Before Otzenhausen:

Students need to do the following tasks:

-         prepare a short presentation of their best friend (who she/he is, why/how they became friends, picture…)

-         prepare a short presentation of a place where they spend free time (either a place in school or somewhere else)

-         bring with them a Top 10 of the music chart of their country (preferably a recent one, i.e. of the Otzenhausen week)

In Otzenhausen:

(not necessarily in this order)

1. Each student will present their best friend and this is followed by discussion with the help of questions:

o       how/where to make friends

o       qualities of a good friend

o       how to communicate with friends (face-to-face meetings, e-mail, text messages, phone…)

o       how to make international friends (trips, school exchange) and how to maintain these relationships

2. Each student will present the place they chose as the place where they spend their free time and this will be worked on further in two ways:

a)   discussion in international groups with the help of questions:

o       What kind of places/areas in schools would encourage you to communicate with others?

o       What would ideal school grounds be like?

o       What do you do after school? (Where do you spend time? How much time with friends? How much time on homework? Do parents know where/with whom you spend time? Are there differences at different ages? and so on)

b)   Students will design and build an ideal place to spend time in (in school)

3. Students will prepare short plays/role plays of the different ways of addressing people and meeting people in different countries.

o       special focus might be on possible culture clashes that arise from the differences  

o       students teach each other little phrases (e.g. greetings) in their own languages

4. Students work with the Top 10 charts of different countries to form a NEOS Top 10 and also choose a song everyone knows and write new lyrics for it (possibly in different languages)

And hopefully there will be a video of all of this and everything else that happens in Otzenhausen so that students can share their experiences with everyone else in their own schools!