New Stories of the Dog and the CatUnited Boarding School – Special needs primary school and Special

needs kindergarten and Practical school, LEVICE, SlovakiaKindergarten, Primary school and Secondary school Daneta, HRADEC

KRÁLOVÉ, Czech Republic

http://novepribehy.webnode.cz

New Stories of the Dog and the Cat

Czech-Slovak project „NEW STORIES OF THE DOG AND THE CAT” was a project which belonged to the partnership of two schools providing education to pupils with special educational needs. The project drew its inspiration from a children’s book by Josef Capek “The Stories of the Dog and the Cat”. Throughout the entire school year 2011/2012 the pupils in both partner schools became familiar with ten pleasant stories about two inseparable friends – a dog and a cat. An integral part of educational work with children in special needs schools is the use of special therapeutic methods in order to eliminate the problems resulting from a particular disability type.

Pedagogical Innovation and Creativity

Both schools provide education to special needs pupils with various degrees of mental and combined disabilities. Our project was based on therapies enriched with a motif of friendship and experiences from playing with the dog and the cat integrated into the lessons during the whole school year. It involved the whole schools (more than 240 pupils). The main aim was to improve the reading literacy by means of creative collaboration, active using of ICT and pupil´s experienced self-realization. The eTwinning school teams of teachers were established, where the main idea of our project was integrating moment in their school lessons.

Curricular integrationThe eTwinning project had become an integrated part of the educational programs in both partner schools. It was an all-year round whole school project which involved all units of our school (special needs kindergarten, special needs primary school, practical school, school-clubs and groups after lessons) – pupils with S.E.N., autistic children, Romani children. The project was so diverse and extensive in terms of activities that it stretched out to all subjects and after-school activities, too. Activities were realized at all subjects, via sectional topics and in special eTwinning project days at school. Participants worked in a school teams according to subject, therapy, disability, age of pupils, type of the project activity, etc.

Collaboration between partner schools

We (coordinators) created a project website (www.novepribehy.webnode.cz), e-mail account and a Facebook community group to present and to share our project to a broad public, pupils, parents, participating teachers and all people interested in working with disabled children as well as to communicate with each other. Both authors updated the website on an ongoing basis and we also published through TwinBlog on the eTwinning portal. Following a mutual agreement we continuously and dynamically adapted the monthly activity plan by adding our new ideas or those of our colleagues, pupils or others involved and thus inspirited each other.

Creative use of ICTTo publish news about our schools, photo galleries, project outputs and all information about the project, timeline, educational aspect, therapies, etc. we used the project’s website www.novepribehy.webnode.cz. An independent website www.facebook.com/novepribehy was used to inform the broad public about project, interested people posted their comments and this way contributed to its better quality. To highlight our project work for future prospective eTwinning or Comenius partners we used the TwinBlog on www.etwinning.net, where we published selected outputs.

Pupils used ICT with help. Our mentally disabled pupils are able to communicate in their mother tongue (Slovak or Czech).

Sustainability and Transferability

We synchronized activities of both schools, used them flexibly and we inspired each other, which led to creation of new joint activities, which we then integrated in the education process and the general life of both schools. It was a whole-school project involved approx. 240 pupils. We educate a diverse group of pupils and we planned our activities to fit everyone. Through our project we presented handicapped children as a creative and clever member of a common society. The applications can be used in other schools, be it regular primary schools, special secondary schools or colleges (to prepare future special needs teachers), inspired by other fairy-tale books, too. Our partnership persists.

Results and Benefits Our website contains over 190 news items about the life of our schools, above 1400 photographs, 10 therapies and 80 partial outputs. The best outputs included the “New Story of the Dog and the Cat – How They Became Friends” – pupils took turns to continue the story in Slovak and Czech and aided it with their own illustrations. Dog’s and Cat’s diaries are also included on our website. The project benefits very much from international professional cooperation of teachers, exchange of practice and creative ideas.Another benefit worth mentioning was effective participation of pupils with various handicaps in the learning process and their self-realization.

Other Awards Award from the NSS Slovakia – Teacher of the Month (January 2012). National and European Quality Labels from the NSS Czech Republic and NSS Slovakia. Absolute winner of National eTwinning prizes 2012 in Czech Republic. The winner of National eTwinning prizes 2012 in Slovakia.Financial benefit from Hradec Kralove Region and the other sponsors.Support by enterprise subjects of Vivarium Levex and ZooExpo (yearlong cooperation).

