The third Comenius meeting Let's join hands and be creative took
place in Zagreb, May 21-25, 2012. There
were 48 participants including pupils, teachers, headteachers from the partner
schools:the Czech Republic, Italy, Lithuania, Poland and Turkey.
The host of the meeting was Primary School Zitnjak, the
coordinator of the project Join hands and
hug Europe (multilateral Comenius partnership).
On May 21, two teachers welcomed the guests
from Poland, Turkey and Lithuania at the airport. The teams from Czech Republic
and Italy arrived at the hotel by van and bus.
The guests from Turkey visited the mosque in Zagreb
accompanied by the headmaster of the host school, German teacher and Alen
Kotoric, the religious teacher of Islam.
All the guests were staying at Hotel Meridijan 16 except
12 pupils who were staying with the families of the Croatian pupils.
The official programme started at 7 p.m. Introductory
welcoming speeches were given by the headteacher of Primary School Zitnjak Mr Barun
and Ms Milkovic, representative of City
Office for Education, Culture and Sports, who greeted the guests wishing them
an enjoyable stay in Croatia. The pupils
from Primary School Zitnjak showed their singing and dancing skills performing
in the school choir, folklore and rock'n'roll club, etc.
On Tuesday and Wednesday the workshops were
held in Primary school Zitnjak from 8.30 to 11.30 a .m. The workshops
for pupils commenced with the warm-up activities ice breakers the aim of which was allowing pupils
to familiarize themselves with their peers-to introduce themselves and learn
about their peers. The introductory
activities ice breakers were run by social pedagogue Ana Vasiljev and German
teacher Vesna Horvat Kovačec. German teacher Sandra Maglov was running a craft
workshop. Art teacher Margareta Milačić and painter Frane Rogić, from the
neigbouring atelier Zitnjak , were running an art workshop for the pupils. On
Wednesday art teacher from Ankara Ms Özlem Şenyüz and her pupils demonstrated
Ebru, the Turkish technique of painting, which impressed all the participants.
A few participants tried out Ebru technique and made
their own paintings.
The topic of
the workshops for teachers was Creative methods
in ELT. Since all the coordinators are English teachers the aim was
exchanging teaching tips and resources, sharing good practice. The workshops
were run by English teachers Michela
Chiappini (Italy), Paula Vrankovic and
Ivana Cale from Zagreb.
After the concise outline of Croatian
history and culture presented by history
teacher Margita Madunić Kaniski, the general knowledge of Croatian culture was
checked in the quiz hosted by the 7th graders Kristina Jagic and Patrik
Lukanovic.
During the
breaks the participants observed some lessons. While visiting the classrooms
during the lessons, the guests gave the pupils typical sweets from their
country and some souvenirs for the classrooms.
After the
workshops two half day excursions were
organized: Zagreb andSamobor (22/05), Trakoscan Castle and Varaždin (23/05) .On
May 24 a
full day excursion to the island of Krk was organized during which the guests,
accompanied by the tourist guide and a few Croatian teachers ,visited the town
of Krk, Punat, small island Košljun,
Vrbnik, Jurandvor and Baska. Thanks to the sunny weather some guests-teachers and
pupils were swimming and the pupils were playing volleyball on the beach.
On May 23 the
Deputy of the Mayor of Zagreb Ms Pavičić Vukičević held a reception for the
participants of the Comenius partnership and wished them a pleasant stay in
Croatia.
