questionssummary

=QUESTIONNAIRE ON BRIDGES4EUROPE=

SCOTTISH SUMMARY
Staff and students have learned a great deal about our partnership countries.


 * Bulgaria** - They elect their headteacher; teachers require 2 degrees to teach at our partnership school; Sofia is the capital of Bulgaria; orthodox religion.
 * Romania** - Teachers are inspected every year; 'Churba' is the name of their traditional soup. Iasi is a religious city in Moldovian region. There are many beautiful monasteries in the Moldovian area. Many people work in other countries.
 * Italy** - Italians eat a lot of pasta and pizza, Very expressive people; 'mad' drivers; bad a parking vehicles; they can laugh at themselves.
 * Turkey** - very friendly towards children, like sweets, drink a great deal of tea without milk. When speaking to Turkish people you use your hands.

Students and staff have found that people from other countries have been very friendly and they have enjoyed learning about their cultures. Studentsand staff who have attended project meetings in Romania and Italy have enjoyed learning the country's language and using this when speaking to people at the meetings.

Results of the questionnaire reveal that pupils have been helped to grow in confidence due to being part of the Comenius Team. They also consider that they have learned more about Scotland as they have been asked questions about Scotland by the other Comenius Teams. Also that they are more proud to be Scottish. Students felt more Scottish during project visits to other countries. Also that they learned some facts about all the countries during the Citizenship Debate.

After the visit students and staff had to speak about their experiences to other students, teachers and parents.
 * One student has said that it has helped her speak other languages but she needs more confidence in reading and writing in other languages.
 * Students and staff most memorable experience has been making new friends.
 * Students state that the project has improved their parents opinion of our school.
 * Students and staff have increased their knowledge of ICT particularly in videoing and editing and wikis. Also in the use of digital cameras.
 * Students and staff used ICT technology to find out about the other partnership countries.
 * One student felt older because the project visit made them feel very responsible.
 * Students and staff say that the project has helped in the ethos of the school as they have spoken to others who they would normally meet and speak to in school.
 * Scotland has found that the website and photo gallery are very popular and have been visited many times.
 * Students and staff have really enjoyed being involved in the project and have found it fun as well as hard work.

=Italy Summary=  1. Name two things that you have learned about each partnership country. Bulgaria, Italy, Romania, Scotland, Turkey __ Bulgaria __ : in our partnership school, foreign languages like Russian and English are used to teach various subjects ; orthodox religion. __ Romania __ : their traditional meal is called ‘ churba ‘ ; many beautiful monasteries in the Moldavian area. __ Turkey __ : they don’t eat pork ; they are very friendly and warm ; they drink a lot of tea. __ Scotland __ : very proud of their traditions ; all of them love the national poet Robert Burns.  2. How has the project helped you to understand other cultures? You can learn about other cultures in a variety of ways ( on TV, by reading from different sources etc .. ) but you can never understand other cultures unless you meet people and speak to them.

3. How has involvement with the project helped you to learn another language? As a teacher of English I have had the chance to practice the language, but I’ve also enjoyed learning few words or simple exchanges of other languages like Turkish, Romanian and Bulgarian.

4. In what way has the project helped you to develop your reading and writing skills – mother tongue and other languages?  5. How has the project raised awareness of your own region and country amongst teachers, students, parents, and local community? Being part of a Comenius Team makes everybody feel really aware of one’s European citizenship, but at the same time the feeling of being Italian, and of the region and town where you belong , becomes stronger.

6. How has your knowledge of your own country’s identity increased? As a matter of fact, people involved in the project have learned more about their homeland and hometown as they have had to answer questions from the other Comenius participants , or to turn into guides for them during their visits.

7. In what manner has the project motivated you in your work? Speaking to teachers from countries of such different cultures has a strong impact on our work.. You feel that, in spite of the deep differences , you share more than you could have imagined. The universal values of our role as teachers come to the surface and revive our motivation.

8. How has the project or how will the project help you in your career? The experiences connected with the project have been such an impact on my teaching views and methods, that I believe my professional skills have improved considerably , and this is in itself a step forward in career.

9. What has been your most memorable Comenius Project experience? Speaking to colleagues from the other countries, sharing the same passion of working with the young, visiting other schools, making new friends , reshaping relationships within my own school and community.

10. What has been your worst Comenius Project experience ? I cannot think of any bad experience, apart from the fact that the project involves really hard work.

11. How has the project helped you/ your school in your knowledge of ICT and the Internet? We all have developed a greater confidence with ICT and the Internet. 12. In what way has the project helped you/ your school in other technology use? Students and staff have increased their knowledge in editing, videoing and using digital cameras.

13. How has the project helped to raise the ethos of your school? A lot of people in the school, students and staff , have showed interest in the project , asked questions about it. This certainly means a greater awareness of new frontiers in education.

14. How has the project improved your school’s reputation in your local area? <span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Times New Roman; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; msobidifontsize: 12.0pt;">All families involved in the project state that they were highly satisfied with the experience and appreciate the school’s efforts for offering their children this chance.

15. How has the project helped to develop your self-confidence/self esteem? <span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Times New Roman; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; msobidifontsize: 12.0pt;">As a teacher I found out that students have developed a greater self-confidence / self-esteem as they have been able to establish new and successful relationships, also by having to use a foreign language.

