One of the fundamental needs of humans is to communicate either verbally or in writing. Language, therefore, is an instrument of socialization since it enables a fluid communication with other agents of the environment. This project starts to favour communicative skills in which all members of each school will work in unison, making learning profitable and enabling the transferability between languages. Our students will acquire strategies and techniques that will improve their way of speaking and writing and empower them to address a better future, making them feel confident about themselves. The main objective is to improve and complement the experience of each partner, resulting in different educational synergies in relation to oral and written expression, real inclusiveness in schools, the development of attitudes and values that make our students more tolerant and the attribution of responsibilities to students in the life of each school. Other objectives are: - Increase collaboration between educational institutions, sharing new approaches and methodologies in which creativity, innovation and transferability prevail. - Improve the knowledge of diversities as a cultural enrichment. - Integrate disabled students and raise their self-esteem, feeling responsible for carrying out activities for the rest of the students and offering the possibility to participate in the Learning /Teaching /Training Activities. - Create different channels of communication among students, teachers and European institutions. Our project has five partner countries: Turkey, Lithuania, Finland, Italy and Spain, and it will last for two years. With this representation, we want to embrace the wider European reality of cultures and ways of life. In our project there are three dimensions: improving oral and written language, developing inclusiveness and promoting tolerance at schools. These dimensions are always an issue in educational field but we aim to promote them in transnational levels to gain a wider perspective and widen the impact. We have all contributed to the project our previous experience to share it with the rest and to enrich each other: - Lithuania, Spain and Finland have worked giving responsibility to students in the life of the school. - All countries have approached inclusiveness and tolerance differently and we can learn from each other. - Italy, Finland and Turkey have worked on eTwinnning projects. - Spain, Lithuania and Italy have worked hard to improve oral and written expression. All educational communities are involved in this interdisciplinary project that will be integrated into the Annual General Programming, the Programming of Extracurricular Activities and the improvement plans of the schools. Each school will promote oral and written language activities by creating news, interviews, reports, commenting articles, promoting judgments, cinema and book-forum, exposing works, carrying out advertisements, theatrical sketches, role-plays about for inclusiveness and tolerance at schools where the teacher proposes learning styles in accordance with the capacities of each students, positive reinforcement and where tolerance is created by accepting the differences that facilitate integration, fostering respect, collaboration and help among all students. Our Students will emulate the troubadours, journalists, storytellers, travellers, actors, defensors of tolerance and protagonits. All this will be carried out through different methodological approaches in which students are the protagonist. It will be an active and practical methodology to get students to realize that today's society demands an efficient communicative capacity and that the possibilities of work, study, social relations and improvement depend, in large part, on our ability to interact with oral and written expression as a fundamental tool. Likewise in the LTTA they will add an added value to the project by showing the products, the games, participating in social and cultural tasks and events, interacting as ambassadors of their country. The most interesting products are the Oral and Written Expression Guide, the Oral and Written Expression Plans, the annual magazine about experiences, the blog... We would like to have a positive impact at different levels: a) In the schools themselves through the implementation of the proposed activities and objectives. b) In other schools that are around us, disseminating our project. c) With other local institutions (NGOs and City Council), organizing joint activities and sharing synergies. d) In other forums such as eTwinning, making our achievements international. This is a project in which everything learned, everything developed takes effect once the project is completed. We would dare to say that it is when the project really begins because it is when we will know activities, results, benefits, predisposition, methods and methodology in which we have all worked. Hence its sustainability.
The Erasmus + project "Troubadours, journalists, storytellers, travellers, actors, defenders of tolerance and protagonists" was designed to promote, instill and raise awareness of the importance of oral and written expression as a key element in students education in an interdisciplinary way from different subjects; its aims are to encourage students to take responsibility to develop their autonomous status in the organization of activities, thus enriching their integral formation; to promote education in values and tolerance, respecting the freedom and rights of others and to integrate students with functional diversity in the project, in order for their self-esteem and their motivation to flourish. To do this, we embark on this adventure after carrying out other experiences in other European projects or in the improvement plans developed in each school. The association has brought a sense of European value to the project by sharing these experiences, synergies, studies, jobs and achievements. Educational institutions in Finland, Lithuania, Turkey and Spain associated to share the common interest of giving and developing a European dimension to our curricula. We have maintained an open, collaborative and innovative attitude to achieve the initial objectives, which, of course, have formed and will be part of the Educational Projects of each school. The project has greatly impacted the school as it allows the entire institution to participate. Among our objectives, we have: -Improved and complemented each partner ́s experience in improving oral and written expression, real inclusiveness in schools, the development of attitudes and values that have made our students more tolerant and the attribution of responsibilities to students in the life of each school. -Enhanced a greater awareness towards a European culture by carrying out activities with students from other countries while also promoting equality and knowing other realities that involve cultural enrichment. -Strengthened collaboration between educational institutions based on the exchange of ideas, sharing new approaches and methodologies where creativity, innovation and transferability prevail. -Advocated and practiced inclusiveness in school and in life, guaranteeing equal opportunities and motivating students with disabilities. -Integrated students with functional diversity in the project activities, promoting their self-esteem by feeling responsible for organizing activities for others and enabling their participation in the LTTA. -Implemented strategies to improve language proficiency in both students and teachers, which stimulated more interest in the cultures and traditions of partner countries. -Used digital communication tools for educational purposes (eTwinning). -Successfully involved teachers, students, families and local institutions in the project activities. -Developed an Oral and Written Expression plan and a Tolerance Plan that will ever last. During these two years, the following activities have been carried: an Erasmus + corner has been established in each school along with a logo, blog, calendars and T-shirts which represent the project; we have also prepared and carried out rubrics, questionnaires and provided tips to improve oral and written expression or facilitate the lives of the disabled, as well as celebrating Days such as Europe Day, for a Secure Internet Day , Peace Day, Tolerance Week ...); Our approach to promote tolerance involved creating and representing organizations that voluntarily work to facilitate the lives of the disabled. We have also published the Guide for Oral and Written Expression, project magazines, literary competitions, “storytelling” training courses, book-forums… Likewise, we studied the realities of foreign education systems and we have worked collaboratively to elaborate documents that we believe will bring future benefits not only to our schools but also to other institutions that seek to mirror our achievements. Finally, it is indubitable that most of the project ́s activities will remain in the school once it is finished, it is a project designed for the present and for the future. We will continue to rely on our students to organise activities associated with the project and we will continue to work towards a “European” education that enables future contacts with schools in other countries. Suffice it to say that with this project our students have developed key life skills (digital, linguistic, social and civic ...) and have demonstrated confidence, commitment, good communication skills, equitable, empathy, tolerance, thoughtfulness, innovation, critique, cooperation, and are now trained and destined to live in a common Europe that they can call their own.