We are six European Schools from Spain, Poland, Italy, Slovakia and Lithuania that have decided to join together in a project called Take the e+ Train. Using the theme of trains we want to link our schools, learn about our different cultures, embrace the concept of European citizenship and promote social inclusion. We also want to develop ecology consciousness in our communities and establish a healthy and safe style of living in our communities. Through the use of the new technologies we want to develop our students’ academic, social, linguistic and digital skills that will allow them to be future European citizens capable of surviving the constant changes in their social environment. We will seek the collaboration of our parents, our local authorities, our educational institutions and we will create synergies with other teaching and nonteaching institutions in our communities. We want the project to reach all the students in our partnership, we aim to recognise individuality and cater for the needs of individual people. We have planned activities suitable for different levels and capabilities. Designing and building a train track together, writing a cooperative story based on the project’s mascot and two refugee children travelling to all our countries by train, learning and sharing train songs and poems and getting involved in some ecology activities will cater for all our younger and older students involving all our students in the project. Collaborative work will the engine of our project. Teachers and students will cooperate using digital platforms making our students competent digital users and enhancing cooperative work in our schools. We will share our good practices and help each other to establish a more collaborative approach in our schools. We will make sure that our local national, European and international communities know about our project, we will use our website, our social media accounts and other digital and no digital tools to share and spread our project products and results beyond our partnership. Take the e+ train project will have an impact in our students, teachers, schools and communities. More collaborative work will be established in all partner schools and there will be more ecology consciousness and more awareness of the social inclusion problems in Europe. Our students will be open to new ways of teaching and learning and our teachers will become more competent. All the changes generated by the project in our schools will be kept and develop further after the life of the project and we find new ways of collaboration with our partner schools. We hope that by sharing our project products, results and achievements we inspire and encourage other schools to get involved in similar projects in the future.
We are six European Schools from Spain, Poland, Italy, Slovakia, Lithuania and Greece that have joined together in the Erasmus + project Take the e-Train. Using the theme of trains we have linked our schools, learnt about our different cultures, embraced the concept of European citizenship and promoted social inclusion. We have also developed ecology consciousness and tried to establish a healthy and safe style of living in our communities. Through the use of the new technologies we have developed our students’ academic, social, linguistic and digital skills that will allow them to be future European citizens capable of surviving the constant changes in their social environment. Families and local and educational authorities have collaborated with our project and we have created synergies with some teaching and non teaching institutions in our communities; train modelling associations, a refugees association, local libraries, universities and train museums have been involved in our project. Our project has reached younger and older students and we have planned activities suitable for different levels and capabilities spreading the project throughout our schools. We have designed and built a train track model together, we have written a cooperative story based on two refugee children, Ahmet and Dalia, travelling to all our countries by train looking for their relatives, we have learnt six train songs in six different languages, we have recorded a train songs CD and we have managed to put a choir together for our train songs concert. Our students were also involved in some ecology activities, like our eco-week, the analysis of the use of the train questionnaire and our advert about the importance of using public transport and its effects on the environment. All the activities have been embedded in our school curriculum and have helped our students to improve and achieve the basic skills in all the different areas. Cooperation has been one of our aims and the engine of our project. Teachers and students have cooperated in the distance using digital platforms and face to face during our project meetings. Cooperation was also needed in each one of the schools to be able to complete the project products and achieve our aims. As a result of that, the digital and language skills of our students and teachers have improved and cooperative work has been reinforced in all partner schools. The use of the cooperative learning gave also good support and connection to all type of students promoting inclusion an equity in all our schools. Take the e+ train project had a great impact in our students, teachers, schools and communities. Our communities are a bit more ecology conscious and as a result of our e-train story and the link with a refugees association we have all become more aware of the social inclusion problems in Europe. During the various project meetings, students and teachers were immersed in the life of all the schools in the partnership. They have gained knowledge of our different cultures and educational systems and they have spread it throughout all our schools and communities helping to break cultural stereotypes and reinforcing the understanding of our different ways. Teachers in all our schools have seen and shared good practices, they have gained in competence and they are more open to new ways of teaching and learning. Because of the project, they are now eager and willing to take part in other European projects. Due to their nature, our project products will be able to be used after the project making our project sustainable. Some of our products and the pedagogical documents created during the life of the project will be available to be used by others. The project has generated changes in all our schools. Changes that we are all willing to keep and develop in the years to come. We are aiming to share our project beyond our partnerships and we hope that by sharing our project products, results and achievements we inspire and encourage other schools to get involved in similar projects in the future.