Connecting Classrooms Project Diary. March - April, 2011

April 29,2011

On 29^th April in Kyiv Specialized School #155 was held the leaders’ meeting of the project “Connecting Classrooms”. 2 pupils’ leaders and a teacher from each school-partner participated in this video-conference. All the participants were satisfied of the great work which they have done.

April 20-30, 2011

12 pupils of our school from CC project got the  Certificates of Participation for their presentations at the Annual International Students’ Internet-conference NATIONAL CULTURES: "Unique place in worldwide integration", held by  Khmelnytsk  National University  within Japan-Ukraine: Students Collaboration.

The blog on the Conference site is created to make the collaborative chatting to be reflected. The blogging created by the CC Participants illustrated their keen interest in culture, lifestyle, art  of the CC partners’ countries.

April 29,2011

On 29^th April in Kyiv Specialized School #155 was held the leaders’ meeting of the project “Connecting Classrooms”. 2 pupils’ leaders and a teacher from each school-partner participated in this video-conference. All the participants were satisfied of the great work which they have done.

April 16-17, 2011

view slideshow

Being inspired both by  the Learders’ training in Lviv and the training  for young volunteers in Bila Kkynuzia, we were ready to conduct similar trainings in our younger schoolmates. It was exciting to realize that we were going to do it all by ourselves. We realized  the importance of good preparation. So we did our best to prepare a successful training. We had several rehearsals and divided our duties. All members of the team knew perfectly well what they were supposed to do. We also bought all necessary props to make our training more exciting. There were balloons, markers,  paper and all nessesary equipment. We advertised our training in every form we could: prepared the leaflets, announeced it on the school weekly gathering of the school Parliament, e-mailed the CC Project participants through the e-serve list. Starting with the fourth formers and ending with undergraduate we gatheres both the participants for the training and supporters. We tried to do it in an exiting way, to make people got interested in it. Our work was rewarded! We had 2 trainings, one of them was held on Saturday, and it was designed for 14-16 year olds. The other was for 10-13 year olds, and it took place on Sunday. It seems to me that during these trainings we managed to pass the right massage to our participants. We tried to follow the example of our trainer Arthur. We had to develop our own scenario,  to adopt it to the needs of the pupils of our school. However, it was based on what we had learned in before. The participants were really enthusiastic and worked actively in developing our school project“ Healthy Food-Healthy Style f Life”  . We were pleased to see that almost total strangers at first turned into a real team by the end of our training. We felt proud that we managed to show ourselves as real Leaders. As a result we have a well developed Action plan for the school project and are ready to meet the parents at the School Parents’ Meeting and the school authorities to look for some help in the project being realised next year.

April 9, 2011

view slideshow

A training  for young volunteers in Bila Kkynuzia, conducted by the  U.S. PC Volunteers has become the second stage in our growth as leaders. 25 participants on CC project went  out of town on April 9, 2011. The venue was no perfection- just a village school’s classrooms but the training itself was great!! Again it was a wonderful day full of new activities. The agenda included several steps. All of them were logically connected and added much to our development as leaders. First we were divided into several groups. It was done with great creativity as each group got a name of a certain continent. Then we followed our personal timetable and had to attend several workshops. We all worked in a group with total strangers, and our task was to organize a teamwork. It was challenging, but we succeeded and managed to show good results. Actually, we were the winners. We were shown the main steps to follow in a Project development while realizing any project. It was fun to learn different types of important for the community projects. Thanks to that workshop we realised even more the importance of a teamwork. We also had an insight into American culture during the “US music session”. It was really informative and important for broadening our outlook. In my opinion trainings like that are very helpful .  Young leaders can be grown to the benefit of the whole country and of the community.

March 25-26,2011

view slideshow

To be successful is very important in our modern society.Only a successful person can reach everything.That is why the training "Together to the goal"provided by British Council on March 25-26,2011 was aimed to teach students to be successful,to do everything for themselves,for their school,country,world;to teach them to realize their purpose on the Earth and to know everything is possible for them if THEY WANT.It`s very useful to organize it especially for children because they are our future and they will build a new more successful society and they have to do our world a better place for living,to paint it in different colours because they are the painters of their life themselves.

Different activities were included and the students were motivated.The most important forms of activities were individual and group forms which were realized by new interactive methods:workshops,projects,the method"to praise not to punish”, etc.So,I hope the studentsleaders in the future will be able to do our society more democratic,more developed and more civilized.

          A successful team is another problem which was discussed at the training.Students tried to solve the most urgent problems which are connected with their school.They did it in the groups.In my opinion,the same activities can be used at the lessons in our school. Tetyana Chuprynyuk, English teacher

Solomia Stepanchenko

10 grade

Rivne School # 15

“The leadership training in Lviv was something unforgettable! It gave us an opportunity to work in a team with Lviv students and to feel ourselves an eternal part of the whole community of Connecting Classroom project. The leadership training lasted for 2 days and it was very fruitful! Pan Arthur, our trainer, was superb! He managed to show us the importance of cooperation and teamworking. At the same time, we understood the importance of each of us  as  leaders. He helped us develop the qualities of real leaders through a wide range of activities. This gave us an experience which is impossible to find in books. He also helped to raise our confidence and selfestimation. Now I trust the importance of being tolerant. Besides, I know the ways of affective planning of my time. In addition our group got a task to develop a project on our own which will be important for our school community. “ Healthy Food-Healthy Style f Life” was chosen to implement our knowledge got at the training. We started discussing the project immediately on returning home to Rivne. We have been acting as one team since then.

March 02-05, 2011

view slideshow

It is true that participation in a meeting of educators is a challenging and exciting endeavor but the experience gained by the participants become quite advantageous and beneficial afterwards. The days spent in Cyprus at the International Co-ordinators’ course were the days of sharing fantastic ideas ofhardworking colleagues, the days of meeting  like minded teachers forcollaboration on  mutual projects, the days of concern about theproblems of education and finding the ways out, the days ofwelcoming atmosphere created by organizers of the international meeting.

I’m still under the impressions, as this course allowed me to make a lot of friends from other countries and know our partner schools better. I’ve had a chance to broaden my outlook by listening to great presentations made by British Council representative from Malta, other participants. It was a useful experience for me.