Bożena Stepien is a teacher of English in a rural area in Poland. In this article she describes an experience they had while running an interesting project in relation to the Olympic games.
Our school has been engaged in international cooperation since 1998 when three classes of twelve - year - olds found pen pals in Italy and Turkey. The exchange of letters lasted for one school year only but had a significant impact on the students' motivation to learn foreign languages and to find out about other cultures. As the ICT became more popular and available to us we also started to participate in web-based projects and e-mail exchanges.
Then we decided to start a Comenius project together with schools from England, Sweden, Portugal and Spain. Funding from the European Commission enabled us to carry out new types of activities. It mostly gave us the opportunity to enjoy real exchanges with our partners. Obviously, face-to-face contacts are most attractive for the students but not always feasible for financial or organisational reasons. Therefore, together with our partners, we decided to have one special event in each school year which would involve the whole school community and partner schools at exactly the same time. The idea has proved to be successful, so I would like to share it with others who might want to use it.
Let me tell you then more details about the International Olympic Games we organized in the autumn 2004. At the beginning each school did a search and found out how far they are from Athens. After that preparation we started walking towards Athens (summing up the distances covered by all our students daily) and marked our positions on a big map of Europe displayed in the school hall. All our partners followed the same procedures. The journey took us well over a month.
In the meantime the students had the possibility to compare the distances from our different schools to the capital of Greece and to use the Internet to have a closer look at some interesting places we were passing on our way. As a result many of them made their first personal geographical discoveries.
We all arrived in Athens at 15.00 GMT on 15th November 2004 and each school held a special opening ceremony with special guests, such as sportsmen or people from local sports departments. During the ceremony we watched dance and martial arts shows. Afterwards, the students took part in ten sports events which were held during one week. The competitions included:
50m Run
6 x 10 m shuttle run
Object Pickup
Slalom Run
Standing Long Jump
Three Springs Jump
15m Hopping
Seated soccer ball throw
Tennis Ball throw
Vertical Jump
Three best results at each event from each school were compared and the international champions were chosen. They were awarded gold, silver and bronze international medals and achieved the glory of real international sports champions.
Why do I recommend this kind of activities to other educators? In my opinion, this is an excellent way to incorporate European dimension into the school teaching. Firstly, it is attractive and enjoyable, so the students find it appealing. Secondly, it is a cross-curriculum activity combining the elements of geography, P.E., ICT and foreign languages. Thirdly, the students learn from it that people from different countries share the same universal values, so it fosters a feeling of unity with them.
Then we decided to start a Comenius project together with schools from England, Sweden, Portugal and Spain. Funding from the European Commission enabled us to carry out new types of activities. It mostly gave us the opportunity to enjoy real exchanges with our partners. Obviously, face-to-face contacts are most attractive for the students but not always feasible for financial or organisational reasons. Therefore, together with our partners, we decided to have one special event in each school year which would involve the whole school community and partner schools at exactly the same time. The idea has proved to be successful, so I would like to share it with others who might want to use it.
In the meantime the students had the possibility to compare the distances from our different schools to the capital of Greece and to use the Internet to have a closer look at some interesting places we were passing on our way. As a result many of them made their first personal geographical discoveries. 
