eu-teaching

Película: Aquí os vamos a contar nuestra opinión sobre esta estupenda película, que os recomendamos ver.

Argumento: Múnich,1943. Durante la devastadora ocupación de Europa por Hitler, un grupo de jóvenes, en su mayoría universitarios, recurre a la resistencia pasiva, como única solución para paralizar a los nazis y a su inhumana máquina bélica. Así nace " La Rosa Blanca", un movimiento de resistencia cuyo propósito era la caida del tercer Reich. Sophie Scholl, es la única mujer del grupo, una jóven ingenua que no tardará en convertirse en una antinaci convencida e intrépida. El 18 de febrero de 1943, detienen a Sophie y a su hermano, mientras distribuyen panfletos en la universidad. Durante los días que siguen al arresto, el duro interrogatorio al que es sometida Sophie por parte de un oficial de la Gestapo, no tarda en convertirse en un intenso duelo psicológico. La joven miente y desmiente, maniobra y le reta, parece rendirse antes de atacar de nuevo con renovadas fuerzas, y casi consigue derrotar a su oponente. Por fin, ante unas pruebas aplastantes, Sophie confiesa, aunque hace un último y deseperado intento para proteger a su hermano y a los otros miembros de La Rosa Blanca. Conmovido por la infrecuente valentía de Sophie, el oficial de la Gestapo, le ofrece una escapatoria a cambio de traicionar sus ideales. Pero ella rechaza la oferta; su suerte está echada...

Opinión personal: nos ha alegrado ver cómo un pequeño grupo de amigos de ideales profundos, fueron capaces de enfrentarse politicamente, sólo con la palabra a todo un aparato represor y violento; sin temer las peores consecuencias para sus vidas.

Tanto el libro como la película, se centran en personajes reales y hechos históricos, gracias a las auténticas transcripciones de los interrogatorios. Evidentemente, el film y el texto, reflejan una época convulsa en la historia de la Alemania nazi, que afortunadamente ya está superada. (Mónica Polo y Maitane Sardón, 2º Bachillerato).

Libro: En medio de un ambiente de un nihilismo activo, apareció un grupo de jóvenes estudiantes universitarios de medicina en Munich que se agruparon en la clandestinidad bajo el nombre de "La Rosa Blanca" para hacer frente a la guerra de Hitler, en favor de la libertad y con el objetivo de poner fin al nacionalsocialismo alemán. Al contrario que Hitler, no poseían armas de fuego pero tenían en sus manos una arma muy diferente y poderosa: la palabra. Muchos fueron los autores prohibidos, catedráticos o filósofos que les influyeron a la hora de escribir unas sencillas "Hojas".  Repartieron estas seis hojas entre Munich y otras ciudades alemanas, causando furor entre los estudiantes. También colaboraron con pintadas como "Libertad" o "Abajo Hitler". A pesar de todas esas pequeñas hazañas que mantuvieron en jaque a los jerarcas nacionales, no fueron descubiertos fácilmente. Un día, poco antes de acabar las clases, los hermanos Scholl repartían ejemplares de la Sexta Hoja en los pasillos de la Universidad (a plena luz del día podían ser perfectamente descubiertos como así ocurrió). Inmediatamente fueron arrestados y en escasos días, enjuiciados y ejecutados el 22 de febrero de 1943. La disolución de "La Rosa Blanca" llegó con las posteriores ejecuciones de sus mentores, pero parte de sus panfletos viajaron fuera de Alemania, dejando un rastro de valentía de unos pocos jóvenes fieles a la dignidad humana en medio de un ambiente inhóspito y terrible. (Rut Romero, 2º Bachillerato)

"When I look back on my childhood, I wonder how I survived at all. It was, of course, a miserable childhood: the happy childhood is hardly worth living. Worse than the ordinary miserable childhood is the miserable Irish childhood, and worse yet is the miserable Irish catholic childhood". (Frank McCourt, author of Angela´s Ashes)

Can you imagine being born in Depression era Brooklyn and raised in the slums of Limerick, Ireland?

This is the life of Frank McCourt as told in his memoir, "Angela´s Ashes" . He brings you inside the mind of a miserable Irish catholic child whose life would seem unbelievable to most of us today.

Before he reaches the age of ten, Francis witnesses the death of his sister and two brothers. His father hardly ever works and when he does, he spends it on alcohol. Through all the poverty, near starvation and harassment, Frank and his family remain strong in spirit. Angela´s Ashes is a story of survival, the survival of a mother who has to carry on with a family by her own begging for food, clothes and money to the charity; the survival of the brothers living his childhood in the streets of the greyish Limerick and after all the survival of the oldest son, Frank, who has to work in order to maintain his family playing his father´s role.

