2. Virtual Classroom Tour - VCT

3. Name of Project: Educator(s) School School Website
Maria Demetriou Neofytou
School
Brief description of school context
Dhali C, Elementary School, Nicosia.
Situated in the greater area of Nicosia. Founded in Fully equipped.
31 teachers and 334 students distributed in 15 classes ( from grade1 to 6).
School Website
Content/Subject Areas
To help children understand the concept of bullying, its forms and consequences through art and creative use of ICT. To produce posters and videos in order to inform other students, teachers and parents about bullying and help minimize the incidents of bullying among students. It approaches the subject of bullying across the curriculum involving art, language, the use of ICT, emotional development and collaboration among students to deal with a problem of everyday life. It interconnects with another project “Daphni” that was already applied in school and dealt with the productive use of break –time.
Age/Grade level
10-11 yrs. Grade 5.
Project Objectives
To help students understand the meaning of bullying, its forms and consequences.
To deal, minimize or eliminate incidents of bullying among the students.
To help students to acquire and or develop skills of the 21st century, such as critical thinking, collaboration, creativity, effective communication, ability to apply knowledge to address every day problems.
To facilitate their emotional development.
To use ICT and art to produce posters and videos in order to inform other students, teachers and parents about bullying.
To promote group work and collaboration among students in order to deal with a problem of every day life.
To help students to acquaint with new forms of art (e.g. installation art).

4. Design of the Learning Environment
Project Description
Design of the Learning Environment
Resources and ICT. Ppt.
The learning process. Ppt.
Project background
The idea for this project came mainly from the need to minimize or eliminate incidents of bullying among the students. It also aimed to familiarize students, teachers and parents with the implementation of the new curriculum in the Cyprus Educational System and was supported by the year’s focus objective set by the Ministry of Education for acquaintance and familiarization with the goals, objectives and content of the new curriculum, promoting the development of 21st century skills. It also met the main goals and could easily be interconnected with project “Daphni” that was already applied in school and dealt with the productive use of break –time.
Project description
The project was developed in a series of six lessons (6x80’). The project dealt with the concept of bullying involving different subjects (art,language, emotional development). It focuses on the students’ involvement in the process of dealing with an everyday problem such as bullying and taking action though art and use of ICT in order to minimize the problem and inform other students, teachers and parents about it. Students worked in small groups during the whole project. During the first lesson students’ parents and a few teachers of the school were involved in the activities in order to maximize collaboration among all the participants in the learning process as well for the diffusion of the project to the rest of the school and the community. Capping stone of the project was the preparation and the presentation of students work (posters and videos) to the other students, teachers and parents.
Design of the learning Environment
A series of 6 lessons (6x80’).
It involved different subjects of the curriculum (such as art, language, emotional development) and the use of ICT. Students worked in groups of 3 to 4 students in each group. Every lesson was designed in a way to combine a theoretical aspect of the subject and the use of ICT through students collaboration. By using the technology students took a journey of self-knowledge, emotional exploitation to reach and understand the concept of bullying and communicate their knowledge to others, creating a learning environment of pictures, music, videos and knowledge in order to minimize bullying in school.
The whole planning…
…increased students interest, created a joyful learning environment, promoted creativity, self- evaluation and critical thinking, gave the chance to collaborate and communicate with others, promoted acquaintance with new ways of exploring a subject, helped familiarize with ICT and software (Photoshop, movie-maker, digital camera),eased a cross-curriculum approach, facilitated all students to understand a relevantly difficult subject such as bullying irrespective of their personal learning type (e.g. visual, auditory), led them to take action in order to minimize or eliminate incidents of bullying, contributed in presenting their work in a very vivid and innovative way, help substantially to respect and accept others as they are, contributed in recalling previous knowledge and extending it or applying it in a different context, helped in understanding and expressing their emotions, improving the notion they had for themselves.
For more information please see “The learning process.ppt”, “resources and ICT.ppp”, “learning process, activities, objectives and resources.doc”.
To embed a project resource or materials
Have the resource document available. From the Insert menu choose Object.
Select Create from File… and click Browse…. Find the file you want to include and click OK.
Select Display as icon and click Change Icon… and add a suitable caption.
Click OK to add the caption and click OK to embed the file. Use the Action button on the Insert ribbon to activate the object.
Use Hyperlinks to link to websites, audio and video that show . Do not embed video or audio, use links to video hosting sites or your school site.
Open the Word documents by double clicking the icons. Clicking Save in Word will save the changes.
Please ensure that you have the full permission to use any images and video, as this project will be in the public domain.

