Mr Pokorny- our local hero

Mr Zdenek Pokorny- a hero from our town My students from tercie A and B had a chance to interview a man, who has always been close to our school, who has cared about our town, a man who has always been honest and overboard.Mr Zdenek Pokorny taught at grammar school for 44 years and there were more than three thousand students in his desks. He was the first mayor after 1989 and he married 930 wedding couples. He created an original speech for each wedding. Mr Pokorny has travelled to 51 countries and he has prepared 10 exhibitions about the places he has been to. What has his life been like? What has influenced him? Who has helped to make his decisions?He said that his childhood and his young age have been influenced by hard times. On 15th March 1939, when our country was occupied by German troops, he was living in Kolin. It was the hard time full of terrible events and tears. The children were growing up very quickly. He saw Jewish families going to a concentration camp, he listened to endless lists of the people who had been executed , on the radio during the Heidrich period. And he was still living in Kolin when the end of the WWII arrived. On 7th May 1945, there were a lot of people in the square celebrating the end of the war. Young boy Zdenek was looking out of the window when the Germans came to the square and started shooting Czech people. 20 people died.During the first days of freedom he believed that everything would be better. He was looking forward to studying history. In February 1948 when the communists took over the power in Czechoslovakia he lost all his hope. Instead of studying he had to go to a factory for two years. After work he studied history at home because he liked it very much. It was for the second time when he felt very un free. The communist terror which was coming made him feeling very bad and he said that it was the time when our people were “raped” by the communists. In spite of all these events he successfully studied history at University.When he finished school, he was sent to Ceska Lipa in 1957. He was a history teacher at secondary school. Ceska Lipa was a devastated, dirty town where the communists were destroying old houses and started building blocks of flats. They also blew up the old Water castle.He met his future wife there and they decided to stay. They fell in love with the countryside.Mr Pokorny remembered good and bad times of his life and he said that the communist government was raping free ideas of young people. He taught his students how to fight against violence and about stupidity which is the worst alley of bad things. After 17th November 1989 ,he started fighting the communists in his school. He was one of the people who founded Civic Forum Party and he talked to the people at meetings. He was elected the first mayor in 1990. There was a lot of work waiting for him, but he wasn’t afraid of it. He got money for repairing houses, trees in the housing estates, parks, new shops and new paving in the square. He also got the money for repairing the Water castle. Now it is open for public sometimes. He had to face new businessmen who wanted to play an unfair game. In 1997 he left the office of the mayor but he didn’t leave public life. Since that time he has started writing articles about history, he has organized lecturers about foreign countries and he still cares about educating good citizens. He has always followed the ideas of the First Czech president T.G. Masaryk about democracy and the quality of society. He is sad when he can see somebody destroying the environment.“Such people can’t be citizens”, he says. He wishes more good citizens to our town. Mr Pokorny is the example of the real CITIZEN of our town and we are glad that we can nominate him to the gallery of unknown heroes in Europe.

Spring Day in Gymnasium Ceska Lipa

We started talking about the portal of Spring Day in advance on 17th March when we celebrated St. Patrick´s Day. And today? Students spent a great time trying to find answers for the questions which they got from the English teacher. They were based on the section Explore Europe. Those, who finished all the questions, could play some games about the EU. They really liked the game with the FLAGS and the game about the euro hunt. Some students have written into the section Together in Europe about serious topics such as equality between men and women and education for all the children in the world. We had a chat with our Danish school. It was for the first time and the children were very active during the chat. We also sent several lines into the longest poem about PEACE during February and we have read this poem. We finished the first day of Spring Day celebrations by listening to The Ode of Joy and explaining the motto of The EU, United in Diversity. Our Greek friend Eleni Kostopoulou from Kavasila High school has sent to our weblog some very important articles about VIRTUE, equality between races and about the most important day in Greece 25th March The independence Day. During other days between 21st March and 9th May we are going to do some more activities, such as an interview with an unknown hero, and Despina Ganidou with our friends from Thessaloniki are coming to visit us for a few days in April. We are going to be very busy.

