Highlights of the students of the third Erasmus+ Mobility at Geschwister-Scholl-Schule in Gütersloh, Germany
Hallo and Hello!
Our third students’ Erasmus+ Mobility in our project Be A.C.T.I.V.E., Be Happy! (Project Number: 2020-1-DE03-KA229-077137-2) took place from 18th to 24th September, 2022. After being in Croatia and Sweden, the German students were very excited to be in the position of the hosts at Geschwister-Scholl-Schule (GSS) in Gütersloh, Germany, this time. They made our international guests feeling comfortable and having a great time. All students – international and German – intensified their friendships, improved their English language skills and cultural skills. Our project’s main goal was Action in the Community this time, so we had numerous voluntary activities and got to know how to volunteer with the help of an app. The Erasmus+ team of GSS – Frau Tenge-Rietberg, Frau Ludger, Herr Cinar und Herr Kielgast – managed this Mobility. Below, you can see all students first and after that the students present their experiences day by day.
Our European guests were from Lithuania 🇱🇹, Sweden 🇸🇪, Spain 🇪🇸, Croatia 🇭🇷 and Turkey 🇹🇷!
Sunday, 18th September, 2022
The international students arrived at the train station in Gütersloh, Germany. The German hosts picked up their guest and had time of relaxation in the host families after the long travel of the international students.
Monday, 19th September, 2022
On Monday, we met each other for the first time in the big group with all international and German students in the Erasmus+ room at Geschwister-Scholl-Schule (GSS). We enjoyed the funny ice-breaker games in the beginning. It helped us to get to know each other better. After that, the German students gave a tour of the school to the international students. For lots of international students, the GSS is bigger than their school at home. They were impressed by the size and said that they will remember this for the rest of their lives. Then, we had a Meet’n’Greet with other German students and teachers. It was nice to be warmly welcomed by more German people. Next, we had a workshop on board games where we had a lot fun. We had delicious
lunch in the cafeteria at GSS where we had time to get to know each other better by talking while we were sitting and eating. In the afternoon, we went to the city Gütersloh by bus and explored the city with the app Biparcours. We had to walk around a lot and took funny photos of our teams in front of local places. In the evening, we were at the homes of the hosts and had nice talks together.
Tuesday, 20th September, 2022
At first, we met in the Erasmus+ room at GSS with all students. We had a workshop on the app VoluMap. It was invented in the cities Gütersloh and Bielefeld, which is a city close to Gütersloh. VoluMap is an app where you can join an event to voluntarily help people locally around you. We got to know the events called German Red Cross, Soup Kitchen, Public Library, Social Media, School without Racism and School Paramedics. But then, we brainstormed for a new volunteer event. As a result, we created the event Trash’n’Smash for the VoluMap-App. We got help from Dr Simon Jegelka and his team. Simon is the co-founder of the company VoluMap. Now we know, how to work with the app VoluMap: We don’t only know how to participate in events but we do also know how to create own events in this app – that’s pretty cool. So, we were prepared for being active in the community voluntarily for Thursday afternoon.
After the workshop, we went to the bathhouse Welle, where we had a lot of fun. We liked the swimming, especially in the wave pool, going down the slides and throwing a ball to each other in the water. We spent a lot of time being active together. It was a fantastic experience.
Wednesday, 21st September, 2022
On Wednesday, we met at the train station in Gütersloh and took the train to Bielefeld. There, we went uphill to the beautiful Castle Sparrenburg where we had a good view over the wonderful city Bielefeld while we were having a picnic lunch. After that, we hiked down- and uphill to the animal park Olderdissen and saw many animals like deers, ferrets, donkeys and wolves. The hiking was a bit hard but is was good for our physical health. Enjoying the view and looking at the animals made us smile because the animals were very cute – so, it was good for our mental health, too. Later, we walked to the Dr Oetker World Bielefeld where we had a guided tour, tasted delicious pudding and pizza, saw a video about the story of Dr Oetker and marveled at historical exhibits. In the early evening, we had one hour for free time that we spent on shopping in the city Bielefeld. That’s always great fun. In the evening we were tired and slept very well.
Thursday, 22nd September, 2022
The host students participated in their lessons at school but the guests visited the local company Miele which is close to the Geschwister-Scholl-Schule. Two women showed us how Miele’s business grew up and what fantastic inventions they built, for example the washing machine, dryer, vacuum cleaner and stove. One hour later, we visited the factory. A man presented us how they make the diferents products they have. It was an interesting morning.
