2007-

2009

Reflective Journal of
Partnership

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συντάκτη]

2007-2009
Introduction

In what follows we have gathered samples of the ideas and

thoughts that were expressed through our students who were
actively involved in the project activities during 2007-2009.
On the one side we believe that this reflective journal is a way
of evaluation while on the other side we are certain that is a
way of improvement of a teacher or a group of teachers who
are participating in Comenius programme. Additionally, we
reckon that this diary can enforce other educational
organization to get involved in such LLP programs since
students’ will of participation is accompanied with excitement
of cooperation.

Enjoy and reflect!

Samples of Cypriot students’ reflections:

I had many experiences from Comenius programme. Last year I
remember eating breakfast at school for three days. This year
my class have cooked meatballs and meat in wine (afelia). After
some days, my teacher have told us to prepare a poster and
some teaching games for the programme, while he had also said
that he would choose some of them to take them with him in
Isernia meeting. He provided us many flags of European
countries. This way we were informed about the other
countries. I would like to participate in this programme next
year as well!

Eleni Fouli (D2)

I have positive experiences through Comenius programme. I

have learned many things about each partner country, and I
mean Italy, Bulgaria, Slovakia and Romania. We have prepared
posters which are related to the partnership and cooperation
or people. We have also cooked meatballs and afelia (cypus
recipe) under the title “Shall we eat all together”. Moreover,
we have created teaching games and we have included flags and
sightseeing of each partner country, such as Pisa Tower,
Colosseum… I would like to continue participating in this
programme.

Ioanna Engomiti (D2)

What I like the most from Comenius is the time we cooked

Cypriot recipes like afelia and pilaf… it’s so nice to cook, we
also ate salad and bread. We also like the time we had
exchanged greeting cards with children from partner
countries. We like a lot getting involved in those experiences
through Comenius programme because despite the fact that we
have learned the significance of a healthy breakfast, we also
got informed about the habits and food of other countries.

Angela Koulla – Charalambos Charalambous – Elena Kiriakou (D2)

I remember last year that we cooperated in an activity that

was titled “shall we eat breakfast all together”. I also like that
we were connecting to the internet, to our webpage, and were
watching tasty foods we had being prepared. We also created
some teaching games using questions and answers from all
partner countries. I have even learned some words in Bulgarian
language such as dobre utro, blagotarya.

Rafaella Gouaniva (D2)

I had collected many experiences from Comenius. This year we

have done the most of the activities. I remember that we have
prepared posters, teaching games, we cooked twice. Once we
have cooked afelia and the second time we have cooked
meatballs. Both are local traditional recipes.
I also remember that last year we were eating breakfast for
three days at school. I will never forget such nice experiences
and I will have them as sweet memories in my mind. These two
years I participated in Comenius I felt great…I would like to
join Comenius next year as well.

Loucas Liggi (D2)

My school participated for the last three years in Comenius

programme so as my class did.
I have learned many things through this programme, such as
flags of countries, traditional cooking recipes, etc. I also have
learned that cooking recipes from partner countries haven’t
got much difference between them. We have some differences
since we add or not add some ingredients that are not familiar
to us. What I remember as a nice memory from Comenius is
when we cooked other countries’ cookies for Christmas and the
cooking book of traditional recipes we have edited along with
our teachers. I would like to have the chance to participate in a
project meeting with this programme one day!

Andri Pitsillidi (Ε1)

For the last three years my class participates in Comenius

programme. Through this programme we had the chance to
create and involve in exciting things. We had the luck to visit
Chirokitia Neolithic Settlement, to get informed about habits
of other European countries, to have lunch and breakfast all
schoolmates together and to cook at the same time with
students from Romania and Slovakia using Internet camera.
We surely liked participating in Comenius and we would like to
visit another partner country one day in order to meet children
from abroad with different language, habits and ideas…its so
nice to make new friends from Europe.

