COMENIUS Week in Portugal. October 2012

"At first, I was a bit nervous because I didn't know the people I was going to meet in Portugal" "Later in Chamusca, I discovered that the partners there were very friendly and we had a lot of fun together". " It has been an amazing experience and we learnt so much about culture and life, but the best thing was that we did lots of good friends and we're still in touch thanks to Internet".

IRENE BARAÑANO.

"When I was selected... I couldn't believe it... I was travelling to Portugal!!! At the beginning I was nervours. On the plane I was wondering things like: How will it be?  How will I manage with them? But when we arrived at the airport all the nervousness disappeared." "My partner was a very good host and her family was lovely."." I was very upset when we had to come back home but I remember that the Portuguese teacher told me: To be able to return again, first you must go. and it's true" IRATI SERRANO.

"My trip to Portugal was an unforgettable trip. It was my first trip without my parents and the first time with my friends. My stay in Portugal  was very pleasant and very funny because  people from Portugal are very funny and their hospitality is very good. Chamusca, Lisbon, Nazaré and Obidos are very beautiful places. I met a lot of friends in the comenius project in Portugal, from all of the countries but specially from Portugal. My host family was a very  nice family. I  felt as at home. And the food was also  very good. This has been  an experience that  I will  never forget. XABIER ROJO."

"Chamusca is a small town in Portugal. It is located near Lisbon, the capital of Portugal. Chamusca is a picturesque village with lovely white houses and beautiful streets and shops. It is quiet and clean because there are few cars.

The journey was fantastic. It took us more or less five hours to get there. We were a little bit tired but happy to stay there. When we arrived at the airport all the families were waiting for us. The next day they showed us the school; In the afternoon, we went to the Townhall, this day we met new people. On Tuesday we visited Nazáre and Ovidos it is a typical medieval town. It was a beautiful visit, we took some photos and bought some postcards and souvenirs. The next day ,in the schoo,l all the countries did their presentations. Before lunch we sang our Comenius song. In the afternoon we visited the ecological park of Elvao. On Thursday we visited Lisbon, it was fantastic, the first thing we did was to visit the Monastery of Jerónimos and Belen Tower. Later we left Belén Tower and we went to Rossio and visited downtown Lisbon." LAURA CASTAÑOS.

Visit to Pizzeria PICCOLA in Laudio

For our visit to Portugal we had to prepare a presentation about " the story of..." a product following the life of "something" from when it is produced till it is finally wasted, talking in terms of ENERGY. The energy needed to produce that product, the energy needed while we are using it and finally the energy needed to recycle it.

In this Comenius project, the Basque team has been working with "food", it has been our task,  so we decided to follow the life of a PIZZA trying to know, also, if it could be considered a healthy food or not.

Our teachers took us to Pizzeria Piccola inLaudio. It is a place where they prepare homemade pizzas following the traditional recipe. And we learnt that pizza can be a healthy food, it all depends on the ingredients we use. The main difference with the pizzas produced in factories is that in PICCOLA they don't use preservatives or similar things. In the food industry they normally add a lot of salt and sugar and not very "healthy fats" to their products. Be careful with the cheese, order a pizza with more vegetables and it will follow the rules of a good Mediterranean diet.

Hungarian experiences in Portugal

Here you can see us on the airplane. It was David’s first flight. We were flying for almost 4 hours. We had a great time and quite good food on the plane.

On Monday some students showed us around the school. There is a recreation room for the students who have some free time. For example they can play table tennis and table football there. There is a stationer’s inside the school.  We think it would be cool to have a stationery and a recreation room in our school as well. On the school grounds there is a little lake and some palm trees. Aren’t they lovely?

In the afternoon we went on a sightseeing tour around Chamusca. It’s a small town. We were honoured to have the opportunity to visit the Town Hall and to be received by the mayor himself.  We are grateful for this opportunity.

We aldso visited a tower. The view was beautiful from upstairs. An interesting thing is that almost every house is white because of the weather.

On the white houses there are stripes in various colours. The colour of the types talks about the influence of rich families in Chamusca. The colours represent the family under whose influence the owners of the house belonged.

We also added  some other pictures taken of Chamusca, this lovely small town. 

