Croatia Meeting
The last project meeting was held in Pušća (Croatia) teachers of all schools of this partnership and children from Italy, England and Poland took part in it. The host school, Osnovna škola Pušća, programmed various activities from the 21st to the 26th of April. In this mobility participated also children from Italy and Poland who were hosted by local families and participated to some the activities planned. Even in this case the children spent most of the time with thei hosts, in order to experience real life in family.
On the first day, the welcome ceremony was held. This ceremony comprised presentations from both the host school and other schools from this partnership. Later that day, the Comenius Olympics were held. In this activity, both teachers and students were involved in various sports activities. In the afternoon, we carried out a visit to the capital of the country where we were provided a guided tour of the most emblematic places of Zagreb (http://www.zagreb-touristinfo.hr).
On April 23th, the activities started up in another school, located in Dubravica. Here, teachers and students participating in this meeting were involved in different workshops, essentially crafts and sports activities. A fire drill was also carried out and the local fire department cooperated, along with the students and visiting professors.
During the afternoon of that same day, we visited the Neanderthal museum located in Krapina (http://www.mkn.mhz.hr/en/). This is one of the most modern museums in Croatia and in all Central Europe. It is also one of the places where important findings of Neanderthal man occurred. This museum, whose architecture fits very well in the landscape, portrays the history of the universe, of human evolution, with special emphasis on the Neanderthal period.
At the Neanderthal museum, in Krapina, we had the unique opportunity to see different fossils, 1800 million years old, we saw replicas of the first fish, dinosaurs and true to size sculptures of hominids. The museum’s ambience portrays the prehistoric world and we can hear, as we go through the museum, various sounds like the ones of thunders, animal cries, waterfalls, etc..
On April 24th, the Comenius project fair was held. At this fair, the schools involved in this partnership presented the final products developed in their home schools, by their students, as part of the virtual companies that they created. It was a very interesting moment because we could see the product of all the students’ entrepreneurial genius.
Lather this day, we visited the Lužnica castle. This castle, located about 20 km west of Zagreb, with a baroque architecture, serves as an educational and spiritual center. It is run by the Sisters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul and its main activity is to stimulate educational and spiritual programs for neighboring communities. The center organizes spiritual and educational seminars, workshops and conferences.
Even later that day, a working meeting between the coordinators of the different countries was held. At this meeting, coordinators embarked on the making of the final report that will be presented by the end of September.
On the last day, we started a series of activities that allowed us to enjoy the part of the program dedicated to more cultural-oriented activities, developed through contact with the local environment. We visited the city of Zadar, which is located on the Adriatic Coast (http://zadar.hr/). In this city, culture and history are reflected in monuments and buildings dating back to the periods corresponding to the Roman Empire, the Middle Ages and the Renaissance.
The Sea Organ shows the creativity of modern times, in contrast to the monuments of ancient times.
All the activities were certainly enriching as it allowed us a perception of how other European schools are organized, of the teaching methods used and of the activities that are streamlined with students. The program of this project meeting allowed us to learn different things and to have new experiences that underpinned our learning process and allowed us to exchange good practices, which is the key objective of our project.