Giorgos Koushiapas, Aristos Aristidou, Rafaella Panagidi (Ε1)

We had great experiences through Comenius. We loved when

we cooked pilaf, biscuits and flaounes (traditional Easter
Cheese pies). We had even visited a local traditional restaurant
where we watched how koupepia are being prepared…
Whenever we were cooking we were happy and excited. We did
a lots of things, we create teaching games and some crafts for
the programme. We loved that we exchanged emails with the
children from partner countries… we think that we have now
new friends… we would love to visit Italy for the project
meeting to meet them in person.

Anthi Kostandinou, Kiriaki Petrou (Ε1)

I liked when we had cooked pilaf, while I was excited when I

had visited one of the local restaurants of our village to see
how they cooked traditional recipes. I also remember when we
made teaching games and several crafts which were related to
the programme.
We surely enjoyed the participation in the programme and we
will always remember. I would like to be lucky and travel one
day abroad in partner schools.

Emiliana Sofokleous (E1)

What to remember from all the things we have done within the
Comenius? We feel lucky that we had the opportunity to travel
in Chirokitia (Neolithic Settlement), visit and study in Public
Library, visit a traditional tavern and see how traditional
recipes, such as meatballs in wine leaves (koupepia), are
prepared…and additionally we liked when we had the chance to
cook by ourselves pilaf and cookies.και να μαγειρέψουμε όλοι οι
συμμαθητές μας πουργούρι και μπισκότα. We mostly liked the
three days breakfast and the teaching games with pictures and
questions regarding partner countries that we have prepared
along with our students.

Antonis Pattichis, Paulos Irakleous (Ε1)

Whenever I hear the word Bulgaria I smile. It was an

experience that I will never forget in my life. It was an
awesome experience. (…) To be honest I didn’t know many
things about Bulgaria. In May (2008) I went there with my
three schoolmates and I was informed about many things
regarding the specific country such as history, civilization and
Varna.
We stayed in a very good hotel and I was staying in the same
room with another schoolmate with which we had good time
together. We liked the local food of Bulgaria. I noticed that in
restaurants they serve at first the salad which is called sopsca
and then the main dish which is usually meat, like spicy
meatball, but very tasty.
We made many new friends from all partner countries at school
we had visited. The school looks different than ours. Regarding
their language I noticed that its different and weird, but we
learned some words.
Finally, Bulgaria is a very interesting country even though we
didn’t know much about it. There are museums with greek items
and history, churches and monasteries. I liked a lot all those
things.
I will never forget all those places I had visited and all those
friends I made.(…)
I had great impressions during this trip. I had never had such
an experience and I felt sorry that I left from this nice
country. I wish I could have a similar experience in the future!!!

Christina Dionisiou (Sixth Grade)

This year I was lucky enough because I participated in the

sixth meeting of Comenius in Isernia Italy (May 2009). We had
travelled two students and three teachers. After a long time
trip we had arrived to the lovely hosted family. At the
beginning I felt a little anxious but after some minutes I felt
that this staying would be much warm and maybe like home, (…).
At the second day we had visited school and had entered
classrooms. I was l feeling weird because I could understand
anything but in a while after I noticed how much friendly ere
the other students, I felt cozy enough. We participated in an
English language lesson and in Art lesson.(…)
Next day we visited Benevento where we admired the Traians
Entrance to Rome and the nice city of Benevento. After our
small tour we had a lunch at a local park. (…)
At Wednesday our friends Italians from Miranda elementary
school prepared for us a presentation with italian music, while
they offered us a unique Italian lunch at their school. I was
impressed with their hospitality, smiling faces and friendly
mood. Together at the afternoon we went to a mountain where
we flew some kites.
Next day we travelled all together to Pompeii to see the
exciting ancient town. I still cannot believe what I had seen
and how lucky I was to be there!
At Friday we followed some more lessons at school while at the
evening we had the opportunity to walk through the shops of
Isernia. At night Italians gave a party to a restaurant for all of
us from other countries where we ate and danced and had
great, great time!.
From the early morning of the next day we had said goodbye to
our hosted family and all the other children and we took the
train to return back to Rome. There we made the tour of the
City with touristic Bus. We passed by and were astonished by
Colosseum, Vatican City, Fontana di Trevi and Piaza di Spagna.
In general, I had great time in this Comenius meeting.
I will never forget specific faces such as the parents and
children who gave us host, some Italian teachers, some new
friends we made from other countries , the nice and tasty food
of Italy and the sightseeing of course. I wish I would have
once more the same opportunity to participate in such a
meeting of Comenius.