25March 1821,The Independence Day of Greece

March 25, the Independence Day in Greece
March 25 is celebrated brilliantly,all over Greece. For Greeks it is a very important holiday. It is both a national (revolution against the Turks) and religious holiday (Annunciation).On this day in the Orthodox calendar , the archangel Gabriel appeared to the maiden Mary and announced the news:she was pregnant with the divine child.
There are school flag parades in every village, town, and armed forces parades in all cities. On 24 March celebrations are held at all schools .The students sing songs about freedom, dance greek dances wearing traditional costumes.The schools are decorated with greek flags and the posters of the heroes, that fought during that independence war, are hung on the walls.
The Byzantine Empire fell to the Turks in 1453 and the Greeks remained under the Ottoman rule for nearly 400 years. During this time their language, their religion and their sense of identity remained strong.
On March 25, 1821 the bishop Germanos of Patras raised the Greek flag at the Monastery of Agia Lavra in Peloponnese and one more revolution started against the Turks.He chose this day to deliver a different but not unrealed message: a new spirit was about to be born in Greek History of Greek Independence Day. The people of Greece shouted "Freedom or Death"and they fought the War of Independence for 9 years (1821-1829) until a small part of modern Greece was finally liberated and it was declared an independent nation.
The struggle for the liberation of all the lands, inhabited by Greeks, continued. In 1864, the Ionian islands were added to Greece; in 1881 parts of Epirus and Thessaly. Crete, the islands of the Eastern Aegean and Macedonia were added in 1913 and Western Thrace in 1919. After World War II the Dodecanese islands were also returned to Greece.

First impressions

When I started the eTwinning project with Nada, I didn’t know if my students would like it. Of course they all evinced a strong desire to take part in it because it was something new for them. They were very curious about the partners and their lives they were to work with. However, I realized how responsible the cooperation would be. I thought my students acted as children usually do: show interest at the beginning and then withdraw.

I didn’t want to be the only person who would be for the project. To my surprise, I heard a wonderful answer when I asked my students the question: “ If you had a chance to participate in the similar project next year, who would like to join?” All of the students put up their hands in token of support. That was wonderful because it turned out that the children are aware of benefits they derive from exchanging mails with their partners.

My students were afraid of making mistakes. They thought that our Czech partners would use perfect English while they themselves are not very fluent. But then, when they saw that their partners made some mistakes too, some barrier had been overcome – the barrier of using a foreign language. They are beginning to understand the importance of knowing foreign languages. English has become an international tool for communicating, not just a subject at school any more. Thanks to this project my students are getting more and more self-confident both in using English and IT tools.

I myself am very happy to have the opportunity to cooperate with Nada, who gives me a lot of support. I am very grateful for her help ( she motivates me to discover and explore new areas in IT). Thank you, Nada, for your support and patience.

March- the Month of books in the Czech Republic

Our two sectretaries Krista/ on the left/ and Hanka/ on the right/ are the people who like culture, music and especially reading books. Hanka is helping our librarian Renata with the eTwinning project called Who is afraid of books. They write some of the topics together and they are always happy when we get a reply from Greece. Here is a letter which they have written to our partner school.

Czech children and books.
Czech children have started reading Harry Potter books like other children and it is interesting that also the children who do not read much. When I was a child my favourite books were by Jules Verne, Jaroslav Foglar, { who wrote about scouts and nature}, The Jungle book, Children from Bullerbyne by Astrid Lindgren, novels for girls and some Czech writers.
Today, children can choose from a large number of books from abroad. At present, books which are very popular are fantasy books by J.R.R. Tolkien, Terry Pratchett...} and they like reading biographies of famous sportsmen{ Lance Armstrong, Jaromir Jagr, Dominik Hasek, David Beckham....}or singers like Robbie Williams, Bono Vox, actors and actresses.
They also like reading books about some teenagers’ stories which they have seen as films at the cinema.

In our library they usually borrow books written by classics like Karel Capek, William Shakespeare, A.P. Cechov, Dostojevski, Victor Hugo and Alexander Dumas....


The other part of my letter was written by my friend Hanka, a secretary who is a keen reader.

I feel sorry for today’s children. When I remember my childhood, I remember that reading books was our pleasure not our duty. There was nothing on TV and we had no mobiles, computers, play stations which would lead us away from reading books .The book has always been my best present. I loved the aroma of the new book and I loved to hear the crack of the first opening. I still love it and I have saved my children’s books. I have two children and I know their friends and so I can say that there are still keen readers among them, who go to the library and who are excited when they see a book under the Christmas tree. But nowadays children prefer different presents. The children get a list of compulsory books for school at the beginning of the school year. In the past we liked to read them but today the kids go to the internet and they copy the content of the book from there in several minutes.

