pupils talking time was sometimes not in balance.
The focus was on the use of media. A clear distinction between media,
teaching methods and learning methods is desirable.
Thank you very much…
for the perfect welcome-presentation,
for the warm and familiar feeling,
for the organizing efforts,
that the Danish team took part in the activities,
for a lot of fun, humor and nice evenings.
Comenius Newsletter Spring 2014
Development of teaching models to support methodological skills
1st Comenius mobility in Denmark, 07.-12.10.2013
Summary by team Norway
Hospitality and professionalism from the staff
Buildings and surroundings look neat
The surroundings invites to activities for the pupils
Good to see different classes and grades
Pupils were friendly, well behaved
The teachers looked relaxed and comfortable
Comenius Newsletter Spring 2014
Development of teaching models to support methodological skills
Teaching Methods
Well prepared lessons from both Janne and Line – and the other teachers at school, some with hand-out sheets
Some differences in teaching equipment/materials and computer
software
Some similarities and some differences in teaching methods compared to Norway
What did we also see…?
Smart boards, blackboards, computers - computers in special cabins to move
around in the school buildings, new and old classrooms, well equipped
classrooms – a variety in what you see in the classrooms of the different
grades, smart phones, playgrounds, sportsfields, iPads, wall decorations,
teachers secret rooms… YOU NAME IT!
Activities taking place
Pupil-teacher conversations
Pupils working alone
Pupils working in pairs
Pupils working in small groups
Pupils working with computers – from the first to the ninth grade
Pupils working in books
Pupils participating and not participating
The Comenius project so far
Good leadership from John in variety of activities every day
Well lead by Markus, makes us “hold the line”
Comenius Newsletter Spring 2014
Development of teaching models to support methodological skills
Team building/Social bonding - important
The different schools have brought friendly staff in to the project!
Interesting pedagogical discussion along the way
1st Comenius mobility in Denmark, 07.-12.10.2013
Summary by team Austria
Austria goes to Denmark!
From the 7th October to the 12th October 2013 we had our first Comenius-
meeting in Denmark, where we got a lot of positive impressions that we
brought back home.
Our Danish colleagues made a very warming reception and they caused us
beautiful and varied days.
We were surprised about how much all the students at the Danish school work
with modern media. Smart Boards and Computers are used from kindergarden
on in everyday situations. As a result of this work all the students are well
prepared for future demands.
With a “jealous” eye we recognized the big school area, which gives so much
room for moving and activity. We were very impressed about that as well.
All in all we have seen new things and we had a great and interesting stay with
all our Comenius partners!
Dear John, Lia, Janne and Line, thank you for all your preparations and for
your charming hospitality!
More info on www.comeniusfive.wordpress.com or follow the
project twitter account @Comenius201315