Integration Activity: Special Olympics

In few days you´ll be able to see several photos and a video about the event, it was incredible, our students enjoyed and learnt a lot sharing their time and smiles with the Special Olympics friends...

INTERMEDIATE ASSESSMENT /COMENIUS PROJECT:

INTEGRATION AND EQUALITY IN THE FIELD OF EDUCATION BY MEANS OF PHISICAL ACTIVITIES, GAMES AND SPORT.

The objective of the following questionnaire is to analyse and evaluate the development of our project during the first year.  All data results will be analysed in the forthcoming meeting in Cyprus aiming at setting specific improving proposals.

PROJECT	4,7
ENGAGEMENT AND IMPACT	3,9
ACTIVITIES AND PRODUCTS	3,8
VISITS AND MEETINGS	4,6
PARTNERS	4,9

PROJECT	0 to 5	4,7
Level of satisfaction with the Project in general.4,8	54555	4,8
Level of satisfaction with the Project coordination.4,6	54455	4.6
Is the Project initial planning being followed?4,6	54455	4.6

ENGAGEMENT AND IMPACT	0 to 5	3,9
Level of engagement and work among the different partners in the Project.	44455	4,4
Integration of  the Project within the School life	43345	3,8
Level of engagement among the general teaching staff  at your school	43443	3,6
Students’ participation in the Project in the Centre	54345	4,2
Family participation in the Project at your school	43413	3
Is the educational community at your school aware of the development of the Project?	53445	4,2

ACTIVITIES AND PRODUCTS	0 to 5	3,8
Level of satisfaction with the activities and  Project results	44554	4,4
Inclusion of the activities within the teacher’s syllabus and planning.	42345	3,6
Benefits from the activities and the project results carried out.	42455	4
Practical use of these project results at School	42344	3,4

VISITS/ MEETINGS	0 to 5	4,6
General  level of satisfaction attained during  the visits to other schools	45555	4,8
Visits length	54555	4,8
Financial cost of the visits	43555	4,4
Level of satisfaction attained with the work developed during the meetings	44545	4,4
Level of satisfaction with the programs  during  the visits	45545	4,6
Balance concerning  work and leisure time  during the visits	45554	4,6

PARTNERS	0 to 5	4,9
Relationship among the different partners in the Project	55555	5
Level of communication  among the partners	55445	4,6
Active participation and engagement among the partners.	55555	5

REMARKS

BULGARIA. Our school finds the project participation very useful because it provides intercultural experience for both students and teachers. Almost all of the teaching staff is involved , as well as the majority of students in the 8th, 9th, and 10th grades. The visits up to now have been very well-organised and productive, with the exception of Norway, where the time set aside for the work session was reduced to a  very short time  and not all expenses were known in advance.  We have experienced some problems with our certificates, but we have been assured by our Spanish, Latvian and Norwegian partners that the issue will be resolved during the visit to Cyprus. In general we find our partners very cooperative and responsive. LATVIA. Latvian partners would have wished better engagement from the teaching staff in our school. There is still the feeling that the project is mainly for the teachers of English and sports. The beginning of the second year in the project has shown greater progress in the meaning of the attitude. Up to now all the activities have been described in English and the materials from other schools are also in English. That is a problem with some teachers (including sports teachers) in our school. At the end of the project the coordinator promises to translate the games and other activities in Latvian and compile them in a separate file. We haven’t managed to involve more parents in the project activities. They have been supporters, but our wish was that they had taken more active part in the project. (The problem in our school in general) We have analysed the conclusions about the visit to Latvia. The main critical point could be a very compact programme versus too much free time.. The guessed would have wished it more balanced. But it could have been influenced by quite extreme weather conditions in January. CYPRUS. We love Comenius but we hate crisis!!!! PORTUGAL. Well done everyone!!!!

CYPRUS MEETING. 7-10 NOVEMBER

INTEGRATION AND EQUALITY IN THE FIELD OF EDUCATION BY MEANS OF PHISICAL ACTIVITIES, GAMES AND SPORT.

