Under the sign of WATER!

Galati city - on the Danube river - Romania

2008-09-11T22:01:00.000-07:00

Galati city is a beautiful town on the river of Danube; the most important objectives are:

The existence of “Vasile Alecsandri” National High School that had only boys as students started with the first years of existence of the modern Romanian state, Associated with the changes that Al.I.Cuza made during his regency. On the 23rd of November 1867 is founded a high school for boys and the young teacher Ioan Cetatianu was named the first principal of the new school.
These days the high school is named as Vasile Alecsandri National High School and it is very prestigious because of its’ very good results that both students and teachers achieved.

The Danube’s front is one of the most representative zones of Galatz. A place of promenade for everyone, here musical concerts and sporting competitions took place frequently. It offers a high relaxation potential for people of all ages ,from little children to old people. It is almost the most populated recreation zone in Galatz.

The Eminescu Park was settled in 1869, and it is keeping some trees dating back the time of Mihai Eminescu who has been there in the last years of its life. In the park is a little artificial lake and a place where the military fanfare sustained recitals. Its fame is given by the presence of Eminescu’s statue.

The Public Garden is situated near the student’s complex and represents an appropriate zone to relax . It offers an excellent scenery of the Brates Lake and the main train station of Galatz.A walk in the public garden,where a few years ago you could play bowling and cricket,now you can see beautiful and rare flowers, dark alleys and an artesian fountain which water is carried by the wind.

In this building once lived Alexandru Ioan Cuza (the first prince of the Romanian Principalities) in 1844-1859.In 1937 the “Cuza Voda Association” is founded, which had in mind to renovate the house and transform it into a museum. The donation of teachers Ecaterina and Paul Pasa constituted the centre of the visualized exposition. On 24th January 1939 the museum Is opened. For the construction’s rehabilitation, Since 1986 the museum was closed to the public. Since 1995 it’s known as the Museum “House of Cuza Voda”.

The local History Museum was named the museum Cuza Voda, based on the V.A. Urechia and Paul and Ecaterina Pasa collections. The construction was built in 1937-1939. The history museum of Galatz was inaugurated at 24 January 1939, due to the 80th anniversary of the Romanian Principalities Union.
The Museum of History contains important traces from prehistory, ancient times, middle age as well as from the modern and contemporary epoch together with a valuable ethnographical collection from the county of Galatzi.

The Orthodox Cathedral: was built between 1906-1917, after the architectural plans of Petre Antonescu and Stefan Burcus. The construction stands out in the architectural plan of Galati ,being conceived with one dome without lateral apsides.

The Botanic Garden is included in the Complex of Nature Science and dominates the left side of the Danube. You can admire plants from tropical and subtropical zones.
The Japanese garden with the lampion, the cascade, the lake and the water lilies invite you to meditation and recreation.
On the principal axle of the garden your eyes will be delighted by the diversity of colors and shapes of the ornamenatal plants.

An important public library in the region of Down of Danube, founded in 1889, Library "V.A. Urechia" has a large number of rare books and special collections. Now is one of most modern libraries in Romania, deeply involved in changing its services towards user proper benefits based on IT.

During its’ over 50 years of activity, Galati Musical Theatre “Nae Leonard” staged tens of significant operas from the worldwide repertory, from Mozart’s “The Marriage of Figaro” to Verdi’s “Aida” or Wagner “The Flying Dutchman”.
May, 25th 2002 is a reference date in the golden book of Galati Musical Theatre: then an event of national importance took place, the first performance of an opera in the open air, in Romania: “Nabucco” by Giuseppe Verdi an exceptional achievement benefiting on the participation of over 250 artists and gathering an audience of more than 2000 spectators.

The State Theatre was established on 1 September 1955. Although there were drama, comedy, and tragedy actors, they have waited whole decades for the establishment of an institution with actors, permanent program and an adequate room. In 1973 it has been named the Dramatic Theatre and from the year 2000 – The Dramatic Theatre “Fani Tardini”.
Since the year 1976, by the initiative of headmaster Mihai, there has been organized the first comedy show in Romania, under the name of Colloquial for the art of comedy.

Presentation made by Bianca Roxana Masgras - student at "Vasile Alecsandri" High School, Galati

Romanian Educational System

2008-09-11T10:29:00.000-07:00

Romanian Educational System Categories: in Romania the education offered in the public system is free and the compulsory education is of 10 years.

The educational system is divided in the following categories:
1. pre-university education
2. university education
3. continuouse education (post-university)

