Virtual meeting to Italy - the voices of the protagonists!

 Here's a video with the voices (and faces!) of some of the protagonists of the virtual mobility to Italy...this is what they said about this new, "digital" way of participanting in an Erasmus project! 

The virtual meeting to Italy

On 2-3-4-9-10 December 2020 the fourth pupils' exchange of the project took place, totally online. At the beginning of the project, nobody could have imagined that this would be running as a virtual mobility but, on the other hand, we feel we have succeeded in "reinventing" the way of "doing Erasmus", facing the problems related to the management of an international project in the middle of a global pandemic by turning critical issues into opportunities. While on the one hand the pandemic has heavily affected the project by preventing a real exchange, on the other hand the virtual mode has allowed us to involve a much larger number of students from the 6 participating countries (about 120, in total). 

The mobility was hosted on the Zoom digital platform (Main Room and International Groups Rooms), with the support of the TwinSpace as a reference point for the daily schedule with tasks and links to the materials. 

DAY 1

The first day was really emotional for all of us...after a long time, we returned to "do Erasmus", leaving aside the bad thoughts and problems related to this difficult period. With great joy, pleasure and a touch of emotion, the virtual mobility kicked off with an online welcome ceremony. After the welcome and the official greetings from the IC A. Gabelli School Principal, Adriana Battaglia, a group of Italian pupils gave a performance playing, singing and dancing to Sicilian folk music. 

After the introductions of the participants to break the ice, the first activity was the CITY GAME, which we transformed into an original virtual tour of the most representative places in Misterbianco...through gamification, students from all participating countries discovered the hosting town thanks to a breakout room full of information and new multimedia contents, accompanied by the voice of Emily, the pupil who played the role of "virtual touri guide". The Mother Church, Campanarazzu, the Roman Baths, Piazza Mazzini, the Museum of Carnival Costumes and much more, in the form of quizzes and games to find a secret code... After the winner was announced, the students interacted discussing the activity they had just done and the main places of interest in the city... and everyone seemed to have had a good time!

The first day flew by! It was really nice to connect with our foreign partners again and rekindle the Erasmus magic...

                                                                         DAY 2

The second day was entirely devoted to the work in international teams, with tasks focusing on the collaborative creation of Google Slides presentations on UNESCO sites and Modern Wonders in Italy, Croatia, Poland, Cyprus, Spain and Greece,. We also worked on an interactive itinerary of modern architectural wonders by using the app Tripline. 

The six international groups, supervised by one or more teachers, worked in six Zoom rooms to learn about the monuments in each country, decide on how to organise the group work and share the tasks to create the final products remotely using digital tools together. 

The day was very challenging, but rewarding...There were some technical difficulties (as expected!), but collaboration, communication, creativity and shared use of digital tools are the key words to sum up a fruitful experience! 

                                                                         DAY 3

We started the third day with a "tasty" surprise... the Italian pupils talked about their eating habits through a showcase of some of the most typical Sicilian foods: cornetti, arancini, cannoli, cartocciate, paste di mandorla and frutta martorana are definitely a must when visiting Sicily. Food is an integral part of the Sicilian cultural identity, so participants were given a virtual "taste" in front of the webcam...The food was much appreciated! 

After that, the activities focused on describing each participant's favourite places, through a digital map created with Padlet. Next, pupils could interact by posting questions and comments on the map in real time. 

Finally, we talked about traditional Sicilian games: La Campana, La gara dei tappi, Pugnu Cutugnu and Un, Due, Tre Stella. We showed a video tutorial made by the Italian students before the visit to "demonstrate" and explain the rules of the games to their foreign friends. It was interesting to interact immediately afterwards, comparing the games in each country to find similarities and differences. We are looking forward to getting some videos where partners can show us their interpretation of the games!

DAY 4

On the fourth day, we were proud to show off the natural and cultural beauties of Sicily! A visit to Misterbianco would not be such without getting to know the true spirit behind the local community's passion for Carnival and its extraordinary costumes. We put together a video to show the Carnival parades and the Museum of Carnival Costumes...but that wasn't enough...a wild group of young 'cavemen' broke in and made us experience the energy and light-heartedness of Carnival, thanks to their cheerful dancing.

Usually, one of the 5 days would be devoted to a trip to a local UNESCO World Heritage site...and here again, we could not miss the opportunity to let our partners discover the exceptional artistic, cultural, architectural and natual beauties of Sicily, which right now boasts 7 UNESCO sites. We therefore created an interactive map of Sicily's UNESCO sites with the app Thinglink, through which the students were able to read information and watch photos/videos of the most representative places in Sciily, visited every year by tourists from all over the world.

