martes, 1 de mayo de 2018

Course in Kalamata (Grecia)

MY GREEK ADVENTURE

Our impression of the course!

Hi everyone! My name is Patricio Vega and I am a Spanish Secondary teacher working in a mainstream high school located in Zamora, Spain, called “Claudio Moyano”.
Last year, my colleagues from Orientation Department Laura Cárdenas, Paqui Álvarez and me, we decided to join a very interesting Erasmus+ Project called “Babelia”, carried out by our colleague Avelino Prieto. Inside this big project we decided to enroll an Erasmus+ Program titled “Special needs education: a step-by-step approach”, and located at the south Greek town of Kalamata, in the Peloponeso peninsula, from 15th to 21th April 2018.

Once in Kalamata, we met more than thirty teachers from other European countries like Madeira (Portugal), Romania, Bulgaria, Germany, Belgium, Croatia, Finland… All of them were really friendly and we had a great time talking to them and sharing our teaching and cultural knowledge and experiences.
From my point of view, this course has been really enriching and useful for me because it has helped me to learn and understand a lot about special needs education and make contact with real examples of this kind of education.

By means of two very interesting visits to a Primary school and a Special Needs school, I could realize the hard but nice task of the teachers who work there.
I must add that our teachers and managers of the course (Iannis, Thodoris, Calliope, Vina, etc.) have been really warm, friendly and attentive during all the time we have spent here in the beautiful town of Kalamata.

The visit to a 10th Primary school  of Kalamata

Our guide was Vina, one of the Primary teachers and also participant in the course…I liked very much the brand new building, the modern facilities, the wide spaces and classrooms, the happiness of students and teachers and above all the library project, very interesting according to my opinion. 

The visit to a Special Education School

We had the opportunity to visit a Special Education School on Friday 20th, and I loved the experience because I had never been to a school like this before. The school staff, like our teacher Calliope, were really warm and friendly with us in the guide visit. They introduced us to some students with different disabilities related to movement, mind, affection… The kids seemed to be very happy and useful, and they learn a lot.

Walking in Kalamata

I loved discovering this beautiful town, similar in size to my hometown (Zamora): the old downtown, with its narrow streets and amazing Byzantine cathedral and rest of churches and temples, the colourful restaurants area, and of course the sunny, joyful beach and port area.

The Ancient Messini

I was shocked by the beautifulness and wideness of the site of Ancient Messini, located around an hour bus trip from Kalamata. We could visit and admire an ancient Greek complex with its amphitheatre, different temples, a huge circus… and its own bank! Most of the remains were very well conserved. Besides that, the sunny weather and a highschool theatre play (“Lysistrata” from Aristofanes, in Greek!) were perfect addings to our visit. Finally, we had a great lunch of typical Greek dishes at a cosy restaurant with awesome views on the archeological site.
Ancient Messini

Our view of the Greek food culture

KalamataAs delicious, healthy and amazing as Spanish! We tasted and enjoyed a lot of different dishes and specialities, like “tzatziki” (spicy cucumber cream), Feta cheese cooked in many ways (fresh, grilled, mixed with other ingredients…), Talagani cheese, Saganaki cheese, “moussaka” (vegetable lasagna), “souvlaki” (roast meat), plenty of salads with the famous Kalamata black olives, chicken and pork prepared also in many ways, and a huge range of tasty desserts, like Baklava (small honey and almond cakes), Kataifi (delicious cake made of puff pastry and cream), Galaktobureko (made of milk and puff pastry), … And of course the very famous Greek white wines! I think I gained a lot of kilos eating there!

Patricio Vega
More photos...

MI GRAN AVENTURA (en español)