Germany Mobility
Richard-Grundschule
(Germany-Berlin)
08-14 March
2025
Embracing Diversity: A Journey of Understanding and Acceptance
The first travel activity
in Berlin had a focus on intercultural learning and migration. That focus was
chosen, because Richard-School is located in a very diverse neighborhood, that
means here you can meet people who have their roots in many places, who speak
many languages and who have many different cultures and lifestyles.
Before traveling the students had to fill out
application forms and they made short videos to introduce themselves and to
talk about their motivation to take part in the project. That made it possible
to match the hosts and guests. For the whole project the students will stay in
host families, to learn about daily life in the families of their hosts.
All students from Richard School were in
5th grade, while the partner schools participants in 7th
grade, so most of the students were in the age of 11 or 12 years.
On Sunday, March 9th, parents, children and team
welcomed the first guests from Italy and Turkey at the airport. The Lithuanian
children and their teachers arrived by bus the next morning.
Monday,
March 10th:
Once they
arrived at the Richard School, the children and the teachers first attended
lessons and familiarised themselves with everyday life. During that time they
already introduced themselves in the different classes, the teachers took part
for example in English lessons and Class 3a had an English lesson with a
Teacher from Istanbul.
This was
followed by warm up activities and by rally to explore the Richard School. The
participants had to create internationals teams and cooperate in solving the
tasks. The focus was on languages, culture, facts about and orientation in the school. One of the task was for example
to find out, what Good morning means in as many languages as possible. They
also socialised in the schoolyard and on the sports field. Finally, the Lithuanian
guests got to know their host parents and went home for the week.
Tuesday,
March 11th:
After
taking part in one or two lessons, the participants started with the
presentations, they prepared before leaving. Each school had prepared a
cultural desk, a presentation about their school, their country and about migration
in their country. In between the results of the workshops and activities were
written on posters and of course we had different activities as music and dance
together.
The program
ended after lunch, so the host families had the opportunity to do activities
with their guests. So they went ice skating, sightseeing, to the cinema,
museums, the Berlin Wall, cooked together and did lots of other things. Before some
guests took part in regular sport lessons.
Wednesday, March 12th:
After
taking part in lessons in the morning, we continued our presentations and the
workshops on diversity. A main task create collaborative posters about
diversity. The planned acting out was cancelled, because the teacher team was
convinced, that the students would get more profit by other common activities.
In the
afternoon the whole group visited the Reichstag, the German parliament and the
Brandenburger Tor. So the guests got in touch with the history of Berlin (via audio
guide and short introduction by the German team).
A real highlight was the dinner in the school and in the café, to which all the
host families contributed with many
delicious treats.
Thursday,
March 13th:
The morning
was reserved for learning about Berlins history – particularly about the
history of the Berlin Wall. The trip started at the Memorial in Bernauer
Strasse. After a brief introduction by a
German teacher, the students and teachers
had time to discover the Memorial by their own. The second part of the
tour was the famous East Side Gallery.
After lunch
break the students finished their posters, we did the last common activities
and started the evaluation of the project. Before saying goodbye to Richard
School all the participants received their certificates by Headmaster Dr.
Alexandra Wagner. After that the students enjoyed the last Evening in their
host families.
Friday,
March 14th:
Travel day,
the teams had individual departures. Lithuanian team left very early, while the
Turkish team had time to say Goodbye in school and the Italian team took part
in some more lessons and sport activities, before going to the airport.
The teachers who took part in the project used the time (for example, when students were in classes or during lunchbreak) for sharing experiences, planning the activities and for Q&A with special need teachers, class teachers and headmasters. During the whole activity the program was evaluated and adjusted, if necessary, to make sure, that all participants get as much out of it as possible and feel comfortable.
Migration in Germany Presentation
Migration in Italy Presentation