Six schools of six countries are involved in this project; Spain, Portugal, Italy, Belgium, Hungary and Austria .The six schools have differen t profiles and talent support practices and some common goals.Our common objectives are:- to develop the logical-mathematical talent support practice in our schools- collaborative education of students, teachers and schools, by cooperation of the partner countries- to make the learning process more enjoyable and successful- an exchange of knowledge, because there is no equally significant talent support in practice in all of our partner schools so it can be expected that we may learn new methods, activities and practices from each other enriching our schools talent care repertoire.Specific and novel experiences and knowledge related to talent care are expected in these fields:• developing the capacity of engrossment • developing the ability to collaborate• developing the methodology of enrichment and relaxation• developing creativityWe want to realize these objectives through games, which is the most motivating activity for children.Activities, methodsSix meetings are planned, during which teachers and students of the project partner schools visit each other. All the participants gain personal experiences, learn new ideas and return home with novel practices. Utilization and dissemination of the knowledge they acquired will be an example to follow. The most important elements of the transnational meetings:• Understanding the schools logical-mathematical talent care activities and interpersonal practices• developing the capacity of engrossment: introduction of its methods, well-established elements• school platforms of developing the ability to collaborate, results and the methods used• good practices of enrichment and relaxation• platforms of developing children’s creativity, and its practices• teaching talent developing games with student leadership• creation and use of enlarged games suitable for collaborative games• building games suitable for relaxation and enrichment, which can be sports tools or genuine and novel games expectedly unknown for the partners and are perfect to ease tension or improve awareness, coordination and manual dexterity• introduction of relaxation games (connection of different ability areas)• introduction of national innovations, inventions and achievements in the field of games• collective game construction• cultural trips, visiting museums, sightseeing• GAME-PARTY, final event of each meeting: every participant school takes a game with them which has a great popularity in their country and which will be played with guest teachers and students from the surrounding schools invited by the host institution Interveving programs:• Game Championships to pass on the learnt games and spread them in the nearby schools and make the program known by game competitions.• a collection of student diaries following the meetingsExpected results• By the end of the project a booklet will be compiled from the national game innovations, developments and inventions of the partner countries. All the schools collect the most appropriate games, take photos and provide a description of the games. An estimated 4-6 games will be introduced during each meeting that means 25-30 games in total.• The six or five presentations held at each meeting and compiled in a collection by the end of the project will be available on a DVD for the participants and for all the interested parties on the websites of the project and the schools and on the pages of eTwinning making all the results known throughout Europe. • At each meeting we jointly build a game which is a genuine and novel game expectedly unknown for the partners and is perfect for relaxation and enrichment.Expected impacts1. on the participating teachers:• an expanded and more effective talent care methodology • a methodological, professional and knowledge renewal• English language practice• building relationships at international level2. on the participating students• development in the fields of communication, creativity, collaboration, logic and Mathematics• English language practice, improving language skills• becoming more independent, flexible, open-minded, sociable and self-confident• enriching with new experiences and making new friends3. on the participating schools:• a renewal of the approach and practice of talent management• the learnt and disseminated knowledge has a positive effect on the schools and even its related institutions as well.• Mathematics and the scientific approach becomes more popular• building and developing the schools’ relations• schools’ talent management work and practices become widely known.Talent management based on games can’t be learnt from books just in practice. There is no better reason than the topic itself to justify why should it be learnt on the spot.
The guiding principle of the project ’Logic Games with Collaborative Education’ was talent support with giant logic games. Detecting which area is a student brilliant in is easy today but deriving the greatest benefit from their talents is another side of the coin. We know that gifted students get easily lost if they don’t like their talent areas. For this reason, all the six participating schools aimed at boosting students’ mathematical-logical thinking in a joyful and action-oriented way to make them addicted to their talent areas. Enlarging logic games makes these games suitable for teams of four. The games are looked after and taught by students, the student experts giving a social aspect to the mathematical-logical promotion. It also needed engrossment to achieve a high level of knowledge of the games, an appropriate level of communicative language knowledge and self-confidence. Besides these, creation of giant games needs a collaboration of teachers, students and sometimes parents. At the beginning of the programme there was a big difference between the partner schools’ practice in the field of talent promotion. The Hungarian school’s system of using giant logic games became the chore of the project promoting it to an international level. The partners required a tutorial-like transnational meeting to familiarise themselves with the method. The meeting was also an opportunity to set the framework of the whole program. Following the transnational meeting we had 5 meetings over the two years of the project where the host schools introduced their educational and talent management programs and their games. We could learn that building and using games made students more open, creative and interested. To display the games a Game Party was part of each meeting where giant games were displayed and played by everyone. Finally, the host school presented their partners with logic games. At home students taught their mates how to play them and after practicing they organised a championship. After the first meeting there were two games chosen, Rubik Race and Rubik’s Cube. After the Belgian meeting the presented IQ was the chosen game and in Austria it was Ubongo. In Italy we voted for Jenga. The champions of the schools were played online to find the project champion. These games were played online via Skype which proved to be a mistake because six players playing in the same time was just a big turmoil. Changing to a round-robin tournament made it achievable but time management was a big problem. For the last two meetings we gave it up and were content with the school championships. Each school had their enriching, relaxing programs to make the process of talent promotion complete. It is really important to direct student’s attention to their talent area but it is also a goal to make them all-rounders who will be able to give the right answers to the challenges of the labour market. In the Italian school sports activities, drawing with sign language and jugglary, in Manteigas percussion club and creation of a biological garden was in the centre. The Austrian school did Yoga, sound bowl meditation, body percussion, braingym, simple gymnastic exercises (INPP), the Belgian school preferred mindfulness activities and massage while in Milagrosa music, dance and games were the main activities. The Hungarian school organised summer Maths camps, Talent Days, juggling trainings and shows, visited the Maths Museum and an interactive exhibition on transportation called Mobilis in Győr. A game booklet is the main outcome of the project along with a collection of good practices and a multi-language vocabulary of useful expression for playing games. We held game championships in the schools and online. Each school has built a series of giant games and plan to build new ones. Many diaries talk about what a unique feeling it was to get an insight to the life of their European fellows and their positive feelings towards the whole experience. Game Parties became the favourite program of the meetings. They were perfect for dissemination and an occasion where parents and teachers outside the project teams could get first-hand information about the program. Having become stakeholders, they could understand its substantial value. In Hungary the English Game Party became an annual competition for the schools of the district. Logic Games in Collaboration has reached its main goals to change school life by learning and following each other’s modern and playful way of talent management which increased students’ level of engrossment while it developed their social skills too. Collaboration was the key word in the title of the project and was in the centre of the program too. Collaboration made it possible for students to learn and teach games together, for teachers to share their ideas, for parents to enjoy the games their children introduced them. Those games which were produced with all these stakeholders’ contribution.