Greetings from Norway

Christmas greetings

Christmas is a very special occasion when we say our sincere thanks to whose friendship we cherish.

May your Christmas time be filled in everything you do and wish, and may this special feeling continue the whole year through!

Merry Christmas and a rich and prosperous New Year!

Your friends from Smiltene Centre Secondary School.

Water pollution in Smiltene

Sewage water in Smiltene was a very big problem in Smiltene some year ago. The private houses near Teperis lake just took a pipe and through it put the sewage water of their house to Teperis lake, it was very polluted, but now the problem is solved. Some years ago there was and accident is Smiltenes dairy, and all the sewage water with some bad bacterias went into the treatment plant water cleaning sistem, where goes all the sewage water of Smiltene, and the bacterias of dairy destroyed the good bacterias of treatment plant, all the engines were damaged, but now it is working again.

Insects

This year in Latvia insects were a very big problem, because they were very much, because they had the perfect weather in winter and in spring – there were very much snow and there were very much floods and water everywhere, these things helps insects to survive especially to mosquitos. And one more big problem was ticks. They carry very dangerous disease like Lyme disease.

Monument of Freedom

The 42 meter high monument is topped by a Liberty Statue - a woman with three stars symbolizing regional parts of Latvia: Kurzeme, Vidzeme and Latgale. The author of this monument is Kārlis Zāle, it was built in 1935. Luckily, even the Soviets didn't dare topple this symbol during their reign, because the student of Karlis Zale – Vera Muhina, was against it, and now it once again represents Latvia's independence, where locals place flowers at the base to remember.

Culture evening Incredible dance

Warm up Hearts, not the Earth

Warm up Hearts, not the Earth

We need the Earth
For our children
Warm up the hearts, not the Earth, so let's begin
There's a choice we have to make
About saving future lives
Together make a better day
For you and me

Then we met each other
It seems that our hearts collide
But now we just believe
There's a way to change the world
Well, well, well, well, let us realize
That change will only come
If we stand together as one

Trip around Vidzeme

Hello, this day was interesting and exciting.We have learned so many things about places that we visited today. Those places were:

1. A farm ”Rožkalni”
At this place we saw some farm 'equipment', for example, tractors, harvesters.
2. Smiltene (Brutuli)sewage treatment plant
At this place we saw how bacteriums do their job to clean a water and turn clean water back to the river.
3. Ltd. 'Latvija State Forests' Strenči nursery
At this place we saw one of the best and the biggest plant nursery in Baltic States. (Pines, spruces, birches and also ornamental evergreens). There are about 20 millions plants.They are delivered also to Sweden.
4. A Farm “Kempēni”
There were a guest house and farm. The owner was very kind- they fed us (served an excellent home-made lunch)and he introduced us with his guest house and told about it's history and also showed his sheep.
5. Supermarket “Valleta”
We went to the town Valmiera and did the shopping, tpo.

We enjoyed everything, we had a really good time and we are happy about this wonderful day.

Parties

The parties were great, we had a wonderful time, because everybody was enjoying the time together – we were dancing, talking about situation in Norway and Latvia, about the price level and things what we do in our free time, and we ate sweets like chocolate and candies from both countries. On Thursday instead of picnic (it was such a heavy downpour!)we prepared our meal inside- we cooked sausages and vegetables ourselves!

Science Day

In Science day at school we had to visit tree laboratories. These were laboratories from The Institute of Systematic Biology (SBI) of Daugavpils University. http://www.biology.lv/ In those laboratories we had lectures about bugs, mobile laboratory (map,cards), and indicator animals and plants, also we had lecture about different types of microscopes (laser scanning, light e.t.c.) In this lecture there was a chance to touch and hold Madagascar insect called cockroach, of course, it was done by only those who weren't afraid of them.

In the laboratories we learned that in Latvia we have very modern biology tools, which helps to research the nature like lakes, rivers,woods, plants, insects and other things.

Video about "The Giant Hog-weed project":

Creating the anthem of the project

At first we all listened the phonogram of Michael Jackson song ”we are the world” and then our teacher told or assignment – we needed to write an anthem for this project, but on one condition – that we all singed in three different language. Tom Martin played guitar, some of us sung it without phonogram. We all needed to record this song and put all parts together, because we needed to create only one song. In or party, last evening we heard this song for the very first time and we did enjoy it.