Stefanos Kiriakou E2

Samples of Slovakian students’ reflections:

I’m glad I could participate in the project, because I didn’t

only obtain more information about Paleolithic period of
Slovakia and our partner‘s countries, but through it I made the
international friendship with Italian pupils. I personally saw
how children live in foreign country what their school looks
like, which subjects they have to study, how they spend their
free time. I had the chance the first time in my life to travel
by plane. I have unforgettable memories of time I spend in
Italy.

Zuzana, 7A

I think, that taking part in this project was very positive thing
for me .I had a big opportunity to improve my English. I wrote
e-mails, I read articles about Prehistoric people and their life
in this period, I translated recipes of traditional meals. The
most important things was I could speak
English to foreign people in project meeting in Italy where I
understood how important
It is studying of foreign languages.

Andrej, 7A

I will never forget our partner’s visit from Italy in December

2007. I met very interesting children.
I spent with them a lot of time. We were together at our
school in the morning and after our lessons
in the afternoon. Thanks English we could speak about
everything. We compared their daily life to Slovak children’s
life. They taught us some words in Italian language. We
became so good friends that I want to go for holiday to Italy.
I didn’t expect that working in this international project will
bring me such a nice friendship.

Kristína, 8A

I like cooking too much. It’s my hobby and it was pleasure for
me to help with this part of the project I help my mum very
often but international cooking through the web- camera was
much more interesting. We were not only preparing deferent
international meal but we could see what our friends are
cooking at the same time. We were speaking to each other and
explaining our recipes.

Ladislav, 5C

We are small -9 years old-we couldn’t do a lot of activities

because we don’t speak English well but our class helped colour
the pictures for making prehistoric puzzles.

Katarína & Matúš, 4A

A lot of people ask me if the project was important for me and

why. My answer is- yes. I had never had opportunity to
represent our school abroad. I brought from Varna experience.
Five days I lived in Bulgarian family, I tried Bulgarian meal, saw
their customs and attended primary school in Varna.
Organizers prepared for us very nice program. The most
interesting things we visited were archaeological place-Aladzha
Rock and Paleolithic museum where we were trying to make
prehistoric tools and playing old games. I wish to do a similar
project in the future.

Mišo, 7A

What were we doing during the three years in Comenius

project with the name “Shall we all eat together?“ A lot
ofthings. It is difficult to remember all of them. We were
obtaining information about live in the Stone Age through
internet, books from library, and brochures from
Archaeological museum. We were gathering traditional recipes
of all partners and translating them to Slovak language. We
were writing stories from Stone Age every day live and making
tools of this period.
I remember issuing of special additional of newspaper of the
project or updating information on the notice board. I can’t
forget on line communication with partners and watching their
presentations.
I can tell now – we did a lot so we learnt a lot.

Tomáš, 8A

Everybody of this school knows about Comenius project but I

was lucky on the 12-th May 2008 I had the possibility to travel
to Varna – Bulgarian town. After our exciting journey we met
Bulgarian friends and started their live style. It was easier
than in Slovakia because I wasn’t tested at school but on the
other side I lived in the foreign country without my family. I
have very good memories of that time. I liked visiting
Archaeological museum and picnic at Golden Sands too much.
 Nikola, 7A

Who love cooking that liked Comenius. Our team of young cooks
had the chance of preparing traditional meal of project
partner and Slovak traditional meal. We tried to cook Romanian
pancakes with cottage cheese, Cypriot New year’s cake with
coins inside, Bulgarian walnut kernels in the Thracian style and
Slovak meal typical for Easter – hrudka. Everything was very
good and tasty.
After studying of our partners’eating habits we understand
that cooking is an interesting part of the national culture.

