"The most we can give our children are roots and wings." (Goethe) As Goethe put it, it is our responsibility to show our children that in our ever-changing but sadly fragmented European existence, there are ways to fight against the biggest obstacle towering ahead us: misunderstanding. We can teach them that if they know where they come from, they will see their paths more clearly ahead of them. We have to show them that regardless of our origin, our European culture has the same roots, the roots which are most clearly visible in the folk tale culture of each country, in which the beliefs, the traditions, the basic feelings, the fears and phobias are present. If they see that we have the same background, they will understand, accept and tolerate each other more. That is why we chose folk culture as our starting point but our final goal is to write “Our Common European Tale”, a contemporary fantasy, based on the common characteristics of the folk culture of the participating countries, identified by the participating students. In between, we would like to create an unusual and challenging learning/teaching environment for our students and teachers, in which they have the opportunity to be overcome their boundaries, leave their comfort zones, use modern technology, express and develop themselves, so “spread their wings”. There are 6 partners in this project from the following countries: Hungary (European Coordinator), Denmark, Croatia, Romania, Italy and Portugal. The age of the students involved in this project is 14-18 years old. The total number of students involved is 4000. The project will consist of 6 short-term student exchanges, 1 Transnational Project Meeting and 1 Short-term joint staff training event. In between the student exchanges, the partners will engage in different activities connected to the project, such as OCET Clubs, contributing to vlogs or blogs, writing scripts of folk tales, taking part in a folk tale writing contest and a short film making contest. The objectives of the project are to create teaching materials based on the folk tale culture of each partner country; write scripts and stage 6 folk tales from each country; compile the materials created (teaching materials, interviews, essays) into a book; create a DVD containing the recorded materials (e.g. videos of the performances, vlogs, short movies); organize OCET clubs in the partner schools where students could share and discuss their experiences; create multimedia platforms for the materials (website, vlogs, blogs, Facebook page, YouTube channel); organize a writing contest among students to write the „Our Common European Tale” a contemporary fantasy based on the common characteristics of the folk tale cultures of the partner countries; organize a film-making contest among students of the participating schools to shoot a short movie based on the winning tale of the writing contest; increase students’ motivation towards folk culture, English language, Literature; increase students’ performance at national exams and PISA evaluations; increase teachers’skills and competences, as well as develop their professional attitudes Based on the Aarne-Thompson-Uther classification of folk tales, the partners will work on the following topics during each short-term student exchange: 1. Animal Tales - Hungary 2. Tales of magic - Croatia 3. Religious tales - Denmark 4. Realistic tales - ITALY 5. Tales of the stupid ogre - Portugal 6. Anecdotes and jokes -Romania The topic of the final short-term student exchange: 7. “Our Common European Tale” will be written by the students and it will be based on the common topics, themes, symbols, characters and narratives of the folk tale culture of the partner countries. The results of the project will be a contemporary fantasy written by the students, 6 short film adaptations of this tale, a book and a DVD containing the materials of the project, a YouTube channel and a website. All partners involved in this project have a few common traits that we believe will make this partnership successful: they all have taken part in previous Erasmus+ projects; they have strong relations with universities in their cities; the Literature/Arts and Drama teachers in each school are all part of the project team; some of the teachers have already published books in the related field; all school managers are supportive of such projects; all schools wish to improve their students results at National examinations and PISA evaluations; more than 20% of the student are daily commuters or come from disadvantaged areas and social backgrounds (minorities, single-parents families, low-income families, migrants) that the schools wish to support in order to have better access to education and European values. Having all these aspects in mind, we believe that this project offers an innovative context for all teachers involved, where they can present and share their ideas and directions in teaching and share good practices.
The "Our Common European Tale" (OCET) project ran between 01. 09. 2017. and 31. 08. 2019. There were 6 partner countries: Hungary (the European Coordinator), Croatia, Denmark, Italy, Portugal and Romania. All the partners had been involved in common projects before this one, so the make-up of the partnership was ideal. The main idea of the project was to examine the common cultural roots of the partner countries by studying their folk-tale culture using drama, drama pedagogy and the latest multimedia platforms available. The partners worked with the Aarne-Thompson-Uther classification of folk-tales and each of them presented that given section of their folk-tale culture to the partners: 1. Animal Tales - Hungary 2. Tales of magic - Croatia 3. Religious tales - Denmark 4. Realistic tales - ITALY 5. Tales of the stupid ogre - Portugal 6. Anecdotes and jokes -Romania The partners had to choose a national folk-tale, adapt it for stage and during the short-term student exchanges, the participating students rehearsed and performed the play in front of an audience. The objectives of the project were to: - create teaching materials based on the folk tale culture of each partner country; - write scripts and stage 6 folk tales from each country; - compile the materials created (teaching materials, interviews, essays) into a book; - create a DVD containing the recorded materials (e.g. videos of the performances, vlogs, short movies); - organize OCET clubs in the partner schools where students could share and discuss their experiences; - create multimedia platforms for the materials (website, vlogs, blogs, Facebook page, YouTube channel); - write the „Our Common European Tale” a contemporary fantasy based on the common characteristics of the folk tale cultures of the partner countries; - shoot a short movie based on a national folk-tale; - increase students’ motivation towards folk culture, English language, Literature; - increase students’ performance at national exams and PISA evaluations; - increase teachers’ skills and competences, as well as develop their professional attitudes The participants were students and Drama/Literature/Arts teachers from the partner schools. There were arond 700 participants of the project. Many of them came from underprivileged socio-economic background facing economic, social, geographical, educational obstacles or having health problems. The project favoured those who are having any of these obstacles or problems and with the diverse project activities, they had the opportunity to take part in the project. Outside the partnership, the most important participants were the families who hosted the foreign students during each mobility, the local drama or theatre companies who helped the students to stage the play, local universities from where lecturers came to talk about the actual topic during mobilities and local businesses (e.g. hotels, restaurants). The project activities were methodical and cyclical. Each period started with the short-term student exchange, during which the participants rehearsed and performed play based on a folk-tale of the host country. The tale was adapted for the stage by the students of the host school. During the mobilities, the participants attended workshops, lectures and visited museums or related sites to immerse themselves into the folk-tale culture of the host country. There were 6 short-term student exchanges, each partner hosted one (3 in the first year and 3 in the second year). After the mobilities, at home in the so-called OCET Clubs the students studied their folk-tale culture and compared it to that of the host country. They created quizzes about their folk-tale culture using Kahoot, Redmenta or Socrative and sent it to their pairs (there were 3 pairs and the pairs changed after each mobility). Based on their findings the students prepared a short presentation for the next mobility. During the 2nd year, the partners wrote the "Our Common European Tale" together. They divided the structure of a tale into 6 sections and each partner wrote 1 section. The tale incorporates the common elements of the folk-tale cultures of the partner countries. Also, during the 2nd year, the students shot a short film based on a national folk-tale. All of these are edited into a book with a DVD booklet published at the end of the project and also uploaded onto the project's website and social media channels (Facebook, YouTube). The project has an eTwinning site as well. These sites are available for anybody who is interested in the work the project. We, the partners believe that apart from the concrete results (e.g. better grades in Literature, better performances at exams, etc.) the project has long-term benefits which cannot be measured: the participants worked harmoniously together for a common goal, proving that it is still possible to built real, trans-European communities in our fragmented and troubled old continent, called Europe.