There can be noticed the tendency to readjust the curriculum to the European Union standards boosting pupils’ engagement in both education and motivation for learning and reaching their full potential. The project reunites 5 schools from Poland, Italy; Bulgaria, Romania, Turkey. The SWOT analysis of all partner schools showed that students’ lack of motivation to learn foreign languages is higher compared to previous years -(TR 70%, BG 44%, PL 55%, IT 45%, RO 50 %) and the low degree of internationalization of the schools curricula (TR 45%, BG 35%, IT 40%, RO 35%, PL 50%). The project will develop pupils’ intercultural competencies preparing them to be global citizens of a rapidly changing multi-cultural global world. It is known that the tomorrow’s world is a horizon of unknown scale waiting for adventurers and explorers to turn imagination into reality and their vision into action. Starting from this idea, it appeared challenging to start designing a project that embarks the actor of the educational process on an imaginary adventure about the world of 2036. The project encourages the innovation and imagination in the attempt to make students understand that they are the creators of the future. Tackling essential topics of the daily living like landscape of the future, technology and people, self and health, students will be encouraged to embrace a year of technological revolution by promoting artificial intelligence, increase web traffic, etc. OBJECTIVES: - to develop transversal and soft skills to 75 pupils and 25 teacher by August, 31st 2019 - to foster forward and conceptual thinking among 60 pupils from by August, 31st 2019 - to internationalise and broaden the school curriculum in 5 European schools - to introduce new approaches and schemes to tackle the connectedness of mind, body and spirit Internationalizing the school curriculum will provide pupils European and global perspectives of their discipline giving them a broader knowledge base for their development. The partner schools are public secondary schools (some of them have lower secondary levels, too). Students aged between 10 and 13 years old represent the main target group of direct beneficiaries. The total number of direct and indirect beneficiaries is of 2000 students and teachers. The number of students and teachers that will attend the international mobilities is of 60 students and 40 teachers from all partner schools. Our project welcomes all students to join the activities, including the ones with fewer opportunities, and around 25 students belonging to this category will be involved. The project is planned to have 24 months duration. There are planned 2 short-term joint staff training events (at the beginning and ending of the project) and 3 short-term exchanges of groups of pupils. During the short-term joint staff training events (Turkey and Poland) partners will reorganize the Partnership Activities Plan – objectives, tasks, distribute tasks, agree on the strategy of impact, dissemination, sustainability of the project, exchange information about the educational system of each country, evaluate the project and elaborate the final report. During short-term exchanges of groups of pupils (Bulgaria, Italy and Romania) partners will organize activities with students for achieving the project objectives, discuss the quality of the products, elaborate the interim report, evaluate the impact of the activities, analyze the results of the questionnaires, and exchange information about what was achieved. The project is divided into topics that will be approached during the short-term exchanges of groups of pupils. These topics are: LANDSCAPE OF THE FUTURE, TECHNOLOGY AND PEOPLE, SELF AND HEALTH. Tangible results of our common work are: lesson plans; presentations; videos about Global Warming; scale models as examples of using alternative energy; multimedia posters; e-book “Me and my imaginary world of 2036” - topics approached: social issues (terrorism, refugees, wars), healthy lifestyles; newsletters; logo; calendar; promotional materials; project’s WebPages; DVD of the project; articles published in the media. The active and collaborative learning represents the base of the methodology used in implementing the project. This partnership is expected to have a wide impact at all levels and to broaden school curriculum focusing on the development of transversal and soft skills and the integration of European methods and approaches in the education process. The partnership will establish a successful beginning of a long-term cooperation and an international network between teachers and students across Europe that will undoubtedly stimulate their professional and personal development. The project’s European dimension will have a positive impact on the atmosphere from all partner schools. The international cooperation will increase the sense of European identity and of belonging to a united European multi-cultural family.
Our project put emphasise on the perception and functioning of young people in the future. The main goal was to show young people that the school and the people around them can be interesting, inspirational and useful to them in further life. Activities undertaken in the project served to develop personality skills such as communication skills, assertiveness, creativity, and the ability to cooperate with other people and to work on their own. By developing these qualities, the future will not fill them with fear, on the contrary, it will be open to them. The project was addressed to primary school students, their teachers, parents and the local community. Over 3,500 students and teachers were familiarized with the results, a group of almost 100 people directly participated in the project meetings. We started working on the project by creating a task team composed of teachers and willing students. As a coordinator, we created a Facebook closed group for teachers from partner countries. Everything was done to improve the information flow. In addition, each school created Erasmus corners, where students, parents, teachers could follow the stages of the project. The next step was to set up the project website, which we updated on a regular basis. An equally important goal for us was to create opportunities for our students to communicate in English, to check and use their skills. Tasks such as introducing themselves to the open ERASMUS + FUTURE group, preparing logo proposals were to act as a motivator and were also a milestone towards breaking the language barrier. Working on the project was conducive to learning about new cultures, the diversity of other nations, taught respect and tolerance for others, also allowed to present the beauty of partner countries. To achieve this goal, students prepared presentations for which they took photos and created descriptions and even poems that were presented at the meeting in Poland. The project tasks were aimed at developing students' sense of responsibility for the surrounding environment, sensitising them to the beauty of nature. We also wanted to make them aware that they could contribute to reducing environmental devastation. The above purpose was achieved by the task of preparing a short film called Global warming. All films are the result of students' work, they took care of the script, direction and editing. We admired the effects of their work at a meeting in Bulgaria. During the meeting in Italy, students deepened the topic and learned about alternative energy, created models on a scale showing its sources. In the next stage of work, we focused on showing the presence of technology in our lives and its appropriate use. The means to show ways of rational use of technology were: films about technology, its pros and cons, as well as a calendar with tips on how to use information techniques safely.Taking care of our health (our next goal) in the future, we invited students to create multimedia posters promoting a healthy style. We organized yoga classes for them, as well as numerous lectures and culinary workshops. At the last meeting, students carried out the task, which resulted in an e-book, in which participants presented their ideas of future issues such as: sport, school, city, fashion or the environment. The meeting in Bulgaria is also the first stage of creating a bank of lesson plans. The task of each group was to develop five lesson plans in subjects: Physics, Geography, Biology, Computer Classes and English. Each country based on its core curriculum in these subjects, using good practices and innovative solutions, created interdisciplinary scenarios for classes. After presenting their assumptions, familiarizing themselves with prepared lesson plans and discussions, teachers conducted demonstrative lessons with the participation of students from all partner countries. After discussing the classes, the exchange of comments scenarios were forwarded to each school so that they could be used during classes during the school year. Such activity had a great impact on all project participants (students and teachers). Thanks to this, in practice they learned new approaches to the same issues, new solutions and ways of transferring knowledge. At the same time, they were constantly improving English, as the classes were conducted in that language. Learning by doing is a priority in our project, going beyond planned activities, younger students spontaneously decided to exchange correspondence by traditional letters, improving the art of writing, having fun and making new friends. At the final stage of the project, we created newsletters (each country its own) and the final DVD, in which we summarised the project and boasted the results of a joint two-year work. In order for the project to have an impact on the local community, we systematically placed articles in the local press.