Sunday, 21 December 2014

Merry Christmas - Escola Básica e Secundária Gonçalves Zarco

Looking to make the most of our own school resources and in an attempt to expand the reach of the Skin Deep project we have joined forces with another project in our school - the "Tutores Juniores". Together we have planned  a number of activities which meet both projects' aims.

The 1st activity took place on the 16th of December. Our 9th grade students - those who participate in both projects -  and the 5th graders they mentor were in charge of creating Christmas decorations so they could decorate a space in our school and share what they had created together with the rest of the school community.

The aim was not only to celebrate Christmas but also strengthen the 5th graders' sense of belonging, boost their self-confidence and ultimately ease their integration.

After the decorations were in  place we got together in the classroom of the Special Needs Teaching Unit where 6 special 5th graders awaited Santa's visit. Carolina, our in house Santa, did not disappoint them and soon joined us, spreading around laughter and the kids' sweet version of all the joy in the world: chocolate :)

Saturday, 15 November 2014

Halloween :)

This is long overdue.
With so many things at hand we got a bit sidetracked, but it's finally here.

The challenge we set for our students was simple: one class would write halloween stories and then send them to one of the partner schools, which in turn would try to transform the written versions into digital stories.

So German students created the written stories and Portuguese students tried to create the digital versions. Check out what they did. ;)

Thursday, 30 October 2014

Wednesday, 29 October 2014

Tuesday, 28 October 2014

Sunday, 19 October 2014

Me Trailers - Escola B. e S. Gonçalves Zarco

We have finished the first activity. :)
You can check the written version of our bio poems HERE
Just below you have the digital presentations. We used Blabberize, Glogster, Animoto and even simple power points. 
Now, because they were too many to post directly here without making blogger a little sluggish we created an ebook with a screenshot of the presentations and their links. Please, follow the links to each individual presentation to view them properly, especially the videos. ;)

Me Trailers

Wednesday, 15 October 2014

1st webconference

Sunday, 12th October, we got together for our 1st all partner webconference.
Eleven in the morning in Portugal, midday in France and Germany and one o'clock in Estonia, Ukraine and Turkey. Time zone differences, personal and professional engagements don't make it easy to set up something like this, even when there are just 7 of us. But I guess it just goes to prove that when there's a will, there will always be a way. :)

We had our heart set on using Google Hangouts for the conference, but technology had something else in mind - for some reason, two of us had no audio or mic capabilities. It just shows that you always need some sort of a backup plan. So after a few "log out and log in" suggestions, mixed with "have you tried this and that..." we decided to use Skype. No video, but at least that way we could all hear and speak.

While skyping we opened up a google doc and started making notes. It felt just like we were in the same room and not miles and miles away. We sat there and talked for about an hour, went into different aspects of our project, had a few laughs and then said our "goodbyes, and talk to you later". Really, you got love technology! :) 

Our Hangouts trouble documented :)