School 21 newsletter no 10

School 21

No. 10 June 2019

Digitally & Socially Yours eTwinning & Erasmus+ project 2017-1-CZ01-KA219-035484

Project evaluation — students’ impressions It was a great experience because I met a lot of new people. We had a good time and spend many wonderful days together. I enjoyed our meeting in Tábor and I’ll never forget it. (Bence) I’m very happy that I could meet my old friend make new friendships. (Máté) It was an unforgettable experience. I really enjoyed the whole week in Lugoj. (Luca) It was a very good and memorable programme. I was happy to take part in it.(Barbi) I could practise my English and I could go to nice places. (Bence) I spent a week in Lugoj, Romania. I got to know a lot of nice people and I made some new friends. The best thing is that I could practise my English. (Patrik) I liked the trip to Pulawy because I met kind people. (Zsóka) It was great to meet people in other countries with same interests. I could practise my English and made new friends.

(Hajnalka) I spent two weeks with foreign students in the project. It was so good that we could practise other languages and improve our English. I hope to meet some people again. (Áron) I could go abroad and get to know Europe better and see other people live their lives. (Ági) It’s a pleasure to take part and spend memorable and interesting time together. (Réka)

It was nice to meet new people from other nationalities. I really enjoyed the time with my host family in Schwetzingen. (Petra) I enjoyed all the games and I learned a lot of new words. (Anita) It was an amazing experience for me. I could meet many new people and talk about several important topics such as homelessness and immigration. I am really grateful that I could take part in the project and travel to Schwetzingen. (Nóri) I’ve gained many memories. I had a lot of fun meeting all these great people. I learnt many new words and learned a lot about cultures. I really enjoyed socialising and sightseeing.

(Dóri) I have become more confident and my English has improved a lot. I made friends with nice people.

(Lili) I enjoyed the whole Erasmus+ project. I learnt a lot of words in different languages. We met very kind disabled people who taught us a great dance. (Zsófi) I don’t think I will ever forget this great experience and I hope to meet these nice people again.

(Judit) Hungarian team

School 21 Digitally & Socially Yours

Not only for the students, but also for the teachers who took part the Erasmus+ project was unforgettable and educational.

Here is what students and teachers learned from it: For Julia Schmich, who took part in the third training event in Lugoj, the “All different – all equal“ competition and the visit school for blind children were most impressive. “It really showed that we are all the same and that it is necessary to help disabled people so that

training event in Tábor, liked the idea that „we could really help people in need with just a charity run, and that it does not take much to make children happy – at least for a moment.“ Selma Krapp, who took part in the same training event, shares Rieke’s opinion and was also impressed by the fact that it often does not take much to help others and that different countries help in different ways.

An Ngo took part in the training events in Romania, Poland and Germany, and she was

they can live a life they want to live. I personally think I will be a volunteer in an organization and I hope that I can help people and that others, especially those who joined the Erasmus+ project, will do the same“, she says.

This is also what Sophia Wirth, who took part in the same training event, thinks and she adds: “I am very grateful for the experience to learn about social projects in other countries. I learned what a pleasure it can be to help people in need and to work together with people from different cultural backgrounds.“ Rieke Orians, who took part in the fifth

impressed by the disabled people she met and by the fact that “not only disabled people do not have the same opportunities like I have. It is very unfair that people do not have the same chances because of circumstances like the country they were born in.“ Her sister Linh Ngo agrees with An and says “I learned that not everyone has the same chances in life, but even if you are disabled, you should never give up and you can achieve a lot.“ Vanessa Palumbo, who took part in the training event in Lugoj, says: “I will never forget the visit to the school for blind children and to learn how they deal with their disability.

