Lifelong Learning Programme

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Teachers Experiences

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TITLE OF THE EXPERIENCE
The class can help
NAME AND SURNAME OF THE TEACHER
Christos Tegas
SUBJECTS TAUGHT
Maths
YEARS OF TEACHING EXPERIENCE
23
TYPE OF SCHOOL
Primary
COUNTRY
Greece
THEMATIC AREA
Integration of immigrants students
DESCRIPTION OF THE EXPERIENCE
Mikaella is the oldest daughter of a gipsy family. Her parents earn their living by selling grosseries in the local open market every Saturday. Mikaella is attending the school, the primary school. She is very shy, due to the fact that her family's economical situation is ratehr diffuclt. So she used to wear almost the same clothes every day. And the same coat all the winter, even in the market where she hleps her father in selling vegetables.
Due to economical crisis in Greece, students pay a small fee in order to particpate in schools travels to museums, or other cultural and historical visits. After their visits, the students need to do an assignment based on what they see and what the understood from the visit.
During the spring these visits are rather often, twice a month.

Mikaella is always skipping the visits, because even 1 or 1,5 euros per visit is too much for her family with the seven kids. And then she skips the next day, since she can not deliver her assignments.Every assignment has an educational purpose. So she misses a lot of milestones in her learning process. As a result, it seemed that Mikaella could not finish the class and probably she would have drop out school.

Her teacher had an idea. Every second Saturday, the class is visting her father's shop in the grocery and buys food only from her. The second month that this was done, the family has a small increase of their income. The father, really appreciated it, and decided to spend the money in her daughter's educational visits. Even for the ones that she missed.

Mikaella is now quite comfortable with the rest of the classroom. She participates in almost every educational activity and seems that there is not going to be any problem with her progress

Comments on this Teachers Experience

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Date: 2014.08.20

Posted by Ebru Arı (Turkey)

Message: This story remind me one of my friend in primary school. He was also son of a gipsy family . his family made Money by picking and selling old bottles and boxes. As it is predicted, their economical status was very low. Althogh we were very small, we can understand some emotions of him. For example, he was seen as a sad guy since he could not wear a new shoes and clothes . Those days, ı think that he was sad since he did not have new clothes, shoes or toys. II believe that not having such properties are important elements to have self esteem and Express himself/herself. Because of this reason, he was unable to express himself and his ideas. When he came in front of the class, he could not talk. Now, ı remembered that he looked his old shoes when he was in front of the classroom. I can give many example like this…. but, there is another important thing to be saying. After ı read this story, ı think that why our teacher did not make such kind of precautions to make school more attractive for our friend. I think that Mikaella’s teacher showed a very good behavior as the name of mainstreaming Mikaella. Herer, another important point to be said is the importance of teachers’ rokle. I believe that the role of a teacher is not only teach them. A teacher should also be a good observer and an active participator in students’ lives. In this story we show the benefits of a teachers’ observation about her student’s live and active role in his life.

Date: 2014.05.29

Posted by Chis Simona, "Alexandru cel Bun" High School, Botosani, [email protected] (Romania)

Message: I had a gypsy student last year (2012/2013). He was attending evening classes (he was over 18). He never had problems fitting in though he was coming from a poor family (raised by a single mother). But he was quite smart and had a pleasant personality. His marks were average. Unfortunately, he stopped coming to school for some reason and couldn't be contacted. He even changed his phone number.

Date: 2014.05.19

Posted by Christine CLOES (Belgium)

Message: This story shows that each situation is specific and adapted solutions can be found providing that teachers and classmates intend to help the pupil in difficulty. There is no limit to imagination and creativity to find a solution. Willingness and solidarity are powerful weapons to fight against discrimination and exclusion.

20 December 2014

Final Partners’ meeting

The fourth partners’ meeting took place in Florence (IT) on 15 December 2014. The meeting had the objective to check the activities carried out since the third meeting of the project and share and assess the in progress results. A special focus has been dedicated to the presentation of the strategies to solve the case scenarios.