Between 2-8 February 2025, two schools from Pitești have as guests the representatives of a school from Catalunya. 20 students, accompanied by two of their teachers from the Institute Pere Fontdevilla Gironella, in Catalunya, are in Pitești for a few days as part of an eTwinning project entitled ”The Ambassadors of Culture”.
The Catalans were the ones to choose Romania as their destination within this project and therefore, a partnership was born between ”Ion Pillat” Secondary School, ”Alexandru Davila” Secondary School and the Pere Fontdevilla Institute in Gironella, Catalunya. On Monday and Wednesday, the Iberian teachers and students have a series of visits and activities programmed to be held at the two partner schools in Pitești.
Once arrived at ”Alexandru Davila” Secondary School, the Hispanic guests were delighted by the warm welcome and the gifts received from their new Romanian friends. Moreover, the two teachers were deeply impressed by the ”Reading Station”, a place specially designed inside the school, where children can go and read during breaks or reading classes.
The Hispanic and Romanian students took part in a variety of activities
Over the course of the project, the Catalan children will be staying at The Romanian students’ homes and they will be taking part in extracurricular activities which also include visits to the Palace of Parliament, Curtea de Argeș and Bran Castle. These activities will give the Romanian and Catalan children the possibility to disciver together the differences and similarities between the two educational systems.
Furthermore, the two Catalan teachers were surprised to see that in Romanian schools still use classic paper school registers, as in Catalunya everything is digitalized. We may find out thet this digitalization is not always an advantage, since – as we were told by the Hispanic teachers – when there is a power cut in the scools (so it seems it does happen in western schools, as well!), the digital school registers become absolutely inaccessible, thus instilling a general panic amongst teachers.
The ”Ambassadors of Culture” project, coordinated by Meritxell Escayola and Marta Casals (teachers at Institute Pere Fontdevila Gironella- Catalunya) Georgeta Petre (teacher at ”Ion Pillat” Secondary School), Simona Radu and Monica Morareasa (teachers at ”Alexandru Davila” Secondary School), aims to develop the students’ social and intercultural competences, critical thinking and problem-solving skills. Their interactions rely on using English as a means of communication, which will enable the achievement of communicative and collaborative competences.
eTwinning is an educational program which offers European teachers an online space, a platform by means of which they may develop school partnerships. eTwinning projects are a route towards a European approach of the teaching course and a simpler integration into a digitally-inclined society.
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