Topic 7:  Dreams and ambitions

In our last topic, at the end of our project, we are looking into the future.  

Via Voicethread in the team blogs our students show you their dreams and ambitions, their plans for school, family and work life. The good thing is: Everybody has plans, some clearer, some still a bit blurred. All students see themselves in an active and comfortable life. Most of them want children and a loving partner. Friends and a good job are very important.

 

We believe our project has given our students a unique chance to learn a lot about the lifestyle of young people across Europe. Personal contacts, new international friendships and a closer look at their parents` and grandparents` life and attitudes helped them to become clearer about their own position in life.  

Topic 6:  Healthy Living

Now it becomes reeeally interesting: How healthy is our lifestyle? Are we fit? Do we eat the right things? Is safety important to us? 

 

All of our students created their personal "food diaries" in which they listed everything they ate during three days. We find that most of us eat a good mix of healthy food like salads and "happy" food like chocolate. Have a look at the team blogs to see it in pictures!

 

We also did a fitness test during a Comenius Club meeting - and realized that only few of us are really fit. Pierre, Karl and Kevin are very sporty, Luise and Miriam were the fittest girls in the test. Many of us failed in one or two exercises. Maybe the test was too difficult?

 

In a questionnaire about our habits we realized that none of us smoke, we don`t drink a lot of alcohol, we always fasten the seatbelts in the car, many of us do sport regularly and all of us can relax from stress easily by practising their hobbies or spending time together with friends or family. Well, our life is not too unhealthy after all... 

Comenius friends in Tilburg

In March 2012, 12 students went to Tilburg with us for our 3rd (and last) work visit.

It was a great time with interesting activities: language lessons, sports and games competitions, visit to our partner school Odulphuslyceum, tour of Tilburg guided by our Dutch friends, Van Gogh`s drawing room, cycling (elegance!), attractions in the Efteling fun park, pancake buffet... 

...and finally two days in Amsterdam with a boat tour, Anne Frank`s house...

 

Meeting our VAGAB friends again, cooking international food, singing our VAGAB song "Comenius friends" - this week was just brillant!

Many thanks to our wonderful Dutch hosts!

 

Topic 5:  Environmental awareness
In videos and interviews you can see what our students do for our environment - and we believe it is a lot! Separating rubbish into 4 different bins, taking glass to the bottle bank, recycling and reusing materials, saving water, gas and electricity, using public transport instead of the car, taking refund bottles back to the shop... Living in an eco-friendly way is "in" - and it saves money... 
The generations before, our students` parents and grandparents, say that environment was not such a big topic when they were children. Environmental awareness has developed enormously in the last decades and is now practised in every-day life by all generations.

Topic 4:  Gender roles

This is a topic which might bring very different results in different countries, due to traditions and society. Our students have tried to find out about gender roles in different generations. They have created audiofiles and published them in their team blogs.

It seems that in our students` families the rights and tasks are shared quite equally between men and women, boys and girls. A reason for this might be that we live in the east of Germany, the former GDR, which was a communist state and proud of women`s emancipation. Here, for many families it has always been normal that women had the same chances in education and in work life. Almost 100 per cent of women used to work, mostly full-time, before the wall came down in 1989 - that`s the generation of our students` grandparents. That`s what the parents` generation grew up with and it is an attitude they pass on to their own children, our students. As a result, our students, too, find it normal that both partners in a relationship or marriage want to have a job and share the housework as well as the upbringing of their children. Though they admit and have found in their families that women often have more duties and take more responsibility with children and household than men. All of the girls in our group want to go to university or learn a job so they are independent.  

 

¡Olá Cataluña!
 
Sun, sun, sun... this was our first impression when we landed in Barcelona.


From 29 March to 5 April 2011, our group of 11 students and 2 teachers had a great time in Spain. Our partner team at IES Roquetes were wonderful hosts of the second VAGAB Comenius meeting.
We learned a lot about the people, lifestyle and country of Catalunya. We practised the languages of all VAGAB nations and watched presentations about their schools. 

 

Great adventures were experienced together with our friends from 6 nations: 
Canoeing on the river Ebro, punting and bird watching in the Ebro Delta, caves with wicked witch guides, barbecue, school meals, paella and sea food, concert of the school orchestra, body painting and hairdressing at school workshops, Barcelona with its sights and hostels... 

Unforgettable impressions and experiences will last and new VAGAB friends will soon meet again in the Netherlands!

Topic 3:   Media
For our students, life seems impossible without the use of media. Above all, computers and internet are a great source of information and entertainment. Social networks like Facebook are used by most students. Music is very important too and a great variety of mp3 players, hifi systems etc is in use. Many students have their own TV in their rooms. 
"Media multi-tasking" is absolutely normal to young people - computer, sound system, TV and even mobile phone, all at the same time. It is amazing how their doing homework or practising hobbies is surrounded by a permanent input of sound and pictures.  