Links to Project Outcomes

http://twinblog.etwinning.net/novepribehy/

http://www.facebook.com/novepribehy

http://novepribehy.webnode.cz

WebsiteWebsite

www.novepribehy.webnode.cwww.novepribehy.webnode.czz

Website mapHomepage includes:

News - regularly published news about the life in both partner schools (our website contains over 190 news items), intermediate outputs and tasks

MenuSearchContactForumPolls

Video story (monthly changed for the current story), a map and information

about sponsors

Menu• Partnerské školy – Partner schools• Informace o projektu/Informácie o projekte –

Information about the project Project objectives, expected results and project

timetableVýstupy z projektu - Outputs from the project

Every month pupils of both partner schools made plenty of partial individual and joint outputs – each

month motivated with a different story and a chosen therapy. Each month we carried at least one joint activity involving both schools. All outputs are the result of the work of pupils (with the support and

guidance of their teachers and assistants).  

The best outputs included the “New Story of the Dog and the Cat – How They Became Friends” – which the pupils wrote by turns (in Slovak and Czech) to continue their invented story and illustrated it in return by themselves. This book as a great result of our school partnership was donated to a Museum of Brothers Capek in the town Male Svatonovice in the Czech Republic during children´s visit (pupils from Hradec Kralove) in this museum (in June 2012).

Another important yearlong activity was writing diary – Cat´s diary in Czech school and Dog´s diary in Slovak school – where children noted their daily interesting experiences from school or from home.

The main outcomes of the project

Fotogalerie/Fotogaléria – Photo gallery Above 1600 photographs

Terapie/Terapia – Therapy An integral part of educational work with children in special needs schools is the use of

special therapeutic methods in order to eliminate the problems resulting from a particular

disability type. The project implementation was based on special therapeutic methods of work

with children with mental and combined disabilities and focused primarily on art therapy,

bibliotherapy, dramatotherapy, zootherapy, canistherapy, hippotherapy, ergotherapy, play

therapy, Snoezelen, etc.

Hry (puzzle) – Games (puzzle)Puzzle using a PC and an interactive whiteboard.

Each school chose a photo of where we are and then we used Planet Jigsaw website to create

two puzzles with two different levels. Students competed in against each other and we

eventually announced two charts of the winners in various levels (within our two partner schools). On our website could interested

members of the general public participate by folding our LOGO as a puzzle.

• eTwinning – eTwinning Information about eTwinning

Odkazy – LinksSponzoři/Sponzori – SponsorsWe also managed to involve in our activities the pupils’ parents, people and organizations outside the school and we started cooperation with other

entities as well (e.g. library, Red cross, Town office, consulting and professional facilities,

businesses, sponsors, various theatrical groups and other organizations). Our cooperation with

Vivarium Levex and ZooExpo has extended to the following school year beyond the project and the two entities continue providing zootherapy to the

disabled pupils. The project was financially supported by Hradec Kralove Region and the

other sponsors.

Hodnocení projektu/Hodnotenie projektu - Evaluation of the projectDuring the project we created a year-round

timetable with a variety of activities, which were integrated directly into the lessons and syllabi of

most subjects. This way, pupils fulfilled the educational objectives and at the same time developed their skills by being involved in

eTwinning international collaboration. Every months we made at least one joint product, as for example: „The New Story of the Dog and the Cat

– How They Became Friends“ – writing and collaborative illustration – at the end of the project a collaborative book was created.

project logo (using children’s drawings – Czech children drew the cat and Slovak children drew

the dog and the best drawings were used to make the logo); Czech and Slovak dictionary of animals (PowePoint presentation); sending of greetings to the partner by post (several times during the project – holidays); puzzle making

competition; writing a letter to the partner and sending it by post; pupil communication via

Facebook, e-mail and videoconference; other outputs.

• Project in numbers• Presentations in Czech, Slovak and English• Awards

Napsali o nás/Napísali o nás - Wrote about usPromotion of school through eTwinning on

regional, national and global level.

• Napište nám/Napíšte nám - Write to us For example: Dear friends, I was not at the Museum of the Capek brothers in Male Svatonovice during your pupil´s visit

there...It is a wonderful work you are doing with your children and I know as an ex-teacher that even very demanding one. I can say that it is all more valuable because children are the

creators themselves and their work is really very nice…Thank you again for your lovely present and for your beautiful

pedagogical work and work to holdback the price of message of authors Karel and Josef Capek.

• Kontakt - Contact

Our partnership persists and eTwinning is fun!!!

1st partner visit in LEVICE (Slovakia)

2nd partner visit in HRADEC KRÁLOVÉ (Czech Republic)

Thank you! Tatiana Michalovičová and Josef Suchánek