31.08.2021 Our Wonderful project "Dealing with gifted education" is closed.
Thank you Erasmus for all of the opportunities to learn so many new and useful things and meet so wonderful people all over the World! <3
About us
Our Project, Our Motivation, Our Aims...
Teaching gifted students can be one of the most challenging issues of school life. Gifted students are not easy to deal with because, among other things, they have a different way of thinking. It is proven that they use different strategies to face learning based more on "intuitive jumps" than on "rational steps"
Teachers who have to deal with this type of student have to know their peculiar characteristics with the aim of being able to help them get the most out of their passage through the school and at the same time keep high their taste for learning, their self-esteem, and maximum development of their capabilities.
A teacher who is not familiar with and trained with this type of student can become a trauma for their education.
Lack of flexibility, wanting to maintain a linear order in content learning, repetition, mechanical tasks, the belief that gifted children are smart enough as to achieve a great school performance without any help, are some of the reasons why about 30-40% of gifted students do not reach the expected academic performance and about half of them do not reach university.
With this project we want to analyze the characteristics of gifted children, their way oflearn, the need to maintain an intrinsic motivation that leads them to immerse themselves in love for the knowledge, for putting challenges, for deepening in those subjects that absorb them.
We want to base our project on the analysis of cases of real students who have been diagnosed as gifted during their elementary school stage and what their pace has been like for the different educational stages. The achievements, the relationships with colleagues, the expectations that have been created around they, the type of faculty preferred in each case.
The association of several schools from the 6 different countries gives us the opportunity to compare educational systems, teaching styles and school culture.
With the exception of the Turkish school, which does an entrance exam, the rest are centers based on the inclusion where students with high capacity coexist with students of Educational Special Needs. This diversity will help us to compare what each system can offer to the best development of the students.
We believe that this project can have a strong impact on the education of this type of students and in the search for methodologies that improve the quality of their training.
Every gifted student should feel happy to be so and get to know their own possibilities.
Every country
should try to get the most out of the best gifted students and offer them a quality
teaching that keeps them motivated and facilitates the updating of their
talents.
Our Logo
After voting during our second LTT meeting in Volos, Greece we chose our official project logo. Congratulations to our Bulgarian partner. Their proposal was chosen with majority as the best one!
Our team
We are six schools from six different European countries - Spain, Turkey, Bulgaria, Greece, Estonia and Romania
Colegio Calasanz. Fundación Escolapias Montal from Alcalá de Henares, Spain
(Main coordinator)
Our school is
located in a central street of Alcalá de Henares, a World Heritage City near
Madrid. Alcalá is well known for two things, it is the city where Miguel de
Cervantes, the writer of Don Quixote de la Mancha, was born and also it has an important and old university dating
from the fifteenth century. The school belongs to a Catholic Nun Company, the Escolapias and was founded 114 years ago. It's
a concerted school, which means that all the levels of compulsory education and
Early Childhood Education are subsidized by the State. The students do not have
to pay to study in it. We accept all those who want to be
with us. Our students belong to a middle class. There are students in
situations of great economic difficulty who are helped with scholarships.
It is an integrated center, that is, we cover all the official levels prior to the university. We have a Spanish program for the emigrant students who come to our city.
In total there is something more than 1000 students. We are a well-valued center especially concerned about diversity and inclusion, especially in the mandatory levels. We deal as much with the gifted students as whit those who have special educational difficulties. We use cooperative methodologies.
Improving the European dimension is one of our objectives and therefore we have been involved in European projects such as Socrates, Comenius and Erasmus +since 2002. Our students learn English from 3 years old.
The motivation to join this project is the interest we have for years in the education of gifted students. In the courses 2002, -2005, we participated in a Socrates project on this topic and now we want to take it up again and apply and review what we have been learning. We have enough experience in this field.
Pirita Gymnasium of Economics from Tallinn, Estonia
Pirita Gymnasium of Economics (Pyrite Secondary School of Economics) is located in an area Pirite coastline in Tallinn, Estonia. Pirita is a beautiful place with forests, parks, rivers and beaches. It is a district of mostly individual homes, sports areas and no industry. Pirita has a strong community spirit: its inhabitants are very concerned about their district and its different developments. That means they are really interested in educational issues, schools and kindergartens. Our school is one of the two municipal schools of Pirita and the only one with Baccalaureate (Gymnasium). Our specialty is economy and entrepreneurship. At the level of Gymnasium (students between 16 and 19 years old), the specialties are the economic and creative industries (multimedia themes combined with entrepreneurship). We have integrated the curriculum for these subjects and also special courses at each school level.
Pirita Gymnasium of Economics has experience in working with students with special needs: The system works and the students have the help and support they need. At the same time, we have not had enough opportunities, energy and knowledge to support the gifted students in our school. Joining the project gives us the opportunity to learn from new schools and countries new ways and opportunities to build a lasting system for provide gifted students with the education they need and deserve. We also believe that supporting gifted students improves the quality of teaching and learning in the whole school.
107 Primary School "Khan Krum" from Sofia, Bulgaria
The 107th primary school is a municipal school. It is located in the center of the city of Sofia, in the foothills of Mount Vitosha, and is near the historic center. Our children are 6-13 years old. The total number of students in our school is 660. They are taught by 40 highly qualified teachers and educators, by the school psychologist and the principal of school.
