V sklopu mednarodnega projekta »Art in All of Us« smo celoten prvi semester šolskega leta 2012/13 sodelovali z osnovno šolo iz ZDA, s katero smo si izmenjali izkušnje, se seznanili z urnikom in načinom dela v ameriških osnovnih šolah, spoznavali tujo državo in njene značilnosti ter navade. V sklopu tematike ekologije (varovanje okolja) smo spoznavali ozaveščenost prebivalcev ZDA glede te problematike ter dajali ideje in pobude za izboljšanje situacije. Z učenci iz ZDA smo si izmenjali tudi izkušnje glede lastne in skupne angažiranosti pri ohranjanju čistega okolja (preventiva, recikliranje itd.). Učenci obeh držav so izdelali grafike na temo ohranjanja čistega okolja ter si jih izmenjali.

Prenos predstavitve šole iz ZDA: Our school, town and country

Grafike učencev OŠ Bičevje, ki so bile poslane učencem šole v ZDA

 Delo je potekalo v obliki pogovorov, pisanja vprašanj in odgovorov, izdelave predstavitve ter izdelave grafike. Sledila je še končna evalvacija ob zaključku tematike o ekologiji.

Grafike učencev OŠ Bičevje, ki so bile poslane učencem šole v ZDA

Vprašanja, ki so jih med letom poslali učenci OŠ Bičevje in odgovori otrok šole iz ZDA:

QUESTIONS ABOUT ECOLOGY :

  • Have you ever earned any money with ecology projects and how?

No, but we do try to be sustainable in the art room

  • Want to share some ideas?
  • How do you motivate teenagers to help with ecology projects?

By informing them about what is going on in the world.

  • Do you use hi-tech at school or/and recycled paper?

Yes, we use computers, cameras, projectors, SmartBoards, and tablets. The paper we use in our printers has some post-consumer content. In art class, we reuse paper scraps, as you can see with our prints!

  • Do you pollute the environment?

Yes, everyone does without knowing it or meaning to. We ride in cars and on buses, we throw out food, we buy things from factories, we use plastic bottles (and many people throw them in the trash instead of recycling), and we create a lot of unnecessary waste. We are trying to stop, and the best way to do that is by spreading knowledge about the environment.

  • Are you an ECO school? What exactly do you do to satisfy the criteria for an ECO school?

We have an Environmental Club and an Eco-Schools Committee. Our courtyard is a certified natural wildlife habitat with turtles, ducks, fish, and native plant life. Our goal is to be certified as an ECO school this year, and many other schools in this area have already been certified.

  • Do you recycle things at your school?

There are recycling bins in every room and in the cafeteria and halls, but not everyone uses them because it’s not a requirement. It should be!

  • What would you do to make the world cleaner?

Hybrid cars, recycle everything, buy used items, compost, take shorters showers, buy post-consumer plastic and paper, use biodegradeable trash bags…

  • Do you have any problems with ecology?

We have many problems and there needs to be more of a collective effort put forth to decrease these problems.

  • Do you use hybrid cars?

Ms. Morgan’s mom does, as does our principal, Ms. Jackson. So, some people do, but most do not. People really like their big gas-guzzling SUVs L

  • How do you take care about the environment?

We recycle and re-use things for art projects.

  • Do you still find the Earth clean?

Some of it, but in urban areas, not so much.

  • Where do you dispose the waste of food?

We put our food in trash cans which are emptied into dumpsters which the garbage trucks empty and bring to landfills. Our art teacher, Ms. Morgan, composts all of her food waste. What a champ!

  • Do you collect old paper once a year?

We recycle paper every day. There are recycling bins in our classrooms that get emptied by the custodians.

  • How do you protect nature?

Recycling and not wasting resources. Reduce, reuse, recycle. And re-purpose!

  • Do you have recycling islands (special containers for plastic, glass, paper, organic waste…) in every street?

Unfortunately, we do not have recycling on every street. Certain parts of the city have recycling bins, but it needs to be more widespread. There are other cities in our country that are more »green« than we are, but there are even more cities that are less green.

  • Are you aware that the Earth is getting more and more polluted and poisoned?

Yes, we are aware. The problem is, people care more about convenience than doing the eco-friendly thing. Being eco-friendly needs to become a way of life.

  • Do you also collect plastic bottles and bottle caps?

Many of us recycle those things. Sometimes we use them in art projects, too.

  • Do you grow organic food ?

Some people grow organic food in gardens, and there are many organic farms, but they are small farms. The big factory farms that supply most of the food for our country are not organic.

  • Are you nature-friendly ?

Yes, at least our class is.

  • Do you separate trash-plastic,glass…?

Some people do but not everyone.

  • How do you separate garbage?

We have single-stream recycling, so anything that can be recycled (bottles, cans, paper, etc.) can all be put in the same bin.

  • Do you pollute the Earth?

Yes, but we’re trying to be better about not polluting.

