A healthy diet can help you maintain a proper body weight, reduce your risk of certain diseases and improve your quality of life. However, there is no universal diet, common, easy to follow and recommendable for everyone, regardless of their place of living, gender, daily activity and likings. We have to know the rationale of each diet, their pros and cons and it is important to choose a diet plan that fits our goals and lifestyles. During the mobility in Alquerias, in Spain, the students developed the rules for some, most popular diets. They discussed their does and don’ts, as well as benefits and risks and designed leaflets.
Because of an epidemic situation in Europe none of the countries is willing to take a risk and organize a mobility. That’s why we decided to set up virtual mobilities. All the details were agreed on during a virtual meeting of all the school coordinators and the Italian team offered to organize the first one. Since it was supposed to concern relationship, emotions and their positive influence on our mental health, we decided to organize it in Christmas spirit just before the Christmas holiday. Before the meeting students uploaded some short information about themselves on the common padlet and they made collages presenting things which make them happy.
During the meeting we took part in the following activities organized by the Italian team:
quizzes about relationships, naming the stages of relationships
discussing reasons for our feeling emotional
making ’emotional alphabets’
brainstorming for qualities which are crucial for being a loyal friend
shortlisting the essential traits of a good friend
considering possible causes of anger issues
checking how well we know our Christmas customs by playing a Kahoot quiz on which we all collaborated
Both the teachers and students were happy to see their friends and listen to them. Technology this time was almost on our side so we were able to participate fully in the planned activities. We finished the two-hour long meeting wishing each other Merry Christmas and a happy New Year.
After agreeing on the date and length of the meeting to suit each of the partner schools, we decided to organize a video conference. Each school gathered a team of 8 – 12 students eager to meet their friends from other countries. Google meet platform was used to get in touch before and set up all the details and for the meeting itself, taking place on 20thof May 2021. The schedule of the video conference looked as follows:
Schedule of activities
Introducing teams
Taking group photos by the padlet
Healthy habits – brainstorming
What do you know about the country the wheel decide picked for you
Name 5 – a team contest
What have you got for breakfast? Interviewing partners.
Kahoot – a general knowledge quiz (each country prepared the questions)
Draw your lunch and breakfast using Jamboard
Healthy tips – how important are they for you – discussing ideas and uploading them on Mentimeter
Unfortunately, due to technical problems and safety regulations at schools we were unable to let our students interview each other as we had planned before. Nevertheless, students could see each other, take part in games prepared together. They could confront their conceptions of healthy lifestyle, find out what they knew about their partner countries, compete in quizzes. We could compare what we conceive of breakfasts and school lunches as all the participants were expected to draw them and label them on the common virtual board. First of all, however, it was a two-hour distraction from the school routine and a chance to ties bonds between the partners.
It was strange Christmas this year. Socially distanced, with masked Santa, without older relatives, without meeting friends or singing carols together. We did what we could do in these specific circumstances – we designed Christmas cards and shared them together on one board wishing each other health, peace and coming back to reality soon.
Starting the project we thought about counteracting the typical amount of stress we live with. Nobody expected a worldwide crisis like the one we have been experiencing since the epidemic outburst. It is difficult to maintain a healthy lifestyle when we are in the middle of a havoc like this. The uncertainty, feeling alone, deprived of social contacts and family worries disrupt our routines, our lifestyles, motivation and mental health. The flow of disturbing information from all over the world increases our sense of anxiety. Stress is a normal response to these types of situations. In order to maintain the contact and give a sense of going through the same difficult situation, as we share the same need for support and belief it is going to be better one day, we decided to design card reminding us of those basic human needs – kindness, affection, good will, warmth and finding pleasure in petty things.
The event we created to showcase the impact of our project and the experiences of us, as the beneficiaries of the Erasmus+ Programme, was an online partners meeting, during which we summed up the activities and results of the first year of the project and adjusted the previously planned actions to the Covid 19 sanitary requirements.
Another event we organized was a video conference for teachers from the neighbouring schools, who also coordinate Erasmus+ projects. We exchanged views about online solutions we have been applying to perform our activities in the changed circumstances, we discussed the benefits of mobilities; displaying photos, products and films we highlighted our projects’ achievements, and showed the impact of Erasmus+ funding. We also discussed the benefits which sharing good practices brings to schools and how life long learning shapes us, teachers, making us more effective.