There are many extracurricular activities outside of school, our main goal is teach our students and prepare them for a successful start in life, to teach them to think and overcome difficulties, as well as to develop your personality and their qualities.
The school was founded in 1934. Current school building was built in the same year. There are 14 classrooms, laboratories and a classroom with interactive whiteboards. We also have a beautiful patio, a large and separate building for our freshmen. Our theater group performs different works, made with the collaboration of students and teachers. Our school is proud of the achievements and successes of our students in various competitions and tournaments. Our Students receive a series of letters and medals. In our school we celebrate parties and traditional customs, such as Christmas, Baba Marta, Holy Week, etc.
By participating in this project, we will discover new models, techniques, methods and useful tools in the process of education, we will recognize the need for an exchange of good practices to compare the way that a certain school subject can be different and innovative.
Our school will contribute to the project with our experience in terms of classroom practice and extracurricular educational activities for creative and innovative educational processes, to show cultural and Bulgarian values traditional as an integral part of European culture
Scoala Gimnaziala Sfantul Apostol Andrei from Buzau, Romania
Scoala Gimnaziala Sfantul Apostol Andrei is a public school, subordinated to the Ministry of National Education through the School Inspection of Buzau County. The levels Educational activities at our school are: primary (from the preparatory class to class IV) and classes of gymnasium (V-VIII) In the 2017-2018 school year, 394 students are enrolled in school primary school and 327 students in the gym. The teachers of the school are 16 teachers of primary school and 31 gym teachers (teachers of English, sports, arts, mathematics, Romanian, French, etc.). The educational offer includes activities / sports and academic subjects in the plan of school studies; extracurricular activities for the formation of advanced skills of language and computer science and to support high performance; extracurricular activities - contests and cultural, artistic and sports and leisure competitions, etc. The percentage of graduation in National evaluations at the end of the eighth grade was as follows: 2015 -96.67%, 2016-93.22%,, 2017-85.48%. There is a 10% decrease in the graduation rate in 2017 in comparison with 2015. We need to maintain a high percentage of graduation in the national evaluations. For the gymnasium, teachers of mathematics, physics, chemistry and biology are doing additional preparation with gifted students. The curriculum of these preparations is an advanced level of difficulty. These students participate in various contests national and international standards and obtain the highest ratings for national assessments.
During math
classes, teachers use educational software to teach the students on
mathematical concepts and to improve the skills to apply the Mathematics to
every days life. We have experience in projects and associations.
9dnioniasmagnhsias from Volos, Greece
Volos, is one of the largest Greek cities and one of the main ports of the country,located in the center of Greece (320 km B Athens and 219 km N of Thessaloniki). Built in the Pagasitiko bay, a short distance from Mount Pelion, combines all the charm of the sea with the mysterious beauty of the mountain of the Centaurs. The beautiful city is connected with the famous Argonauts, one of the most important epics of the Greek mythology Kyklou. Volos is one of the most beautiful cities of the Greek territory. The richness of the region and its great history is reflected in the architecture of the structure of the city that exudes confidence and elegance. The numerous mansions, public palaces, museums, industrial facilities of the twentieth century and historical churches make browsing through Volos really enjoyable.
Our school has six classrooms, a computer lab and a gym used as a dining room. There are computers in each classroom and an interactive whiteboard. There are also 2 projectors with portable computers,
At school we teach Greek, English, French and German, as well as music. There are 10 teachers and 139 students from 6 to 12 years old. We have experience about Erasmus. Our school has 12 teachers of diverse subjects such as: the Greek language, mathematics, physics, English, ,gymnastics, music, visual arts, theater education, German and French. Our school attends 120 students between 6 and 12 years old. All school teachers who have a fixed position in the school will be responsible for the implementation of the program.
In our school there are sometimes gifted students and the program is an opportunity to study cases like these. The teachers have a good academic education, they have a master's degree in education.
American Collegiate Institute (ACI) from Izmir, Turkey
The American Collegiate Institute (ACI) is located in the coastal city of Izmir. It was founded in 1878. In it 809 students study, of which 149 will graduate this course. The school offers a teaching of 5 courses. The first course is of preparation, compulsory and in it students learn fundamentally English. The rest of the courses correspond to the High School. Except Turkish language and literature and the social sciences, the other classes are given in English. The students have the opportunity to Learn German, Spanish, or French as a second language. ACI, has been authorized since 2002 to offer the International Baccalaureate. The school is the first high school in Turkey to be accredited by the Council of International Schools (CIS) in 1994 and has been again accredited in 2002, in 2008 and in 2014. ACI employs 111 professors of which 20% are foreigners. The foreign teachers give classes in English, mathematics, French, Spanish, Biology, Theater and Arts visuals. To enter ACI, students have to take a national exam.
We want to take part in this project as a Counseling Department. We have been working with gifted students for many years and we have been supervised by a specialist in this type of students. Therefore we want to share our experiences and observe the educational policies of other countries and the actions that are carried out.
ACI has a very strong Orientation team that has been supervised for 16 years by a psychiatrist in a weekly program. We have also been supervised for years by specialist in learning processes and gifted students.
ACI has been accredited by the CIS and this accreditation shows the efficiency of the school in the learning processes.
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