Twin Audiences

A three-month collaboration between Greece, Belgium and the Czech Republic Greece: 2 classes, A and C, two teachers and the teacher-librarian. Belgium and Czech Republic: one class and one teacher each. Goals: Using films to study a different culture, evaluating the language of cinematography and researching the effect it has on European teenagers. Student age groups 16 and 18 ICT Tools: Library PCs, scanner, digital camera, Internet navigation, s, blogs, twinspace tools, MS Word,MS Powerpoint Language to communicate: English …but also some handy Greek, Czech and Flemish phrases! Click here!

Our etwinning label

1 st Lyceum of Elefsina Founded in 1941 by the name of Gymnasium of Elefsina, it was renamed in In 1970 it shared the grounds with the 1st Gymnasium of Elefsina. In 1980 it became a school with both male and female pupils. Since 1995 it has its own building which it shares with the IEK (professional institute) of Elefsina. This school year it has 300 students and 33 teachers. Read about the Greek educational system in: ml Its address is 22 Ahinas and Pindou street. It neighbors with the 1st and 3rd Gymnasium in Upper Elefsina. Headmaster: Mr Panagiotis Kostogiannis Tel.: Fax: The school has 15 classrooms, 2 computer classrooms, 1 lab, 1 technology classroom, an inside gym, a library, a snack room, and 4 staff offices. The schoolyard has basketball and volleyball facilities, several benches and is scattered with olive trees and surrounded by rosebushes and decorative plants. Each year it engages in various projects and activities. Some are the school newspaper (twice prize-winner in national competition) the volleyball and basketball tournaments the Health Education programme Etwinning (national quality label in 2006) The annual poetry book The annual book exhibition LEGO ERGO SUM

The Greek classes Class C2 3rd grade of lyceio Also library fans, Vaggelis and Maria, B class, who wanted to help on! Ms. Dretaki, English language teacher Ms Poulopoulou, English language teacher Class A4 1st grade of lyceio Ms Karavanidou, Teacher-librarian Ms Dretaki talked to class A about Prague, which she had recently visited, and showed a book. Click on hand!

The films Pupendo warm-up The Mourning Rock from A to Z Seen by Class C, Elefsina, Greece Seen by Class A, Elefsina, Greece Sent to Belgium and the Czech Republic Click here! Click here!! Click here!

1st stage: getting to know each other and getting to know each others’ country, exchanging our films, initiating classes in cinematography. 2nd stage: watching the films, communicating with etwinners and deciding on the final product 3rd stage:workgroups on sub-projects and chain-work in students’ free time, In this phase the students communicated through blogging, chatting, twinspace, and s 4rth stage:presentation of students’ work, evaluation of project and sending our ppt archive to our European etwinners

We exchanged our generation’s profile in 5-10 phrases. Here’s what we got: GreeceBelgiumCzech Republic A little bit crazy A little bit lazy 1. communication (mobile phone (all the students have one here), internet 2. digital photography 3. Ipod FREEDOM, Stessed by exams 4. Americanization 5. music and entertainment FUN, Fed up with politicians 6. intolerance 7. materialism PROTEST, Ecologically concsious 8. bad reading PRESENCE and Awkward about immigrants 9. spoiled 10. stress and divorces TECHNOLOGY. Common Points:Technology Stress Having funProtest George’s opinion on americanization, as posted on our blog

Watching Pupendo, the czech film… …we decorated our library with quotes in the same way as in Pupendo. …and Maria, our etwinning photographer, took shots. Using quotes from age.com/subjects/

An Elefsinian wallpaper in Ceske Budejowice Gymnasium Our discussion on Mourning Rock Discussion on Pupendo Click here!

Project presentation. March 29 th 2007, School Library Czech Republic Poster and Presentation Cinematography: History and Glossary Analyzing a scene from Pupendo Greece: love us for what we are!A class (16 year-olds) Mattej: the deaf teenager in the film. Entering the world of silence A tribute to Franz Kafka Click above!! Click here!

March 16th, 2007 Chat day Real time communication of the two classes by a PC and a overhead projector! During the chat, a mini- quiz took place on looking up the word “fibber”. The Czechs won and got loukoumi for a prize!

You can find Kafka’s Trial, Tower and Metamorphosis in our library. Also two M.Koundera books and info about the Czech Republic An original Czech puppet! “What impressed me in The Metamorphosis was that although the hero was transformed into a giant cockroach, he retained human reason and feelings.” Eleni

Our Twin Audiences poster Bearing a quote from “Mourning Rock” and alluding to Pupendo A class (16 year-olds). Poster team

A class

Meeting the Belgians (in a comic, that is..) And who are you? We’re two of your Greek etwinners! Hallo!Ya hara! From Goscinny & Uderzo’s ASTERIX IN BELGIUM George drew himself and Costas

Someone is really having fun!! Nick is translating “Please, miss, not with my mouth open!” The poster team The ICT team The culture appreciation team C class. Our last etwinning session March 23rd 2007, School Library The film review duette Some of our assignments: Best films ever (an exercise) Analysing a scene from a film to understand the language of cinematography (library presentation) Fun with Asterix in Belgium Watching and discussing”Mourning Rock”and “Any way the wind blows” Learning about Belgium and making a poster Answering the same interview as in Any Way the Wind blows Click here!

