Education has a duty to promote equality, collaboration, cooperation and creativity in order to reach unity and joy in the classroom and in all school activities. In our days where an increasing migration of people throughout Europe takes place, it is important that students and their parents acquire knowledge and understanding ( historical, cultural, geographical)of other countries. This knowledge enables them to appreciate other cultures, break down prejudice, promote Europe as a multicultural society and as an enrichment for everybody. Europe has always been a crossroad where countries, religions and cultures meet and move on creating new horizons for the people. Its cardinal points include eastern and western influences but also interaction between the purely European peoples. These things are obvious in architecture, painting and fine arts, music, even food and celebration traditions. The project "The cultural mosaic of Europe. Influences and cross-influences in European civilization" examine the origins of influences, their creative assimilation, and their imprinting in what we call common European inheritage. Project is divided in 5 parts: history, architecture and art, music, dance, food and festivities. Our project is linked to the prudent European objectives developed in the strategic framework of European cooperation in education and training (ET 2020). Based on the items of this framework, the project includes actions on: - Enhancing creativity and innovation, including entrepreneurship, which are crucial aspects integrated into our project. Thus our planned short-term exchange of groups of students are designed to link this broad objective to the specific aims of our project. - Promoting justice, equality, social cohesion and active citizenship. With this project we would broaden the work our schools are developing in their areas. - Making lifelong learning and mobility a reality; Hence tools like Portfolio of European Languages and e-Twinning permeates our proposal both as a methodology and as an assessment for our learning outcomes. Our Polish partner, who has experience of e-Twinning projects awarded with the European Quality label, is the guide for the rest of the team who need to implement this useful tool in their school. - Improving the quality of education. All our activities, including those in the short-term exchange of students, are designed to be based on the acquisition of key competences for all age ranges (11 - 16) and abilities. We expect that the competences of the basic skills will improve, that students will learn how to collaborate, finding it enriching. We will focus on expressing feelings and expressive activities, in feeling free to share ideas, in stimulating creativity. Students will be taught using music to learn foreign languages, express themselves in art, music, writing, composing, digital tools and learn how to respect each other as a European citizen. Our activities include Project logos, emagazines, Video product, articles, e-twinning platform, public events (Music, Art, Drama) in each school community, social media and organizational websites (EU Dissemination Platform and EST). The project is likely to have a substantial positive impact on the participants. Pupils will increase basic skills in an enjoyable way, improve foreign language skills, develop skills such as advanced IT competence, create challenging activities, understand better cultural and linguistic diversity and increase their and satisfaction in their daily life. Teachers will strengthen their professional profile, share experiences, learn to use appropriate tools to evaluate the results, coordinate innovative projects and learn ICT devices. The organizations will improve their profile and enhance their international dimension, improve their school policy plan. We will spread the project results outside the school community, to Parents' Association, to local school council and the regional school supporting services. At a National and European level, the target audience will be press and media and other relevant stakeholders. We will disseminate the results using evaluation forms (questionnaires, interviews). The project will have a sustainable impact.
Education has a duty to promote equality, collaboration, cooperation and creativity in order to reach unity and joy in the classroom and in all school activities. In our days where an increasing migration of people throughout Europe takes place, it is important that students and their parents acquire knowledge and understanding ( historical, cultural, geographical)of other countries. This knowledge enables them to appreciate other cultures, break down prejudice, promote Europe as a multicultural society and as an enrichment for everybody. Europe has always been a crossroad where countries, religions and cultures meet and move on creating new horizons for the people. Its cardinal points include eastern and western influences but also interaction between the purely European peoples. These things are obvious in architecture, painting and fine arts, music, even food and celebration traditions and because of that these were our main aims. The project "The cultural mosaic of Europe. Influences and cross-influences in European civilization" examined the origins of influences, their creative assimilation, and their imprinting in what we call common European inheritage. Project was divided in 5 parts: history, architecture and art, music, dance, food and festivities. Our project was linked to the prudent European objectives developed in the strategic framework of European cooperation in education and training (ET 2020). Based on the items of this framework, the project included actions on: - Enhancing creativity and innovation, including entrepreneurship, which are crucial aspects integrated into our project. Thus our short-term exchange of groups of students were designed to link this broad objective to the specific aims of our project. - Promoting justice, equality, social cohesion and active citizenship. - Making lifelong learning and mobility a reality; - Improving the quality of education. All our activities, including those in the short-term exchange of students, were designed to be based on the acquisition of key competences for all age ranges (11 - 16) and abilities. The competences of the basic skills improved, students learnt how to collaborate, finding it enriching. We focused on expressing feelings and expressive activities, in feeling free to share ideas, in stimulating creativity. Students learnt how to use music to learn foreign languages, express themselves in art, music, writing, composing, digital tools and learn how to respect each other as a European citizen. Our activities included project logos, emagazines, Video product, articles, e-twinning project, public events (Music, Art, Drama) in each school community, project blog. From the evaluation we noticed that the project had a substantial positive impact on the participants. Pupils increased basic skills in an enjoyable way, improved foreign language skills, developed skills such as advanced IT competence, created challenging activities, understood better cultural and linguistic diversity and increased their and satisfaction in their daily life. Teachers strengthened their professional profile, shared experiences, learnt to use appropriate tools to evaluate the results, coordinated innovative projects and learnt ICT devices. The organizations improved their profile and enhanced their international dimension, improved their school policy plan. In the project students from 11 to 16 were involved, about 500 total. In the mobilities 112 students and 43 teachers were involved. We spreaded out the project results outside the school community, to Parents' Association, to local school council and the regional school supporting services. At a National and European level, the target audience were press and media and other relevant stakeholders.