However, there is nothing Ireland can offer to him, so he takes the difficult decision of going to America where he could find a good opportunity to live.... But that´s another book and a different story! (Silvia Rodríguez, 2º Bachillerato)

Book: "It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a fortune must be in want of a wife". So begins Jane Austen´s most popular novel. And of course, so thinks Mrs. Bennet , mother of five daughters, who after knowing the arrival of a new wealthy neighbour, Mr. Bingley, to Herdfordshire, selects him for her oldest daughter, the beatiful, lovely and sweet-tempered Jane.

Though they like each other since the very first time they meet, there is one problem: Mr. Bingley has come with his snob sisters and with his friend Mr. Darcy, who will do their most to prevent such a disadvantgeous marriage. However, Mr. Darcy, a tall, handsome and very wealthy man himself is fascinated with Elizabeth, the beautiful, intelligent and stubborn second Bennet sister. After too much considering and in spite of his better judgement, he proposes to Lizzie who firmly rejects him.

But fate intervenes to bring Darcy and Lizzie in contact and she begins to realize there is another Darcy than the proud one she imagined. That he is a good man becomes apparent when he secretly intervenes to rescue the empty-headed Lydia, youngest of the Bennet sisters from a fate worse than death: being seduced but not married by a genuine scoundrel.

Gradually Lizzie realizes that her first impression of Darcy´s pride was "prejudice"... and Darcy realizes there are factors in male-female relationship that class and fortune cannot provide. (Silvia Rodríguez, 2º Bachillerato)

Film: I did not find the film as deep in features as the reading,... however the students enjoyed the romantic film as well as the mild, rich background depicted, remnants of old times , a very different society and universal feelings around.

Of course you know this virtual iniciative launched by European Schoolnet. And here we are to tell you about this first experience.

We are a group of teachers from different schools and levels. Last November we registered our schools in the etwinning European webpage. First we got used to the outline of the site and then we learnt how to surf and use the different tools in it. Was it easy? Yes, it was, so once we succeeded in getting an etwinned school, we decided to create this blog and share with you all our accomplishment.

Etwinning is a virtual space where schools can pair up with other European schools. Each pair will choose a shared topic to work with their students. The elearning virtual space provides different tools to enhance ways to develop projects with our students. Once we registered and gave the basic info from our schools, we launched a topic and waited to see if it was interesting for any other school. We got some answers from schools all over Europe, we sent messages back and finally we linked to one of the schools. We are doing school activities with students. Once a month they write a report and send it to the twinned school which will send us back their own report on the same topic. We also plan on using the other tools provided by the system (chat, profile, forum, calendar, twinfinder, mailbox, my candidates, twin space, progress card, bulletin board and my team).One of the proposals was related to literature.

Students were prompted to read a book once a month and write a report in English. As an addition the students would watch the film based on the book. With this activity, we hope the students would broaden their cultural awareness of the country where the book is located. So we called the project: Magnificent Seven: Seven books, Seven Films (from seven different European countries).

We’ll keep updating the info about our process. We promise we’ll keep your hooked to our projects.

ETwinning 2007: "Magnificent Seven: 7 books, 7 films, 7 European countries".

Teachers: Maria Eugenia Matía y Ángel del Olmo. IES Alonso Berruguete. Palencia. Spain.

Students: Mónica Polo, Maitane Sardón, Rut Romero, Silvia Rodriguez, Ioana Stariminova, Andrea Vaca, Jaime Gago y Pablo Medina.

Books & films read and seen by students from 2º Bachillerato & 2º ESO:

"Il Gattopardo" , Giovanni Tommaso di Lampedusa (Italy).

"Angela´s Ashes", Frank McCourt (Ireland).

"Cyrano de Bergerac", Edmond de Rostand (France).

"Alatriste", Arturo Pérez Reverte (Spain).

"Pride and Prejudice", Jane Austen (G. Britain).

"Sophie Scholl; The Last Days"(Germany).

