Our project “WE! – World of emotions“ aims at providing compensation for the mainly cognitive demands of our educational system. Pressure to perform and a feeling of isolation on the part of our students also influence or even prevent a comprehensive development of their creative talents and personality. Therefore the teenagers get the chance to deal with the demands of social interaction by working creatively and holistically on a theatre play. About 60-90 students at the age of 14-18 from a Spanish, a Bulgarian and a German school will get the opportunity to express their feelings creatively and present them to a wider audience. The project will be accompanied by about 15 teachers. In all participating countries students have to face similar challenges. That is why the different nations have come up with additional special needs or aims. The German school would like to provide a platform for the students’ development of their creative potential which also helps outsiders to become active members of the school community. The Bulgarian school moreover aims at improving the students’ performance at school, at raising their attendance at school and at diminishing the rate of school dropout. The Spanish school would like their students to learn to live together without prejudices and to create projects which serve as a source of knowledge and experience. The Spanish especially wish to focus on innovation of educational processes and testing new methods, e.g. to improve students’ self esteem. All three schools, teachers and students, furthermore are looking forward to widen their horizon on a cultural, social, media-related and professional theatre-specific level. The holistic approach in form of a theatre play, which deals with the topics equality and sense of community, offers students the chance to improve their social and intercultural skills. They are encouraged to think critically and to reflect on their own ways and possibilities to behave in a certain way. Especially by the different areas covered (acting, stage craft, creative writing etc.), even students who might have difficulties as to cognitive demands and often experience failure feel addressed by the project’s aims. These students are offered new ways to develop their individual talents and getting motivating feedback, which increases their self confidence and motivation, ideally leading to positive effects and results in other academic areas. All four phases of the project will have one main focus (e.g. storyline, costumes, stage decoration etc.). During these phases the students first work on tasks connected to the topics/areas of the project in local after school clubs. The international meetings are the highlights of the respective project phase because the international groups will compare their results and develop them further by directly working together. Between the international encounters the students will exchange their results and progress using digital media. During the project phases students will work in topic-based workshops offered by external partners (e.g. actors, technicians). Already present talents of students can be developed further in this way. Experiences of success resulting from these activities foster the students’ self confidence. The final aim is an internationally performed play which shows the students’ specialist, creative and personal skills. The participants’ experience in the course of the project will be assessed and analysed by questionnaires. The results are meant to optimise the upcoming work to be done in the next part of the project. Likewise, the students will record their results in topic-specific tutorials (e.g. “How to create tension throughout the plot?“ or “How to overcome my fear to speak in front of a huge audience?“) which can be used selectively in different lessons (e.g. foreign languages) or as a lesson sequence in theatre or literature classes or clubs. Moreover, workshops by students for students which will be led by the participants themselves are planned to spread the newly gained knowledge. Right from the start several performances of the play at the three schools are planned. Furthermore, all elements developed throughout the project (script, tutorials, results of the workshops etc.) will be made accessible to other schools in digital form so that they can choose from a kind of tool box, which they can adapt to their individual needs to be used in lessons or for working on a play themselves. To disseminate the results of the project, the press will be involved in order to publish reports about our progress on a regular basis. We will also use the respective school homepages, an international project homepage and, if applicable, additional local school partners. Doing so, lots of different ways of spreading information will develop which offer people who are interested in our project to take part and keep up to date, to get in contact and to utter ideas for improvement.
The project "WE! -World of Emotions" was able to offer a balance to the predominantly cognitive education system. In the project, the young people dealt with the demands of social interaction holistically and creatively in the form of a theater play. The approximately 60-90 students, aged 14 - 18 years, from a Spanish, a Bulgarian & a German school got here the opportunity to express themselves & their feelings creatively. The project was supervised by about 15 teachers. In all participating countries, the students faced similar challenges. With this in mind, the nations had additionally identified special needs ahead of time. The German school provided a platform for creative expression that could simultaneously integrate shy outsiders into the school community. The Bulgarian school also aimed to increase students' academic performance, increase attendance & decrease dropout. The Spanish school wanted to teach students to live together without prejudice & create projects from which they could draw knowledge/experience. The Spanish were particularly keen on innovation in teaching processes & trying out new methods, here also to promote self-confidence. All three schools were looking forward to a broadening of their horizons on a cultural, social, medial & theater-specific professional level - all hopes & wishes regarding the project could be achieved to the previously mentioned extent, even if under unforeseen circumstances (cf. Corona pandemic). The holistic approach in the form of a theater play dedicated to the themes of equality & community spirit offered the students many opportunities to expand their social & intercultural skills. They were thus encouraged to think critically and reflect on their own ways of acting. Especially through the different fields of action (acting, theater technique, creative writing, etc.), students who had deficits in the cognitive area & experienced failure were also addressed. Here they were offered new ways of developing individual talents & motivating feedback, which will increase self-confidence & motivation & in the best case will have a positive impact on other school areas in the future. All four project phases were to deal with a thematic focus (e.g. storyline, stage design) each. Unfortunately, the planned last meeting in Germany could not take place due to the ongoing Corona pandemic. Nevertheless, it was possible to work on thematic tasks related to the project within the other phases. The respective short-term exchange was considered to be the highlight of these work phases, as the previous work results were compared and further developed in direct exchange in internationally mixed groups. In the last phase, the students switched to digital communication channels, which nevertheless proved to be profitable and unifying. Between the meetings, the students exchanged their work progress digitally. During the project phases, topic-related workshops were held. Existing talents of the students could thus be further developed. The resulting sense of achievement boosted the participants' self-confidence. The final result should have been an internationally cast theater play, which shows the technical, creative & personal skills of the students. Due to the worldwide Corona pandemic, however, the planned final product could not be realized to the extent envisioned. Improvisation was done at all ends & efforts were made to make the best of the situation. We were granted a project extension, which we were able to use profitably, since the project "WE! - World of Emotions" was a great change of pace for the students, even under the circumstances, to temporarily escape the dreary everyday life - often in lockdown. The digital realization of the piece could be initiated & will provide a connecting point for the new project. Participants' experiences during the project were collected through questionnaires. The results were used to optimize further work in subsequent phases. In parallel, the students recorded the results in short thematic tutorials (e.g. "How to build a suspense?", "How to overcome my fear of speaking in front of a large audience?"), which were published on public digital platforms (Youtube). Dissemination of the results beyond the school also took place through the school homepages as well as the Erasmus+ homepage, which were regularly updated with the progress made. In this way, various information channels were created that offered interested parties the opportunity to participate in the project work.