The culture of Europe is rooted in a traditional heritage that originated from the different regions-countries that compose it. In that sense, it is agreed that all Europeans share a common cultural background with a plurality of perspectives. Based on this knowledge, the project 'Europeanize yourself : One Europe, One People' aims at building up a common cultural understanding in a fun and dynamic way for our students aged 14-16 , who will create and experience a real feeling of belonging to the same culture, id est a general European culture made of many differencies and similarities. Nowadays, it is more and more important to be able to live together in a peaceful Europe. That is the reason why this project lays the emphasis on the building of a common society to live together as future model European citizens with respect for each other. In other words, the main objective is is to help teenagers from France, Portugal, Ireland, Sweden and Iceland create and integrate this multicultural dimension of their future life as European citizens. This project is also a step towards unity and open-mindedness in a world that is suffering from misunderstanding and rejecting other sets of cultures. Through a large range of activities such as sports competitions, art and music presentations, cultural visits (etc), we will aim at showing that the multicultural aspect and the diversity of background is at the centre of a modern Europe and that it cannot be built without understanding, sharing and experiencing, self-respect and self-confidence too.To conclude, our project will try to be as inovating as possible through its various activities, among which trainings and workshops for students and teachers, cultural visits, conferences at places of cultural importance and performances in the partner schools. It will also try to be as dynamic as can be by involving and targetting new publics and partners, including the administration staff, local partners and administrative bodies and parents, and cooperating with local NGOs. Eventually, this plurality of activities will aim at emphasising the richness of our common culture and will provide the opportunity to understand each other better and to experience the richness of our a modern Europe in a rich and innovative way.
The project 'Europeanize Yourself One Europe One People' is a 24 month-European project based on exchanging about multiculturalism and discovering others through the use of sports. The partner countries are Portugal, Ireland, Sweden and Iceland, countries with cultural similitudes when it comes to Northern Europe countries or when it comes to so-called 'Mediterranean countries'. Yet, they can also be opposite when it comes to culture, customs and traditions and languages. The main objectives of the project are numerous. First, one of the main objectives is to prove open to other cultures, espcially through the use of sports, which seems like a unifying theme that can dynamise the students and the project. In addition to this, a more cultural, social objective is planned by learning about other cultures. Then the project also aims at creating a real European network of students who will be able to live and work together, which could also help gaining self-confidence. As far as languages are concerned, there is a double objective : on the one hand, the project aims at developping the use of English as a communication tool between all partners and correspondants and then, on the other hand, it aims at discovering the languages from each country (Icelandic, Swedish, French, Portuguese, Gaelic). Concerning the teachers and staff members, the main objective is to lead both groups and activities in a foreign language, to prepare the students to meet youngsters from other countries and to work with European partners and create educational projects and share best practices. This Erasmus+ project also wants to strengthen cultural exchanges, inter-disciplinary work, and on a wider scale, aims at reflecting in European web on building up classes, using European competencies, modify methods, practices and validating skills. About the main activities, the project consists in organising and using sports activities, typical and traditional games, cultural visits and observing classes and multicutural workshops. All activities will be led in mixed groups so as to get to know about each other and in order to communicate with everyone. Some activities will take place at school, in workshops and others outdoors when it comes to museum visits, cultural visits. Some associations will also come and help organise traditional or more dynamic activities or even reflexion times about diversity. To conclude, the results and impacts have been reached and have led to some long term results such as the creation of a European week in each partner country, more exchanges, a second Erasmus+ project started in 2017 with Portugal about sharing science and maths good practices, the promotion of languages and more inter-disciplinary projects. In the long run, it will be more meaningful for students in class who will also benefit from a more cultural open-mindedness , for example they could go on professional trainings throughout Europe or go study abroad. As far as teachers are concerned, they have the possibility to start KA1 projects between teachers, more communication in general on the etwinning platform for example and also apply to new Erasmus+ cooperation projects. They can also keep in touch and organise exchanges as has been the tradition since 2010 at Collège Icare.