CURIOSITY ?

Just curiosity.

CURIOSITY?

Yes.

A very important question:

Why is a person  interested enough to look for this old blog/ these posts?

From all over the world?  ...So distant and so different nations?

You are not so many, yes. But in a way you are very special.

The great question (  CURIOSITY, in fact) is:

"What drives you here?"  AND "Do you find something useful in these posts?"

I realize that normally nobody gives this information. Even during the implementation of a project. A real pity.

We - the school world - would gain a lot from this info.

Please, react.

In any case,thank you

Laura

From "Our Fantasy Workshop" our old e-journal Roberta's first experience with Comenius In Italian...

Aspettiamo l'autobus a Veikkola, Finlandia

La mia prima volta col Comenius... Io, come tanti, ho spesso considerato importante il progetto per l’immagine della scuola (nella fase di orientamento rivolta alle scuole medie inferiori ho sempre sottolineato la sua esistenza e l’importanza degli scambi culturali riguardanti gli studenti) ma non lo avevo mai valutato nella sua intera valenza: scambio culturale fra studenti e fra docenti. Soltanto oggi, dopo l’esperienza maturata in Finlandia, mi rendo conto di aver per la prima volta compreso l’importanza dello scambio fra i docenti: non si tratta solo della prospettiva di  un viaggio, come a prima vista potrebbe sembrare, ma di una vera e propria esperienza sul campo; il confronto che scaturisce anche solo dall’osservazione dell’ambiente di lavoro, delle modalità scelte dai colleghi stranieri di svolgere la loro lezione in classe, dell’atteggiamento degli studenti durante e dopo l’ora di lezione, risulta essere fortemente arricchente per chiunque si trovi coinvolto nel contesto scolastico. In pratica, se non tutta, buona parte della scuola si trova interessata in iniziative di accoglienza che evidenziano un entusiasmo che ti trascina tuo malgrado. Io non parlo inglese e questo mi ha sotto alcuni aspetti penalizzato ma non demoralizzato; ho avuto la fortuna di  avere “un’ interprete personale”, per cui ho potuto soddisfare tante curiosità. E’ stato del tutto insolito osservare, da parte dei colleghi che ci ospitavano, la  volontà di fare qualcosa di particolare per noi “stranieri” e così, per esempio,  li abbiamo sentiti cantare. Ma le nostre giornate all’interno della scuola non hanno avuto soltanto un aspetto ludico; abbiamo lavorato, discusso del progetto e delle nuove fasi da realizzare nel corso dell’anno scolastico, confrontato i dati raccolti all’interno delle rispettive scuole (non bisogna dimenticare che i questionari sono stati somministrati  anche dai colleghi finlandesi, spagnoli e portoghesi), osservato il lavoro svolto nelle classi  (forse questo aspetto andrebbe intensificato), ecc.: il tutto dalle ore 9.00 del mattino alle ore 16.00 del pomeriggio. Soltanto al nostro rientro a Helsinki, verso le 17.00, era possibile girare un po’ per la città; naturalmente abbiamo approfittato del fine settimana per visitare qualche museo e per raggiungere qualche sito di importanza storica. Di questa esperienza, fra le più belle nella mia carriera di insegnante, conserverò l’immagine di una scuola molto diversa dalla nostra (per certi aspetti la scuola che vorrei… vedi l’aula dell’insegnante (con  gli alunni che si spostano per seguire la lezione) e quindi la funzionalità della stessa perché dotata di tutte le attrezzature necessarie per lavorare, TV, lettore VHS, PC ecc.), in cui ci si toglie le scarpe per circolare, con una sala professori che mi ricorda tanto il soggiorno di casa (compreso il fatto che c’è l’angolo cottura attrezzato di tutto, dal frigo alla lavastoviglie, al microonde) e con un popolo che parla bene l’inglese: a proposito … forse è giunto il momento che io cominci a studiarlo! Roberta Medda 23/03/07

A Finnish reference

Today I'm adding a Finnish reference, connected with professional teachers , some of whom I met on occasion of a  thematic conference  in Austria - Linz:   an opportunity funded by EU funds,   for  enhancing the use of  information and communication technologies in teaching strategies.


http://www.eduprojects.net/compact/2003-9-18-conference_in_linz_sharing_best_practice.html


This reference is :

                           https://www.facebook.com/Euneos/


Every bit of information may be  a pro.