At 2 p. m. we started our events for Action in the Community with the help of VoluMap. We prepared this voluntary work last Tuesday. So, everyone took part in the event that he or she wanted to: Trash’n’Smash, German Red Cross, Soup Kitchen, Public Library, Social Media, School without Racism or School Paramedics. So, we tidied up the school yard for feeling better when we spend time there, we learnt how to put someone into the stable side position and how to put on bandages, we cut vegetables for preparing meals for hundreds of people that don’t have enough money to buy food themselves (See newspaper article below and for even more information click here), we learnt how to beautify something that is made out of the material of books in the public library, we made a short video about our voluntary events for our project’s main goal Action in the Community (see video below), we learnt how students at GSS work for living in a community without racism and we learnt how students at GSS work as paramedics. At the end, we got the Hero Passport from the German Erasmus+ Team of GSS for our voluntary work (see photo below). It is a fantastic esteem for our effort that we put in the work.
At 5.30 p. m. we had a big barbecue party with good music on the school yard. We ate delicious food, played indoor and outdoor games, danced, laughed a lot and talked to as many people as we could. The Mayor Norbert „Nobby“ Morkes joined our party. That was pretty cool. We all signed the Mobility Charta on the wall in a free time room at GSS (see photo below). The graffiti was drawn at the beginning of our Erasmus+ project Be A.C.T.I.V.E., Be Happy! when we had to stay in our countries due to the pandemic situation. Here you can read a bit more about the visit of Nobby and Frau Somma from Gütersloh tatkräftig and the Hero Passport.
All in all, it was a wonderful and satisfying day. It feels so good to help others voluntarily.
Friday, 23rd September, 2022
First, we had time to talk about all the activities that we did in this week. After that, we were seperated into internationally mixed groups again and we had to write down what we did in this week and what we liked about it. We worked on digital devices as tablets and mobile phones. So, it took us some time as we made short digital presentations for every day of the week and had to get used to the digital programmes that they use at GSS in Germany. After that, we had a pizza party and some time to play games. It was a nice ending because everyone was in a good mood when we played games. In the afternoon, we had free time that was spent with the host families.
Saturday, 24th September, 2022
On Saturday, the host families kindly took the guest students to the train station where we all had to say both goodbye and thanks that we had such a great time together.
Some students think that socializing was the best thing about the whole week. Just to get to know people from all over the EU with the help of Erasmus+. And everyone else from the Geschwister-Scholl-Schule was great. Everything was a fantastic experience which will not be forgotten. It was fun seeing the differences between our lives.
After these fantastic experiences we are looking forward to meet each other again in Turkey in November 2022.
Auf Wiedersehen! Goodbye!
Yours,
international and German students and teachers of the Erasmus+ project Be A.C.T.I.V.E., Be Happy!
Authors:
Goda Kazlauskaite (Lithuania), Smilte Mazetyte (Lithuania), Martynas Kazlauskas (Lithuania),
Siri Vigme (Sweden), Ellie Rudolfsson (Sweden), Elias Nilson Stigmar (Sweden), Nova Jörnmo (Sweden), Stina Terp (Sweden), Mendim Zeqiraj (Sweden),
Xiomara Filigrana (Spain), Ada Soler Sanchez (Spain), Eol Serra Lanza (Spain), Queralt Tulleuda Pubill (Spain),
Sabina Rogina (Croatia), Brigita Kosic (Croatia), Zara Zagorec (Croatia), Ema Strlek (Croatia),
Nehir Akkaya (Turkey), Eylül Belma Ugur (Turkey), Ela Ertüzün (Turkey), Aysima Caliskan (Turkey),
Lijana Mustafaj (6a), Chiara Makena Beckel (6c), Sophie Käkenmeister (6c), Adam Kostysiak (7b), Anastassia Janenko-Lorenz (7c), Max Stammkötter (7c), Sophi Giesbrecht (7d), Sarah Kome Bivigou (7f), Iulian-Leonte Grigoras (8a), Ben Luca Schalück (8a), Selina Pankoke (8d), Zoe Stickling (8d), Marie Adolf (8e), Gabriel Maric (8e), Maxim Mirkowski (8e), Maria Neufeld (8e), Izabela Podolak (8e), Sara Jovanova (9a), Kristina Lamert (9a), Alman Kajo-Khalaf (9c), Saskia Maxima Kostka (9c) and
Frau Ludger (teacher at Geschwister-Scholl-Schule)
