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I'm the Comenius coordinator at St Michael's.
At present we're running a Comenius project called 'Landmarks and Monuments'.
There are seven countries involved in the project:
They are Germany, Greece, Italy, Portugal, Spain,
Sweden and Ireland.
Today in class, we were talking to
pupils from Germany and Greece through Skype. We were talking about
the poster for an 'Ideal European Citizen' for the 'Landmark and Monuments' project.
I'd like to congratulate you on your poster
and I really like the words you use and how you drew it.
My favourite word from the poster is 'mobility' because I hope I get to go
to Germany and see all you guys. I think it's important to talk to students from other countries
because they get to learn things about us in our country,
we learn things about them in their country. If it was just Ireland doing it
it would just be all our ideas and that wouldn't portray the 'Ideal European Citizen'
but if we talked to other students in other countries it kinda its
did we get their opinions and it all becomes one and it looks better.
Because we have seven countries we have arranged seven meetings.
Over the course of the two years, each country will host a meeting.
Last september the President came to the
school and he was here to launch the Comenius project.
'Landmarks and Monuments'. We had visiting teachers here from all the other countries
and the meeting was a great success. It was good because you learned
stuff about their country and they learned stuff about Ireland.
It was good. I enjoyed it. I got to practice my Spanish when they come over and we said
'Hola, cómo estás' which means 'Hello, how are you?'. I think president Higgins is
words are very insightful when he spoke to the pupils. He said
Enjoy it all. Have fun doing it.
Be endlessly curious and may it last you all your lives.
and you know I think those words equally apply to teachers.
Today we were painting the murals
because they needed to be done up and some had to be changed for the 'Landmarks and Monuments'
Comenius project. Pupils love them. First of all they like painting,
they like getting out of the classroom. It is a completely different
type of art than they've ever done before and is hugely
stimulating and hugely interesting for them. They love it.
The visit to the Dáil is part of the programme of citizenship, if you like in our school
but it is of added importance to us because two of our past pupils
Derek Nolan and Brian Walsh are members of the Dáil.
Our school is a dheis school and we want to give our pupils every chance
to see themselves in the new light, that they too have a voice,
that they can develop their own skills as citizens.
I think it important to learn about European citizens because
we're in Europe and we're European citizens so
we should learn how to be one. The main benefits for staff really
are professional development. We meet other teachers from Europe,
we see their teaching methods, and is always interesting to get a different
perspective and teach.
we also learn a lot about cultural diversity and
it is important to facilitate this. For anyone thinking of starting a project, I'd say go for it.
It's a really worthwhile experience. We have integrated
our work into the curriculum so it's not a big extra
but the advantages are enormous. The school gain from it,
the pupils gain from it, teachers gain from it It is a brilliant experience.
Go for it.