We met, planned and enjoyed our stay in Athens
(written by Ľudmila Heľová)
The plane touched the Greek land and cold wind blew sea wind around us. Thanks God, we were there. And since that moment our teachers´ meeting started.
We´ve never been to Athens before but it was easy to get to hotel thanks to information we received few days before arrival. Orange trees everywhere, watching the sea surface, taxis all around us, many motorbikes, amazing monuments, mix of an old and a new world, streets full of tourists became our new life for the next few days. For us, the teachers from central Europe, from the small town, where everyone knows everyone, this was very fascinating point of our stay.
The first day at school was full of enthusiasm of meeting other teachers from the project. At the beginning we exchanged our presents/souvenirs from our countries. Everyone enjoyed welcome ceremony presented by children – singing, playing traditional games, hand-made gifts....
Then the discussion started. What did we do in the project, how did we solve problems, who worked well, who could work more.... everyone expressed his ideas to work effectively.
The teachers who were interested in job shadowing could attend different lessons at this primary school. Maths, English, Science....we had time to compare our teaching styles, seating organizations, methods, decorations. Everyone found at least one thing that impressed him.
In the afternoon we went to the Stadium where the first modern Olympics took place, our guide told us many interesting facts about history and development of modern games and we saw Olympics torches in the museum. Our next stop was Greek parliament and we saw changing the guards. In the heart of Athens we spent nice afternoon walking around the historic centre, feeling the atmosphere of traditional and modern culture, food, souvenirs, sweets, magnets, soaps all around us. Just a while to sit and breath these moments.
Thursday. Another day full of activities. The bus took us to the museum where children learnt about traditional games of ancient Greece and childhood of their great-grandparents. For us, teachers, pleasant moments watching children in actions, „learning by doing“. After that our learning part began new information about Acropolis, walking around these monuments. Modern museum built under Acropolis hill is architecture star of modern age. It was worth to visit, too. Enough information, enough activities for one days. Now it´s time for traditional food „gyros“.
Morning coffee and the last working day started. Few more information to the following activities in the project, discussion, suggestions, last job shadowing.... and at the end farewell ceremony. We said goodbye to the children, packed our notebooks and left the school. In the evening, we arrived to the traditional Greek restaurant and our last meeting was organized in a non-formal place, with typical dinner and music. The rhythm of songs mixed with laugh and our cross-country friendship became deeper.
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| And what did we talk about? | |
· Moving box
· World Dance Day
· Meeting in Spain
· Skype session
· Evaluation of the first project year
· Important dates for the second project year
· TPM Italy
· Meeting in Slovakia
· Meeting in Germany