3rd Short term Joint Staff Training – Italy

Erasmus + KA2 Flip&Movie Project
3rd Short-term joint staff training event
Istituto Comprensivo8 Pescara-Italy
24th -28th October 2016

Report

Monday, 24th October Welcome ceremony

On 24th October, at three o’clock, the students, the parents and a lot of teachers of the Istituto Comprensivo 8 provided greetings to the foreign delegations composed by thirty-eight students and eighteen teachers, coming from Croatia, Latvia, Slovakia and Spain, on the occasion of the Erasmus Plus KA2 Flip&Movie project.

The Italian students welcomed their foreign partners performing in the gym of Tinozzi school a concert , playing pieces of music such as “Hymn of Joy”, The Italian anthem, “Adiemus”, “Adagio” and a medley of the Beatles’ most famous songs. The foreign students and their teachers were also greeted by a speech delivered by the Headmistress of Tinozzi, Annarita Bini, who gave a warm welcome to them, conveying the utter joy and pride felt about availing such an educational experience, and highlighting how Europe and culture can be the determining factors to improve young people’s educational path.

Many other authorities attended the ceremony: the Mayor of Pescara, Marco Alessandrini; the President of Province Antonio Di Marco; Marisa Di Cioccio, from the Province Department and the Major Domenico Candelli, commanding officer of the NAS unit of Abruzzo. In his welcome speech, the Major of Pescara underlined the special opportunity the town of Pescara has been given, about being an active partner in such a praiseworthy project, and remarked on the importance of Europe as a concrete reference point in an undertaking of this extent. The English language teacher Enrichetta Donzelli, provided translation and was in charge as the interpreter for the overall event.

After the authorities’ speech, each delegation displayed a video concerning natural beauty spots and picturesque landscapes of their land. Each member was given a badge and a backpack by the Headmistress, where they could find all the required material for the following days’ workshops.

Eventually, the school’s choir performed the most famous Italian song ever, that is “Nel blu dipinto di blu”, which was sung and danced by the whole audience. At the end of the ceremony, the 24 Italian students (10 ambassadors-facilitators from III B, C, F and 14 students from III B, F, H), together with the 39 foreign students, were involved in inter-active games set up by Erika Gerardini, an expert in Euro-project management. She arranged a number of ice-breaking activities in order to let the students better know each other: at first, each of them introduced him or herself, talking about favourite activities and interests.

Afterwards, all the students were disposed by each one’s nationality, in such a way as drawing up a Europe map. Then, a PowerPoint presentation was displayed, showing all European flags, and the students were asked to give answers to questions about Europe and its countries. The ceremony concluded with a “buffet” arranged by the Italian students’ families who were pleased to bid their own welcome to the foreign delegations, offering savoury cakes and pastries, typical of Abruzzo.

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teachers_001Welcome Concert in “Tinozzi Gym”

teachers_01Welcome ceremony

teachers_02Workshop held by the expert Erika Gerardini 

teachers_03Buffet organized by students’ parents in the Main Hall

Tuesday,25th October

On Tuesday 25th October, the twelve teacher partners involved in the “training meeting “ visited Tinozzi school and entered the first year classes creating an European atmosphere. They presented a short lesson in English about their countries, habits and traditions. They also communicated with the students answering some questions they prepared previously .The activity was great and all were satisfied.

After the break in the Main Hall, teachers and students from all participating countries took part in a general presentation of two Workshops held by the experts: Filograsso Ilaria and Ranieri Antonella. When the common moment was finished the teachers involved in the Training activities followed the workshop about New Media Literacies and the students with the accompanying teachers took part in the other workshop the realization of a book (Book in progress).

The workshop held by the expert Filograsso Ilaria (Professor at the University of Chieti-Pescara) was about New Media Literacies: an inspiration for new approaches to the classroom practices. The starting point for this reflection was the pattern of Participatory reading experimented by a lot of American schools within the project New Media Literacies guided by the scholar Henry Jenkins. She presented in a clear, detailed and captivating way the importance of Participatory Culture as an answer to the explosion of New media technologies and she also underlined the importance of Participatory Reading. She explained the reasons of teaching Media Literacy and clarified that Literacy is no longer read as a set of personal skills, rather the New Media Literacies are a set of social skills and cultural competences connected to our increasingly public lives online and to the social networks through which we operate. She gave a lot of suggestions to the participants to improve Reading skills and stimulate teachers and students to look for ways in order to create and circulate contents. The workshop finished at 01.00 p.m.