Google Earth. Elefsina Google Earth, Deurne Belgian Students’ presentation on Deurne 1 Vaggelis from A class and Julia and Despina from C, told us their impressions of Belgium, which they had visited. Introducing our town. Library archives. Click here!

Original Brussels lace and silver cutlery! C class. Team work on Belgium. Edited by Despina

Our film. “Mourning Rock”. 10 reasons to see it: Class C, team work 1.It’s about our hometown. Streets, squares, neighborhoods, buildings and monuments are familiar to us. We pass them by on our way to school. A friend of ours at school is shown in the film in two different ages. We always smile when we see her as an infant. 2.It’s a film about changes. You see people who died in the meantime. You see old buildings for the last time, because they are demolished in front of the camera. You watch the wells covered and you feel you are alienated from your own birthplace. 3.Elefsina has a unique quality. It is the town where ancient and industrial culture coexist. The factory flame in the beginning of the film reminds us of the eternal flame burning in the underworld, according to Greek mythology. 4.The homeless man, Farmakis, who we have often heard from are parents, is not just a poor wanderer. He who “lives above the earth and beneath the stars” is a collector of ancient items which he saves among industrial rubbish and donates to the local museum. He acts like an ancient deity or a Christian saint called “salos”(=demented) who protects the town. That is probably why we see him again in the film after his funeral. Through him we see that being different is not being a lunatic. 5.The Elefsinian mysteries were about death and hope of afterlife. The film itself retains a mystic quality. Our town is built upon ancient cemeteries, but no one thinks it is spooky. 6.You can see people of all ages protesting against industrial expansion, monuments sent abroad. The school mentioned is our school. We often protest on environmental issues. We must. It is hard to wake up in a polluted city. 7.It is a documentary far from the video-clip aesthetics and sequence. It resembles the rhythm of life itself. We are in no hurry here. 8.We feel that the colors of the film allow us to heed the sounds better and are true to the aesthetics of the ancient marbles. 9.The music is by a well-known Greek composer, Konstantinos Beta. 10. We are told by our teachers that we may be the last generation to admire such a film. In a sense we feel we are getting older with it.

The Belgian BLOG The Greek BLOG Students in Greece learnt how to add comments, pictures and sound. We had to keep up with our advanced Belgian etwinners! Belgian Students’ presentation on Deurne 2 Click here!

Films and atavism

C class (18 year-olds). Poster team Our Twin Audiences 2 poster joined quotes from the Greek and Belgian films and had something to say about special people.

Yes, western culture and mainly Anglo-Saxon influence is visible on Greek youth as well. That may be a consequence from our membership in the European Union, among other things. However, as young people holding their own opinion, we feel we head for the future, without neglecting the past. What we want to preserve is our historical consciousness and traditions. Also, simple things are of value in everyday life and form our cultural identity. Such things are childrens’ neighborhood games, human contact, the feasts, the jokes, everything that happens in a a small town like Elefsina. Sometimes, going for a friendly chat in nearby cafés, is a form of resistance against stress, anonymity, callousness and desperation. Regardless of what parents say… C class (18 year-olds). Conclusion on the culture issue Discussing the notion of culture. What do we want to keep and what to borrow?

Half the class is missing studying at home for the oncoming exams or at the parade rehearsals.

First we want to say, that in our opinion the idea of film-exchange was brilliant, because it helped us to get into the other culture through very non-violent and funny way, though it was not so interesting for everyone. The "group chat" or how can we call it was also succes, although our czech side had some technical problems. But then it was quite good at all. Maybe, we just expected more questions to the films, even they were already sent and answered before. It is bad luck, that we chatted this way just once, because we think that everyone liked it. We hope that we could stay in contact longer, not only for the project, somebody would maybe find some friend in Greece/Czech Republic. This project was quite interesting and it was a great opportunity to understand greek people and culture, which is very different from ours Students evaluate the programme A roundup published inTwinspace Click here!

What Elefsina gained from Twin Audiences Students practiced their ICT skills and used their English to really communicate with another school. Progress was made by the library in ICT usage as well. Students compared and evaluated their own as well as a foreign culture. They presented their generation in a couple of phrases and were very candid about it. We found similarities with teenagers abroad. They spoke up for a documentary depicting their town in a very different language of filmography than was expected by our etwinners. They are the last “Mourning Rock” generation, since the little girl playing among the ancient tombs is graduating this year from our school. Teachers practiced the project method and team work was effectively done. Class A etwinned beyond their English language hours, in their free time and during breaks. They’d like to etwin again. Class C got to think of something else apart from their oncoming exams.Etwinning’s versatility permitted the programme to continue despite absences. The library resources were used and teaching through films was systematically applied. The library computers were upgraded towards the end of the project.