The rationale of the project derives from the need to +improve language skills +improve intercultural skills + improve digital skills +exchange information about culture and heritages +raise self-confidence in our students +create sense of responsibility among students +gain more knowledge about European Union and the range of European cultures, languages and values +show students the sense of being well qualified +share the differences and similarities about school management and teaching techniques We've got the idea of creating a guidebook during the project which will cover information about the participating countries. By this, the output can be used by not participating school classes for a longer period of time. The participating students will be involved in creating a product. All the students will study together during the mobility meetings and will be in contact which each other via social media during the project. The project will be split into five phases: Phase1: a) Expectations and knowledge about the other countries' culture; b) EU-basic information about bodies and institutions; advantages of the EU for its inhabitants; Phase 2: Social lives of students from participating countries and legal age for young people (age of majority, rights and liabilities connected with it, free time activities, hobbies); Phase 3: School types of the participating countries (from preschool to university); showing opportunities after graduating from a vocational school (searching the available workplaces on the local labour market etc.) Phase 4: The most important religious and national holidays of each country; Phase 5: Evaluation of the project, comparing the expectations about the countries with the experienced reality; During the phases 1-4, students will create learning material about the different topics and present it to the project partners during the mobility meetings. Mobility meetings will take place at the end of the phase 2 - 5 (in phase 1, the learning material will be send via e-mail). One aim of the project is to learn more about the culture and everyday-life situations of the participating countries as well as the EU. The different school types and educational systems, opportunities after graduating from a vocational school, national holidays and traditions, the social lives of the students as well as age of majority and rights and liabilities will be the topics. Furthermore, class attendances, visits related to the training places for the vocational courses and sightseeing activities will take place, too. The students will stay in youth hotels. If it is possible, staying in the host families will be organized. Otherwise, at least a dinner with host families will be organized for the participants by the host country. It will help students to observe a real-life situation in a host family and give the chance to taste different kinds of food. The students from different countries will be mixed when staying in dorms (female and male separated). The aim is to have as many situations for communication as possible. They will improve their speaking skills. The teachers and the students will work in an international team and improve their intercultural and language skills during the meeting. The students will have to contact a partner student via facebook or eTwinning before each mobility meeting to get information about him/her for introducing him/her to the whole group on the first day of a mobility meeting. By this project, we aim that participants will learn about the opportunities of the EU, the European values, cultures, languages and importance of education for working in the EU. This project will be very important for our students because this will be the first international experience for most of them. This project aims to: + improve the students' language skills, + improve the students' intercultural skills, + improve students' ICT skills, + improve and increase the mobility of students and educational staff across the EU, +enhance the partnerships between schools in different European Union Countries, +encourage learning better teaching techniques, +improve pedagogical approaches and school management. We are happy that the partners consist of countries from different regions with different religions and cultures as well as different economical power. Our partnership illustrates the diversity of all European countries. It will be a good lesson for all students and teachers to find the similarities and differences between the countries and cultures, as well as learning tolerance.
During the project we created a guidebook which covers information about the participating countries. Now, the guidebook can be used by not participating school classes to learn about the partner schools and their countries. The project was split into five phases: Phase1: a)Expectations and knowledge about the other countries' culture; b)EU-basic information about bodies and institutions; advantages of the EU for its inhabitants; Phase 2: Social lives of students from participating countries and legal age for young people (age of majority, rights and liabilities connected with it, free time activities, hobbies); Phase 3: School types of the participating countries (from preschool to university); showing opportunities after graduating from a vocational school (searching the available workplaces on the local labour market etc) Phase 4: The most important religious and national holidays of each country; Phase 5: Evaluation of the project, comparing the expectations about the countries with the experienced reality; During the phases 1-4, students created learning material about the different topics and presented it to the project partners during the mobility meetings (short-term visits of the parnter countries). Mobility meetings took place at the end of the phase 2 - 4. Furthermore, class attendances, visits related to the training places for the vocational courses and sightseeing activities took place, too. One impressive and teaching sightseeing activity was, for example, the visit of the memorial in Auschwitz, Poland. Being at that place with students and teachers from different European countries demonstraded the importance of the EU. At the same time, being at that place as one group symboled all the positive developments which have taken place in Europe during the last decades. Furthermore, the students and teachers visited German training companies to learn about the German Dual System and the posibilities and challenges of the European labour market during the meeting in Germany. The students stood in youth hotels. Whenever possible, students form different countries were mixed in the hotel rooms to have as many situations for communication as possible. During each mobility meeting a dinner at a host family's house was organized for the participants by the host country. It helped students to observe a real-life situation in a host family and gave the chance to taste different kinds of food. At application time we planned to send 63 people in total (45 students and 18 teachers) to the mobility meetings (short-term visits of the parnter countries). We outperformed that number: We were able to have 78 mobilities in total (58 students and 20 teachers). The teachers and the students worked in an international team and improved their intercultural and language skills during the project. All of the students were visiting vocational schools and preparing to start working after leaving school. They were aged between 16 - 21 years, several students had an immigration backround. The students had contact with partner students via facebook, e-mail or WhatsApp before and after mobility meetings. Before each meeting the students had to contact each other to gain information for the introduction which took place on the first day of each meeting. The students always had to introduce students from another country to the whole group. Because of all the above mentioned activities, participating students and teachers could learn about the culture and everyday-life situations of the participating countries as well as the EU and its importance. The different school types and educational systems, opportunities after graduating from a vocational school, national holidays and traditions, the social lives of the students as well as age of majority and rights and liabilities were the topics. At the beginning of the project a project website was created. Information about the different phases, including the learning material for each phase and photos are available on that website. Furthermore, the worked out guidebook can be downloaded from the website: http://erasmus.zsot.lubliniec.pl/ By this project, we aimed that participants learned about the opportunities of the EU, the European values, cultures, languages and importance of education for working in the EU. Many students gained their first international experiences because of the project. This project + improved the students' language skills and intercultural skills, + improved students' ICT skills, + improved and increased the mobility of students and educational staff across the EU, + enhanced the partnerships between schools in different European Union countries, + improved pedagogical approaches and school management for the teachers. We are happy that the partners consisted of countries from different regions with different religions and cultures as well as different economical power. Our partnership illustra