"creating music – creating cultures" – a great intention, an exceptional project and a unique concept that encourages creative students and versatile teachers. It builds bridges between tradition and the modern world, analogue and digital channels, processes of school development as well as public representation and mainly builds up a link between European cultures, people and educational institutions. Based on the anchored friendship and cooperation between the schools "Grund- und Gemeinschaftsschule Pönitz" and "ESPAMOL" in Lagoa/Portugal this project is pursuing diverse targets: First, teachers will receive the possibility for upskilling in order to discover new ways of intercultural and musical transfer. Second, students will boost their musical skills by creating their own new music together with their exchange partners of the partner school during the mutual visits. Third, new methodologies as working with digital media will be introduced. Fourth, both, students and teachers will strengthen their intercultural competences and broaden their horizon. Music is central in this project and serves as a gate opener. It connects the students likewise a mutual ribbon that removes barriers and conveys solidarity from the start. The 24 students (class grades 8 – 10) and four teachers are looking forward to product-oriented learning, artistic co-work on interesting topics. Within a creative process the influence of both (music) cultures should be joined. The students will learn about the language and lyrics, typical instruments and specific melodies of both countries. At the same time, the project considers for the latest development in the musical area and songs students are currently listening to in their leisure time. The outcome is going to be new songs created by the students themselves along the entire production process: music theory, melody, instruments, lyrics, recordings and presentation on public concerts. The project is supported by digital media expertise and the existing infrastructure in the partner school “Grund- und Gemeinschaftsschule Pönitz”. Its competence regarding digital education and production was rewarded several times by the federal education institute and states a national example. This leads to future-oriented, border-crossing synergies: WebJam-Sessions, live-streams and the professional production of music in a high-standard recording studio and media lab in Pönitz. Finally, the target is to preserve the results for the future by recording the new songs (e.g., CD, SoundCloud), creating sound logos (e.g., for the school telephone waiting loop) and video sessions (e.g., DVD, Youtube) beyond the current project. This is realized by being flexible in terms of time and location-independency extending the actually scheduled duration of the project. The Portuguese partner school will benefit from the experience in the area of creative and interactive working with digital media. In the future, “ESPAMOL” is planning to increase their development in this area. Considering the broad variety of demand in musical activities in “ESPAMOL” apart the regular lessons, the German school is interested in learning about possibilities to implement a cooperation with the local music school. The third party, the students, will benefit in many ways: First, we want to intensify the European idea in both rural located schools. Second, they receive the unique possibility to intensively learn about differences and commonalities regarding music and the society of both cultures. Third, tolerance and openness will be experienced in the real live without the barriers of prejudice in terms of social equality, income and education levels. Beyond, the students will make friends for the rest of their lives. Both schools not only intensify their established relationship, which so far is restricted to mutual visits with separated repertoires of already existing music yet. This enhanced project initiative considers opportunities of innovation with the help of modern digital media. Moreover, the project encourages the planned interconnection between both cities on a municipal level (sister-city arrangements). Our long-term goal is our passion: Music is a global language that builds bridges, music is culture and creates cultures at the same time, music is language and communication at all levels: creating music – creating cultures.
"creating music – creating cultures" – a great intention, an exceptional project and a unique concept that encouraged creative students and versatile teachers. It built bridges between tradition and the modern world, analogue and digital channels, processes of school development as well as public representation and mainly builds up a link between European cultures, people and educational institutions. Based on the anchored friendship and cooperation between the schools "Grund- und Gemeinschaftsschule Pönitz" and "ESPAMOL" in Lagoa/Portugal this project was pursuing diverse targets: First, teachers received the possibility for upskilling in order to discover new ways of intercultural and musical transfer. Second, students did boost their musical skills by arranging music to new music together with their exchange partners of the partner school during the mutual visits. Third, new methodologies as working with digital media were introduced. Fourth, both, students and teachers strengthened their intercultural competences and opened their horizon. Music is central in this project and served as a gate opener. It connected the students likewise a mutual ribbon that removed barriers and conveys solidarity from the start. The 24 students (class grades 8 – 10) and four teachers were looking forward to product-oriented learning, artistic co-work on interesting topics. Within a creative process the influence of both (music) cultures was joined. The students learned about the language and lyrics, typical instruments and specific melodies of both countries. At the same time, the project considered for the latest development in the musical area and songs students are currently listening to in their leisure time. The outcome was going to be new arranged songs created by the students themselves along the entire production process: music theory, melody, instruments, lyrics, recordings and presentation on public concerts. The project was supported by digital media expertise and the existing infrastructure in the partner school “Grund- und Gemeinschaftsschule Pönitz”. Its competence regarding digital education and production was rewarded several times by the federal education institute and stated a national example. This leaded to future-oriented, border-crossing synergies: WebJam-Sessions, live-streams and the professional production of music in a high-standard recording studio and media lab in Pönitz. Finally, the target is to preserve the results for the future by playing the arranged songs beyond the current project. This is realized by being flexible in terms of time and location-independency extending the actually scheduled duration of the project. The Portuguese partner school benefited from the experience in the area of creative and interactive working with digital media. In the future, “ESPAMOL” is planning to increase their development in this area. Considering the broad variety of demand in musical activities in “ESPAMOL” apart the regular lessons, the German school was interested in learning about possibilities to implement a cooperation with the local music school. This leads now into the new KA2 project. The third party, the students, benefited in many ways: First, we intensified the European idea in both rural located schools. Second, they received the unique possibility to intensively learn about differences and commonalities regarding music and the society of both cultures. Third, tolerance and openness were experienced in the real live without the barriers of prejudice in terms of social equality, income and education levels. Beyond, the students did make friends for the rest of their lives. Both schools not only intensified their established relationship, which so far was restricted to mutual visits. This enhanced project initiative considered opportunities of innovation with the help of modern digital media. Moreover, the project encouraged the planned interconnection between both cities on a municipal level (sister-city arrangements). Our long-term goal was our passion: Music is a global language that builds bridges, music is culture and creates cultures at the same time, music is language and communication at all levels: creating music – creating cultures.