newsletter sustain · this project has been funded with support from the european ommission ......

Sustaining Development in Early School Education 518321-LLP-2011-TR-COMENIUS-CMP Issue 2 Page Number 1 This project has been funded with support from the European Commission

NEWSLETTER SUSTAIN

Sustaining Development in Early School Education

518321-LLP-2011-TR-COMENIUS-CMP

Welcome to the SUSTAIN Newsletter, Issue 2, August 15th, 2013 You are reading the latest issue of the http://www.sustain-project.eu/ newsletter, presenting you the latest infor-mation and progresses about the “SUSTAIN” Project. Enjoy the newest SUSTAIN Newsletter!

SUSTAIN is a Comenius Multilateral Project that was

launched and implemented with the financial support

from the EC under LLP. The project, called “Sustaining

Development in Early School Education” gathers good

practices from four countries: Turkey (Doga Schools),

Romania (Valahia University of Targoviste), Bulgaria

(Centre for Creative Training Association) and Italy

(Centre for Creative Development). The project aims to

share, through an on-line collaborative platform, good

practices from partner countries on developing key com-

petences for lifelong learning in pupils from pre-primary

and primary school by using topics addressing the envi-

ronmental themes.

The roots of the international project SUSTAIN are based

on the Natural Learning Concept (NLC), which has been

developed and implemented in Doga Schools for ten

years and heavily emphasizes learners’ interests, creativ-

ity and self direction by creating a stimulating learning

environment in which students can explore and come

into direct contact with knowledge by using genial

classrooms. NLC constitutes more creative and

motivating teaching methods which are ‘open-classroom’

The NLC also gives importance to ecological intelli-

gence that allows for the application of what stu-

dents learn about human activities affecting eco-

systems. In order to do less harm and to live sus-

tainably in our environment, ecological intelligence

blends the knowledge with empathy for all life.

Through the Sustain Project Database, we aspire

to equip the teachers with resources and materi-

als to support the growing interest in early child-

hood issues and Education for Sustainable Devel-

opment (ESD) Methods. SUSTAIN Lesson Plans

which are promoting the development of Key

Competences (KC) relevant to Education for De-

velopment (ESD) have been created by the im-

plementer teachers from the project’s partner

countries to be available on SUSTAIN Database.

Most of the lesson plans were cross implement-

ed via peer-coaching and video conference ses-

sions to test and refine the applicability of the

Sustain Lesson Plans. Now 50 Good Practices are

available on our Good Practices Database that is

accessible for all teachers who are willing to im-

plement them in their classes and share their

experiences with their colleagues.

You can access the database from the link:

http://www.sustain-project.eu/


http://www.sustain-project.eu/

In Turkey, the approbation seminar was real-

ized on the 20th of April at the Atasehir Doga

School with 13 teachers; including 5 class

teachers, 3 group leaders of class teachers, 2

pre-school teachers, 1 art teacher, 1 music

teacher, and 1 ecology teacher.

In Italy, the approbation seminar was realized on the

30th of April in the III Didactic Circle “Maggiore Guida”

in Partinico with 25 teachers from pre-primary and pri-

mary schools.

In Bulgaria, the approbation seminar was realized on

the 4th of April in Aytos, Bulgaria in “Nikola Vaptsarov”

school, with more than 80 primary school teachers.

Following the local workshops, there have been Teacher

Approbation Seminars with different departments and

teachers, in order to review the process. The aim of these

meetings was to direct the development works for the pro-

cess including the International Training Course. This was

done by gathering the teachers’ suggestions and also

getting their recommendations for making necessary

changes and adaptations on the existing good practices to

correspond the needs of the pre-primary & primary school

teachers, as well as to train them in the methodology and

teaching resources’ achieved.


Between June 2nd and 9th, the International Teacher Training Course (ITTC) was realized in İstanbul, Turkey. It was de-

signed for 20-25 participants and comprised 5 days.

The aims of the International Teacher Training Course (ITTC) are:

Improving the knowledge of key competences (KC) for lifelong learning and the sustainable development concept;

Empowering teachers in structuring teaching processes aimed at promoting the development of KC relevant to Edu-

cation for Sustainable Development (ESD) in the school curriculum;

Providing teachers with theoretical and practical tools (innovative methodologies, ITC, Good Practices) to support

ESD;

Encouraging the participants to use the SUSTAIN Lesson Plan Database (and the selected part of this Database -

Good Practice Database) and to keep in contact and collaborate through the SUSTAIN Platform (a collaborative

platform).

The participant teachers also shared their feedback for the lesson plans on the database and during the school visit

at the Beykoz Doga School, they had chance to experience the hands on activities in nature.


