A new project

Our Comenius Multilateral School Partnership has finished, but a new Comenius Project is beginning.

Next February, our school will have a Comenius Language Assistant from Hungry!
Here is a small presentation sent by her.


Dear FORAVE Students!
My name is Katalin Tarr. I am 25 years old, I’m from Budapest, Hungary. I study Italian Language and Literature, and American Studies at the ELTE University in Budapest. In the spring of 2009 I am going to be a COMENIUS language teaching assistant in your school.
During the assistantship, my most important task will be to improve your English skills, and I hope that we will all enjoy working together. I would like to teach English in a communicative way, focusing on the improvement of your comprehension and self-expression in English. I would like to do a lot of activities and games in connection with interesting topics, such as films and music. I hope I can also take part in the school activities and events outside of the classroom, where we can communicate in English in an informal way.
I would also like to present to you the culture of my country, Hungary, and I hope that with your help I will get to know the culture of North Portugal as well. I’m sure we will find the ways to organize some intercultural events to do that!
I’m really looking forward to meeting you, and I hope that my assistantship will be useful and pleasant for all of us!
Yours,

Katalin

Final meeting at FORAVE

On Thursday, the Comenius students and teachers went for a whole day trip to Guimarães, the city where Portugal was born, Braga and Ponte de Lima, the most ancient city in Portugal.

Final Meeting at FORAVE

Wednesday. A day for debating the project and for the students´ presentations about their own countries, cultures, schools and other interesting themes.

Final Meeting at FORAVE

This week we had our partners visit for the final Comenius meeting.

Tuesday. First Comenius meeting at FORAVE.
The partners made a visit to the school and viewed some lessons.

The afternoon was spent in Serralves Museum of Modern Art and in Porto, the second biggest Portuguese city, where we explained some historical events and places to our partners.

Our week in IES Los Cardones, Tenerife

During almost one week, Nuno and I were in Tenerife to know our Spanish Comenius partners. Well, not just the Spanish ones, but the Italian and the Finnish too.
On Monday, 21st April, we arrived in Tenerife around 3 o’clock in the afternoon. Pepe, a Spanish teacher, went to the airport to pick us up and it took us about 45 minutes to arrive to San Isidro. When we arrived, and after we ate something, we met our partners and then we went for a walk in the beach and we tried to go up the Monte Rojo, but it was so high that we couldn’t…
After that we went to Gabriela’s house where we ate something and talked for a while trying to get to know each other.
On Tuesday, we went to our new school (I.E.S Los Cardones), but we didn’t have the first class cause the teachers were on strike. In the afternoon we went for a guided tour to La Laguna and to Santa Cruz where we had lunch and did some shopping.
On Wednesday, Nuno and I went to school and before all the Comenius partners we did our presentations about our school and a healthy eating habits questionnaire. In the afternoon, some of the Spanish students took us to a nice place to have lunch and there we had a good time!
On Thursday we visited the volcano “El Teide”. It´s very beautiful and really really high. We had a guide who explained us how the volcano appeared, we saw many different types of rocks and a movie about the volcano too. We spent a very good time there. In the evening, we said goodbye to the Italian partners because they were leaving very early the following day.
On our last day in Tenerife, Friday, we went to school to say goodbye to our Spanish and Finnish friends and at midday we left the school to go to the airport.
There, we took a plane to Madrid. In Madrid, at night, we went sightseeing. Madrid is a fantastic city. We went to “Plaza Mayor” to have dinner and it was amazing! Plaza Mayor is really big and beautiful and full of people from different places!
During our last day, we visited some interesting places like Plaza Cibeles, Puerta del Sol, Palacio Real, Museo del Prado and the famous Atocha railway station. It was nice to see all these places, but it was also very tiring .
I have to say that I loved this week! The Spanish teachers and students were very nice with everybody. Everyone received us so well and was so friendly with us. It was an amazing experience! And I even met some Portuguese students in I.E.S Los Cardones!
See you in Portugal. Kisses and hugs for everyone.

Filipa and Nuno

Visiting IES Los Cardones in Tenerife

Our team in Tenerife.
From left to right: Artur Passos, Teresa Santos, Nuno Moreira and Filipa Laranjeira.

Nuno and Lorenzo (his host).

Filipa and Aixa.

Nuno and Filipa´s presentations.

Some field trips....

La Laguna

El Teide

Puerto de la Cruz

Santa Cruz

Students´ presentations in Tenerife

Last week our students visited the Spanish school of IES Los Cardones.

They took some presentations about FORAVE and Healthy Eating Habits.

Here is the one on eating habits.

Eating Habits

Hope you like it!

