Merry Christmas and happy winter holidays

Year 2017 is coming to an end and with it, we have been enjoying our adventure Erasmus 14 months. Months full of emotions, remembrances, effort, hard work, journeys and so many wonderful people warmly installed in our lives forever. The summary of this year is highly positive: we have travelled together, teachers and students, and we have got to know one another much better, we have improved our English and this experience has helped us to know more about our neighbour country: Portugal. We have learnt how to travel, how not to get lost, how to help one another, what it feels like when you are away from home, when you feel lonely and how to behave in all kind of situations. Our experience has been meaningful and enriching because we have got over our prejudices and complexes, because we have tasted wonderful food and seen breath-taking landscapes, because we have learnt another languages and heard unforgettable sounds and music. And above all, this year has been intense and rich because we have become stronger, wiser and more experienced, because we have felt part of a warm, friendly , open-minded and welcoming humanity.

Happy Christmas and looking forward to our next Erasmus year 2018

INTERNATIONAL MEETING IN BRAGA 9-13 OCTOBER

From the 9th to the 15th of October , our second teaching/learning Erasmus activity was held in the Portuguese city of Braga. The Spanish participants were two teachers and 6 students. In this meeting we had the opportunity to attend several motivating and challenging activities such as getting to know better the Portuguese educative system, language, music , culture and gastronomy.

There has been time and space for lectures, students´presentations on attention to students´with disabilities and special educative needs, we have visited several associations which deal with physical and mental handicapped people and victims of gender violence. Morover, interesting and exciting cultural visits were organized such as a trip to Guimaraes and Porto and of course, we had several workshops to follow the development of our project together with class observation in the Portuguese High School. Here is the minutes of a wonderful experience written by our students.

OUR FIRST WEEKEND IN PORTUGAL ( 7TH-8TH OF OCTOBER)

Well, this experience started on Saturday when we took our airplane at 8.15 a.m., so we had to be there at 7.15 a.m. We all were excited and really happy (and, to be honest, tired at that hour). We arrived to Madrid and we divided us in two groups because one flight was leaving before the other. So, the other group whose flight left after had the oppotunity to visit the Bernabeu, where a lots of important football match are played. We took the flight and we arrived to Porto at almost lunch time, so we were exploring the city a little bit just when we had already left our bags and suitcases, and after that we ate in a traditional and small restaurant where the lunch was great. Afther that, we were making time visiting the centre and its shops while the other group
was arriving. When they came, we all went to the apartament again. It was really cool, with 3 bathrooms and 4 bedrooms, 1 kitchen and 1 living room. There, we had a shower and decided where we would sleep. Then, we went out and ate in a wonderful place: the port in the river. The view fascitaned all of us. We wanted to stay in Porto for all the trip! After that, teachers allowed us to go out more time: at 1 a.m. in the apartament. So, with our happiness´s faces, we went out. We were exploring the roads for five minutes when we found two nice Portuguese girs, and we ask them where to go. They came with us to a pub, when we could dance and drink some refreshments. We arrived home punctual, and we ate some ice-cream in front of the TV. The morning after, we visited again the river, but the view was completely different with the sun´s shine. We ate in Mc Donald´s and we took the train at 5 p.m. So, at 6 p.m. we were already in Braga. Families were waiting for us in the train station and the real experience had started.

NEXT MEETING IN PORTUGAL

Next Saturday 8th of October, a group of 6 Erasmus students : Armando Aibar, Claudia Liñán, Laura Peláez, Liliem Mohammed, Fahd Hamed, Mónica Barceló and 2 teachers: Tatiana Benet and Ana Carmona, will be heading for Braga ( Portugal) till the 14th of October.

This is our first learning/ teaching/ forming activity for us  and we are really excited about it.

During this week we have accomplished 3 tasks: we have made a video for the European day of Languages, we have interviwed a deaf student and her teacher (since the main topic of this visit is integration of students with special abilities) and we have designed a power point presentation about how these students receive support classes in our center. Likewise, we have recorded a video where we show the obstacles and disadvantages that people with physical disabilities or different abilities find in our city.

In our week in Braga, we will be hosted by Portuguese students ( some of them we ourselves hosted in Melilla last April ) and we will enjoy a wide variety of activities: sports, presentations, debates, IT workshops , activities together with SSN ( students with special needs ) and we will have the opportunity to show our in-between visits assignments.

Besides , we will be able to visit the magical city of Porto, Guimaraes and Braga.

We will tell you our experiences just after coming back..so please, keep in touch and see you very soon in this blog.

INTERNATIONAL MEETING IN MELILLA 24-28 APRIL

Our partners are already here! We had been looking forward to this moment for so long  from the meeting in Caserta that  the months had gone too quickly

Months of preparations, programming, designing, mails, phone calls , adjusting time-tables, meetings and constant social networks checking. But at the end, we had succeeded  to fit all the programmed activities into the right schedule for teachers and students and what it is most important, the matching of the students seemed to go perfectly fine: students were happy with their mates and their communication was frequent and  fluent.

We wanted to make all kinds of Stage Arts the theme around which all the lectures and activities were to be designed and programmed: Drama, Music, Performances, Corporal expression , Dance would be the topics to reflect upon, integration and fight against discrimination in  the most vulnerable and underpriviledged social groups in our communities ; Art as the universal means of communicating anger, frustration, desperation, loneliness but also, solidarity, empathy and hope. And side by side with all kinds of artistic and cultural expressions, we have focused on Gastronomy as a deep, instinctive, genuine and most representative means of cultural identity for all the people.

