MINUTES OF THE FIRST STUDENTS MEETING OF COMENIUS PROJECT

The first students meeting of Comenius project Let's Know, let’s love, let's protect our

environment was held from 24nd to 28th March 2014 in Osnovna šola Vojke Šmuc Izola

(Slovenia).

It was attended by the teachers:

TEACHER'S NAME SUBJECT/FUNCTION COUNTRY

BEGOÑA MIRANDA GONZÁLEZ SPANISH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE /

HEAD OF STUDIES

SPAIN

VICTORIA CARCELLER GARRIDO SCIENCE / COMENIUS COORDINATOR SPAIN

SALVADOR COLOMAR GISBERT SCHOOL INSPECTOR SPAIN

SCARCIA SANDRA SPANISH / COMENIUS COORDINATOR ITALY

CAMPODALL'ORTO EDI MUSIC ITALY

DE MARTIN LUCIANA EXTERNAL EXPERT ITALY

BRONISLAVA NOSKOVIČOVÁ ENGLISH / COMENIUS COORDINATOR SLOVAKIA

ALENA GOLIANOVÁ SCIENCE AND GEOGRAPHY SLOVAKIA

MONIKA HLÚŠKOVÁ IT SLOVAKIA

VLADO GABA TECHNICAL COORDINATOR SLOVAKIA

MILAN PIVARCEK INTERNAL ASSISTANT SLOVAKIA

DEANA PROTNER SLOVENE LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE /

COMENIUS COORDINATOR

SLOVENIA

FRANKA SAKELŠAK SCIENCE SLOVENIA

DEBORA UMER GEOGRAPHY SLOVENIA

It was attended by students:

HOST GUEST COUNTRY

ARNISA HOXHA LORENA TARAZONA HORTELANO SPAIN

MINKA IDRIZAJ AINHOA PÉREZ QUESADA (ALERGIJA) SPAIN

KAJA LIČEN CARLA DE LA CRUZ GÓMEZ SPAIN

KAJA KOMLJANEC SAMANTA MACHADO (V.)

HANUSOVÁ MONIKA

ITALY

SLOVAKIA

TIM ČEHOVIN DANIEL BENAJES CALLAGHAN SPAIN

ENEJ SLUGA SANTIAGO LEÓN VELA SPAIN

MATIJA GREGORIČ DANIEL MARTÍNEZ MASEGOSA SPAIN

MAJ MITTENDORFER GORI ALBERTO ITALY

STELLA KRALJ INMACULADA GARCÍA BRIEGA SPAIN

KATARINA MARJANOVIČ CLAUDIA VINYALS ARGENTE SPAIN

ANA BIRSA KRUŠEC AMPARO ALMIRON RIVAS SPAIN

ANJA BLOKAR SALVADOR MARTINA ITALY

VID MIKLAVEC SERBATI MARCO ITALY

ROK ŠVAGELJ ANDREOLA STEFANO ITALY

KRISTJAN KOTRLE CASAGRANDE MATTEO ITALY

ROK GERGETA FERRÁN VERDÚ PONS SPAIN

KLEMEN ŠTAJNER MASETTO SIMONE ITALY

ŽIVA HROVATIN BURCUS GIULIA ITALY

ANJA IVANČIČ GREKOVA LINDA SLOVAKIA

NINA NIKOLIČ HAGAROVÁ NATÁLIA SLOVAKIA

KRISTINA BRŽAN HALAMIČKOVÁ SILVIA SLOVAKIA

ANA GRZETIČ BREDA BEATRICE ITALY

MAŠA MLAKAR

LUKA MLAKAR

LALÁKOVÁ LAURA SLOVAKIA

SAMANTA DELIČ NEMCOVÁ MICHAELA SLOVAKIA

ADNAN ŠABANOVIČ GEMBEŠ MARTIN SLOVAKIA

KRISTIAN NOVAK VALÍČEK MATEJ SLOVAKIA

VANESA TOMIĆ VUJIČ PEPUCHOVÁ MARTINA SLOVAKIA

ALEKSIA MIŠAN VALEŠOVÁ NIKOLA SLOVAKIA

MARUSHA JOVIĆ SIMIĆ DA DALT ERIKA ITALY

Ines Kokalj, Nik Tomič, Matej Možina

Students in blue are regularly involved in the Slovenian Comenius activities, others are just hosts.