Grafike učencev OŠ Bičevje, ki so bile poslane učencem šole v ZDA

QUESTIONS ABOUT SCHOOL

  • When do you start your school year?

Early September. We finish the school year in mid-June.

  • Does your school employ extra teachers who offer you additional help with school subjects or problems?

Yes, there are aids who help students with Math and English mostly.

  • Do you have good meals at school?

Not really! The food isn’t very good.

  • Which are your favourite school subjects ?

Art!

  • Is your school on the countryside or in town?

It’s in a town. Fairfax is a suburban town in northern Virginia, about 40 minutes outside of Washington, DC (our nation’s capitol). Washington, DC is where President Obama lives! Many of the families who live in this area are here because a parent is in the military, or because they work for the government.

  • Do you have morning gym classes?

It depends on your schedule, but yes, gym is offered in the morning.

  • Have you got any meals at school? What kind?

Yes, breakfast and lunch are available in the cafeteria daily. Students buy the food prepared by the »lunch ladies« or bring lunch from home.

  • Which languages do you study besides English?

It is optional for 8th graders to take a language (Latin, Italian, French, Spanish). Languages are not offered to 7th graders. Some elementary (K-6) schools offer languages but not all.

  • Do you also have school classes in the afternoon?

We are in school from 7:25am-2:20pm Monday through Friday. There are many clubs offered after school most days.

  • Do you have a lot of homework?

It depends on what classes you are in and what teachers you have.

  • Do you like your school?

Yes!

  • Is school fun for you?

Yes, but it depends on the classes, the teachers, and the individual students!

  • What time does your school start in the morning?

7:25am

  • How many school classes do you have per day (maximum how many hours?)

Each student has 7 classes per day, and each class meets for 54 minutes. Lunch is 30 minutes long. The bell rings after each period, and students walk to their next class in a different classroom. A sample schedule would be: Orchestra, Math, English, Art, Lunch, Science, History, P.E. (gym). Each subject is taught by a different teacher.

  • Can you describe your school?

Old, big, crowded, intense work.

  • How do you go to school?

Some people take the school bus, some walk, and some get dropped off by parents.

  • Are your teachers annoying?

Some are (not Ms. Morgan)

  • Please,describe your school time-table.

Classes are about 50 minutes long, but 5th period is an hour. There is a 4 minute break between each class. Lunch is 30 minutes long. There are 7 periods in a day.

  • Which subjects have you got?

Everyone takes English, Math, History, Science, and PE (gym), and they choose two other »elective« classes from the following list: chorus, band, orchestra, art, teen living (cooking and sewing), tech explorations (wood shop), computer solutions, and creative writing.

  • What school rules do you have?

You must have a pass to be in the hallways during class, no phones, no vandalism, no bullying, no being rude to teachers.

  • What kind of punishments do you get for disobeying the rules?

Lunch detention, in-school suspension, after-school detention, phone call to parents.

  • Have you got any extra or free timeactivities at your school?

There are many after school activities.

  • What would you change at your school?

More time between classes, and start school later in the morning. Smaller amount of homework.

  • What are school classes like at your schools?
  • Do you annoy your teachers?

Yes. For example, one student just put tape on his eyebrow and pulled it off, taking hairs with it. He gave it to Ms. Morgan as a present. Only four students in the class said they don’t think they ever annoy teachers.

  • Is your school big?

It’s pretty big for a middle school. There are only two grades (7 and 8), but we have about 1,080 students. Students come from a number of different elementary schools.

  • Have you got the good computers at school?

We have pretty good computers. They are Windows computers. We have laptop carts that teachers can sign out, and two computer labs.

  • Do you like going to school?

17 people in our class say they like school or think it’s okay.

  • Do you wear uniforms at school?

Only for gym.

Grafike učencev iz šole ZDA, ki so bile poslane učencem naše šole

GENERAL QUESTIONS

  • What kind of food do you eat?

We have many kinds of food available, from Asian to Italian to Mexican, and everything in between. Grocery stores and restaurants have an assortment of food ranging in all cuisines.

  • What are your towns, cities and villages like?

In northern Virginia, our towns are comfortable but packed full of people. More people move here all the time. Our cities are mainly business buildings and restaurants. We don’t really have any villages in this area.

  • Would you like to do something for a better world?

Yes, and in our art class, we have been doing recycling art projects and using recycled materials in our projects.

  • Which is the biggest store that you have in the USA?

We have many large retail stores such as Wal-Mart, Target, Safeway, Giant, and Costco; and many clothing stores like Macy’s, JCPenney, and other places like that.

  • Do you live in a houses or a flat?

One student in our class lives in a flat (everyone else is in a house), but many have lived in flats before. Ms. Morgan lives in a duplex, which is a house divided in two with two different families.

  • Where would you prefer to live; in the countryside or in a city?

16 students would prefer to live in the countryside, and 8 in the city.

  • Do you eat a lot of junk food?

The average American does; the students in our class do occasionally. Junk food is widely available and some people eat a lot of it, others don’t.

