We were received in Remscheid by Albert Einstein School, from November 27 till December 1st, for a project meeting. There were presented multimedia productions by students concerning either "We" part of project, or "You" part or the traditional and religious events in each partner area...
Snapshots from project meeting
The city website
Teachers were accommodate in the Remscheider Hof Hotel.
This is a 4 stars hotel, well located just in front of the railway station : it was nice for us as we were coming from Düsseldorf, Frankfürt or Köln airports...
We appreciated the comfort of the rooms as well as the efficiency of the conference room. Buffet dinners were just fine, and we must say... we loved the woman in charge of the bar !
Some families of Albert Einstein Schule invited some of the students in their home and the Municipality of Remscheid decided to invite the others in its guesthouse. This was a kind offer, and it allowed us to bring about 30 students from 8 nationalities. We may say that all appreciated this sense of hospitality and that at the end of the stay... All of us were Remscheider !
Germany |
| Norway |
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Spain |
| Northern Ireland (UK) |
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Finland |
| Sweden |
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Italy |
| Switzerland |
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France |
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The program
When? Day, Time | What ? Program | Who ? |
Tue., 27.11. |
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19.00 | Welcome reception in Hotel Remscheider Hof (HRH) | T, S, parents |
19.30 | Transfer into host families or dinner with German senior students in Remscheid | S |
21.00 | Transfer from HRH to guesthouse by public bus | part of S, Uli |
20.00 | Dinner buffet in HRH and then hotel bar meeting with open end… | T |
Wed., 28.11. |
| |
8.00 | School lessons with German partners | S in families |
9.50-12.00 | 4 Student workshops in school (1.Christmas tree and Nativity decoration 2.Singing workshop 3. Lantern production 4. Cake bakery) | all S + Patrick |
9.00 | Workshop in HRH conference room | T |
11.00-12.00 | Walking visit of Remscheid centre and visit of international student workshop results in school | T |
12.40 | Lunch in our “Mensa”(school restaurant) | T, S |
14.00 | Reception in Remscheid town hall | T, S |
15.15 | Visit of Remscheid Tool Museum and Müngsten Bridge | T, S |
18.00 | Visit of Castle “Schloss Burg” | T, S |
19.00 | Dinner in the castle | T, S |
21.30 | Bus transfer to HRH | T, S |
22.00 | Meeting at hotel bar or bowling competition | T |
Thu., 29.11. |
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8.00 | School lessons in German partners’ classes | S in families |
9.00 | Workshop in HRH conference room | T |
10.00 | Students and teachers present their Comenius “home work” products (WE or YOU - Part) in HRH | T and all S |
12.40 | Lunch in School Mensa |
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13.30 | Charter bus departure for visit of medieval town of Lennep and its Roentgen Museum |
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17.00 | Guided visit of Wuppertal city sitting in the historical “Kaiserwagen” of the Suspension Train | T and S |
19.00 | Bus transfer to Remscheid | S |
19.00 | Dinner in an old restaurant in Solingen-Gräfrath | T |
21.30 | Bus transfer to HRH | T |
Fri., 30.11. |
| |
8.00 | School lessons in German partners’ classes | S in families |
9.50 | School lessons in German senior students’ classes | other S |
9.00 | Workshop in HRH conference room | T |
12.00 | Lunch in school Mensa | T and S |
12.45 | Charter bus departure for Köln (Cologne), Guided visit of city centre and cathedral (Uli) | T and S |
15.30 | Free time for visiting museums, churches, Christmas markets, cafes, beer houses, shopping…. | T and S |
19.00 | Bus transfer back to Remscheid | T and S |
20.00 | Dinner and farewell evening in HRH | T |
Sat., 1.12. |
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from 9.00 till.. | HRH : Departure assistance, if necessary (Uli) | T and S |
Participants :
Eva Hamrin and Ann-Charlotte Bergman (Sweden), Mari Passas and Aage Sletne (Norway), Wendy Little and Mark Winning (Northern Ireland), Amanda Harinen and Lea Väyrinen (Finland), Yves Leglise (France), Mariella D’Adamo and Italo Montinaro (Italy), Gabriela D. Enderli and Agnès Breuil (Switzerland), Maria Antonia Garcia Berral, Maria Dolores Amaya Viloria , Lorenzo Alonso de la Sierra (Spain), Uli Leikauf and Patrick Taeger (Germany).
