ERASMUS+ TLT meeting in Heusenstamm (fifth day)

In the last day of our ERASMUS+ visit, students in the five groups were working together and with the teachers in each group on their interviews´ notes in order to do their presentations and prepare their conclusions on their group topic.

This information, as real reporters do, was together with photos, audios and videos of the interviews. Let us remember that the topics covered in Germany were: Refugees and right winged politics, The essence of money, Work-life balance, Distributios and redistribution in European societies, Environment, pollution and traffic concepts.

After lunch, we went to the School Assembly Hall where the groups made the public presentation of their work to the rest of the groups and teachers.

We must highlight the good work all of them carried out in the processing of information and research.

To finish the training activity in Heusenstamm, students and teachers were given the attendance certificates and, to celebrate the achievement of all the objectives of this TLT meeting, a farewell party went on with some typical homemade food and dances from different countries in this project. 

Everyone, teachers and students, are keeping  beautiful memoroies of this visit, not only for the pleasant moments we lived, but also because of the peaceful coexistence among all the participants.  Thanks to all of them and in particular to the German team for the successful organisation of this event. 

May the future of European union be like this! Because this is the Europe we want to build: United in diversity. 

Video Heusenstamm and Frankfurt, 2018

Useful links in this TLT visit and ERASMUS+ project:

• Heusenstamm visit in this blog
• Site for Spanish team (Transnational meetings work)
• Photos: Heusenstamm and Frankfurt 
• Our Project in the Platform of results ERASMUS+ (en construcción)

ERASMUS+ TLT meeting in Heusenstamm (fourth day)

As in all our TLT meetings, one of the days of the visit is devoted to know some of the cultural heritage of the country.

Today, we have been visiting Heidelberg.

Heidelberg was founded in the 12th century and became a electorial palatinate during the 13th century until 1720 and hence an important political center in Germany.

During the war of succession Heidelberg was conquered twice by french troups (1688 and 1693) and completely destroyed. After the war 1697, Heidelberg was rebuild in barrock-style on the medival groundings. After the change of residence of the elector from Heidelberg to Mannheim and the destruction of the palace through lightning, Heidelberg´s descent began by loosing most of the former jobs to Mannheim.


In 1803 the electorial palatinate was dissolved and Heidelberg became part of the grand duchy of Baden. The badic grand duke Karl Friederich (1771–1811) built the university up to an important and renowned institution which it still is. 

After 1693 Heidelberg wasn´t destroyed and is the only city in Germany which survived the second world war mostly unharmed.

After the war, Heidleberg was  a base of the Americans until 2012 when the troops got moved to Wiesbaden. The soldiers had an own village called Patrick-Henry-Village which is now a sanctuary for refugees. The baracks are partly changed into student flats. Due to the withdrawl of the Americans Heidelberg lost around 20 000 people, a seventh of its population.

Nowadays Heidelberg is a modern vibrant student city known for its University and clinic.

Heidelberg Castle (German: Heidelberger Schloss) is a ruin in Germany and landmark of Heidelberg. The castle ruins are among the most important Renaissance structures north of the Alps. The earliest castle structure was built before 1214 and later expanded into two castles circa 1294; however, in 1537, a lightning bolt destroyed the upper castle. The present structures had been expanded by 1650, before damage by later wars and fires. In 1764, another lightning bolt caused a fire which destroyed some rebuilt sections.

The castle has only been partially rebuilt since its demolition in the 17th and 18th centuries. The castle ruins are among the most important Renaissance structures north of the Alps.

ERASMUS+ TLT meeting in Heusenstamm (third day)

During the third day of our TLT meeting in Heusenstamm, students in my group, the group of "Refugees and right winged politics", interviewed Cathrine Brouwer, member ot the organisation AWO, local association that helps refugees.

Cathrine reiterated several times the importance of language learning for refugees as it is the first barrier they find. Language learning improves refugees´social cohesion and their perspectives for integration and job opportunities. 

She explained profusely how her organisation helps refugees in their daily lives from the first moment they arrive (paperwork, language classes, etc...). Apart from governamental help, they count on volunteers. As far as this personal attention is concerned, plenty of volunteers are needed. 

In the afternoon, a group of refugees from Afghanistan, Lebanon, Iran and Jamaica attended the interview of our students. 

They did not give us the reasons why they came to Germany but their experiences here. Some of these experiences were a reflection of a part of society´s opinion where still ratial discrimination is a reality. 

