From Varna, Bulgaria with MINT The fifth transnational meeting of the project was held at the Fourth Language School “Frederic

Joliot-Curie” in Varna, Bulgaria from the 24th

to the 28th

February 2010 in collaboration with the associated partners Varna Municipality - Educational Directorate and English Academy, Varna The participants of the conference were teachers from the nine partner schools, students, parents and associated partners. The aim was to create new ideas for integrating migrant students in school. Workshop “Meet me Halfway” was designed to enable all participants to express them-selves by talking, acting and constructing. The session began with a Warm up for all participants conducted by Mr. Andreas Brett from Mer-cator Berufscolleg, Germany and two Power Point presentations -”Bulgaria” and “Varna”, demon-strated by Bulgarian students Simona Andonova (11th class) and Boryana Mileva (10th class)

Mr Andreas Brett stated the aim of the workshop writing a focus question on a clip chart page.

Participants: partners, students and parents, divided into small international teams of four people,

each team was given time to think up and process their ideas for integrating minority/migrant stu-

dents in school. Team members shared their ideas amongst themselves, selected and wrote the

best on clip chart pages.

.

Small groups reported their ideas displayed on posters to the whole group. Some movies were created during the workshop by Mrs Donka Georgieva (from the host school –”Frederic Joliot-Curie”) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LcVsA3TvNSk (Slav Simeonov, 10 class presents group 4) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t5Er-Cc1Llg ( Andreas Brett discuss ideas) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-cRIoNBlfo (Martin Geelen presents group 2) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U5iZo5ogLgQ (Martin Geelen answers questions)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLzug0PSPms (Henk Brinks, Mustafa Aydin, Paul SÜßER, Andreas Brett and

other discuss integration issues)

A series of Power Point presentations prepared in advance, gave knowledge about the partner school’s experience and initiatives for a successful integration of migrants in school. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gMZLyVXZQeY (German partner school “New ideas’ - part 1) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lOWmGpMGWe0 (part 2) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gltkPwl3Mt8 (part 3) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qz_0j3_lqTE (part 4)

Mr. Kosta Bazitov the Deputy Mayor responsible for the education in Varna Municipality gave guests a talk about the history of Varna, the ethno cultural panorama and the traditional unity between different ethnic groups. Partners learned about the economic, educational institutions and traditional cultural events in Varna. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yT8E4iWfqsc

The second task of the conference was to build a structure and to define the main principles for the end project MINT product “Integration Guideline”. All participants took part in a “question and answer” session led by Mr. Andreas Brett. Strong focus questions increased the chances for success in solving issues. Key roles and relationships of the school system and school environment: “student < > teacher” , “teacher < > teacher”, “student < > student”, “classroom atmosphere”, “social work”, “school < > parents”, “school < > companies” , “subjects”, “school profile” were used for the construction. Participants had time to brainstorm main principles for the integration guideline individually. Each

member independently wrote down suggestions. The members reached consensus on which

definitions are most synthetic and acceptable to the group as a whole.

The workshop produced decisions, sped-up results and finished on time. Active learning methods through the workshop encouraged the participants for group discussions and to be fully involved in training. The project team worked efficiently, in a highly participatory manner, that honors the group’s diverse perspectives and individual creativity. The result is very suitable for further project activities.

Workshop preparation and design: MINT project team 2008-2010 (www.comeniusmint.com);

Mr Mark Mctaggart - director of English Academy, Varna; Mrs Marinela Radeva - president of Association for Integration of Refuges and Migrants, Bulgaria

Booklet producer: Donka Georgieva (Fourth Language School “Frederik Jolit-Curie), Varna

This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This publication [communication] reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held

responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.

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Workshop Meet Me Halfway - New Ideas for Integration

Varna, Bulgaria 24 - 26 February 2010

Structure and principles of the Integration Guideline

Improving integration on:

1. Relation Student < > Teacher (Respect and Care)

2. Relation Teacher < > Teacher (Sharing)

3. Relation Student < > Student (Emotional involvement)

4. Classroom atmosphere (Partners & Friends)

5. Subjects (Intercultural topics)

6. Social work (Building Social Networks)

7. Relation School < > Parents (Families in Action)

8. Relation School < > Compa-

nies

(Cooperation)

9. School Profile (Opportunities for every-

one)