Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Connecting Classrooms Project Diary. March - April, 2011


April 29,2011

On 29th 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 29th 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

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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

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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

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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

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.






Sunday, February 20, 2011

Connecting Classrooms Project Diary. January - February, 2011

February 20-25, 2011

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Pal-mailing is also exiting as you can hold a letter from a peer and see the handwriting, feel how  much a person cares of you sending a letter with a short story about everyday life. Internet brings people close but we do not have such a fresh feeling of a share as  when writing or receiving a letter.







February 10-11, 2011

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The teachers project participants were invited to the Forum and the Opening ceremony of the Center of Teaching and Learning Technologies (CTLT) at the Rivne State University of Humanities where they were offered a training    "Finding Digital Voices: The Use of Blogging and Digital Media in the Classroom" conducted by Andrew Cartwright, PCV. For details visit http://rshu.edu.ua//?p=85&sid=190#forum




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February 10, 2011

Working together was fun! So many nice cards could be created and send to the partner schools with love! Our teachers supported us with enthusiasm and care.









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February 4, 2011


This is a special day for the school- the Day of Reunification of the school graduates. We arranged Charity Fair to raise money for the presents for our school partners in Wales, Malta and Cyprus.
We thank all those who spared time for baking all these delicious cookies!






January 23, 2011

The presentation of the project development was made by Olena Franchuk, school project coordinator and pupils –administrators of the project. More than a hundred participants enjoyed the partners’ information from the Twinspace and applauded friends’ art in creating the New Year greeting cards. We hope that e-twinning will become more active after this meeting.










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We` moved much closer in becoming friends!!!

We are happy to get cards from Cyprus, Malta and Wales! We appreciate them so much and thank our friends! It’s so great and touching to see on the e-TwinSpace the pictures of how the students from the partner schools prepared these beautiful New Year greeting cards.


Saturday, December 25, 2010

Connecting Classrooms Project Diary. December, 2010

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More than a hundred pupils took part in the preparation of the Greeting Cards and presentations about winter holidays in Ukraine the best of which were sent to 15 partner schools. 
The registration of 15 teachers and 80 pupils on the E-Twinning platform has been finalized. 


Handmade cards, decorations were prepared with the support of  English, Art and Handicraft teachers for the partner schools to present the Ukrainian traditions of celebrating Xmas, New Year, winter season holidays.
Power point presentation, booklets, CD were prepared with the stories about the holidays and sent to the partner schools.

The greeting cards and souvenirs received from Malta, UK, Cyprus were exhibited for the school community and placed in the School Museum.










School Fest of St Andrew Holiday.
December 13

This holiday is devoted to St Andrew – the disciple of Jesus Christ, who is considered to be the patron of marriage. Obviously, he is a significant figure not only for Scotland, Greece and Russia, but also for Ukraine. He was the person who put his cross on the deserted hills and predicted the great city –Kyiv – the capital of Ukraine. Ukrainian culture is rich, history is glorious, people are generous , language is melodious.


In parts of Ukraine superstitious belief exists that the night before St. Andrew`s Day is especially suitable for magic that reveals a young woman`s future husband or that binds a future husband to her. Many related customs exist: for example, the pouring of hot lead into water (in Western Ukraine, one usually pours hot wax from a candle through a key hole into cold water), divining the future husband`s profession from the shape of the resulting piece. In some areas, girls go out and ask the name of the first man they meet – it’ll be the name of the future husband. The other custom is to throw ashoe over one`s shoulder: if it lands pointing to the door, the woman will get married in the same year.So, girls gather together on this day. They sing, dance, talk, knit, sew…and pray to St Andrew for the fortune. Young men can be welcomed for the first part of the festivity and merry games and entertainments have place. Varenyky is a special dish for the day.

Needless to say, traditions and customs should be kept as well as passed on from generation to generation. There is no future without past.

Traditions and Holidays, "Recipe Book"

At least 140 students in the school and their families, relatives and 15 teachers prepared the material for the e-twinning space both for files and blogs.

The photo/video was added to illustrate  the community preferences in food. A contest for the best video about cooking was conducted in March-April. The best 3 recipes were sent to Kiev school # 155 for thee-version book published as a Calender «Ukrainian Recipe Book” with photos.

Students got aquainted with the food preferences in Cyprus, Malta and Wales and created their blogs on the research. 

Friday, December 24, 2010

Connecting Classrooms Project Diary. Kiev British Council

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December 9-10, 2010 Kiev British Council
The meeting in Kiev of the partner schools representatives to discuss project development was a nice time for the participants. The up-dated school website and a screenshot about our school have been presented to the audience.

Thursday, December 23, 2010

Dylan Thomas Club. Students` translations

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Students organize different events on Dylan Thomas Day in our school. The contest of the young translators of his verses is one of them.

Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Dylan Thomas Club

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Young people learn collaboratively with peers from other cultures and communities. The focus on inclusion helps develop the cultural understanding and skills they need to live and work as global citizens. Literature is one of such powerful resources. Dylan Thomas Club was founded more then 10 years ago in our school and works with the support and helping hand of Robert Morgan, Swansea, Wales ( Project “Wales, Look East!” ) I

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Connecting Classrooms Diary. November-December, 2010

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Young people learn collaboratively with peers from other cultures and communities. The focus on inclusion helps develop the cultural understanding and skills they need to live and work as global citizens. Teachers and school leaders are supported to develop international school partnerships and integrate them into school curricula and broader strategic plans. At least 180 students in 5 groups , 17 English teachers were registered  on the E-Twinning Space, about 20 parents supported their children while preparing profiles, material for the school  web page, for the CD. 


Creative writing

“My school”. “My hobby”.
The target issue was to develop understanding of the diversity in cultures and school life through Students’ Voice in letters, e-mails, student profiles, school web page, to introduce our school to partner cluster schools. School community was involed in creating the website, Project Diary in pictures with captions, a video about Rivne school # 15 was filmed.
CD (#1) with all students profiles and Project materials was compiled and sent to 15 partner schools in Malta, Wales, Cyprus. Read more...