Portugal - Luz, Mourão

Our school is situated in the south of Portugal, in a village called Aldeia da Luz. It´s  a small school with primary and preschool . We have 21 students, aged 3 to 10 years old and two teachers.

Belongs to a group of schools with about 300 students (aged 3 to 18 years old), and 40 teachers, with headquarters in the town of Mourão.

Aldeia da Luz is a very peculiar place. It is a location newborn, located next to the largest artificial lake in Europe - Alqueva. Due to the rising waters, the ancient village was submerged.

It is a typical Portuguese village surrounded by strong cultural roots.

Our school - Luz

Our school headquarters - Mourão

Mourão - Castle and Alqueva Lake

web site from the main school

http://aemourao.weebly.com/

my school blog

http://jiluz.blogspot.pt/

library website

http://bibliotecaescolarmourao.weebly.com/

library Facebook

https://www.facebook.com/bibliotecaescolar.mourao?fref=ts

Évora - city ​​district, Google maps

https://maps.google.pt/maps?q=evora+portugal&ie=UTF-8&hq=&hnear=0xd19e4d1c497b627:0x9e61852f6dae8c43,%C3%89vora&gl=pt&ei=qiB4UrOTJK6O7Aa02IG4CQ&ved=0CMoBELYD

Mourão  - city from the main school , Google maps

https://maps.google.pt/maps?q=mourao+portugal&ie=UTF-8&hq=&hnear=0xd10cdb9b444b43f:0x397acc09e207901b,Mour%C3%A3o&gl=pt&ei=GCB4Upb1O6yg7AaH2YDwDA&ved=0CMUBELYD

Aldeia da Luz - our school, Google maps

https://maps.google.pt/maps?q=aldeia+da+luz&ie=UTF-8&hq=&hnear=0xd10c96bc6219fa7:0x500ebbde490b110,Luz&gl=pt&ei=YiB4UsakBc_b7AbR-oHADA&sqi=2&ved=0CKYBELYD

Alentejo Tempo para ser Feliz - Alentejo Time To Be Happy

Start to know our region - Portugal - Alentejo, where our school is situated.

Istituto Comprensivo Viale Adriatico

Istituto ComprensivoViale Adriatico Rome

The Istituto ComprensivoViale Adriatico was founded in 2000 and is located in the third town hall of the city of Rome, which has 200,000 inhabitants. There are about 1182 students (from 3 to 14 years) and 112 teachers. Most of the students live near the school, which has trhee locations. In the institute there are Italian language courses for foreigners and experimental courses for pupils with special needs. Our teaching method is based on respect for the learning ability of each pupil , and promotes the exercise and the development of skills through an active construction of knowledge. In our school we help pupils to create their own experiences, as we believe that through the experience in the first person can develop their personality .

http://www.ic-vialeadriatico.gov.it/

Our school

Students from one of our classes

A video of the most beautiful places of the Eternal City, where is our school.

Click above to view it

Project activities

Project activities

The world is round -The symbol of the circle in our life - Complex developement of student's basic competencies and teacher's key competencies

I. The circle and circular processes in nature – forms and shapes, cyclical movements,

rejuvenation

• Searching for rounded shapes through the body frame and body surface of flora and fauna (flowers, leaves, crops, annual rings, shapes on animal skin, cells. Drawing and taking photos of what we have seen.
• Examining circular process in nature! (Cycle of the water, changing the stages of water – liquid, snow, ice, etc., changing of seasons, changing of light, phases of the moon, the solstice, proportion of day and night, the equinoxes, the cyclical activities in life of living organism, rejuvenation in nature). Observing a concrete habitat or a concrete part of a forest, observing a tree in different seasons. Creating a “Season Tree” using different techniques of arts and crafts (painting, drawing, glueing, montage).

II. Culture – The circle is an element of our cultural environment - (architecture, arts and crafts, tradition)  

• Searching for rounded shapes in the place where we live on buildings (windows, cupolas, spiral staircases, swimming pools, temples and churches), circuses, roundabouts,  merry-go-rounds in parks. We draw, take pictures or/and make models of what we see using different techniques.
• Examining rounded tools in everyday life (pots, plates, cups, glasses, cooking utensils, coins, stamps, seals). Analysing forms, use and function.hű Utilisation of circular processes in our nature: producing or re-generating energy (windmill),  learning about renewable energy sources, observing and making models in art and crafts lessons.
• The cyclical process in our artificial environment, e.g. water and wastewater in our buildings, water analysis, recycling of waste/organic waste, making objects from waste.
• Observing and analysing works of art. Activities: painting mandala, creating different wreaths (Advent wreaths, bridal wreaths, front door decorations in spring and autumn), basket weaving, making felt balls, balloons, rings, bracelets, necklaces, Christmas decorations, pottery, weaving, knitting -crochet.
• Analysing and writing different kinds of literature (poems, rhymes, tales).
• Songs, rhythms and tunes, using and getting acquainted with different round-shaped hű musical instruments.
• Traditions all year round  (Easter, Christmas, Ramadan, Bayram …),
• Showing  and comparing the results to the partners

III.  The way of life – The three main concentric circles: unity of body, soul and mind

• The circle of human life – observing different stages of life. (birth, childhood, youth, adulthood, old age and death)
• Nutrition: healthy nutrition, the circle of aliments, cooking and baking round-shaped dishes ( bread, cakes, dumplings, pies,..).
• The health of our soul: balance, the significance of a partner and a circle of friends , love, traditions, festivities, popular customs – getting acquainted with them and realize how important they are in our circle of life. Creating a “Soul Bird” and usingusing relaxing techniques.
• Showing  and comparing the results to the partners.

IV. The PRODUCTS  

• Informational website: we are going to design a website to document our work and products during the whole project.
• Methodological basket
• ............