Page 2

Issue 10, June 2019

The young student who invented an exoskeleton because his own father was paralysed also impressed me a lot. The Erasmus+ project made me aware of the importance of the cooperation of all nations in the European Union (like we did in the transnational teams). It needs a united Europe to face the future challenges and to fight against populism. I learned a lot ( and a lot of positive things) about other European countries of which I didn’t know anything before. The cordiality of the people in Romania was very impressive. The project strengthens my wish to spend some time abroad after my A-levels.“ Emily Wittmer took part in the fourth training event in Poland and in the first one in Germany and she says: “All the students got along really well despite the different cultures and languages, because we had one thing in common: we were all interested in social projects to help people in need. It was a great experience to sing and dance with disabled people. I realized that social projects are not that different in other countries and that we all want to achieve the same thing: to make our world a bit better.“ Liana Bauer, who took part in the fifth training event in Tábor, says: „It was great to work in transnational teams because we could learn a lot from each other and we got along with each other so well. I learned that we could work much better in these teams than alone. I am grateful that I was allowed to take part in this project.“ Jennifer Matern, wo took part in the same training event, shares Liana’s opinion.

And this is what Carmen Böttcher, one oft he teachers, thinks: “I was very fortunate, because I was able to take part in not only one but two of the meetings of this Erasmus+ project.

Thinking about the week in Pulawy, the first thing which comes into my mind is the amazing experience of dancing in an international group of handicapped as well as non-handicapped people having fun without even speaking the same language. From Pápa, I took home the resolution to start walking dogs

Page 3

in animal shelters as soon as my time allows that. It was a great feeling to give this little dog I walked the opportunity to get the exercise he was so eager to have.

During both weeks, I learned to know many very nice people and enjoyed the international exchange. I found it very interesting to learn about the many commonalities and small differences in everyday life as well as in school. Knowing those distinctions, I could gather new ideas for my teaching as well as learn to appreciate some amenities I didn't recognize as such before.

Considering the upcoming European elections and the rise of several nationalistic parties in various countries, I am very happy that I saw so many young Europeans working together and getting involved with such a lot of social activity. That gives me hope for the future of the European Union despite the separatist tendencies reported every day in the news.“ In the end all of us, the students as well as the teachers, were glad that we were able to take part in this project. We learned about other cultures and even made friends in the countries that took part in the project as well.

German team

School 21 Digitally & Socially Yours I took part in the meeting in Puławy and in Pápa. In Puławy we were focused on people with Down syndrome. Each country had their own presentation about this topic. We also had to do two other presentations. The first one was about our sightseeing in Puławy. Then each group got a different topic: smoking, drugs, alcohol and cell phones. My team in Puławy was great. I had girls from Germany, Romania, Hungary and Poland there. In Pápa we were focused on dog shelters. Again, each country had their presentation. We also made a presentation about sightseeing Pápa. Each group got a task and was writing about what we had been doing during the week. My team was great like in Puławy.

In my opinion working on TwinSpace was very good. The task that we were doing were interesting. It was something new that we hadn´t done before and it helped us to improve our English and communication and the grammar too. Besides writing we were also making pictures in programme with artificial intelligence and it was fun.

The Tábor meeting was great. I don´t mean it badly but I think it was the best meeting from the two meetings that I have been before. People here were having a great time. The presentations about CSR were amazing and every country had done so much work on it. I´m glad that we didn´t have to do more presentations. I think that the drawing and group working was great, and everyone enjoyed that because it was like some kind of creativity. The trip to Prague was also fantastic. We were divided into groups, exploring Prague and doing some tasks and it was fun and it wasn´t just a regular guided tour.

This project is one big benefit. We had this terrific opportunity to visit and explore new countries, meet new people, improve English and communication.

Thanks to this I had a chance to see that not everyone is having a good life like me and that there are so many people that are not only disabled but ill or don´t have money. And I think that volunteering is a wonderful thing.

I think that my English is at a different level now. I didn´t have problems with English but I was shy to speak. I don´t allege that I´m not shy anymore, but it got better when I was around people that don’t speak Czech and I had to speak English.

I would definitely recommend it to everyone.

This is a fantastic opportunity to meet new people and visit new countries and speak English. If I have this chance again, I will take it. (Adéla Horská) In my opinion were training events abroad really amazing and I enjoyed them because we could learn new things about different topics and realized how to speak better in English. On these events I did

Page 4

presentations too so my skills from PCs are better than before. Work in teams which consisted of citizens from different countries were interesting too. I could see how we were working in international groups.