Aďo, 9D

I remember one very interesting activity on March 2008. We

were in the nature and pretended food preparation in the
Stone Age. We used stones, pieces of woods, seeds and grass.
We discovered that this plain food should be healthy nutrition
nowadays too.
I liked the trip to Spišský castle as well. I could see there the
first dishes for preparation meal and a part of Slovak cuisine
history.
In this project we compared preparation food of five different
countries.(Bulgaria, Cyprus , Romania, Italy and Slovakia)

Barbora , 7A

Samples of Bulgarian students’ reflections:

I had an exciting experience these two years with all project
activities. A few students of our class cooked a winter soup
last Christmas. It was the first time I tried to cook. It was
the first time I practiced my English with foreigners, because
we cooked online and we could see how our partners from
Slovakia and Italy cooked at the same time.

Maria Nikolova - 5th grade

I like History, it`s my favourite subject so it was fun for me

to take part in our project research. Our main aim was to learn
about Nealithic people – How did they live and what did they
eat? We spent a lot of time at the Education museum in Varna.
It was very interesting there and we had the opportunity to
get fire as the ancient people did that.We tried to make clay
dishes and they looked like as the museum exhibits.

Martin Adamov - 6th grade

We are from 5th grade and we are participants in Comenius

project “Shall we eat all together?”. Now we are “the experts”
of our partners` cuisines. First we learned about the countries,
their flags, traditions, languages. After that we translated and
cooked some of the partners` recipes and finally we did our
presentation. All of our parents and friends were invited to
taste and to choose the most delicious dish. It was a great
party! We hope we will have the chance someday to travel and
to visit some of these countries.

The students from the 5th grade

I`m lucky! The Comenius project gave me the chance to meet

students from other countries and to go abroad. A year ago,
when the project meeting was in our town, I was a host. Two
Italian students were living together with my family. It was a
great fun and the opportunity to learn a bit Italian. I could
practice my English during 3 years we have been working in the
project. I`ve translated a part of the materials in English and
the prize for me was to visit our partner`s school in Isernia,
Italy.

Veselin Trakiyski – 6th grade

I love drawing. I`m interested in handmade things and I

enjoyed myself in many of the project activities. We made an
exhibition “Paleolith in colors” and the best pictures we used to
prepare puzzles as a final product. I`m very proud with the
book “Bulgarian traditional recipes”. We collected the most
tipical recipes and made illustrations for each of them.

Nikolina Keranova – 7th grade

Oh, yes! We have already eaten together and played together

and laughed together. We spent 5 days together with a few
students from Cyprus, Romania, Italy and Slovakia. The project
meeting in Varna was cool! We were all the time together and
weren`t any difficulties in communication. The differences
were less than the similarities.

Kamen Yanev – 7th grade

Now I`ve got many more pen friends. I had the opportunity to
visit Italy and to be a participant in the last Comenius meeting
in Isernia. It was a very exciting experience. It was interesting
to see the school of our partners, to live with their families
and even to be tested by their math teacher 
 Ivaila Peeva - 7th grade

My mother is a chef. She likes her job and she is very good at
it. It was pleasure for her to help us with gathering the
recipes and learning about the ancient Turkish cuisine and what
its influence to Bulgarian cuisine was. We organized a party in
our class where my mum told us interesting stories and showed
how to make a traditional Turkish sweet “baklava”.

Moazes Mutafchieva – 7th grade

I remember one of the first Comenius activities I took part in.

Some girls from our class colored Easter eggs. We did that as
our grandmothers and great-grandmothers had done many
years ago. We got colors from different plants and natural
materials. The eggs became colorful and beautiful and we
learned more about Bulgarian traditions and practices.

Iveta Hristova – 7th grade

The spices are important for each meal, I`ve know that. Since
we visited and cooked in a traditional Bulgarian restaurant, I
have known that the spices are very, very important and they
fix the taste. The cook showed us how and what do use and we
prepared three meals with the same ingredients but different
spices.