Culture evening

There where so many things we learned such as story about Latvian Song and Dance Festival, it’s incredible and something amazing, because it’s quite unusual that so many choirs and dancers come together and do everything as one.

And for Latvians it was so exciting to get to know that the Norwegians are so talented, Simen's dancing was marvellous and Tom Martin's singing and the guitar playing was great. Now we know a lot of new and unexpected things about Norwegian school in Valle.

And one more thing which was exciting was the exchange student from Thailand, who this year learns in Smiltene Centre Secondary school. She showed videos of Thailand and it was fantastic, brand new information.

A walk around Smiltene

On the second day after the lunch we had a walk around Smiltene. We talked about pollution in Smiltene,saw polluted places. For example, water pollution in lake Teperis and dangerous hug-weeds and insects. Then we went to Smiltenes technical school and talked about it's history. Thereare still ruins of the castle from 12th century and baron's house. We talked about and how to protect old bouldings and keep for the future.

In Norway we have the same problems as in Latvia, people are dumping their trash in lakes, rivers and the wood, because as we heard from Latvians there are no punishment for such action. And the companies and factories make pollution in the air, like in Smiltene it is the dairy.
There are also some ugly buildings which spoil the scenery near the lake. We think that people have to take care of their surroundings.

Poster making about enviromental problems

First we chose topic about witch enviromental problem we will make poster, and then we started to make posters on the Internet and we found out how much our environment means to us and what could be the solutions for the problems. And we learned a lot from our research about how to treat our planet.
Here is our Glogsters:
Group Nr.1: Forest cutting: http://sisidra.glogster.com/forest-cutting/
Group Nr.2: Rubish: http://rihis2005.glogster.com/latnordland/
Group Nr.3: Water: http://wearecool3.glogster.com/water/
Group Nr.4: Animals and Plant: http://grupa4.glogster.com/Glog-233/
Group Nr.5: Air-popullition: http://pollution6.glogster.com/Air-popullition/

Ice breaking

We played a lot of funny and strange games, where we could get to know each other, and we laughed a lot, and we learned some Latvian national games like “Adamam bij septin del” - "Adams had got seven sons" etc.

Riga

We arrived at 10:45 o'clock. Then we went to the restaurant complex “Lido” and tried Latvian national cuisine, and then we visited Riga Central Market. Next we went to Old Riga, (city centre) saw the Monument of Freedom and 'Laima' clock, and then we visited St.Peter'a church, The Blackhead's House, and National Oprera theatre, and Occupation Museum and saw several Riga Universities and also the Parliament of Latvia Saiema. In the end we went to the Reval Hotel Latvia - up to the 26th floor and saw Riga from above. Finally went to the shopping centre “Alfa”.
The day was interesting, busy. We were tired at the end, but it was also lot of fun and we learned a lot about Latvian culture.

Project summary

A project "Warm up hearts not the Earth" is based on practical use of English and skills, knowledge, competences of science subjects (using e.g. blog, chat) among peers from Smiltene Centre Secondary School (Latvia)and Valle videregaendeskole (Norway) in order to share students' opinions, knowledge, experience on up-to dated topics according teenagers' interests in environmental issues thus improving their language skills, style, spelling and vocabulary, communication, teamwork, collaboration. In addition, tolerance and acceptance towards other nations, cultures, nature and environment will be developed, some relationship might be established.
Students report to partners about the major environmental problems of their countries in order to introduce others with them and at the same time develop deepen their own knowledge and understanding on the particular issues and asks partner to identify main problems in their regions and report back. Students make virtual working groups, work out common and distinctive features, compare and analyze them in order to investigate possible solutions on how it has been done in students’ native town / villages. As we are aware of students' limited knowledge even on their neighbour countries, it is essential to involve cultural and national experience. It may include Cultural heritage of countries e.g. folk songs, fairy tales, myths, legends, poetry, and visual art. Students introduce partners with their cultural treasures by creating and using presentations, videos, performances, their works created during their lessons of visual art.