Two schools, one from Slovenia and one from Austria decided to become sisters, adopting the model of Freinet pedagogy. This model is still used today by far away from each other classes to exchange cultural packages mainly for learning languages, geography and history. The modern pedagogy recommends combining this traditional teaching with the modern opportunities offered by the Web because the results may be more efficient when students learn directly from people and not only from books.
Susanne Pratscher is the coordinator of the Austrian school and she runs a Web site with her projects grouped by two main themes: myEUROPE and Spring Day in Europe. She reports:
'From April 19 to 23, 2004 Janja Jakoncic Faganel and her colleague Nika Veronek came to visit us in Vienna with 29 students. We had exchanged mobile phone numbers before via e-mail, and so I got the first call from Janja around 11 o'clock in the middle of a German lesson. That was fun for the students! Usually cellphones have to be turned off during lessons, but I had mine on, because I knew Janja would call during the morning lessons.
I met her and her students for the first time on Monday afternoon in front of the Vienna University. They had a tour guide and a bus driver, who were both called Toni and who had already shown them the Prater before we met. The bus took us to Schwedenplatz, where there is a parking lot for buses. From there we walked into the city centre, and our Slovenian guests got a first impression of the old parts of Vienna. I accompanied them to their hotel, where we had dinner together. Then everybody was tired.
On Tuesday morning Janja and Nika brought their students to our school. First we showed our guests around, so that they could get an idea what our school building looks like. They were especially impressed with the training firm office! As the Gimnazija Poljane is a traditional grammar school, they do not have a facility like that.
In the afternoon, the Austrian and Slovenian students went on a city walk in the first district, and our guests also had some time for buying souvenirs'.
'From April 19 to 23, 2004 Janja Jakoncic Faganel and her colleague Nika Veronek came to visit us in Vienna with 29 students. We had exchanged mobile phone numbers before via e-mail, and so I got the first call from Janja around 11 o'clock in the middle of a German lesson. That was fun for the students! Usually cellphones have to be turned off during lessons, but I had mine on, because I knew Janja would call during the morning lessons.
On Tuesday morning Janja and Nika brought their students to our school. First we showed our guests around, so that they could get an idea what our school building looks like. They were especially impressed with the training firm office! As the Gimnazija Poljane is a traditional grammar school, they do not have a facility like that.
