THE YOUNG KNIGHTS OF THE ROUND EUROPEAN TABLE is a project strictly linked to the topic of the European Year of Cultural Heritage. The cooperation among four different European countries- Italy, Portugal, Poland, Latvia will see teachers, of different subjects, and as many as possible young students aged from 11 to 14 enthusiastically sat around our huge European table with the intention to discover as much as possible about old and new traditions in cuisine. Food is the leitmotif of the project around which a lot of planned activities will be realized in order to achieve objectives which come from specific priorities. Social and educational value of European Cultural Heritage is one of the most important on which the objectives had been defined.So, the projects aims at: - extending the knowledge of different cultures beyond books and the internet; -eradicating the negative bias to traditional culture among young people; -appreciating cultural differences and similarities; - eliminating the prejudices arising from differences in culture by sharing entertainment - dances, music, cooking, arts -giving students' first-hand experiences in real social context. Teachers from Italy, which is the leadership school, teachers from Poland, from Portugal and from Latvia, aged from 35 to 50, will be actively involved in the planning and organization of the project. They are highly motivated and convinced supporters of the importance of the tangible as well as intangible values of the European cultural heritage. They will share their skills in different areas and experience, to conduct the whole community to the awareness that preserving the cultural heritage is fundamental for the future generations identity as citizens of their country and of Europe as well. They will prepare and support students from each school for mobility and the whole community during the activity in the schools. families in each country will be involved as hosting families, so to offer a real familiar context where to know , enjoy traditions and making new friends. During the duration of the project- 24 months- different activities will be realized to achieve the prefixed objectives according to the methodology of learning by doing. the experience through laboratories and workshops will be the privileged methodology to carry on the planned activity for the project. So, the students will be challenged by creating WEB PAGE, JOURNEY DIARY, LEAFLETS, CREATING LOGO AND MAKING A LOGO CONTEST, USE OF THE SOCIAL MEDIA, CREATIVE WORKSHOPS, PROJECT CORNER IN SCHOOL, AN eBOOK, A COOKBOOK. At the end of the project, the students will be asked to organize, together with teachers and parents a TRADITIONAL MEAL where traditional dishes from the different countries will be prepared and served by all the participants to the project so to enjoy FOOD sharing the taste of a newborn FRIENDSHIP. CULTURAL VISITS together with dances and music performance will be part of the activities as a way to discover in a tangible way the high value of the cultural heritage. 5 mobilities planned in the project: the first one in Italy to define and plan; the other ones as decided by each partner, to realize the activities planned together by the use of the etwinning or the exchange of emails. Students, teachers, and parents involved to share, preserve and contribute to the maintenance of old traditions and cultural heritage. As a result, by the experience, the whole school community, and the parental figures will gain a better knowledge of themselves from the humanistic point of view and will mature the ability to understand the difference as a form of enrichment for themselves. Students and teachers will benefit from the development of skills in managing and coordinating a project according to specific tasks among different partners as well as they will improve the knowledge of the English language as a vehicular language in real multicultural contexts. The potential longer-term benefits for the participants as well as for the Schools individually are considerably high. First of all, they will open itself to a greater vision of the learning-teaching process enriching the national curricula. The school will become the place where things are done, not only taught. The concrete tasks will enable people to solve problems for the benefits of others. In addition, the study of foreign languages will have a concrete usage based on the interaction with other people to achieve a common goal. this will improve the spoken as well as written English of both teachers and students. Last, but not least motivation will be a new start for the educational process of teaching and learning.
The project was strictly linked to the topic of the European Year of Cultural Heritage. The cooperation among four different European countries- Italy, Portugal, Poland, Latvia saw teachers, of different subjects, and as many as possible young students aged from 11 to 14 enthusiastically sat around our huge European table with the intention to discover as much as possible about old and new traditions in cuisine. Food was the leitmotif of the project around which a lot of planned activities were made in order to achieve objectives which came from specific priorities. Social and educational value of European Cultural Heritage was one of the most important on which the objectives were planned. During the duration of the project- 24 months- different activities were made to achieve the prefixed objectives according to the methodology of learning by doing. the experience through laboratories and workshops was the privileged methodology to carry on the planned activity for the project. So, the students were challenged by creating WEB PAGE, LEAFLETS, CREATING LOGO AND MAKING A LOGO CONTEST, USE OF THE SOCIAL MEDIA, CREATIVE WORKSHOPS, PROJECT CORNER IN SCHOOL, A COOKBOOK. 5 mobilities planned in the project, but only 3 made because of Coronvirus : the first one in Italy to define and plan; the other ones to Poland and Latvia as decided by each partner, to realize the activities planned together by the use of the etwinning. Due to the pandemic caused by Covid -19, the two-year Erasmus plus project for the exchange of good practices could not be concluded as planned together with the partners. The last mobility for teachers and students, scheduled in March in Portugal and the final meeting for the conclusion of the project scheduled in May in Italy, at the coordinating school, were compulsorily canceled due to force majeure. The teachers involved in the activities at their schools and in their respective countries were busy with the planning of distance learning, to ensure the continuation of the training offer. Taking into account that the situation in Italy was of great emergency and that the lockdown forced the closure of schools from March 6th till the end of june and that this has caused considerable difficulties in the daily management of educational activities, it was considered appropriate do not continue with the Erasmus activities planned and for this reason an appropriate declaration has been produced for the cancellation of the meetings due to” force majeure”. However, in the months preceding the pandemic all the planned activities were completed, so it can be said that the following results were obtained with evident positive impacts, both on the teacher and on the students involved as well as on the whole school community.