Everyone is an Achiever

I decided to start this blog to highlight the most interesting and the most important events in the life of our school.  Since our school takes pride in what we do, I found the motto which serves best for definition of the word:

Apart from excelling academically our students participate in different extra curricula activities: sport events, olympiads, both local and international, conferences and exchange programs.

That's why our school authorities responded enthusiastically when Max Hoyt, then an English language fellow, offered to start a baseball team "Baku Winds" with our students. 

Trainings took place every Sunday which first attracted students with opportunity not only to learn baseball rules but also practise English with a trainer. There was a lot of fun! The students learnt how to kick with bats and what batting and outfielders batting gloves are for. 

The month training resulted with the competition with the other baseball teams that arrived from the regions. For our students the participation was more important than coming the first. It was their first game after such a short training. The first experience developed students' team skills, inspired them to overcome difficulties and believe in themselves. The wanted to prove what they felt:

"We have the passion, we have the will!"

                   Learn with the world not just about it!
  20^th International Conference & 17^th Youth Summit in Doha, Qatar, July 2013

group photo, Doha, Qatar

It was t    3rd time our school teachers and students have participated in IEARN conference and Youth Summit. In 2010 Sheila Parry, a Canadian who volunteered conversation classes at school, suggested 3 fund raising activities to raise money for the Youth Summit in Barrie, Canada. She booked us a table for “Bake Sale” at Christmas bazaar, negotiated a “Juice and Burger” sale at the Indian café and encouraged us to negotiate with the owner of the “Holiday Pizza” to donate pizzas for sale at school.

It was a lot of fun and the students’ first ever encounter with fundraising activity.

Bake Sale

Beer & Burger sale
  

Pizza sale at school

Our students worked on a number of IEARN projects prior to participating in the Summit in Canada, so they were excited to meet their partners at the conference.

Holiday Card Exchange

My Country project

Right after the Youth Summit in Barrie, Canada, another group of students and teachers headed for Bursa, Turkiye, to participate in the Natural Disaster Youth Summit. The Summit was perfectly organized and hosted by Tuncsiper Schools and Uludag University on August 23-27, 2010. All in All there were 300 students, 150 students from abroad and 150 Turkish students.

The Tuncsiper schools staff put all the efforts to create a warm, friendly atmosphere and the program was organized at the highest level.

All the participating countries had to prepare a "Global Disaster Safety Map", "NDYS little Ambassadors"-Teddy bears  with safety kits and a Climate Change poster with a video. Azercell kindly provided us with T-shirts and caps.

The 20th Annual iEARN International Conference and 17th Youth Summit was held in Qatar from July 1 to 6. The Azerbaijan delegation was bigger this time, there were 18 teachers and students from our school and 5 teachers and students from other Baku schools.

The conference was held at the Qatar National Convention Center and was organized at the highest level in terms of accommodation, venue, facilities and recreation.

Reach Out To Asia (Rota), which was the official representative of the iEARN programme in Qatar, announced that RasGas would be the conference’s Golden Sponsor, Qatar Vinyl Company its Bronze Sponsor and the Supreme Education Council its official partner.

Participants joined in Doha from around the world, including Afghanistan, Algeria, Argentina, Australia, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Belarus, Belgium, Brazil, Cameroon, Canada, China, Egypt, Gambia, Georgia, Ghana, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Japan, Jordan, Kenya, Kuwait, Lebanon, Liberia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Mali, Morocco, Netherlands, Nigeria, Oman, Pakistan, Palestine, Qatar, Romania, Russian Federation, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Spain, Sudan, Suriname, Syria, Taiwan, Tajikistan, Tunisia, Turkey, Uganda, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United States, and Yemen. 

The theme of the conference is “ICT for Education: Reaching Out, Building Bridges”, focusing on the use of technologies in education to reach out, learn and build a better world together.

“By hosting the iEARN conference in Qatar, we will make history as the first country in the Gulf to hold the event,” said Rota executive director Essa al-Mannai.

 The conference program offered eight plenary sessions, two panel discussions and more than 90 workshops and presentations. In addition, there was an exhibition for students and teachers to showcase their projects or give presentations about their culturesIt was also highlighted in the local media.

During the breaks there were locals who introduced the participants to the traditional ways of arpet and basket weaving and also made beautiful henna decorations to women.

The students actively participated in the workshops and made friends with peers around the world.

We also visited the Museum of Islamic Art:

had a tour around the city  and visited Doha malls:

The highlight of the conference was the international night which brought everyone even closer. The students were excited by the visit of the ambsaador of Azerbaijan Republic to Qatar Mr....

 

Everyone felt sad when the conference and summit came to an end. Nobody wanted to leave the hospitable land and people who did everything they could to make us feel comfortable and at home. We got our certificates and headed back home with wonderful impressions and new ideas.