This is an initiative that is arisen from EU Commission Strategy for 2020 in term of improving basic skills of new generation for better future of European Union.It aims to develop necessary basic skills in Social, Entrepreneurship, Participatory spirit, Artistic, Language skills and Digital competences.As the project team, the coordinators of the partner schools, we strove and worked on the issue how to improve lack of basic skills and stated the needs in our schools as by taking observation of teachers and students via two surveys.- The students are unmotivated because theoretical classes are not engaged with practical learning.- The schools are not an enthusiastic place for students and lack of leisure activities causes lack of motivation attitudes according to school, classes so this is bringing lack of basic skills and academic success.Lack of practical training became the central area according to our study that connects the problem with the solution. We placed MUSIC in the centre and by leading our students to the musical activities inside the school, we will engage them with schooling, increase their motivation and develop their basic skills. Our working methodology is stated on creating activities with real situations for students outside the classes by setting up three students clubs. We aim to connect students with music, English and technology by the help of these clubs and provide students extra activities. Three different subjects whose actors are teachers and students. We will set up clubs for these subjects (include 2 teachers and 30 students in each club) and clubs will produce materials, activities and real situations. Teachers will create clubs’ work programme and supervise the students. School administrative staff will support the teachers with all kind of activities.MUSIC:1. hold courses for musical instruments (such as guitar, violin, flute, piano, percussion and more)2. help some of the project partners setting up a school radio3. create school songs4. perform a song contest5. help some schools creating a school choir6. help some schools setting up school bands7. organize concerts at the end of each meetingLANGUAGE:1. prepare a theatre play in the target language (English)2. perform the song contest in the target language3. perform role play activities4. listen to songs in English with their lyrics and memorize them5. invite famous people to school6. match students with their peers and provide communication tools (forums, social media)TECHNOLOGY1. prepare a digital magazine which will include students' products2. search for 3D materials for theoretical classes 3. organize software courses to develop ICT skills- to organize web-game competitions- to create a website of the project and run it- to create e-twinning accounts and run a partnershipThe project includes 4 short term exchange of students and there is 12 mobilities for students for each school. Project team will observe activities, products and performances so they will decide who will participate in these meetings. Participating in exchange meetings will be a kind of awards for students and selection criteria will be announced at the very beginning of the activities to be fair and transparent. PARTICIPANTSStudents/teenagers: There will be teams of 90 students in each partner organisation so 450 in total will take part actively in project activities. Approximately 1000 students/teenagers will indirectly be affected. Teachers/Adults: There will be teams of 8 teachers in each partner organisation so 40 in total will be active in project activities. Approximately 100 teachers/adults will indirectly be affected.Administrative staff: The head teacher/chairman and a deputy head will take part in the project, Approximately 20 administrative staff will indirectly be affected.Families: The number of the family members will be 300 in total and they will contribute to introduce the host country’s culture, tradition and to prepare traditional food for international evening. Approximately 480 family members will indirectly be affected.Local community: Local community like local press, municipality, directorate of national education and PTA will help to disseminate the project to a wider community. Approximately 800 people from local community will indirectly be affected.RESULTS AND IMPACTSThrough our project the five partners intend to create both short-term and long-term tangible and intangible results and to achieve the biggest possible impact as leading students to overcome lack of self-esteem, basic skills and provide holistic learning as an innovative practice. Project website will provide continuous access to the general information of the project activities and progress.
Our project MUSIC TO FIRE SKILLS FOR BETTER MOTIVATION INTO EDUCATION was a school project which connected schools from Germany, Turkey, Lithuania, Poland and Italy to use especially music to motivate students putting more effort into their school work. All of us had realized a lack of motivation for school at a high percentage of students and we had got in contact beforehand to agree on a topic and general outline. Our objectives were to collect best practice activities which can be especially included in the main fields of the project which were apart from music also foreign languages and technology. Concerning music it was especially the German school who was able to help a lot as it has a strong and well-equipped music department. The Polish and Lithuanian school provided the other schools with its high experience of having held Comenius and Erasmus+ projects. The Turkish school has a lot of skills in various fields such as IT (films and presentations), languages (sketches) and music (talented singers and instrumentalists). Finally, the Italian group shows a lot of energy and willingness to learn as it is a school which starts opening up for secondary students. They also agreed on working hard for the digital magazine and are well connected for implementing the project into media. Especially in the second year of the project the Italian school opened up and invested a lot into the project. We started with a coordinating meeting in Germany (November 2016) to get to know each other and to set dates and certain tasks for the upcoming meetings. We teachers thought that it would be great to include a European Market which presents typical national specialities to the welcoming event at school on the first day. Furthermore everyone presented the country, city and school to get a deeper insight into the other schools. As the following meeting in Poland (February 2017) dealt with technology every school named a task it would like to prepare for the meeting (e.g. Germany presented its "Sound and Light" club, Italy "How to prepare a blog" or Lithuania "Working with PowerPoint). The logo contest was won by the Italian school as the logo shows a hand holding the five different countries together. A ceiling is formed with the notes to the "Ode to Joy!“. Besides the teachers confirmed their plans for the meeting in Italy which was about "Language". Poland, for example, showed a sketch by Monty Python, Germany how to prepare a Poetry Slam or Turkey a traditional fairy tale. Also a song contest was held which a Turkish student won. The next meeting focused on singing and took place in Lithuania (September 2017). Each school prepared a traditional song and its own verse of the "Ode to Joy". These songs were presented at various opportunities and also recorded to have data. Furthermore the group visited a music school and a conservatory to deepen its insight into singing. The final meeting with students was planned to take place in Istanbul but because of different reasons (e.g. good instrumental equipment, sound studio etc.) the group agreed on holding the meeting in Germany (March 2018). There the group had an instrumental workshop, held a flash mob and gave a final concert. The meeting in Istanbul for teachers only was to finalize the digital magazine, the website, the e-twinning platform and work on the report. Here we also wanted to emphasize the results and impact attained which are: 1. A European friendship in all fields (teachers, students and parents) - an example for this are the already fixed plans of teachers and also of students of visiting each other in the summer and autumn holidays after the last project meeting. 2. Our European Song - we recorded our European Song to the "Ode to Joy" with our own verses. 3. Our European concert - one of our highlights as we were able to show the results of our hard work as a group. 4. Our digital magazine and website - we created the blog and website to present our project to everyone online. Here you can see videos, photos, feedback sheets to each meeting and more to get an idea about our work. 5. Feedback by students and parents - the feedback sheets as well as talking to the students and their parents gave us the idea that we reached our goals very well. They are still full of excitement about their experiences and don't stop talking about it. 6. New equipment - here we can especially talk about the German group which was also able to provide the school with a new "Erasmus" notebook, an "Erasmus" GoPro and a new sound system for events such as concerts or theatre plays thanks to the project.