This seems like a nightmare to their parents and grandparents whose use of media is a lot more traditional. Though many of them, even older grandparents, are fit with computers and internet and use all sorts of modern devices, they choose their media a lot more carefully. Print media like newspapers and magazines play a much more important role in their lives than with younger people, though reading books (e-books and paper ones) is popular with all generations.  

Our students have published texts and photos in their team blogs and it becomes obvious how dramatically the standard of electronic media has changed in the last four decades. Especially communication has become extremely easy, due to mobile phones and internet. Our Comenius project benefits from this - Facebook, Skype, blogs... This would have been impossible 20 years ago but is daily routine for students, many parents and even some grandparents now. 

Topic 2:  Free time activities
Have a look at our students` videos in their team blogs!
Working on this topic and comparing with the blogs of our partner countries, we found that free time activities are almost the same all over Europe - sports, music, playing instruments, going out and meeting friends...
And it seems that our students` parents and grandparents did the same things in their free time when they were young.

Topic 1:   School in past and present
Our students have analyzed their own school life and asked parents and grandparents about their school experience in the past. The students` teams then compared present and past. All results are published in the team blogs, you find the links here to the right.
General facts:
After 4 years of primary school, students go to secondary school. This is either a Mittelschule (6 years) or - for clever students - a Gymnasium (8 years) like ours. After 12 school years our students leave school with the Abitur (A-level) certificate and can go to university. 
Their parents went to one school from class 1 to 10, primary and secondary school were in the same house. Clever students then went on to college (2 years) and did their A-level exams there.
When the grandparents were young, one teacher was teaching different age groups in one big class. Compulsory schooling was only 8 years and you could go to college after. Teachers were not always qualified because it was just after the war and there was a lack of teachers.
Holiday times are nearly the same in past and present. But schools are closed during the holidays now. In the past, they offered activities, holiday camps and journeys for those kids whose parents had to work. All this was free.
Parents were more involved in school in the past. Teachers knew the families better, they even visited each family at home to see how the students live and if there are problems. Teachers are not allowed to do this now. School was more individual in the past.

School day:
Our students normally have 6 or 7 lessons of 45 minutes, from 7:30 till 13:55. In the afternoon they can go to clubs or do sports in school. Parents and grandparents had the same school times but 4 lessons on Saturdays. There were many clubs and sports teams in school too. 

Subjects: 
Science subjects, German and history are the same in past and present. Different is that the parents and grandparents had to learn Russian as their first foreign language. English or French were only for very good students. Latin or Spanish was not taught at school then. But the parents and grandparents had to do a subject "citizenship", it was pure ideology. There were more practical subjects then and older students had one day per week in workshops for auto mechanics, welding etc. And every student - boys too - had to learn needlework (sewing, knitting...).

Marks:
Our best mark is 1, the worst is 6. Our parents and grandparents had marks from 1 to 5. 

School building and equipment:

Schools were much smaller in the past and there were many schools in one town. Every little village had their own school. Now our school has about 600 students and there are only 2 secondary schools in Zwoenitz. Most villages don`t have a school anymore, the students go to school by bus. In the past they walked.

Technical equipment, rooms, toilets etc are more modern now but many schools were newly-built at our parents` or grandparents`time. Computers, internet, video or DVDs were non-existing when our parents or grandparents went to school. 

School meals:

Warm lunch is offered in our school canteen for 2.30 Euros per meal. But it is not cooked fresh in school, it is delivered from a big kitchen. You can also buy fast food in a kiosk. 

School canteens only existed from the 1950s on, but every school cooked their own fresh meals then and food was very cheap, only 55 cents per meal (subsidized by the state). Parents and grandparents got free milk at school every day.

Conclusion:
Most students like school better now than at their parents` or grandparents` time because

• now you learn more in shorter time
• technical equipment is much better - the internet offers great options
• there is a better choice of many languages now
• teachers are not as strict now and beating students is forbidden
• students would hate to go to school on Saturdays;-)

But some points were better in the past:

• school was more individual
• teachers and families worked together, parents were more interested in school
• there was more support for weak students
• there were free holiday activities

 

Project meeting in Bergen, Norway

In November 2010, about 70 students and teachers from all project countries had a wonderful week in Bergen. With activities like learning each other`s languages, singing, dancing, cooking, volleyball, barbecue and presentations about our countries and schools we got to know our partners. Communication in English worked almost perfectly and international friendships started. We saw a lot of Norway`s beautiful landscape and our wonderful hosts from Arna Vocational School made us feel welcome.




The German group on Mount Floyen

                                  Learning each other`s languages

                                  Bryggen, former Hanse trade centre

         International Buffet - some food looked strange but everything was delicious

German group at Hardanger Fjord

Dancing Sirtaki