Partners have analysed schools’ teachers’ and pupils’ needs and established a network of 7 schools from different EU countries: Austria as coordinating school, Czech Republic, Slovenia, Croatia, France and Spain, and have composed a plan for a 2-year international project. The project “Art@Heart” will be a stimulus for exploring and developing new teacher-learner strategies through a three fold focus on: ART - activities involving painting, craftwork, music and drama. @ - ICT skills, connecting with each other and using different tools and mobile applications, HEART - everything concerning well being, health while developing language learning and cultural identity as a European Citizen. The project ART@HEART promotes the development of active citizens who cherish the importance of creativity, healthy lifestyle and value cultural diversity. The project focuses on the health of the heart as the health of a person. Art in its widest form contributes to health and well being and helps us acknowledge the importance of welfare. Feeling good makes your life healthier. The tempo of our daily lives is determined by the ever changing technologies around us. Although there are many benefits there is also a negative aspect which very often allures children into an escapism to the virtual world of internet, social networks, reality TV computer games, etc. Many children do not use ICT as a learning resource. Children as well as many adults don't pay enough attention to the development of creativity and overall healthy lifestyle, including personal development, sports, outdoor activities, healthy meals, quality food, etc. The activities proposed in the project will support sustainable development, lifelong learning and analytical skills involving pupils, parents, school staff, members of local community. The enrichment of language is an intrinsic value of the project which will benefit both teachers and pupils. Experience has shown, that even the most reticent learner will make more of an effort when there is a specific purpose for communication. Most of the language activities are ICT based offering our students ample opportunity to develop their skills in this area as well as embracing a cooperative learning approach. While sharing knowledge about routines, traditions, celebrations, information on their surroundings and history in their own countries, they acquire insight into who we are and what we stand for as the essence of our identity as citizens. Knowing why we are the way we are, provides us with the tools to develop empathy and tolerance of other people and countries. Each teacher comes from a very different educational setting and can contribute to sharing a variety of teaching practices specific to their setting. The student mobilities will offer an unparalleled experience to deepen children’s insight and understanding of the life of their peers in other countries. The experience of visiting and hosting visits allows them to compare, contrast and learn both in educational as well as social aspects, under the umbrella of the European framework and organization. Through the use of modern technologies, an interactive web-site and the production of conclusions Art@Heart aims to develop lifelong skills for a successful future: healthy lifestyles, communication with a purpose, empathy and tolerance towards other societies, assertive attitudes in our learning and intercultural competence . The results of the project will be an international collection of healthy recipes, international collection of folk songs, international collection of children’s art works, stop motion animations, Weebly website, eTwinning TwinSpace blog, online gallery, International musical, presentations of cultures/schools/countries (for instance PPT, Prezi, JellyCam)... All participants will improve their language skills. The final products will be available for other schools and teachers so they can use them as learning-teaching materials, as examples of good practice, as an idea to start their own (international) projects in order to improve their competences and skill and build an encouraging, inspiring learning-teaching environments. Sustainability is also possible through school funds destined to the development and implementation of innovative practices demonstrating accelerated progress of pupils especially in the ICT field. Schools have the opportunity to take the most effective practices from across Europe and place them in their curriculum. As a result of this modification the benefits to teachers and learner practices will continue to have an impact long after the project has finished.
Partners have analysed schools’ teachers’ and pupils’ needs and established a network of 7 schools from different EU countries: Austria as coordinating school, Czech Republic, Slovenia, Croatia, France and Spain, and another school from Austria have composed a plan for a 2-year international project. The Czech partner withdrew and the tasks were redistributed. Approximately 2800 people participated in the project. Mostly students and their teachers actively took part in it. Parents and teachers of other schools formed part of a wider community. The project “Art@Heart” was a stimulus for exploring and developing new teacher-learner strategies through a three fold focus on: ART - activities involving painting, craftwork, music and drama. @ - ICT skills, connecting with each other and using different tools and mobile applications, HEART - everything concerning well being, health while developing language learning and cultural identity as a European Citizen. The project ART@HEART has been promoting the development of active citizens who cherish the importance of creativity, healthy lifestyle and value cultural diversity. The project focused on the health of the heart as the health of a person. Art in its widest form contributed to health and well being and helped participants and wider audience to acknowledge the importance of welfare. As a starting point for the artistic development a logo competition was held among the partner schools and a winner was chosen to symbolise our project. Each country produced an exchange of culture boxes that promoted the cultural values of our countries through child inspired artefacts. A variety of ephemeral land art exhibits have taken place throughout the different seasons of the projects. Collaborative activities included the production of a project anthem and two musicals. Each school implemented the use of ICT as learning resources according to their own ICT infrastructure. Twinspace was used by all partners as our project website. The student mobilities offered an unparalleled experience to deepen children’s insight and understanding of the life of their peers in other countries. The experience of visiting and hosting visits allowed them to compare, contrast and learn both in educational as well as social aspects, under the umbrella of the European framework and organization. The final products are available on Twinspace and on Croatian Carnet platform for our partner schools and will be an OER (open educational resource) as learning-teaching materials and examples of good practice. There is also an embedded Youtube list on Twinspace which highlights the practical implementation of these resources. Long term benefits include sustainable network of teachers for future cooperation, exchange of artwork, exchanging ideas, international art exhibitions, participating art competitions and a project anthem reflecting universal values of similar projects.