Problems in the EU- some facts?

With all the news of the problems in the EU and the euro it is hard to ignore the fact that we are all in the middle of quite a big crisis that could have far reaching political effects for us all. At the moment the situation within the EU is creating alot of trouble and mistrust between members. The PIGS of Europe are, well most of them, trying to their best to make the situation better but with big changes needed it has hard for the people of the EU to understand whats going on.

To try and begin to learn about the current issues I suppose we need to think about the basics of the countries that are in the news at the moment. The three that come to my mind are Italy, German and Greece. These three countries have caught the attention and minds of the EU media and now it is time to do a little research into what makes them work and how the basics of their government function- or dont in some cases!

For this class the fantastic students were split into three groups and given about 20 mintues to research, using the amazing powers of the internet, about the parliments and governments that make up these three countries. The students then came back to the class were we shared the findings together by talking about what they  had researched . The result being a blackboard (more green in Finland...) full of facts and thoughts about these 3 elements that make up the EU. I like this method as the students themselves find the information and have to tell me what they found..sssh...dont tell them, but, they have to say it outloud to me...in English! So I like that..plus they come up with somethings that my middle aged mind just wouldnt think off!



As always thanks to the students for using their brains!