Newsletter Poland

Newsletter Poland  

13d till 17th of october 2014

Monday the 13d of October

Our Comenius meeting programme in Poland started early in the morning at school: pupils and teachers went into different classes. It was very interesting to see that there are more similarities in the teaching methods and in the reactions of the pupils than differences.

At break time, all the Comenius visitors were invited by the Principal Anna Marszalek to have a snack in her office. Then we walked across Żywiec brigde along the city river.

After a busy morning, we had lunch at school. Then we took the bus to the city centre to pay a visit to the Mayor of Żywiec. Later we visited the Habsburg Family Castle, which is now Żywiec City Museum, and where we had the opportunity to see some of the most beautiful Polish folk costumes.

When we finished visiting the museum, we strolled around the Żywiec Park. There were golden and red leaves on the tree tops and all around the park covering the ground. This was an awesome experience and even the adults went back to their childhood and played with those leaves, throwing them into the air. It was also a very surprising moment when we came across a Chinese House (the Habsburg’s Summer Pavillion) in such a lovely Northern Europe park.

At the end of a fantastic day, the pupils went back to their host families while the teachers went to the folk restaurant Karczma Żywiecka to have dinner. And we had lots of fun together because not only was the food very good but also the company was

exceptional!                                     

By Portugal

Tuesday the 14th of october

Today we went to another town close by to Zywiec called Bielsen Biata.

We visited a factory where they are making cartoons. Firstly we Learned how they were making cartoons the old fashioned way. The story begins in directors room, where an idea is presented, when the idea is liked a contract is drawn up. Now the work can begin! 300 people working in 3 different buildings start drawing the pictures Firstly on paper than after on folio, they also draw the backgrounds.

Every picture has to be coloured and decribed ( 600 colours can be used). Also a scenary is made. All in all it takes. Up more than 10.000 of folios to make a cartoon of 10 minutes, which costed about 150.000 euros! And this proces took almost a year. As the teams worked in shifts they could produce 15 cartoons in a year. The most famous cartoons drawn in this factory are Lolek and Bolek and Rexio.

After this we also learned that today all this hard labour is made more easy by help of computers. It now takes only 3 months and the third of the money to create a 10 minutes film, only 20 persons and one building. Unfortunatly there is little request so not that many movies are being made.

After the visit we went to the puppettheater.

We learned about the different styles of puppets used in theater. And we were allowed to play with the puppets to try. Some of the puppets are 60 years old.

We also have been given the oppurtunity to go behind the stage and see how the puppets are made and talk with the actors.

After this we had time to do some shopping.

It was a lovely and very educatif day.

By The Netherlands

Newsletter 3° Meeting in Zywiec Poland

Wednesday, October 15^th

At 8:00 am walk from the hotel  to the cultural center of Zywiec for theatrical event " Comenius theater festival " with theatrical representations of the various participating countries .

After meeting with the students and some time for rehearsals, the Polish teacher Gosia presented the " Comenius theater festival " to the group of students of the institute, that came to the theatre to assist to the show.

The first group to perform was that of the italian students , who performed in a little play about the Comenius project and danced. Afterwards the Portuguese team performed on the stage with a puppet

show about the story of a tree " The trees grow slowly" and later the Polish students performed in the play " Little red hen". The partners who had no students with them  projected  films and theatrical works carried out by their students  in their schools.

Walk to the polish school for lunch.

At 14.30, after the families have taken the students, the  teachers went  back to  the hotel after a  walk under the rain.

 At 16.30 Comenius team Meeting with all the teachers  in the restaurant of the hotel ( a bit noisy), the project coordinator Isabella Kranenburg  from the Dutch school presented the issues to be discussed on the agenda: sending records of previous meetings to be published on the blog of the Comenius Project , newsletter about this  3rd meeting to be related with and  sent to the coordinator by November 3rd , discussion about the activities and material to prepare for the 4 ° meeting in Portugal that woud take place from the  25th to 29th January 2015. The  portoguese colleague Ana Ignacio  requested the preparation of a traditional song, with music and words from each country,

recording  of a video where the students perform the song chosen; interviews to the students on musical tastes and favorite musician.

At the end of the discussion, the evening  proceeded  with the projections prepared by each country on  theme "Theatre".

By Italy

Thursday 16^th October

We all woke to a cold, misty morning for our penultimate day in Zwyiec. After breakfast we made our way to the school. Some chose to avail of the cars provided while a few hardy souls decided to brave the cold and mist and walk to the school. It was approximately a twenty minute walk and I was among the group of hardy souls who decided to walk. When we reached the school we were greeted by Gozia and shown to the Assembly Hall where the morning’s activities were being held. The first activity involved the children illustrating emotions for each of the countries. The art work was well underway by the time we arrived and as you can see there was some very impressive work.

The children were then tasked to portray different emotions with the help of puppets. After a few minutes of thinking time each of the groups came to the front of the hall and performed their emotions with great enthusiasm and excitement.

The next part of the morning was the most interesting and intriguing part of the day for me. Jose, one of the teachers from Portugal, demonstrated how to make ‘alien’ headgear. With one of the students from Portugal as a model he used masking tape and crumpled newspaper and slowly but surely with great skill and artistry created an amazing ‘alien’ creature. Then it was over to the children who with unbounded excitement set to work in their groups. The teachers became so enthralled with this activity they just had to get involved and within a few minutes all of the groups were receiving ‘expert’ adult assistance!! After about twenty or thirty minutes the ‘alien’ creations were completed and modelled by some very willing volunteers!!

The session before lunch was taken by a visiting teacher to the school who specialised in dance and movement. This practical activity was thoroughly enjoyed by all the participants as we moved and danced to lots of different types of music.

The afternoon had a very different focus as we were treated to a guided tour of the Zwyiec Brewery museum. Renowned for being the largest brewery in Poland, it was founded in 1852 and started operating in 1856.

Originally owned by the Habsburgs it was nationalised by the post-World War II Communist government of Poland. At the beginning of the 1990’s a court case began, brought by the descendants of the original owners, who sued the Polish government demanding $77 million compensation for the nationalisation and the use of the Habsburg family name and coat of arms for marketing purposes. The case was settled out of court for undisclosed terms in December 2005. In the 1990’s the brewery was acquired by Heineken International and was thoroughly modernised. It is currently considered to be one of the most modern breweries in the world. Zywiec Beer has become a symbol of Polish pride and Polish recognition for many Poles. This rounded off a very varied and fun day for all.

By Northern-Ireland

Friday 17 the of October

      We planned to go Austwich to day. It was a rainy and foggy day. We went to Austwich and Birkenau where is the biggest nazi concentration camp. It was such a desperate day in our life, we witnessed of all bad things and atmosphere which happend during the World war ll. This trip was very important for us we reunderstood the importance of peace and humanity. As we educators have a mission to emphasise the importance of these values to students.        

 

By Turkey