Nadaline, 14 octoober, 2008

Last year from November 13-17 Kaiu Basic school headmaster Maris Lääts, English teacher Päivi Aljamaa and 9th grade student Anar Pajula were in Baia Mare, Rumania at the Comenius project „Higher quality in education with family support“ first meeting.

On May 21-24 Maris Lääts, Päivi Aljamaa and 7th grade students Marian Mäeots and Silje Vokksepp took part in the second meeting in Usak, Turkey.

On October 8- 12 Turkish and Rumanian partners came here to Estonia.
The project issue “Higher quality in education with family support” connects three different countries with the same problem. As all three schools are situated in the area with not enough employment, so lots of parents are forced to look for a job outside the quarters, in bigger centres of their country or even abroad. That kind of situation decreases family influence on their children’s growing. In cooperation with partner schools there are tried to be found different possibilities and exchange experiences which can help school and family collaboration and better understanding.

Kaiu Basic School partners are Mihai Eminescu National College in Baia Mare, Rumania and Õzel Üftade Lisesi in Usak, Turkey.
During the days in Romania, they worked out questionnaires for students, teachers and parents and in the same time they learned the local life.

The project coordinator Päivi Aljamaa was amazed by the activity of Romanian students and their good English. At the very moment Aljamaa praised Anar Pajula, who was in Romania and the girls in Turkey, that they managed with the representation about their country and school very well and they took actively part in making up questionnaires.

During the second reunion meeting in Turkey they looked over the project unified results. They tried to come around, why they are different in some parts and what are similar problems in schools which are far away from each other.

Each school divided their successful cooperation experiences between home and school. The VII ( now in VIII) class student Silje Vokksepp was capable to report in English her working team opinion and Kaiu Basic School is happy that 13-14 year old students can already manage in foreign language environment.

After the meeting activities they familiarized with Õzel Üftade Lisesi new hostel-private school , which is very valued by parents for its strict disciplinary and good academic results.

Also the school achievements in school-family cooperation as well as strategies for the future were introduced in Kaiu.

The Romanian and Turkish partners were impressed by the e-school system. Romanian teacher Laura Ilinca Szebeni said honestly, that came to Kaiu with a prejudice of a little country school, but she was compelled to modify her assessment. "Such system is a very good example for Romanian schools," she was sure. Another Romanian teacher Mariana Gabriela Hudrea noticed that the learners’ and the teachers’ relationship has a big family feeling. Differentially from her own school, Romanian teacher noticed, that we have more extracurricular activities.

The Turkish teacher Cumhur Kilicoqlu was also worried by a little prejudice. Before the travel he thought that only Turkey has such hospitality. "Estonians are friendly, kind and sincere," he found.
All the three countries are very thankful for the European Union, which supports this Comenius project.

The project gives students a chance to find out more about other countries and people and gives them a chance to be in this project, what hopes to make schools and families have better cooperation.

All students who are in this program, think that it is necessary to know foreign languages. You can understand how important is learning languages when you have to communicate with foreigners. The project teaches students to see these problems, what you often do not see and teach them to understand problems like teachers and parents do.

During the program, students were able to talk about their opinion about issues connected with the project.

As the students from Turkey and Romania stayed in our students’ homes, the hosts and guests were able to learn new things about their countries.

Memories- Estonia - Project Meeting

Everything started on a fine autumn day when my parents saw me off to the Mineralogy Museum from where we set out to Budapest. It was a new experience which made my heart throb.
Together with my teachers, Mariana Hudrea and Laura Szebeni, we started our journey towards the unknown: Estonia.
The journey to Budapest seemed to be very short because I could only think of my first flight.
I learned very quickly, what you should do once you want to board a plane.
Then we boarded on a plane belonging to the Czech Airlines. It was an elegant, big plane which fascinated me over since I set foot on it. And then I started to feel excited, the plane was talking off. We were flying over Budapest at night; we could see the multicoloured lights of the city.
After an hour’s flight we got to Prague where we had to wait for the plane to Tallinn. The airport in Prague was huge with many terminals, luxury stores looking like any airport of an important capital city. Then we took the next plane to our final destination.
After two hours flight we landed in Tallinn. I was excited because I was looking forward to seeing my friend Anar. He was waiting for me together his father and his teacher Paivi, who coordinated the project in Estonia.
An hour later I’ve got to the village of Kaiu where Anar and his family lived. I met his mother who welcomed me with much joy and hospitality. Because it was very late and it was very tired, I went to bed. The next day we were to start working with our project partners.
We woke up at 9 o’clock and we went to the local school. It was a beautiful school with modern sports facilities. We were invited to a school festival where they presented traditional dancing and songs representative for their culture. After the festival they showed us their school and in the afternoon we took part in the project reunion. There we met the Turkish team who were friendly and nice, the same as the Estonian people. Our teacher of English, Mrs. Mariana Hudrea, led the meeting. The topic of the project was interesting because every one could talk about school and family. In the evening all danced and celebrated together with the school students. We had a lot of fun and I made a lot of friends.
In the morning we took part in two school activities. We were invited to two classes: Maths and English. The English class was very attractive. Every student in the project talked about the school system in their country and we also discussed about school in general.
We had lunch at school canteen where we ate fish which was very well cooked followed by good yoghurt. Than we visited the Village Hall where we received souvenirs from the Mayor and we saw a film about the activities in the village. We went back to school where a press conference was organised. The Romanian teachers were outstanding.
After the press conference was over we visited a small museum in a village neighbouring Kaiu, where they presented us traditional tools used in different historical periods. In the evening we played football on the school with all boys in project.
The next day we visited Tallinn the capital of Estonia. It is a very big city with an important historical centre with many churches and historical monuments. After long tour of the city we ate an elegant restaurant in the city centre.
In the morning we started on our way home.
I returned home very happy as a wing to this project trip proved to be a real life experience. I made new friends and I had the opportunity to get to know something about the culture of this civilised and friendly people.
Trough this I am expressing my gratitude the towards the teachers who offered me this chance!
O am looking forward to meeting my Estonian friends in Romania, in May 2009.

Baia Mare November 2nd 2008
Dan Tecar XC