VOICES is an international project of those who want to let themselves be heard in Europe. It has arisen from a network of existing partnerships of different schools within Europe. Although the majority of us is taking part in ongoing projects, all of us represent an attitude of not being able to idly stand facing everyday-life issues and situations; on the contrary, all participants are ready to act – detect new issues, discuss and analyse them, create an opinion and share it via the most powerful way – the power of the written word. Accomplishing the main objective, establishing an online student created European magazine, will empower students and provide them with the skills needed to succeed in their future lives. First, it seeds the idea of entrepreneurship and engagement among the youth willing to write, edit and enrich their classmates, teachers and communities by developing their digital skills in order to share their thoughts to a wide audience. These digital skills will include mastering a number of web tools necessary to edit and design an online magazine, upload and edit photos and videos, create comics and diagrams, write blog posts, and maintaining a website. The acquisition of these skills will benefit students in their future lives. Secondly, the magazine is not written in their native languages. English is used as the “lingua franca”, which will lead to general improvement of writing skills and other forms of expression in this useful language. Each of the contributors – pupils and teachers– enrich their vocabulary, deepen their sense of grammatical structures, practice accuracy and fluency. Besides the linguistic skills, personal and inter-personal competences are developed, too. Prompt, flexible and empathic communication is the essential condition for all participants. Eighty students and ten teachers from the five participating countries: Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Germany and Macedonia will take part in the student exchanges and the short term staff trainings. At least twenty students from disadvantaged backgrounds will be included in the project activities. Whole schools – both students and teachers – will take part in the project through questionnaires, attending public presentations and participant led staff trainings, and viewing and reading the magazine. Students and teachers who are not able to attend the trainings and pupil exchanges, will be able to actively participate through the online portion of the project on E-twinning. Over the course of the project students and teachers from these regions will work on their own development by taking up new skills, learning from their own experience through innovative approaches leading to a general improvement of the quality of teaching and learning processes at schools. There will be five student exchanges, along with five teacher trainings in each participating country. During the student exchanges students will lead the work on completing the first five issues of the magazine: cultural heritage, modern technology, human relations, fashion, and environment. Students will be required to critically examine issues from their own communities and come up with solutions. They will be engaged in different types of activities to complete all aspects of the magazine. Students will work in groups on the main issue, history section, analyzing and writing articles on the questionnaires, creating comics, presenting the host country’s cultural and educational information, photo diary, blog, and vlog. Teachers will receive expert led training on the following topics: how to deal with student motivation and failures, modern technology in the classroom, inclusion, creativity and Content Language Integrated Learning approach (CLIL), and student social-emotional intelligence. As a result of the creation and distribution of VOICES, we expect our students to develop key skills and competences necessary to succeed in today’s digital world. Students will also significantly improve their English writing and speaking skills, and cultural awareness. By having them reflect and come up with solutions on critical contemporary issues they will become and continue to be active participating European citizens. As a result of students working with their peers from countries across Europe, we expect them to understand and embrace equality, diversity, and inclusion. From the teacher’s training in this project, we expect teachers to become better educators positively effecting their students` future and society in general.
VOICES was/is an international project of those who want to let themselves be heard in Europe. It has arisen from a network of existing partnerships of different schools within Europe. Although the majority of us is taking part in ongoing projects, all of us represent an attitude of not being able to idly stand facing everyday-life issues and situations; on the contrary, all participants are ready to act – detect new issues, discuss and analyse them, create an opinion and share it via the most powerful way – the power of the written word. Reaching the main goal, creating an online European magazine for students, will empower students and provide them with the skills they need to succeed in their future lives. First, it breeds the idea of entrepreneurship and commitment among young people who want to write, edit and enrich their classmates, teachers and the community by developing their digital skills to share their thoughts with a wide audience. These digital skills involved mastering a range of web tools necessary to edit and design an online magazine, upload and edit photos and videos, create comics and diagrams, write blog posts, and maintain a website. Learning these skills has brought students benefits that they will be able to use in their future lives. Second, the magazine was not written in their native language. The English language was used in formulating the notations that were necessary to create VOICES. This led to an overall improvement in writing skills and other forms of expression, including the use of everyday useful language. Each of the participants - students and teachers - enriched their vocabulary, deepened their sense of grammatical structures, practiced accuracy and fluency in speaking and writing. In addition to language skills, personal and interpersonal competences were developed. Students and teachers from five participating countries: Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Germany and Macedonia took part in student exchanges and short-term staff training. Entire schools - both students and teachers - participated in public presentations and staff training courses by the participants, as well as browsing and reading the magazine. Five student exchanges and five teacher training courses were held in each participating country. Unfortunately, the last 2 mobilities in Slovakia and Macedonia took place via the Internet. These were virtual mobility caused by the COVID situation. During the exchanges, students conducted work on the completion of five issues of the magazine: cultural heritage, modern technologies, human relations, fashion and the environment. They were engaged in all kinds of activities to complete all aspects of the magazine. Students worked in groups on the main topic, the history section, analyzing and writing articles based on questionnaires, creating comics, presenting the host country's cultural and educational information, photo diary, blog and vlog. The teachers attended expert-led training on the following topics: how to deal with student motivation and failure, modern technologies in the classroom, integration, creativity and an integrated approach to teaching the language of content (CLIL), and the socio-emotional intelligence of students. As a result of the creation and distribution of VOICES, we expect our students to develop the key skills and competences necessary to succeed in today's digital world. Students will also greatly improve their English writing and speaking skills and cultural awareness. By considering and delivering solutions to critical contemporary issues, they will become and will continue to be active participating European citizens. As a result of students working with their peers from countries all over Europe, we expect them to understand and embrace equality, diversity and inclusion. From teacher training in this project, we expect teachers to become better educators positively influencing the future of their students and society in general.