1. Project presentations
Gabriela and Agnès from Switzerland showed a PowerPoint – presentation about their country (we-Part) and about the Swiss stereotypes on other European countries (you-part).
The day before the other countries ( Finland, Italy, Sweden, Germany, Norway, France , Northern Ireland and Spain ) had already presented their „We- “ and „You“ – parts“, and some of them had also given an introduction about their religious/non religious national traditions.
2. Next meeting in Uppsala/Sweden
Eva and Ann-Charlotte distributed a handout of two pages with the main information about transport, accommodation and planned program during the next project meeting in Uppsala/Sweden (Tue 27 – Sat 31 May 2008).
3. Future projects
After a long discussion, the participants agreed upon the following „tasks“ to be prepared by the 9 national Comenius teams until the Uppsala meeting :
a) „Why should you come to my country ?“ - A presentation of 5-10 minutes in form of a short movie, theatre, cabaret, song or other live presentation. It should be based on a self - reflection on the stereotypes that the partner countries had revealed in their „you-part- questionnaires“ before. These presentations may have either a tourist marketing character or a more general (e.g. sociological and psychological ) character and form depending on the type of school the students are coming from.
b) „Uppsala – why do we go there ?“ A presentation of 1 – 2 minutes based on the information but also on the expectations that the students have about Uppsala.
c) „See me – feel me – touch me- eat me !“ The guest delegations are requested to present their home country in the Uppsala School Exhibition „Studentexpo“, and not only by written and photographic material, but also by objects that are typical for your country or region and that visitors can touch , handle or.....eat !
d) „Religious and non religious festivals and traditions“. According to the commitments of our common Joint Application Form for year 2 and 3, each country must deal this project in a that can be presented at the end of the third project year in the Joint Activity Report. Minimum: two pages in word format with a written text which can be accompanied by Pictures. Or a PowerPoint presentation (some countries did it already). Deadline : February 2008. In Uppsala about one hour will be reserved for further production on this subject.
e) Spain intends to work on a supplementary presentation about “Common European aspects in our different national cultures”.
4. Improving our forms of joint presentation and of collecting our project works .
- The „eolis“ website initiated by Mark in the first year being only partly successful, Yves now is going to launch a new joint website for all the members of our Comenius project. It will provide links to all the national school and national Comenius project websites.
- Yves already installed a website featuring the Remscheid meeting (www.tourismandidentity.info ) as well as a blogsite (http://blog.tourismandidentity.info) .
- Patrick prepares DVD copies for each country with a compilation of the national PowerPoint presentations shown at the Remscheid meeting.
- Yves will produce separate national stereotype DVDs collecting the poll results (you-Parts) of each country produced by the foreign partners.
4. Meetings in Year 3 ( autumn 2008 and spring 2009 )
Finland and Northern Ireland are both candidates for the meeting in autumn 2008. Both can not offer accommodation in families and both can only organize the meeting in autumn 2008 (and not in spring 2009).
The assembly decides to proceed by a secret vote. Result : Northern Ireland : 6 votes, Finland 2 votes, 1 abstention.
So Newtownabbey/Belfast in Northern Ireland will organize the meeting in autumn 2008.
The decision about the last meeting in spring 2009 will be postponed until the Uppsala meeting. Until then the team from Cadiz/Spain will know if it will be able to candidate.
6. Different topics
- Yves recommends to all members to take contact with SKAL, an international organisation that can assist the countries in their project work (www.skal.org)
- We should continue to keep in contact with our ex-partners in Greece and Scotland and keep them informed about the evolution of our project. – There are good chances that Angus from Scotland will join our meeting in Northern Ireland.
- The assembly feels very concerned about the illness of Alfons Lück-Lilienbeck, headmaster of the hosting Remscheid Albert Einstein School and wishes him a good and soon recovery.
7. Feedback of the Remscheid meeting
All the guest countries were very satisfied with the preparation and the organisation of the congress. It was a good mixture of intense teacher‘s and student‘s workshops, class visits and interesting excursion program.
Special thanks to Uli and Patrick who organized most of the congress.
Some critics or suggestions for improvements :
- the „speed“ was too high“, there should be more „free time“ in the program .
- not only guest students but also guest teachers should have the opportunity to assist to the classes
- the German Comenius students should have been allowed to assist to all the program parts of their guests.
Ulrich Leikauf
Keeper of the minutes
