Agrupamento de Escolas de Macedo de Cavaleiros - Portugal
The 3rd Transnational Meeting of our project LIFE took place from 19th – 23rd September 2015
The 3rd LIFE Transnational Meeting started, as usual, on Saturday. Thus, on the 19th September, after a long trip, the Belgian, the English, the Polish, and the Spanish delegations from our Erasmus partners arrived in Macedo. The guest students were taken home by their host families, whilst the teachers were taken to the hotel to check in and rest for a while. At dinner time, the teachers went to a restaurant just across the street from the hotel: D. Antónia, where most of them had the famous “bacalhau”, which can be cooked in 1001 different ways in Portugal. It was fun to be together again, to have the chance to both meet “old” friends and get to know some new ones. After dinner, when the teachers were walking back to the hotel, we met all the students – hosts and guests – we had gathered together to enjoy the evening.
On Sunday morning, we took the bus to Bragança, the capital city in the district. There we visited the Graça Morais Contemporary Art Museum, and we went to the old city, within the castle walls, where we visited the Iberian Mask Museum, the Saint Mary Church and the Domus Municipalis. While we were visiting the city within the castle walls, our Spanish colleague, Juan Garcia, painted a beautiful watercolour of the castle. We had lunch at Poças, a small restaurant in the city centre, and after lunch we went for a walk in Bragança. Later on we travelled to Montesinho, a small village in the very centre of the Montesinho Natural Park. There we visited the village and walked in the nature. In the evening we had dinner at Casa da Edra, where we had the opportunity to try some typical dishes in the area, namely “posta de vitela”.
On Monday 21st, the guest students went to the lessons with their hosts at 8.30 am and the teachers started their work meeting at 9.15. All the delegations were welcome both by the headmaster and by a representative of the town’s mayor. After their kind words, we went on to work on the project: we discussed what had been done so far and we planned the activities ahead. Before lunch, some of the teachers and students were interviewed by the reporters of Mensageiro de Bragança and Onda Livre – they talked about the project and their experience in Macedo de Cavaleiros.At twelve, both guest students and teachers went on a school tour, guided by some Portuguese students. At 1 pm we had our European Lunch in the school’s library. Everyone had the chance to try and enjoy food from the different countries and thus learn a bit more about each other. It was a very joyful lunch!
After lunch, the students were separated into work groups and went to the library with one of the Portuguese students who taught them to create quizzes by using kahoot. Each group had then to create a quiz on their countries. In the meantime, the teachers went on working on the planning of the project activities. After the students had finished their quizzes, they joined the teachers in the meeting room and they all answered the quizzes created by the other groups by using their mobile phones. It was a very funny moment, where all of us had the chance to learn about each other’s country.
At 4.30, the students went home and the teachers strolled around Macedo and did some shopping. Afterwards the whole group met together again to have dinner. We travelled to SPA Alfândega da Fé, a hotel in Bornes Mountain, where everyone could enjoy both a wonderful view and a nice dinner.
On Tuesday 22nd we all – teachers and students – went to Azibo, a river beach near Macedo, where we walked in the nature. The students also rehearsed the anthem the teachers wrote for the project: they sang it, created a choreography for it and then the teachers filmed their performance.
In the evening, after a picnic at the Azibo, we had some time for resting or shopping before meeting again at 7 pm and travelling to Mirandela, where we had dinner at Marisqueira.
On Wednesday morning it was time to say goodbye as all the delegations left before we started school at 8.30 am.