TEACHERS’ REFLECTIONS

Rebiana Petrescu, Romania

The project Sustain Development in Early School Education meant for me, since the beginning, an opportunity to share

a part of my teaching experiences with colleagues from my country and other countries as well. It was interesting and

creative, equally, to elaborate lessons/activities from an interdisciplinary perspective and to appeal to a range of skills

and abilities, knowledge and attitudes of my students. My students were very excited about the lessons implemented

and they especially have appreciated the practical part of each activity. I found very useful the Sustain Database and

I’ll use it in the future to get ideas for my future lessons. The International course experience in Istanbul was valuable

and fruitful for each of us. I gained a lot since I worked with colleagues from other countries to plan successful activi-

ties and becoming a great and useful team. I believe that this project is successful and is within the coordinates of a

project well thought and very well organized and that is why I congratulate the coordinating team.

Serafina Turdo, Italy

After several years dedicated to the children’s education through the experimentation of extracurricular activities be-

side the curricular ones, it is a great pleasure to have the possibility to share these with foreign colleagues and get

back their feedback, professional observations and suggestions. After all the work done this SUSTAIN project repre-

sented a further step in my professional career, it enriched me and somehow rewarded the work done so far.

Gökçe Hilal Göbekçin, Turkey

My adventure with SUSTAIN began with writing lesson plans. It made me reflect on my lessons and design them with a

different point of view. Writing lesson plans from the SUSTAIN point of view was a challenging process, forcing me to

use my creativity. After the practice of this lesson plan, I realized how affective this project could be as my students

took an active part in it and excitedly I implemented the lesson plan of another teacher from another country. As an

English teacher, this was a very meaningful process for me, as it meant removing the boundaries through education. I

also had the chance to participate in the International Teacher Training Course in Istanbul. It was an important experi-

ence for me to meet my colleagues from different countries and work with them. I feel myself lucky to take part in this

project.

Vesela Ruseva, Bulgaria

I am very proud I have a chance to be part of Bulgarian team. I was a participant in the SUSTAIN ITTC in Istanbul and I

realized the SUSTAIN Project is a way to improve my teacher’s skills in a few ways. I learned more about how to make

my lesson plans more detailed, practical and useful and ways of work in other countries and schools. I have a chance

to learn more about Sustaining Development and use SUSTAIN Platform, which means that I can get ideas for future

lessons and see what other colleagues do.


Upcoming Events

The Sustain Biennial will be held from the 23rd to 30th of November,

2013. The arts and crafts will be exhibited in our Topkapi Doga School’

Hamam for 8 days. The focus of this year’s biennial will be “World Citi-

zenship and Democracy” as one of the sub themes of Sustainable De-

velopment Education. The aim of the biennial will be raising people’s

awareness about the interrelation between sustainable development

and key competencies, and presenting a different perspective on envi-

ronmental problems in order to create active, informed and responsi-

ble citizens who are willing and able to take responsibility for them-

selves and their communities.

Dissemination Seminars will be organized in each partner country to

disseminate the project and the booklet will be delivered to teachers

as a teaching tool with exemplary content and incentive for them to

visit the project web-site.

Dissemination Seminar in Bulgaria on 20th September 2013

Dissemination Seminar in Italy on 26th September 2013

Dissemination Seminar in Romania on 15th September 2013

Dissemination Seminar in Turkey on 30th November 2013


Currently more than 70 Lesson Plans exist on our Lesson Plan Database for implementation. You can easily register on our

platform http://www.sustain-project.eu and reach any pre- primary and primary school teachers and their implementa-

tions from SUSTAIN Partner Countries (Italy , Romania, Bulgaria and Turkey).

To obtain the approbation of the Lesson Plans as the Project Good Practices we kindly invite the teachers to visit the

project database to implement and adapt the Lesson Plans in their local context. This crossed implementation process will

prove the effectiveness and adaptability of SUSTAIN Lesson Plans.

Upcoming Events

Sustain International Teacher Training Course (ITTC) ,which will be held

between 6-13 April, 2014, is addressed to teachers and educators of pre-

primary and primary school. It is designed for 20-25 participants and is

integrated with a school visit to observe sustainable development activi-

ties in real classes. The Course uses blended methods of training – it in-

volves distance activities (self-preparation and work with the content of

the SUSTAIN Database and SUSTAIN Platform) and face-to-face training.

Both the course fee and travel expenses can be fully covered by the Co-

menius grant from the LLP National Agency of your country.

The next DEADLINE for the Comenius grant is on the 17th September

2013.

For more information please visit: http://ec.europa.eu/education/

trainingdatabase/index.cfm?fuseaction=DisplayCourse&cid=37685

Coordinator

Doğa Schools, Turkey

www.dogaschools.com

Partners

Universitatea Valahia din Targovişte Center for Creative Training Centro Per Lo Sviluppo Creativo

(UVT) Romania www.valahia.ro (CCTA) Bulgaria www.cct.bg Italy www.daniladolci.it


http://www.sustain-project.eu

http://www.dogaschools.com

newsletter sustain · this project has been funded with support from the european ommission ......

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