Following two Comenius projects carried out together, two vocational forestry and environmental studies Secondary Schools from The CZECH REPUBLIC and FRANCE have decided to continue their cooperation and welcome one SLOVAK school of similar size and curriculum topics to one ERASMUS+ strategic multipartnership project entitled : TWAS. "TWAS" for "Thermal Waters And Spas : natural heritages and assets for the future". The OBJECTIVES are numerous but for all schools, it will be essential to give their LEVEL 4 LEARNERS from rural and remote areas, the opportunity to discover the diversity of the EU and meet fellow students in order to see how similar curriculum topics can be taught in another European country. For their TEACHERS the objective is clearly to experiment good practices and exchange on pedagogical innovation in the fields of geology, biology, chemistry, forestry, environmental protection, economics and art. The multidisciplinary aspect of the project is then clearly asserted. The project should INVOLVE DIRECTLY 90 students plus18 guiding teachers from all 3 countries and indirectly, many other students from these participating institutions, including other local staff and visited partners. TWAS will definitly fit into the schools' European Plan for Cooperation and benefit to all the educational communities. Under the supervision of the FRENCH COORDINATOR, the 3 teams of multidisciplinary guiding teachers have set up one COMMON AGENDA of activities which follows the ERASMUS+ programme requirements : 1) three transnational staff meetings to implement, lead and assess the actions 2) wide use of Information Technology tools like Skype, Facebook and Web connections 3) one Blog to facilitate communication and record regularly all the happenings of the project 4) six short-term exchanges of groups of pupils to discover and work on their partners' heritages of mountain thermal waters and spas. Each year of the project, each partner will visit one school abroad and host one at home. 5) the creation of 5 final productions (4 by the students and 1 by the teachers), the logical outcomes to the below mentioned fields of study. LEARNERS will follow the detailed two-year ACTIVITY CALENDAR and turn into INVESTIGATORS on TWAS' FOUR KEY TOPICS. Their work will lead to the following 4 FINAL PRODUCTIONS:1) a scientific analysis of national thermal waters= 3 collections of EU water samples, to go with their detailed scientific analysis.2) a study of the spas' recreational forests and the use of wood in their architecture= 3 Powerpoint detailed analytical presentations3) a study on the economical aspects of the spa sector and its employment potential= 3 Powerpoint detailed reports put into perspective.4) one artistic competition based on the creation of 9 advertising posters (3 per country) to promote the visited spas= 3 sets of 3 printed posters to be showcased at school and at the spas. TEACHERS will SHARE their teaching methods and experiment NEW PEDAGOGICAL APPROACHES at FIELD WORK with their EU partners. There will be a double level of BENEFIT from these activities : first locally, the multidisciplinary aspect of the project will encourage teachers' cooperation at their own school and secondly, the TWAS activities will enrich all participating teachers' personal knowledge thanks to this pedagogical experience.Their English language skills will be improved too. All conclusions and results will be summed up into a DIGITAL REPORT which will constitute TWAS teachers' final production to be uploaded on the schools' websites, shared and used by future colleagues. The DISSEMINATION of all this work and productions will be made through:1) the project's BLOG which will report of TWAS chronology of actions 2) the PROMOTING ACTIVITIES scheduled at schools, regional offices for pedagogy and cooperation, partner spas, tourist offices.3) ONLINE through the schools' WEBSITES. 4) ONLINE with the national PORTALS of the Ministries of Vocational Education 5) ONLINE withThe European Platform for dissemination of results to give TWAS wider scope and greater European availability. Finally, TWAS impact and LONG-TERM BENEFITS will be found in the concrete final productions to become the ARCHIVES of the project, in the shared human experience, in the inspiration it will bring to all future participants and in the REINFORCED LINKS between these 3 TWAS institutions, their staff and students. It will facilitate FUTURE European cooperation programmes like Erasmus+ Key1 individual mobility for future students and professional school staff. It will make the ERASMUS+ world alive and thriving for the BENEFIT of the EU and its CITIZEN LEARNERS and TEACHERS.
SUMMARY of the PROJET "TWAS" For 2 years, from September 2016 until August 2018, one ERASMUS+ Multipartnership "school to school" project has linked 3 vocational high schools from Slovakia, Czech Republic and France and made it possible for 90 learners and 15 guiding teachers to share an intensive and most rewarding European adventure based on one scientific, environmental and cultural project named "TWAS" for "Thermal Waters and Spas: natural heritages and assets for the future". Now finished, this projet has given each school, concrete proofs of its development thanks to the final productions showcased at school, the many digital messages posted on the websites and very bright memories in the participants' heads. These 3 institutions had already developed partnerships and projects which included self-financed mobilities but also EU granted “Comenius” and “Socrates” exchanges. This was enough for teachers to feel like starting a new project together under the banner of Erasmus+ These schools have very similar structures (state schools and common forestry education provided to similar Level IV learners) but also are situated into similar mountain areas with national parks and a strong tradition of thermal waters spas. Consequently these similarities have made it possible to write the TWAS project based on common pedagogical and cultural objectives such as the (1) scientific studies of their local thermal waters with later common analysis, (2) the environmental study of wood and forests in the spas equip ments and landscapes, (3) the study of these historical heritages and the economical asset it can represent today and finally, (4) the objective of artisitic creation of 9 promoting posters of the 9 partner spas. During the first transnational meeting, the "Kickoff meeting" in France, partners have set up a calendar of activities scheduling the 6 short-term Mobilities. At school, the pedagogical team of involved teachers (including one compulsory English teacher) have selected the participating learners. These groups of 17 year-olds (from 12 to 16 of them depending on the school and the year of activity) have embarked on the projet, each school having its own way of selecting them (one full class in CZR, selection through motivation interviews in SLK and the EuroSection option study group in FR). Digital technology was at the core of the projet with the setting up of a project Group Page on Facebook and one Blog ("TheBlueStream") to inform about the unfolding of the activities over the weeks and to allow the participants to exchange views and chats and documents on the Facebook page. The school websites were also bringing testimonies of the TWAS adventure regularly. The 6 Mobilities were carried out succesfully over the 2 years, with very impatient and keen groups who did carry out the agenda of enquiries and visits of thermal places, of forests and various other cultural elements of interest to the projet. Two visits abroad for each school and welcoming two partners at home were made. These moments "boosted" the linguistic capacities of the learners who experienced the unusual moments of scientific analysis of thermal waters samples carried out in English ! Non stop communication was possible during these weeks of sharing between teenaged EU citizens... who realized how similar and different they/we can be. Prejudices could be fought during these rewarding sessions. The second transnational meeting, at the end of Year 1 held in CZR, allowed the teachers to evaluate their activities, re-arrange the agenda if needed and confirm the Year 2 calendar with its 3 final productions to come. The second year went by with hectic times, dynamic sessions and goals finally reached as confirmed by the third transnational meeting in Slovakia, in June 2018. The dissemination of the project's results and their promotion were made through local Press articles in each country and radio interviews during the mobilitiy visits. Of course the digital sites of the schools and the European platform of dissemination will herald the TWAS adventure. It will hopefully bring inspiration to the visitors and the new learners at the TWAS schools But the best testimony and maybe inspiration for future learners at the schools, will be the showcasing in the entrance halls of the 9 promoting posters made by the TWAS students as the artistic testimony of their involvment in one dynamic ERASMUS+ project !