I remember when I used to read under the duvet with a torch not to be seen by my parents .It was something. But I have to confess that my daughter is the same. She switches off the lamp when I go to the toilet during the night very quickly. Then she tells me the next day that the book had been so interesting that she couldn’t stop reading.

Nothing is better than a book which is so interesting that you do not want to finish it. You forget about the outside life and you really want to prolong the last page. I hope that some of the today’s children know this feeling too.


I think that we can pass the reading passion onto the children ourselves, too. First , when they can’t read themselves we should read them regularly and later they should see us with a book in our hands. I used to love the moment when they went to bed and I started reading a story for them. When they were older, I still wanted to read them but they used to say mum, we can do it ourselves, leave us alone. I could see that they were growing so fast. But now when they are ill, and lie with the temperature in bed, I still read them.

I do not know, but I hope that there are still more young mothers who read the books than those who place the children in front of the TV and instead of books they buy expensive toys for them. Those toys usually do not support their fantasy. People without fantasy are boring. Reading books is very important for enlarging our fantasy. And what you do not learn when you are young, you will not learn when you are old. Then it is too late.

Come and play with us in Europe

This is an invitation for you to take part in celebration of Spring Day in Europe. You have a lot of time to decide what to do because the celebration begins on 21st March and finishes on 9th May, which is the EU Day. We hope that you will like the activities and you will share your opinion with us.

This is a picture of our Turkish partner school

Spring day quiz for my friends and my students

QUIZ WIN A PRIZE YOU CAN DO IT



Spring Day in Europe
How to get there? Go to the web page http://www.springday2006.org,
On the right side there is the icon LINKS/ then click on the last thing called Let’s explore Europe/ then go to the 3rd topic down there called Explore Europe by topics. If you go through the topics, you will be able to answer all the questions.

If you fill all the aswers correctly, bring it back to Nada Kadlecova, room 320, and you can win a prize in the draw on 3rd April 2006.

1. Write the names of all the seas and oceans around Europe.

2. Two highest mountains in Europe. How high are they?

3. Three largest lakes in Europe.

4. How long is the Danube River, the Elbe and the Rhine ?

5. What is the name of the largest European plane?

6. What fruit can farmers grow in the south of Europe? / four/

7. What is the name of the world’s biggest passenger liner which was first used in 2004?

8. Name language groups in Europe. { 3}

9. How will you say good morning in these languages?
Danish
Polish
Greek
Czech

10. Who wrote The Ode of Joy/ the European Anthem/?

11. Who invented the World Wide Web?

12. Who was Nadia Comaneci?
13. Name three scientics/ physics/ who were born in Europe.

14. Which three music groups / world famous/ come from Europe? Two of them do not exist anymore.

15. When did the euro replace the old currencies? Name three countries which do not use the euro.

16. How does the EU help poor countries? / give four examples/

17. Name four symbols of the EU.

18. How many members are there in the European Parliament ?

Unite our minds in diversity

On 17th March we celebrated St. Patrick´s Day. The students put on something green and we talked about history of Ireland, Christianity and the meaning of the symbol of shamrock and green colour.
This event has been the beginning of The Spring Day in Europe.
The other event has been the beginning of the cooperation with the Turkish school. We have discussed the timetable of our project. We would like to take part in the idea from The Spring Day 2006 which is called DIALOGUE WITH THE WIDER WORLD .
Here is the Schedule of our project with our friends from Turkey.
Project

Name: Unite our Minds in Diversity
Duration: three months

Language: English

Number of students: 30

Nationalities: Czech and Turkish

Schools : Gymnasium Ceska Lipa The Czech Republic
Anadolu Ogretmen Lisesi, Turkey

ICT tools: emails, photos, chat, videoconferences,

Description of the project: this project is based on cooperation between two teachers and their students. They are going to exchange letters about their life, environment, cities, etc. We will also try to use the ICT tools and organize a chat or a videoconference together. The teachers meet also on the webpage of the blog, where they can discuss the topics and the methodology, how to make the project successful.

At the end of the project we will compare both countries and we will introduce them to the students at school.

