Visit in Thessaloniki

It was a great pleasurw to have all our partners in Greece this March! Ninety five students and teachers visited Thessaloniki from 22 March till 26 March and Athens from 26 March till 29 March 2015 according to our timetable.

On March the 23rd the students and teachers of our MAGIC Comenius project visited the City Hall. The vice mayor welcomed the teams to the city. They then visited the Archeological Museum of Thessaloniki and the Museum of Byzantine Culture of Thessaloniki where they had the chance to take part into a play role game and present their findings. After lunch, we all gathered to the conference room of the University of Macedonia where students participated in our first workshop when students presented theme 4: "Media bias".

The next day the students and the teachers took part into play role game in Thessaloniki. The activities were organised by Dot2Dot. All teams visited the church of Saint Demetrios, the ancient forum of Thessaloniki and the Bey Hamam. After lunch we again had our workshops in the University of Macedonia.They formed three grouos:

• Group A: Engaging in Causes Via ‘Hashtag Activism’
• Group B: News from Russia, Pakistan and China
• Group C: Challenging Hate Online

All groups members collaborated, discussed their topics and came up with ideas and proposals according to their approach. They then presented their ideas to the rest of the teams.

On Wednesday 25th of March the students and teachers were guided into the city centre. They visited the old byzantine and ottoman monuments of Thessaloniki and had their last workshop.

On Thursday 26th of March the students and teachers visited our school. Our head mistress welcomed the teams and the students had the chance to play basket ball in our school's playground and leave their message on a wall. After that all teams returned to the hotel, went to the airport and took our flight to Athens. Another great part of our visit in Greece had begun!

Workshops

Today, Sunday 22 March 2015, is the day that commences the third study visit of our MAGIC Comenius project. Students and teachers from Germany, Greece, the Netherlands, Norway, Slovakia, Slovenia and Spain are meeting in Thessaloniki, Greece.

Our team has worked hard to prepare this third study visit and our timetable is available for you to read. During these days we are going to take part to three different workshops about media. The workshops will take place at the University of Macedonia.

23 March, 1st workshop: Country presentations about theme 4: "Media bias". Students will present their findings about media bias.

24 March, 2nd workshop: Students are going to form three groups. You may find the groups members at this spreadsheet. For this day's workshop teams will work these lesson plans:

• Group A: Engaging in Causes Via ‘Hashtag Activism’
• Group B: News from Russia, Pakistan and China
• Group C: Challenging Hate Online

All groups members will need to collaborate, discuss their topics and come up with ideas and proposals according to their approach. They then have to present their ideas to the rest of the teams.

25 March, 3rd workshop: Students will fill a digital story telling questionnaire about mass media. They will then work in their three groups according to this plan.

Thessaloniki Cinema Museum

Today the Comenius team visited the Thessaloniki Cinema Museum. Students participated in an interesting educational workshop about the history of the moving image and the Greek cinema.

Students had the chance to hear about the history of the world cinematography, watch a 3D movie about the cinema, watch and hear about important actors, directors and films in the Greek and international filmography.

Finally the students entered the world of filming in a special studio where they wrote their script, shared parts and used the cinema camera to produce their short film. That was the most fun part of the visit!

Finally we all had the chance for a short walk in the port of Thessaloniki!

Workshops in Tilburg!

One of the most interesting parts of our visit were the three workshops organised by our Dutch partners. One of them was about the presentation of the French mockumentary by director William Karel which originally aired on Arte in 2002 with the title Opération Lune. The basic premise for the film is the theory that the television footage from the Apollo 11 Moon landing was faked and actually recorded in a studio by the CIA with help from director Stanley Kubrick. It features some surprising guest appearances, most notably by Donald Rumsfeld, Dr. Henry Kissinger, Alexander Haig, Vernon Walters, Buzz Aldrin and Stanley Kubrick's widow, Christiane Kubrick.

The Dark Side of the Moon

While in Tilburg the Comenius teams followed three interesting workshops. One of them was about the "Dark Side of the Moon", the  French mockumentary by director William Karel which originally aired on Arte in 2002 with the title Opération Lune. The basic premise for the film is the theory that the television footage from the Apollo 11 Moon landing was faked and actually recorded in a studio by the CIA with help from director Stanley Kubrick. It features some surprising guest appearances, most notably by Donald Rumsfeld, Dr. Henry Kissinger, Alexander Haig, Vernon Walters, Buzz Aldrin and Stanley Kubrick's widow, Christiane Kubrick.

While watching the documentaire students were invited to complete a work sheet and reflect on what they watched.