Feed-back from the students and teachers ERASMUS + Project ‘’Animal integration in the educational programme’’ ZORO Project Scoala Gimnaziala Asau, Romania Feed-back from the students and teachers

Feed-back from the interpretation of students’ questionnaires During the first year of project, a number of 30 students took part in the following activities: Visit to the vet Visit to the homeless dogs’ shelter Trip to the annual event organised by the AAT Organizations and University Babes Bolyai, Cluj Trip and activities to the Equestrian sport center ’ Decebal’’ from Hemeiusi Classroom activities

All the children have had previous experiences with animals as they have their own pets, so they react well to the presence of animals and are fond of them The activities performed during the project were different from day to day classroom activities. As they represented a new approach for learning in our school, they were welcomed by students who benefit from the project and they willingly and happily participated to them They trained fine motor skill by brushing a dog at the vet ad rubbing the horse at the equestrian center They learned about signs of stress of dogs by observing the animals at the dog shelter They enjoyed the contact with trained animals at the AAT organizations, Cluj They practised their skills with animals in classroom- a rabbit, a dog and a turtle

Improvements and progress From the observation of sheets for students we registered the following; The signs of progress were mainly seen at the level of behavior and communication with the teacher and peers. The students wish to take part to the activities, they became more active in class and outside it and their self-esteem raised as they found something where they can prove their usefulness and were they are really involved. At the level of academic skills(reading, writing, Maths) there were slight improvements and we think that by implementing activities with animals in school regularly , the improvements of academic skills will be more and more obvious.

Students’ appreciations Paul, aged 11; ‘’teacher, I’d rather do this kind of activities with animals every day- it’ s more interesting’ Diana, aged 13- ‘’I like this kind of school activities, I’d like to take part to them again’’ Daniel, aged 11- ‘’I think my classmates envy me for being here, working with animals’’ Amira, aged 9- it’s unusual to see animals in school, but I like it. When shall we meet again’’

Feed-back from the analysis of teachers’ questionnaires The respondents were 26 teachers from our school respectively 4 teachers for the kindergarten, 8 teachers from the primary school and 15 teachers from the lower secondary school. They participated in the activities as it follows; -17 teachers took part to all three workshops within the project I the first year 2 teachers took part in two workshops and 7 teachers took part just in one workshop. 10 teachers took part to activities with children outside school- visit to the vet, visit to the dog shelter, trip to the event for organizations dealing with AAT from Cluj, trip and activities at the horse facility center 7 teachers implemented activities with animals in class 5 teachers organized dissemination activities and 26 teachers took part to the dissemination in school, 30 students ad 15 teachers outside our school, from partner school in the area.

FEED-BACK FROM TEACHERS The activities with teachers performed during the workshops were very useful for our staff to get informed with the requirements of this method. They have never used the method in our school and therefore they had the opportunity to learn and develop professionally in this respect. As they have practised the method experimentally so far, the discussions with them had the role to construct the knowledge step by step and to see what are the good and weak aspects when working with animals. The conclusion drawn from the feed-back offered by teachers through the result of questionnaires was that the activities with animals in classroom have to be implemented on a regular basis and to be carefully planned on units, in order to meet the students’ needs.