September 2016 No. 12
Teachers’ Meeting in Papa
Inside this issue: Teachers’ meeting in Papa
1
ESCAPE online course
2
Visit to the Mayors’
3
Türr Grammar School
4
Job shadowing
5
The Study Trip
6
Top Quality Education
7
Celebration of the Danube
8
All partners’ contribution All days impressions All activities described
Pápa VC Jókai Mór Secondary School of Economics hosting the sixth training event of the Escape project is one of the six secondary schools located in Pápa. At the age of fourteen children could continue their studies either at one of the three secondary grammar schools, two secondary vocational schools or at our secondary technical school in the town. At present about 500 students attend the school from the age of 14 to 20. The vast majority of the students are local residents, the others commute to school and few of them live in the student hostel. In the school there are 17 day classes majoring in economics, finance and logistics. During their studies students are prepared for the national school leaving exams at the end of the fourth year. Students are required to take exams in five different subjects (Hungarian Literature and Grammar, History, Maths, English/German, Economics) either at intermediate or advanced level. In case of advanced exams you get extra points to get into tertiary education. About one-third of the students continue their studies in the school for one or two more years in any of the postsecondary courses
in finance or logistics. At the end of the courses they obtain either a financial assistant, logicstics assistant or administrative secretary qualification. For a few years the school has been offering evening courses as well. Hungarian team
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ESCAPE Online Course with online modules During the course of a teachers´ training event ESCAPE project teachers worked on creating short online learning modules which would suit their students´ needs. Present education moves online and a lot of learning happens there. Of course, we don´t know at the moment how much of future learning will be carried out online, but Internet resources offer possibilities which were not available before. Students can start their learning at home using online material created by their teachers or free educational material offered by different online academies or universities (such as Khan Academy), then learning continues at „Present education school with practicing moves online and a and discussing the malot of learning terial watched or read at home; as assessment happens there” online quizzes can be prepared by teachers. All ESCAPE project teachers taking part in the Pápa training event created online modules as their first try of this kind of teaching, we´ll see if the structure can work, gain students interest and will motivate them in their study. ESCAPE Online Course consists of seven online modules, each containing a different topic based on the Escape Project programme (English, Geography, Ecology, ICT, Business Studies, Economics and Busi-
ness Behaviour). What does the structure look like? Online modules are planned as selfstudy units containing 1 – 2 chapters with online videos and reading materials with self-checks in the form of online quizzes. Learning can happen at home (flipped classroom) or at school. Learners are assessed at school by their teachers (oral or written feedback, discussions etc.) What objectives are planned? Each module contains learning outcomes (a set of skills or knowledge that a student is expected to gain). What kind of selfcheck and assessment are provided? Learners check their understanding after each chapter by an online quiz, there is a final quiz at the end of each module. Teachers assess their students at school orally (discussion, summary, presentations) or in writing (essays). Where is the ESCAPE Online course available? twinspace.etwinning.net/1769 (no login needed, instructions are included, just click on ESCAPE Online Course and enter). ENJOY THE COURSE! Alena Jandlová, Czech Republic
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Visit to the Mayor´s residence On Wednesday, 7 September 2016 we had the chance to meet mayor Támas Áldozó in his residence. We could see the room where the council usually sits to talk about important aspects of the town. Although the council consists of 10 deputees from Fidesz, 3 from the Socialist Party and 1 from Jobbik, most decisions are taken unanimously. Long-drawn discussions can sometimes be about who to name a street after. The town is in the fortunate position to have a lack of workforce, which is due to the high technical standard of production sites. Johnson Controls, the company we visited during the last training event with the students, has been taken over by a Chinese company that is expanding production in Pápa, which will mean the creation of additional jobs in the near future. However, there are also problems a big meat-processing plant is in financial difficulties and is in the process of reconstruction, so people have lost their jobs and that also means that the town lacks the revenue from the taxes of this company.o the former Among the many famous politicians
that were born in Pápa is also Ferenc Gyurcsány, Prime Minister of Hungary (2004-2009). That Pápa is a town truly open to contacts from outside Hungary is proven by the many partner towns this city has: Kampen, Netherlands, Gorlice, Poland, Schwetzingen, Germany, Casalecchio di Reno, Italy, Lučenec, Slovakia, Covasna, Romania, Leinefelde, Germany. While we visited the mayor, he told us that at the moment a delegation from Eilat in Israel was visiting to negotiating ways of cooperation. Also school contacts have a long tradition in Pápa, as the deputy mayor told us, who is a former headmaster of Pápa Jókai Gazdasági Szakgimnázium, confirmed, telling us about the first work placements oh Hungarian students in Germany some ten years ago. At the end of the visit we were offered refreshments from the local region. Austrian team
“That Pápa is a town truly open to contacts from outside Hungary is proven by the many partner towns this city has”
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Türr Grammar School In Papa, Hungary
„It was a useful day, spent in a nice friendly atmosphere“
A very interesting English lesson on the topic of The Olympic sports was presented to us by our colleague Molnar Andras. The 9th graders enjoyed the various activities and learnt some new words. We, the teachers from different European countries, were also engaged in the exercises and contributed to the students’ work. After the lesson we had a discussion with the headmaster,
who told us about the school and the special programme for talented children and the school system as a whole. He also gave us lots of details and answered our questions, so we did a great job-shadowing work. It was a useful day, spent in a nice friendly atmosphere so we all felt happy and content.