TwinSpace is a very interesting website where I had a chance to show my knowledge from topics which we spoke about. I used a PC of course, the Internet and that is all I think. All of us worked hard and successfully and together to have good results.

Let’s talk about Tábor meeting. I knew that it would be great and amazing new experience. It was very sophisticated and there was much entertainment among us. The most interesting was the trip to Prague which all of the participants enjoyed. And the charity run was good too because more than half of all participants were happy to run and collect money for a good thing.

I think that we learned how to do volunteering better and how start with it. Other thing is digital skills which I didn´t have before but now I do. And, of course, language skills are better so I am not afraid when I must talk among strange people in English.

(Jiří Karman) I took a part on two training events. The first one was on April 2018, when I visited Puławy in Poland. We got to know each other, when we were sightseeing the town together. That was fun and I really enjoyed it. In the international group we also made a presentation about cell phone addiction and I think, that we did a good job. Work in the international group was great and I learned a lot of new.

The second one was on February 2019, when I visited Pápa in Hungary. We also played some games – to get to know each other. Every country has its own presentation about volunteering in their countries. I really appraise, that I practised my English. We had a chance for example try to walk the dogs or work with disabled people.

We had also online activities on TwinSpace.

We created some newsletters about every event, or we

Issue 10, June 2019 entered pictures of us. I think TwinSpace is a great web, because it very helped me to communicate with people in foreign countries and I learned to work with useful tools. Thanks to TwinSpace I can stay in touch with my new foreign friends.

Last training event was in Tábor in Czech Republic. Our Czech team prepared some activities like dancing and playing games. With foreign students we went for example to the cafe or we went to Prague. In the international group we worked on our online diary.

We used the photos of us and put them into a presentation. We worked on some computers on the same presentation at the same time, which was very productive.

The program Erasmus+ gave me a lot of important things. I improved my English; I tried volunteering and I helped other people. Also, I learnt more about computer tools and how to work on them, so I improved my digital skills. I would like to say that I recommend Erasmus+ to everyone, because that was huge and fantastic experience. Without Erasmus+ I would not have this experience and new friends. (Linda Samcová) I took part in three meetings. First, I was in Pulawy in April 2018. It was my first meeting and I was kind of scared, because I didn’t know what to expect.

Our topic was Disabled people. We visited some centres, where people take care of them. We also spent some time with th people. It was really interesting for me. In our national teams we made a presentation about addiction.

My second meeting was this February in Pápa.

I wasn’t scared anymore, because I knew what to expect and I also knew a lot of people from this project.

Our topic was Dog shelters. We spent one whole afternoon in the dog shelter and we had the choice to see how it goes there and we also could took one dog for a walk. The only thing that kind of disappointed me was that we didn’t have much free time.

And our last meeting was in the Czech Republic and I also took part of it. It was this year in April.

With my two classmates we made a presentation about Corporate Social Responsibility. This meeting was the best for me, because we all knew each other and were not scared to talk in English anymore. I think we all really enjoyed it.

During all those meeting we were working in

Page 5 national groups, we were presenting about different topics and we also had to write some answers on TwinSpace.

I enjoyed all those meetings, it was a great opportunity for me. I am not scared to talk in a different language anymore. This was the best way how to use English in practice. I also met a lot of people, that became a friends of mine. (Tereza Pochylá) I spent one week in April 2018 in Pulawy, Poland and second one in February 2019 in Pápa, Hungary. In Pulawy I and my other friends had presentation about Diakonie Rolnička, it was interesting and instructive for everyone, because we learnt something new and realized that we can help in our town too. Main theme in Hungary was animal shelters. Working in international teams was fun, but still hard sometimes, because of lots of tasks and things we had to do, but we did them and we learnt how to communicate in a group.

Online working on TwinSpace was good. We were writing a lot about volunteering, education or about future life and every time we wrote down our opinions. We made online presentations a lot, we were translating words which were connected with the main theme in countries where was a meeting or we were just talking about some themes around volunteering and helping.