Erasmus + project plan

The world is round 

The symbol of the circle in our life

When you look up to the sky in the morning and see the rising sun there is an ancient symbol just in front of your eyes. The CIRCLE; that symbolizes the endless, the eternal revival, the circulation, the completeness, the original perfection and harmony. According to the ancient interpretation the circle symbolized the disk of the life-giving sun and the existence of people depended on the light of the sun, therefore they looked at it as God. For this reason the circle became the symbol of the absolute, endless unit and perfection. If we open our eyes; we can find it everywhere around us, in the cup holding our tea in the morning, in the flowers decorating our windows, in our children’s circle games, and nearly everywhere.

We are inviting you for an interesting discovery and adventure. Let’s examine our world from the point of view of this ancient symbol. Let’s look for the common points in our environments and cultures, let’s work together in a common school project!

The aims of the project are:

·         to discover our surrounding world through the symbol of the circle (our bigger and smaller natural and built environment and our cultural values)

·         to develop students’ key competencies through the project work (communicating in our mother tongue, communicating in foreign languages, maths competencies and the basic competencies in the field of nature and technical science, digital competencies, the acquisition of study skills, social and citizen competencies, cultural consciousness and expressive skills, the environmental and lifestyle choices competencies)

·         to allow our students to develop connections with the students of our partner schools. They will get to know each other, the results of the completed work, the countries and cultural values of the partners.

·         to share and recognize the applied pedagogical methods with each other

·         to try out each other’s good practices and if it is possible, insert them in our school program.

Duration of project:

2 years - from October 2015 to September 2017

Type of project:

Erasmus + (Comenius school cooperations)

Type of cooperations:

Multilateral project with participations of 4-5 partners 

Type of school, the age of students:

Elementary school, age 7-14

Language:

English

About our school - Templomdombi Primary School - Szentendre

Our school was founded in1989, as an independent 8-grade institute with one class on each grade. The building is relatively small, but also that's why it is intimate. It is situated in the historical centre of Szentendre, one of the most beautiful parts of the town. The building contains 8 classrooms, 5 special rooms, 1 gymn, a small library, a teachers' room, 3 office rooms and convenience rooms. Using the adventages of the building we work on strengthening the intimate character of our school, to provide an athmosphere of collective spirit for our students. 

The basic principle of our pedagogical programme and activity is child-centredness, on which we mean empathy, encouragement, trust, raising self-confidence, helping to success and love.

We try to do our best to achieve that children would go to school with pleasure, they would enjoy themselves here, they would acquire necessary knowledge thoroughly enough, they would consider learning important, their skills and abilities would develop and that they could reach self-realization. In the centre of our methodological culture we have placed the procedure of experience-like teaching-learning. At first its feasibility was confirmed by our experience, then we chose the topics of our in-service trainings more and more consciously. Each member of our staff has participated in a forest school preparation project, the Gordon teacher's efficiency developing training and a learning strategy methodological course. In 1996 we participated in the trainig of Soros Foundation for self-developing schools. This training has contributed to the consideration of our activity, the well-founded and circumspect completion of our pedagogical programme. We focus on eco-friendliness way of thinking in our school.

Environmental education in our school

Our aim is to form our students  environmental knowlegdes, to develop their skills of problem solving and to frame their  emotional approaches  skills by pedagogical methods. All this is a process which affects to the whole person and personality and we can realize this only, if we doing our job in the name of i tat every field of our school life. In the course of our 25 years working, amongst others at first place we have won  „ECO-SCHOOL” title.

Manual skills development

We interpret the manual skills development in a complex way. This involve the subjects, the free time activities, namely the whole of our tutorial and educational system. The tasks/lessons/duties will be broadened concentric(a)ly and reach all students int he school. Important thing is to strenghten the unity of vision-touch-thinking-action, and with the help of this unity we would like to educate students work’s of high standard. The manual skills development – the best of our belief – help to form the habits of learning and working, help to follow the role of procedures/actions, support the practical use of tools and implements, the basic/elementary habits of working (correct posture, share of working, punctuality, economy, to avoid accidents, etc.) and the right/correct pace.

Foreign languages

Nowdays we feel the need and the importance of learning languages. We have decided that teaching foreign langugages will be one of the main direction in our school. Knowing a foreign language helps to get acquainted with other cultures, to be interested in other folks. Through learning a foreign language our students start to appreciate their native language, they honour their own cultural values and learn easier other languages. We are intent on focusing on  -taking notice of our students age specialities -  to strenghten our students self confidence, to dvelop their self-knowledge during learning a foreign language.

www.templomdomb.hu

About our project teams - Templomdombi Primary School

Katalin Jászai is also class teacher, her class is 3rd in this year. She teaches hungarian grammar an literature, p.e., arts and craft. She also has a degree of economist at Budapest Buisness School.

Noemi Kekesi is a p.e. teacher, she is one of the head teachers in 7th grade class, she teaches  all upper classes (5th-8th) and swimming from 3rd grade. Beside teaching she is also working as a personal trainer, trx instructor, nordic walking instructor and organizes summer camps.

Attila Csalló is the 4th member of our stuff. He teaches biology, geography, arts and craft from 5th to 8th grade. He is the other head teacher in 7th grade class. He is also education informatics. He has been taken part in previous Erasmus project, and he was our school’s project manager.

Katalin Jászai - Attila Csalló - Noémi Kékesi

The idea has been born…

Once upon a time…one nice summer day at dawn, while we were watching amazingly the rising sun our decision has been born.  Our thought was: lets search for circle, the completeness, the circulation; examine the cyclic all through the widest areas of our life. We thought that we could examine the meaning of this ancient symbol in a wider, European regard, not just in our narrower territory. While we were searching for fund and partners we found Erasmus+ Program.