World Health Day

Celebrating the World Health Day took us a week, but what can be more important than health this year? We prepared some online and regular activities for the learners at different levels. Some resources, such as presentations, films, interviews or games and lesson plans were posted on the padlet and teachers were encouraged to use all the collected materials. The oldest students attended online lectures on eating disorders, conducted by the last year students of Gdansk Medical University. 

Apart from that students: 

  • compiled their sets of rules how to be healthy and fit
  • took part in inter-class competitions about human anatomy and physiology 
  • created their own health pyramid schemes 
  • played games and tournaments 

The main idea, however, is raising awareness of the health, well -being, importance of the balanced diet and influence physical activities and good relationships have on our happiness and prosperity. 

Healthy food – the younger learners

Food plays a vital part in keeping us fit and it is important to make sure children realize the impact it has got on their condition. They were presented with healthy food ideas, learned how to replace snacks with some healthier ones, how to compose funny face sandwiches, smoothies or salads. They played various vocabulary games, like trimmino, knowledge quizzes, team contests and tried to create their own pyramids according to the rules presented. They learned:

  • what grain foods include
  • what dairy products are
  • what healthy snacks are, like dried fruit, smoothies or fruit lollipops
  • what tastes of these snacks are
  • which of the food products contain protein

Christmas is coming!

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.

The link to the board where all the cards were uploaded: https://padlet.com/tambelli_sylwia/v4hdqb44r5ex0hvd

We organized also A Christmas gift fundraising and prepared presents for families in need living in the neighborhood.

World Mental Health Day

Mental Health Day, celebrated worldwide on 10th of October is an opportunity to raise awareness of mental health issues and advocate against social stigma. During various classes, such as biology, physical education, citizenship and form time students were encouraged to talk about mental health. All the lesson plans and materials for speaking activities were shared on one common padlet. https://padlet.com/tambelli_sylwia/v4hdqb44r5ex0hvd

The objectives of the classes were:

  • making students understand and empathise with anyone burdened with mental health issues
  • realizing the lengths of effects it can have on the people around them
  • portraying various disorders and their symptoms
  • encouraging students to looking for professional help in case of noticing any symptoms of mental disorders
  • promoting activities they are engaging in to keep up good mental health and well-being
  • helping children distinguish between mental health myths and reality

Students were involved in discussions, watching films, lectures with the school psychologist and psychotherapist, they took part in role playing and they learnt some simple mindfulness techniques.

International Day for Tolerance

‚Tolerance – according to UNESCO’s 1995 Declaration of Principles on Tolerance is respect, acceptance and appreciation of the rich diversity of our world’s cultures, our forms of expression and ways of being human.’ In order to promote acceptance and understanding the teachers collected various resources which were used during different classes. The resources included videos, songs, lectures, games, worksheets, discussion prompts and lesson plans.

The link leading to the padlet: https://padlet.com/tambelli_sylwia/j7q6jvz4v8o0893

The objectives of the event:

  • increasing knowledge about values of equity and forms of discrimination
  • promoting inclusion and tolerance
  • identifying the factors which lead us to discriminating other people
  • practicing key competences necessary for personal development

The outcomes of the event:

  • understanding the concepts of diversity, privilege and oppression
  • broadening awareness and acceptance
  • accepting people different from oneself without prejudice or judgment
  • respecting others for their differences on the grounds of gender, race, religious and socioeconomic differences.

Say No To Cyberbullying

Is online bullying more damaging and upsetting than usual bullying? Both may be destructive but because it’s usually anonymous and difficult to trace it can me even more harmful than usual calling names and having fun at someone’s expense. It’s also hard to control, and the cyberbullies person has no idea how many people have seen the harmful photos or posts. Moreover, it doesn’t finish at school, as usual bullying used to. Living under the constant threat of being bullied online can lead to anxiety, state of upset or fear, eating disorders and insomnia.

What can cyberbullying involve?

Students discussed the reasons for which some people bully others, they decided which forms of bullying we can categorize as bullying, which can be on-line bullying and which are both. They provided some examples of bullying they know from books and TV shows. Students also searched for the data, checking how many people are traced down and punished for their misbehavior on the Internet. They took part in the anonymous survey answering questions about their own misdemeanors. We brainstormed for solutions and ways of reacting to the crimes like these. Italian students Set up their own anti-bully committee and prepared their publications – manifestos on how to deal with bullying. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ZaaR8RgydGVbaoeIgb7X4kHDGkBkJ4oy/view?usp=sharing

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1-WwvgbwkCv487LdcAvYWRFZV5W6uHESW/view?usp=sharing

‚Best friends are the people in your life who make you laugh louder, smile brighter and live better’

What is a good friend like?

Who is your good friend?

What does a good friend never do?

What does a good friend always do?

Who are your favorite pair of friend from a book , a film or TV show?

Why is having a friend so important?

We discussed all these issues, made word clouds, described how the best friend should behave and what behavior disqualifies one’s as a friend. We shared all our thoughts and ideas on the padlet.

https://padlet.com/tambelli_sylwia/iqu6rlgohuytcqsf

Italian students presented also ourselves in the video showing how important friendship and being a part of the team is and they prepared their own impressions of the idea of friendship.

Communication – help adolescents get stronger

Fostering relationships we have to talk to each other. Communications skills can be learned. No matter how well we know and like each other, we are unable to read other people’s minds. We need to get across our message to avoid confusion that may result in hurting one’s feelings, anger and bitterness. We have to learn how to communicate effectively and it does require practice and hard work.
Whenever we talk to others we should bear in mind that:

You may learn how to communicate while playing:

  • be concise
  • care for other participants’ feelings
  • work a team
  • respect and follow the rules

Here is the game, the rules of which were designed by the students. Laws do the same for society. Laws exist to protect our rights and freedoms and create a safer society.

https://www.sutori.com/story/taboo–UVw48JDnSWp1GxDmKDg9zL7a?fbclid=IwAR2xYEoCwgqk_3L42-k_iG3VpeJHYb2BQMxsYP-qL_l7LHD-nM81yylbaPY

Take Care for the Environment

A clean environment is essential for healthy living and so is believing that we can reduce our negative impact on the Earth. Since we are on the verge of a climate catastrophe and ineffability of it most of us find distressing, we decided to undertake some activities promoting active citizenship and introducing some minor changes in our routines. Students took part in workshops, they played games, made posters, they learned how to sort rubbish, avoid wasting water and electricity, how to encourage others to using public transport rather than cars. They brainstormed on reducing the amount of plastic we use on a daily basis. The older students interacted with the younger ones teaching them the rules of sorting the rubbish. Because of Covid 19 restrictions we were not allowed to go rubbish picking as we used to do on the beach, but a lot of students went for strolls with their families and did it individually.

Have a Nice Day

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.