INITIAL EVALUATION OF THE COMENIUS PROJECTGastronomy Life and Arts

Karina Svircenkova

AVERAGE NUMBER OF STUDENTS INVOLVED IN THE PROJECT-

50 students

Average Number of teachers involved in the project- 5

age of students involved in the project- 15-24 years old

IN WHAT WAY HAVE YOU SELECTED STUDENTS TO PARTICIPATE IN THIS PROJECT?

Spanish teams says that Students participating in the Project should be motivated and eager to learn other cultures. They are friendly, nice and sociable. All of them are deeply involved in the project and would take advantage of the opportunity to travel to other countries and meet new people. They are hard-working students, but not necessary the ones with the best academic results or grades.

Czech team says that they’ve selected the students with excellent results and behavior who wanted to participate. Each teacher recommended some students and then all participating teachers agreed on the final group.

Bulgarian team says that they organized a contest prior to the first visit inviting participants in our previous project.

At the beginning of this school year students were invited to participate in the second competition to choose between the candidates. They were given a task corresponding to the project and testing both their English and IT competences.

Italian team says that the staff has chosen two classes whose teachers were interested in the project

Latvian team says that they have organized a competition of writing «Motivational Letter- why I want to take part in this project»

ENGLISH TEAM

Students have been selected according to the courses that they are studying on, which in turn have led to them being offered the opportunity to participate in the project. In this they have been told about the project and then set a task to complete, one that relates to the project theme. This work is in addition to the usual course work, so they are having to prove and earn the right to be considered for the opportunity to participate

TURKISH TEAM

With four different meetings we have informed every student of our school about the Project. As the second step we have organized a second meeting fort he students that are willing to take part within the Project. They were given a task to prepare for the billboards and the blog of our school.

WHAT AIMS DID YOU SET FOR THE PROJECT AFTER THE FIRST MEETING?

Spanish team sets the following aims - foster the new technologies - improve the competence in English - search and select information

regarding gastronomy, festivals and traditions

- study the festivals of the autumn and winter

- promote the artistic creativity of students

Czech team Our aim is to involve students in

collaboration with other participating schools so that they improved their language skills and learnt as much as possible about the countries of our Project partners.

Bulgarian team We started working on the planned activities-

started a Facebook page for our team, started working on the blog, organized a contest for postcards with the recepies , a contest for poems and collecting ideas for a video film.All our students joined Dropbox to enable exchange of materials.They also prepare travel booklets for each mobility.After returning they write reports in English evaluating the work done so far as well as commenting their personal experiences and expectations.

Italian team WE set to achieve the aims specified in the

project

Latvian team - foster the new technologies - imporve the competence in

English - search and select information

regarding gastronomy, festivals and traditions

- study the festivals of the autumn and winter

- promote the artistic creativity of students

ENGLISH TEAM

The aim was to be able to offer the opportunity throughout the creative arts department within the college, in order to give a wide range of students the opportunity to travel and experience different cultures and ways of working. In general it is to increase the students awareness of what is possible for them, and also be in a position to reward them for producing good work.

TURKISH TEAM

Our aim is to make students write about festivals and food that is prapared especially for them. Make students have good cooperation with their group mates.Finaly we hope to achive an improvement in students’ English lavel.

WHAT ACTIVITIES DID YOU PLAN FOR THE STUDENTS IN YOUR SCHOOL? Spanish team - Visit of the central Market and making a video

presentation of the rich variety of food - Students introudce themselves for the blog during a

tour round Valencia old town - Visit of the exhibition of Andy Warhol and its pop art

painting regarding gastronomy - Attendance to a a workshop on creative culinary pop art - Writing a questionnarie on healthy habits - Writing the winter and autumn culinary tradiions and

festivals - Design of the blog - Design of the webpage - Design of the culinary postcards - Working the contents for the student’s corner: Idiomatic

expresssions, links to learn languages

Czech team Students should explore the connection of art

and gastronomy, add contributions to our blog, create graphic designs for all the materials, make videos and communicate with students of other participating schools and thus improve their language skills.

Italian team - planning and making a box to

contain the recipes - - start a blog - - investigate the culinary traditions

of our country and collecting typical recipes

- -planning of the meeting in Bologna

- - writing a tourist booklet about Bologna

Latvian team Start the blog Work on culinary traditions Plan of the meeting in Latvia Write a tourist booklet about Riga and

Bologna

ENGLISH TEAM

The initial activities were for students to create posters that could be used to advertise the project. This was one of the tasks that has been set for Birmingham Metropolitan College to complete. Along with this, we also set the task for some students to produce some images that relate to British food dishes, and use these for postcards. This was one of the tasks that were set at the initial meeting between the countries involved. Following this, we are wanting the students to produce creative art work that has ‘gastronomy’ as it’s theme.

TURKISH TEAM

Shooting videos on how to cook a treditional meal.

Geadering information about the place we are going to visit.

Design the blog and the postcards

All the members of the project consider Making presentations Taking part in local trips Working in groups Going to another country on a visit Creating blog Preparing travelling booklet valuable for

students

All the members of the project agreed with the fact that Comenius project has enriched their curriculum, was widely published in their schools, coordinators have enough support to carry out their role in Comenius project, coordinators have enough time to undertake the tasks, as well as they find colleagues cooperative.

WHAT KIND OF CHANGES OR IMPROVEMENTS WOULD YOU LIKE TO SEE IN THE PROJECT?

All the members of the project find the organized activities very useful and fully satisfied with the project and think that as we are on an initial stage of the project they are not able to think of possible changes or improvements but still students must have more opportunity to work in computer rooms for being in contact with the other students of the o ther countries participating in this project, some have concerns about the financial aspects and ensuring that the money will be used correctly and evenly over the two years. However, the partner would not be able to say how this could be improved, as having the lump sum now does enable for a good deal of planning.