Project plan of TTLT Comenius multilateral project 2012 ... - Maxwell

Project plan of TTLT Comenius multilateral project 2012- 2014
Coordinator: Alajarvi school
Partners: Vimpeli school, St.Denis Loches France and JC Maxwell,
Milan
In these lines you will get the idea of the project who was planned by Janne
Visto from Alajarvi, with the collaboration of Martin Chatagnon from Loches,
Juha-Pekka Anttila from Vimpeli and Maria Grazia Cupini from Milan.
Here is the report written by Janne Visto:
Schedule and contents
Milan preliminary meeting in November where we discussed the mobilities, found dates for
them, came up with technical solutions and dealt with problems of timetables and
schedules. We have groups and teams responsible for different areas of expertise, and
our teams and coordinators met for the first time.
Our plan is as follows (not the final version, but the one to be discussed with all the
participants, teachers and students alike): partner schools start to convey teaching to
each other in all (or almost all) school subjects included in the school curriculum once a
week. So each school sends one lesson every week, but also receives two or three
lessons from the partner schools. All this happens via a simple netbased programme
which does not require a lot of investment and extra effort to learn.
The lesson might include normal frontal teaching, a slide show, photos, a short video clip,
Powerpoint presentations, Word documents or some other types of media. The lesson
doesn’t have to be too complicated or technical. Teachers should also have a quite liberal
choice in what they teach and they shouldn’t feel restricted by the course they are
currently teaching. The contents of the lessons are “teacher-based” but “studentactivated”.
When we as teachers get the information (based on the schedule planned
together) where and when their lesson takes place, we can start working and refining the
material beforehand according to everyone’s own interest. Our networking conference in
Oulu showed well how keen the students are to take part in the action when they get the
right tools and subjects. Upper secondary schools are great pools of student resources –
in some cases they master the technology better than we. One ambitious goal of the

project is also to achieve and maintain an archive of lessons “for posterity”, and to use
these entities later when the project is over. For this all technical problems need to be
solved, and maybe also some legal and moral matters how different countries allow their
students to be filmed.
An integral part of conveying teaching and information is also the mobility that Comenius
programmes offer. No student would like to say they are involved in an international
project unless they have a chance to visit. These student/teacher exchange visits could
be planned by using the same concept as in our teaching exchange. In our countries we
individually work on creating information packages, which will then be presented during the
visits
What’s the use of the whole project? It is a problem if we do things just to appear active,
but hopefully not a big one. One could also think that action is always good because of all
the activity it creates. Our main idea behind everything is that in optimal circumstances
technical expertise improves, activities promote two-way cultural interchange, we get
further information of school systems in other countries, we bring students/teachers closer
to each other, create new groups that spontaneously correspond on the Internet, give birth
to new contacts, increase the satisfaction of normal school work, give a chance to visit
other countries and schools. One big aim is to store all the information and material that
we create for further use.
First of all the Italian Comenius referent had to plan the timetable and the activities to be
done for the first Comenius meeting asking the Principal, students teachers and staff for
collaboration, it was essential to try to involve more and more students from different
specialization who were supposed to become the tutors of the European guests.
COMENIUS MEETING IN Milan 07.–11.12.2012
“Teach together learn together”
Place James Clark Maxwell
Wed. 07.11.
Via Don G. Calabria 2
20132 Milano- Italy
Arrivals during afternoon and accommodation in
Hotel Lombardia
16.00 Meeting at the hotel and information about Milan
And the places of interest ( city sightseeing optional )
19.00 Dinner to be defined

Thurs. 08.11.
9.10 welcome and visit workshops ( different departments) tutored by the students
9.50* Presentation of PP – students from lyceum, aeronautics and technical departments
11.00 presentation partner schools
12.30 Lunch in Pia Marta canteen
14.00 visit the centre of the town ( Duomo, Castello Sforzesco )
17.00 Return to hotel
20.00 happy hour at Bicocca viale Pirelli 14
20.45 Musical Priscilla at Arcimboldi
Fri. 09.11.
9.10- 12,00 *checking the equipment – planning videoconferences and videos SB
12.30 lunch at Pia Marta
15.00 visit museo della scienza e tecnologia or Brera art gallery RS
19.15 dinner with the colleagues Maxwell – Comenius partners Moby Dick
Sat.10.11
9.10- 12.00 * planning the mobilities and the future meetings
Sun 11.11.
Leaving back home
Free afternoon for shopping or visit Brera Art Gallery
*aula Tic Silvana Mazza – Salvatore Brandano- Sara Buonincontri- Paola Cappelli - Fabio Mancini- Pietro
Sarpa- Piero Valocchi – Rita Spinoni – Anna Roda- Giovanni Pennacchia – Maria Grazia Giovannini-Gabriella
Scribano
1) Vimpeli:
- MS Piia Latvatalo
- MS Oona Helander
- Mr. Esko Hyyppa
- Mr. Marko Timo
2) Alajarvi:
- Ms. Anne Yli- Sissala
- Mr. Kauko Kainulainen
- Mr. Janne Visto
- Mr. Erkki Akerman
- 3) Loches: Ms. Cécile Marand
- Mr. Martin Chatagnon

