The project European Orchestra is a two- year Erasmus plus strategic school partnership. This project brings together European countries and partners where the music education has a particular significance and importance, with a special emphasize on the positive influence it has on the special needs students. -Thematic field of the project involves: Active citizenship, Inclusive approaches, School improvement and quality evaluation, European citizenship and dimension. -Profile of the participants: School education, Local body and Ngos -Target audience will be: Teachers and students from Primary and Secondary schools, including special needs students Its main objective is to introduce and explore a wide range of free available music technologies and learning tools that provide extra motivation for students and is based on their interests and everyday reality . Participants in the project will work with sensitiveness to individual differences, in order to be prepared to meet different cultures. We first intend to enhance our learners’ motivation and investment in learning foreign languages and music skills since some of these skills are basic in the labor market and allow them to develop their future competences. On the other hand, we want to offer them an opportunity to meet their European neighbors, discover European cultures in native place, put forward their own culture, broaden their cultural horizons, and thus, build their European citizenship. All partners carried out a research in their countries to check if the students and the teachers are equipped in musical skills: it became clear that young people are not educated musically enough and teachers do not possess the skills for effective use of music that would make lessons more interesting for the pupils. what's more, they all underestimate the importance of musical integration into education and the positive influence it has on pupils with special needs since music tends to be one of the top motivators for children with special needs in the education system. Using captivating instruments prompts a child to make requests, the use of different instruments encourages the development of motor skills and the child is more willing to work through an activity by using music in a challenging way. That is one of the reasons we think the this topic is very important in order to get familiar with the other best European practices and share experiences. Every country has different experience in using different teaching methods. We consider studying different music from different cultures and comparing them as a crucial starting point in educational process nowadays. Music education in Europe is becoming more open to all, with a great emphasize on the International Global element that is recognizable in every song. Globalization, the vast increase in intercultural communication and interaction, and the cultural diversity in today’s classrooms create a demand for a new orientation in education and the implementation of school programs that will adopt global perspectives and promote intercultural understanding and respect. -Reflecting on this need, we focus on discovering common melodies of folk songs of partner countries and publish a unique music education book with implementations and sample songs. -Moreover, folk stories will be presented and turned to a play. Music teachers will be trained about multicultural music education and international teaching-learning techniques and approaches including special education needs. -A common orchestra and choir will be established. -Our project inspires and motivates students and teachers in the importance of music education through folk songs using cross cultural curriculum beyond borders. With the approval of our project, a collabrative environment is going to be created in order to improve soft skills of both students and teachers that encourage team work. Discussing these individual experiences and process in groups of national and international teams will hopefully lead to new horizons in student's and teacher's life-both mentally and emotionally.
The project European Orchestra was a two-year Erasmus+ Strategic School Partnership, extended for one year to 36-months due to pandemic conditions since March 2020. It brought together partners from six European countries where the music education plays a particular significance and importance, having a special emphasis on the positive influence it can provide for the students with less opportunities. The thematic field of the project included: Active citizenship, Inclusive approaches, School improvement and quality evaluation, European citizenship and dimension. The profile of participants and target beneficiaries were: students and teachers in primary or secondary schools including students with special needs, members of different Local bodies or NGOs. Its main goal was to introduce and explore a wide range of free available music technologies and learning tools that provide extra motivation for students and is based on their interests and everyday reality. Participants in the project worked with sensitiveness to individual differences, in order to be prepared to meet different cultures. at the very beginning we aimed to enhance our learners’ motivation and investment in learning foreign languages and music skills since some of these skills are basic in the labor market and allow them to develop their future competences. On the other hand, we also wanted to offer them an opportunity to meet their European neighbors, to discover European cultures in native place, to put forward their own culture, to broaden their cultural horizons and as a sum up to build their European citizenship. All partners carried out a research in their countries to check if the students and the teachers are equipped with musical skills: it became clear that young people are not sufficiently educated about the music and teachers do not possess the skills for effective use of music that would make lessons more attractive for the pupils. Furthermore, they all underestimate the importance of musical integration into education and the positive influence it has on students with special needs because the music intends to be one of the top motivators for children with special needs within the education system. Using captivating instruments prompts a child to make requests, the use of different instruments encourages the development of motor skills and the child is more willing to work through an activity by using music in a challenging way. That is one of the reasons why we considered this topic as very important one in order to get familiar with the other best European practices and share experiences. Every country involved shared their own experiences in using different teaching methodologies. We considered studying different music from different cultures and comparing them as a crucial starting point in educational process nowadays. Music education in Europe becomes more open to everybody, with a great emphasis on the International Global element that is recognizable in every song. Globalization, the vast increase in intercultural communication and interaction, and the cultural diversity in today’s classrooms create a demand for a new orientation in education and the implementation of school programs that will adopt global perspectives and promote intercultural understanding and respect. - Reflecting on this need, we focused on discovering common melodies of folk songs of partner countries and published a unique music education book with implementations and sample songs. - Furthermore, traditional folk stories were presented and turned into a play. Music teachers were trained about multicultural music education and international teaching-learning techniques and approaches including special education needs. - A common orchestra and choir was established. - Our project inspired and motivated students and teachers about the importance of music education through folk songs using cross cultural curriculum beyond borders. With the beginning of the project activities, a collaborative environment was created aimed to improve soft skills of both students and teachers and to encourage their team work. Discussing these individual experiences and processes in national and international teams has enabled new perspectives in mental and emotional student's and teacher's life.