Definitely.

Our "Evaluation" wins a page in the Italian National Agency's site!! A pleasant - unexpected - surprise.....:-)

If you look at

http://www.programmallp.it/box_contenuto.php?id_cnt=554&id_from=11#

you'll find our name - N° 8 - together with the other 2008 e-quality label winners, and with it our project references, to describe and explain the whole idea.

Now they have published a synthesis in "Comenius in Azione"

http://www.programmallp.it/box_elenco.php?id_box=72&id_cnt=11

and this is our page- completely ours...!!

http://www.programmallp.it/box_contenuto.php?id_cnt=926&id_from=11

It's in Italian: if you wish to know more, just write and ask...

We are really very proud!!!!

OUR "EVALUATION" - a synthesis

Comenius 1.3 School
Development Project
(2005 / 2008)

"Evaluation: an important step
to quality improvement in education"
"Valutazione: un passo importante
per migliorare la qualità dell’istruzione"

The project aims at understanding and evaluating strengths and weaknesses of different schools in order to optimize teaching/ learning methods; by comparing them, enhance the former and find a solution to the latter, so as to raise students’ performance, motivation, our European identity - against drop out.
The research, with questionnaires and analysis of data, monitoring and comparing lessons, thinking and discussing, was focused on students. It has developed a previous work and has been used for interacting positively with the various school components, enriching them with new cultural points of view, better language, technical and management competence, while making our work more pleasant, though also pointing out some serious problems.
Easily sustainable and improvable: few tools are needed –ICT and the scientific approach ( explore/ analyze / plan / evaluate) – with some good will and creativity, teachers’ necessary qualities.
The project, with problems met and solved, has been a “ workshop” of formation for all its participants on both sides – human and professional. The active involvement of students has seen a growing rise of interest.
The resulting data -collected and processed - have allowed us to communicate more intensively with our classes; each step has been taken with them so that the progress made has been shared.

..................................................................................................
Partnership

1. ITCG “Enrico Mattei”,Sardinia,Italy: Cordinator http://www.itcgmattei.it/
http://comeniusmattei.blogspot.com/ http://www.ejournal.fi/mattei1/ http://www.ejournal.fi/mattei2/

Coordinator/Contact Person: mldessi@tiscali.it

2. Veikkolan Koulu, Finland: partner for over 3 years- http://comeniusfinland.blogspot.com/

3. I.E.S. Los Cardones ,Tenerife, Spain: partner for 2 years

www.iesloscardones.es ttp://comeniustenerife.blogspot.com/

4. Escola Profissional e Tecnologica Vale Do Ave, Portugal (partner for 2 years)
http://www.forave.pt/novo/ http://comeniusforave.blogspot.com

5.The Bradbourne School, UK, only 1° year
...............................................................................................
Main Aims for students and teachers

1. Understanding students’ and teachers’ strengths and weaknesses in order to raise their performance.
2. Teaching students to reflect on the learning process and to make decisions.
3. Assessing parents’ perception of the educational process and using data in a creative way.
4. Elaborating new materials and methods to improve communication and management of human/material resources, as well as to increase skills and competences.
5. Adjusting school to the changing demands of European society.
6. Fighting drop out.
7. Increasing the use and knowledge of ICT tools;
8. Increasing awareness of responsibility for the future and then learning how to cooperate in near and distant groups.

......................................................................................

A few notes on results from teachers’ monitoring

DIFFERENCES AMONG SCHOOL SYSTEMS

• Length of the lesson (e.g. in Finland always of 45 minutes, so that it is easier to keep the class’s attention lively)
  
• Weekly timetable (often modular and not the same every week all year round)
  
• Tools/facilities available (in the classroom - FI always various blackboards / maps / a computer…)
  
• Teachers’ salary ( different and corresponding to a different workload)
  
• Different forms of support for weaker students.

