Bulgaria - FACT Journals Issue 32

I had the pleasure and privilege of working with three groups of colleagues from a small cluster of schools from Settimo in Italy this summer. I say it was a pleasure and a privilege because despite the heat of Plovdiv, they were very energetic and able to invest of themselves in my course Putting CLIL into 
Practice with a thirst for ideas. It was this drive to embrace CLIL which has led to the collection in this publication of the FACT Journal.
It’s also a joy to dedicate an entire publication to the work of a tight-knit group of teachers from the same schools for the simple reason that you know the materials will be used and will be useful.
In fact, the coordinator for the teachers Erasmus+ mobilities, Alessandra, has had the foresight to discuss with me how we might build on this collection of resources, this product of their participation in Putting CLIL into Practice. I suggested immediately that the colleagues who had participated on the course might contribute to dissemination activities themselves, and to which I would be delighted to contribute also. So, we are now planning these events in Piemonte for the coming school year. What will you find in the journal? 
The teachers came from preprimary, primary and middle school and so the resources reflect this age range. There subject interests were similarly varied, including Religious Studies, Mathematics, Science (Biology), Geography, History, Art and English. There was also Italian, but we didn’t go on to produce 
any Italian-medium resources. Within the subject areas, after some work on CLIL principles and visiting activities in Anglia School summer programme, we managed to focus smoothly on areas which would be of use for the teaching in the new term for the colleagues.
There are resources which focus with the first group on Science and the senses, and specifically the sense of sight for the primary CLIL classroom. Related to this, but with a dual preprimary and primary goal, there are activities for Geometry and shapes. You will also find a lesson with a marvelous focus on supporting Primary learners in writing a biography for a religious figure in history, taking Moses as the example. The second group of colleagues came with some significant experience of CLIL and we took their needs and ideas very early on to lead the sessions on Principles of CLIL and this led to resources for Civics and safety online, Biology and organs in the human body, History-Geography and Egypt and the Nile, which initially came from a desire to develop resources for teaching about how humans interact with bodies of water on our planet. Last but not least, group 3 came with a wide ranging background in teaching which we manage to bring together in a super project for Science-Geography-English and plastic pollution in our biosphere.
Aside from the CLIL, our visitors managed to see all manner of beautiful sights in Bulgaria, taste the range of magnificent flavours Bulgaria has to offer, take in the smells (think roses), the sounds (think Bulgarian folk) and touch life in this glorious little country I’m proud to call my adopted home. 
All in all, it was a tiring but extremely satisfying three weeks, an experience I would readily do again if the opportunity arises!
Keith
24.10.2023
PS – as usual while these colleagues put in hard work over three weeks in my courses, the drafting and editing were down to me, and so if you should spot any errors, they are entirely my responsibility!

Download FACT Journal 32