Teacher impressions
I want to make a special mention of the exquisite kindness and generosity of all students and teachers of the Turkish school that organized the meeting. I remember some names of teachers who kindly helped us, always with a smile on their faces, like Servet, Alkim, Izdin, Oia... but especially Elife, a sweet and amazing woman who provided us with a cosy and comfortable stay due to her hard work and kindness.
The programme of activities both tourist type and those carried out in the school has been excellent. We were able to learn a lot about the Turkish culture and the fascinating history of the city of Istanbul. So, we could see and enjoy sites such as the Blue Mosque and Hagia Sophia, Topkapi Palace, the underground Cisterns and the area around Galata Tower. The trip along the Bosphorus was unforgettable.
Regarding the work meetings, I must highlight the very good audio-visual equipment in that amazing room. The work presentations were very interesting. In our case, the data analyses of water of Sar and Sarela, our city rivers, were uploaded to the website created for this purpose. We have also sent a pdf document with our students working on collecting samples and performing bacteriological and chemical analysis in the laboratory.
For future events and meetings I have the following suggestions. First, I believe it is important to make decisions together and try to carry them out, but there are certain questions that cannot be imposed, for example the number of days of the trip that exceeds the number of three. Second, the project must also take into account the characteristics of a small school, and especially the number of students and families available for exchanges, because sometimes a small school doesn’t have enough students to travel to all centres. This doesn’t mean that the small school can’t provide some kind of accommodation to students from the school where they have not travelled. Finally, I think it should not be a major problem that a school coordinator may delegate in someone he trusts for a trip if that person has enough capacity for it and knows the project.
As for the students, the relation with their Turkish partners seems to have been an enjoyable and enriching experience. During our way back our students were talking about the interesting places they had visited and how much they had enjoyed themselves. For me, our students’ personal enrichment and profit is the most important achievement of the visit to Istanbul.
Pablo Gómez Segade, Biology teacher and Spanish coordinator
Host Turkish families showed our students the most representative monuments of Istanbul and above all, they gave our pupils the possibility of being in touch with another culture in the real context of their daily lives. No doubt about the cultural and educational interest of the school trip for our students, in so many ways that it would be almost impossible to mention them.
The biology knowledge acquired by the Galician students through the process of preparing our project task was enlarged by the presentation of the productions of each country. Of course they improved their knowledge of Natural Science, but also Geographical, Economics and Cultural Contexts where the projects were carried out.
Thanks to this session of presentations, all of us learnt so many things about the countries and cities involved, that they were able to awake our interest and travel curiosity. A perfect preparation for future visits from a different point of view.
I would also like to highlight the impressive improvement of our students in the oral use of the English language.
There is no doubt that the process of extraordinary acquisition of oral competence was favoured by certain contextual variables such as the practical possibility of speaking English and, at a personal level, the high motivation of our students to interact with their Turkish partners and their families. These characteristics of the process of acquiring such fast improvement in oral competence in English mentioned above put us in the orbit of the methodology of the communicative approach to teaching foreign languages.
With this approach, learning is oriented to the communicative use of language and not at the manner, where the language is considered a system that aims to communication and where the ultimate purpose of communication is the transmission of meaning. As it is well known, within the communicative approach, the practice of language has to be contextualized and must involve students personally, and this is what happened with the Galician students of our school.
From my personal experience, it was a surprise to me to discover the strong western influence in the lifestyle of the Turkish society, its huge economic development and the great degree of tolerance and respect between different religions.
Antón Torres Outón
To start with, I must say that the visit met my expectations in many aspects:
- I had the opportunity to get to know the city with all its most monuments. The Saturday and Sunday tours were very interesting.
- I got to know the other European colleagues and schools better because we could talk and exchange information, with some of them more than with the others.
- I am really satisfied with the organisation of the visit. The coordinator was really helpful and solved all the problems that came across during the stay together with the other teachers who were collaborating in the organisation.
- I have reached a better understanding of our Comenius project. We have come to concrete agreements as a partnership and we have a clear idea about what to do next.
- The accommodation facilities were good. The hotel was near the important places and that helped to move around the city.
- Our students were really happy: with their partners and families; with the school; because they could improve their oral skills in English, both in listening comprehension and speaking; because they got to know interesting places and different religions and traditions; in short, because they were really having a great time with this experience. And when you see your students happy you feel happy yourself.
Which aspects could be improved? I think that sometimes a bit of flexibility can help to improve the general atmosphere among people. Each school is different. We have different contexts, different problems and different situations and maybe different opinions about how things must be done. Also we must bear in mind that what it is easy and essential for you, can be difficult and not so important for others.
To avoid misunderstandings I also think that reminding of those tasks which are really important before the meeting would help not to forget anything. Teachers have our heads very busy with many things and sometimes we forget.
Mª Isabel Mato Torres
Each meeting should surprise us with something unexpected and special. In this case, besides the Istanbul city with its old Byzantine and Ottoman architectural treasures or the beauty of the Bosphorus Strait, was the partner school from Istanbul, ERENKOY ISIK FEN LISESI .
A great and modern educational institution, built on the ancient tradition of FMV I??ik School, founded 130 years ago. It offers to its students all the facilities for an excellent education and what can be more beneficial for the students' future than a happy and friendly environment in which they can learn to develop their personality, their skills and talents.
Here we met nice and open persons, very hospitable, happy students, a big family which welcomed us with open arms.
I was impressed by the energy of Elife and her team who did everything for us, students and teachers, to feel excellent in Turkey. Thank you all!
This second meeting took place under the sign of friendship and joy of being together.
There is a nice Turkish proverb that says: "The heart knows its friends" and I may add that my new friends, met in Istanbul due to this Commenius project are now in my heart.
Laura Filimon, Romania
Istanbul? A wonderful city… a huge city and so rich of varieties and history, so lively! Comenius friends? Now the dream team is full and we are on the same wave. I'm sure we could work hand in hand to succeed.
Turkish welcoming? For the teachers, the welcoming was great and for the students you only have to read the impressions of students to realize that they’ll never forget those 4 days in Turkish atmosphere. What a pleasure to help students to reach higher step in their life. A step, where they feel more confident and able to adapt to new situations without prejudices. See you in Severin !!!
Philippe, Reunion
I was my first comenius project, and I enjoyed it ! I 've been really impressed by richer exchanges between the teachers of all countries. Sometimes, I was looking at each other during the meals, and was thinking "Well, these are romanians teachers, these are portugeses, these are turkishes, these chypriots... How wonderful Europe is ! We're building an european citizenship, that's great !". I think it's also very instructive to meet one another, to see others school, others ways of teaching. I've found in love with Istanbul. As an history teacher, I've seen so much things I've heard about before in books ! The Blue Mosquee, Santa Sophia of course but also the ballet of ferries, boats on the Bosphorus. I'm sure I will come back one day ! Thanks to Elife and the turkish team to have welcomed us.
Sophie Lebourg, Reunion
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