16. How has the project helped to improve international cooperation? Real contacts between real people, young and adults , from different cultures help to knock down the stereotypes and prejudices , which are the first barriers to international   cooperation. =Romania summary=

1. Name two things that you have learned about each partnership country. Bulgaria, Italy, Romania, Scotland, Turkey 1. The Romanian Comenius team of teachers and students have learned a lot about each partnership country: -Bulgaria: the food is similar to ours and they are very good dancers; - Turkey: very friendly people; they have exams every year; - Scotland: talk freely upon different topics; they like to sing. They are also very proud of their country and love talking about it; - Italy: they like having fun, really enjoying life. 2. How has the project helped you to understand other cultures? 2. Being involved in everything concerning this project gave us the opportunity to discover new aspects related to the culture of the other partnership countries, especially aspects regarding their traditions, food, religion, songs and dances etc. 3. How has involvement with the project helped you to learn another language? 3. Listening to the foreign teachers and pupils speaking their own languages allowed us, the Romanian pupils and teachers, to learn a few words in Turkish, Italian and Bulgarian.The involvement in the project contributed to enriching vocabulary and improving fluency in English. We could say that the biggest improvement is the ability to respond spontaneously to complex ideas, often using new vocabulary acquired as a result of the project. 4. In what way has the project helped you to develop your reading and writing skills – mother tongue and other languages? 4 It helped the entire Romanian team to develop our reading and writing skills as we communicated via email and messenger with the teachers and pupils of the partnership schools. The project also fostered the ability to communicate in writing complex ideas and concepts. 5. How has the project raised awareness of your own region and country amongst teachers, students, parents, and local community? 5. Especially the Romanian pupils have become more aware of the beautiful places and the hospitable people our country has. We are proud to be Romanians trying to prove to everybody that this country worths to be discovered and explored. An interesting aspect of this issue is that the project has shown that every nation is different but the people are the same. This first year of the Comenius project made the Romanian side more aware of the need to have a true image of our values and country. 6. How has your knowledge of your own country’s identity increased? 6. As we’ve just mentioned, the project helped the Romanian pupils to discover more beautiful things, some of them unknown till then, about Romania, including aspects related to new customs and places to be visited. For the Romanian students and teachers such a project enabled us to give to the other partnership schools/countries a true picture of Romania and the Romanian people and at the same time to develop self-esteem and confidence. 7. In what manner has the project motivated you in your work? 7. Some Romanian pupils became more sociable with the others thanks to the project. Other pupils became even more motivated to learn English and other foreign languages. This first year of Bridges4Europe Comenius project motivated all the Romanian team to learn more about other cultures and even our own culture.Teachers in particular are more interested in initiating and developing such projects and also in implementing many aspects of it in our high school curriculum. 8. How has the project or how will the project help you in your career? 8. One pupil from our team thinks that the project will help him in his career as he improved his social skills by making new friends belonging to different cultures and he also became responsible and more aware of different details. This Comenius project helped everybody in the way of developing more the abilities of team work, abilities which play a very important role in our career. It was obvious that the project encouraged co-opertaion, team spirit, individual responsibility and truthfulness, creativity and problem-solving capability aspects that are essential in a successfull career.It increased self-discipline as well as spontaneity of response to different complex concepts, attitudes which are necessary in our career. 9. What has been your most memorable Comenius Project experience? 9 For the entire Romanian team, the most memorable Comenius project experience was the reunion in Romania. Being the first international project within our high school, working, being involved in it was a real professional challenge. That’s why we put all our effort, worked with enthusiasm in order to prepare the project meeting here, in our country/high school in March 2008. It has been a fantastic experience for us, interesting, motivating and useful both for the teachers and pupils.It also offered us the chance to make many new friends. The Comenius project reunions in Scotland and Italy also impressed the teachers and students involved in them, giving the opportunity to know the culture of these two countries, to find out more aspects related to their life style and educational systems. 10. What has been your worst Comenius Project experience? 10. We can’t say that we had a worst experience. We faced some difficult aspects but using the team work intensively we succeeded in overcoming them. 11. How has the project helped you/ your school in your knowledge of ICT and the Internet? 11. For this project we had to use a lot the Internet and the computer in general so it definitely helped us to improve our knowledge in this area. Working with information by using the Internet helped to improve communication insofar as students learned how to select and re-direct information that was not relevant for their own purposes. 12. In what way has the project helped you/ your school in other technology use? 12. We learned more about managing digital photos and video cameras, projectors, DVD players. 13. How has the project helped to raise the ethos of your school? 13. The ethos of our school has grown because we were able to meet people who taught us new interesting things also being motivated to involve in a project like this one. 14. How has the project improved your school’s reputation in your local area? 14. Our school’s reputation increased as we live in a small town and everybody found out about this project being really happy to know that we had invited foreigners to visit us, wanting to learn everything about the Bridges4Europe Comenius project. 15. How has the project helped to develop your self-confidence/self esteem? 15. Catalin Bunduc, one of the students who are part of our Comenius team, thinks that the project helped him increase his self-confidence as his Comenius colleagues told him that he is really friendly, an outgoing person and a nice company. Also, the fact that he had to be responsible made him believe more in himself. Besides the project’s effect of developing more our self-esteem, it made us realize a lot about the similarities that exist across Europe in the experiences and outlook of young people. Due to the project environment the participants were very motivated to contribute and lost the fear of making mistakes.Certainly these constitute another important aspect that increased the Romanian Comenius team’s self-confidence. 16. How has the project helped to improve international cooperation? 16. The Romanian pupils and teachers have perceived this project as a starting point for more international cooperation between people belonging to different cultures, the first step towards knowing each other better, towards respecting everyone’s beliefs. We hope that in time, with the help of this kind of projects, we will become ONE BIG AND HAPPY EUROPEAN FAMILY.

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