ERASMUS+ TLT meeting in Heusenstamm (second day)

In the afternoon of our second day in Heusenstamm (Germany), the Reporters of the ERASMUS Project "Reporters without frontiers" have met and interviewed Daniel Cohn-Bendit.
Daniel Marc Cohn-Bendit, was born in France to German-Jewish parents. He is a former leader of the students’ protest movement of May 1968 in Paris, a former Green Party deputy to the social-democrat (SPD) mayor of Frankfurt and is both German and French.

He has been elected to the European Parliament for the Greens four times, standing alternately in Germany and France. 

Although this interview at Adolf Reichwein Gymnasium has been recorded complete and will be shared as part of our TLT meeting in Heusenstamm, at the end of this post you will be able to see some of the moments.

I personally enjoyed his energetic and realistic discourse, Thanks a lot to the organizers, the german team, and in particular, to its coordinator, Thomas Schmidt.

Daniel, always understanding towards students' demanding questions and with a good sense of humour, answered all of them in an interview that lasted one hour and a half. His speech was realistic; utopia was not part of it.

The questions focused on the topics our reporters are working on in this TLT meeting, mainly "Refugees". Click on the links to watch the videos:

Refugees in the EU: current and future situation

Refugees versus migrants: integration

Colonization and responsibilities

Refugees: reasons for massive migration

Refugees: unconditional basic income and poverty

Basic income, training and education

Capitalism and ecology

A fair society is...

"Reporters without frontiers" Erasmus Project TLT in Germany

During this week (26-30 November, 2018) a group of five students and two teachers from Ángel de Saavedra school are meeting other

students and teachers from the four countries  participating in our Erasmus+ "Reporters without frontiers".

Students from France, Germany, Greece, Iceland and Spain will interview

experts on the topics of Refugees in the European Union, Money and Capitalism, Work-Life balance, Pollution and Environment. See the programme.

Interviews are held in the German school (Adolf Reichwein Gymnasium), in the European central bank and other places in Heuseunstamm and Frankfurt.

On Thursday, we are visiting Heidelberg and on Friday all the five groups will present the results of their interviews and conclusions.

After that, students and teachers will get our attendance certificate.

Reporters without frontiers: Our Erasmus+ visit (Heusenstamm, Germany)

From 9th to 14th October, project coordinators and teachers participating in the Erasmus+ Project (KA219) "Reporters without frontiers" met in Heusenstamm in order to design the main lines of the project and students´mobilities as well as to define the different project levels and topics to work on in the different countries. Refugees, Environmental issues, Health, Capitalism and politics, etc...

We have had the chance of meeting our teacher partners in Germany, Iceland, France and Greece and have enjoyed our stay in the school with teachers and students at Adolf-Reichwein Gymnasium. 

The local newspaper reported our visit and its purpose just the day we began working in the project. 

The one below is our School presentation. We made it in front of the participant teachers so that they already know about the main feautures of our school, the plans and programmes we carry out, the variety of vocational training courses related to image, sound and video we offer our students, etc...





Arts are closely related to our project as our schools offer students this teaching. Because of that, as the main goal of the project, students in the different countries are going to develop their work dealing with images, sound files and videos: Newspapers, a travel book, radio broadcast, TV programme, etc.. are going to be the final products our "Reporters without frontiers" will be involved in throughout the project. 

Related to arts and to make the most of our stay in Frankfurt, we finished our stay in Germany visiting two exhibitions: Emmy´s world (at Fotografie Forum Frankfurt) and Ulay life-sized (at Schirn Kunsthalle).

Thanks to everybody for having participated in this visit and especially to the German coordinators who have provided us a wonderful experience to collaborate among countries in order to enhance our students´awareness on XXI century issues together with the use of sound, image and video to express their feelings, ideas and investigations. 

We have agreed to check the use of the Ed-Modo platform for students and teachers in the different countries to interact and blog to publish their works. 

Now it is time to work with the rest of the Erasmus+ team, teachers, students and families in order to prepare students and teachers´ visit in Spain next January. 

Precisely as we have been in Germany these days, we weren´t able to attend the initial training meeting for Erasmus+ Projects (KA219) held in Valencia last week, but we have the presentations uploaded in SEPIE Spain webpage: 
Comunicaciones Jornadas Proyectos Erasmus+

Photos of this visit. Slide.ly video and gallery:

Heusenstamm, Erasmus+ Visit Germany by Slidely Photo Gallery