The BraDraShip Project

Briefly

The BraDraShip project is implemented by two partnership schools – The Secondary Grammar School, Grösslingová 18, Bratislava from Slovakia and The Upper Secondary School of St. Hallvard, Drammen from Norway since February 2015.

The project is called BraDraShip which is an acronym for BRAtislava – DRAmmen – Ship and it describes cities on the same board which are eager to fight for better education through mutual sharing of tricks and practices in teaching and learning in the spirit of BROTHERSHIP (which sounds similar to BRADRASHIP).

The main goal of the BraDraShip project is to create and maintain an institutional cooperation between the partnership schools. The cooperation includes the mutual creation of new teaching aids for both scientific and social subjects, the organisation of knowledge contests and non-traditional afterschool activities, students´ cooperation on mutual assignments and the student and teacher mobility. Three teacher mobilities (two in Norway, one in Slovakia) and two students´ mobilities (30 Slovak students will visit Norway, 30 Norwegian students will visit Slovakia) will take place during this project.

Meeting the foreign students, attending the classes, getting to know the school system of both countries, and discussing their pros and cons are a great contribution for teachers and students of both schools.Teachers and students can improve their language skills, make new friends and get to know each other.

Teacher mobility

Three teacher mobilities are planned during the BraDraShip project.

The first teacher mobility will take place from the 28th of April to the 12th of May 2015. Two Slovak teachers will visit their partnership school St. Hallvard, Drammen in Norway during this mobility

During the second teacher mobility three Slovak teachers will visit St. Hallvard School in Norway from the 26th of August to 8th of September 2015.

The third teacher mobility will take place from the 29th of November 2015 to 5th of December 2015. Two Norwegian teachers will visit The Secondary Grammar School, Grösslingová 18, Bratislava.

The main aim of these teacher mobilities is the preparation of teaching aids written in English and the preparation of mobilities for students. Teachers also attend lessons of their foreign colleagues, become familiar with school systems of both countries and teaching methods.

Student mobility

Two students´ mobilities are planned during project BraDraShip.

From the 22nd of May 2015 to the 31st of May 2015 will 30 slovak studnets visit their partnership school of St. Hallvard, Drammen in Norway. The target group are students of the 12 grade, who will be choosen according to criteria connected to their participation in the project, their level of English language, representation of their school in competitions, etc.

From the 12nd of October 2015 to 19th of October 2015 will 30 norwegian students visit The Secondary Grammar school, Grösslingová in Bratislava, Slovakia. The target group are students of the 12 grade of science studies.

The main aim of student mobility will be to support the institutional cooperation between both schools. This cooperation will take form of mutual learning, discussions on various topics, participation in knowledge competitions and other activities prepared by host students (e.g. Slovak/Norwegian week).

Teaching materials

The main goal of project BraDraShip was to improve not only teaching process but also after-school activities. In order to achieve the main goal we have set up several partial goals:

– create teaching aids for both scientific and social subjects, share proved and create new methods and activities to emphasize using knowledge in real life situations,
– cooperate on assignments and tasks related to different parts of life which are attractive for our students and raise their awareness about other cultures, history and traditions of both countries.

Students in cooperation with their teachers have written these materials, as one of the project outputs. We recommend it to be used not only in English language classrooms in order to improve vocabulary and reading comprehension skills but also in other classes to extend students knowledge about the Slovak and the Norwegian history, culture, famous Slovak and Norwegian figures, and natural beauties.

You can access all teaching materials in PDF format here.

Teacher mobility in Noway no. 1

The teacher mobility took place from the 28th of April to the 12th of May 2015. It was the first one out of three planned. Monika Porkertová and Peter Wetzler from The Secondary Grammar School, Grösslingová 18, Bratislava visited the partnership school of St.Hallvard in Drammen. The teachers got to know the basic information about the school system of the partnership school. Comparing science curriculum of both schools, they chose common topics and they will be preparing worksheets for their students in English. An important part of the mobility was also planning and providing of the forthcoming mobility of the Slovak students in Norway. At the same time, the teachers were discussing different topics related to schools systems of both countries, the status of teachers in society and relations between teachers and their students.

Teacher mobility in Noway no. 2

The teacher mobility is taking place from the 26th of August to the 8th of September 2015. It is the second one out of three planned stays. Monika Porkertová, Lucia Hamráková, and Peter Wetzler from The Secondary Grammar School, Grösslingová 18, Bratislava are visiting the partnership school of St.Hallvard in Drammen. They are preparing methodical aids, attending classes of their Norwegian colleagues, and planning the October mobility of the Norwegian students in Slovakia.

The student’s view on the mobility in Norway

From March to May, you were listening to a silent grumbling about the “essays students had to write to get to Norway”. Those Gamča students who were not lazy started to work on the essays very hard. Finally, 30 Gamča students became the participants of the student mobility in Norway. They were chosen according to the essays, results of English tests, school representation, and their behaviour. Everybody who experienced the stay in Norway knew it was definitely worth it! Our hard work was negligible in comparison to what we gained…

We lived in Drammen, 40 km away from Oslo. The city was so perfect that after a few days it seemed… boring. There was no mess we are used to in our country, no litter on the streets, no shouting youngsters on a Friday night – just peaceful walks by the river, fjords, nearby parks and forests.

We did not stay only in Drammen, but also went to nearby silver mine and Oslo. Oslo is a green city; there are a lot of beautiful buildings and interesting statues wherever you look.

Our stay was not only about the trips (or enjoying the nice stay in a hotel with great food and the gym for free) but also about making friends with Norwegian students and exchanging information about the political situation, customs or historical experience. The name of the project is BraDraShip(Bra=Bratislava, Dra=Drammen) and Gamča was cooperating with the Norwegian Vocational School of St. Hallvard. We were enjoying a lot of workshops (about Maths, Culture, and Politics) in English with our Norwegian friends; broadening our horizons about Norway and vice versa (now Norwegian students know that there was no union of Slovakia and Slovenia – that is what they used to think before). We were shocked that the voter turnout is 80 %, the unemployment rate is 4%, and basically every Norwegian is proud of the country he lives in.

We played the bowling and attended a concert Norwegian students had prepared for us. We performed our Slovak traditional folk dance (thanks to Mrs.Kohanová) and played the guitar. However, we will show them our art masterpiece at OH Gamča when they come to Bratislava in October 2015.

Students reports from mobility in Norway

The students from The Secondary Grammar School Grösslingová, Bratislava visited Norway from the 22nd of May to the 31th of May 2015. You can read about the mobility in Slovak students’ own reports here.