First mobility Berlin

Six students from Elexalde High School chosen after establishing a criteria as well as the history and technology teachers arrived at Bilbao airport to start the Erasmus+ first mobility in Berlin. They met the Polish, Serbian and German students and teachers and participated of the activities on democracy  organized by the guest Tesla school in Berlin.

Our students waited for the train to get to the hostel. And finally, they arrived there, although they got a surprise, they saw snow in Berlin. Their fist contact with Berlin was  visiting a typical Christmas market of this city in the  afternoon.  After their visit , they came back to the hostel where they met the Polish and Serbian students. Their experience  started.

On the first day, our  students as well as the Polish, Serbian and German students  who participated in this first mobility had their first contact with Tesla School. They were welcomed by the two responsible of the project in Berlin, Tina Ahrendt and Johannes Kotzer. Then the students visited the two buildings of the school and all its facilities. Time to taste German food (Brustwursts) 

Students continued to get to know each other. They carried out different activities such as table games, ping pong,  card games. Once the first step was taking they continued  socialising. In each multicultural group , a German host pupil guided them to the places in the surrounding area that they liked the most or had a special meaning for them.

In the afternoon, a visit to East Side Gallery , the world´s open-air art exhibition where the largest section of the Berlin Wall is located. The students learnt about the Historical Memory of Germany, the recovery of parts of the Wall in order to prevent such a thing like that from happening again. The multicultural  groups of students were led by  teachers from the four countries .

Before dinner our students and the Serbian students organised some activities together so that they could strengthen relationships. They visited a Christmas market with a big icy rink so students had a good time together.  It was a fruitful and unforgetful experience. They met the Polish , German and Serbian students and learnt  a bit about Berlin Historical Memory.

All the students arrived at school and they were divided into different mixed groups . They were going to participate from Berlin school system in the form of "Gemeinsschaftssuchule" students dealt with the idea of democracy in class.  In tutorial classes students  learnt how to deal with class issues in a democratic way and without teachers. Everything in a quiet and relaxing atmosphere

Students continued working on the topic of democracy . They were placed in different mixed groups . They hung six words on the walls ( equality, community, personal freedom, freedom of opinion, freedom of assembly ). There was a brainstorming and all of the members of the different  groups had to speak  about them for a few minutes. This was the preparation for the second part of the session.

In the second part of the session, there were six round tables to disscuss the following topics:  black lives matters, Iranian protests, protest songs, Fridays for future, antiwar protests, street art protest. They provided students with sufficient resources to carry out the activities ( computer, questions to start the debates,  paper to brainstorming, hashttags, photographs ).

After their lunch at the school canteen, students attended extra-curriculum activities . They had different options such as anime, filming, football, theatre. Then in the afternoon,  before going to the hostel for dinner, students visited Checkpoint Charlie .  A new back to the German Historical Memory. In this second day , students learnt  to discuss about current matters democratically.

The students were placed in mixed groups from different countries and through the application ActionBound App they performed the next activity . The students had to follow this interactive  app- based on rally on democracy . Their first visit was the Memorial of German resistance. Students had to answer some questions and again they got in contact with  the German Historical Memory.

In the second part of the day , students visited the dome of the Reichstag ( The Parliament of the Federal Republic of Germany). When they visited it, there was a plenary session of the German Parliament. Students learnt the working of the German system of democracy. They could compare it with theirs and understand  the importance of the democracy in the daily life of the countries 

In the afternoon, students started their visit with  The Bradenburg Gate ,  a symbol of German division during the Cold war and near it, The Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe . Our students and Serbian ones went to  Haus Schwarzenberg  an area of street art. The students saw the art as a protest . Before getting to the hostel, they had free time to buy some souvenirs. 

 At the end of the day, the students developed and increased knowledge about German resistance in the time of National Socialism. They also increased orientation and collaboration skills. They practised teamwork. They approchead Berlin and German Historical Memory. Not only did students learn teachers also established relationships  as well .

Students met in Konigstadt Jugendkulturzentrum . It was time for them to start being active citizens and learn to claim their rights. When they arrived, they were divided into multicultural groups. They created protest banners to use in their protests. They also  prepared a speech to do after their demostrations. The speech  was on  climate change, equal rights, problems with inflation.

The students learnt how important is doing protests in democracy and how they empower citizens by showing them that there are people who think the same. Thanks to the public protests marches debate arises, they are also a vital corrective to the goverment of the majority . This activity  also developed students´creativeness and critical thinking .

After all the preparation of their speeches  and the creation of the different banners, students demostrated claiming their rights as citizens and eaach group protested for one of the topics they had been working on. They exercised their freedom of speech .They also increased the knowledge about protest forms in a democratic system.

After this rewarding day , before going to the hostel, students visited Durchsfenster Kino. They met in their hostel to talk about the different activities they had done. It was the last night together so they watched the footbal match of Serbia , so they all gathered together and why not through a football  match .

The last day of the mobility. All the works done by the students during the mobility were exhibited  in the auditoriuml of Tesla school.  Students from Tesla  school went to see what they did . Then students assesed the mobility.  There was a feedback about it. What they learnt  in those days and built their first step on being active citizens

They cooked together and they went to the bowling to say see you in Warsaw next March.

" This is the end of our trip. We enjoy a lot together and see you next in the Basque Country. Thank you for all , see you soon"

Elexalde student