Last meeting was in my town Tábor in April 2019. We had good ice-breakers games, we spent a lot of time in international groups and we made presentations about how can companies help or volunteer. We visited People in need in Prague and it was really interesting. I found some new places where I can help to people too. It was a nice week!

I learnt lots of new things which I will use in the future for sure! Communication in a group, talking in a different language whole the time, I became more self-confident when I’m in a room which is full of people and everyone is listening to me. I realized I can help to people in need or to animals in a shelter not just by donating money. We can donate food, help to them with basic daily things and they will be happy for help. My language skills are better too. I would recommend to everyone to be part of Erasmus if they have a chance. It will give you so much.

(Tereza Rathouská)

School 21 Digitally & Socially Yours Project Erasmus+ was one of the best experiences in my life. It was the best chance to meet new, wonderful people. I could also improve speaking skills. I’ve learned many new things about people with disabilities. Thanks to this project I became more open to people and more creative. (Paulina) The Erasmus + project was, in my opinion, a great experience. I had a chance to meet people from other countries, learn about other cultures, practise my English. And well, I did all of the above. Now I have more friends outside Poland. Using English in a more practical way is a great thing as well. I think that taking part in this project was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. (Janek) The Erasmus + project made me gain a lot of confidence in speaking. It also helped me realise how simple it is to make new friends even from completely different cultures and countries. I enjoyed myself so much and had a lot of fun. I wish everyone could have the opportunity to experience such a project. (Julia G.) Erasmus + is a great project and I would like to take part in it again. It is a good opportunity to meet new friends and see a lot of beautiful places. It taught me how to help people in need and shows a lot of problems in different countries like Poland, Romania, Hungary, Germany and Czech Republic. In my opinion friendships we made gonna last for years. I have a great contact with other participants. We are still chatting on social media. (Kacper) During the Erasmus + project I had a chance to meet new people and learn to speak English fluently.

Participating in the project gave me an opportunity to get to know new countries, their culture. I also learned a lot of new things about volunteering. I hope to have a chance to take part in Erasmus+ project again in the future. (Julia Ch.) Thanks to the Erasmus + project I spent wonderful time. These two years were very exciting for me. I met nice people with whom I still have a contact and I enjoyed working with disabled people so

Page 6

much. I can do voluntary work all the time now.

(Olga B.) I think that taking part in this project was one of my best decisions ever. It helped me with breaking my language barrier. I’ve also met a lot of nice and kind people and I think that now I’m more self confident and open to other people. I’ve learned a lot about volunteering and helping people with disabilities. I really enjoyed those two years and I wish I could be a part of such a project again. (Olga P.) I think that theErasmus + project gave me a lot of good. I met a lot of wonderful people with whom I made friends and I have a contact with them to this day. Above all I have developed my English language skills. I visited new places in the world. I could work with people with disabilities. I think that all the skills I have learned during the project will help me in my life. (Karolina) During Erasmus+ project I learned a lot – as a volunteer and I improved my language skills. I found so many great ways to help people and how to help them better. On the other hand I met some new people (we had great time together) and explored new places.

I understood that we have a lot in common and we can help together despite the differences. After this project I felt more open to others’ needs. I want to take part in Erasmus + project again when I go to University.

(Sara) Polish team

Issue 10, June 2019 Although this project has come to an end, I would like to say that it will actually never end for me.

Everything I've learned, what I've experienced and all the people I've met will play an important role in my life forever. That's the reason why I am so grateful for being a part of this big family!

(Jessica Miruna Polk) I'm glad I could be part of this project. I had great experiences and created memories that I hope I will never forget. Besides, I discovered many areas of volunteering, met great people, and I developed my English skills. I hope we will keep in touch and we will have the opportunity to meet again. (Maria Jipa ) A small team, committed to a cause bigger than themselves can achieve absolutely anything. This is what I have learnt being part of this wonderful project.

