Primary school in Nerola and Monteflavio - Italy, celebrated the RARE DESEASE DAY

Last 28th February the primary school in Nerola and Monteflavio celebrated the RARE DESEASE DAY.

All the pupils in Monteflavio sang the Italian song Si può dare di più (You can give more), waving red paper hearts in front of their parents moved by the performance. Teachers organized a walk with red balloons along the village streets to raise awareness of rare deseases among the public. Right at the end pupils released balloons into the sky in the main square of the village.

The primary school in Nerola organized an open to the public celebration. All the children were wearing carnival costumes because it was Fat Thursday, the last Thursday before Lent Tuesday. Teachers were wearing giant emoji costumes. The performance took place in the school courtyard. It started with an introduction read by the pupils of the 5^th grade, who talked about rare deseases, their impact on society, bridging health and social care; it continued with the recitation of 2 poems. The 4^th grade pupils recited one of Madre Theresa of Calcutta’s poem: Send me someone to love, while the pupils of the 5^th class introduced the story of Francesco Lena and recited his poem Io credo (I believe), written for a friend of his, struck by a rare desease. Kids sang Credo negli esseri umani (I believe in human beings), waving their balloons in the air. Some of them went up in the sky, sending their strong and clear message to the world.

The activities were witnessed through photos and videos, put together in an interesting and captivating video made by Romina Ugolini.

Using tablet in the process of communication, Metin Sabanci school, Istanbul, Turkey

Speech Activity: It is used as a toy and material of education as tablet. When there is a sound from the toy, animal figure in Ipad moves. It’s usage area is descriptive language skills.

Alternative Communication: It is a writing skill for students who are having problem with using pencil and etc. At the same time, these students are having problem with speaking. Tablets are used to teach students for alternative communication device.

Writing Skills: While teacher studies with a student about writing skill, other students follow the lecture by projecting the activity to the blackboard.

Visually Focusing: Contents are created with usage of contrast colors in tablets for students who are having cortical vision problem. In these contents, target is developing the focusing and following skills.

Hand-Eye Coordination: Contents are created with usage of contrast colors in tablets for students who are having cortical vision problem in order to support the coordination of hand- eye. This workshop is also good for fine motor skills.

                                     

4th RED BALLONS MARCH dedicated to THE DAY OF RARE DISEASES,Ptuj, Slovenia

On Saturday, March 9, 2019, Primary school dr. Ljudevita Pivka Ptuj, organized  4th  RED BALLONS MARCH  dedicated to THE DAY OF RARE DISEASES, which is part of the all-Slovenian March. On February 28, we mark the International Day of Rare Diseases. In Slovenia, it is astimated that 120,000 people are affected.

This event was one of the activities of the international school project  I.D.E.A. TOGETHER WE CAN! of 6 Europeen partners: from Slovenia, Italy, Portugal, Turkey, Poland and Croatia.

To this end, we invited participants of the march to gather between 9.30 am and 10.00 am at our school.  We saw  a short film about the school and a  program that was prepared by pupils of the school.

At 11.00 am., the march started in front of the school, continued along  Volkmerjeva Street, Panonska Street, Slomškova street, Vinarski Square, Lackova ulica and finished on Mestni Square 1 - in front of the town house.

The Mayor of the Municipality of Ptuj, Ms Nuška Gajšek and the Minister of Agriculture Mrs Aleksandra Pivec attended the event too.

Association Soroptimistk from Ptuj prepared home baked pastries, Talum d.o.o.  donated funds for filling balloons with helium. Štajerski frajtonarji  spiced up the event with music ... they stretched their accordions so far that they could be heard all around!

Sincere thanks for your contribution to the event.

Tanja Nikolovski, main Erasmus+ coordinator

Impression of Slovenian teachers and students on education at Szkola Podstawowa Specjalna nr 40 School in Bytom, Poland

Slovenian team : Tanja, Borislava, Zdenka, Sabina, Janja and  Sara  visited our project partners in Poland. 

Polish teachers and students  prepared a lovely reception for us and they greeted us nicely.

Our studens Sara and Janja  adapted without problems and quickly attached contacts with Croatian and Poland students from the school host.

 All the participant partners in the project prepared a music-dance routine that presented the country the performers are coming from. At the end we all had fun dancing together because we all tried to dance the dance routine from other countries. It was really fun but the most important thing is that we all felt connected and ready to work together.

We participated in different workshops (art therapy, making flowers out of wool like material, cooperation with University of Third Age and cooperation with hihg-school students). Including older people in school work was a great idea because they had given us a lot of useful knowledge that they got from their life experiences. Our school has already been included in a project like this one. We are currently considering in re-establishing it.

They have introduced us different methods and work techniques(Biofeedback therapy, using technology as a mean to motivate students and art therapy). We are intrested in trying them out and using the therapy type at our school. Children could be easily taught to recognize and control their emotional reactions.