We have observed all these elements with great interest, and the students have done the same, during the meetings. Below, 3 pictures of our monitoring: FI, PT, UK; here the room is typically equipped for the subject, like in FI – the students go to the teacher - who always has the most suitable tools nearby – and not viceversa.
Conclusions: Everywhere teachers are autonomous and free to work according to their professional competence, differing only for individual qualities – some favour sharing/cooperating, others are more independent.
We have not noticed any significant differences apart from communication styles, common to students – really remarkable:
In the cold north – very reserved
In the other schools – very open.
The greatest difference is in the structure – in addition to the different respect for rules by everybody, representing a different cultural background of society, e.g. meritocracy, evident not so much in teachers’ evaluating choices, as in the nation’s school structure. In fact in Finland students may be compelled to repeat the grade, like in Italy, but they are more motivated in getting better results enabling them to enter schools which may be demanding with the applicants. The same in UK.
And schools periodically assess their users’ satisfaction level: in Finland. In UK, moreover, we happened to visit the school during an inspection by OFSTED ( http://www.ofsted.gov.uk/ : The Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills (Ofsted) is the non-ministerial government department of Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Schools In England -"HMCI" )

...................................................................................
Activities

Here below the sample figures and the length of the research, which had started 2 years before.

1st year ‘05/’06:

• Students’ Survey processed and commented by students and teachers: we developed the survey –which at the time was already 2 years old: comments with the students were then published on the e-journal.
  
• Comparison of different systems in 5 meetings (monitoring lessons, debates, in FI/UK/IT);
  
• Short parents’ survey (IT);
  
• Students’ initiatives were encouraged: the Sardinians visit Veikkola; the Finnish arrange –during the school year – a trip to Sardinia of 23 students!
  This the page on EST http://est.indire.it/eu/details_prj.php?id_proj=381090728&curr_db=IT

Here below a poster about this happy experience

2nd year ‘06/’07

• Development of students’survey and work plan for 4 schools based on previous results; This the proposal accepted by partners,( in Italian and English):
  http://est.indire.it/upload/06-ITA01-S2C03-00204-2-prod-013.doc
  
• Teaching units on a shared theme for comparative aims (“gender equality”) and monitoring lessons during 4 meetings
  
• During the meetings, also students present their realities and units in ppt and written docs

This the EST page http://est.indire.it/eu/details_prj.php?id_proj=381099237&curr_db=IT

Other 2 posters.

3rd year ‘07/’08

• Analysis of students’ data for work plan: to find a solution to weak points and make school life more pleasant. This the proposal of work – in EN.
  http://est.indire.it/upload/07-ITA01-CO06-01495-3-prod-003.pdf
  
• Creation of units useful to exploit those topics by means of questionnaires, discussion, data processing with classwork and ICT, exhibitions and blogs: enthusiasm, in progress and final, shows they were successful!
  
• 3 meetings.

This the EST ref page for the 3rd year
http://est.indire.it/eu/details_prj.php?id_proj=381804706&curr_db=IT

Products
Ppt presentations, videos, posters, reports, , music exhibitions, questionnaires/ data/ conclusions, articles, final analysis of data from this and other projects Available on EST pages – see above – and:
two e-journals : http://www.ejournal.fi/mattei1/ http://www.ejournal.fi/mattei2/

& 4 blogs, 1 per partner school– created in the 3rd year:
http://comeniusmattei.blogspot.com/
http://comeniusfinland.blogspot.com/
http://www.comeniustenerife.blogspot.com/ http://comeniusforave.blogspot.com/

Evaluation
Evaluation has been constant, considering the type of project, and carried out with work planning, exchanges and meetings, questionnaires and debates.
These the results on the 3 years: a complex work, apparently a bit broken, but substantially coherent, deliberately linked with experiences inside Mattei (IT) and others on the Net. Aimed at interesting –even if difficult – objectives and always anchored to reality. Also with partners: lost many, for the different choices by the Agencies, then lost a school (UK), but acquired 2 new nations and new teachers.
The partners have expressed enthusiasm for the development of he project which has enabled each of us

• To enhance and exploit resources in: English and ICT competence / structures/ good initiatives / hospitality / imagination/ critical sense / creativity / reservedness / communication skills/ efficiency / bureaucracy/ cooperation/ enthusiasm /traditions/ good cooking/ landscapes/… culture.
  
