Our project “Talking About My Generation – Past, Present and Future of a Generation in Europe” will run for 24 months and will include participants from four European countries, Germany, France, Poland and Norway. It aims at cultural exchange and learning about both different and common concepts, ways of life and cultures in Europe. The topic of the project, as well as working in international teams and finally the face-to-face meeting of both students and teachers present wonderful opportunities to that aim. In their project groups the students are to learn and research how the cultural, social and age-specific values and ideas, local or national traditions and ways of life shape their own as well as other generations (e.g. their parents). They are also supposed to find out how people of their own age group define their perspectives, aims und concepts of a future in and for Europe. In their work on the various aspects of the project they will use their foreign languages, especially German, English and French. The use of modern, digital but also traditional means of communication and information gathering is another important focus of the project which is supposed to benefit the involved teachers as well. As the final product of the project work we plan to develop and build a multi-lingual, digital cooperative Europe-Game on the topic, which is to be designed for use in various contexts and subjects, such as languages, social sciences, history or politics, in class or in projects on European education. Evaluation of their own work and the achieved results is another key aspect of the project the students will be involved with. This includes the publication and presentation of the project and the results as well. 74 Students, aged 15 or 16 years at the outset of the project, and 10 teachers from the four participating European schools will be directly involved in the project. The students will work on various aspects of the topic in international teams, they will get to know each other, develop and use their foreign languages competences. Furthermore, the participants will develop or strengthen other competences as well, such as researching the topic, implementing and using digital tools and means of communication. The latter will also be relevant for the participating teachers, as it is an interesting area for the development of their own digital competences. Apart from the continuous work of the student teams, the project will also include video conferences and most of all face-to-face meetings of the students as well as the teachers. During the students’ meetings they are supposed to work intensively on the project as well as present their work and the ERASMUS+ Project in specially organized events at the hosting schools. Each of the participants will take part in two trips. We plan to use host families as much as possible, so that the students will have an opportunity to get to know the culture and way of life of their host countries directly, thus experiencing the European idea intensively. During those students’ meetings at the participating schools, other students, staff, parents as well as other partners of the schools will be involved and become part of the European project, which will in this way deploy valuable broad effects within the school and the communities. The project is also meant to strengthen and develop the existing as well as new school partnerships between the participating schools. We hope to achieve a more intensive international cooperation. The involved colleagues are to profit from an exchange of good practices, improve the use of digital resources and tools for their work and for communication. We also hope to inspire other colleagues to participate in European projects.
Our project "Talking About My Generation - Past, Present and Future of a Generation in Europe" was planned for 24 months, but after a corona-related extension it ran for 30 months and united students and teachers from four European countries: Germany, France, Poland and Norway. It served the cultural exchange and helped getting to know different as well as common ideas, ways of life and cultures in Europe. Both the project topic itself and the work in international student teams and, last but not least, the direct encounter between the students and teachers were used for this purpose. When dealing with the topic, the students were able to research which cultural, social and age-typical values and ideas, which country-specific traditions and ways of life shape their generation and other generations (e.g. parents) and how young people of their age reflect their perspectives, goals and ideas about the future and define it for Europe. Especially cultural and regional aspects were of interest to the students. When working on the topic, foreign languages, especially German, English and French, were used very intensively for communication and thus improved and further developed. The use of modern and traditional communication and information media was also an important focus of the project, from which the participating teachers in particular were able to benefit for their lessons and other projects. Ultimately, the switch to a virtual, digital format has achieved this goal in a special way. The goal was the conception and creation of a multilingual, digital, cooperative European game on the topic, which will later also be used in different contexts and subjects, e.g. foreign languages, social and community studies, history or politics, in the classroom and in European education. Eventually, several games, both analog and digital, of different formats and with different Europe-related content were created. The evaluation of one's own work and the results and goals achieved was another focus of the project, in which the students were actively involved and which was an integral part of the project work. This also included good public relations and the presentation of the project and its results in various formats. The participants took part in internal school as well as public events. 76 pupils and 14 teachers from the four European schools took part directly in the project. At the beginning of the project, the students were between the ages of 15 and 16 and are currently about to graduate from school. They worked in international student teams on various areas of focus and were able to get to know each other well, form friendships and deepen their foreign language skills through communication. During their work, they developed a number of different skills, both in terms of content work on the topic, but also in the use of digital tools and communication media. In addition to the work of the student teams, the activities naturally also included student encounters and video conferences, as well as a meeting of the project teachers. During the student meetings, on the one hand, work was concentrated on the project; on the other hand, this work and the ERASMUS+ project were presented in the schools by using various school events (Day of Languages, project weeks, etc.). The plan was for each student to take part in two trips. Unfortunately, the fourth planned meeting in Germany could not be realized. We also involved the families of the students and other host parents as hosts. The students experienced the culture and the way of life of the host country directly and experienced the European idea very intensively. Instead, we set up a virtual replacement program and continued to work in virtual teams. The final meeting was rescheduled as a video conference. During the student meetings, other students and the colleagues, as well as parents and other partners of the schools, were involved in the project, so that a broad impact was created, for example through the participation of the students in the central event commemorating the end of World War II in Bourges. We also succeeded in establishing and deepening the school partnerships between the participating schools and thus strengthening international cooperation. The teachers involved benefited from the exchange of good practices in project work, decisively improved the use of digital resources and teaching and communication tools, and increased the interest of other colleagues in the European work. The project strengthened the international, European dimension of the participating schools. We are very happy that we were able to achieve all our goals and that the project became a success story for everyone involved.