  • Does it rain a lot in your country?

The USA is very big with many different climates, but in Virginia it rains occasionally for a couple of days in a row, and then it’s sunny for many days. In the summer, it rains less and it is 90 to 100 degrees (Fehrenheit); in the winter, it rains more and snows sometimes, and the temperature varies between 30 to 40 degrees F.

  • Have you ever been to Europe?

7 people in our class have visited Europe, and 2 lived there for some time.

Grafike učencev iz šole ZDA, ki so bile poslane učencem naše šole

1 serious and 1 fun thing they learnt on their pals from the creation they received from them

  • How to be eco and have fun at the same time.
  • That they are also interested in saving the Earth.
  • You don’t have to be talented to express yourself.
  • Rather reuse than throw away.
  • One can express a lot through a piece of art.
  • We must all take care of the Earth.
  • We must recycle as much as possible.
  • The world faces the economy crises, why should we afford the ecology crises as well?
  • I learnt that everyone is capable of »learning« to be eco-friendly.
  • I learnt that every tiny thing helps to make a better tomorrow.
  • That many of them are talented.
  • I learnt to find out messages from work of arts which was not always easy.
  • That I should take care of the woods because they are very important.
  • That we can create wonderful pieces of art from old magazines, newspapers, cloths…
  • That we must be very precise when we do the prints and choose their titles.
  • We must respect the nature and keep the environment clean and recycle things.
  • To use things and not to destroy them.

If students from the other country were to visit your country, to which places your students would want to bring them? And why?

  • I would take them to Bled because it’s very beautiful there.
  • Bled. Because of the typical tasty sweet and the beautiful island.
  • To Postojna Cave-the most beautiful cave in Slovenia.
  • Kranjska gora-skiing.
  • Ljubljana.
  • To a museum to learn a bit of our culture and history.
  • I’d take them to BTC centre (shopping mall),because I think that we don’t have the same variety of clothes.
  • I’d show them our school and let them meet my classmates to see who they were writing to.
  • I’d like to take them to the banks of our beautiful green rivers.
  • I’d take them to the Ljubljana Castle or Šmarna gora.
  • To see The Three Bridges of Ljubljana.
  • Portorož, Bled, Murska Sobota, Ljubljana, Maribor, Kranjska gora because they are beautiful places and this is Slovenia.
  • To the city center to have fun.
  • Bohinj or Bled, definitely the Gorenjska area.
  • We would have a boat ride on the lake Bled or I’d take them to the seaside to Piran They are the most beautiful places for tourists.
  • I’d show them the old town parts of Ljubljana and take them to the ski slopes.
  • To Dolenjska area,because of the beautiful nature.

What do your students think about this first exchange?

  • Fun
  • Very interesting.
  • So,so.
  • Good, sometimes a bit boring.
  • Very interesting to exchange with a school that is far away from us and we learnt a lot from that experience.
  • I liked everything.
  • I liked it but was not my favourite technique that we used. We might do it again in some other technique.
  • It’s a very good way of getting to know each other.
  • I liked the project because it helped me to learn to have a better attitude towards nature.
  • I’m very positive about it. It’s good to have the opportunity to exchange with such distant countries and meet new people.
  • It was great, sometimes a bit tiring.
  • Fantastic. Unfortunately not always enough time to think more about the ideas and sometimes not enough time to finish the drawings.
  • I liked it because we learnt some new things about another country.

What can be done better next time?

  • If more countries were included.
  • That the students would be of the same age,not younger.
  • We should be more creative.
  • That students could talk directly and decide upon the exchange among them.
  • My schoolmates should try better. I think that the Americans showed more imagination and were more creative while my friends mostly drew the Earth and trash.
  • It would be better if the drawings could exchange faster and make new ones faster as well.
  • More time, less limitations in topics.
  • I liked it as it was.

What would make this exchange more fun?

  • More students from different grades included in the project.
  • That we would travel to the USA.
  • That each student would do something different.
  • To use computers.
  • To take it less serious and more relaxing.
  • To learn more about their way of life and not just ecology problems.
  • That we could go to the USA and they could come to Slovenia.
  • Students should have the chance to communicate on Skype or Team speak and might do some other things together.
  • I think it was perfect as it was.
  • I’d prefer group work and we could make posters.
  • If I could meet these students.

Are you willing to participate to another exchange, with the same school, with another one?

  • Yes, we would like to continue the exchange with the same school.
  • I’d like to continue the exchange with the same school very much.
  • I’d love to.
  • Of course.
  • No.
  • Why not?
  • Maybe we could try with other schools as well.
  • I would exchange with another school, to get familiar with them as well and to learn their way of thinking and what they have to tell us.
  • Yes, if we could communicate directly.
  • I’d like to have the possibility to get to know some other schools as well.

When would you like this exchange to happen?

  • As soon as possible.

Grafika učencev iz šole v ZDA, ki so bile poslane učencem naše šole