Bulgarian team
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Job shadowing at Petőfi Sándor Secondary Grammar School On Tuesday the teachers have visited the Petőfi Sándor Secondary Grammar School with the objective to participate in one of the classes taught in English language. First we were greeted by the headmaster, Mr. Huszár Endre, who gave us some information about the history and programs of the school. One of the things that make this school different from other Hungarian grammar schools is its bilingual program. Four subjects are taught in English throughout the year (Civilization, IT, Geography and Maths), whereas other subjects are held in Hungarian. The secondary education in the school offers four, five or six-year programs. The bilingual program lasts five years and during this time students intensively study English language as well as some other academic subjects in English. Students attending the bilingual secondary program also achieve great results in language examinations; in fact their ratio of successful language examination takers is among the best in the country. On our visit we observed a Maths lesson in English; the topic of the
lesson was The sine and cosine function. The lesson was extremely interesting, especially because we do not often have the chance to attend such lessons. The teacher spoke slowly and clearly, so that it was not difficult for the students to follow and participate in the lesson. Another way of keeping her students engaged was by asking them questions about the topic in question throughout the lesson. By doing this, she made sure the students were following the topic and that they understood her explanation. Overall, it is always beneficial for teachers to participate in job shadowing activities, which was also the case with this visit. At the same time, such participation undoubtedly inspires teachers to improve their lessons as well. Jasna Damjan Slovenian team
„it is always b eneficial fo r teachers to participate in job s h a d o w i n g activities“
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The Study Trip
„As part of the programme in order to get to know the hosting country better the organizer planned a day-trip to visit the sights nearby.“
Between the 4th – 10 th of September according to our project programme the teachers took part in a week´s visit to attend job-shadowing and working on the future plans. As part of the programme in order to get to know the h o s t i n g country better the organizer planned a day -trip to visit the sights nearby. We left for the first location, Tapolca, at 8 o´clock. A tortuous cave system is hiding under the streets and houses of Tapolca, a little town not far from Balaton. In the strictly protected cave, which was discovered more than 100 years ago, the visitors can make a unique boat trip on the lit, bluish water of the underground lake. The temperature is about 18 °C in the cave all year round. Thanks to the new lighting system, the Lake Cave awaits visitors from March 2012 with more beautiful lights and view than ever. Before the boat trip in the museum we could observe the materials and 3D films about the development of underground caves in Hungary. The second destination of our trip was Tihany, the Benedictine monastery. The Benedictine monastery at Tihany was established in 1055by King Andrew I. It was dedicated to the Holy Virgin and to Saint Bishop Aignan of Orleans.