5. Evidence of Learning Evidence of learning
Modified students photos by themselves using Photoshop (to emphasize the positive elements of themselves) accompanied with verses they wrote.
Pictures of themselves using digital camera to express different kinds of emotions.
Posters using word and their modified pictures.
Short videos using movie maker, their modified pictures and other material they found using internet explorer to inform other students, teachers and parents about bullying, and help its prevention .
Preparing, organizing and presenting the exhibition of their work (posters, videos, slogans, modified pictures, photos showing their emotions) to other students, teachers and parents.
Completion of work sheets collaborating and communicating effectively with other students.
Using computer and video projector to present their videos to other students, teachers and parents.
Making suggestions on how to use art and ICT in order to inform about bullying and minimize incidents of bullying among students.
Evaluate the whole project and make suggestions of what to do next to extent the effort even more.
Collaboration
Work in small groups, discuss and communicate with each other, take each other picture, investigate using internet explorer to find information about bullying, pictures and music to use for their video, make suggestions of how we use ICT and art to inform others about bullying, exchange ideas, present arguments for a problem- solving activity, work with other students to present their work.
Communication
With their group, with the whole class, with teachers, with parents
Innovation
Use digital cameras and Photoshop to understand their feelings, enhance the positive elements of themselves, reinforce their self-esteem and use this knowledge in a complete different concept to grasp the concept of bullying and its consequences.
Learning beyond the classroom
Involve parents and other teachers in the whole project by attending the beginning of the project
(lesson 1).
Sharing their work (photos ,posters, videos) with other students and teachers.
For more information please see embedded file “learning process, resources and evidence of learning.doc”.

6. Knowledge Building & Critical Thinking
Extended Learning Beyond the Classroom
Project applied the simple notion: a knife in the hands of a surgeon can save a life, in the hands of a murderer can take a life. In the same way, digital tools and language were used by the students to discover their positive elements, reinforce their self- esteem, understand and express their emotions, write verses to enhance all that, and by interpreting the concept of the comic picture (presented to students in the beginning of the lesson) in a completely new perspective, to understand the concept and consequences of bullying as someone acting in the exact same way using digital tools and language, but use them to insult someone, hurt his feelings, present a distorted image of that person, write insults and diminishing comments.
The learning activities also required students to interpret portraits and photos to discover feelings and the person’s identity, understand the use of pictures, language and music and evaluate the effectiveness of posters and videos, find and combine the right elements to produce their own poster or video, understand their feelings and emotions and express them in a non- verbal way, make suggestions on how we can inform others about bullying or act to minimize it, and finally evaluate the whole project and suggest ways of improving it or extending it.
Extended learning beyond the classroom
The project was a learning experience not only for the students participating but for other students, teachers and parents. It addressed to an everyday problem, bullying which is affecting more and more students everyday. Students participating in the project, collaborated effectively with others (students, parents, teachers), in an effort to take a stand against bullying, inform other people about it and with a joyful and innovate way to minimize it or eliminate it.
Parents of the students participating the project attended a part of the project, and visited the exhibition.
Parents evaluated the whole project.
Teachers of the school attended a part of the project, to help infuse the effort of minimizing bullying to the whole school. They also visited the exhibition with their students and evaluate the effort making suggestions for improving it or extending it.
All students of the school visited the exhibition, evaluated it and made suggestions for improvement.
Students participating suggested expanding the project by presenting it to community, or to other schools.
Students participating the project work during their free time to complete or create more posters and videos.
The project was presented at the annual meeting “for the use of ICT in the learning process” (with the participation of schools inspectors,150 teachers, and others).
Another school from the greater area of Nicosia asked to implement the project for their students.
A university in Nicosia asked to present the project to post-graduate students as a good example of implementing and using ICT.

7. Collaboration Collaboration in different levels
Students with other students:
Work in small groups (3 to 4 students) throughout the project to share their work and interacted with the rest of the class, to investigate using internet explorer, to group pictures using their own criterion, to complete worksheets, to photograph each other, to modify their pictures using photoshop, to present their arguments when having to deal with a problem- solving situation, to make suggestions, to produce posters and videos, to take action on how to inform students, teachers and parents about bullying and to minimize it, to organize and prepare the exhibition of their work, to share responsibilities about the presentation of their work to students, teachers and parents, to complete their projects during the afternoon.
Students with teacher:
Ask for more explanations when they had a misconception, or a difficulty when using digital tools.
Students with parents:
The students invited their parents to attend to the beginning of the project and to visit their exhibition.
Teacher with other teachers, the headmaster and the parents:
Teachers of the school attended the beginning of the project in order to infuse the effort of minimizing bullying to the whole school.
Parents also participated in the beginning of the project in order to support the effort of minimizing bullying.
The teacher who teaches science to the class that participated in the project helped students to familiarize with movie- maker in his own free time.
All teachers of the school visited the exhibition with their students, evaluated the project and made their suggestions for improving it.
Collaboration with the headmaster who provided moral support, attended parts of the project, provided necessary means, congratulated the students for their meaningful effort.