Evaluation and guide of the project "NEW STORIES OF THE DOG AND THE CAT"

1. New Stories of the Dog and the Cat
United Boarding School – Special needs primary school and Special needs
kindergarten and Practical school, LEVICE, Slovakia
Kindergarten, Primary school and Secondary school Daneta, HRADEC KRÁLOVÉ,
Czech Republic

http://novepribehy.webnode.cz

2. New Stories of the Dog and the Cat
Czech-Slovak project „NEW STORIES OF THE DOG AND
THE CAT” was a project which belonged to the
partnership of two schools providing education to pupils
with special educational needs. The project drew its
inspiration from a children’s book by Josef Capek “The
Stories of the Dog and the Cat”. Throughout the entire
school year 2011/2012 the pupils in both partner schools
became familiar with ten pleasant stories about two
inseparable friends – a dog and a cat. An integral part of
educational work with children in special needs schools is
the use of special therapeutic methods in order to
eliminate the problems resulting from a particular
disability type.

3. Pedagogical Innovation and
Creativity
Both schools provide education to special needs pupils
with various degrees of mental and combined
disabilities. Our project was based on therapies
enriched with a motif of friendship and experiences
from playing with the dog and the cat integrated into
the lessons during the whole school year. It involved
the whole schools (more than 240 pupils). The main
aim was to improve the reading literacy by means of
creative collaboration, active using of ICT and pupil´s
experienced self-realization. The eTwinning school
teams of teachers were established, where the main idea
of our project was integrating moment in their school
lessons.

4. Curricular integration
The eTwinning project had become an integrated part
of the educational programs in both partner schools. It
was an all-year round whole school project which
involved all units of our school (special needs
kindergarten, special needs primary school, practical
school, school-clubs and groups after lessons) – pupils
with S.E.N., autistic children, Romani children. The
project was so diverse and extensive in terms of
activities that it stretched out to all subjects and after-
school activities, too. Activities were realized at all
subjects, via sectional topics and in special eTwinning
project days at school. Participants worked in a school
teams according to subject, therapy, disability, age of
pupils, type of the project activity, etc.

5. Collaboration between partner
schools
We (coordinators) created a project website
(www.novepribehy.webnode.cz), e-mail account and a
Facebook community group to present and to share our
project to a broad public, pupils, parents, participating
teachers and all people interested in working with
disabled children as well as to communicate with each
other. Both authors updated the website on an ongoing
basis and we also published through TwinBlog on the
eTwinning portal. Following a mutual agreement we
continuously and dynamically adapted the monthly
activity plan by adding our new ideas or those of our
colleagues, pupils or others involved and thus inspirited
each other.

6. Creative use of ICT
To publish news about our schools, photo galleries,
project outputs and all information about the project,
timeline, educational aspect, therapies, etc. we used the
project’s website www.novepribehy.webnode.cz. An
independent website www.facebook.com/novepribehy
was used to inform the broad public about project,
interested people posted their comments and this way
contributed to its better quality. To highlight our
project work for future prospective eTwinning or
Comenius partners we used the TwinBlog on
www.etwinning.net, where we published selected
outputs.
Pupils used ICT with help. Our mentally disabled pupils
are able to communicate in their mother tongue

7. Sustainability and Transferability
We synchronized activities of both schools, used them
flexibly and we inspired each other, which led to
creation of new joint activities, which we then
integrated in the education process and the general life
of both schools. It was a whole-school project involved
approx. 240 pupils. We educate a diverse group of
pupils and we planned our activities to fit everyone.
Through our project we presented handicapped
children as a creative and clever member of a common
society. The applications can be used in other schools,
be it regular primary schools, special secondary schools
or colleges (to prepare future special needs teachers),
inspired by other fairy-tale books, too. Our partnership

8. Results and Benefits
Our website contains over 190 news items about the life
of our schools, above 1400 photographs, 10 therapies
and 80 partial outputs. The best outputs included the
“New Story of the Dog and the Cat – How They Became
Friends” – pupils took turns to continue the story in
Slovak and Czech and aided it with their own
illustrations. Dog’s and Cat’s diaries are also included
on our website. The project benefits very much from
international professional cooperation of teachers,
exchange of practice and creative ideas.
Another benefit worth mentioning was effective
participation of pupils with various handicaps in the
learning process and their self-realization.

9. Other Awards
Award from the NSS Slovakia – Teacher of the Month
(January 2012).
National and European Quality Labels from the NSS
Czech Republic and NSS Slovakia.
Absolute winner of National eTwinning prizes 2012 in
Czech Republic.
The winner of National eTwinning prizes 2012 in
Slovakia.
Financial benefit from Hradec Kralove Region and the
other sponsors.
Support by enterprise subjects of Vivarium Levex and
ZooExpo (yearlong cooperation).