ELENCO PARTECIPANTI INCONTRO
COMENIUS
Data: 08 novembre 2012 Ore: 09.10 – 11.00
CLASSE NOME POWER POINT
2Cr Bianchi Christian- Giambelli Jacopo
4 DR
3DR
3CR
Calvi Mattia Schito Marco Drago Matteo
*Celant Alvise – *Mascherpa Giovanni
–* Polito Carmelo
Tromboni Giorgio – Roncaglio Daniele
Monguzzi Mirko
Bertoli Davide – Puteri Francisco
5 ASL *Cassis – *Nazares
*Lo Presti
5 AM – 4AM *Creta Luca –* Argenton Gabriele
*Avenido Stefano
4 AO– 5AO *Perricone Thomas – Bellavia Alessia
*Cancelliere Luca- *Morchadi Tarik
3AM Cipres Charles Ian
Milan
Extra activities
School Subjects
Milano historical
background
School Presentation
Mechanical department
Electronics department
*tutor liceo scientifico laboratori 5ASL * tutor aeronautica 4Dr * tutor meccanica elettronica
1- Gruppo Vimpeli 1Loches 1 Alajarvi
2-Alajarvi 2Vimpeli 2 Loches
3Loches 3 Alajarvi 3 Vimpeli

TTLT – Teach Together, Learn Together
From November 7th to November 11th we had
the pleasure of visiting Milan for the first
Comenius meeting between four different
schools, Alajärven lukio, Vimpelin lukio, Istituto
di Istruzione Superiore Statale James Clerk
Maxwell and Groupe Scolaire St. Denis.
Alajärvi and Vimpeli are two partner schools in
central Finland in a region called Ostrobothnia.
Our Italian partner is a school specializing in aeronautics and it is situated in Milan,
northern Italy. Our French partner is an international school in Loches, France, and it is an
international school situated in the Loire Valley. This preliminary meeting was arranged
efficiently by our Italian partners to pave way for the upcoming project TTLT – Teach
Together – Learn Together. The staff of the partner schools and some of the students of
James Maxwell took part in this conference, and we also tried out working tools for the
project by establishing Skype and Internet connections and testing the feasibility of
Polycom and Adobe videoconference programmes. The students participating in this
looked very happy to be talking with foreign friends.
Our programme in Milan was varied: after our
distinguished French and Finnish delegations (10
persons) were met at the hotel on the day
of the arrival, Maria Grazia Cupini, the local
coordinator, took us for an evening walk to get to know the immediate surroundings, the
Piola area and Corso Buenos Aires to mention a few places, and we immediately felt
welcome. After that there was no official meeting, but the next morning we took to the
Istituto James Maxwell, where we were met by most of the staff, students and exchanged
little gifts. Headmaster Giuseppe Sammartino, or in Italian “Dirigente Scolastico,” gave us
his greetings in his office.
Our delegations were soon divided into smaller working groups, and the students took us
on a short tour of the premises and different departments to see all the labs, workshops
and equipment that was part of the curriculum of the school, with flight simulators, robotics
labs, and meteorological equipment. We also
saw how

students did with their air traffic controller and pilot training. Then we all gathered together
in a classroom to present each other and the schools respectively, enjoyed enthusiastically
made good quality powerpoint presentations and videos made by partner schools. It was
wonderful to see how much effort everyone had been put in the presentation and overall,
the Italian students were eager to talk to us and exchange ideas.
Our group was also offered a wonderful lunch in the Pia Marta canteen on the following
two days, and Italian food became familiar to us in all its aspects during long and
productive meals and fruitful conversations which helped us in future co-operation. On
Thursday after lunch we had time to go see some sights in the centre of Milan such as
Duomo, La Scala and Castello Sforzesco, the exlusive malls, the wonderful Piazzas
around, and the overall lovely ambiance and atmosphere of the city. Some of us even got
to swirl around the mosaic bull that brings good luck. Many of
us came downtown the next days to find out more about Milan and
to see it basking in different lights.
After returning to our hotels we had time to
start planning the project further based
on the information that we had got the same
morning, and using the ideas of the
delegations and the staff of James
Maxwell. Language problems were all
overcome with good co-operation and by using any means and
languages necessary to get the message across. The main objective was to familiarize
ourselves with all those people involved in the Comenius partnership, exchanging contact
details and coming up with practical solutions to our plans. Then our hosts offered us a
musical experience in the Arcimboldi theatre where they were showing a play called
Priscilla, based on an Australian hit film of 1994, and containing lots of hit songs that
helped understand the musical, which of course was in Italian. Needless to say, but I think
we all learned to speak at least some Italian during the visit. We arrived back at the hotel
after midnight, curious to find out what decisions
could be made next.
Friday morning it was time to plan and establish
connections to the partnering countries and their
schools. After some initial difficulties we got some
connections to work, but quite many technical issues
were still unfinished. With an optimistic attitude and
thinking of using different solutions for the actual
process of conveying teaching to each other and
storing information for
further use, we will most
definitely be making
progress. And judging by