(Iasmina Petcu) This was the best experience I have ever had in life so far, I met new friends and we will keep in touch for long. It’s a good opportunity to socialize and to discover new places and new traditions! (Radu Tustean) “We are all pieces of the big puzzle. Just be the piece you are so you are doing your part to complete the

picture.” In this project I’ve learnt how to act and think when it comes to situations that may request special needs or a professional perspective. I realize that we are the ones who can change the world and end the prejudices in order to create a world where being different is normal. Having the chance to be part of this project, I broaden my horizons and I figure out I am a special piece that is looking for a change in this world.

(Amanda Repede) The project School 21 was such an amazing experience and opportunity to get to know new people,

Page 7 visit new places and work for the future of our generation. The people that I've met here were like a family for me and I'm so glad I got to meet every and each one of them. Truly an unforgettable experience!

(Georgiana Hriscu) A more than interesting project! I made new friends and I learnt to do better in society. (Ionut Balaci) This project was astounding! Not only did I have the chance to meet wonderful people who impressed me but I also had the possibility to be a volunteer in a foreign country for a few days, an experience from which I have learned so many new things.

I am glad that I had the chance to take part in this amazing project! (Roxana Borlovan) Being part of this project Had such a big effect!

So many memories we could collect…

Everything was just perfect!

(Alessia Costia) This project meant so much to me not only because I had the opportunity to meet incredible people and visit unique and beautiful countries, but also because I was able to learn how to help people in need. Although this is the end of the project, I hope I will keep in touch with most of the participants because they were unbelievably great kids. (Bianca Bredicean) The School 21 project was the best experience of my whole high-school because I met a lot of great people and I traveled to a wonderful country. I also enjoyed the activities and I saw how educational system works in Europe. (Raul Musteata) This project was an amazing opportunity for me to learn more about volunteering. I have been a volunteer for more than 4 years - this is my passion. It is interesting to find out what problems do other countries face and how they solve them. I went to Germany; and fell in love with the country and the people there. This experience made me more openminded and eager to help more people and communities. I am really thankful that I got the change to be a part of it. (Anda Subțire) Romanian team

eTwinning & Erasmus+ project 2017-1-CZ01-KA219-035484

I could go abroad and get to know Europe better and see other people live their lives. (Ági, Hungarian team) I have become more confident and my English has improved a lot. (Lili, Hungarian team)

I am very grateful for the experience to learn about social projects in other countries. I learned what a pleasure it can be to help people in need and to work together with people from different cultural backgrounds (Sophia Wirth, German team) The Erasmus+ project made me aware of the importance of the cooperation of all nations in the European Union (like we did in the transnational teams). It needs a united Europe to face the future challenges and to fight against populism. I learned a lot ( and a lot of positive things) about other European countries of which I didn’t know anything before. (Vanessa Palumbo, German team) I had a chance to see that not everyone is having a good life like me and that there are so many people that are not only disabled but ill or don´t have money. And I think that volunteering is a wonderful thing.

(Adéla Horská, Czech team) The program Erasmus+ gave me a lot of important things. I improved my English; I tried volunteering and I helped other people. Also, I learnt more about computer tools and how to work on them, so I improved my digital skills. (Linda Samcová, Czech team)

We’re on the web: https://twinspace.etwinning.net/44282/home The Erasmus + project made me gain a lot of confidence in speaking. It also helped me realise how simple it is to make new friends even from completely different cultures and countries. I wish everyone could have the opportunity to experience such a project.

(Julia G., Polish team) I think that taking part in this project was one of my best decisions ever. It helped me with breaking my language barrier. I’ve also met a lot of nice and kind people and I think that now I’m more self confident and open to other people. I’ve learned a lot about volunteering and helping people with disabilities. (Olga P., Polish team) Although this project has come to an end, I would like to say that it will actually never end for me. Everything I've learned, what I've experienced and all the people I've met will play an important role in my life forever. That's the reason why I am so grateful for being a part of this big family! (Jessica, Romanian team) In this project I’ve learnt how to act and think when it comes to situations that may request special needs or a professional perspective. I realize that we are the ones who can change the world and end the prejudices in order to create a world where being different is normal. (Amanda, Romanian team)

Partners

With the support of the Erasmus+ programme of the European Union

The European Commission support for the production of this publication does not constitute an endorsement of the contents which reflects the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.