Project meeting in Estonia

TEACHERS MEETING IN ESTONIA

Haapsalu, Estonia, 27.-31.November

Participants:

Norway: 7 teachers, 1 headmaster:

Poland: 8 teachers

Wales: 2 teachers, 1 deputy

England: 3 teachers, 1 head teacher

Programme:

Thursday-Friday March 27^th

Travelling. Host-staff picking up Welsh and English staff in Tallinn. Bus to Haapsalu, check in Kongo Hotel. Dinner at Veskiviigi Tavern. Welsh and English visitors and many of the staff at Uuemõisa Algkool.

Saturday March 28^th

Norwegian and Polish staff arriving Haapsalu by bus. Teacher Tomas drove us to the hotel.

We were soon picked up by Triin, and went to Uuemõisa Algkool, The White Hall.

Here we had a warm welcome, and a wonderful evening.

Pupils, staff and parents had come to school this Saturday night to give us a concert and to welcome us. The Mayor was there, giving us a speech and official gifts, as well as the leader of the parent committee, both excellently translated into English by Triin and Sirje.

Then we had a couple of hours where we experienced very charming and talented young singers, dancers and musicians. We are impressed with the level they performed. Then we were introduced to the Estonian legend we are about to start working on, the Ghost of the White Lady.

At the end of the program the very charming folk-dancers invited us into the dance, and after this we all left school very happy and grateful to all contributors of the concert.

Dinner at Restaurant Central was very nice, and the rest of the night was spent on a local pub. All teachers got along very well from day one; we had a lot of fun with new friends.

Sunday March 29^th

· Guided tour in historical Haapsalu.

· Lunch at Promenaadi Hotel by the sea.

· Planning-meeting: project group only. (Triin, James, Magda and Jolla, Sue, Sissel)

Agenda: Evaluation, Surveys, Fronter, summer-report, Norway-meeting, setting dates for Poland-meeting, special-needs focus (see decisions below)

· SPA: A fresh walk along the seaside, on the way to Fra Mare Spa Resort. Triin had booked us 3 hours of relaxing saunas, swimming pools and Jacuzzi. We all enjoyed this part of the Estonian culture. Dinner at the same place, and then a refreshing walk back. Many teachers spent the rest of the evening together in the Hotels restaurant.

Monday march 30th

School visit Uuemõisa Algkool

Information on Estonian schoolsystem by headmaster.

Tour around the building, including Mayors office. The groups of teachers were then split up in smaller groups, and attended 4 different lessons, math, music, English and crafts. Very interesting.

Planning/Evaluation: Meeting.

· We saw the result of the work with Welsh legend. James and co have done a great job putting it all together in the multimedia file.

· New agreements were made for next Mix of Five.

· The Estonian solution for creating the audio file-dictionary was introduced.

· New Fronter was opened, and more staff were given access

· Gifts and farewells

Return to Haapsalu

Bus back to Tallinn, all teachers at the same time. Farewell and lots of thanks to an exhausted host, Triin. In Tallinn we all met for a last night at Olde Hansa in Tallinn.

Tuesday March 31^st : Return to Norway and Wales

Wednesday April1st: Return to England, Poland.

RESULTS / OUTCOME OF THE MEETING

· Decisions:

· Deadline Estonian legend is May 15^th. Then we send our pictures , films, files to Estonia.

· Poland-trip: dates set to November 5^th-8^th. We will stay in Lublin from Thursday-Sunday, school visit Friday 6^th, return to Warsaw Sunday, and fly back earliest Monday.

· Special needs. All partners in project group write a small document, a contribution on how their school and national schoolsystem organizes the teaching of pupils with special needs. To be filed on the Comenius-page, under resources. Will also be posted on the Blog. Suggested deadline June 1^st?

· Surveys: All countries will form a single survey regarding pupils’ outcome when working with a new partner-country. Framework is Poland (Jolla’s) suggestion.

· Summer report: By next meeting in Norway all partners should have started their report; we will bring our files to Norway and let the others know the content. We can’t work on a common report on Fronter as we give the report in our native language. Deadline for reporting is June 31^st.

· Fronter. The new platform is up and running, all new and old users should at least once a week stop by the forum to find new posts and important messages. Once a day is necessary close to next deadline and next visit. The address for fronter is Torvmyrane Schools website: www.torvmyrane.no

· Knowledge. Obviously we came back with more knowledge on the Estonian school system and ways of teaching. Even more, these visits to other schools always does something with our own teaching, as what we see makes us reflect on our own teaching and practice. This is the most important outcome for us teachers.

· Live partnerships. As more teachers meet and take part in the process, this partnership actually becomes real. We meet real people and can relate to them instantly through our common focus on the projects objectives.