Our project, Eco-Europe. "I'ts up to you" (IT'S UP2U) Would like to make conscious, children and teachers, about the importance of small or individual actions. Very often all of us open a tap water or use a paper, switch on the lights without thinking what is behind. Our resources are not unlimited and we have to be responsible when using. Small actions are very important to reach big objectives. Every action done by everyone of us is a big and necessary step. Aware about the necessity of reuse, the beauty of old or used things to avoid consuming too much is a goal in the present culture. Using this subject, we are setting a list of activities that make people know and think about the effects of human living on the nature, but always facing the future, we have to find solutions for our problems and make children to feel actively involved Thinking on that, we are ranging a list of activities which pupils should solve working in groups and then displaying the results on different media. We'll work on this subject practising different learning methodologies and check the results. Partners for our project gathered around the idea of diversifying teaching methods used in our institutions and re-orienting our approach towards the processes of teaching and learning. We all recognize the room for improvement in our schools and are determined to explore alternative ways of working with students. Our goal is diversifying the used methodology by introducing teaching methods that will foster students' self-motivation and sense of responsibility for their own education; in other words, will help them build their “learner autonomy”. The need for new approach is particularly urgent in case of the significant number of students in our schools with learning difficulties and special educational needs. Because they often fail to achieve satisfactory results in traditional lessons, many of them gradually lose motivation for learning. Sense of failure impairs their self-esteem, which adds to their problems and diminishes their chances of success in further education. We need methods that will better suit their needs and enable them to achieve success, fostering their self-confidence. What's more, the traditional methods, concentrated on teaching knowledge, no longer fit the needs of students in terms of their further education and future employment. We have to employ methods that concentrate more on developing in our students skills they will need after leaving the school To make the required changes in our schools possible, the teachers need to learn and practice new methods of working with students, but also to improve their own language competence and ICT skills. Teachers intend to explore new routes in teaching, to avoid such dangers as boredom and discouragement, which threaten both their students and themselves. They want to find new means to achieve their ultimate goal: cultivating and nurturing children's natural enthusiasm for learning, curiosity and creativity, which, though possessed by each child entering school for the first time, are often seriously diminished after just a few years of formal education. They will explore methods that will enable them to better equip children for their further education and future work and that will help in particular those students who fail to achieve satisfactory results in the traditional lessons. We have chosen an important subject that is present in everyday life of all of us. The small but very important actions we can do everyday to help our environmement. Research, team work and display results through new methodoligies. We have guidelines for our search. We think the solutions lie in allowing students more power in decisions concerning their own learning and in letting children learn by working in teams on performing practical, creative tasks. We see the need of increasing in our schools the utilization of modern tools of ICT, loved by all children. We would also like to reinstate the element of fun in learning, so often banned from our schools. After all that we have to promote the comunication and dissemination. Both very important in our culture nowadays. Different kinds of presentations through different media They have to exchange information, explain conclusions, debate results with their colleagues and other country colleagues on a foreign language, videoconferences, radio programs. local newspapers, posters presenting an event, etc E-twinning and the twinspace should be the safe platform to share all the results and be in touch with the rest of European teachers and pupils. Pupils and teachers will assess the project and make improvements. Parents can also be part of the project. Living all that experiences make you more open mind person, more tolerant, able to share your opinions on a group, with more ICT practice and much more Environment conscious, with better foreign languages use to be better teacher and student person .
Our Erasmus Project “It’s up to you” focused on implementing activities to encourage students and all the school community to be environmentally aware, contributing to raise awareness about the importance of individual daily actions that could potentially make a difference in the future of planet Earth. This aim was achieved through different sorts of good practices among children and teachers from the four European countries participating in the project. These practices included innovative methodologies, making children actively involved. The approach was interdisciplinary and included different subjects which were fundamental for the implementation of most of the activities. Language improvement was one of the main aims in the project and English was the language of communication throughout the project both for contacts and work. Contents covered from Biodiversity to Pollution, Sustainable Development to Responsible Consumption. These were approached through different kinds of hands-on activities. Collaborative work played an important role during the implementation of the project. It provided our students with time of reflection and discussion along the project when working together organizing green teams, or, when proposing solutions to reduce our carbon footprint. This also contributed to building up students’ “learner autonomy”, fostering students’ self-motivation and sense of responsibility. Also including students with learning difficulties and special educational needs. The mobilities were also essential to carry out the project. Students who travelled from other countries were integrated into groups of host students of their school age and they worked in experimental and playful activities: Meeting in Spain: visit to Montserrat Mountain to learn about the mountain flora and the disastrous effects of fires, visit to the CRAM Rescue Centre and Sea Animal Hospital and workshop about sea pollution, visit to Park Guell and learning about Antoni Gaudi’s sustainable projects, and visit to CosmoCaixa Science Museum with the amazing simulated piece of the Amazon rainforest. Meeting in Greece: visit to Mount Parnassus National Park to attend a workshop on how to use the special biodiversity frame, how to use the environmental monitor and sound level measuring instrument, and how to use an age estimating tree-friendly marker; visit to the Delphi Museum and archaeological site, participation in schoolyard games with recycled constructions. Meeting in Sicily: visit to Museum of Agrigento and the Valley of the Temples, the historical city of Syracuse, Latomia del Paradiso and the Greek and Roman Amphitheatre, and the Puppet Museum & Theatre-Workshop, to attend a puppet craft workshops with recycled materials. Field trip to Mussomeli, a farm for schools, to attend to an eco-workshops and made bread and ricotta cheese. Meeting in Lisbon: the Portuguese school counterbalanced the cancellation of this Meeting (due to covid19) by proposing a Very Green Task for students from all participating countries. They worked on this PBL (project based learning) by responding to a challenging problem - a survey about our carbon footprint. During mobilities students experienced the negative effects of pollution, appreciated nature landscapes, learned about cultural similarities and differences, practiced English with European friends, established positive relationships of friendship, of cooperation, sharing emotional moments and cultural growth, and used technological devices to communicate and work. E-Twinning has been the safe platform to share all the results and be in touch among all the project partners, both teachers and students. Teachers also used GoogleSuit in order to manage all the project documents. Regarding the project dissemination, we would like to note that the students have been the project’s multipliers disseminating objectives and activities, as they have had an active and participatory role during all the project. All mobilities, activities and products were reported in local newsletters and in the project website itself. As well as in different social media like Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, in order to give visibility to the project, to reach to all the European community. The project has benefited us in many ways. All the new methodologies used have been incorporated into our school projects, diversifying the teaching methodology. It has been a positive change towards the use of ICT, both by teachers and by students and their families. Students could understand the need of learning English to be able to communicate with other cultures. Also, the need of working collaboratively became an asset of this task based project. But above all, this project has created a sense of belonging to a wider European community, in which everyone is responsible for their own future in a sustainable way. Our products will be sustainable over time and could serve as an example for other European schools.