The project is to provide opportunities for cultural integration, ignite the passion for knowledge and learning about famous people, develop teamwork skills, as well as developing knowledge of communications technologies. In addition, the project will result in developing conclusions/recommendations on how to work with students. The recommendations will be developed based on research and observations. Tools used by teachers to evaluate students will be developed based on the principles of neurodidactics. The project consists of two stages. In the first one, children and teenagers are asked to create a presentation (album, book, video, computer based presentation) on a hero they know from their mother tongue class (literary hero), history class (national or regional hero), geography class (national explorer), or PE class (sportsperson). Heroes – national representatives – will be selected by individual schools by in-school voting. Information on national/regional heroes will be exchanged as part of the project. Children will send messages containing information on their national heroes using advanced communications technology. This will result in addressees getting to know other European countries as they will be presented with individual countries’ heroes. Such approach to teaching/learning is much more effective according to neurodidactics practitioners. Children learn about the history of a country by getting to know a specific hero – they identify themselves with the hero and remember information on the same quicker and more effectively. Students will exchange their presentations via e-mail, Skype and social media, learning how to use communications technologies. The first year of the project will see involvement on the part of the teachers. Questionnaires will be developed to get to know students’ learning preferences, their daily routines, how much time they devote to learning, and in what situations they learn the easiest way. Research materials for teachers will include videos recorded by students, showing their ordinary day. Children’s habits will be researched and monitored to see in what conditions and when they learn. The information will be gathered by each partner school and will be used for developing a relevant report. The main focus of the second stage of the project will be on analysing the results and developing recommendations to be implemented in schools. The recommendations will be created strictly according to the principles of neurodidactics. The main objective and assumption of neurodidactics is teaching that is friendly for the brain, utilising students’ cognitive curiosity and the strengths of the brain, as well as combining purely cognitive knowledge with emotions, allowing students to formulate hypotheses and independently seek solutions, not merely limited to verbal communication, and making it easier to combine single chunks of information into one coherent whole. The most essential element and the precondition for success is to be able to use students’ cognitive curiosity. Equally important is to create a safe and friendly environment. To bring the principles of neurodidactics into schools, we need to understand children’s habits. Based on that, partner schools will be able to develop specific recommendations to facilitate the learning process. In the second year of the project’s duration, children from all partner schools will create a book (album) containing photographs and descriptions of heroes (exceptional people) from their immediate environment (family, friends). This will make them realize that heroes are among them. The publication will include the best works from individual schools. Other works will be displayed. The project will activate both teachers (search for efficient solutions to improve teaching/learning conditions and methods) and students who will learn about European countries through creative activities.
The project "My Little Europe" cooperated with schools from the following countries: Poland, Lithuania, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Spain and Portugal. The main coordinator of all project work was a primary school from Poland. All participating facilities are primary schools (or school teams). Each institution very conscientiously approached its tasks, implemented all assumptions and enriched the project with its own ideas. In each school there was a group of the most committed teachers, supporting the coordinator in fulfilling the activities. In addition to teachers, there were also students who prepared tasks included in the project, as well as the local community (parents) who helped in organizing visits in individual countries. Each time, in the preparation of visits, local authorities were also involved (especially those responsible for educational matters) through the organization of meetings and discussion panels. All project goals have been fulfilled. The most important are: - Cultural integration (both among the teaching community through permanent contact and exchange of experience as well as the student community through maintaining correspondence); - stimulating the passion for searching for information among students through learning about European heroes of partner countries; - Promoting a new learning model through gaining knowledge about neurodidactics; - Practical application of neurodidactics in the everyday teaching process; - Enrichment of knowledge about student habits related to the learning process through conducting and analyzing questionnaires; - Enhancing information about the level of teachers' knowledge in the field of applied innovations / different recording techniques by conducting and analyzing questionnaires; - Enriching information on the level of parents' knowledge concerning their support in the process of teaching their children through carrying out and analyzing questionnaires; - Shaping team work and using modern tools at work by learning innovative applications and introducing them into the daily work of the school; - Developing recommendations for working with students by introducing neurodidactic techniques into the teacher's individual work plan and school’s work plan; - Expanding the knowledge of teachers in the practical use of neurodidactics through the organization of workshops for teachers in the project, as well as conducting training for the teaching staff from the local environment; - Dissemination of project activities through activity on the blog of the project (http: //mylittleeurope.blogspot), organization of the event for the local environment, publication of a free information brochure about the project and the basis of neurodidactics, which was distributed to partner schools and the local environment. The above-mentioned goals were implemented through multiple activities carried out in all schools participating in the project. The most important of them are: - Creating and exchanging presentations about the school, city, region and country from which particular partners come from; - Organization of a neurodidactic conference, on which papers related to the scientific view of neurodidactics were presented; the educational dimension of neurodidactics, gamification and gamification; - Learning modern ICT tools, eg Scratch language, applications supporting effective learning processes, eg Animoto, Bouncee, Prezi, Piktochart, Infogram, Plickers; - Creating European corners in each school where we inform the school community about the tasks, results and challenges of the project; - Ground floor meetings in Poland, Lithuania, Macedonia, Bulgaria, Spain and Portugal, during which job shadowing and a series of trainings and workshops (brain-friendly teaching, neurodidactics in practice, learning useful applications) and exchange of experiences were carried out; - EBRU training - painting on water as a method of developing students' creativity and strengthening their perceptual skills; - Implementation of literary, artistic and photographic competitions organized around European heroes; - Implementation of the hero's choice - a person who is important for individual countries participating in the project. Preparing a presentation about it, exchanging materials and developing tasks (quizzes, crosswords) on the basis of student work - international tournament of knowledge; - Conducting surveys among students, teachers and parents who have enriched knowledge about methods and methods of learning; - Promotion of the project among the school and local community (media, press, events) in the form of press releases and open meetings for parents and other teachers, during which mini knowledge tournaments, art workshops and talks on the practical dimension of project activities were organized; - Conducting meetings for teachers in the field of neurodidactics and establishing permanent cooperation with these institutions (also in schools that do not take part in the project).