Following the objectives and educational principles of our school and faithful to our distinguishing character of innovative and educationally active school, the teachers of the School Guernica have committed to continue to investigate through a Project that is more matched to the skill-based learning demanded from Europe and aimed to educate the future citizens of a globalized world. In our review of different way to face this challenge, found out the essential principles on which will be resting our efforts to go and reach where we want to. It is essential for us to introduce our educational Project into a European environment, to be developed with the appropriate partnership. We have found a really good one, formed by schools from five countries (Spain, Italy, Estonia, Slovakia and Poland). Each team has professionals skills and abilities enough to carry out this project effectively and so achieve the proposed objectives. Among us there are an etwinning ambassador, specialists in languages, arts, music, digital skills, projects management, different active methodologies and all have experience in different European projects.On the grounds of such a social-educational context, our Project will cover:• MULTIPLE INTELLIGENCES as an educational theory fully suited to develop respect to diversity (personal and cultural). • Educational innovation for teachers and students. The COOPERATIVE METHODOLOGY can be used as the proper approach given the current challenges posed by a changing society. The simultaneous international implementation at the partner schools provides for consistency of the Project and of the action research conducted by the partnership. ART provides some tools very easy to integrate in the objectives of our activities, bearing in mind the diversity of interests of our students. Antoine de Saint- Exupéry’s “The Little Prince” has been selected as motivating focus for art activities devoted to develop the multiple intelligences.• Involvement of the European teachers who will receive theoretical training in cooperative methodology and through the action research will apply, evaluate and review this methodology.• Involvement of other staff members in the activities to support the development of the project.• Involvement of the families by collaborating in specific activities and as responsible for the future of their children as European citizens.• Involvement of non-school associations that will be sharing our cooperative mindset through joint experiences• Involvement of institutions (local, national and European) by supporting the management, organization, administration and broadcasting.As mentioned, our project is based on ACTION RESEARCH methodology that provides a direct knowledge of the whole process to take place. For that purpose, has been designed activities for everyone involved directly or indirectly. These activities will have a great impact on our educational communities and will broadcast at a local, national and European level. Activities such as:• Full theoretical-practical teacher’s training on cooperative learning.• Coordination, organization, management and evaluation of the elements in our project.• Production of an educational Dossier covering our action research.• Production of a documentary covering the national and transnational experiences in the project.• Cooperative challenges and workshops.• Cooperative work arts: sculpture and muscal performance.• Activities involving communication in the common language (English) via new technologies (e-mail, etwinning platforms for students, blog entries) of their experiences throughout the project.• Awareness and involvement activities for an enhanced support by the families to this new cooperative approach.• Joint activities of students and teachers to interact with non-school collectives.• Activities involving local institutions and authorities.And finally, to ensure a long life of our project, we have designed a dissemination plan, which will be developed throughout the project and after its completion. This plan includes actions such as:• Including cooperative methodology in our educational system as a regular practise.• Sharing information of the activities, documents produced, products and outcomes (project blog and web site, twinspasce, email and transnational meetings).• Showing art works in local exhibitions.• Broadcasting of our final products (Dossier, documentary film) to local and national media, other schools and educational institutions.• Keeping regular contac with partners schools via etwinning or email.Thus with the foregoing, it is understood that our project “We are cooperARTive” is consistent in the driving principles, different levels of development and subsequent impact and broadcasting. Involves all the parties in the educational community and an essential part of its development is the European awareness expected to be achieved through Erasmus + KA219 action.
Our Project has been based on a reflection and analysis of our school specific needs for the purpose to improve our student basic skills, who face new challenges in the 21st century society. We wanted to approach this Project within a strategic framework to European Cooperation in an Education and Training area («ET 2020»), emphasizing two fundamental PRIORITIES: the HORIZONTAL priority, focused on the relevant and high level skills, either basics like transversals, from a lifelong learning perspective, and the second one, based on SCHOOL EDUCATION, focused on reinforce the learning professional profiles. It has been essential throughout the process to have found an appropriate partnership formed by schools from five countries (Spain, Italy, Estonia, Slovakia and Poland). Each one of them has contributed the energy, work and necessary tools to achieve all the targets in a proper way. Among us there has been an E-Twinning ambassador, specialists in languages, arts, music, digital skills, projects management and several active methodologies. All of them had experiences in different European projects, essential aspect to have reached a good interpersonal relationship and organization management. On the basis of such social-educational context, our Project has addressed the following aspects: -MULTIPLE INTELLIGENCES as an educational theory fully suited to develop respect to diversity. -Educational INNOVATION for teachers and students. COOPERATIVE METHODOLOGY training has allowed us to deepen in the use of new techniques and perform a more productive work action research. -ARTS provides some tools very easy to integrate in the objectives of our activities, bearing in mind the diversity of interests of our students. -The use of DIGITAL resources, either to communication or product development. -Involvement of the European TEACHERS who have received theoretical training in cooperative methodology and implement this methodology in planned activities. -Involvement of the FAMILIES by collaborating in specific activities as responsible for the future of their sons as European citizens. -Involvement of other ORGANIZATIONS (local, national and European) and non-school associations that will be sharing our cooperative mindset through joint experiences. To achieve the planned goals, the following activities with all educational community have been reached: TEACHERS: -Full theoretical-practical teacher’s training on cooperative learning -Cooperative activities tutoring FAMILIES: -Cultural and involvement activities -Informative talks STUDENTS: -Cooperative challenges -Artistic techniques workshops -Cooperative artworks (sculpture and musical performance) -Multimedia productions -Video conferences -Activities involving communication in the common language (English) via new technologies OTHER ORGANIZATIONS: -Activities involving local institutions and authorities -Activities with another organizations: nursery schools, elder people residences, Special Education schools, theaters and local cultural centres NON-SCHOOL COLLECTIVES: -Dissemination activities through training courses, seminars and presentations for educators. ERASMUS + PARTNERSHIP: -Assessment tools development -Production of an educational Dossier and documentary film covering our action research work -Project website and Twinspace -Musical pieces compositions -Cultural presentations After the development period of our Project has ended, with an excellent results, we can set that it has had a significant impact among the different educational communities. We have experienced this impact at several levels, in issues such as: -More involved and motivated teachers in the teaching-learning process thanks to the new methodologies with more interest in the use of English and deeper knowledge of another European educational systems. -More motivated and involved students in the learning process, showing more interest in other European countries. They have improved their school-peer relationships, encouraging the integration and inclusion and having more interest in a contextualize use of English. -Closer families to the educational reality in other countries, more involved at school and with a better view of the educators. In general, the schools have opened to the nearby environment, keeping relationships with other institutions and associations, with which they will maintain future actions. In a long-term, our Project aims to be sustainable thanks to the incorporation of the innovative methodologies in our school curricula and its use in the current teaching and learning practice.