MEDIATION TRAININGS ("COMMUNICATION LEADS TO FORGIVENESS")

Between the 21st and the 24th of September our school hosted a guest from Bournemouth, England. His name is Paul Kus and he works as a Relationships Coordinator in Portchester School for Boys in Bournemouth. He came to our school in order to share his experience in dealing with relationship problems within school. During these 4 days he worked with students and teachers to train them in " peer mediation". All students' trainings had a theoretical part and a practical one, since they had the chance to actually act it out.

On the first day he trained 10 of the 12-graders.




On the second day it was the 11-graders' turn to learn about peer mediation.












On the last day of working with students, he trained the 10-graders, and, as a general observation, Mr. Kus was truly impressed by the good level of English of the students who took part in the three days of training.














On Thursday he met and trained teachers and managers from the school, as well as the English school inspector and 3 school counsellors.














The school manager was presented a certificate on behalf of Portchester School, which "extends the hand of friendship to Tudor Arghezi highschool". This certificate will be displayed in the International collaboration corner in the school.














Every day, after the training was over, he was shown around the city, with some of its main objectives (the Nicolae Romanescu Park, the University, the National Theater, the Mihai Viteazul square), and all the positive aspects of his short stay in Craiova made him want to come back again. We would be happy to see you again, Mr. Kus!

IS THERE ANYONE HEARING ME?

Beginning with the 2008-2009 school year, "Tudor Arghezi" has been involved in a Comenius project, called " Is there anyone hearing me?", and which is mainly concerned with ecology and environmental issues. Five other countries are involved in this project: Turkey, Spain, Bulgaria, Poland and Greece.
The aim of this project is to increase people's awareness on the existence of serious environmental issues, and by getting involved in the project activities, to let the young generation struggle for their world and their future.
The different stages of this project took place in Turkey in October 2008 and in Spain in March 2009. Mrs Cristina Rotaru, who is a member of the English Department teaching staff, took part in both project visits and shared her experiences with her fellow teachers and helped implement coherent measures.

WORLD CITIZENSHIP

For the past 3 years, students in our school have been involved in a partnership with AIESEC. It is an international platform for young people to discover and develop their leadership potential.
AIESEC Craiova was the second Romanian local committee to be founded in 1991, and since then it has been offering students the opportunity to experience team work and to develop their business skills, by getting them involved in the various interesting projects in designs, such as: World citizenship, Learn to change the future or Sustainability challenge.
World Citizenship is a project which addresses local high school students. The aim of the project is to develop non formal education by offering a wide range of trainings held by foreign trainees.
" Craiova around the world" took place on the 16th of May in Mihai Viteazul Square and consisted of Global Village, "I'm a world citizen" campaign and a human world map. The students in our school were assigned the European continent, which they were supposed to cover under all aspects: art, sports, music, cuisine, literature, history and science. Their effort was rewarded the first prize and students were congratulated on by the mayor himself.

AMERICAN PRESIDENTS' DAY

Each year, February is for the American people a month of remembrance, since they commemorate Presidents' Day. Taking into account their interest in American history, students in our school celebrated this day as well, by means of a demonstrative class held by Ms Oana Popescu on the 16th of February 2009. They learnt who the most famous 10 American presidents are and what the ruler of the largest state in the world does.

INDIVIDUAL TRAINING IN BOURNEMOUTH

The European Union finances training courses for teachers in different European countries in order to improve teaching systems. One of the beneficiaries of such training sessions is Ms Oana Popescu. She was granted a two-week training in Bournemouth, England, between March 22nd and April 3rd 2009.

BOOK EXHIBITION

On the occasion of the National Day of Romania in 2007, all departments organised an exhibition in the main hall of the school. It consisted of a selection of books written by the very teachers of our school, among which the one written by Mrs Daniela Florescu, entitled " Multiple Choice Tests". The purpose of this exhibition was to show that the members of our staff have gone beyond being mere teachers and challenged themselves by entering the world of writing.

ENGLISH DEPARTMENT MAGAZINE

It has been decided that, starting from the academic year 2008-2009, the English Department publish a yearly magazine. Elaborated with the kind collaboration of both teachers and students, the first issue of this magazine contains articles related to the activities of the members of the English Department, with pictures to support them, as well as original pieces of writing belonging to our students.

SAINT VALENTINE'S DAY

Love is eternal, but the ways of showing it have changed in time. Whereas in Shakespeare's days, Romeo and Juliet used to express their love in a profusion of romantic words, 2009 lovers are somehow more up-dated, as you can see in the pictures. They show modern versions of the well-known "balcony scene".

USE ENERGY, NOT ALCOHOL-AN AWARENESS CAMPAIGN

Though facing a challenging time, 10-graders in our school are fully aware of the negative effects of drinking. This is why they took part in a nation-wide campaign with a poster, a calendar and a video, all conveying the students' message about this phenomenon.