eMates eMates - 1st issue | Page 36

market the last days before having Christmas holidays.’ ‘How does it work?’ – ‘You can bring things you do not use anymore but are still in good conditions. Then, we will give our “TUTOS” which is social money and with those “TUTOS” you can get anything from the market, that is, anything other students have brought too for the market. It is like exchanging things. If you do not have TUTOS you can buy things with only 1 euro. The things that are not sold and the collected money will be given to social organizations. Apart from that we have also placed a big box next to the library to collect food and later we will give it to social organizations too’. Resource Guide One of the main features at IES Mesa y López is multiculturalism. Every year, a lot of foreign students come to our high school from other countries such as Germany, China, Bangladesh, Senegal, Morocco, Sweden, Colombia, Ecuador, etc. When they arrive from abroad they find themselves quite lost. It is quite difficult at first to get used to this place, they do not know where the main places are, where to go for different issues. That is the reason why we have created a resource guide. Last year, a group of students started making a resource guide for all of them. It is a digital book which contains information about places where you can get what you need (hospitals, schools, libraries, shopping centres…) It was mainly made in Spanish, and then it was translated into English. Since it is a young project it has not been finished yet and now the students involved in the project are translating it into German and French. Besides, some Chinese students have offered to translate it into mandarin Chinese! The web was designed by two members of our team: Saúl and Adrián. They created the book and now they are working in an App. Everybody thinks it has been a very good idea and new students and their families are using it. Promesa Promesa is the result of a word game with ‘pro’ and ‘MESA’. In Spanish, ‘promesa’ means ‘promise’ and it also involves commitment. So, this kind of association was created to help students and families. This association is quite young. It was born last October and was proposed as a complement of the educational offer with activities for both students and family. IES Mesa y Lopez high school tries to find resources to solve the students’ educational needs with more difficulties so any person in the educational community can be part of this association. The high school is open in the afternoon for the students in the upper grades of vocational courses but the compulsory secondary education, Bachillerato and most vocational courses are in the morning shift so that is the reason why the activities Promesa offers are in the afternoon. The activities are: Spanish lessons for foreign people, first steps to computer, creative writing, sport activities and yoga. All these activities are completely free and they are carried out by exstudents, teachers or parents in an altruist way. Besides, groups of work have been created for students to help each other. For example, if you are good at maths you can help colleagues who are not that good. Conflict Mediation Group In every school, there are always certain conflicts between students. Most of time, the head of Studies is in charge of solving them. But in our high school some students offer themselves as “mediadores” to help school coexistence. They receive workshops and training on how to solve conflicts using the dialogue and trying to get solutions which make students involved in the conflict get