The timetable of the project:

1. March/ A personal letter
2. A letter about my home and my neighbours
3. April/ / 3.4.-11.4./ Cities, towns, our environment
4. / 18.4.-23.4./ Culture, books, TV programmes, cinema,
5. May / 15.5./ - My country/ based on the example from The Image of the other
6. Last letter/ May- June / My holiday plans/ details will be discussed later


If the cooperation is successful, we can go on next year and prolong the partnership into another school year.

THE "OATH"OF ALEXANDER THE GREAT

The “oath” of Alexander the Great (Opis, 324 BC)

“It is my wish, now that the wars are coming to an end, that you should all be happy in peace.From now on, all mortals live as one people in fellowship, for the good of all, see the whole world as your homeland, with laws common to all where the best will govern regardless of their race.Unlike that narrowminded, I made no Distinction between Greeks and Barbarians.
The origin of citizens, or their race into which they wre born, is of no concern to me I have only one criterion by which to distinguish them. VIRTUE. For me any good foreigner is a Greek and any bad Greek is worse than a barbarian.If disputes ever occur among you, you will not resort to weapons but will solve them in peace.If need be, I shall arbitrate between you.See God notas an autocratic despot, but as the common father of all, and thus your conduct will be like the lives of brothers within the same family.
I, on my part see you all equal whether you are white or dark-skinned. And I should like you not simply ti be subjects of my commonwealth, but member of it, partners of it. To the best of my ability, I shall strive to do what I have promised.
Keep as a symbol of love this oath, which we have taken tonight with our libations.”

and be a motive to have further discussions about the reffered ideas about equality.


A. Comprehension Questions
1.What everlasting messages does Alexander’s wish contain?
2. The oath that there were some criteria on which people would be considered inferior or superior.What are they?
3.What does “virtue”in Alexander’s oath mean? Does it have the same meaning for the ancient Greeks?
4.Alexander the Great, in his oath, expresses a new concept of God.What is it?Do you think that it approaches the contemporary idea of God?What does Alexander the Great mean by saying “subjects” and “members or partners” of his commonwealth?
6.Alexander’s oath seems to have been made more by areligious leader than by an army leader.How is this proved in the oath?
7.Alexander’s oath ,perhaps in the early time, predicts a global society. What characteristics of globalization can you distinguish in it?

B.Vocabulary
Match the words with correct definition:
1.fellowship a.standard by which sth is judged
2.mortal b.to turn to help
3.concern c.to act as a judge in an argument
4.criterion d.ruler with unlimited powers
5.dispute e.companionship
6.occur f.to struggle hard
7.resort to sth g. offering of wine etc. to gods in former times
8.arbitrate h.a human being
9.despot i.happen
10.strive j.an agreement or quarrel
11.libation k.thing that is important or interestingto sb

Writing
1.Do you think that people, despite their different origin or culture can peacefully co-exist and c-operate? How?
2.What has caused the phenomenon of xenophobia in modern societies and how can somebody combat it?
3.Describe Alexander’s personality as it appears in the oath.


HAVE A FRUITFUL LESSON!!!!!!!!!!

A LESSON

Dear friends,
I would like to share with you something I have read in a teachers’ magazine.It is part of Alexander’s the Great prayer. It is known as “The oath of Alexander the Great”..It was said by him in Opis (a town in Tiger river), in 324 BC , when his greek soldiers ,after being disaffected,didn’t want to go on the campaign into the inner of Asia.
The ever-lasting message of his words is very typical and it applies in our modern world,now the time of globalization.
After the passage there are some exercises suggested for use in class. I hope you and your students will enjoy it and be a motive to have further discussions about the reffered ideas about equality.

Spring Day in Europe

On 21st Spring Day in Europe is beginning and we are also going to take part in some activities. If you do not know much about this web page, I can recommend you to visit the page http://www.springday2006.org, where you will get the best information. We have already taken the part in the poem called PEACE POEM several times and we will go on with it. I have found a very interesting part of the web page suitable for younger children called Together in the world. There are three parts in this section. The Peace poem, Dialogue with the wider world and Millennium Development Goals and Solidarity.In this section, we have sent our contribution into the part about education. Our school has adopted a little girl Mary Prahitba in India, so we have written about her. In the section Dialogue with the wider world there is an article about our new cooperation with Turkey.