Continue reading more in our WIKI

Comenius week in Sweden May 2012

The week here in Sweden with all the comenius students was amazing !!! All students from Sweden miss our friends so much, we had so much fun and everyone loved the week! Before the students came it was bad weather but when they came it was sunny and warm all days of the week, when they went back to their countries the weather here in Sweden got bad. So now we want you back ! Everyone got many new friends and some fell in love….. hihi.. The week was one of the best weeks ever in our lives! We miss and love you guys so much! Hugs and kisses from Alice, Grynna & Arvid!!!

We thought it was a really succesful week. We had a lot of fun, and learned to know many nice people, not only people from Sweden. It's interesting to get to know other cultures, and it did show us that we have many things in common and also that we are different. We have got many memories that we will remember for our whole life, and new friends of course from all different countries in the world. It was really sad to say good bye, because we did get so tight to each other and we felt like a big family. We didn't just hang out in the school, we did also hang out in spare time, we did things like having bbq, go to Liseberg and had a movie night. No we look back at the week and miss everybody and hope that we could meet them again. :) we miss you guys very much, and hopefully we can meet again! :) Sanna och Clara

This Comenius week was the best week in our lives. Everybody got new friends from other countries and everybody miss them very much. It was very fun up on the Herrestads forest and lakes there we met everybody for the first time and it was very fun! The bus trip was also very fun because everybody got to see our beautiful natur. David, David and Daniel

It was really fun when they were here! We learned a lot for example new words, differences between the countries and about the environment. We got really close to each other. We also learned more about Sweden and other countries! We became one big family. It was really nice weather all the time and that was really good!! We were really happy when they said they liked Sweden! And to say goodbye was not good : (Olivia, Unni, Frida and Ronja. We think that the week in Sweden was very fun and we have learned a lot of things. We have gotten many new friends and memories. We have also discovered new places in Sweden, and we have seen how beautiful it actually is. The communication was difficult in the beginning but after a while we learned how to make it work and we helped each other. It has been an amazing week with beautiful weather! The funniest things we did were when we were at Hafsten and Liseberg! We did very many funny things together there and we laughed very much, we got to know each other better and everybody spoke to each other! This week has been an instructive week with many laughs and memories! In the end, it was very sad to watch them leave and we hope that we’ll meet them again. / Emelie Hansson, Frida Niklasson och Alicia Larsson

We thought the week was veeeeery good! It was very fun to meet people from other countries and get to know them, especially when we did fun activities together. We got to know very many new people, both from Sweden and the other countries. The good weather also made it even more perfect and we went to the ocean and swam. Most of the students wern´t shy and they wern´t afraid to talk, and that was very good because then you get to know them even better! We will never forget this trip!! /Paulina Thorsell and Julia Magnusson Björk This week was the best I ever had in school. It was very fun to make new friends and contact. When the Comenius people came to Sweden the weather got really nice, but when you left the weather got rainy and bad… We really liked being host family. The bus trip and all the other things we did went very well, and it was fun to… We miss you all and hope we could meet again  Bye bye Erik L Thorsson Erik af Geijerstam

Besök av utländska elever på Norgårdenskolan - Uddevalla kommun

Besök av utländska elever på Norgårdenskolan - Uddevalla kommun

Besök av utländska elever på Norgårdenskolan Elever från Baskien Elever från Baskien Under veckan har Norgårdenskolan besök av 24 elever från våra Comeniusländer (Baskien, Portugal, Ungern och Reunion). Eleverna kommer att bo i värdfamiljer under veckan. Eleverna har även med sig två lärare från respektive land. Under veckan kommer eleverna att medverka på lektionerna på Norgårdenskolan. Utflykter är inbokade till Unda, Herrestadsfjället samt en båttur med M/S Gustafsberg. En busstur genom Bohuslän och besök på Innovatum i Trollhättan. ­ Ett bra tillfälle att visa upp Uddevalla och Bohuslän, säger Helen Hibell, koordinator för projektet på Norgårdenskolan.