"Broderna Lejonhjarta", Astrid Lindgren (Sweden)

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Slovakian school: Stredná priemyselná škola, Komárno (Eslovaquia)

Carlos es un niño terminal. Su hermano Juan León, es un chico alto, guapo, parece un príncipe. Juan al llegar a la escuela se sentaba al lado de Carlos a contarle sus batallitas, pero un día Juan muere en un incendio por salvar a su hermano y le dice: "No llores, nos veremos en Nangijala". Cuando días después muere Carlos, ambos se encuentran en Nangijala. Visitan el valle de las cerezas y descubran que al otro lado de las montañas, en el valle de las zarzamoras, gobernaba un malvado tirano llamado Tengil. Hasta allí fue Juan a liberar a Orvar, líder de los guerreros del valle, tarea nada fácil porque Orvar está encarcelado en la cueva de Katla, dragona prehistórica al servicio de Tengil. Carlos sigue a Juan hasta el valle y le ayuda a liberar a Orvar. Orvar, Juan y Matías (el anfritión de los hermanos Corazón de León) preparan el ataque contar Tengil. Juan roba a Tengil la corneta con la que manejaba a Katla y así pueden ganar la guerra. En las vicisitudes del combate, Juan perdió la corneta y Karma, un monstruo marino ahorcó a Katla. Tras la muerte de Matías, Juan y Carlos deciden regresar para morir en Nangijala.

Desde Suecia, os recomendamos esta buena historia para jóvenes con fantasía y sensibilidad. (Jaime Gago, 2º ESO)

Cyrano was a man with a big nose. He loved his cousine but she loved someoneone else (Christian), though she didn´t know she was loved herself by Cyrano. Cyrano never dared to tell his cousine of his love because he was ashamed of his long, terrible nose. Both cousins were in good terms, so when Roxane asked her cousin for help, he didn´t doubt to write poems and in this way to help Christian de Neuvillette to get Roxane´s love. When the war started, Cyrano and Christian shared together the adventure, but Christian died. Cyrano and Roxane will spend the rest of their days sharing their mutual, friendly love until the last moments of Cyrano´s life, when he will discover his hidden feelings to his sorrowful Roxanne.

We read the story in French, in an adapted cartoon, it was good and fun! (Pablo Medina, 2º ESO)

Las siete historias que nos acercaron a siete países europeos podrían multiplicarse por setenta veces siete.... Porque leer debería ser una experiencia feliz y multiplicadora para los jóvenes: con tantos medios electrónicos y audiovisuales alrededor, el tiempo escasea para sumergirse en la profundidad de las vidas que la literatura produce.

Por ello, esta sencilla propuesta tuvo su interés para nosotros: seleccionar una obra que tuviera a su vez una versión filmográfica, y así compartir y comparar dos mundos artísticos que se completan. En la diversidad de épocas y países, al leer "Alastriste", "Cyrano", "Il Gattopardo", o "Pride and Prejudice" revisitamos esas sociedades tan distantes ya de nuestro siglo XXI. Y con "Sophie Scholl" o "Angela´s Ashes" aprendimos que la vida no sólo puede ser dura, sino trágica en su irrenunciable dignidad: han sido dos ejemplos de buenas versiones cinematográficas que enriquecen e invitan a re-leer los libros que las dieron aliento.

Nos queda una historia final ("Los hermanos Corazón de león") que aparecerá en este blog cuando ya las alumnas de la foto estén en sus estudios superiores.

Gracias por vuestro tiempo y colaboración : Silvia, Rut, Maitane, Mónica, Andrea, Iovanna, Jaime, Pablo y al apoyo del tutor Ángel del Olmo.

Con el deseo o consejo de que nunca renunciéis a la lectura: para nutrirse de ideas, para relacionar, aprender, gozar o evocar...

-Nos hubiera gustado poder viajar a Bruselas pero no ha podido ser...

-Hemos aprendido a hacer un blog, algo muy útil.

-Hemos aprendido a utilizar el idioma en varios registros

After working on the webpage "Spring Day in Europe 2007", we decided to enrol in the Chat activity. It was scheduled on 11th May at 2 p.m, so we brought our packed lunch to the computer classroom and engaged on an interesting hour to share our questions on Europe with other 8 schools from Spain, Latvia, Italy, Romania, Belgium, Bulgaria and Turkey.

First we were asked to log on at 2:00, and then wait our turn. From Brussels they told us to prepare the questions beforehand, to type them and read the answers until the third part of the chat, when our school could go on with our questions. Margot Wallstrom, ViceCommissioner of the European Union was online answering what she thought or considered should be the next 50 years of the EU.

It was very exciting to check that some of the participants were asking too local or general questions... and the ViceCommissioner played the political role! Anyway, we thought she was quite close to the students´ fears or suggestions... and after a long hour chatting, we can say we enjoyed taking part in it.

The topic "The next 50 years for the EU" may be a guess, but the atmosphere of having fun while doing an English activity was quite real for the students on the photo.

Thanks to the students: Maitane Sardón, Sara García, Esther García, Mónica Polo, Silvia Rodríguez and Rut Romero (2º Bachillerato).

I wish you the best, young and prepared European girls as you are...