A World of Differences Comenius Multilateral Project 2008-10

In the newspaper

Instituto de diferencias

( Diario Córdoba - 30/01/2009 )

 

Instituto de diferencias

El IES Blas Infante celebra estos días unas jornadas interculturales.

 

30/01/2009 ROSA GALLARDO 

 

Marruecos, China, Rumanía, Colombia, Paraguay, Uruguay, Ecuador... Todos ellos son países que están dejando su huella en el IES Blas Infante, gracias a alumnos que vuelven su mirada a sus tierras de origen y que ahora comparten diferentes vivencias con sus compañeros de clase. El instituto, de la zona de Levante, se encuentra en plena fiesta intercultural, a través de una iniciativa en común de las profesoras responsables de los proyectos Comenius Un mundo de diferencias y de Escuela: Espacio de Paz.

Y son más de 500 estudiantes los que participan en estas jornadas interculturales, que se inauguraron el pasado lunes con una conferencia sobre derechos humanos, a cargo del ex coordinador general de Izquierda Unida Julio Anguita (quien fue profesor de este instituto), y finalizarán la próxima semana.

En este encuentro, en el que están implicados más de 50 profesores, se pretende conocer mejor a los alumnos inmigrantes escolarizados en el centro, así como las peculiaridades de sus países de origen, su cultura, tradiciones e incluso la gastronomía, según explica la coordinadora del Comenius, Inmaculada Gañán, quien, a su vez, comenta que en las jornadas también se está trabajando en los países relacionados con el proyecto europeo Un mundo de diferencias , como son Hungría, Turquía, Reino Unido y Alemania.

Por ello, el salón de actos del IES Blas Infante se está convirtiendo durante estos días en un rincón de convivencia y en un pequeño museo de distintos trabajos multidisciplinares y objetos típicos de diferentes países. Todos los alumnos del instituto tendrán la oportunidad de visitar esta ejemplar muestra de diferentes culturas, en la que se ha trabajado en campos diversos, como la naturaleza, la geografía, la historia, los idiomas y el deporte.

Las jornadas interculturales, que se engloban en los actos con motivo del Día de la Paz (se celebra hoy), se completan con la representación de dos obras de teatro, una de ellas sobre el acoso escolar y otra sobre la historia de las religiones, las cuales se pondrán en escena por los estudiantes del centro hoy mismo, a partir de las doce de la mañana. También en esta jornada está previsto que algunos padres asistan al centro y participen en una degustación de platos típicos de sus países de origen. Así lo indica Inmaculada Gañán, quien, precisamente, el pasado mes de septiembre recibió el premio Sello Europeo 2008, que otorga la Comisión Europea para reconocer las iniciativas innovadoras en la enseñanza y el aprendizaje de las lenguas. El galardón distinguió un proyecto que se centró también en la interculturalidad en un entorno plurilingüe. Así pues, desde años atrás, ya se vienen realizando en este centro diversas acciones para sensibilizar en materia de inmigración y tolerancia a otras culturas. Un aspecto más por el que se diferencia este instituto cordobés.

 

 

 

IES BLAS INFANTE HOSTS A SOLIDARITY COMENIUS PROJECT

 

IES Blas Infante in Córdoba, Spain had the honour of hosting the participants in the last Project meeting of our Multilateral Comenius “A World of Differences”, which took place from the 30th of April to the 6th of May 2010.

A total of 12 members of staff and 41 students from the partner schools attended the meeting. Students were hosted by Spanish families.

 Among other activities carried out along these days we stand out the Intercultural Exhibition opened by our former inspector Mr. Juan Rubio and the visits to Granada and the city of Córdoba, these ones guided by our tourism students. Our European partners attended some of our classes, especially the ones in our plurilingual section, taught in English. They could also enjoy a workshop of Dances of the World.  

But the main Project activities were related to Helping Ryan’s Well Foundation.  We liked the example of Canadian boy Ryan Hreljiac, who when he was only 6 years old, decided to fund a well in Africa and, when he was only 10, he founded his own NGO with the objective of getting safe water to all the children in the world. Along all this school year Blas Infante has been working raising of awareness and helping in the building of a well, water canalization, latrines and a training programme for teachers in a school in Togo. We have written a theatre play in five scenes which tells Ryan’s story. Each partner school had prepared several scenes and the 4th of May we performed the common play. All a success of a very ambitious Project. We were deeply moved by the performance of the play with five different accents where more than 70 students took part.

We also made a recipe book to help the NGO, which we called A World of Recipes. The book has more than 100 recipes from families and staff of the five partner schools, 82 of which were cooked in Córdoba Project meeting on the 4th of May, after the theatre play. Each European student and his or her Spanish partner cooked a dish from his or her home country and another from Spain. The book is still on sale to contribute with Ryan’s Well. We have edited it three times. Our school has already raised 2380€ and our European partners more than 1000€.

We conclude this European School Partnership with the satisfaction of having established multiple cooperation and friendship links among the participating schools at the same time as having contributed to such an exemplary solidarity Project.

There was the third project meeting of our Comenius School project "A World of Differences" in Sanliurfa, Turkey between 19th - 23 rd October 2009. The participating schools were from Spain, Germany and Hungary. There were 29 teachers and students from the visitor schools. The teachers stayed in "El-Ruha" hotel ; which is five starred and locaded  nearby "Fish Lake" (Balıklıgöl) and the students were hosted by the Turkish families. On the first day at our school "GAP Anadolu Lİsesi" we had an opening ceremony. The mayor of Sanliurfa and the headteacher had opening speeches. Then all the students at our school enjoyed the international fair. They got informed about their schools, countries and culture. Then, on the second day, the Spanish and German students had a theatre performance at "Vali Kemal Gazezoğlu Kültür Merkezi". All students of our school enjoyed it as well. After the play, our guests visited the old city "Harran" in the afternoon. On the third and the last day, we all enjoyed the boat tour in the town of "Halfeti" and rare birds called "Ibis" in Birecik. Finally, we said "good bye" to all our guests at Sanliurfa GAP Airport as we said "wellcome" when they had arrived. 

 

Meeting in Uffenheim, Bavaria, Germany.The meeting took place from the 22nd to the 24th of April 2009. More than 120 students from the five schools have met. We have hold poetry workshops about interculturality where students from the five countries have worked together. The Turkish school presented us the traditional Turkish wedding ceremony, the Spanish school performed a theatre play about the Córdoba of the Three Cultures, the Hungarian school danced a song about "differences" and performed folk dances. All the schools presented their schools to the gym. All the visiting students enjoyed the German hospitality in homestays. Thank you very much, Uffenheim.