Young people active citizens of Europe… Farewell

 

 Taking a look around our website ,as the Comenius project was coming to a close, I was extremely impressed with what I saw and very proud to have been involved with such an initiative, if just for a short time!

So I must first congratulate you all on a marvellous team achievement, our commitment to the vision and to each other has proven worthy.

 The web master and dear colleague ,Ciro Petrosillo  has put the finished product together in a very professional manner, with a great design, which still remains very 'user-friendly' to find all the different project aspects like photos, conferences, meetings, animations and student's work. It's a well rounded package and gives some great evidence of what has been achieved and learned together.

On a personal note, I thoroughly enjoyed every moment of the experience I had with Comenius.

 We have worked together -analysed strategies, objectives, tools - expressing opinions and judgments on our past activities and drawing conclusions useful for our future work.. We have shared important themes with other teachers and school managers, while watching them at work with their students and their facilities.. We have compared different European school systems, looking for hypotheses useful to explain the various levels of our classes, the different results.. An exchange of points of view made sometimes difficult by the language, foreign to everybody, and the cultures behind us...

 

 During that time the opportunity to discover Serpa and Alentejo,Iasi and Romania  was  unforgettable!

Not only was I given the chance to share/learn in my knowledge and experience of schools, but to top it off I was able to meet and develop friendships with  teachers from all over Europe.

  If my experiences are just one piece of evidence for the value of Comenius then certainly we have all succeeded in reaching, building and growing together towards our title – The Young, active citizens of Europe. We could even say “ our own Global Village, our European family”.

The  project comes to an end – but the results live on and will be only meaningful if they are put to good use and result in functional changes.

Concluded – but not finished. The project contributes to lifelong learning and personal development, both with respect to those undertaking the project and those whom the project aims to support.

In our school the project generated general interest in transnational cooperation, in language learning, rose awareness of European cultural diversity and similarity.

My thoughts and friendship go out to all foreign colleagues I have met along the way, all the best.

Many thanks to all school colleagues who participated in this project, working together for the  success of each step we took.

We hope to keep this web site alive by as many of you as possible adding to the comments, best wishes for a great summer and keep in touch…

The project coordinator at Cabrini

Maria Luisa Cusumano