According to the program of the meeting the working sessions and the excursions were

developed as follows:

Monday 24nd March

At 18:00 the teachers and students from Slovakia, Italy and Spain arrived to the

headquarters of Osnovna šola Vojke Šmuc Izola.

On arrival they were welcomed by some teachers, the headmistress and hosting families.

The headmistress Lenčka Prelovšek had a welcoming speech in Slovene and the coordinator

of the project at the Slovenian school Deana Protner in English.

Some food and drinks were offered and then the students left with their hosting families.

At 19:20 the Slovenian team took the teachers from Italy and Slovakia to the hotel by car,

the teachers from Slovakia went there by their two vans.

Tuesday 25th March

The meeting of students and teachers started at 8:20 in classroom 24 where the project

coordinator from Slovenia, Deana Protner, and teachers Debora Umer and Franka Sakelšak

welcomed the participants and invited them to the school hall where a school choir with

Tatjana Čeh, a music teacher, performed an Italian, a Spanish and a Slovak song in Slovene

language.

Once back in the classroom the program for the day of the meeting was reviewed. Deana

Protner prepared a diary to be written by each student during the week in Izola or once at

home.

From 8:50 to 9:50 all the participants divided into five groups, and the students from Izola

guided the guests on a tour of the school facilities. During this visit they had the opportunity

to get into some classes.

From 9:50 to 10:20 there was a break with a snack. The students ate in the classroom and

then they had the possibility to meet other students at school, teachers were invited in the

staff room where they could have a chat with other staff members of the school.

From 11:30 to 12:00 students from Slovenia, Italy, Spain and Slovakia were presenting their

work on visited natural parks and protected areas in each country. After each presentation

students asked their friends from other countries three questions about the presentation.

The students who knew the answer got a small present.

From 12:00 to 12:10 there was a short break.

After the break it was time to choose a logo designed by pupils from four participating

schools. Each school brought five logos. Among all twenty logos pupils had to choose one

which would be used with the official one. The logo from Italy was chosen. The girl, who

designed the logo, was given a rucksack plus the best Comenius logo award.

From 12:35 to 13:00 we were collecting pictures for the Environmental dictionary in five

languages.

At 13:00 all the pupils from hosting families came to join us in classroom 24, the information

for Wednesday were given.

At 13:30 all teachers and students went to a school canteen for lunch.

Wednesday 26th March

At 8:20 all the students (Comenius teams and hosting students) and teachers met in front of

the school. They got some food and drink and took the bus to Strunjan, a settlement

stretching along the Slovenian Coast between Izola and Piran.

This part of the coast was first proclaimed as Landscape Park in 1990 and in 2004 the park

came under the state protection. The first thing we could see was the pine avenue which is

the best preserved pine avenue in the hole territory of Slovenia.

Then we took a walk to the church of St Mary’s Apparition.

We kept walking to the view point above the cliffs and could admire the view of the Gulf of

Triest and the Strunjan Nature Reserve with its precipitous wall of up to 80 meters high cliffs.

The Strunjan cliffs form the largest known coastal flysch wall on the entire Adriatic coast.

We continued towards the beach, the saltpans and the Stjuža marine lagoon. At the beach

we had the opportunity to touch and see the layers that compose flysch.

We took the bus to Piran where we admired the Cathedral of St George, a monument to the

violinist Giuseppe Tartini, his house, the Municipal Palace, and the Venetian house. We went

for a short walk through some narrow and crooked streets of Piran.

At 12:00 we met Franka Sakelšak at the entrance to the Sečovlje Salina Nature Park. We

went for a guided tour which lasted almost two hours.