1. Pre-University education
a. Pre-school education: first group, second group, third group and pre-school group (children aged 3 to 6 years).
b. Primary education: 1st to 4th grade (starting children aged 6). In the primary education the curriculum includes the following topics:
• language and communication (Romanian language and a foreign language),
• math and sciences,
• human and society (civic education, history, geography),
• arts (fine arts education, musical education),
• sports,
• technology (practical abilities and technological education),
• religion
c. Secondary education: the curriculum includes the following topics:
• Romanian language;
• foreign language (usually 2 foreign languages are studied in the secondary education in Romania, the most studied foreign languages being: English, French, German, Italian and Spanish);
• mathematics,
• physics,
• chemistry,
• biology and anatomy,
• geography,
• history,
• civic education,
• fine arts education,
• music education,
• technological education, etc.
The secondary education is divided into:
• Gymnasium (lower secondary education) – 5th to 8th grade.
• High school (upper secondary education) - 9th to 12th or 13th grade (the 13th grade is attended in the vocational high-schools). The high-schools can be:
– Theoretical (human or real section).
– Technological (technical, services, natural resources exploitation, environmental protection and so on).
– Vocational (military, technological, sportive, artistic or pedagogical).
• Professional education - 1 to 3 years - this type of education is preparing the students for a special job (e.g.: car mechanic, plumber, professional driver, etc.)
2. Superior education
Includes:
• university education (3 to 5 years) or
• post-university education :
– thoroughgoing university studies;
– master,
– post-university academic studies;
– doctoral studies;
– post-university studies for specialization or for further improvement
3. Continuous education that allows either classical training, distance training and training by correspondence.
In every city the educational system foresees the existence of "Special logopedic centers". The specialists in these centers are psychologists, pedagogs or specialists in special psycho-pedagogy) and their role is to guide the teachers in using the necessary methods for children’s language development and correction.
It is important to say that the Romanian educational law regarding the operation of these centers is referring just to the children with "difficulties in spoken language", not to all the categories of learning difficulties (including reading and writing).
Beside these centers, in every school there is a psycho-pedagogical center for educational and vocational guidance.
The teachers are divided into several categories:
- Preschool teachers - that can have medium studies (pedagogical high school) or college studies (specialization in pre-school education in an institutor’s college)
- Primary school teachers - that can have medium studies (pedagogical high school) or college studies (specialization in pre-school education in an institutor’s college)
- Teachers for the other type of formal education - these are the teachers for any of the other type of school levels.
- These teachers must have university studies in the field they are teaching and also the special psycho-pedagogical module (that can be optionally attended by any university student).
- Depending on their experience, the teachers can have different degrees (2nd degree after 4 years of activity and a series of exams, 1st degree after 8 years of activity and another series of exams).
There is no specialization for adult education teachers. Any teacher can provide adult education courses on his specialization without any other specialized training.
The responsible specialists that can assess people for reading and writing difficulties are not the teachers but the specialists that graduated a specialization in psychology (psychology, special psycho pedagogy, educational psychology, pedagogy).
As we already showed earlier when speaking about the provisions of the Romanian educational law regarding the “special educational centers”, the emphasis on reading and writing difficulties and methods and tools to overcome them is not visible.

For adult education the situation is more difficult.
Although all the training providers for adults are using special methods and tools, adapted to the adult learning styles, there are no information about the possible reading and writing difficulties that could interfere with the learning process.
The vocational training institution doesn't have testing instruments for diagnosing dyslexia or other reading and writing difficulties of adult learners before they are entering a learning process.
There are no special training offered to psychologists or educational specialist regarding the “reading and writing difficulties of adults”.
There aren’t also any special courses offered to adults having these kinds of problems.

Development of the project!

2008-09-10T08:08:00.000-07:00

1. Organize the plan work, twinspace of the project
2. Insertion of the project in the curricular activities with the possibility to begin theme-based and problem-based Didactics starting from the analysis of situations tied up with daily life.
3. Vertical development of themes with the possibility to join together the common didactic objectives of the different education levels.
4. Production of material interesting for the collectivity (elaboration of weather data, analysis of potable waters, study some parameters of water courses present on the territory)
5. Sharing and optimization of professional and technological resources (on twinnspace or blog)
6. Involvement of scholastic institutions which operate in different territorial situations: possibility to develop common didactic strategies, comparing different working methods and results.

Thematic content of the project!

2008-09-10T08:03:00.000-07:00

We propose to study water by the following points of vue:

About us (general informations about the partners: schools, pupils, teachers)
Chemistry and Physics of water: structure, chemical and physical properties, experiments
Water and territory: hydrogeological aspects
Water in literature
Water in the history
Water in art
Water and pollution
Water in economy (industrial - agricultural - domestic use)
Water in health (hygienic-sanitary use)
Water and fun (feeding Stories, anecdotes, ways to say, films)

Objectives of the project!

2008-09-10T07:54:00.000-07:00

Our main aims are:

To develop a responsible mature attitude toward water
To understand that both environment, ways of production and living conditions are in close mutual dependency
To highlight the tight relationship among water and health, physical welfare, cleaning, social welfare.
To inquire at both personal and collective level the material value of Water as resource.
Understand that water inspired works of many artists: painters, musicians, writers, architects of all ages.
Read, produce and understand brochures, various depliants, schemes, graphs, work tables using ICT tools
Scientific area objectives:
1. To know what is water and where you can find it
2. To know the natural cycle of water.
3. To know and classify local marine flora and fauna
4. To understand risks of the hydrical world
5. To explain the physical and chemical properties of water on the basis of structure
6. To make Lab experiments on different status and properties of water
7. To understand the importance of water in feeding, hygiene, and health
To recognize changes occurred in life habits comparing some aspects of actual life against that of grandfathers or great grandfathers.
To distinguish the participation of the man that negatively afflict the exploitation of waters.
To know local agencies which operate on the territory for protection of water resources
Excursions in the territory and documentation.