The day ended with an interactive quiz on Sicilian UNESCO sites, played in random international teams, and the announcement of the winners. All students did a great job! 

It was really nice to see so much interest, curiosity and amazement for our land...our hope is that any time soon our friends from Croatia, Spain, Poland, Greece and Cyprus will be able to travel and visit some of these wonderful places.

                                                             DAY 5

The last day took us through a whirlwind of emotions: joy, happiness, excitement, but also a bit of sadness...we came to the end of an extraordinary week, which saw our school community at the centre of an international exchange of pupils, albeit in the unusual digital mode. 

We started off with a 'special' Italian language lesson: our pupils, teachers for a day, got the other foreign pupils to go wild by singing and dancing with them to the tune of Claudio Cecchetto's famous 80s hit, Gioca Jouer...the perfect song to get them to memorise simple verbs through miming actions! Everyone felt the vibe and got involved from behind the screen...!

On their final day, the pupils prepared questions for the board game, the final product of the project. Two interactive quizzes about Italy and Monuments from all the partner countries were played to check what the students had learned over the past 5 days and winners were announced! 

The partners used a Padlet to write some goodbye messages. At the end, pupils and teachers also filled in an evaluation survey to share their opinions about the experience. We were really pleased to receive very nice feedback from our friends! 

The virtual visit was officially closed by the greetings from our headmistress, followed by another performance with typical songs and dances...Our pupils managed to convey all the passion, warmth and energy of Sicily and they were even asked for an encore!

                           

The final greetings were a very special moment...we felt close, despite the physical distance across countries. Unforgettable memories will always remain in our hearts...We feel we have planted seeds of hope, optimism and resilience and we are really proud of what we all managed to do together, as a big international team. Grazie!

Our experience in Spain: the voices of the Italian team

This is the daily blog written by the Italian students...enjoy! 

Monday 18/02/2019

On Monday we were in Madrid. At 8am we had breakfast at the hotel and then my teachers, schoolmates and I went on a coach trip to visit the city centre and visited the main sights and museums, like Bernabeu Stadium, the Royal Palace and Puerta de Alcalà. At 2 pm we had lunch at a restaurant and at 3.30 pm we travelled to Montealegre del Castillo by coach. After 3 hours, when we arrived there we met Juan and my Spanish host family. I was really excited.

In the evening I had dinner with the family. Juan's mum prepared a lot of good food for me and then I had a shower and went to bed. 

It was a beautiful day for many reasons: I visited new places in a new city, I spent a lot of time with new friends and I met very nice people. 

Fabrizio

Tuesday 19/02/2019

We arrived at school at 9:00am and first we watched a dance and music show organised by some school students and teachers.

Then we did the “City Game” around Montealegre del Castillo where we scanned some QR Codes in the most important buildings and squares around the town and after that we meet the Major of Montealegre in his room.

After that we did our presentation about Carnival and the other countries did it too.

After lunch, we came back to school and we made the typical masks from all the 6 countries. When we finished, we went to a cafè to eat Churros, a typical dish in Montealegre, and we went to the main square.

Antonio  

Wednesday 20/02/2019
After having breakfast with our family, we met in the school courtyard, we entered the kitchen and each group was assigned to a typical dish. The Italian team cooked "Caponata". It's made with peppers, aubergines, onions, celery, pine nuts, raisins, olives and basil. It's called "Caponata" because in the past it was paired with a fish, called Capone. The fish was sobstituted with aubergines. I was in the Croatian team and I cooked "Fritule", a typical Croatian dish. It's made with eggs, sugar, flour, yogurt, vanilla and lemon zest. When the dough was ready, we made doughnuts and we fried them. Finally, they were covered with melted chocolate. They are very good!

Next, we presented the typical dishes and we wrote the recipes into the e-cookbook.

In the afternoon we walked along the "Green Way" and we arrived to a santuary. Around this, there was a big countryside area, where we had a snack. In the evening we went to a square for about 30 minutes. Finally, we went back home, tired but happy about this beautiful day.

Federica


Thursday 21/02/2019
On Thursday we went to visit Cuenca. It’s famous for the “hanging houses”. Before we started the tour, we were divided in two groups, “the lucky group” and “ the unlucky group”. Three of us were in the “lucky” group. Why lucky? Because we went up to the top of the mountain by  coach, while the other group went on foot next. We started the tour with the panoramic view from the top, where you could see some houses. We saw the two principal rivers, which flooded those houses on rainy days.

