Latvians teaching teachers

Today we had guests in school. They were English teachers from another Latvian region. Our tech experts Rainers, Igors, Anna and Adriana taught them how to make quizzes using some of the most popular tools - Kahoot, Triventy, Quizizz, Quizzy.
Teachers were really happy that students had taught them something new and useful.

Latvians perform Lean On

We have finally recorded our version of the dance which was sent to us by the Norwegian students. It was rather difficult but we managed to do it. Hope you like it!

Poetry e-book made by Latvian students

A mag created with Madmagz.

Happy easter to our Nordplusfriends!

 

Using Piccollage:)
Greatings from us in Norway and from Hjelmeland skule

Safer Internet Day 2016

On 9th February students in Aizkraukle Regional Gymnasium marked Safer Internet Day in the school with various activities focusing on online safety, cyberbullying and using social sites.
Students voted for the most popular sites depending on how often they use them. They enjoyed voting the old-fashioned way because in that way they could immediately see which sites were at the top.

No one was surprised that the top sites in the 7th grade were YouTube, WhatsApp and Instagram. Nowadays students use email only occasionally because they choose other channels to connect with their friends. None of them knew LinkedIn, as it is normally used by older people. Also Google Hangouts is not popular with young students, and Snapchat is not used widely in our schoool.

These are the results how students of the 7th grade use social sites.

Students of grades 7-10 watched videos and discussed issues connected with bad behavior online. They also wrote down their own rules how everyone should behave online.
 

Interviews with Latvian students

We interviewed students of different ages and this is what they said.

Teachers work in Norway

Project meeting that took place in Hjelmeland from 17th to 22st October let the teachers reflect on the previous work done on the project. They analysed the results of the common work and set out the aims for this year.

Teachers watched lessons in Grades 1 and 9, participated in the smart board course that was organised in the school and shared their experience in using different web applications with their students. A lot of new ideas were generated that will be tried out with students.
Teachers agreed on the necessity to involve students in common activities using online communication.

The guests were grateful to the Norwegian teachers for preparing and hosting the meeting in Hjelmeland school which was well-organised and efficient.

1st graders in Hjelmeland school using work stations

Teachers participating in NordPlus project in Hjelmeland observed a lesson with Siren and Sigrund where little students worked in stations doing Reading, Maths, English, Norwegian and Physical exercise.
Teachers saw that the kids were very good at doing the tasks on the computers. They were organised and excited to show the guests their skills.

Meeting in Aizkraukle on May 8-15, 2015

Here are a few photos of the headmaster's farewell meeting with hosts and guests before leaving for Riga on May 14.
There are so many photos that were made using our phones during the meeting but unfortunately their quality is not good enough for the website.

Below you can see the article published in Aizkraukle local newspaper about the aims, activities and outcomes of the meeting.

Reflections of Iceland

Rainers had inspiration and time to create a video about Latvians visiting Akureyri in October 2014.
Comments please!

Meeting in Akureyri - in pictures

Watch it full-screen to have better quality

Free time activities in Latvia

This is our video about free time activities that are popular among students in Aizkraukle.
The parts of the video were filmed by many members of the team, then the video was put together by Igors.

Latvian team 2014

Here we are - the students who will be working on the project this year. Icelandic students will meet four of them in the project meeting in Akureyri on October 14.
This time we used selfies!

Photovisi is a great tool but it leaves a watermark on the collage. Here is another collage made with Picture2life tool. The same selfies!

Finishing the first year

The last school month has started and soon we will all go on our summer holidays. Before we part, here is the last update about what has happened in Aizkraukle during April and May.

Latvian teachers did some learning too, not only students! Teacher Baiba taught them how to use Kahoot for game-based learning. She learned about this tool in Norway and has been using it since. Great tool, and students love it!

There was a school event in April where the students had to tell about their work and show the results of what they had done during this school year.

The main speakers for Nordplus group were Evelina, Adriana and Anna (sitting at the computer). The students showed the website and presented all the videos they had made.
















Finally, there is a new collage of our lovely group. This is how they look now. Have you already learned their names? You will meet some of them in autumn in Iceland!

Hello from Latvia!

While the teachers were at the meeting in Norway, Anna made another video presentation of their team, so watch it and get ready to meet them!





Below is a short animation about Latvia and Aizkraukle to give you a bit of an idea what we are like.

Applications are ready!

Latvian students are SERIOUSLY working on their applications for going to Iceland.
Take a look at what Igors has created - it is a video application! Do you want to meet him?

Our project on PowToon

Rainers created a cool animated video about our project. He used the tool PowToon which is very popular in the world.
Are you interested?

Turn on the sound!

Video about Aizkraukle school

Finally we finished making a video about our school! It has many faults and it is far from perfect but we are proud of the result.
Editing was done by Igors, filming was done by Kristine and Rainers, and all the others took part in discussions about the content.

Please, watch it and write comments!

Logo

One day we tried making a project logo. We think that every project should have a logo.
It was a hard task as students had never done it before. After many attempts Evelina made a logo that looked quite nice.
You can see it below.

What do you think?

Do you want to try making another logo so that we can choose the best one for the project?

Latvian team

This is the Latvian team. They are 13-14 years old and go to grade 7. Let's get acquainted!

Anna - Hi! My name is Anna, and I am 13 years old! I play volleyball and I go to art school. I really like pop and rock music! In free time I usually go out with my friends.

Rainers – Hi! My e-mail is skutani7@inbox.lv. My Skype name - rainers.skutans.

Evelina - In my free time I go to the sport and art schools, listen to music, I really love music like AC/DC, THE BEATLES, led zeppelin, and spend time with my best friend.

Roberts - Hi, I'm Roberts. I'm really into playing baseball, floorball, and swimming. I also play the piano.

Adriana - Hi , I'm Adriana . I love sports. In my free time I listen to music.

Igors - Hi! My name is Igors. I'm 13 years old and I like dogs!

Haralds - Hello! My name is Haralds and I love this project!

Kristine - Hi , my name is Kristine. I'm really into listening to the rock & dubstep music, graffiti.

Kristers - Hi everybody! I'm Kristers and I love gaming and fishing. I want to learn about other countries and other people's cultures.

Loreta - Hi, my name is Loreta. In my free time I love drawing. I also love animals.