On Wednesday, the 27th of January Savremena International School students marked the Saint Sava day upholding the long Serbian tradition of veneering the patron of schools which dates back to the 19th century. Savremena’s students once again had the opportunity to do something fun and truly different.

Through a set of interactive activities which were set up in three classrooms, Savremena’s students had the opportunity to explore and ponder on the life of Saint Sava and to bring the context and importance of his works and times to life.

In the footsteps of Saint Sava

The topics that students covered in the first classroom were the life and works of Saint Sava. Within this workshop, Savremena’s students had the opportunity to find out interesting things about the life, travels and the importance of Saint Sava’s works for the Serbian people.

As they were learning about the details of Saint Sava’s life students used an interactive table, and drew by hand the route that the saint traveled along while also adding stickers that signified important places like the Pantheon, the Hinalndar Monestary, Nicaea, Trnovo and the Saint Sava Cathedral.

An imaginative discussion on the educator’s work

In order to understand the importance of Sava’s influence on education, in the second workshop students watched a short video presentation that compares the times of Saint Sava, Dositej Obradović and teachers nowadays.

Encouraged by the presentation, students used the iBrainstorm app on their iPads to exchange ideas on who could be considered a revolutionary educator nowadays, and what characteristics such a person should possess. In order to determine what could revolutionise education, students engaged in a rich and imaginative discussion.

The teachers of today and the revolution in education

As an educator of today, students selected Novak Đoković because he continues to promote sports and encourage people to love sports, he is a philanthropist and a good example for others. Steve Jobs also made the list owing to his sophisticated ideas.

A revolution or a sensation in education would be a chip with various kinds of useful information and an especially creative idea was put forth by Nikola Vračar, who thinks that a teleportation device that would allow students to travel through time and space significantly improve education because they could then travel through the ages and climb the highest point on the planet.

What life lessons we can take away from Saint Sava

In the third workshop, students discussed the legends and stories about Saint Sava in which he is portrayed as not only an archbishop, writer and legislator but also as a patron of wisdom who spread knowledge and the Christian word thus educating the public in the true sense of the word.

The legend on how Saint Sava explained happiness to an unhappy man inspired Savremena’s students to think about what it is that makes them happy.This and many other stories on Sava’s contributions illustrated the basic life lessons and some Christian values to the students in a practical way.

Making the boiled wheat treat

Since no saint’s day can go without boiled wheat, in the third classroom Savremena International School students made their own saint’s day treat. Divided into two teams, students rolled up their sleeves and got down to business i.e. to making the treat in accordance with the instructions they studied beforehand.

The team that was given a recipe from the middle ages, made the wheat with the help of old kitchen utensils (a mortar and pestle, a wooden board, a wooden spoon, a mixing bowl and a small plate), while the other team used a modern recipe (with the help of a mixer, a nutcracker, a metal spoon and small plates). With a bit of wheat on their clothes students proudly presented their specialty to their teachers who crowned the winner of the friendly culinary competition.

The Saint’s day quiz and enjoying boiled wheat at the end of the fun day

In order not to forget anything they learned during the day, in the end students took part in a quiz. The questions were on the things they had learned within the three workshops after which everyone enjoyed some home-made boiled wheat.

The students agreed that this type of celebration was fun, especially highlighting the fact that everyone being included in the learning process and the ability to view familiar things from a different angle were among their favourites.