End of the project

On May 6th the Estonian Comenius group gathered once more to look back at the two years of the project. We had invited our accountant Mare Kukk, who had carefully kept an eye of our finances, the head of Kadrina municipality Aivar Lankei and Enn Mälgand from the local newspaper "Kodukant". Some teachers and the headmaster of the school Arvo Pani were also present.

Each mobility group recollected their visit, showing photos or videos, singing, teaching the language, playing games etc. All the students had also made a poster, depicting the most valuable memories connected with the project. Everybody agreed that we had become a real Comenius family and the experiences gained were educative.

Top Scent final meeting May 6th, 2011 from Merike Sikk on Vimeo.

We also presented our project DVD - every participant got it as a gift.















The cake tasted delicious, too.

Project brochure

http://www.myebook.com/index.php?option=ebook&id=78024

Portuguese Day

Our school celebrated Portugal's day a little bit differently as we are used to. This time we gathered into small groups and made many interesting presentations to classes from 3 to 11. The presentations were made in each class separately. We spoke about Portugal and made a quiz afterwards. The winners of the quiz received awards from the Portuguese embassy.

Hopefully, lots of good things about Portugal will stay in our memories.

One of the lessons about Portugal was based on a presentation like this

Portugal

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Preparations for the project meeting in Poland

On Dec 7th we listened to two presentations about Poland
General information by Kärol, Maarja, Hanna
Religion in Poland and Pope John Paul II by Laura, Birgit and Triinu

On Dec 14th the presentations were about
Culture and Sport - Aili, Kristiine, Mari
Upper Silesian Metropolitan Union and Krakow - Riin, Marje
Holocaust and Auschwitz - Evelin Tiiter

Our presentation in Portugal

http://www.slideshare.net/topscent/com-estonia-in-portugal

Com Estonia in Portugal

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Portugal - the age of discovery

http://www.slideshare.net/merikekk/the-age-of-discovery

Conference of the Estonian language

It took place on 18th of March. On this day, students from 9th – 12th class had no usual lessons. It was dedicated to our mother tongue and we had many activities during the day. In the beginning, we had to be in the hall at quarter to nine. School had invited two famous people Erni Kask ( an actor in Rakvere Theatre) and Loone Ots (PhD, lecturer in Tallinn and Tartu University) to talk about different things related to Estonian. During these speeches, students had to take notes. I think this part of the day was very interesting and educative. After that, we were all invited to Kadrina church to watch a play written by Loone Ots.



This was about one religious man Reiner Brocmann, who worked in Kadrina church centuries ago and who is also famous for passing along the Estonian language. So, it was really meaningful for us.




When this play was over, we went back to the school hall. We all were aware of this day coming and every class had to prepare one play. These plays had to be taken from famous writers’ books. So it was our time to perform. The best play got an award. It was performed by form 12b and based on " Names in Marble"
















The jury also chose the best female and male actor. This was worth an effort. In conclusion, this day wasn’t just about getting a day off, it was about learning new things and appreciating our mother tongue.

Italian week 29th March to 6th April

Like we had Turkish week some months ago, now we had the same but with Italy and the main concern was on Sicily.
While walking around in the school, little labels with Italian words were greeting everyone. People really enjoyed the phrases.
The students of the Comenius project made posters about Italy and the themes we had discussed in the class. All the posters went on exhibition and later, an online quiz could be done based on the information found on them.
The students who went to Palermo, had to talk about their trip in different classes. Firstly, they talked about the places they saw, people who they met and so on:D Then time for questions and finally the quiz.
People had the chance to see some of the trip photos which where on the wall, in the library there was a book exhibition about Italy books and Italian authors and listen to Italian music from the school radio.
On 30th March, we had a chance to listen to Daniela Martini, the culture and commercial attache from the Italian Embassy. Also, the students, who had visited Sicily, made a presentation about it. They showed us a video about one flower carneval, which was really magnificent :) And for the grand finale they played their favorite Italian music, which also was kind an anthem for the trip :D

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O4JwHWlVul4&feature=player_embedded

Taormina and Acireale

Seventh day, Sunday.

This day started very early, we had to be at school by 7 o`clock. It was extremely rainy and also bit chilly. We had to drive about 3 hours and more before we got to Taormina. It was dry and warm in the bus and no-one was too eager to go outside, when we had short break from the driving. Finally we arrived to Taormina, we went to see (the Greek theatre) The Teatro Greco. It was quite difficult to get there. We walked upwards which was quite difficult because of the rain. It was the lucky day for the umbrella-sellers. After the struggle, we finally reached our destination. It was a magical view, it was easy to imagine thousands and thousands of people sitting all together. We made a round around the theatre and saw many captivating sights.

