In the Comenius “ORBIS PICTUS” partnership twelve schools from twelve countries were involved (as many partners as the stars on the EU flag). The title of the project “Orbis Pictus – Keep it balanced” is connected with the book “Orbis Pictus” written by John Amos Comenius in the 17th century. That Czech educator, who appreciated national languages and the use of pictures in didactics, is thought to have been the father of modern education, an innovator who shared his good practices in the world through travelling and teaching. Our project was planned to follow Comenius’ ideas and his conception of lifelong learning with all the significant didactic dimensions of innovation, creativity and European values.
The first Latin part of the project name “Orbis Pictus” means “The Earth in pictures” in English and it expresses our students’ need to discover Europe with the use of photography, drawing, painting which develop imagination and enable project partners to express themselves not only manually in an artistic way, but also with the use of ICT tools . Project activities use the conception of visualization, so crucial for effective processes of teaching and learning at different stages of lifelong learning. The other part of the project name “Keep it balanced” means that another aim of our activities was to learn about the twelve European countries, their similarities and differences to overcome wrong, stereotyped thinking about others – learning by reading, writing, discussing , working in local and international project teams, singing, dancing, making friends, visiting one another and using new technologies. As a result, understanding and respect for each country’s cultural identity have increased, valuing the entire European diversity for educational worth. All the preconceptions and stereotypes were abolished thanks to the two-year project activities and the proper knowledge was gained in practice.
Our teachers and students developed some skills at various levels:
- at the linguistic level – due to numerous tasks in English: monthly post card and diaries’ exchanges, reading blog posts, in which our students shared insights into their countries’ history, architecture, art, craft, geography, music, sports, animals, favourite books and traditions; preparing interactive exercises, quizzes, puzzle maps and learning with them; preparing, completing sixteen questionnaires and analyzing their results; video conferencing, project exchanges and visits to partner schools which included Comenius conferences with official meetings, regular project research presentations on “Keep it balanced” activities and “Orbis Pictus” tasks, evaluated systematically to assure the best quality of project cooperation.
- at the social level – due to experiences acquired living in other partners’ families and hosting students from other countries, making friends, local project meetings, corresponding regularly, contacts via Skype.
- at the cultural level – students were responsible for showing pride in their own cultural roots and became aware of European cultural diversity in many interactions: we learnt about our own country to be experts; prepared research charts and posters about our partners’ culture; read diaries about significant school events and national holidays; took part in culture workshops, Comenius festivals, shows, galas and “Orbis Pictus” trips to places of interests.
- at the sporting level – during numerous meetings students had the opportunity to know the sporting realities in each of the countries involved in the partnership and we promoted equal opportunities for both boys and girls to play sports.
- at the technological level – a project website and a project blog were the places where we could show the project results and promote our European work. We have used numerous ICT tools: ISSUU, AutoCollage, Quizlet, Power Point, MovieMaker, Photo Peach, Learning Apps, Voki, Slideboom, Tripadvisor, Flipsnack, Sway, Jigsaw Planet, Picasa, blogger, youtube, and others.
All work developed throughout the two years was integrated horizontally in our students’ curriculum. Each topic was approached in different subjects according to a given theme. Although the project’s official language was English, in every meeting our students learnt about Content and Language Integrated Learning in order to make their integration in the hosting country smoother.
We are proud of our “Orbis Pictus – Keep it balanced” project which is our last Comenius one; and we will never forget the idea of “keeping balance” in opinions. It was the perfect time of our European adventure thanks to Amos Comenius and the Lifelong Learning Programme. As someone said “we learnt, played, and looked up the stars together” to discover the truth for the good of Europe. During Comenius festivals in Poland and Greece our students sang “We are the world”, as they strongly believe they can make the world better, in mutual respect and solidarity.
