Our project "My country, your country - Our Europe" focuses on the priorities of learning a foreign language, as well as strengthening the social skills of the pupils that take part. This is achieved though working on small projects, in groups consisting of pupils from the partner countries (Germany, France, Poland and Slovenia). We split the pupils into groups, and each group will work on the following pieces during the four planned meetings: a play, a dictionary for young people, a Europe song, a shared homepage, and a “Europe book”. At the end of our project we present what we have achieved and have a meal, known as “Fête des Voisins" in French, to celebrate. Whilst they are working on the project, the students will also experience and learn about other countries and their cultures. As the pupils eventually get to know one another preexisting prejudices shall be overcome. They will use their foreign language skills and, as a result, improve them. Those that take part in our project will also end up with stronger social skills, as they will have consolidated and improved their team-working skills and their self confidence through working with pupils from the partner countries. With our project we want to show that European pupils and teachers can work together to achieve our goals. We also want to motivate other schools and countries to participate in such projects so that they can benefit one another, in and outside of the school environment. As a group, consisting of 20 pupils and 8 teachers, we want to achieve our goals and remain in contact with one another. We do this by visiting said partner countries, and by interacting through social networks and digital media. We have already connected with one another through eTwinning, and the teachers have a Whatsapp group. The way in which our project is be carried out will mainly help develop group/partner working skills. The pupils will work in small groups supervised by a teacher, in which they will work on the project. This method encourages perseverance, creativity, and teamwork. In addition to this, the partner schools will benefit from working with the other participants. They will get to learn the innovative methods of their neighboring countries, and use them at their own educational establishments. This could be done, for example, through exchanging digital pictures or teaching materials. The sustainability of our project is ensured through posting about our progress, as well as when we achieve a specific goal, on our aforementioned homepage. This is compiled and maintained by the coordinating German school. In addition to this, the contacts made during this project are collected and maintained through digital networks such as eTwinning and Whatsapp, so that eventually further projects can be established. Once this project is finished, and the project diaries are handed out to the participating partners, we will have shown that Europe can successfully work together.
Our project with the title “My country, your country - our Europe” focussed on the priorities of foreign language competence acquisition and increasing social competence. This was conducted through elaboration of the project goals by groups of pupils from the three partner countries Germany, Poland and Slovenia. During three meetings at a partner school in each of the countries, the pupils elaborated the theatre play “The town musicians of Bremen”, a youth dictionary, the Europe Song in regard to Michael Jackson’s song “You are the world”, as well as a shared homepage and a book about Europe, in which the meetings, activities and project achievements were documented. Besides working together in groups, the pupils gained first-hand experience with the different cultures of the involved countries. Getting to know the pupils and schools of the partner countries helped decrease prejudice and allowed them to apply and further develop their foreign language skills. Furthermore, the pupils could increase and strengthen their social competence and self-esteem by working together as teams with groups from different countries. Having the students stay in polish and slovenian host families and a lot of meetings with supporters of the project, e.g. the city major, tourist guide, park ranger, members of the hometown club or the bakery owner, also contributed to these skills. With our project, we were able to demonstrate that european pupils and teachers are able to achieve goals together and motivated other schools and countries to take part in ERASMUS+ projects. As a group consisting of 20 pupils and 8 teachers, we managed to achieve the pursued goals and consistently exchanged information, despite facing large difficulties due to the Covid-19 pandemic. For that reason, the planned meeting in Germany at the school “An der Mulde” and the public presentation of the project results unfortunately had to be canceled. In terms of methods, our project profited especially from group and partner work, as well as the experience of the colleagues from Poland and Slovenia, who had already taken part in different european projects. During our stays abroad and also as a means of preparation and postprocessing, we exchanged information via social networks, digital media and eTwinning. This enormously facilitated our organisation and collaboration in the period of 2018 - 2020. The pupils faced the project tasks in small groups. Supervised by their teachers, they were able to find solutions together, which required endurance, creativity and teamwork. Furthermore, pupils and teachers benefitted from observing and actively taking part in lessons at the partner schools. We learned about innovative methods, e.g. working with electronics (Lego education) in order to build and program robots. Furthermore, we explored evaluation schemes used in our partner countries and since started using them at our own school. In order to make our project sustainable and persistent, we published the project process and the achieved goals on the project’s homepage and include the results and experience in some subjects like Geography, English and social studies. The ability to exchange material and digital blackboard screens through the existing networks is another welcome advantage, especially during the current pandemic. Our project ended with handing out our book about Europe to all involved partners. We profited and continue to profit from educational and private exchange and made a huge step towards the goal of intercultural understanding between children, adolescents and adults of different european countries. nd 8 teachers, we want to achieve our goals and remain in contact with one another. We do this by visiting said partner countries, and by interacting through social networks and digital media. We have already connected with one another through eTwinning, and the teachers have a Whatsapp group. The way in which our project is be carried out will mainly help develop group/partner working skills. The pupils will work in small groups supervised by a teacher, in which they will work on the project. This method encourages perseverance, creativity, and teamwork. In addition to this, the partner schools will benefit from working with the other participants. They will get to learn the innovative methods of their neighboring countries, and use them at their own educational establishments. This could be done, for example, through exchanging digital pictures or teaching materials. The sustainability of our project is ensured through posting about our progress, as well as when we achieve a specific goal, on our aforementioned homepage. This is compiled and maintained by the coordinating German school. In addition to this, the contacts made during this project are collected and maintained through digital networks such as eTwinning and Whatsapp, so that eventually further projects can be established. Once this project is finished, and the project diaries are handed out to the participating partners, we will have shown that Europe can successfully work together.