The idea for this project arose from the needs of pupils and teachers of both schools. The skills, abilities and backgrounds of our pupils are very diverse and this is a challenge when we are trying to help everyone to achieve the learning goals. A big question is how to support the ones who are struggling with, for example, learning difficulties or immigrants with Finnish or Spanish as a second language while also providing enough challenges for high-achieving pupils. This is an area where our teachers need support and supplement training. We believe that the answer lies in focusing on multi-disciplinary studies and transversal competences such as Communication in the mother tongue, Communication in a foreign language, Digital competence and Learning to learn skills. By finding new and innovative ways of using ICT in teaching languages and other subjects, we are hoping to increase motivation, learning and social skills of all students. When we include pupil participation in this process, we are teaching active citizens that take responsibility, help others and have a feeling of being an important part of the community. This is a two-year project that will focus on exploring communication, ICT and languages during the first year. During the second year, the emphasis is on pupil participation, learning to learn and focusing on our strengths. All these themes are naturally present in the project throughout the whole length of it. The whole project is based on the idea of sharing our strengths, working together and learning from each other. The pupils of our target group have already participated in planning this project by suggesting activities that they would like to share with each other. During these two years of the project we will have pupils and teachers working together at three different levels: Link Teachers, Erasmus Club and Multi-disciplinary Theme Weeks. The Link Teachers, who pair up with a teacher from the partner school, visit each other and plan activities together with their pupils. This activity will support their professional development. The link will carry on through the whole year and in addition to their Link Teacher work, they participate in planning other learning, teaching and training activities. During the visit, the hosting school will also organize a training event for teachers on a topic that the Link Teacher have chosen together based on their mutual interests and needs around the topics of this project. The pupils become involved in the project through their teachers. Pupil participation is an important aspect of this project, and therefore both schools will have their own Erasmus Club for the target group pupils who are interested in exploring the topics of our project more deeply. Together with the teachers in charge of these clubs, they will plan and suggest activities and interact with the Erasmus Club members from their partner country. This will ensure that the pupils are aware of the content of the project as well as have established a relationship with each other as well as the pupils of their partner school. The club will also ensure that all pupils have equal possibilities to be a part of this international project, regardless of their backgrounds or abilities. All members of the Club will also have equal opportunities to be chosen as Ambassadors, visiting the partner school during the multi-disciplinary Theme Weeks that involve all teachers and pupils of both schools. They will also be included in the planning process of these weeks together with the teachers. In order to include everyone, not just the pupils who are travelling, we will share our work via ICT in as many ways as possible, creating a Virtual European Classroom for the whole week. The expected impacts on the participants, both pupils and teachers, are somewhat similar. We expect that this project will inspire them to see different possibilities of ICT and realize that it is an interesting, meaningful and motivating tool at school. We are hoping that participating in this project will support the development of social skills of all participants, increase their interest in languages and give them confidence to use them along different kinds of communication strategies when working with each other. We hope that this project will support the professional development of our teachers and give them tools to meet the different needs of their pupils while recognizing the importance of teamwork. We want to make everyone aware and proud of their national and international identities and strengthen global understanding.
The idea for this project arose from the needs of pupils and teachers of both schools. A big question we wanted to explore was how to support the ones who are struggling with, for example, learning difficulties or immigrants with Finnish or Spanish as a second language while also providing enough challenges for high-achieving pupils. We started to look for answer by focusing on multi-disciplinary studies and transversal competences such as Communication in the mother tongue, Communication in a foreign language, Digital competence and Learning to learn skills. We were hoping that by using ICT in teaching languages and other subjects, we would increase motivation, learning and social skills of all students. Pupil participation in this process would help the children on they way of becoming active citizens that take responsibility, help others and have a feeling of being an important part of the community. During the first year we focused on communication, ICT and languages. The teachers participating in the project contacted each other and started planning their cooperation according to mutual needs and interests around these topics. For example, the English teachers chose a literature project as their link class project while ICT/art/technical work teachers focused on creating the blog, exploring the possibilities for communication and distribution via ICT and sharing good practices. Both schools had their own Erasmus Club for the target group pupils who were interested in exploring the topics of our project more deeply. Together with the teachers in charge of these clubs, they planned activities and had their own virtual meetings with each other. The second year of the project focused on pupil participation, learning to learn and focusing on our strengths. All these themes were naturally present throughout the whole project. The pupils of our target group participated already in the application process by suggesting topics and activities that they would like to share with each other. The pupils and teachers worked together in three different ways: Link Teacher cooperation, Erasmus Club activities and Multi-disciplinary Theme Weeks during pupil mobilities. The Link Teachers, who paired up with a teacher from the partner school, visited each other and planned activities together with their pupils. These links became somewhat permanent for the whole length of the project. In addition to their Link Teacher work, they participated in planning other learning, teaching and training activities. During the teacher visits, the hosting school organized a training event for everyone, including their own teachers. The topics were Cyberbullying and Bridge Class (pupils with immigrant background). By founding Erasmus Clubs for both schools, we ensured that the pupils were aware of the content of the project and had their own important role in planning and executing activities. The club also made it possible for all pupils to have equal possibilities to be a part of this international project, regardless of their backgrounds or abilities. Both clubs chose eight pupils as Ambassadors based on their active participation and application and they visited the partner school during the multi-disciplinary Theme Weeks in Aranjuez and Espoo. These pupils were also included in the planning process of these weeks together with the teachers. In order to include everyone, not just the pupils who are travelling, we had hoped to share our work via ICT in as many ways as possible, creating a Virtual European Classroom for the whole week. Unfortunately, idea of joining two schools/classes via Skype to create a virtual classroom for even a day was too ambitious at the time. We did not take into account the technical and some practical challenges when it came to equipment, schedules etc The expected impacts on the participants, both pupils and teachers, were somewhat similar and based on the feedback we received through our questionnaires, we managed to achieve our goals. We expected that this project will increase the use of ICT as meaningful tool in language studies, art and other subjects. We also saw the development of communication skills, pupils gaining confidence and becoming more interested in languages and international cooperation. The project also included host families and students doing their practice at school, which increased the feeling of larger community and international cooperation on more than one level. The long-term benefits that can already be seen are the interest in international cooperation and foreign languages. Pupils have become active members of the school community and are already hosting language clubs for the younger ones.