10. Links to Project Outcomes
http://twinblog.etwinning.net/novepribehy/
http://www.facebook.com/novepribehy

11. http://novepribehy.webnode.cz

12. Website
www.novepribehy.webnode.cz
Website map
Homepage includes:
News - regularly published news about the life in both
partner schools (our website contains over 190 news items),
intermediate outputs and tasks
Menu
Search
Contact
Forum
Polls
Video story (monthly changed for the current story),
a map and information about sponsors

13. Menu
• Partnerské školy – Partner schools
• Informace o projektu/Informácie o projekte –
Information about the project
Project objectives, expected results and project
timetable
Výstupy z projektu - Outputs from the project
Every month pupils of both partner schools made
plenty of partial individual and joint outputs – each
month motivated with a different story and a chosen
therapy. Each month we carried at least one joint
activity involving both schools. All outputs are the
result of the work of pupils (with the support and
guidance of their teachers and assistants).

14. The main outcomes of the project
The best outputs included the “New Story of the
Dog and the Cat – How They Became Friends” –
which the pupils wrote by turns (in Slovak and Czech)
to continue their invented story and illustrated it in
return by themselves. This book as a great result of
our school partnership was donated to a Museum of
Brothers Capek in the town Male Svatonovice in the
Czech Republic during children´s visit (pupils from
Hradec Kralove) in this museum (in June 2012).
Another important yearlong activity was writing diary
– Cat´s diary in Czech school and Dog´s diary in
Slovak school – where children noted their daily
interesting experiences from school or from home.

15. Fotogalerie/Fotogaléria – Photo gallery
 Above 1600 photographs
Terapie/Terapia – Therapy
An integral part of educational work with children in
special needs schools is the use of special therapeutic
methods in order to eliminate the problems resulting
from a particular disability type. The project
implementation was based on special therapeutic
methods of work with children with mental and
combined disabilities and focused primarily on art
therapy, bibliotherapy, dramatotherapy, zootherapy,
canistherapy, hippotherapy, ergotherapy, play therapy,
Snoezelen, etc.

16. Hry (puzzle) – Games (puzzle)
Puzzle using a PC and an interactive whiteboard. Each
school chose a photo of where we are and then we used
Planet Jigsaw website to create two puzzles with two
different levels. Students competed in against each
other and we eventually announced two charts of the
winners in various levels (within our two partner
schools). On our website could interested members of
the general public participate by folding our LOGO as
a puzzle.
• eTwinning – eTwinning
 Information about eTwinning

17. Odkazy – Links
Sponzoři/Sponzori – Sponsors
We also managed to involve in our activities the
pupils’ parents, people and organizations outside the
school and we started cooperation with other entities
as well (e.g. library, Red cross, Town office, consulting
and professional facilities, businesses, sponsors,
various theatrical groups and other organizations).
Our cooperation with Vivarium Levex and ZooExpo
has extended to the following school year beyond the
project and the two entities continue providing
zootherapy to the disabled pupils. The project was
financially supported by Hradec Kralove Region and
the other sponsors.

18. Hodnocení projektu/Hodnotenie projektu -
Evaluation of the project
During the project we created a year-round timetable
with a variety of activities, which were integrated
directly into the lessons and syllabi of most subjects.
This way, pupils fulfilled the educational objectives and
at the same time developed their skills by being
involved in eTwinning international collaboration.
Every months we made at least one joint product, as
for example: „The New Story of the Dog and the Cat –
How They Became Friends“ – writing and collaborative
illustration – at the end of the project a collaborative
book was created.

19. project logo (using children’s drawings – Czech
children drew the cat and Slovak children drew the
dog and the best drawings were used to make the
logo); Czech and Slovak dictionary of animals
(PowePoint presentation); sending of greetings to the
partner by post (several times during the project –
holidays); puzzle making competition; writing a letter
to the partner and sending it by post; pupil
communication via Facebook, e-mail and
videoconference; other outputs.
• Project in numbers
• Presentations in Czech, Slovak and English
• Awards

20. Napsali o nás/Napísali o nás - Wrote about us
Promotion of school through eTwinning on regional,
national and global level.
• Napište nám/Napíšte nám - Write to us
 For example: Dear friends, I was not at the Museum of the Capek
brothers in Male Svatonovice during your pupil´s visit there...It is a
wonderful work you are doing with your children and I know as an ex-
teacher that even very demanding one. I can say that it is all more
valuable because children are the creators themselves and their work is
really very nice…Thank you again for your lovely present and for your
beautiful pedagogical work and work to holdback the price of message
of authors Karel and Josef Capek.
• Kontakt - Contact

21. Our partnership persists and
eTwinning is fun!!!
1st partner visit in LEVICE 2nd partner visit in HRADEC
(Slovakia) KRÁLOVÉ (Czech Republic)
Thank you!
Tatiana Michalovičová and Josef Suchánek