We will have several videoconferences during the time between 21st March and 9th May which is officially the end of the celebration. I hope that you, my partners, will also take part in some of the activities and we can write about them here in the weblog.

What I really like, is the variety of activities we can combine using different portals together. There are so many things that everybody will find something very interesting. Next week we will have a meeting with our former Mayor Mr Pokorny and the children will try to be young reporters and they will interview him. We want to put his biography into the part about local heroes. He will be on the list of the Unknown Heroes of the Millennium.

I hope you will also find something interesting.

A wish for all my good friends

Take twelve months, clear them carefully of all the maliciousness, cupidity and hatred. Then divide every month into 29, 30 or 31 pieces. Then you have to adjust every day. Take one scoop of reliance, one scoop of hard work, two scoops of good temper, don’t forget to add three spoonfuls of optimism, one teaspoon of tolerance, a grain of delicacy and a pinch of patience. Mix everything well.

When your dish is ready, you can serve it with a flower of courtesy, lovely smile and a warm friendly word.

I believe that this should be the base of our cooperation. My great wish is to join all my partners in my weblog and to give them a chance to get to know each other better. We all are from different parts of Europe, we live in different worlds and it would be so nice to fasten our friendship and show the other people that it is possible.

Carnival time

It is the end of the Carnival time in Greece and we can only envy our friends that they are able to enjoy the time together , they are able to follow old traditions. In our country only in some villages people put on some funny clothes and they go carroling. We call this time Masopust, it is the time when people used to have feast, ate a lot of meat, sweets and other things and then the time of fast came. Now the people in the Czech Republic have no time to celebrate this festival in towns. So you can see the masks still only in villages . In South Bohemia they wear tall hats with roses. There are three hundred and sixty-five roses as the number of the days in one year. There is also a wreath on the top as the wreath on Jesus's head. There are ribbons, red and blue, as the blood in our body and there are five big roses as five wounds on Jesus' s body. I like this idea and I am glad that some people find time to introduce old traditions to the young generation. We have to wait for Easter.

We are lucky that we celebrate Easter not only in villages but everywhere in the country and it is the time when people meet relatives and stop their hectic life for a while.

APOKRIES-----a greek festival

CARNIVAL TIME IN GREECE OR “APOKRIES”
Apokries or carnival is a period of fun ,dancing and singing for greeks. Apokries means stop eating meat , as the word carnival means.It is one of the most popular feasts in our country.It is connected with good time and fancy dressing.
The roots of this feast can be found in ancient Greece,in god Dionyssos’ worship.
Dionyssos was one of the twelve ancient greek gods.He was considered as the god of fetility.The ancient greeks honoured him in spring with float parades.Dancers and singers followed the floats,singing satyric songs. The dressing up was done to take in the bad winter spirits that keep the earth dead and let her blossom.
The same parades take place nowadays all over Greece, the last Sunday before Fast begins. They mean the start of spring.
There are a lot of traditions and customs all over Greece.On the last Sunday of Apokries people put on fires in open places ,dance and sing traditional songs around it.This has the meaning of purification and catharsis before Fast.During the last week of Apokries (just before Fast)people eat mainly dairy products and eggs.The second week before Fast they eat mainly meat.On Thursday of this “ meat week”, everybody goes out to have fun( lots of them are fancy dressed) and eat at restaurants .It is a special day for us.
The big day is Sunday before Fast.In the evening we visit parents ,grandparents,relatives to ask for forgiveness and apologise if we had a row with any of them.We have to kiss the hands of the elderly .In this way we show respect.The children get money that night. Also, in the villages grandma has a hard boiled egg and when her grandchildren visit her she does the following custom.She ties the egg with a thread on the edge of a stick.The children have their hands behind their back.They are on a line. She touches their mouths with egg once each round.The one who will bite The egg will get money to buy sweets I t is very funny and the adults want to do it with their parents.Biting the egg symbolizes the close of the mouth that will open again At Easter.
At school parties are held the last three hours of Friday before the carnival holidays.

The first day of Fast is also a holiday for us.We go to the countryside and we fly the kite.Even the Prime minister does the flying in Athens.This custom symbolizes the coming of th e spring.The kites are the herald of spring. These are some of the customs and traditions we have durimg carnival time in our area.