In the afternoon teachers and pupils of each delegation met at Ex-Aurum building in order to visit EuropAurum – “Europe direct Pescara”. The activities were:

  • Activity 1: let’s colour the place, the monster Non Formal Activity
  • Activity 2: discovering Europe, discovering our roots European Citizenship Education Non Formal Activity organized by Erika Gerardini, as an expert of non-formal education.
    Pupils were received with music and balloons in order to create a spontaneous socialisation moment. In a big circle they wrote their names and feelings on the balloons. After a quick conversation about Europe, United Europe and its advantages the expert underlined the importance of travelling, exchanging experiences and meeting foreign people from around the world pupils had to create some groups in order to participate in a competition. Each group had a worksheet with some indications to follow and some tasks to be carried out, such as identifying a leader, a name and a motto.
    They could consult the multi-media material in order to take information or walking along the Eurotunnel, looking at posters. At the end there was a final moment in order to talk about the activities they did.
    The workshop ended at 6.00 p.m.

teachers_04Foreign teachers enter the first year classes

teachers_05The experts Ranieri Antonella and Filograsso Ilaria present the content of their workshops

teachers_06Workshop about New Media literacies held by the professor Ilaria Filograsso

Wednesday, 26th October

On the third day of the meeting the teachers involved in training activities went to visit the Primary school “Borgomarino”. The contact person Alessandra Perrozzi accompanied them, There they were greeted by the pupils wearing a traditional costume of Abruzzo and the flags of the five countries of the project. It was followed by a short concert at the presence of the headmistress and the expert Gerardini Erika. The teachers visited the school and watched a video on the realization of puppets for the dramatization of a fairy tale.

They also assisted at an animated English lesson by the pupils of the first class Then they went to visit the Nursery school “B. Buozzi” where the teacher showed them the works realized with Primary school about the project themes. At the end they listened to an English song by the pupils .Later the teachers went to the “Dante Alighieri” school where they greeted by the teachers and the pupils who gave them the flags of their countries made with their hands. Then the teachers visited the Primary school and “Dante Alighieri’s room” with the canvas created by the pupils and the works of the creative writing of the popular tales realized by the Primary school classmates and gave them some lovely presents.

At 11.00 a.m. they were offered a buffet with some typical and traditional food of Abruzzo and the pupils explained in English the food recipes. Afterwards the delegations walked to “Genti d’Abruzzo” museum. The teachers visited the thirteen rooms of the museum of the prehistoric period and they got to know many costumes ,objects and traditional products of Abruzzo’s history. At 13.30 p.m. they had lunch all together at the “Caffè letterario” where they tasted local products.

After lunch the teachers went to the Middle School to took part in the workshop held by the expert Rosy Nardone. During the first day, she explained that videogames are very useful in education because they are part of the students’ world, and since they are so attractive for them, they could be used as new and interesting learning method. This kind of activity can be used in every subject, from math to history and it can have a huge potential in the learning processes because teachers can use it to tell, or let the students tell, stories from different points of view. To make this clear Mrs Nardone showed the participants a videogame made by WWF for a campaign to protect the wolf. The videogame is from the point of view of the wolf and Little Red Riding Hood helps her friend to escape from hunters and traps.

She explained how the program, which is not difficult to use, works, but she pointed out that the choice of the goal, the topic and the development of the story is crucial. It is for sure the most difficult part because teachers, or students, have to make up the whole story and then deconstruct it in a number of different scenes. Every one of them must be built with a background or collage of images, characters and sound. After that, all the scenes must be linked to others by clicking buttons or reaching selected areas like doors, holes etc., which open new scenes. Every scene can have more than one link to allow different choices.

teachers_07Visit of Borgomarino and Via del Concilio primary and kindergarten schools

teachers_08Visit of the Old part of the town (Museo Genti d’Abruzzo)

teachers_09Workshop held by the professor Rosy Nardone titled “Game over!”