We went to the top and the landscape was amazing!! We started the guided tour with a quiz...whoever answered correctly would give one point to its team. We saw the wall of the old castle that was destroyed by the war. We crossed the bridge that in old times was made by wood. When we got inside the old city we saw the prison that was made with the ruins of the castle. We saw the “unlucky church” - it’s named like this because it was destroyed 10 times. We saw some of the hanging houses or some of the hanging bathrooms!

We met with the other group in front of the science museum, before that we went to a planetary where we saw the history of the Earth. After the planetary we saw the museum. My favorite things in the museum were the experiments that we tried out. After the museum, we went to a restaurant where we ate pasta and meat with potatoes.

After lunch, we had some free time where we socialised, had fun and bought some souvenirs. After the free time we went to visit the Cathedral of Cuenca.

The guide made another quiz for us - we had to find the three differences after the earthquake that destroyed the tower of the church. We came inside the church and it was awesome! But it was cold inside. There were some amazing statues and the window were painted with a lot of colours.

After we visited the church, we walked to the bridge of Cuenca, which is 5000 metres from the ground! In old times the bridge was made with different materials and one day it started to snow and the bridge collapsed. But then they make it with iron. We walked across the bridge and the ground was made by wood and some of the girls were afraid that one of the beams fall out. After that we got back to where the tour had started, we got inside on the coach and went back home.

It was an amazing experience, I was so happy to spend time with my friends!

Valeria 

 Friday 22/02/2019
At 9:00 a.m. we were all at school and, after the bell rang, all Erasmus + pupils and teachers went to the school gym.

We were divided into international teams and then we played typical Spanish games. The first game was "Prisoner Ball": there was a circle with two people at the outside and the other ones at the centre. The two ‘outsiders’ had to catch the ones at the center hitting them with a ball. If a person of the center was taken, he had to go outside and the one who caught the person went in.

The second game was Tulip: one pupil runs and tries to catch the other pupils, and the pupil who runs away, every time can  say “Tuli” and then is in a ‘Save-mood’ and can’t move. To unlock the person another person has to pass under the legs of the person who said ‘Tuli’, and then says ‘Pan’.
The third game was “The wall”: One person in the middle and the other pupils must go to the other side, but at the end for the last person it’s impossible to go through because there is a wall made of pupils.

The fourth game was “The Human Bowling”: 4 people are the pins and the other 4 are the ‘players’. The game is easy, it’s like bowling but instead of pins, there are people.
The fifth game was “Handkerchief”: a teacher was in the center and the team was divided into 2 teams, the team decides who is 1,2,3,4 and when the teacher says “...1!”, the number one must run to take the handkerchief and runs back to his place.

Last but not least was the “The Orchestra Director”: one pupil with their face to the wall, must try to understand who the group director is while the group is making a sound with hands or legs.
After the traditional Spanish games we had a break. Everyone signed the shirt, or a piece of paper or the backpack to remember this wonderful first Erasmus+ Project and the people we met. Then we had to work, we did questions and answers about Italian and Misterbianco geography and Italian Festivals (Carnival and Christmas) on the Twinspace. After these, we played a Kahoot game about Spain. The Italian team arrived third. Then we had to make our evaluation of the experience and give some tips for the next experiences.

After school all pupils went with their host families in the same restaurant, where we ate paella or slices of chicken with chips, and for dessert we had Oreo Ice-cream. Then we had a few minute break before going to the Culture House. At the Culture House we danced, sang, laughed and cried too...a lot! I will never forget how we all danced and sang together with one of the traditional Spanish dances. At the end of the party, one Spanish pupil started to cry and all the others together with him, like a chain, and then we hugged.Then, we went home where I watched the videos where we danced, sang, cried, hugged, laughed... And I cried a lot.

I will be forever grateful to my teachers because they gave me this opportunity to go to Spain, and not only to represent our school, but also to meet wonderful and unique people, who have become very important for me. This week was beautiful and I will never forget the beautiful moments we had together.

Alessia 


Saturday 23/02/2019

On Saturday we got up early, at about 4:00am. At 5:30am we took the coach to go to Madrid. We visited the Prado Museum, one of the most important art museums in the world. I loved it so much, especially the paintings of Francisco Goya for their colours.

 At the gift shop I bought the Museum guide book. After finding one of our schoolmate who had got lost into the museum (she liked it too much!), we went to the airport and flew to Rome. When we arrived there, after a short break,  we took the connecting flight to Catania. When we arrived there, I was happy to see my family again and tell them all about this new experience. 

Fabrizio