Only one week left

We´ve already had several meetings. This Thursday we spent few hours to draw posters for our guests. We formed groups and each one of them wrote a greeting-message in the language of the country they had chosen. So we have beautiful posters with drawings that really express the cultures and peciularity of the specific countrys. So we have posters for the guests from six places: Turkey, Portugal, Spain, Italy, Romania and Estonia.

On this meeting we also decided who´s gonna drive to Tallinn on Monday 18th when our last guests arrive to the airport. We´ll meet them right there and then go through a little trip in Tallinn. It´s a suprise, so I won´t tell you what it is but it is going to be great.

So, we have only one regular meeting left before our guests arrive. We are so excited!

Mai-Liis Volmar

Nailing Down the Program!

The last meeting on Thursday saw even more students eager to participate in the project. There’s quite a lot of us now but this only means more interesting ideas and thoughts.

In just three weeks we are having one of the best parts of the project. Students and teachers from our partner schools are visiting us for a couple of days. We have arranged for various events and activities to acquaint them a little with our town and the neighbouring area as well as ourselves and our customs and traditions. Most of our guests will arrive on Monday so the program will begin on Tuesday morning. After some lessons with our guests we will have a welcoming ceremony for our partner schools. Later on we’ll visit schools in Lehtse and Albu. To give our guests an idea of our cultural history and literature we will also visit Tammsaare Museum.

On Wednesday we will go on a trip in Lahemaa National Park, which is a beautiful example of Estonian nature and visit Sagadi Manor. Thursday will be fun too. In the morning we’ll have different workshops and in the afternoon our guests can take part in our school’s traditional Playbox. After that the guests and all participants and their parents are asked on a banquet. Later in the evening there will be a school disco. During these few days we will also have a chance to just chill out and socialize. All this seems very promising!

We discussed a little which building to choose for green renovation but didn’t decide on anything just yet, though we had some good ideas. We’ll take some more time to think since there’s enough time for that.

Students who are accommodating the guests here have been informed about who will stay with whom. At first there were some misunderstandings with some names that didn’t give any clue about the sex of the person but in the end we managed everything just fine. So, accommodation is arranged and now we just have to do our best to get all the preparations done before the guests arrive and hope that everything will go as planned. The most important thing is that we would all get along well.

Mai-Liis Volmar
Translate by Anna Kivisild

The Adventure Begins...

I was rushing up the stairs in school one rainy morning when I was stopped by our English teacher Mrs Rita Püümann who inquired about my writing skills. Since I’m already a high school student I grinned and was about to make some silly comment on her question when I saw another teacher approaching, the one to whose class I was nine minutes late. The teachers went their way and Mrs Püümann told me to come by her classroom later.

A couple of days later I found myself in the Media Class where I was assigned the role of the reporter of the Comenius Project. The room was full of students, even some teachers had come. I was surprised to hear about the project, its basis, undertakings and outcomes. The co-ordinator of the project gave good reasons why participate in this project. There is hardly anyone who would not benefit from the opportunity to broaden the mind, getting to know different cultures, group work, and developing language skills. Wouldn’t it be nice to visit exotic countries such as Spain, Portugal, Turkey or Romania? Through this project we get to visit the partner schools in other countries and have them visit us, which helps to build friendships, gives us new opportunities and challenges.

At the moment we are doing preparations such as designing the logo and starting a nature club. Green thinking is one of the key words of the project. In March next year we will attempt to launch a recycling system within our school and organize various events to raise environmental awareness. In April we are planning on showing an English language play (arranged by Mrs Elle Paju) in our partner schools via Skype. It will probably be an environment related play. In May our goal will be producing a conceptual design for renovating a building in Tapa according to green thinking. We will also have an exhibition of the items made throughout the project in May. If everything goes as planned, in February we will go to Spain, in May to Portugal and in September to Romania and other places.

At the end of this term we are expecting guests from our partner schools to visit us. We are looking forward to hosting them.

Maryliis Teinfeldt
Translate by Anna Kivisild


Here is video about Estonian Team