After Virrat High school got the confirmation of the acceptance of our project Sustainability as a Resource from CIMO, a teachers´ meeting was held on Sept 16th. The project coordinator Eeva-Liisa Kallionpää explained the aims, content, activities, and timetable of the project. The principles of selecting students and staff for the study meetings at the participant schools were discussed. It was decided as a principle that as many different teachers as possible would be preparing the activities and travelling with the students as possible, rather than it being the same individuals on each occasion. After the meeting there was an introduction and training to the use of eTwinning as a platform of documentation during the project. The materials and products would later be dispalyed on the various pages of the project Twinspace.
Information about the project was placed on the school’s web page.
On Sept 22nd there was an information session about the project for all the students in the assembly hall. The facts were presented with a set of slides and the students were encouraged to apply for the study meetings they were interested in. The participants for the first meeting in La Unión were consequently chosen and the preparations started.
The next project dissemination event was on Oct 1st at the Marttinen Youth Center in Virrat at a cooperation meeting between the teachers of our school and the teachers of the neighbouring Ähtäri High School. Also a representative of Virrat Municipality, project manager Heidi Tanhuanpää attended. It was agreed that the Finnish learning event would be partly organized at the Youth Center, co-owned by Virrat and the Ministry of Education. Marttinen Youth Center specializes in environmental education, which is a shared theme with our project.It was also agreed that one of the youth workers at the center, Sanna Järvensivu, would directly participate in the project as partly employed by Virrat High School during 2016. This will allow the results of the project to be disseminated more widely in the community.
On Oct 28th there was a parents´ meeting organized at the school where the project was presented and the parents were encouraged to participate.
After the learning event in Spain in November 2015, the four students and the two teachers who participated gave a presentation with photos and videos of the happenings to all the teachers and students of the school in the assembly hall on Dec 7th.
This video was made by one of the Finnish students, Evelin Bakó.
A journalist from the local weekly paper Suomenselän Sanomat had been invited. She interviewed the students and an article was published on the project.
The participants for the learning event in Italy in March were chosen before the Christmas break and the group started the preparations. Two teachers and four students participated in the study meeting n Perugia.
The participants for the learning event in Turkey in May were chosen on Feb 2nd and the group started the preparations. Consequently, four students and three teachers took part in the meeting in Izmir.
A general teachers’ meeting was held on Apr 7th. The project coordinator updated the teaching staff on the state of the project. Preliminary plans were made for the Finnish learning event to take place in October.
On Apr 15th the Finnish participants at the study meeting in Perugia gave a presentation of the experience with slides and video to the students of the upper secondary school, the secondary school and the staff.
At the start of the school year 2016-2017, the coordinator updated the teaching staff on the state of the project in a general teachers' meeting on 8th August. Planning and preparations for the study meeting in Virrat were started. This work was complicated by the fact that Virrat High school was forced to move to smaller temporary premises because of health problems in the regular building. We had to look for alternative venues for the events.
Study meeting in Virrat
3rd to 7th October, 2016
Press release sent to local newspapers and YLE:
https://docs.google.com/a/edu.virrat.fi/document/d/1Qvc6RmlbqLuIPc6t68-r_MG_INTRZucC21bPS3AEHT4/edit?usp=sharing
Article on the meeting in Suomenselän Sanomat:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B6HoXfLRmasgaVNJdXdPVkkyMEhZX29GWW5uTC1jLUxFWExB
Helvetinjärvi National Park - Created with Haiku Deck, presentation software that inspires;
Right after our event, 4 students and 2 teachers to participate in the study meeting in Germany were chosen, and the preparations started. The Munich study visit took place in February 2017.
As we no longer have an assembly hall at our disposal within the various premises where Virtain lukio functions at the moment, Erasmus meetings for all the students and staff haven't been possible since autums 2016. Video material by the participants in the Munich meeting was on dispaly in the entrance hall of the main premises.
Finally, three teachers and five students travelled to Hvar for the study meeting in Croatia during the last week of April. The picture shows one of them, Kaisa Laksonen, singing at the opening ceremony.
Througout the month of June 2017, the Sustainability as a resource project is disseminated in an exhibition at Killin Galleria in Killinkoski, Virrat, in connection with the Into-Keskus project that Virtain lukio has participated in. Here is a link to the Killinkoski museum center. https://killinkoski.kotisivukone.com/