- För våra elever och världfamiljer är detta ett bra tillfälle att få träna upp sin engelska. Det knyter också samman föräldrarna när dom ställer upp som världfamiljer, då våra gäster följer med sina värdfamiljer under deras aktiviteter, säger Helena. Under veckan kommer vissa uppdrag att utföras som sedan ska dokumenteras och redovisas. Uppgiften handlar om miljö och energi där eleverna får göra efterforskningar om förbrukning och samla in information, identifiera problem och att hitta lösningar för att förbättra situationen på våra skolor.

Comeniusprojektet är ett EU-projekt där Norgårdenskolan är en av de skolor som deltar under åren 2011-2013. Under projektets gång står man värd för minst ett comeniusmöte i det egna landet. Nästa comeniusmöte är i Portugal i oktober, Ungern i februari och avslutningsmöte i Spanien under maj månad 2013. Det är det tredje projektet inom EU som Norgårdenskolan deltar i. Vid frågor kontakta: Helena Hibell (koordinator för projektet)

huges-comenius.wikispaces.comlänk till annan webbplats huges-comenius.blogspot.selänk till annan webbplats Baskien - ett område i norra Spanien. Reunion - fransk koloni (en ö) som ligger i Indiska oceanen mellan Madagaskar och Mauritius. Lärare vid Krokestugan Lärare vid Krokestugan Kanotpaddling på Herrestadsfjälet var mycket uppskattat Kanotpaddling på Herrestadsfjälet var mycket uppskattat José Marie, koordinator i Baskien och Alexe från Reunion Iceland bakar kanelbullar under hemkunskapslektion

José Marie, koordinator i Baskien och Alexe från Reunion Iceland bakar kanelbullar under hemkunskapslektion

Minutes of the meeting in uddevalla from Jose Mari Fernández

Did you know?

Energy Conservation Myths

 Leaving a light on uses less energy than turning it off and on several times. Truth: Leaving an incandescent or fluorescent lamp on uses more energy than turning it on and off as needed. Tips:

• Get into the habit of turning off lights when you leave a room.
• Use natural day lighting when possible and reduce or eliminate artificial lighting. Day lighting has been proven to have many benefits.
• Use compact fluorescent lights instead of incandescent bulbs whenever you can. Compact fluorescents are 3-4 times more efficient than incandescent and last 10 times as long.
Myth #1 Additional Information: When fluorescent lights first came into use in the 1950s, people developed the habit of leaving the lights on. Like many myths, this one has lived well past its useful life. As a general rule, you should turn off the lights whenever you leave a room. It's just a good habit to develop. Turning off the lights reduces operating costs in two ways: it saves energy and reduces the number of lamp replacements. But doesn't it take more energy to start up the light than it does to run the lamp for several minutes? No. It is true that fluorescent lamps draw an inrush current that is five times greater than the operating current. However, the initial surge of a rapid start lamp lasts for only 1/120th of a second. So, you have to turn the lamp off for only one second to save the same amount of energy used to start it up again. But, doesn't the starting cathode erode each time the lamp is started? Yes. Cathode erosion is one factor that limits lamp life. While turning off the lights reduces the number of hours the lamp will burn, it extends the time between lamp replacements. For example, a standard rapid-start fluorescent lamp operating continuously will burn for 38,000 hours or 4.3 years. If the same lamp burns only 12 hours per day, the number of operating hours drops to 30,000. However, the lamp will remain in service for 6.8 years. So, you cut operating energy in half and reduce lamp replacement costs by 30 percent. It's not necessary to go through elaborate calculations each time you leave a room. As general rule of thumb, it's always better to turn off the light, even if you'll be gone only a minute or two. Make a habit of turning off the lights every time you leave. Forty years ago, leaving the lights burning continuously may have been the best thing to
do. However, a few things have changed since then. Fluorescent lamps are more durable, energy is several times more expensive, and fluorescents are used in more locations than ever before. If you want to save money on energy and lamp replacement, turn it off!

Students' conclusions about their task in the "ENERGY BLOG" (WIKI)

ABOUT WASTE AND RECYCLING BY PANNA GEHÉR AND HER TEAM (Hungarian School)

We’ve recently interviewed some of the caretakers in school. We asked them about recycling and how to make our school green. We realized that the school wastes a lot.

• Waste of electricity and heating:

Students don’t usually turn off the lights. They should put some stickers on the light switches that ask the students not to leave them on.