As to sum up all the activities performed this year we made a film highlighting all the most important events and undertakings which have taken place. We started from the first meeting of the teachers, during which we got familiar with each other, established the rules of the cooperation, and made a schedule of the activities. Next, the first exchange of students followed and afterwards, since no meetings could be organized due to the Covid 19 regulations we present in this video some of the tasks which we were trying to do online.
We are proud to announce that the logo of the ASAP project has been chosen. The winning logo was drawn by an Italian student – Costanza Allodi from IC Diotti in Casamaggiore in Italy. Congratulations! Each school submitted 5 best logos designed by its students and afterwards, both students and teachers voted for one depicting in the best possible way our common ideas, objectives and intentions.
The first meeting of students took place in Gdansk from 9th to 13th of December 2019. We started from ice breaking activities as to get off to a good start and get familiar with each other. Students had to mix up in different groups regardless of their nationality to carry out different kinds of tasks proposed by the hosting teachers. They had to resolve some puzzles and riddles related to the project in within the framework of an “Escape Room” game, which they found really fun and useful to foster teamwork and exchange their first moments with their counterparts. As the final tasks they had to use their own bodies to form the acronym of the title of the project.
After that, students had to perform a singing of Christmas carols that had been previously practiced in every country before the visit to Poland in front of the vice president of the city, who had the courtesy to come to the school to meet us.
After that all the students were split into groups. Some of them did the zumba dance and played team sports, others made Christmas decorations, wooden boards with some peaceful messages on them. To sum the first day up we played Kahoot checking our knowledge of European history and geography.
Next day students took part in the sketchnotes workshop, delivered by Vitia Bartosova – Hoffman and they learned hot to illustrate their ideas, emotions and make clear visual notes.
After that students attended the workshop about time managing while others participated in the discussion about ideal school, what they should be like and what can be done to improve them and make them less stressful places. Trying to sum up what they learned the students designed their own dream classrooms and ‚manage time wisely’ reminders. We finished the day with ice skating. For some it was the first time they had ever skated. And they did it well!
The next day was the day out. We took our guests to Centre Experyment in Gdynia to let them see the most high tech science centre in the north of Poland. This modern building with an area of 3,500 sq. m houses four permanent exhibitions: Hydroworld (hydrology), The Tree of Life (nature), Operation: Human (physiology and medicine) and Invisible Forces (physics). The exhibitions feature over 150 advanced, interactive items which invite experimenting and learning about scientific curiosities. After the visit we went to Gdansk to visit Amber Museum and stroll down the streets of the Old Town.
On Thursday we dealt with stress, its origins, causes, symptoms and ways of coping with it. After the workshops students made sketchnotes illustrating the the stress and its chronic consequences as well as ways of preventing or managing it.
When this workshop ended, they attended to a class focused on how to preserve the proper body posture, especially when using their mobile phones of carrying their school bags to avoid pain and damage. To remember how to maintain the proper posture they designed their own handouts with the photos of does and doesn’ts. In order to find out the most suitable learning style and the kind of dominating intelligence they participated in the multiply intelligence workshop.
At the end of the day, the hosts organized a farewell party at school, in which the students were able to share their last moments together having fun, exchanging impressions and listening and dancing with music from the four countries.
As final activity, students had to record a podcast about
all the issues they had been working on during all the week. The topics to be
put across were the negative effects of the stress, anti-stress activities, how
to learn effectively, the ideal classroom and how to manage their time. They
were divided in groups, they revised the topics, wrote the script and recorded
the opening for the podcast and its content. All these was conducted and
revised by the teachers all the time, to ensure that the topics were fully
covered and that this product of the project met the expectations.
At the end of the day, there was a final meeting in the
Erasmus+ hall with all the students to share opinions and asses the experience
and their contribution to the objectives of the project. To finish they were
awarded with a certificate for their participation in this mobility.
The aim of this locally organized activity, taking place in the time preceding the mobility in Poland, was having our students present their favourite ways of letting the steam off, the leisure activities they enjoy most and find the most relaxing. Since they were given a choice of the tool they were going to use to present themselves, they made posters, presentations or collages. The best works were also uploaded on the project TwinSpace.
We become not a melting pot but a beautiful mosaic. Different people, different beliefs, different yearnings, different hopes, different dreams.