CYPRUS MEETING. 7-10 NOVEMBER

MINUTES:

1. GO THROUGH THE PROJECT DESIGNE AND CHECK “TASKS”.

Firstly we review our Project Design. We list the different project stages and sum up all the activities and products we have already done. We set the current stage and point of the project. We are somewhere between stages 4 GENDER EQUALITY and stage 5 CULTURAL INTEGRATION. (Attached the Power Point with all Project Information which was shown)

We check all the tasks we had to bring to Cyprus:

1. Creating a new Co-educative game. Students will collaborate to invent and develope a new game. This game had to be co-educative, both genders must participate and be useful at the same level. Games will be exchanged and played in P.E. lessons. All the partners had something to show, some of us had the games in a CD which were exchanged. Sadly we hadn’t enough time to put all the games into practice with students. Anyway writing and sending the games into a table model to be compiled will be a task for the next meeting.

2. Sport Event collaborating with local institutions. Organize and take part in a sport event in collaboration with institutions within the work frame of disability integration. None of us had got to reach this objective. Nevertheless during the visit our partners from Cyprus prepared a football match with Special Olympics, congratulations!!! The rest of us will have to try harder to take something to Bulgaria.

2. TASKS PLANNING FOR THE NEXT MEETING IN BULGARIA

The tasks we must work in and have ready for the next meeting in Bulgaria are:

• Writing and sending the CO-EDUCATIVE GAMES created by our students into a table model to be compiled. There is attached a “model table or blind form” (I’m not sure about the name in English). You must pass all the games to this format and send it to me. I’ll compile all of them and resend you the whole document to work with them in your PE lessons. It must be done before Christmas, please!!!!

• Local sportswomen interviews. Students will interview the best ranked sportswomen from the school or town or area, even country. They have to choose the media and format: paper, magazine, web, video, radio… and design the interview. The point is to remark the role of women within sport field. It must be done in English. We will upload the works to our blogs and will bring them to Bulgaria to be exchanged.

• Games from other cultures. Students belonging to minority ethnic, religious or cultural groups will teach the others how to play their traditional games in P.E. lessons. We can organize a school event or just a PE activity. The best way would be to record the games and make a video and upload it to our blogs. Anyway we have to write them in the same model table to be compiled in our final Handbook. Please send it when it is done and bring the documents to Bulgaria.

• Sport Event collaborating with local institutions. Organize and take part in a sport event in collaboration with institutions within the work frame of disability integration. We have to keep on trying to get this point. Don’t forget that establish collaboration with this kind of institution is one of our main objectives. Please don’t give up!!!!! And try to bring some stuff to Bulgaria. Record it.

• Body rhythm choreography. It is a long term task. Assisted by the Music or PE teacher, the students have to create a choreography clapping hands or others body parts, even table or furniture. The music was already sent. Some of the partners have already done the work. We have to finish and record it and send to us to make the mixed final video.

3. DATES FOR NEXT MEETING IN BULGARIA

23 -27 January

4. INTERMEDIATE ASSESSMENT (The whole research is attached)

We analyze the assessment results and work in groups about the less valued items.

We drew some conclusions and proposals to be taken into count during our work at school:

PRACTICAL USE OF THE PROJECT RESULTS AT SCHOOL Group Proposals: Publish all the materials (videos, photos, texts…) on our blogs for wider usage. Move CDs with the materials and exchange them To practice: a task for students to prepare a game from other countries and present it at PE lessons Use the products at the English lessons Coordinator commentary: We must keep on uploading as much stuff as we can to our blogs to be published, sometimes we forgot it. About the usage of products in PE and English lessons, please notice that every task finishes when we use the products in PE or English lessons. We just have to follow the instructions.

INCLUSION OF THE ACTIVITIES IN TEACHER’S SYLLABUS Group Proposals: Presentations for the teachers and parents Increase school website usage Interviews the coordinators Publish our Project in media, papers, radio, local tv… Organize Comenius Day at School involving all the community. Coordinator commentary: Absolutely agree. We must, in general, try to publish and spread all our activities and products. We have really good ideas to put into practice at school

FAMILIES AND REST OF THE TEACHERS INVOLVEMENT Group Proposals: Publish all the stuff in the school website Update our blogs School boards usage Use local public spaces to display our results, squares, malls, City-Hall… Present the project to the teachers and parents at the beginning of the course, and try to involve them giving them some task. Invite the families to take part in some of the project activities Use the involved students to present the project to other students, teachers or families telling the experiences Coordinator commentary:  Ok. Let’s do it!!!!!!!!! Little by little we get that more teachers are working on the project at school. We just have to plan when and how are we going to do that, better than waiting for them to come. It’s the same with families. Here we have some feasible suggestions which could work.