The Sečovlje salts flats are the northernmost salt flats in the Mediterranean. The salt is

produced in the traditional way based on a 700-year-old method that harmonizes man and

nature. Over the centuries, a unique habitat has formed for halophytic plants and animals

and migrating birds. The cultural heritage, which reflects centuries of work by saltmakers, is

extremely rich. The Sečovlje salt pans are today the largest coastal marsh wetlands (650

hectares), and at the same time the most important Slovenian locality from the

ornithological point of view. The variety of the bird species on this area, under the aspect of

nesting and wintering, is much larger than on any other comparable locality of the kind. Until

present date 272 bird species have been established in the Sečovlje salina, with some 90

breeders among them. On the basis of these facts, the Sečovlje Salina Nature Park, the

Government of the Republic of Slovenia in the year 2001 proclaimed the area of Sečovlje

Salina a nature park and the Museum of Salt-making a cultural monument of national

importance. In 1993, the Salina became the first Slovene wetland, inscribed on the list of

internationally important marshes under the auspices of the Ramsar convention. The Salina

is extremely important as an extraordinary assortment of various ecosystems, combined of

transition forms between sea water, brackish, fresh water and land ecosystems.

At 13:45 we continued for the village called Sv. Peter. There we visited an open-air

ethnographic museum – Tona’s house – a typical dwelling of the rural inhabitants. On the

ground floor there is a well-preserved “torkla”- olive press. On the first floor there is an old

rustic kitchen and a bedroom. At 15:00 the bus took us to Izola.

At 17:30 students from Comenius teams and teachers arrived at school to get things ready

for the Cultural night which started at 19:00. Parents, other teachers, members of parents

association and the community were invited to see the performance. Each team went on

stage and performed with songs, dances, short plays ... At 20:30 everyone was invited to the

school hall where they could taste some typical food from four partecipating countries

prepared by students in Comenius teams and their families. Socialising continued till 22:00.

Thursday 27th March

At 8:20 all the students (Comenius teams and hosting students) and teachers met in front of

the school. They got some food and drink and took the bus to Škocjan Caves – UNESCO

World Heritage. The guided tour lasted two hours. After eating our packed lunch we went on

the educational path but due to a strong wind we did not walk along the whole path but just

part of it. At about 15:00 we arrived to Izola.

At 18:00 teachers participating in the project met at school. Each of them expressed their

feelings, thoughts about the present meeting. The Slovenian members explained the

difficulties in finding thirty hosting families. But during the meeting week they said that lots

of pupils came to ask if there would be another possibility for them to host a student in the

future. The meeting was a success, everyone at school knows what the project is about.

The Italians asked whether the number of students taking part in the meeting should be

reduced or remain the same in the future projects. It all depends on the number of students

meetings.

The Slovak team proposed, as the next teachers meeting will be held in Slovakia, to go to

Slovakia with three students from each school. There they will take part to regular lessons.

For Spanish and Italian team this is not possible as their students have to undertake their

final exams in May and June. For the Slovenian team there are no such issues, but as they

did not plan this activity it is not appropriate to carry it on with pupils from just one

participating country.

The dates of the meeting in May in Slovakia and in November in Spain were decided: the

week of the 12th May, and the week of the 10th November.

Salvador Colomar Gisbert explained his point of view of the Erasmus+ importance.

Victoria Carceller Garrido explained the opportunnities offered by eTwinning.

Friday 28th March

At 9:00 all the students (Comenius teams and hosting students) and teachers met at school

in classroom 24. The Slovaks and the Italians brought their luggage to school. Each

participating school was given a completed Environmental Vocabulary in five languages. A

journalist from the local magazine came to interview teachers and students.

Students spent some time together, they had a snack and at 10:00 the Slovaks left Izola. The

students of the three Comenius teams (Slovenia, Spain, Italy) went on the orienteering tour

in Izola. They were divided in six groups, in each group there were students and teachers

from different countries. Before leaving the school each member got a booklet with cues to

follow, questions to be answered … They returned to school between 12:00 and 13:00.

Students and a teacher from Slovenian school were interviewing students and teachers for

another local magazine.

From 13:30 to 14:00 students and teachers went to a school canteen for lunch.

At 15:00 the Italians left Izola.

Saturday 28th March

Visiting Ljubljana, the capital city of Slovenia; teachers and students from Spain, Deana

Protner, Debora Umer and Lenčka Prelovšek went to Ljubljana by bus.