Precious eTwinning collaboration and friendship

In November 2004, I met Nada Kadlecova on the European schoolnet.We started exchanging letters and agreed to begin an etwinning project,which was a completely new and ambitious European programme.

Very soon ,our headmasters ,our students and some colleagues got involved in it, very successfully.The results of this etwinning collaboration are many and various.Not only for us personally, but for the whole school community ,as well.

My students were very curious ,in the beginning, to correspond with the Czech students.So far, they have learnt a lot about the other European country and go on learning about it and about the life there.They realized that there are diffrerences but similarities, as well, between the two countries.The etwinning programme gave them the opportunity to come in contact with other ways of thinking and other habits.They have been motivated, on a high level, to study English,so to write and speak English well.Also,they started using computers more often and became more aware of these tools.Recently ,we have usedforum as ameans of expressing their ideas on topics set by my partner.They got enthusiastic with the whole idea and they would like to use it more often,although there are technical problems at school,a lot of times.

I,myself,took up computing lessons to be able to use ICT tools better than I could do.Definitely ,I got improved a lot and still, I do.Communicating with my etwin sister,Nada, through ICT tools,I became familiar with Czech culture, educational system and everyday life.

We have, so far, sent each other photographs of us ,of the students,of the etwinned colleagues and of the school building ,too. So ,all this etwin dream has got a part of reality.The persons of the partner school,Gymnasium of Ceska Lipa, have got flesh and bones.The eagerness, to go on cooperating with them, became a desire to continue and to meet them one day!!!!!!at our school or at theirs!!!!!!!!!
Absolutely, I consider myself very lucky being involved in the etwinning project with my skillful czech partner.As the time goes on my students ask more and more ,to come in contact with their Czech schoolmates and this is the biggest reward for me. Their happy smiling faces when they read the letters. The greek colleagues are getting and getting more curious to know how things are in the etwin partner school.

I strongly believe that it is worthwhile going on it,as long as it depends on us.
Etwinning was and still is a challenge to me.It led me to new educational paths and it keeps on leading me, with the continuous help of my partner, to a personal and professional development

New friends

We got new letters from our friends in Turkey. It is the beginning of our friendship. I believe that getting to know each other will be useful for both of us. We do not know much about the countries like Turkey and I hope that we will have the chance to learn a lot. I think that we teachers have to fight the bad influence of stereotypes which can cause a lot of harm in relations among people. Everything is new for my students. The exotic names, different hobbies and a different school system. They cannot wait to get more information from our new friends. We are going to celebrate the Spring Day in Europe together this year.

Textbooks

There are so many texbooks for the teachers and the students and sometimes it is not easy to choose the right one. What kind of books do you like to use? Do you use the books which were written in your country or do you prefer books from Great Britain? What is the most important thing which decides for the books?

In our school, we are using English textbooks called Cambridge English Worldwide. They were written by Andrew Littlejohn and Diana Hicks and published by Cambridge University Press.

What I really like is the fact that we can add a lot of topics according to our needs. The books are thin with a lot of pictures and a lot of things to do. What is really good for the teachers is the MAP at the beginning of the book which shows curriculum links, topics, language focus and optional units. Every Theme is followed with a song. The lyrics are at the back of the book. It is very important that the topics are interesting for the teenagers but they are not undercutting. They make the young people think about serious topics as well as they give them a lot of fun.

It is easy to combine the book with the projects in the eTwinning and it is very important for us.

The books were published in 1998 for the first time and there was no eTwinning at that time. The thing which is included in the book is so called THE PARCEL OF ENGLISH. I remember when I started teaching from that book that we were in contact with a school in Egypt which was using the same textbook and we used to send them a parcel with English letters and some pictures and photos twice a year. When I remeber that time I think that Cambridge English Worldwide was one of the first swallows in international cooperation. I am happy that we can use the eTwinning web page now, it is more flexible and of course cheaper, too.

What about your textbooks? Are you satisfied with them?

Great idea!

I am really happy to see that Nada has got the energy to set up and carry out this weblog for teachers, who are involved in eTwinning projects. I believe that it can be a very good way on how to share the best practice from the classroom.
To carry out a weblog may be a very difficult task, as it needs to be updated regularly and to be really taken care of. If not, readers and even contributors will not come back.
I am sure that it will not be your case! Good luck for your weblog!