Your visit to FORAVE

Dear partners,

Here are the students who will host yours during your stay in Portugal.

From left to right: João, Paulo, Jorge and Nuno.

From left to right: Andreia, Ana, João and Diogo.

See you soon!

Students´survey

In order to collect some information about our students, their aims, opinions and preferences, the Comenius team decided to do a shorter version of the survey done last year.
Here it is:

We’d like you to fill in the following questionnaire in order to collect precious information about you, your future plans, your opinions about school and your tastes and preferences in general.
Your replies will be analysed together with your mates’ so as to improve communication inside school and obtain better results for all of us....

Class and course ............ Male .......... Female ......... Age ..........

PERSONAL FEELINGS, PROJECTS and GOALS
1. We ask you to describe yourself shortly. For each feature, say if it fits you or not. (Yes or No)
- I love novelties
- I am tidy
- I’m very active
- I’m a simple person
- I’m a bit introverted
- When faced with difficulties, I lose heart
- I’m successful in many things I do
- I’m worried about the future
- I mostly act on instinct, more emotionally than rationally
- I prefer working on my own rather than with others
- I am a good leader
- I’m self-confident
- I am usually quite nervous
- I’m always anxious
- I like taking risks

SOCIAL AIMS AND EXPECTATIONS
2. Everybody has some aims to achieve. Which ones are you more interested in? (Free choice)
- economic well-being
- success in profession / school
- a safe job and a decent salary
- enjoying a good reputation
- improving culture, knowledge
- having a good time, enjoying the pleasures of life
- travelling
- relaxing, resting
- spending time with friends
- taking holidays
- taking care of family, house
- having children, bringing them up
- staying with partner (boy/girl friend)
- enjoying good health
- being physically efficient
- practising sports
- being good- looking
- helping the others
- political commitment
- religious experience
- freedom from duties and ties
- setting up business on your own

3. How much do you trust each of the following institutions, groups, organizations? ( Yes,very much / enough or Little/No trust)
- scientists
- the UN
- the police
- teachers
- the army
- school
- judges / magistrates
- priests /clergymen
- industrialists
- banks
- dailies
- TV
- the radio
- political parties
- the Internet
- trademarks
- human rights associations (Amnesty, Emergency,..)
- singers / artists
- sportsmen (footballers...)
- family

4. How much do you feel part of.....?? (A lot / enough or Little / not at all)
- Your family
- Your school
- Your class
- Your group of friends
- Your town
- Your region
- Your country
- Europe
- The whole world

5. With reference to teachers, we ask you to reflect upon the following didactic skills and to express your opinion. How much do you count on a teacher’s ability to ... (Answer with “1” to “5” or “?”)
- explain well
- create interest around a subject
- make use of good quality teaching tools
- use good textbooks
- show fairness/ equity in evaluating
- pay attention to the students’ school problems
- express respect and attention to the students’ personal problems

6. Now we’d like you to express – with the same numbers - how much you generally miss these same skills in your teachers. Think well before you decide!
- explain well
- create interest around a subject
- make use of good quality teaching tools
- use good textbooks
- show fairness/ equity in evaluating
- pay attention to the students’ school problems
- express respect and attention to the students’ personal problems

Thank you very much for your cooperation!!!

Our "Eating Habits Questionnaire"

Here is the questionnaire about eating habits we did.

Eating Habits Questionnaire

We’d like you to fill in the following questionnaire in order to collect some information about you and your eating habits.

Class: ___________ Male ___ Female ___ Age: __________

1. Do you have breakfast before going to school?
¨ Always
¨ Sometimes
¨ Never

2. What do you normally have for breakfast?
¨ Bread
¨ Cereals
¨ Milk
¨ Coffee
¨ Juice
¨ Yogurt
¨ Cookies
¨ Fruit
¨ Something else: ____________

3. Do you usually have a snack in the morning/ in the afternoon?
¨ Always
¨ Sometimes
¨ Never

4. How often do you eat salad or vegetables with lunch or dinner?
¨ Always
¨ Frequently
¨ Sometimes
¨ Rarely
¨ Never

5. Do you usually eat soup?
¨ Everyday
¨ 2 or 3 times a week
¨ Rarely
¨ Never

6. How many times a week do you eat fish?
¨ Everyday
¨ 2 or 3 times a week
¨ Rarely
¨ Never

7. How often do you eat fruit?
¨ Everyday
¨ 2 or 3 times a week
¨ Rarely
¨ Never

8. Do you usually have a dessert with your lunch or dinner?
¨ Always
¨ Frequently
¨ Sometimes
¨ Rarely
¨ Never

9. What do you usually have for dessert?
¨ Fruit
¨ Yogurt
¨ Cake
¨ Coffee
¨ Something else: ________

10. What do you drink at meals?
¨ Water
¨ Wine
¨ Juice
¨ Tea
¨ Something else: _________

11. How frequently do you eat at fast food restaurants?
¨ Never
¨ 2 or 3 times a week
¨ Almost everyday
¨ Everyday


12. Do you use food supplements to complete your diet?
¨ Yes
¨ No


13. Do you think you have healthy eating habits?
¨ Yes
¨ No


Thank you for your cooperation and don’t forget to have a healthy diet!

