Long Term ESC project in Italian Alps

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GENERAL INFORMATION:

  • Organisation: ISTITUTO COMPRENSIVO COMENIUS (school)
  • Location: Trento, Italy
  • Deadline for application: no deadline

SOME WORDS ABOUT TRENTO:

Trento is the capital city of the autonomous province of Trentino Alto-Adige, situated in the Adigeriver valley in North Italy. The city has a population of around 120.000 inhabitants excluding the periphery layouts and is a major educational, scientific and political centre with sheltering the University of Trento which is ranked among the best universities in Italy and in Europe. Having the advantage of being a university city, Trento enjoys a number of student oriented cultural activities also at an international level. Trento is well-connected to the neighbouring cities through railway, among others, Verona in about one hour, Bolzano in 40minutes and Vicenza in 1,5hours. Within easy commute, also, is located the Caldonazzo Lake and the famous Garda Lake which can be reached in about 1,5hours from Trento. The city has a picturesque Medieval and Renaissance historic centre, with typical ancient buildings and touristic attraction points such as the Trento Cathedral and the Castello del Buonconsiglio.

ABOUT ISTITUTO COMPRENSIVO COMENIUS (school):

The Comprehensive School “J. A. Comenius” is composed of 3 primary schools, a middle school and a school with special teaching. Pupils are 1003, 134 teachers, secretaries 9, a computer technician and 15 school collaborators. The Institute is particularly attentive to multilingualism: since 2005 there is a Memorandum of Understanding with the Land Tirol (Austria) that provides native teachers from Innsbruck (AT) for the creation of eight classes with several subjects taught in Geman. Since last year, subjects are taught in German also in other 4 classes of the primary school. The Trilingualism Plan promoted by the Autonomous Province of Trento foresees an extension of the CLIL offer to the primary and middle school of the province The majority of the students of the middle school obtained the language certificates in English and/or German (FIT2 and KET, level A2 and DSD1 – certificate of the German Ministry. In the frame of the Twinning project betweend the Autonomous Province of Trenti and the Land Tirol the institue promotes the following activities:

– Language training (German and English) for teachers of Non linguistic subject of the middle school who wish to continue the path started in CLIL at the primary school

– Linguistic and methodological training for CLIL teachers (for the English and German languages) of primary and secondary schools, to strengthen their skills in multilingual teaching and to promote the inclusion of all pupils

– Methodological training in relation to ICT and innovative teaching approaches for the development of the basic and trasversal skills of students developing also their creativity

The teachers are available to innovations and experiments, especially regarding linguistic and methodological aspects, promoting an experimental teaching methodology aimed at the development of students’ competences and abilities necessaru in an international educational and professional context.

The Institute “J.A: Comenius” promotes school inclusion by:

  • giving value to cultural differences present in the Institute through intercultural trainings;
  • offering workshops in small groups for students facing learning difficulties;
  • offering workshop of “making” giving value to students’ abilities and skills to avoid
  • drop-outs and early school leaving favouring students’ creativity and entrepreneurship through the participation in projects such as “Trentino Young scientist Challenge”.

 

PROPOSED ACTIVITIES FOR VOLUNTEERS:

  1. Middle school
    • Organization of specific events such as Christmas Party or the End of Year Party
    • Support for computer workshops
    • Activities with the students inside the optional units such as chess tournaments
    • Participation in art workshops as well as in carpentry, music, tailoring, cooking workshops
    • Participation in planning meetings with teachers
  2. Primary school
    • support in the organization of special events such as: Festival of trees, spring games, Christmas party)
    • support in the organization of activities between the bilingual classes of the Institute and their twinned classes
    • support for pupils with special educational needs or for students with disabilities.
    • support in the performance of duties during the optional afternoons
    • implementation of recreational activities in the afternoon and the optional Giocastudiamo.
    • Participation in meetings with class representatives

The two volunteers will participate in:

  1. Different tours: visits to museums, monuments and cities
  2. Realization of cultural and linguistic workshops
  3. Participate in the lessons of English and German and interact in one of two languages to show the importance for students to learn a foreign language.
  4. Involvement in coordination activities to promote continuity between kindergarten and primary school and between primary school and secondary school
  5. Communication and promotion activities: update the website of the school, prepare flyers for specific events
  6. An Italian language course
  7. Participation in the InCo monitoring meetings

FOOD AND ACCOMONDATION:

The volunteers are hosted according to ESC standards. The volunteer will live in a flat with other volunteers, sharing a double room with another volunteer of the same gender. The flat is situated close to the city center, in a nice area next to the river. It has a spacious kitchen, a common area, two bathrooms and all necessary facilities. As for the food, the volunteers will go to lunch at the school canteen and will receive an allowance for the evening, weekends and holidays. Volunteers will receive a transport card from Trentino Trasporti allowing them to travel free throughout the Province of Trento.

Volunteers will receive 150,00 € per month as pocket money.

USEFUL LINKS:

Here you can find the website of Istituto comprensivo Comenius http://www.icomenius.it/

Here you can find the website of InCo, the coordinating organisation: http://www.incoweb.org/eng

If you would like to know more about the ESC experience, check out the blog of the volunteers: http://www.incoweb.org/eng/Volunteers-say

 

To participate send us your CV and Motivation letter (make sure you mention a project name) to advit_team@yahoo.com

For any questions or clarification feel free to contact us