MARCH
According to our previous plans the first Learning, Teaching and Training Activity took place in Zaragoza, Spain.
All six countries participated in the programme set out by the Spanish participants. This included observations, job shadowing, book looks, conference/staff meeting.
The Spanish School is a Bilingual School following the British Council Spanish Ministry of Education Curriculum from the age of 3 through to Year 6. They provide 45% of their curriculum in English. All participants were able to observe and job shadow in English, Science and Arts in English language. Spanish teachers across all year groups are able to speak English to a high level and facilitate a whole lesson in English. They demonstrate good phonetic, spelling and grammatical awareness across the curriculum. This was observed to a high standard even in the very young classes. Teachers modelled their current teaching Pedagogy in a range of subjects and class types. Students were able to initiate conversation and share their learning experiences of CEIP Montecanal to visiting participants.
The Hungarian team taught a Hungarian lesson to the Spanish children applying the ?ININPRO? Methodology (lesson filmed for methodology file). Children were successful and motivated by the programme, therefore demonstrating the positive impact the programme can have on children trying to learn a foreign language.
Following observations all parties gave feedback in a group discussion, highlighting strengths and discussing how the ?ININPRO? methodology could be incorporated into every day teaching of English as an additional language. This method was used in teaching French as well in the Spanish school and it gave us the proof that 'ININPRO' can be used in other languages too.
We evaluated the activities children have been involved during our project so far such as collecting vocabulary for our method, producing flashcards, drawing pictures and posters, searching for information on the participating countries. We thanked for the Spanish team for organizing the logo competition. We put a small exhibition together from the children's art work and voted for the best entries. The winner's logo is used in our publications later on besides the Erasmus logo.
During our visit all participants had the opportunity to look at tests, books and exercise books across all year groups provided by the British Council. Here all members compared and contrasted the differences between the work produced from each school. This also was important to reflect how the ?ININPRO? would be implemented and compliment each individual schools current curriculum.
The Spanish team provided two training opportunities: ?How to promote thinking skills in the ESL classroom? by Bel?n Embid teacher trainer at CIFE Mar?a de ?vila, Zaragoza.
She shared strategies and resources that can be used to support children?s learning.
If you are interested in learning more about Belen Embid?s presentation, have a look at the link below which is part of a useful website for teachers working in Aragon, Spain.
http://dgafprofesorado.blogspot.com.es/2017/03/el-ceip-montecanal-recibe-sus-socios.html
Christina Vouros, the Spanish coordinator gave a lecture on the Spanish bilingual schools and educational questions followed by a discussion.
Besides the educational programmes we had the opportunity to take part in the local cultural events, visit the most important sites and taste the delicious local food.
Hungarian Team's visit to Zaragoza 2017:
7th Primary school of Pyrgos-Greece meets C.E.I.P MONTECANAL in Zaragoza.
From 23-28 of March 2017 we visited the primary school of Montecanal and we experienced the bilingual teaching method which is held in Spain the recent years.
Here is an article of our local newspaper "ΠΑΤΡΙΣ" concerning this visit.
