In the week of June 15 to 19, the Srednja Škola Bedekovčina hosted the second multilateral meeting of students and teachers in the project “IT or not IT”. The guests were 21 students and 10 teachers from partner schools from the Czech Republic, Poland, Cyprus and Spain. The five-day program was full of various working, cultural and social activities, being held all days long. The working part of the meeting, which subject was collaborative learning, was divided into three following workshops: “How to create a poll in the Google Drive service”, “How to make a flyer in Publisher and save it to Dropbox” and “If I were a teacher”...
After the opening ceremony and jointly singing in the school atrium, the meeting began with "ice-breaking" activities aimed to get to know and to connect participants. Getting through gymnastic rings, standing on one leg, counting candies and answering various questions in English, students communicated easily and joyfully. In such an atmosphere, all participating schools were also presented through films and presentations made by students. During the first break we offered our guests with “strukli” – traditional salty cheese pie! After the schools’ presentations, we held the first workshop – “How to do a survey in the Google Drive service”. Students had already been divided into teams and they had already made connections through our Facebook group. Each group had already been appointed the team leader who coordinated previous work of members and consolidated questions on the given poll topic. The topics were issues that are common in the teen age - learning habits, attitudes of young people on absenteeism from school (marking), eating habits, experiences and attitudes about violence in relationships and experiences and attitudes about alcohol consumption among young people. The previously gathered poll questions were discussed at the workshop, so teams created their polls. After completion the survey, all teams’ members uploaded the link to their FB profile and asked their friends to fill the survey by Friday, so they could analyze their poll and present results.
The second day, we organized a trip to Zagreb where we visited the Technical Museum and the Museum of Broken Relationships. Meanwhile, the students were divided into teams and each team had a task called Culturing – they had to find the most famous places in Zagreb, by using the blank maps and photos in the form of puzzles stored on tablets, and to take a selfie in front of each of them. During this activity they collected material that they used for leaflets designing in the workshop held the next day. The day ended with a night sightseeing of the Upper Town with the „Upper town witches„ and stories and legends about witches from Zagreb history.
Wednesday was again a working day at school, teams designed leaflets and brochures in Microsoft Publisher, using photos and facts they learned during culturing activity in Zagreb. Finally, all leaflets and brochures were printed, which is one of the results of the meeting. Leaflets were also uploaded to Dropbox, with the possibility of sharing. The same afternoon, there was a workshop “If I were a teacher”..., in which teams of students were supposed to devise a lesson as they would like to be presented by their teachers. Teams were given a geography teaching unit each (Croatian National Parks), they elaborated their ideas in the Lesson plan and, as real teachers, performed a demo presentation class. During this presentation, all the teachers were students and they literally behaved the same way all students in the world behave - interfering, chatting, making phone calls, interrupting educators... this reversal of roles was a great experience because the students experienced what it is like to be a teacher trying to transfer knowledge to students; also teachers were in the shoes of students who are not always interested in content or methods of instruction. The day was ended up by visiting the shrine of Marija Bistrica where we participated in a workshop during which we made traditional Croatian souvenir “Licitarsko srce” – Licitar heart. Everyone took home their own creation of the „licitar“ heart and learned about this Croatian souvenir.
The fourth day of our meeting was full of relaxation and fun at the Adriatic Sea. The main mission was to make original sea "selfie", to collect new material to create a leaflet about Crikvenica. Leaflets testify new friendships and relationships made for a whole life.
Our last day, Friday, was marked by the presentation of all learning activities – presentation of the results of surveys, brochures and flyers made in Publisher and uploaded to Dropbox. In the afternoon, all the participants visited Krapina Neanderthal Museum where we all went back to prehistoric times through a variety of media and IT technology. After returning from Krapina, a football match between students and teachers in the project was played, than we took some time to prepare ourselves for a farewell party with barbecue and music. The evening passed in a good atmosphere - talking, singing and dancing, and all participants were full of impressions of intensive week we have lived together, and everybody was a little bit sad because the week was about to end.
Saturday, 20th June was the day to say goodbye. But, since we are students and teachers who like to use IT technology, farewell was easier because friendships we all made will continue through various technological channels and resources until we meet again in Spain.
Photo gallery of the visit