the faces of girls and boys in the partnering schools during their free conversations on line
we could see that everything was not in vain. The morning hours before lunch were used
entirely for this sole purpose of getting everything to work.
After a refreshing lunch our path continued to the Museo della Scienza e Tecnologia. We
got a guided visit by an Italian colleague’s husband, who had a lot of knowledge of the
work of Leonardo de Vinci and many other fields of the exhibition which showed us man’s
inventions on land, under water and in the air, and after a brief visit to the hotel to sum
everything up, our teams were taken to Moby Dick, a restaurant chosen by our hosts, to
have a farewell dinner. Signor Sammartino wanted to take us downtown to see the sights
of the historical centre after dark, and we thank him for his time.
Saturday morning we
decided to work really hard to
solve some unfinished issues
and find common ground in
timetables, technical
solutions, dates and contents
of mobilities, rules for
participation in visits, and find
something really concrete to
take back to our countries,
and ideas of how to sell the
project and to get everyone involved. Everything went well, but we still have things to do –
the project will last until spring 2014, and by then we are much wiser of how we did.
After putting our noses to the grindstone, we still had a few moments to ourselves to do
interesting things in Milan. Whether it was shopping, sightseeing, planning the project or
enjoying a good meal, I think all the participants got good basic knowledge of what was to
come and how to proceed. Then it was time to pack and get ready for Sunday morning’s
flight from Malpensa and Linate airports, depending on whether you were French or
Finnish. Our teams got on so well in creating personal contacts that Saturday evening all
of us gathered together
for one more meal in the
Moulin Rouge restaurant
near the hotels. Sunday
was the day of travelling.
The Finnish groups got
home around midnight,
the French before us some
time in the afternoon, and we
all sent each other
greetings.

How do we go on from here?
On Saturday we made a timetable for the spring term. Every week there will be teaching
between two partner schools if the synchronized school schedules allow it. Some
sessions involve all schools, but most of these are between two partner schools. Each
school should inform the receiving school two to three weeks in advance about the
contents of the lesson and when it is sent. The contents of the actual lesson is decided by
the teacher who is in charge of how the information is passed on. The ideal situation is
that the students do all the work and brainstorming based on the teacher’s suggestions,
and they also take care of the lesson contents.
For the project there is already a planned outline, which all
the partner schools know, and teaching begins the first
school week after Christmas if all the technical
problems have been solved by then. Each school is meant
to inform the other schools of the lessons they give, its
time and contents about two or three weeks in advance. All
the lessons will be recorded, saved, and stored for future
use, and they will be part of the publications of this
Comenius project. So far we have been trying to
establish contacts between the member schools via the
French Polycom system, and there have been advances.
All this teaching will continue until spring 2014.
Events in spring and mobilities
In March 21 persons will visit Vimpeli: 5
teachers from Italy, two teachers from France,
four students from Italy, and ten students from
France. Vimpeli is the host, but also students
and teachers from Alajärvi will participate in the
meetings – both its official activities and leisure
time. The students will be accommodated in
host families, and the visit will take place March 6 th – March 10 th . The date was changed
because we needed to synchronize our timetables better, and we also think that the
French representatives wanted to see Finland in its late winter glory – let’s hope for a
sunny spring.
There will be a visit to Loches, France, to the Loire Valley, and 1-2 teachers and 4-5
students from Vimpeli and as many from Alajärvi will take part. The dates are May 15 th –
May 19 th . We have to decide how these students are chosen. Probably our Student
Council will help in the application and choosing of participants. The idea is to send a
group of students representing all aspects of school curriculum subjects, and in the target
country they will give out presentations based on the school subjects they did in their
native country.

The students interested in taking part in these mobilities can already start of thinking of
good ideas. The rules, the insurances, the travel arrangements will be planned soon, and
there are groups consisting of teachers and students alike who can give suggestions. If
you have questions, you can direct them to the persons responsible. Alajärvi is the main
coordinator; address your questions to Janne Visto (janne.visto@alajarvi.fi). In Vimpeli,
talk to Juha-Pekka Anttila(juha-pekka.anttila@vimpeli.fi). In Milan the person in charge is
Maria Grazia Cupini (mg.cupini@tin.it), and in Loches it is Martin Chatagnon
mchatagnon@saint-denis.net). All these schools also have extensive home pages on the
Internet, and more information can be found there in general and regarding our project.
Alajärvi: http://www.japo.fi/kk/lukio/ (check under the title “kansainvälisyys”)
Vimpeli: http://www.peda.net/veraja/vimpeli/lukio
Loches: http://www.saint-denis.net/ (check under the title “ouverture sur le monde”)
Milan: http://www.maxwell.mi.it/