Work Schedule

September 2007: STEP 1a. (by teachers): Construction of our school blog (eg. Athens http://ourselvesathens.blogspot.com/) in which our students will be contributing their work and where they will have the liberty to comment on other partners' texts.
The blog's name/title will be agreed upon strictly following democratic procedures...)
STEP 1b. (by teachers): Updating and contributing comments to the teachers' blog where appropriate (http://letsknowourselvesandourcities.blogspot.com/)

Oct. - Nov. 2007: (one post per week)
Students introduce themselves individually or in small groups of 2-3 persons)
They upload their 1st post. They use nicknames or their real names as well as an image or a picture of themselves. They each describe themselves, their families, their friends.
(2nd post) They take photos of their home, their room, their surroundings, their favourite objects and their briefly describe the above.
(3rd post) They discuss school, school life and future study plans on a general basis.
(4th-5th -6th post) They refer to their interests, hobbies, music preferences (while adding song extracts), comment on films they have recently watched (on the basis of video extracts downloaded from youtube.com
(7th-8th post) They express their ambitions and expectations of their future life.

Dec. 2007-Jan. 2008
(1st-2nd Post) They describe their local area, their city (illustrating with plenty of pictures) in terms of architecture, city planning, sustainable development, environmental issues, water and other resources management, waste management, environment-friendly home building.
(3rd-4th post) They present customs and local traditions and celebrations with reference to whether the society they grow up in is multicultural or not. They express their attitudes toward xenophobia and racism,tolerance to being different etc.

Febr-March 2008
Civilisation and Culture: they downlaod articles from electronic and printed journals; present well-known Greek, French, Spanish, romanian architects and their work (Le Corbusier, Gaudi, Calatrava etc.) as well as painters, artists, writers (preferably contemporary) whose work the students believe will appeal to their partners from other countries with a view to stimulating the other schools to comment and compare them with their own. Presentations can be followed by interaction by means of texts or other techniques (crosswords,diagrams and quizzes whose answers will be published within 15 days)

Apr. - May 2008
Reflections and tentative conclusions about the cooperation. What did we expect? What have we achieved?

On the whole
The school blog is ultimately a colourful magazino, in which the students will present themselves and their genuine interests in multimodal texts made up of ideas, images, sound and video, without offending or provoking. Suggestions and recommendations are welcome.

Our main objectives are to deepen the students' awareness of the global nature and potential of the Internet, to sensitise them to the significance of the respect to the human being, to deepen the relationships between European teenagers, to acquaint them with other European cultures, to promote tolerance towards the other, to make peaceful coexistence possible for all.

English is essential, parallel to their native languages, where necessary. (eg. buenos dias = bonjour = καλημέρα etc.).

Posts include multigeneric texts (of a wide range of text types) such as diagrams, sketches (created by the students or computer scanned), pictures, animation, zigzaw puzzles, crossword puzzles, survey questionnaires and more. One student undertakes the tasks of the blog manager who has access to the code number and is responsible for uploading posts and comments.

It is required that all teachers involved get to know each other through either their school blogs or the teachers' blog...

Enjoy it! Good Luck!

Communication

Let's communicate

via web mail

Partnership Co-ordinator

Resposible teacher

Athens blog manager: Ourselves.Athens at gmail.com

Start today! It's easy...to construct your BLOG

At the beginning of our co-operation we need to create a blog (one blog at least. You may have more, if you wish).

Every school has one blog at least. The students are writing their thoughts there and send their comments to the blogs of the other groups in the foreign cities.

First: Create an e-mail account on http://www.gmail.com/. You need a user name and a password.

Second: Now you are ready to establish your blog on http://www.blogger.com/

When you enter this web page you could choose your own language to get information about blogs (What is a blog, Take a quick Tour...), but please don't forget that our communication language is the English.

Now it's time to create your blog following the 3 steps in the above site.

1. Create an account (e.g Name= 3rd Upper Secondary School MILTOS KOUNTOURAS, DisplayName=in Athens).
2. Name your blog (e.g Blog title=Ourselves.Athens, Blog Address=ourselvesAthens.blogspot.com)
3. Choose a template (e.g TIC-TAC)

Third: Congratulations! Your blog is ready!