King Andrew was buried in the church of the monastery in 1060. His tomb in the crypt of the church is the only grave of a medieval King of Hungary which has been preserved until now. We attended a special adventurous quided tour which included a visit to the secristy and the tasting of the products the monks prepare from the herbs in their garden. And at last we reached the final stop of our day, and it was the Herend Porcelain Manufactory which operates today as the world´s largerst porcelain manufactory and as a profitable enterprise. Herend performs the balance of tradition and innovation passing on its 19th cent ur y traditions in the 21st century. We h a d t h e opportunity to observe some of the workers in the process of making the porcelain. The sight itself is huge including the manufacture, a museum, gift shop, cafe and restaurant. Adriana Góra Slovak team
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Top Quality Education (for the right price) Maybe the most interesting and insightful job shadowing experience of this week happened today at QSI (that stands for Quality School International) in Pápa, a ˝special˝ school (of a number of 37 schools in 28 different countries) that provides education for the children of the employees of the military air base located near the town. After a somewhat strange start (the welcoming meeting took place in the school yard, where we were asked to write our names, countries of origin and respective schools on a piece of paper apparently for security reasons, and where the school´s principal, Mr. J.C. Sanders and a female teacher from Norway introduced us to the school´s history and gave us general details of the school´s life - number of students, their nationalities - mainly American and Scandinavian, some Dutch, Bulgarian, even Romanian students, subjects that are taught there and so on. The teachers then sat in 4 different classes (primary, middle and secondary school) and observed subjects like Mathematics, Language Art and Cultural Studies (a History lesson, actually, about Ancient China and the fall of the Qin Dinasty, taught to 7 (!) kids by a grandfather-like figure of a teacher with 35 years experience, recently landed - for the first time - in Hungary; a perfectly enjoyable experience, where we didn´t only learn new details about the rule of the ruthless emperor who build the wellknown tomb with teracotta soldiers and a mercury river, but we could also identify differences between different school systems, their curricula and grading techniques). One hour later, we met again with the principal and his colleague from Norway, and, in a much more relaxed way and environment - the school´s cafeteria - we
were able to further expand our knowledge about this particular type of school, not an affordable one for ˝normal˝ kids (considering the 20000 US Dollars annual fee the parents have to pay for their kids´ education), but a school that focuses on performance based instruction and mastery learning, even providing Advanced Placement courses, in order to provide its students with top quality education that can lead them to be granted admission in top universities around the world. Academic education aside, a persistent thought after leaving this school was about the multinational aspect, yet the general peaceful and quiet atmosphere within it, promoted on the wall of each classroom in small posters that stated ideas like: ˝RESPECT means: treating each other the way you want to be treated, showing KINDNESS and CONSIDERATION, like yourself enough to BE YOURSELF and ACCEPTING others for who they are˝. Things that are good to remember at any age and in every professional or personal context… Daniela Popovici
Romanian team
„ a persistent thought after leaving this school was about the multinational aspect, yet the general peaceful and quiet atmosphere within it“
June 29th - Celebration of the Danube Organizer: A team of students and teachers from Vocational school "Prof.. Dr. Zlatarov "- Vidin This holiday perfectly fits as an activity under the project "ESCAPE" Erasmus + on the European Commission in which our partners are schools from Austria, Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia and Romania. The Danube region is priority in our training in order to explore the region. Our celebration was under the motto: "Danube colors." Our guests were children from Kindergarten "Rusalka". We, as hosts, presented an exhibition of photos, participated in the competition category "Photography" for the festival "Rainbow over the Danube" - our recent initiative. Then children and students painted with marble paint. The colorful paintings resembled the water colors of the Danube. Kids love the colors of the river - blue and light grey, with the golden reflection of the sun. But many want the river to reflect the green grass and branches, the red poppies and violet
With the support of the Erasmus+ programme of the European Union
butterflies. Of course, we satisfied their wishes and launched the colors along the river. Many wanted to invite a few drops of water and to draw a rainbow along with the scorching sunshine! We drew our holiday! Simona from 9A class presented her own poem "Danube", we read and commented "Tale of water," asked riddles, sang songs about the river to the accompaniment of accordion, played the ball game "in the river." All participants received bags with the logo of the initiative Danube Day 2016 and packages with materials provided by the Ministry of Environment and Water, the Executive Environment Agency and Water Basin Directorate "Danube Region". Wide and calm, sparkling or angry, Danube always fascinates and captivates those who love him. Because the river is a calm and wise river! Eli Cvetanova, Bulgarian team
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.