Letters and Figures is a two-year-long project for five schools from Finland, Turkey, Spain, Italy and Poland as a coordinator. A common problem has emerged among the students of the partner schools: they are not motivated to learn and/or do not possess an incisive study method; they get easily frustrated as they cannot cope with difficulties: many of them give up while carrying out even simple tasks because they do not manage effectively the learning tools. In general they use the internet and technological devices in a misleading way: they are digital natives but they are not aware that technology can be a useful means to achieve effective learning. Therefore, the main priority of the project is to improve students’ basic skills, reading, writing and numeracy, in order to develop higher thinking skills. The project activities are planned in order to combine the development of basic skills and 21st century skills. Motivating context will be created and student-friendly tools will be used, incorporating technology in a meaningful way in the learning process; the students will be offered the frames of different activities and their task will be to plan the steps, perform the activities and publish the outcomes. The method that the students will use will improve their creativity and self-reliance and lead them to become managers of their own learning process. The project will directly involve 180 students and 40 teachers from five countries. The activities will be varied and engaging. Book clubs will be set in every school: students will share their reading experiences in different ways and books will be read for an audience. Students will take an active part in creative writing workshops: there will be drama workshops and the students will prepare a performance rewriting the story of a book. There will be events where books and reading experiences will be shared. The relationship between Mathematics and Literature will be emphasized by creations of limericks, epigrams, haiku and riddles etc. Mathematical verbal problems will be proposed as animated cartoons or strips and solved by students. Coding tasks related to problem solving will also be carried out. At the end of the project there will be the Mathematic Olympic Games – a “gamified summary” of the project - in which students will create their own competition tasks. During the project there will be recorded lesson plans, flipped learning videos and different kinds of questionnaires that will help students and teachers choose the best way to activate the learning process. As a result students will create book reviews on eTwinning, they will write collaborative scripts and create and publish FanFiction online. The drama will be performed and there will be public ”Share a Book”- events and theme days. The students will create eBooks on Maths verbal tasks and animated Maths problems. The Mathematical Olympic Games will be held at the end of the project. There might be further outcomes that may be the products of students’ ideas. The great number of planned dissemination activities will aim at promoting and spreading the knowledge and skills that students and teachers will achieve during the project. The students’ works will be uploaded to the project webpage, the eTwinning platform and they will appear on the Erasmus+Corners/i Corners in the schools’ halls. The teaching materials will be shared on the project webpage and on Edmodo platform, also some good practices are going to be shared in Open Educational Resources. The project is expected to have a huge impact on both students and teachers. Students will broaden their knowledge and skills in an interesting way which is meant to stimulate their creativity and self-reliance. Not only will they communicate better in English, but they also will be better motivated in learning languages in the future being more aware of its importance. The students will get to know different cultures from the project countries. This will make them more open to diversity and more aware of their own culture. The teachers involved in the project will refresh their teaching methods and get to know the special features of different educational systems as well as learn to work in a multinational group. As a result, they will definitely feel more motivated for future work. In conclusion, we strongly believe that our project, both in terms of methodological approach and of results, will be a source of inspiration for other potential users. The final message we want to share with a larger audience is that letters and figures are no longer just a series of entries but full of lively meanings and a source of creativity.
‘Letters and Figures Alive’ was a two-year-long project for five schools: from Finland, Turkey, Spain, Italy and Poland as a coordinator. The motive for application was a common problem appearing among the students of the partner schools: they were not motivated to learn and/or do not possess an incisive study method, they got easily frustrated as they couldn’t cope with difficulties, many of them gave up while carrying out even simple tasks because they didn’t not manage effectively the learning tools. Also they used the Internet and technological devices in a misleading way. They are digital natives but they were not aware that technology can be a useful means to achieve effective learning. Therefore, the main priority of the project was to improve students’ basic skills: reading, writing and numeracy, in order to develop higher thinking skills. The project activities were planned in order to combine the development of basic skills and 21st century skills. Motivating context was created and student-friendly tools were used, incorporating technology in a meaningful way in the learning process. The students were offered the frames of different activities and their task was to plan the steps, perform the activities and publish the outcomes. The method that the students used improved their creativity and self-reliance and led them to become managers of their own learning process. The project directly involved around 300 students between 12 and 16 years old and around 50 teachers. The activities were varied and engaging. Book clubs were set in every school (either digital or traditional): students shared their reading experiences. The students created book reviews on eTwinning. In Finland the students took an active part in creative writing workshops and they wrote collaborative 6 parts of FanFiction, which were the base for the script of the drama. In Italy there was a drama workshops and a common play was prepared and performed at the end of the meeting. In each country books were read aloud for an audience of young children. There were events where books with dedications were shared. The transition from the humanities to the mathematical skills was the preparation of the survey for teenagers and adults on the forms of spending free time, and then analyzing the results. The relationship between Mathematics and Literature was emphasized by creations of limericks, haiku and riddles and crosswords, examples of which were collected in one ebook. The students worked on mathematical-logical problems and learned to solve them. Each school chose one and prepared a video recording for the common presentation. Coding tasks related to problem games were carried out during the meeting in Poland. At the end of the project, in Granada, there was the Mathematic Olympic Games. The students competed in international groups solving different mathematical-logical tasks. In the course of the project we often shared teaching materials. During the meeting in Spain the teachers were presented with a flipped learning kind of lessons. Different kinds of questionnaires helped the students and the teachers to choose the best way to activate the learning process and to evaluate the project. The great number of planned dissemination activities aimed at promoting and spreading the knowledge and skills that students and teachers achieved during the project. The students’ works were uploaded to the project webpage, the eTwinning platform and they appeared on the Erasmus+ Corners/i Corners in the schools’ halls. The teaching materials was shared on the project webpage, also some good practices were shared in Open Educational Resources. All schools have prepared an information brochure on the project and have sent it to other schools and educational institutions in the region. The project had a huge impact on both students and teachers. Students broadened their knowledge and skills in an interesting way which stimulated their creativity and self-reliance. Not only they communicated better in English, but they also were better motivated in learning languages in the future being more aware of its importance. The students got to know different cultures from the project countries. This made them more open to diversity and more aware of their own culture. The teachers involved in the project refreshed their teaching methods and got to know the special features of different educational systems as well as learn to work in a multinational group. As a result, they definitely felt more motivated for future work. In conclusion, we strongly believe that our project, both in terms of methodological approach and of results, was a great source of inspiration for other users. We really tried to share the message that LETTERS and FIGURES are no longer just a series of entries but full of lively meanings and a source of creativity.