• But also to become aware of one’s weaknesses - and try to solve them.

Dissemination
With various means: Daily dissemination at school, with staff and students; exhibitions of our material ( posters / pictures / powerpoints), music and fashion exhibitions during international and local meetings / reports / blogs, e-journals and links to websites / Press releases in local papers

.............................

PLUS:

• Distribution of roles and cooperation
  
• Use of ICT
  
• Students‘ participation / involvement
  
• Integration into the school curriculum
  
• Impact on local community
  
• Students‘ motivation
  
• Associated Partners
  
• Support to psychological objectives
  
• Additional effects
  
• INNOVATION
  
• Results and benefits for the partnership / Results and benefits beyond partnership
  
• IMPLEMENTATION and ACTIVITY MANAGEMENT
  
• SUSTAINABILITY

L'UNIONE SARDA.it 27 dicembre 08

Sabato 27 dicembre 2008

L'Istituto tecnico commerciale diventa partner europeo di Comenius

L 'Istituto tecnico Commerciale e Geometri (Itcg) tra gli otto partenariati Comenius su oltre cento concorrenti di tutta Europa. Il risultato è stato ottenuto con il progetto sullo Sviluppo della Scuola condotto nel triennio 2005/ 2008 e concluso nelle scorse settimane. «In un momento in cui tutti sottolineano la debolezza del nostro sistema scolastico», spiega la docente Maria Laura Dessì, principale ispiratrice e conduttrice dell'iniziativa scolastica, «è oggi importante capirne le cause per potervi porre rimedio, vederne i punti forti, le qualità positive, le risorse, le competenze e così poterli sfruttare». In questo senso è stato svolto il lavoro in equipe tra docenti e alunni, con scambi reciproci con realtà scolastiche di altri Paesi come Finlandia, Spagna e Portogallo. Il progetto e il lavoro dell'ITCG di Decimomannu è stato quindi premiato «per la sua innovatività, qualità nell'implementazione e gestione dell'attività, per i risultati ottenuti e le loro ricadute insieme alla sostenibilità stessa del progetto di lavoro». «La ricerca effettuata con le tre scuole europee» continua Maria Laura Dessì, «ha portato a realizzare numerose attività collegate come prodotti multimediali che hanno reso il lavoro vivace e stimolante per studenti e docenti ma soprattutto» conclude l'insegnante «abbiamo vissuto un'esperienza unica confrontandoci con partner europei e rendendoci conto di quanto siamo simili e contemporaneamente diversi per regole e personalità». (g.l.p.)

We got the E-Quality Label AWARD 2008!!!!

To understand what this means, see: http://www.europeanqualitylabel.eu/

Yes, we have succeeded: our project was chosen among the TOP TEN in Italy, 8 Comenius and 2 Grundtvig, by our national agency. On 12 December there was the prize-giving ceremony in Pistoia, Tuscany. http://www.programmallp.it/box_contenuto.php?id_cnt=554&id_from=11#

We have shown a summary of our work. This is the presentation in Italian:

http://www.programmallp.it/lkmw_file/LLP///E-Quality/Valutazione.pdf

(the English version will follow soon)

I feel happy and very proud for this opportunity. Really I've been working a lot for it, obviously with very few hopes as to victory. It seems I was right in my choice of trying!

We have had so many problems: missing a partner school (UK), missing colleagues who have retired, missing good students here and then, unfortunately too often, having to start again and again trying to reach a positive goal at all costs!

But we've also had lots of happy chances: meeting nice new partners, seeing wonderful places, joking, meeting friendly and enthusiastic students (not boys or girls: students - teenagers happy to live this new experience), learning a lot of .... info, techniques, strategies... improving our human and professional areas. What else could we ask for? Really nothing. True.

Thank you, Comenius.

PS. This comment is updated today, 29th Dec. 2008