Having all of this in mind, we have tried to contact lecturers, teachers and experts who work with students in risk of social exclusion and with special educative needs, students with migrant background , unaccompanied minors , refugees and they have taught us how music, dance, corporal expression, singing, performances , paintings and photographs are valuable and rich resources to raise our students´ awareness about the terrible situations of unfairness, intolerance, prejudice, hate, fear and ignorance surrounding us in our daily lives.  Moreover, we wanted to highlight our own students´ artistic capacities to find out through their vision, imagination and sensitiveness what they feel and think about the topics of our project: unprejudiced minds willing to collaborate to make a better society.

WELCOME TO MELILLA

From the 24th to the 29th of April, we will host our partners in our city.  From last October 2016, when we came from the first international meeting in Caserta ( Italy) , we have been working  in the organization of this meeting, thrilled with the idea of being able to cope with all the programming management: tasks, details, responsabilities. It has been hard work since then but we have enjoyed every moment of the process:  informing our High School colleagues , designing the quesionnaires to find out the perfect matching for all the Erasmus students participating in the project, booking hotels,holding  several meeting with all the people involved in this adventure: management board, colleagues, families, local institutions and experts in migratory and social integration issues.

During this week, we want  to share with you experiences where the idea of a peaceful coexistence  of different religions, languages and cultures is always present.

You will fully understand the concept of interculturality tasting our recipes, listening to different music styles ,visiting beautiful Temples or walking aroung our Four-cultures city.

And you will share our motivation to give voice and visibility to these marginalized social groups which need us so much through different projects where  Art is so important to promote their inclusion as  European citizens.

This is week is very significant for us for several reasons: firstly, we want to give our students a wide, enriching and meaningful linguistic and vital experience in Europe, secondly, this Erasmus+ programme fits perfectly with our High School objetive to internalionalize our center and educative methods and lastly, these kind of experiences are a powerful tool to improve teachers´ linguistic skills and are the best way to go on strengthening and learning new educative approaches and making possible future working and personal projects.

So, WELCOME  TO MELILLA AND WE HOPE YOU ENJOY YOUR TIME WITH US

First Transnational meeting at Caserta (Italy)

Our first international meeting without students was held in Caserta (Italy) from the 3rd to the 7th of October 2016. Teacher Amparo and me were looking forward to meeting those who were going to become Project colleagues and close friends during our adventure together.

We flew to Naples on Saturday on the 1st of October and slept over in the city to enjoy its magnificent Baroque churches and palaces and walk around its atmospheric and lively narrow streets. On Sunday , we took to train to Caserta where we had rented a nice apartment for the week.

On Monday 3rd of October, we headed for the Liceo Scientifico Antonio Díez in Caserta , where we met the rest of the teachers coming from Finland, Wales, Reunión y Portugal. We had a welcome reception from the authorities and each educative center participating in the project showed our school backgrounds in the Assembly Room to the rest of the international teams

In the afternoon , we visited the Royal Palace of Caserta.

On Tuesday ,we were taught through several presentations led by the Italian students the migrant drama in Campania ( figures, data and organizations which fight against migrants´explotaition by the different mafias) . We also got to know more about the integration and educative programmes to help these migrants in their vocational formation to try to find a job.

We had an afternoon workshop where we discussed the convenient dates for the following meetings:

Visit Dates

• Spain visit - 24th - 28th April 2017 (book flights asap to leave on the Sat)
• Portugal visit - 9th-13th October 2017
• La Reunion - 16-22nd April 2018
• Wales - 8th-14th October 2018
• Finland - 11th-16th February 2019

Erasmus Spanish Team

Last 25th of January, we held an Erasmus meeting in our High School to present the activities we are planning to implement during the week from the 24th -28th of April.  We are designing mostly artistic and interactive activities related to Cooking, Photography and Music. The main objectives are to show how interculturality and diversity are best represented and accomplished in the collaborative work of students with different ethnic and cultural backgrounds .The results of these workshops will show how young generations enrich and lead their lives with understanding and respect of the diversity found in the globalised culture existing in our modern society. As you can see from the photo , a lot of teachers from our High School are willing to participate in this adventure since this Erasmus project is included in the Educative yearly programming of our High School.

There will also be examples of good practice of NGO´s which work hard to make a better world and the way we, as young volunteers, can contribute to improve the living conditions of the underpriviledged and those in risk of social exclusión if we actively participate as European citizen in those organizations and institutions. We hope their example will be followed by the younger generations.

Introducing our project

In this blog, the teachers and students participanting  in the project Leading Lights in Europe are going to inform the whole school community about the updated news and activities will be carrying out to implement the main objectives of this compelling and exciting new educative adventure. You will find information, ideas, activities and photos of all the transnational meetings and it will be a powerful tool to complement our other European blog:  leadinglightserasmus.blogspot.com.es ,where you can follow and read about all the activities our partners are designing and doing in their schools to foster attitudes against xenophobia, inequalities and sexual, racial or social discrimination.

We hope you find it interesting and worth while to follow and enrich it with you comments and suggestions!!