Now design your first post writing a short text with a WELCOME, some GREETINGS, a HELLO, or other greeting expressions.

Fourth: Finally send us an e-mail message and inform us about your blog's creation (your blog name and your blog address. Our e-mail address is kfyssaki at otenet.gr Also you could send us a comment in the present post, confirming the good function.

Note: The greek blog is already on-line. You can visit it on http://ourselvesathens.blogspot.com/

Good Luck!

Introduction - Here is our Project...

Title: Let's get to know ourselves and our cities

Short description
Students taking part in the project are working in groups in France, Spain, Greece and other countries introducing themselves to the others, describing their family, their school environment and the educational system in their country, presenting their region and their city (architecture, houses within the sustainable development context, civilization, culture). They exchange ideas, suggestions, opinions, plans, designs, and images using IC tools.

Students in their countries surf on the WWW and look for material concerning the above subjects. They make crossword puzzles, riddles and diagrams trying to communicate and explain their customs, their interests, their hobbies and whatever they think their future will be like. They study, comment and publish their own thoughts and opinions as well as those of their collaborators about studies at University or job via blogs, power-point presentations and web pages.

Guidelines:
· Who am I?
· What is my family and my house like?
· What is my school, the educational system, post compulsory education like?
· What is my town like? (Architecture and environment)
· Which are my interests, hobbies, ambitions (studies and job)
· Entertainment, customs, lifestyle.

Responding to the above topics
· The students will exchange images, photos, videos and texts. They will reflect on and present their existing situation and they will dream of their future.
· By working on the Internet and using IC tools with the partners from other countries they will also appreciate the universal character of the Internet and its power.

Aims
To get a new view of the world around us
To empower young people with those tools, knowledge and skills they need to communicate in the future world
To deepen the relations among the European young people
To create a background for further educational plans
To improve their command of English
To get substantially familiar with modern IC collaborative tools and to improve their implementation skills in developing blogs, WebPages or Power-Point Presentations
To experiment with new learning methodologies
To learn how to work in international teams
To get know the cities, the schools, the likes and the dislikes of our partners and exchange ideas about the way young people live
To develop critical thinking and explore the European perspective
To exchange information about cultural differences and similarities
To obtain intercultural knowledge, experience and computer literacy
To make friends in another country and, if possible, to visit their cities.

Work process
At first all students introduce themselves and their family. Then they work on tasks in 5 sub-groups with students from different countries. There are approximately 2-4 students of each country in each group.
The first group focuses on school and the education system. This could be in the form of a diagram, a drawing or crossword puzzles.
The second group deals with the buildings, the architecture and the famous architects in each town/region (Le Corbusier, Calatrava, Gaudi etc)
The third group works on the Environment (houses built within the sustainable development context, zoning plan etc).
The fourth group presents the customs, interests and hobbies of young people.
The fifth group works on presentations about the civilization, the culture, the tradition and the customs of their own country.

Groups are encouraged to cooperate with each other when necessary. Comparisons between countries are compulsory. Communication in English among students via ICT is important. Each object-tool (photo, image, picture, sound, or video animation) utilised is accompanied by notes or comments and bibliography could be added.

"Project outcome"production
Work plans, schedules and procedures
Blogs, Presentations and web pages
Pictures or videos of the work process

Practical Tips
Communication Tools: e-mail, chat, TwinSpace, web sites, Voip (Skype or MSN)
Communication Language: English

Participants
Groups of students aged 16-19
Group of teachers of different specialization

Framework
Subjects:
Information and Communication Technology
Environment and Natural Sciences
Multimedia and Network
English
Graphic Arts and Architecture
Programmes:
E-twinning
Environmental Education

Hello Friends!

Hi boys and girls!
I am Katerina. I live in Athens, the capital city of Greece.
Welcome to our partnership and let's start the co-operation.
It's time to know ourselves.
Enjoy the trip!