The project’s topic is the educational approach of folk tradition, myths and legends and the possibility to connect them with the individual subjects taught at school. The main motive is to contribute to the preservation of the European cultural heritage through its inclusion in the educational process and the transmission of its valuable content to the next generation. The project aims at forming the identity of the active European citizen, who lives and creates relationships in a multinational, multiform and constantly changing society. It also aims at successfully integrating students with learning or other difficulties within the school society, at developing students’ social and technological skills through teamwork and the use of ICTs, at enriching their native as well as the English language, and finally at promoting their special talents through the non-formal educational activities designed. Six schools (five secondary schools and one primary school) from Greece, Italy, Portugal, Poland, Romania and Lithuania will participate in the project. In the pedagogical teams there will be twenty, 13-15 years old, students and 5-8 teachers from each school who will implement the following educational activities through the worksheets that accompany every myth or legend which will be approached: • Reading, narration, analysis, understanding and conversation on the content of every myth. • Exploitation of the myths’ content when teaching the following subjects: Language, Literature, History, Physics, Biology, Geography, Home Economics, Music and Art through specially designed activities. • Dramatization and creation of dance performance inspired by the selected myths, which will be filmed and uploaded on the school’s YouTube channel. • Creation of paintings, posters and comic strips connected to the myths and legends students will deal with. • Creative writing activities. • Self- and peer assessment through quizzes, crosswords and online games. The pedagogical teams will create an e-learning tool (digital depository) using the Moodle platform, where the material produced will be uploaded in order to ensure the preservation of the project results. Thus, they will offer the educational community an open source of high quality educational material easily accessible to the European teachers. This tool will be continuously enriched with new material produced during and after the implementation of the project. As far as methodology is concerned, the pedagogical teams will design and apply educational activities based on experiential, cooperative and interdisciplinary learning, the holistic approach of teaching/learning and the use of ICTs. After the completion of the project we expect that we will have contributed to the cultural heritage rescue and transmission to the new generation. Students, apart from the valuable knowledge acquired, will have embraced the universal values of equality, justice, tolerance and solidarity promoted by the myths’ content and their work in teams. Furthermore, we expect them to have developed skills, such as collaboration, creativity, ICT use and linguistic development, which they will be able to apply in their future social and professional life. As for the school and the broader educational community, the project will have contributed to the enrichment of the teaching materials thanks to the original and innovative content of the digital tool created.
In the framework of the project entitled ‘’From "MYTHOS" to "LOGOS": Educational approaches to the European folk myths and legends’’, we used European folk traditions, myths and legends in a pedagogical manner and we associated them with scientific subjects taught at school. Our basic aim was to contribute to students’ contact with the immaterial cultural heritage of Europe, to preserve it through its integration in the learning process, but most of all to convey the system of values of traditions, myths and legends to the new generation. We worked (presented, analysed, studied and discussed) on a great number of myths, legends, traditions, morals and customs of seven (7) groups, which came not only from the six (6) partner countries (Greece, Italy, Portugal, Poland, Lithuania, Romania), but also from other European countries. The teachers of the pedagogical teams of each partner country applied innovative teaching practices and created teaching proposals based on the selected groups of myths, which they connected to different subjects, such as Literature, Biology, History, Chemistry, Physics, Geography, Music, Home Economics, Social Studies, Foreign Languages and Ancient Greek. Taking advantage of the extension of the project we added one more group of myths related to the Covid-19 pandemic to the six initially planned. The teaching proposals include exercises – activities, which give the opportunity to students to work both in groups and individually, so that they can enrich their knowledge and develop their special talents. With the help of their teachers, the groups of students produced educational material for each group of myths, including creative writing activities, art activities (painting, collage, wood and clay constructions), educational games (crosswords, pictograms, cryptograms, puzzles, quizzes) and presentations with the help of digital technology (power point, movie maker, flip book). These educational activities were based on the principles of experiential and cooperative learning, interdisciplinarity, holistic approach to knowledge and use of digital technology. In order to connect our project with the educational community, we participated in student conferences, festivals and international competitions, we organized conferences and we created posters, which we distributed to educational institutions and organizations. For this reason, products of our folk tradition workshops were shared both within and outside our school communities. In order to ensure the sustainability of the material we produced, we created a digital repository where we gradually uploaded the deliverable material concerning each group of myths. Our goal was to offer an open access educational resource to the educational community with high quality and easily accessible material, which will continue to exist after the completion of the project. Also, three of our commonly produced assignments were granted an International Standard Book Number (ISBN). We asked our students to cooperate with their parents, grandparents and elder members of cultural associations in an attempt to convey knowledge through generations in an experiential manner. This contact laid the foundations for future cooperation, which will be useful for the smooth operation of our schools. Furthermore, we invited scientists to speak to the students about specific scientific subjects. During the project we established cooperation and interaction among students of all school partners through the creation of a common myth, which was based on elements of myths and legends of each partner country, as well as on our living historical reality. We are certain that we have completed our project underlining the value of the European cultural heritage and the value of folk tradition, myths and legends, especially when they are connected with school subjects. We laid the foundations for the formation of the identity of the European citizen by discovering the common elements of the European civilization. We reinforced mutual respect and understanding through our differences, which is a fundamental value in a multicultural society, where our students will live and continue to be creative. We also managed to inculcate the values of equality, justice, tolerance and solidarity in our students. Furthermore, we incorporated students with learning difficulties. We helped our students develop social and technological abilities with the use of ICT, enrich their linguistic skills both in their mother tongue and in the English language and develop special talents, which they had not discovered before the implementation of the project. We enriched their critical and creative thinking through creative activities and we strengthened their learning motives due to various pleasant activities based on myths and legends. During the project we helped our students overcome their fears and everyday problems, as we chose texts and activities, which promoted models of moral behavior. We took advantage of the pandemic in order to discuss the fear of disease and death, so that the students would have the opportunity to express their feelings regarding this difficult and unfamiliar aspect of reality. The implementation of the three-year project (2018-2021) enriched the professional experience of the teachers, who were able to interact with teachers of other countries and to become familiar with other educational European systems. The teachers acquired new knowledge through their contact with the cultural heritage of each partner country. They were also able to use new technology and promote the teaching process. In conclusion, we were able to make the project ‘’From "MYTHOS" to "LOGOS": Educational approaches to the European folk myths and legends’’ not only one of many learning obligations for our students, but a point of reference in the life of all the students who participated in it.