Silvia Todorova – 5th grade

Samples of Italian students’ reflections:

This experience was for me important because it improved my
English through cultural exchange and contacts with other
teaching methods. Each encounter has been a moment of
celebration which has enriched ourselves, becoming more aware
of the value of our diversity.
I hope to join other European projects!!!

Manocchio Marco III D

The day spent in Miranda was wonderful. We ate at the school

canteen. Then we went to the mountains to admire the flight of
the kites. In the evening we were all tired but happy for our
“European day”.

Papa Riccardo I A

In Isernia my family hosted 2 students from Cyprus. I

remembered when they arrived at the station. It was very
touching. I liked them from the first time. They were a bit shy
but mainly tired.
Everything passed when they saw my dog. Now I have 2 new
friends in Larnaca.
Rondinella Stefano I B

The Comenius project has been an opportunity to visit

archaeological sites, cook European recipes, know the habits of
other nations and make new friends. Now I have a good reason
for travelling in Europe!

Di Luozzo Giovanni III C

It has been very funny to know the traditional dishes of our
partners and we appreciated their tastiness.

D’Uva Martina II A

This was the last year of the project. Together with the
partners we visited Pompei, Caserta, walked in the historical
part of our city and many other things more: Thank you
Comenius!

Di Perno Martina I B

I remember with nostalgia my visit to the school of Kosice. It

was the beginning of December and our European friends were
preparing Christmas activities. We too prepared decorations
for the Christmas tree, sang songs, played, and cooked a
traditional Slovakian recipe.

Rossi Camilla III B

I have joined the Comenius project from the first year. I have
travelled in Slovakia e Romania; I am so enthusiastic for this
experience because I have had the change to know new friends.
We still e-mail each other.

Di Pilla Pasqualino II C

I still remember the day when we prepared the “struffoli” in

our school. It is a typical Carnival recipe. We were all excited
because our European friends could see us through a web cam.
The cooking on-line activity was the best Comenius activity.

Nobile Federica III C

I am part of the school magazine “ La redazione”. This year I
have been working more than usual writing articles for the
Comenius project. Together with the teacher we chose the
photos, the texts, we cut, we glued, we tore pieces of paper!

Ciao Federica III D

Samples of Romanian students’ reflections:

This project was an unforgettable experience for me. I

managed to make friends from other countries, and this, was
something I could never have imagined if it wasn’t for the
project. Besides this I got some skills of using the computer
for educational purposes: getting together the materials we
needed in developing the project.

Dragota Alin (VI A)

I liked a lot the team work and not just a national team work,
but an international one.

Dragota Alexandru (VI A)

Besides the exciting activities we participated in with all the

colleagues from the project team, I managed to see what I
wished for the most: the sea, for the first time in my life.

Muntean Andrada (V B)
The project meant for me something very beautiful. I couldn’t
wait for the week day (Thursday) in which the project team
met at school.

Padurean Melissa (VI C)

I was a little sad after the logo I drew for the project wasn’t
selected to represent the project these three years, but I
managed to go over that moment thanks to the diverse and
very fulfilling activities we developed with our partners. I
loved the historical part of the project – because it’s my
favorite subject of all.

Ghiurutan Marius (VIII B)

In my opinion, the best activities we developed were the ones

in which we cooked, because I love cooking and I also love to
taste everything I make. I even found out which are the
culinary traditions of the other partners. It was the most
interesting thing.

Cozac Bogdan (VIII B)

I liked it very much when we cooked, too. And then we tasted

the products of our activity.

Ostafie Nicoleta (VIII B)

For me the project was a good opportunity to find out about

the history, culture and civilization of the other partners,
right there on the spot.

Bogdan Alexandra (VI A)

I hope we will take part in this kind of experiences and
projects because it was a captivating experience and I made
my interest for knowing things, and foreign languages better,
grow bigger and bigger.

Siklodi Ecaterina (VI A)

At the end of three years of work in teams I can say that the
team work beats anytime working individually, we managed to
developed many captivating activities and they got our interest.

Agache Roxana (VIII B)