Many motivational comptuter programs for learning different teaching contents have been introduced to us. Our students participated at workshops (English and Croatian group). Work was fun and educational for them.

We were acquainted with Polish school system for elementary and high school. Our school system is quite similar to theirs. The only difference are the exams taken at the end of the year. The exams are not adapted for children with special needs.

We also visted the City hall where the Deputy Mayor greeted us 

and the Solutions at Polish special educational system (workshops in Private Institution for Adult Disabled Persons and workshops in Special Vocational School).

The city Cracow fascinated us with its beautiful sights. Auswitz left a big impact on us.

We came back home filled with unforgetable memories. 

We would like to emphasize: good organisation and managment, demonstrations of new and interesting methods and work techniques for children with special needs, 

Thank you Polish team 💗

good cooperation between partners, hospitality and kindness of local people, excelent Poland cuisine and sweet culinary delights in the teachers room.

Tanja, Borislava, Sabina, Zdenka, Janja and Sara

Portuguese Team impression about visit Szkola Podstawowa Specjalna nr 40, Bytom-Poland

Between the 3rd and 9th of March, school country partners from theI.D.E.A.!Together we can project met in Poland: Portugal, Slovenia, Croatia, Poland and Turkey. It was the 2nd Short-Term Joint Staff Training Event.

Here are some aspects that we think were very important and relevant in the preparation, organization and implementation of the meeting:

• The proposed program was filled with learning activities taking into account students with special educational needs, the main purpose of the “IDEA Together we can” project; those activities lighted new paths for practices, which can improve our teaching dynamics in our school;
• Besides the learning activities, the program offered a whole range of cultural, historical and gastronomic activities that are very important considering a multicultural and inclusion vision;
• The host school followed  the program with precision, while implementing it and that provided us with great professional, personal, social and cultural enrichment;
• We were warmly received and welcomed everywhere: at the host school, at the house of the local government authority, at the university, at the vocational school, even at restaurants…

Therefore, our impressions from this meeting fullfilled our expectations.

The Portuguese Team

Antonio's diary - His 3 months in Slovenia, with Pivka's schoolmates from Ptuj

Dear Antonio!

Our time spent together has come to an end. It was our pleasure to show you what is happening in our school in Ptuj. Do you remember when we baked biscuits, performed at numerous school events, celebrated birthdays, took care of birds around our school... We made a snowman together. You had a chance to see our carnival masks and traditions. You were particulary impressed in Ptuj's traditional mask called Kurent. We danced, sang and laughed many times. You have also taught us many useful and interesting things about your culture and mother language.

Now you are headed to Turkey, where you will seek for new friends and adventures. We wish you a lot of unforgettable and exciting moments there.

See you soon!

Your Slovenian friends from primary school dr. Ljudevita Pivka Ptuj.

(If you want to read a diary, click on the arrows and flick. You can also increase the diary by clicking on the page of the diary. )

Croatian team, impressions from Bytom

We are glad to have visited your Special Primary School no.40 in Bytom and seen the way in which you work with children with special educational needs, who have mild and moderate developmental disabilities, whether emotional and/or behavioral.

Croatia has specialized institutions for particular developmental disabilities but in our educational system we don't have an institution which encompasses such a wide and versatile range of children with special needs, as we have seen in your country. In our school there are about 30 children with developmental disabilities who are included in regular school classes. Some of these children have got assistant support.

What really impressed us at the beginning of our arrival was a school play - the effort that children and teachers put in it was easily noticeable. Furthermore, the school atmosphere and halls teemed with laughter, children's conversations, and children's curious looks. Even though your school was built many years ago, its interior is full of light, flowers and displays of children's work. Children walked up to us gladly and our students who participated in the program easily made first contacts with them and exchanged photos and music.

The workshops for students were very interesting and fun. Our students loved the “dirty workshop” in which they made and used molding material as well as the cake baking workshop which took place in Special Vocational school. We’ve noticed that artwork is strongly implemented in your school practice, which is understandable as there are many children who have emotional problems and who come from dysfunctional families. However, we would love to have had an opportunity to observe a teacher’s direct work with children in any daily curricular class.

The visits to Memorial and Museum Auschwitz – Birkenau, Chlebowa Chata and Guido Coal Mine were especially well organized. Krakow, as one of Central Europe’s metropolitan cities, left a special impression on us. Its architecture really reminded us of our capital Zagreb.

We would particularly like to highlight the work of your colleague, a speech therapist, who explained the biofeedback therapy very thoroughly. We all wanted to try it out as patients! This type of therapy for children with special needs is also used in Croatia but it is, unfortunately, accessible only in a somewhat small number of health and educational institutions due to its high price.

It is our impression that your school has developed a positive and safe environment for your students, which reflects in the warmth and immediacy of the children’s behavior. Our students and we have fond memories of children's smiles and hugs in Poland.