Second International Project Meeting – Dublin
On May 3, 2020, the 2nd international project meeting of the project participants took place. Had it taken place as planned, it would have taken place at the premises of the eMeLeS Limited training center in Dublin. However, as in all areas of society, the coronavirus pandemic is having a significant impact on our project. Therefore, we were deprived of the experience of getting to know some of our project partners in person. We were not able to visit the spacious premises of the Slovak Education Center in Dublin and feel the atmosphere of testing ready-made textbooks and workbooks right in the classroom. And also to observe students who, despite the fact that they live far from Slovakia, want to communicate in Slovak and improve their level of language proficiency.
The entire meeting was online. However, its level was not reduced in any way, and the rich program was filled with content to a high degree. The whole meeting was organized by partners from Ireland, the main coordinator Ms. Shefchikova, Ms. Libikhova, as well as the entire team of teachers of the educational center. At the beginning, they welcomed all participants: Ms. Pishova, Ms. Duranova and Mr. Chiba (Karol Csiba), Ms. de la Bouvrie and Ms. Matiskova, Ms. Smalley, as well as representatives of the iCan School, Ms. Kurotova, Maleeva and Tunegov.
The program of the meeting was very rich. The organizing partners introduced us to their educational center in the form of a presentation, short videos from the school premises, as well as from the classrooms. Since we were not able to visit Dublin in person, we learned about interesting things from the history, geography or sights of Ireland in a small presentation.
The following was a sample from the process of testing the teaching materials of the First Contact Textbook and Workbook for Preschoolers. It was very interesting to watch the children work in the classroom and see already familiar textbooks and workbooks on their desks. Partners from Petit Slavik and Slovak Club Birmingham also provided their observations, comments and testing experience. We were pleased that the processed material is perceived positively, although, of course, the test results also alert us to what needs to be corrected. But that is precisely the purpose of testing.
In the next part of the meeting, Ms. Tunegova assessed the progress of work on individual project results in terms of compliance with the deadlines by the authors and technical teams, and also assessed the use of the budget by all partners. She also announced her intention to improve the quality of the project by supplementing the prepared textbooks with notes for publication. Partners from the GPU presented samples from the prepared Translation Dictionary and Manual for Teachers and Parents of Foreign Children.
Attention was also drawn to the upcoming international event, which will present these two project results. The first event to highlight and popularize the results of the project will take place on June 15, 2021. But even before that, we will meet in June - albeit again only virtually - at the 3rd international meeting in "Paris", which we are already looking forward to.
Dear supporters of the iCan Language School, of course, we will keep you updated on these events.