TG 07/10

Preparing our visit to Tenerife

Filipa and Nuno are going to visit IES Los Cardones next week.

Preparing their presentations....

Our Comenius team in Finland

João and Ricardo with the Spanish students.

Carlos Paiva and José Ramalhoto with the Spanish teachers.

Our trip

On Monday, the 31st March, it was the start of a new adventure for Ricardo and I, because we arrived in Finland for a visit to our Finnish Comenius Partners.
At the airport in Porto we saw many people from different countries and we had a good time doing some “explorations” and taking a lot of pictures. In the plane we saw the most incredible landscapes and everything was so beautiful.
When we arrived in Helsinki, it was a pleasure to meet teacher Harri and the two girls that “adopted” us in their families. The houses were pretty, big and warm.
In the following days we got to know the school, met some students and teachers too. We did a presentation about ourselves and about the work done by our students to the Comenius project.
The Finnish school is different from our school. It has a classroom for each school subject, like “hotel services”, “good habits”, German, religion and other subjects like the ones we have in Portugal (mathematics, English, music…).
During our stay in Finland we visited some museums, churches, a castle, a forest (National Park), some ancient places, we saw the President’s house, the court, some shopping malls…. a different culture. The Finnish are very different from the Portuguese, they are open-minded, the way they look is different, they have a good quality of life, they eat many times a day and have healthy eating habits (they eat a lot of vegetables), but they also eat too many chocolates and gums. But the Finnish have a thing in common with the Portuguese: they are a warm and welcoming people.
We had also the chance to taste Finnish food and to experiment some Finnish habits like sauna, riding horses, snow fights, bowling, some Finnish games… And of course we had the possibility to communicate in English, to discover another country, to be in contact with new people, to learn more about many different subjects.
The weather was cold; the most part of the Finnish people is blond and has green or blue eyes. The city where we stayed in had some green spaces and we could see reindeers, deers, rabbits walking in the streets and in the houses. The Finnish people don’t eat rabbits because in Finland they are pets.
We loved the entire Comenius group. The Finnish people are as nice and as funny as the Spanish people.
It was a fantastic trip and having new friends it’s great! It was a good experience, it was positive and nice.
To celebrate our farewell we had a party in Annu’s house and in the last day it was so hard to say goodbye! We didn’t cry but in our hearts we felt something strong and strange, it was really difficult.
So, we wish to meet you all again. A big kiss and a big hug to all of you! We already miss you so much!
See you in Portugal. Bye.

João Mota and Ricardo Vieira

Self-Esteem Questionnaire: analysis by the Comenius team

The following is the analysis of a survey that was done as a part of a Multilateral Comenius School Partnership project. The questionnaire aimed to analyse and compare the self-esteem levels shown by the Portuguese students with the ones shown by the students from Finland, Spain and Italy. The questionnaire included a total of 36 questions regarding the evaluation of self-esteem and was organized by the Italian school Istituto Tecnico Commerciale, Turistico e per Geometri "Enrico Mattei" in Decimomannu, Sardinia, and translated to Portuguese by the Portuguese project coordinators.
It is important to say that 60 male students answered the survey, which corresponds to 61% of the total students surveyed, and that 38 female students also did it, which corresponds to a rate of 39% of the total students involved in this survey. The students´ average age was 17 years old and they were all students at FORAVE.
In what concerns the analysis of the results it’s possible to conclude that the average score of the 98 students is placed in a high self-esteem level (average = 53). Looking at the results of the 38 female students, 36,8% have high self-esteem levels, 47,4% have average self-esteem levels and 15,8% have low self-esteem levels. Regarding the 60 male students, we can say that 76,7% have high self-esteem levels, 21,7% have average self-esteem levels and that 1,6 % have low self-esteem levels.

It must be stressed that these results aren’t a faithful picture and that they only represent trends. Nevertheless, this survey was important because it made our students realize the importance of being able to evaluate themselves in a positive way and of considering the self-esteem as a temporary psychological condition, that is to say, a condition that can be changed so that it can influence all their actions at school and with their families.