"Mission: Europe" project arises from IES Pérez Galdós experience during over six years in carrying our long-term mobilities for students within the frame of different European Projects. Its main aim was to foster the Spanish language as a means of communication in Europe while offering students from other European countries, who are studying Spanish as an L2 or L3, the chance to improve their Spanish language knowledge and to learn about Spanish culture. We also focus on the cultural asset of having this type of mobility in countries where CLIL or EMILE are being implemented, like in our school, and where our students may use Spanish as a lingua franca for communication while improving their level of other foreign languages such as French, Italian or English (or even learn an L3 such as Portuguese or Finnish). Furthermore, we consider that the long-term mobility concept provides per se a huge opportunity for personal growth and learning for both students and teachers who participated in it while having a tremendous impact on the hosting institutions. Within our project our travelling teachers and students have become natives of the target language of the project (Spanish in this case, for IES Pérez Galdós participants) and they were able to share their knowledge of Spanish language and culture. Students and teachers who visited us for two months were French and Italian language natives, and in the case of Portugal and Finland, if not native at least they had an excellent level of English, either because they've been trained in CLIL or because they've had a good EFL training. Furthermore, students participating in the mobilities assumed the roles of becoming peer trainers, by giving lectures and workshops to students of other educational levels in their mother tongue or in English (Portugal and Finland) about the situation of specific values in their countries. We chose the topics of gender equality, environmental awareness, human rights,coexistence and mediation, health education and responsible consumerism. Finally, the long-term teaching mobilities were carried out simultaneously to the long-term learning mobilities of students. The main aims achieved through the development of this project are related to the promotion of the communicative competence in the languages involved in the project by means of using the foreign language as a vehicle to express their ideas; the increase of the European dimension of education and the internationalization of the participating schools through the development of cooperation activities; the improvement of the social competence not only by working on the different values established in the project, but also through hosting foreign students. However, the main objective of the project was to make students aware of the values and similarities between young Europeans through dialogue and coexistence. Not only did they have the opportunity to learn about the history and culture of other countries, but also to experience living abroad, away from their families, for two months, adapting to a new family, educational system and what is more, to a new society. This has impacted positively in their academic and personal life. As for teachers participating in the exchanges, they had the opportunity to improve their language skills and methodology while at the same time performed an essential role of support for students in long-term mobilities who, being away from home, found confort in having a teacher from their own school. The results of this project are numerous. First of all, the establishment of new collaborations between the partners has lead to future projects not only including long-term mobilities, but also for group and teachers’ mobilities. Secondly, students were required to write a blog of their experience, as well as to create videos and ellaborate online collaborative mind maps on the different values established in the project (Year 1: environment and equality. Year 2: coexistence and mediation). Also, they had to create a final report and a video once the mobility was over, and give presentations to other students from our high school talking about their experience. Even though the ending of the project was not as expected due to the sudden outbreak of the pandemic (students in year 2 had to be repatriated abruptedly), the impact that the project has had in the school is huge. Students from other schools enroll in our high school to try to have the opportunity to participate in this kind of mobility. But what is more, the impact that these mobilities have had in the lives of the students that participated in it is unmeasured and described by them as a life-changing experience. All in all, this project has set the grounds in our high school for new cooperations and exchanges of students in long-term mobilities across Europe, which, despite being a type of activity that requires a great dedication on the part of teachers, students and families, it is definitely worth the effort. This is the main reason why our high school felt the need to apply for Erasmus+ Accreditation, which was finally granted to us for the years 2021-2027.
"Mission: Europe" project arises from IES Pérez Galdós experience during over six years in carrying our long-term mobilities for students within the frame of different European Projects. Its main aim is to foster the Spanish language as a means of communication in Europe while offering students from other European countries, who are studying Spanish as an L2 or L3, the chance to improve their Spanish language knowledge and to learn about Spanish culture. We also focus on the cultural asset of having this type of mobility in countries where CLIL or EMILE are being implemented, like in our school, and where our students may use Spanish as a lingua franca for communication while improving their level of other foreign languages such as French, Italian or English (or even learn an L3 such as Portuguese or Finnish). Furthermore, we consider that the long-term mobility concept provides per se a huge opportunity for personal growth and learning for both students and teachers who participate in it while having a tremendous impact on the hosting institutions.Within our project our travelling teachers and students will become natives of the target language of the project 8Spanish in this case, for IES Pérez Galdós participants) and they'll be able to share their knowledge of Spanish language and culture.Students and teachers who will visit us for two months will be French and Italian language natives, and in the case of Portugal and Finland, if not native at least they'll have an excellent level of English, either because they've been trained in CLIL or because they've had a good EFL training. Furthermore, we expect students participating in the mobilities to assume the roles of becoming peer trainers, by giving lectures and workshops to students of other educational levels in their mother tongue or in English (Portugal and Finland) about the situation of specific values in their countries. We have chosen the topics of gender equality, environmental awareness, human rights, coexistence and mediation, health education and responsible consumerism. Finally, the long-term teaching mobilities will be carried out simultaneously to the long-term learning mobilities of students.