All of the second and third year TTO-classes went to Germany for a school exchange on Tuesday the 6th of December. Almost 60 students and 5 teachers left Weert at 8.15 a.m. to participate in the joint school E.U. project.

At school, all of the Dutch students had been put into groups in which they would work in Monchengladbach. The third graders, who had already been there last year, still knew the German people who were in their groups. Because they’d already done the program last year, they had a slightly different program to the second graders. While the second graders had to discuss the differences and similarities between Weert and Monchengladbach, the third graders now had to discuss with their fellow students about the E.U. and the importance of it. They started the day off with a quick acquaintance to get to know each other’s views of the E.U. Once that was done, the teachers explained the second assignment of the day. The assignment included making a picture about the E.U., including a title and caption. The German school had arranged that there would be a professional photographer at the school, to help the students out. In groups, they had to discuss what they were going to make their picture about, how they were going to make it and what it meant. In between there was a break with lunch, provided by the German school. After lunch the students continued with the photo-project, and actually made the photo. When the photo was taken, they had to add the title and caption and hand it in. In the time that we had to wait for the other groups to finish, we answered questions about how the organizers could improve this project for next year. Around 2 p.m. the Dutch students left the German school and travelled back to Weert. In March the German school is coming to Weert for the second part of the assignment.

Ward Joosten

V3D