Class activities are obviously always instructing, but when they manage to be fun, goals are reached more easily, faster and with more results! That has been the case with my colleague Magdalena Bobek from Slovenia and I and our classes. Slovenia and Italy decided to cooperate in a recipe exchange which took place via e-mail in English. Recipes were translated and then baked to be eaten, and offered at school on March 23rd, 2004 for Spring Day.
The events took place simultaneously in the two countries. Students were enthusiastic to learn more about another country through not only their teacher's help, but also via a direct interaction which saw them as the protagonists of an initiative quite different from the ones they were accustomed to.
The more they went on organizing, the more they happened to need help from their twinning mates and this favoured mutual understanding and exchange. They felt in charge of a great responsibility that is representing another country by means of their work and knew that at the very same time someone they had had the privilege to meet was doing exactly the same with their own family traditions and therefore with their feelings.
They obviously shared with the whole school the product of their work on Spring Day 2004 and the whole community, students, teachers, headmaster, participated actively and enthusiastically to rewarding their effort with smiles and formal appreciation. Slovenia even went as far as putting into practice the great value of solidarity by going to an old people's house where sweets and cakes were generously offered to women and men who more than anyone else needed a kind word and such a marvellous expression of respect and consideration.
If you have time, have a look at our sites. Everything has been put on-line for you to see hoping that you will share our enthusiasm carrying on with similar activities so as to experience yourself the exclusive feeling of being united by our common origins and mutual effort. There is nothing more challenging and satisfactory as the sensation of twinning and working together to reach a goal, united as one.
