Friendship with the Istituto Comprensivo di Vinovo

How do we react when we see the face of a person with whom we have communicated for a long time?

This is what the 5th grade 10 Italianist students from Collège Charles III experienced, who met their Italian 5th grade correspondents at the “Istituto Comprensivo di Vinovo”, near Turin, during an outing to Savona on Tuesday May 7, 2024.

Indeed, students began to correspond virtually from September 2023, through an avatar, during written and oral expression activities based on the themes and documents seen in LV2 classes. Video conferences on TEAMS and sharing on a collaborative wall therefore took place throughout the school year, without the students being able to discover the face of their correspondent.

The Savona meeting allowed students to meet in person and notably :

- To identify yourself through a guessing game and to get to know each other,

- To discover the city of Savona, through a visit to the main monuments, prepared by the students in French and Italian.

- To discover the majestic Priamar Fort and do an educational activity based on drawing, in French and Italian, organized by the Fort's very experienced guides.

- To discuss their identity and tastes orally with the correspondent for an hour, each using the other's language.

- To see the arrival in town of cyclists participating in the famous “Giro d’Italia” competition !

At the end of the day the students no longer wanted to be separated! Their enthusiasm and the quality of their exchanges demonstrate the importance of the complementarity between virtual exchanges and real meetings at a time when our students too often live (only) in the virtual.

We hope that this meeting can lead to a real friendship between the students who participated in the project and, why not, between the two establishments!

These activities were carried out thanks to the unfailing commitment of the teachers of the two establishments organizing the project: Ms. Cristina MAGGIO and Ms. Andrea MELIS. The outing could not have been organized without the valuable collaboration of the accompanying teachers, Ms. Maria Carolina SORRENTINO and Mr. Massimiliano GIAI BASTÉ for the Italian college, and Mr. Steve COJAN for the Monegasque establishment.

A special thank you goes to the management of the two establishments who made this unique experience possible for their students !

Amitié Savone

Amitié Savone