Fortunately for us we were in the right place just for the time when the sun came out. We saw the most beautiful rainbow. It was very clear and very close to us. I`m really sorry that it is not as amazing on the picture. After this we had to get back on the bus and drive a little further to Acireale. This was the place where the carneval was held. We got there just in time, it had just started. There was lots of people in the streets, some of them wearing funny hats or wigs and few of them wearing costumes. Most of the people were just like us, with nothing, but it wasn`t a problem. We saw, how big statues made from flowers were slowly driven in the street. The music was quite loud and played in every corner of the street.

I`m sure that almost everybody agrees with me if I say, that this was the place where your worst enemy is your best friend. Little pieces of paper were thrown everywhere- in people`s hair and face mostly. And also some kind of canned ribbons were sprayed, it was quite difficult to get those semi-wet things out of your hair. Most of us had a good time.

And then it was time to turn back to Palermo. We got on the bus and drive another 3 hours and after that we all were extremely tired and relived when we got back to Palermo, which was about 8 pm.

Palermo 4

The fifth day was the first excursion day. Italian teachers had made the plans for the school trip and had chosen for this day to visit Selinunte, Cave di Cusa, Marsala and Segesta. Teachers also reminded us to be punctual, that we could see all the sites, but still we leaved from Palermo a bit later than 7.30.

The first site, Selinunte was 123 km far from Palermo. During this long drive, students sang together and used this time to get to know each other. Selinunte temple was founded around 650 B.C , so there was a very ancjent and mysterious atmosphere.
The next place which we visited was Cave di Cusa. It is the place, were Selinuntinians took the stones for the constructing their temples.

47 km from Cave di Cusa is Marsala, which is by inhabitants one of the biggest city in Sicily. In Marsala we saw salt deposits and Marsala wine shop. We also had our lunch in Marsala, in " Trattoria Garibaldi".

After the lunch we continued our excursion to Segesta. Unfortunately it was rainig heavily, so we didn`t walk close to the temple and we admired it from the bus. Because of the rain, we didn`t see the Greek Theatre either. Despite of rain, everybody enjoyed the trip and didn´t let their mood going down.

Palermo 3

The first part of the day was dedicated to presentation about the Mafia . First presentation was perfomed by the Italian teacher whose presentation started with the sentence :

"Until less than forty years ago , many people in Sicily still used to say about Mafia:"Mafia? Have you ever seen the Mafia with your eyes? No , believe me: Mafia doesn´t exist"

Then he talked about the history of the Mafia . The most important men to sicily were Falcone and Borsellino they were the national heroes to Sicily because they fought against the Mafia, both were killed by the mafia in a car bomb .Falcone and Borsellino were particulary respected and even loved by common people ,who had learned to appreciate their intelligence ,their rectitude and their courage .The common people had powerful reaction:thousands of citizens participated in Falcone´s and Borsellino´s funerals and many voluntary organizations arase in those days by citizens who wanted to contrast the mafia system and feel free :one of such voluntary organizations is "ADIO PIZZO"

PIZZO - a payment imposed by Mafiosi to the traders - and if you don´t pay the pizzo we will destroy your shop....ADDIO= bye bye .Italian teacher ended his presentation with the sentence

...but in Palermo there are no more shots in the streets and above all nobody says any more "Mafia? What is Mafia? Oh....Mafia doesn´t exist".

And then the students made a presentation about mafia. Mafia is not a funny joke in Italy some of my friends are still afraid of the Mafia its not a joke Mafia is real.

After the presentations we went on a trip to Mondello .There we had a lunch and a lot of free time .The carnival was about to start at Mondello but we went away before the start .Mondello was a amazing place with a amazing view to the mountains .The water was a little bit cold and many of estonians were sick thats why we didn´t go swimming . It was a niice day after Mondello we went home .

Palermo II

Fourth day.

The first part of the day was dedicated to presentations. All the foreigners had to show their presentations. Fortunately for us we were last and had the most time to prepare ourselves.

We had a pleasure listening to Portuguese, Turkish and Polish presentations and their songs. It was an interesting and educative morning. Then it was time for a coffee break, we had no time to relax as we were up just after the break. It was quite busy and stressful half an hour because we had some technical difficulties and at the end we still couldn`t show some videos + we had to sing the first verse of the National Anthem of the Republic of Estonia. Luckyly for us, we had some videos on the flash disk and we were able to show self-made clips about our school and school events. They were the most popular among the audience.After the most stressful part of the trip we had a lecture about Selinute, Marsala and Segesta- the places we were about to visit on the next day.