Thursday, 27th October

On Thursday morning at 10,00 o’clock the teachers took part in the second part of the workshop held by the expert Rosy Nardone. They were divided and mixed into different groups, worked together to choose a topic, invent a story and define all the scenes of the tale. With their stories ready, the groups moved to the computers room to make them digital.

At the end of the morning every group produced a videogame, the most of them related to Little Red Riding Hood, so the teachers gave their interactive version of the same fairytale the students worked on during their workshops to create amazing picture books and videos.

At 01.00 0’clock the workshop ended and the teachers had free lunch near the school .Later the foreign teachers with some Italian teachers of the Istituto Comprensivo Pescara 8 participated in the workshop “EAS- Episodes of Situated Learning”, held at Tinozzi School. The workshop was held by the Italian teacher Simona Bello. It was based on the presentation and explanation of the meaning of EAS and Flipped Lesson, by using slides and photos. The EAS didactic has the purpose to offer teachers a conscious employment of multimedia languages and the integration between paper and digital resources. To flip in English means to leaf through but also to reverse: Flipped Lesson is “overturned” because it inverts the traditional order of didactic actions and foresees that at home pupils obtain information and at school learning occurs. “Tinozzi” school is one of the twenty-five involved schools chosen from Samsung in collaboration with a network of University in Italy. This project of experimentation “Class Smart Future” was practiced within FLIP&MOVIE project with a group of teachers who tried to work with EAS didactic in the middle school.

In Flipped Lesson smartphone and tablet allow to surf the net, to archive digital contents, to create new ones: it is possible to produce texts, to take pictures, to produce videos and story telling. By using this innovative methodology pupils were motivated and involved whether at school or at home, learning by doing with good results.

The workshop ended at 4.15 p.m. Afterwards the twelve partner teachers with the Headmistress and some Italian teachers visited the Green Association “Campagna Amica” situated near the port of the town of Pescara. Here they had the opportunity to listen a detailed explanation on behalf of Mr. Falcinelli about the tasks carried out by the Association. He also gave information on the natural products made in Abruzzo and in the countryside, the partners tasted and bought some products such as: oil, wine, cheese, fruit, flour and bread.

The “farewell dinner” concluded this day. It took place at Regent Hotel and was a very suggestive moment because a lot of the Italian teachers who teach in the Institute participated “to say goodbye” to the European partners. Some Italian students’ parents wanted to take part in this special occasion too. The headmistress after a lovely speech in which she thanked all teachers, students and parents for the warm and active participation she gave the foreign teachers and students some gifts as souvenir of Pescara and the Italian delegation.

teachers_010Workshop about “Flipped classroom” and EAS methodology held by the Italian teacher Simona Bello

teachers_011Visit to “Campagna Amica”

teachers_012Farewell dinner with students’ parents, teachers and students involved in the project

Friday, 28th October 2016

On the last day of the meeting, at 9 a.m., all the delegations met in Tinozzi school gym to take part in different activities called “Ateliers”. All the students were divided in 8 teams and everyone had to wear a cockade with the team colours. Then, each group was invited to gather around some “places” prepared by the host on Creative Writing, English, Maths, Feelings and Art.

At 10,00 o’clock the foreign teachers with the Headmistress and the English teacher went to visit the Building of Province, here, after having some interesting information about the painting Iorio’s Daughter situated in Iorio’s Daughter Room.

They were received by the President of Province Antonio Di Marco Antonio who greeted them and explained the important tasks that the Province has in the territory. He besides underlined the value of Flip &Movie Project congratulating with the Istituto Comprensivo 8 for its opening to Europe and for being “a project leader school”. He thanked the Headmistress for her effort in everything is related to Europe and European citizenship, he added the necessity to develop in our students the awareness of being European citizens.

Afterwards they met the Councillor of Municipality Paola Marchegiani who gave a warm welcome to all and spoke about the importance of reading today especially in young people ‘s life. After the visit of this building, the partner teachers came back to Tinozzi school to take part in the last part of the morning in which the Italian experts gave a detailed feedback on the works realized in the workshops (Book in progress – Making a movie).

Then the headmistress handed out of the certificates and thanked all the delegations for their active participation.
Words of thanks and appreciation were also said by the coordinators of each delegation.

teachers_013Visit of the Palace of Province and meeting with the President of Province Antonio Di Marco at Iorio’s Daughter Room.