*The first publication of the article is on the page of 3rd Gymnasium of Kozani

(https://blogs.sch.gr/3gymkoza/2023/11/23/quot-green-out-of-the-box-quot-deyteros-stathmos-toy-perivallontikoy-taxidioy-to-3o-gymnasio-kozanis/?fbclid=IwAR3MsPy5r0yNNNjuma1tnxuJAFVBobsfqlLuD9r4YiooJ0hFxRyUodGVjJQ&mibextid=xfxF2i)

On Thursday, November 2, we welcomed to our school the Director of Secondary Education of Kozani, Mrs. Vasiliki Vontsa, the IT Advisor of Primary and Secondary Education of Western Macedonia and the Pedagogical Responsibility Advisor of the 6th Gymnasium of Kozani, Mr. Papavasiliou Athanasios, the delegation of the 6th Gymnasium of Kozani consisting of the Director Mrs. Stathopoulou Nikoleta, the Deputy Director Mrs. Maria Michailidou, the philologist Mrs. Haritidou Eleni and students of the school, and the GoAlive team, Marko, Areti, Panagiotis, Panagiotis, Vasiliki, Lediana, Damjan, Maria.

The reason? “Green” and ….. “challenging”! They came to deliver the “Green out of the box” box! This is an innovative initiative, a project that aims to empower students to mobilize and take action against environmental problems. This box of challenges started at the 6th high school of Kozani on 18 October, came to the 3rd gymnasium of Kozani on 2 November and will travel to a total of 10 school units in the P.E. Kozani. Each school will undertake an environmental challenge within two weeks. In this way, students will be sensitised, cooperate and face “green challenges” while learning in an experiential and fun way.

In a beautiful welcome ceremony, which we organized in the library of our school, the students of the 6th Gymnasium shared their experience from their own challenge (making recycled paper with flower seeds), gave us cards with messages they wrote on the recycled paper with seeds they created and assigned us our own challenge: Making a large bulletin board and six frames with worn-out clothing fabrics!

Afterwards, the Go Alive team informed both the students of sections C2 and C4 selected to carry out the challenge and the teachers who participated in the project about the European sustainability framework Greencomp.

And the journey of the “challenge” began…

Our school library was transformed into an art workshop, filled with colours, fabrics and tools!

• First, we found the Styrofoam that would be the canvases for our projects and gathered the old clothes needed for our designs.
• Then the patterns for our projects were created on paper.
• The patterns were placed on the styrofoam and with the help of stones the styrofoam was cut to a depth of about 2cm so that it could hold the fabrics, as part of the “challenge” was to avoid using fixing materials such as glue.
• Each group of students chose the colours and patterns of the fabrics they wanted to use in their project and then cut them out using the templates, making sure to leave enough fabric margin so that each piece could be fixed into the styrofoam slots.
• Using serving knives with rounded edges to avoid accidents (safety first!), the children fixed the pieces of fabric one by one until their work took its final shape.

We do not hide from you that we, the teachers, were anxious about whether it would be possible to successfully complete the challenge, as the two weeks that we initially had at our disposal were limited due to the three-day excursion to Athens and the celebration of the anniversary of the Polytechnic. We had to start later and finish earlier…I wonder if we would have made it?

But our anxiety disappeared very soon, as we found ourselves in front of an enthusiastic and hard-working “hive” of children who, with gusto, appetite and longing for creativity, started making the paintings! There wasn’t a single child from the C2 and C4 classes who didn’t do their bit to successfully complete the challenge! And as they watched their projects take shape, their enthusiasm grew!

And the sparkle in their eyes, when all their projects were completed, made up for our choice to participate in the “Green out of the box” project and join this cycle of environmental challenges! As the kids themselves said, “it was the best activity we ever did!”

The bulletin board and three of the frames will stay in our school, one frame will be given to the 6th Gymnasium of Kozani that assigned us the challenge, one to the Gymnasium we will challenge and one to the Go Alive team.

But our mission was not yet complete…we had to take our turn to choose and assign a challenge to the next school. An ecological and creative challenge that could be completed in 15 days. The proposals were many and interesting, but we settled on one that fitted the spirit of the days: Create 50 Christmas ornaments from toilet paper or kitchen rolls and create a Christmas tree from a magazine or book. 5 of the ornaments will be given to us, 5 will be given to the school who will in turn challenge and with the rest will decorate their school’s Christmas tree

So, on November 15th, the day has come for us to deliver the “green box” and challenge the next school, the 5th high school of Kozani! A delegation of teachers and students of our school with our guest of honor, the Educational Project Coordinator of the 3rd Gymnasium of Kozani and English Advisor of Primary and Secondary Education of Western Macedonia Mr. Pozoukidis Nikolaos, went to the 5th Gymnasium together with the Go Alive team and delivered the box with the new challenge. Inside the box we put, apart from the detailed instructions of the new challenge, one of the boards we created and many wishes for the students of the school.

Congratulations to the students of C2 and C4 who participated with so much enthusiasm and successfully completed the green challenge!

Many congratulations to our school’s art teacher, Mrs. Dimitriadis Anastasia, who took on the task of explaining to the students in detail the process that had to be followed, who suggested designs for our projects and who helped the team of teachers to organize and supervise the process properly!

The “green team” of teachers who participated in the “Green out of the box” challenge consisted of the Director Mrs. Moustakas Theodora, the Assistant Director Mrs. Sakorafa Maria, Mrs. Vardakas Eleni, Mrs. Dimitriadis Anastasia, Mr. Theofanous Achilleas, Mr. Karathanos Stelios, Mrs. Karanatsiou Anastasia, Mrs. Ouzounidou Ioanna, Mrs. Papadopopoulou Konstantina, Mr. Papakonstantinou Nikos, Mrs. Skreka Ioanna and Mr. Tsiaras Nikos.

Finally, we would like to thank the parents/guardians of sections C2 and C4 as well as the teachers of our school who responded immediately to our call for the collection of old clothes, but also the entire Teachers’ Association of our school that supported in every way our children and the team of teachers and contributed to the successful completion of the challenge!

A wonderful experience came to a happy end….

Good luck to the 5th Gymnasium of Kozani and good luck on the journey of Green out of the box!