Secondly, the staff must control the insulation of the windows. If the windows aren’t insulated well, we’ll waste lots of energy.

• Waste of paper:

Students shouldn’t get canned soft drinks because they usually don’t drink it. Someone should rather put some wells to each floor so everybody would drink clean, cold water and they wouldn’t make that much rubbish.

Secondly, we got to know that the school uses recycle bins. caretakers carry all of the waste down to the basement. There, a kind women, called Miss Csóka Istvánné selects the different types of rubbish. We think this is not a good solution. It might be a good idea to put recycle bins to each classroom. So students can select their own litter. Miss Csóka thinks reycyling is very important. She teaches her grandchild to do so as well.

• Waste of food:

Students usually don’t eat the food that they got. They should be given as much food as they want to eat.

Miss Csóka also told us that the whole school produces 14-15 bags of waste a day. These are terrible figures. We think if we cared more about recycling, we would produce less than 10 bags of litter a day.

 The next step in our project will be to find solutions to these problems!!!

More conclusions displayed in our WIKI click here

El programa Comenius del IES Laudio BHI recibe una alta calificación por parte de las instituciones y prepara destino a Suecia

3 de Febrero de 2012 |

El programa Comenius es un programa europeo en el que intervienen algunos de los países que componen la Unión Europea, a través de los centros escolares. Adherido a este programa, desde hace 10 años, está el IES Laudio BHI, antiguo Canciller Ayala. Ha trabajado hasta ahora con países como Alemania, Letonia, Reino Unido, Holanda, Italia, Polonia y Turquía, con un objetivo muy claro, poner en contacto al alumnado en situaciones reales, con alumnos de otros países, y con la necesidad de comunicarse en inglés. Con esto se consigue aumentar la motivación de los alumnos que se interesan más en el estudio de esta lengua, y compartir, intercambiar y aprender del resto de modelos educativos que se llevan a cabo en otros países. El pasado año se cerraba con un viaje a Isla Reunión, Francia, que es uno de los países con los que en este 2012 se está trabajando, al igual que con Suecia, que será el destino de este año, Portugal y Hungría.

Al viaje a Isla Reunión han podido acudir 4 alumnos y dos profesores. La distancia y el precio del desplazamiento han obligado a rebajar el número de plazas. Para próximas ediciones se contará con una media de 6 o 7 alumnos que viajarán a Suecia como próximo destino. No priman las notas ni el nivel de inglés, sino la actitud y el saber estar de los alumnos cuya elección se hace mediante sorteo.

Aiala Mendieta, Anjuli Colomo, Aleix Unzaga y Asier García han sido los alumnos que viajaban en la última edición del programa Comenius a Isla Reunión acompañados de los profesores del centro y coordinadores del proyecto, Carmelina Calavia y José Mari Fernández. En esta ocasión las energías renovables han sido el apartado de estudio en los últimos meses, y el proyecto que tuvieron que presentar en su viaje. Ha habido también tiempo para el ocio y han visitado la parte volcánica de la isla, una factoría de producción de energía, han recibido una conferencia en la universidad sobre energías renovables y han disfrutado de las paradisíacas playas, y la rica gastronomía y hospitalidad de las gentes y familias en las que han sido acogidas. En 2013 les devolverán la visita en Llodio.

El IES Laudio BHI se ha mostrado contento con el desarrollo del programa Comenius hasta ahora y durante el año pasado, y esto ha quedado refrendado por parte del Departamento de Educación del Gobierno Vasco y por parte del Ministerio de Educación del Gobierno Central en Madrid que han calificado, en un informe, de excelente la gestión de este programa por parte del centro.

 You can listen to the radio program in this link here.

Some students  from Laudio BHI in the company of their teacher and Coordinator of our project, visited the local Radio Station " Radio LLodio", belonging to the Spanish "Cadena Ser" Group, where they talked about our COMENIUS proyect and about the experience they had when they travelled to Réunion Island last December.

The really bad weather that we were suffering during the begining of  Febreary 2012, was not an impediment to take us to the Radio Station.

Logo Competition

Energy blog

Minutes of the meeting in la réunion

Minutes budapest