Impressions from the first meeting in Spain...
Our 3rd Project Funded by the European Union!Erasmus+:
"Dealing
with gifted education"
As American Collegiate Institute, we are continuing carrying out our European Union funded projects. Following our 2nd project on Biodiversity, we have started working on our 3rd project on education of the students who are gifted or have high potential, which is also on the current educational agenda of our country. In this connection, during October 22-26, 2018, we have participated a program on Erasmus+ Strategic Partership among Schools (KA219) "Dealing with gifted education" project in Spain, where we were represented by one of our Guidance Counselors, Sefa Akseki, as Project Coordinator, and our Academic Dean, Nuray Asan, and Guidance Counselors, Müjde Kartov and Selcan Yavuz, as responsible participants of the project.
The project continues with the cooperation of the below listed six schools from different countries including our school:
Spain - Alcala de Henares / Fundación Escolapias Colegio Calasanz
Estonia - Talinn / Pirita Majandusgümnasium
Greece - Volos / 9dnioniasmagnhsiasæ
Romania - Buzau / Scoala Gimnaziala Stanful Apostol Andrei
Bulgaria - Sofia / 107 Primary School Khan Krum.
The project aims to know participant countries' educational systems, learn arrangements done regarding gifted students, find out well practices and be informed about recent developments in education of gifted students.
Impressions from the first meeting in Spain...
The project started with an acquaintance activity, under the leadership of our Guidance Counselor, Sefa Akseki, aiming interaction between the participants, where teachers had the chance to learn about each other in detail entertainingly.
Following this activity, we discussed the project in detail and decided on the project logo, cost, job distribution, web site and blog post, as well as, our meeting dates for the year.
One of the main goals of the project was to learn about educational systems in different countries and methods used. In this connection, participant teachers made presentations about their schools' education systems and arrangements done regarding gifted students. Our Academic Dean, Nuray Asan, made a presentation on arrangements realized at our country and our school regarding gifted students. During the presentations, regulations regarding gifted students were shared.
Another aspect of the project requires collaborative work with universities. Angeles Bueno, PhD., from Camilo Jose Cela University, who carried out various studies on gifted students, made a workshop on cooperative learning model and arranged various group works on basic principles of cooperative learning and its use in education of gifted students. Workshop on qualifications of the group work on cooperative learning was very efficient and applications done improved awareness of the participant teachers.
Meeting with gifted students, which was the focus of the project, at a panel was very interesting. Listening to "Fundación Escolapias Colegio Calasanz" school's students and graduates, and learning about the processes they have lived through helped the participants understand the importance of the consistency between theory and practice. Students explained being gifted from their point of view and gave information about the education they took.
After a full week, we watched a film named "Billy Elliot" about gifted students and interpreted the film considering being gifted criteria. Our Project Coordinator Sefa Akseki, planned a group work on the film and provided the participants to discuss the concept of being "gifted". Afterwards, we watched a musical version of the film and spent a day full of art.
We ended the first meeting by evaluating the whole work done during the week and took decisions about the second meeting, which will take place in Greece.
This project which presents six different countries' educational systems and reflects their point of views, increased our awareness in education of gifted students and seems to widen our horizons.