Initial Evaluation of the Comenius project

1. InitialEvaluationoftheComeniusproject GastronomyLifeand Arts Karina Svircenkova

2. AverageNumberof students involvedintheproject- • 50 students • Average Number of teachers involved in the project- 5 • ageof students involvedintheproject- 15-24 yearsold

3. In what way have you selected students to participate in this Project? • SpanishteamssaysthatStudents participating in the Project should be motivated and eager to learn other cultures. They are friendly, nice and sociable. All of them are deeply involved in the project and would take advantage of the opportunity to travel to other countries and meet new people. They are hard-working students, but not necessary the ones with the best academic results or grades.

4. Czechteamsaysthatthey’ve selected the students with excellent results and behavior who wanted to participate. Each teacher recommended some students and then all participating teachers agreed on the final group.

5. Bulgarianteamsaysthatthey organized a contest prior to the first visit inviting participants in our previous project. • At the beginning of this school year students were invited to participate in the second competition to choose between the candidates. They were given a task corresponding to the project and testing both their English and IT competences.

6. Italianteamsaysthatthe staff has chosen two classes whose teachers were interested in the project

7. Latvianteamsaysthattheyhaveorganized a competitionofwriting «MotivationalLetter-why I want to takepartinthisproject»

8. Englishteam • Students have been selected according to the courses that they are studying on, which in turn have led to them being offered the opportunity to participate in the project. In this they have been told about the project and then set a task to complete, one that relates to the project theme. This work is in addition to the usual course work, so they are having to prove and earn the right to be considered for the opportunity to participate

9. Turkishteam • With four different meetings we have informed every student of our school about the Project. As the second step we have organized a second meeting fort he students that are willing to take part within the Project. They were given a task to prepare for the billboards and the blog of our school.

10. What aims did you set for the Project after the first meeting? • Spanishteamsets thefollowingaims • - foster the new technologies • - improve the competence in English • - search and select information regarding gastronomy, festivals and traditions • - study the festivals of the autumn and winter • - promote the artistic creativity of students

11. Czechteam • Our aim is to involve students in collaboration with other participating schools so that they improved their language skills and learnt as much as possible about the countries of our Project partners.

12. Bulgarianteam • We started working on the planned activities-started a Facebook page for our team, started working on the blog, organized a contest for postcards with the recepies , a contest for poems and collecting ideas for a video film.All our students joined Dropbox to enable exchange of materials.They also prepare travel booklets for each mobility.After returning they write reports in English evaluating the work done so far as well as commenting their personal experiences and expectations.

13. Italianteam • WE set to achieve the aims specified in the project

14. Latvianteam • - foster the new technologies • - imporve the competence in English • - search and select information regarding gastronomy, festivals and traditions • - study the festivals of the autumn and winter • - promote the artistic creativity of students

15. Englishteam • The aim was to be able to offer the opportunity throughout the creative arts department within the college, in order to give a wide range of students the opportunity to travel and experience different cultures and ways of working. In general it is to increase the students awareness of what is possible for them, and also be in a position to reward them for producing good work.

16. Turkishteam • Our aim is to make students write about festivals and food that is prapared especially for them. Make students have good cooperation with their group mates.Finaly we hope to achive an improvement in students’ English lavel.

17. What activities did you plan for the students in your school? • Spanishteam • - Visit of the central Market and making a video presentation of the rich variety of food • - Students introudce themselves for the blog during a tour round Valencia old town • - Visit of the exhibition of Andy Warhol and its pop art painting regarding gastronomy • - Attendance to a a workshop on creative culinary pop art • - Writing a questionnarie on healthy habits • - Writing the winter and autumn culinary tradiions and festivals • - Design of the blog • - Design of the webpage • - Design of the culinary postcards • - Working the contents for the student’s corner: Idiomatic expresssions, links to learn languages

18. Czechteam • Students should explore the connection of art and gastronomy, add contributions to our blog, create graphic designs for all the materials, make videos and communicate with students of other participating schools and thus improve their language skills.

19. Italianteam • - planning and making a box to contain the recipes • - - start a blog • - - investigate the culinary traditions of our country and collecting typical recipes • - -planning of the meeting in Bologna • - - writing a tourist booklet about Bologna

20. Latvianteam • Starttheblog • Workonculinarytraditions • PlanofthemeetinginLatvia • Write a touristbookletaboutRigaandBologna

21. Englishteam • The initial activities were for students to create posters that could be used to advertise the project. This was one of the tasks that has been set for Birmingham Metropolitan College to complete. Along with this, we also set the task for some students to produce some images that relate to British food dishes, and use these for postcards. This was one of the tasks that were set at the initial meeting between the countries involved. Following this, we are wanting the students to produce creative art work that has ‘gastronomy’ as it’s theme.

22. Turkishteam • Shooting videos on how to cook a treditional meal. • Geadering information about the place we are going to visit. • Design the blog and the postcards

23. Allthemembersoftheprojectconsider • Makingpresentations • Takingpartinlocaltrips • Workingingroups • Going to anothercountryon a visit • Creatingblog • Preparingtravellingbookletvaluablefor students

24. AllthemembersoftheprojectagreedwiththefactthatComeniusprojecthasenrichedtheircurriculum, waswidelypublishedintheirschools, coordinatorshaveenoughsupport to carryouttheirroleinComeniusproject, coordinatorshaveenoughtime to undertakethetasks, aswellastheyfindcolleaguescooperative.

25. Whatkindofchangesorimprovementswouldyoulike to seeintheproject? • Allthemembersoftheprojectfindtheorganizedactivitiesveryusefulandfullysatisfiedwiththeprojectandthinkthatasweareonaninitialstageoftheprojecttheyarenotable to thinkofpossiblechangesorimprovementsbutstill students musthavemoreopportunity to workincomputerroomsforbeingincontactwiththeother students ofthe o thercountriesparticipatinginthisproject,somehave concerns about the financial aspects and ensuring that the money will be used correctly and evenly over the two years. However, thepartnerwould not be able to say how this could be improved, as having the lump sum now does enable for a good deal of planning.