Euroland is a project related with Maths, Robotics and good practices. Context The 3 partners are schools that implement innovative practices. We have the same motivation and every partner has the knowledge and experience in different fields of the same topic. One of the partners is an expert on Manipulative Calculation( using Cuisenaire rods), another partner is an expert on manipulative Geometry and the third partner is an expert on Robotics. So we want to spread these good practices in the other fields we have no experience. For that reason we are 3 partners that complement each other because we share the same view of teaching, a hands-on learning. 2 of the partners have experience in Erasmus+ projects and the 3rd one doesn't have experience in Erasmus+ but has a lot of experience in collaborative Etwinning European projects. Participants. Students: There is a group of 150 participants that are going to work directly in the project. Then the rest of the students of the 3 schools are going to work indirectly ( about 1900 students). They are 10-12 years old and some of them have fewer opportunities (economical and social difficulties). Teachers: All the school teachers are involved in the project, even though there is a commission in every school formed by the principal, one teacher of every cycle, the foreign language teachers, the Math experts,the ICT experts and the coordinator. They are going to guarantee that the implementation of good practices are carried out. The main objectives we want to achieve are: 1.-To improve basic skills such as Maths, literacy, ICT, foreign language, from shared practices with European schools, exchanging and implementing new ideas, paying attention to the ones that are successful in order to implement them. 2.-To develop and implement innovative practices promoting cooperation, exchange of experiences and knowledge on the European level. To achieve objective number one related to students we have prepared challenges in which they will have to think, manipulate and put into practice what they have learnt through peer-learning and exchange of knowledge within the 3 partners. We have prepared activities to improve the communicative skills in the foreign language. We are going to use ICT tools such as Videos, Editing programs, PowerPoint, blogs and so on and in that way they are going to improve the using of them. To achieve objective number two related directly to teachers and indirectly to students we agreed to implement the innovative practises that our partners are going to share and explain to us. As every school has already put into practice one specific innovative methodology we are going to help each other to implement them successfully. Methodology The three partners agree that the process of learning should be active experimentation, manipulation, symbolization, abstraction and generalization. So we are going to use a hand-on methodology in the activities we are going to carry on. Another important issue of the project is peer-learning (teachers and students) in an European environment. Results and impact The concrete results we would like to achieve are: For our students, they will: - Improve their maths skills (calculation, logical an spatial mathematical intelligences) - Improve their ICT skills. - Improve foreign language skills to increase the academic results. - Give meaning to the learning of a foreign language, giving our students the opportunity to practice real English. - Open their minds to different cultures and ways of life. For teachers, they will: - Improve their teaching methods through peer-learning. - Enrich their maths resources. - Improve their ICT skills. - Improve foreign language skills The schools will - Improve the schools' reputation and profile -Incorporate the new knowledge and methodology in school programmes and planification after the project ending. Potential long term benefits As most of the teachers involved in the project have a permanent position in the school we could assure that the innovative practices will remain in the lesson plans of the school for a long period of time. So next generations will take benefit of the actual project.
Euroland has been a project related to Mathematics, Robotics and good practices. Context One of the partners was an expert in Manipulative Calculation (using Cuisenaire rods), another partner was an expert in Manipulative Geometry,and the third was an expert in Robotics. So we have shared manipulative workshops in which we are experts in and now we are implementing them in our schools (see the Annual Lesson Plans) Objectives The main objectives planned, we have mostly achieved at the end of the project, have been: 1.-Improve basic skills such as Mathematics, Literacy, ICT, foreign language, from sharing practices with European schools, exchanging and implementing new ideas, paying attention to those that were successful to implement them. 2.-Develop and implement innovative practices that promote cooperation, the exchange of experiences and knowledge at the European level. Activities To achieve the objective number one related to the students, we prepared 6 different challenges in which they had to think, manipulate and put into practice what they learned through peer learning and knowledge exchange within the 3 partners. We prepared activities to improve communicative skills in foreign language. We used ICT tools such as text editing applications (free Office), multimedia presentations (Padlet, Canva, Office Impress free), image and sound editing (Gimp, Audacity, Openshot, Paint) Google tools, Genially, to show the results of the activities to the rest of the partners . By using all these ICT tools they have improved their skills. To achieve goal number two related directly to teachers and indirectly to students, we agreed to implement the innovative practices that our partners shared and explained to us. As each school had already implemented a specific innovative methodology, we helped each other to carry them out successfully in our schools. To ensure that we implemented these practices, they have been written down in our annual lesson plans. Results Students Regarding the improvement of basic foreign language skills, we have achieved our goal. At the beginning of the project, 72.1% of our students had a medium-high level of English. At the end of the project we have achieved 85.4%. Regarding the improvement of basic Math skills, our starting point was 79.5% of students with a medium-high level of Math. The following year we improved to 84%. Unfortunately, the following year we had the Covid lockdown and the results at the end of the project were 78.7%. So the upward trend was great, but this particular promotion of students had a high percentage of special educational needs and social and economic difficulties. For that reason, during the lockdown, a large number of students were unable to follow the online lessons due to lack of equipment and connectivity. So this objective hasn't been achieved successfully. Teachers Teachers have improved their teaching methods thanks to the exchange of innovative practices. They improved, as well, their ICT skills due to the use of them to carry out all the activities. Proof of that is all the work done uploaded in Twinspace. School We have realized about the improvement of the school’s prestige. Thanks to the implementation of the new methodologies, families are more eager to ask for enrollment in our school. On the other hand, families and students have changed and opened their minds to different cultures and ways of life. We have realized about this fact because at the beginning of the project only a few of them were actively involved in it and in the second and third year most of them were. Long term benefits As most of the teachers involved in the project have a permanent position at the school, we can ensure that innovative practices will remain in the school's lesson plans for a long period of time. So the next generations will benefit from the actual project. One of the most important changes that the school has implemented thanks to the exchange of good practices has been the incorporation of a Robotics Workshop using decoding for 3rd Cycle students, one using Lego WeDo for 2nd Cycle and one using Bee Bots for 1st Cycle students. In addition we have created a Geometry Workshop from P3 to 6th Grade.