Lemnos and Anzac - E-School Twinning - Linking Schools from Greece and Australia

On 23rd April 2015, our Executive Member, Christina Despoteris, addressed a local Greek school on the Lemnos Anzac story. This is a great beginning to linking schools in Australia and Greece through the study of the joint heritage of these two nations linked through Anzac.
Well done Christina.
The following article and photos are from Christina:

E-School Twinning - Linking Greece and Australia and telling the story of Lemnos and Anzac

From left to right: Dr Maria Kaskantami, Principal, 1st Junior High School, Voula; Christina Despoteris; Angeliki Methodiou, English Teacher, 1st Junior High School, Voula

"e-School Twinning" or "Voula - Melbourne: Building Bridges across Continents" is the official cultural program developed and is being implemented during the 2014-2015 school years. It is all about the partnership between two schools located on two different continents.

The first is - 1st Junior High School of Voula, a state public school located in Voula, Attica, Greece.
The second is - Alphington Grammar School, a private, independent school offering English and Greek immersion education, situated in Melbourne, Australia.
Some of the aims of this program are: that the student becomes aware of his/her cultural identity; that students familiarise themselves with a different culture -therefore broadening their horizon; create new relationships with peers and share thoughts, concerns and feelings; express themselves using a foreign language; use computer technology tools effectively; familiarise themselves with the basic concepts and rules of using on line communication and create original works - reports and videos, through working together to promote teamwork and cooperation.
The blog below (see the link below) is designed to support communication between the two schools, provide program organisation and gather and publish material produced by the students of both schools during the program. That is to say students "talk to each other" through the blog. They write stories, produce creative and artistic pieces which are uploaded and can be seen by the students of the other school. So far, the program has produced sections on "Let me introduce myself" - where students talk about their families and friends; "My City" - students talk about their respective neighbourhoods; "My school"; they created and sent "Christmas Cards" to each other and they have written about Australia and Greece. More particularly they focus on such things as National Days, 25 March and 26 January. Recently the Greek students looked at "Learning about Anzac".
I was fortunate enough to be in Athens around Anzac Day and visited the school in Voula and distributed Aussie flags to the students who are involved in this program.
The Principal, Dr Maria Kaskantami invited me to distribute the flags and maybe say a few words. I spoke to the students in Greek about the Anzac story and of course focused on the Lemnos connection to Anzac. Then I began speaking in English and was pleasantly surprised at the response. The students wanted to converse and practise their English. I was very impressed at the level of their English. They are all very enthusiastic about this program and are very interested in coming to Melbourne and meeting up with their new "e-friends".
At the 1st Junior High School of Voula, teachers responsible for the project are:

• Ioanna Gardiki, Vice Principal & ICT – teacher, responsible for the project organization and the technical part - use of web-2 tools, current blog construction.
• Angeliki Methodiou, English Teacher, responsible for the cultural English part of the project - preparation of reports, interviews, literature activities.
• Dr Maria Kaskantami, Principal, Greek Language Teacher, responsible for the cultural Greek part of the project. 
• At Alphington Grammar School the teacher responsible for the project is Toula Terezakis
• and the Principal of the school is Dr Vivianne Nikou.

Congratulations to all involved both in Athens and In Melbourne.
As a matter of fact both Dr Kaskantami and Mrs Methodiou attended Lemnos Gallipoli Commemorative Committee's event in Athens on Anzac Day at the War Museum.
Photos are of my visit to the school and Dr Kaskantami, myself and Mrs Methodiou at the War Museum.
To read about this new education initiative, click here.

Jim Claven
Secretary
Lemnos Gallipoli Commemorative Committee