Then it was time for a lunch at „Focacceria S. Francesco”. The food was good, though we had some misunderstandings at the restaurant.
After eating we had enough energy to deside if we wanted to go home or go sightseeing with the teachers. Only very few of us desided not to go with teachers.

We saw very beautiful places and buildings around Palermo, but most of the students, estonians included, desided to stay behind and spend time playing some "football". Taavi also had lots of good time showing everybody his skateboard tricks, some Italians tried to do the tricks.

We were outside till it got dark and then it was time to say good bye. Some of us went to play bowling and had a great time, but I had to go home as my host`s father needed the motorcycle and we had to take it home..

Then I had delicious dinner, and I guess we all did, and that was it for that day..

Tsce

The improved version of our presentation !

Tsce

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Sitsiilia Geograafia

At last my slow internet let me to upload this slideshow of Sicily's nature :)

Sitsiilia Geograafia

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Our new friend - Italy

We are now turning our focus on Italy.
Here are the slideshows that we have made.

Vatikan

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Tähtsamad Itaalia tähtpäevad

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Itaalia Ajalugu

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Itaalia üldandmed

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Rooma

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Dictionary

Dear Top Scent Students and teachers,

A very Happy New Year to all of you and our project!


We have had quite long holidays and maybe some of you feel like doing something for the project - so I have something interesting for you.

Hatice, the Turkish teacher, has sent a draft of the dictionary we are going to compile for the project. They have written the Turkish and English part and now each country has to fill in their part of the dictionary. As the number of the words is rather impressive, I have divided it between all the students in the project and every one of you gets 60 - 61 words to translate into Estonian. Here is the link to the dictionary.
http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0Akmdjjk7XDTJdGw0OXZqTjc4V2dTb0FieGkyeURna2c&hl=en

You can edit it right there. Be sure you save it!
Here is how I have divided the words.
Hanna 1-61
Kristiine 62- 122
Meigrit 123- 183
Riin 184-244
Maarja R 245- 305
Maarja S 306 - 366
Siim 367 - 427
Kärol 428- 488
Mari 489 - 549
Aili 550- 610
Jürgen 611- 670
Liis 671- 730
Maris 731- 790
Susanna 791 - 850
Siret 851- 910
Koit Romet 911 - 971
Grete 972 - 1032
Birgit 1033 - 1093
Triinu 1094 - 1154
Laura 1155 - 1215
Marje 1216 - 1276
Robert 1277 - 1337
Peeter 1338 - 1398
Taavi 1399 - 1459
Siiri 1460 - 1520
Jaak 1520 - 1581

I probably made a mistake with my calculations, so - everyone is welcome to translate the last part - numbers!

Turkish week

In our school there was a week dedicated to Turkey, from 23rd to 27th November. It was an interesting and educative event. Due to this different activities were held.

The purpose of the week was to introduce Turkey and it`s culture to all the students in our school. During the breaks the school radio played captivating Turkish music. Most of the students enjoyed it and became more interested in Turkey and its culture.

The members of the Comenius international project, visited each form's class teacher`s lessons and introduced Turkish culture, traditions and the local people in this unique country. We talked about the basic information, about the country`s recent history, extremely friendly people, Turkish religion , Atatürk aka Mustafa Kemal Atatürk . It was a good experience for all of us, who had to talk in front of the class. Those who had an opportunity to talk to the younger forms, where lucky because youngsters knew less about Turkey and were not able to ask difficult questions. At the end of the lessons the quiz was carried out. This way we had a chance to see how well the students had been listening and also how much they knew themselves. The winner of the school was Kristjan Pulk. Turkish Embassy had supported us with the awards for the winners.Now the students who visited the classes and made a research about Turkey are waiting for the feedback from the teachers and are hoping that they managed well. At elementary school we didn`t carry out the quiz, but the teachers told them a Turkish fairy tale.
From Tuesday till Friday the labels with Turkish phrases were seen on the walls of the school.

Also, there were some pictures about the trip to Turkey on the wall in the student`s corner, so, every student had a chance to see the pictures themselves.

The students, who had a great opportunity to visit Turkey and some of the students who are also in this project, made a power point presentation about their trip and talked about it to the secondary school students on Friday. During this thematic event the secondary school had a chance to see Turkish women`s traditional clothes (teacher Merike Sikk on the picture) and also belly dance.

Belly dancers were our school students, who had prepared a few Turkish dances. We aslo had a guest from the Turkish Embassy.

Özgür Cakar (on the picture with the headmaster Arvo Pani) said that he was pleasantly surprised to see our knowledge about Turkey. During this gathering we also congratulated the winners of the quiz from every class.
We all think that this week, dedicated to Turkey, went well, because the main purpose was achieved- students got more interested in Turkey and got rid of prejudices.

by Hanna and Laura