on our way to fame ;)

Labas visiems,

Time flies I can tell you, there‘s constantly something happening and the days would have to have a few more hours than just 24 to keep you up to date frequently. However, I‘ll try to catch up with some of the most interesting things that happened the past few days. A little hint for the start: We‘re TV stars now ;)

Last week on Monday we had a lovely visitor at our school: our fellow volunteer Jolanda from Austria who is currently doing her EVS at a high school in Šiauliai. There she is working for the school’s radio station together with two more volunteers from France and Spain. A further part of her work is the school’s newspaper for which she decided to write an article about our “Panevėžio ‘Šviesos’ Specialioji Ugdymo Centras”. Fine, Emily, Laia and me had the pleasure to show her around at our school and dormitory and also to show her some parts of our work. Jolanda visited lessons in Fine’s and Laia’s classes as well as she watched Laia’s dancing activity in the afternoon. It was sort of a funny feeling to be the guide for someone else, thinking of the fact that just a few months ago we were the ones who needed guidance through the back then huge seemingly school ground. But I think we did a pretty good job, Jolanda seemed quite impressed by all the things we told her. And also for us it was a very enjoyable time, it was a pity to see her leave again in the end of the day. It’s always nice to see other volunteers and it’s very interesting to also sort of work together. We’re really looking forward to reading Jolanda’s article when it’s done :)

after meeting Rasa and Kristina with Jolanda

The following Wednesday we got – quite surprisingly – a visit from a Lithuanian TV station. For one of their shows they wanted to bring a reportage about us four EVS volunteers at the “Panevėžio ‘Šviesos’ Specialioji Ugdymo Centras”, our work and our impressions of Lithuania. I think some of us got quite nervous about, I mean it doesn’t happen every day that you have to talk in front of a camera :) What I liked especially about it was that they also wanted to see our own initiatives. Like that also my Bocce players got the chance to present themselves in front of the camera. And I can tell you that they did a really good job. They were real professionals not being bothered by the camera and showing their skills from their best side. But to be completely honest, as soon as the camera was gone they were all going crazy about being on TV ;) In the meantime the reportage is finished and we watched it altogether this week. Unfortunately you can’t see too much of the Bocce activity but my players were very proud of It anyway. Generally I think the reportage got really really nice, of course I didn’t understand all the Lithuanian talking but there sure are some really nice impressions of our work. So to see what I am talking about you should check it our yourself and get some image of what we four are doing all the time here. You can find the reportage on the internet at www.gntv.lt/cia-ir-dabar-20150129 Take a look at it :)

So you see, we spread the news about our stay here in many different directions. The number one source to really stay up to date will further be our fabulous blog. Don’t forget to check it out from time to time ;)

Iki pasimatymo,

Monika

Fine's Initiative, the „Ekologijos Veikla“

The Tuesday after the Christmas holidays I started to conduct my own afternoon activity. With two groups of 8 students each I meet once per week for 60 minutes to do different ecological activities. 

 

The topic we've dealt with during the past weeks was „waste and waste separation“. For the first lesson I had prepared a short power point presentation and I brought different types of waste and three bins: a blue one for paper, a yellow one for plastic, and a black one for the non-recycable wastes. The students then had to decide what had to be thrown in which bin, which wasn‘t always easy but a lot of fun for everyone, I think. 

 

The first little project was to create a pencil box out of empty toilet paper rolls and colored papers. The students could punch out little flowers and stars from paper and cut out animal patterns to decorate their boxes. We also designed a poster about waste separation which will serve as a reminder. Throughout the next months I would like to do more recycled crafts with the students and also design 3 bins for every classroom with them, so that waste separation will be possible in the school building and dormitory. Furthermore, I plan on doing other practical and fun activities about waste reduction, the decomposition time period of different materials, environmental protection, etc. with the students.

For my activity I get help by Rūta, an educator from the dormitory, on Tuesdays and by Artūras on Thursdays. It is useful to have a helping hand during the activities and someone who can help with the language and I learn a lot from them about how to work with the students. There‘ve been also a couple of times when I was alone with the students, which worked out very well, too. They participated well and when I was lacking words, the students who understood what I was trying to say always helped explaining it to the others. :-) 

 

Before my initiative started I was very curious about what it would be like to work with the students on a project that I had planned myself, if the activites I prepared were of interest for them and of a suitable degree of difficulty. But so far everything went well and I've been enjoying my own initiative with the students a lot. I'm looking forward to the upcoming months!

                                                                                                                                                       Fine