Context The title of the project CONNECT draws on two main directions that the project intends to focus on. Firstly, the initiative is meant to bring together a wide range of representatives from different cultural backgrounds – Polish, Italian, Bulgarian, Slovenian and Turkish, together with the minority groups existing in some of these schools. We want to get to know each other’s traditions, customs, lifestyle. In this way we can find out what are the aspects that connect us and what differentiates us. The second direction involves increasing students’ respect for the teaching profession. Teachers nowadays have a hard time managing students’ behavior during classes. This results from the fact that the teaching profession has lost the respect of the community. If 40 years ago there was a high percentage of students wanting to become teachers (about 40 percent of lower secondary students), nowadays the numbers have fallen dramatically (below 8 percent). Therefore CONNECT is about bringing together people – students and teachers from different cultures, facing various challenges, in order to create a strong, cohesive community in which all the members feel valued by the others. Objectives The project targets the achievement of the following objectives: O1. improve cultural awareness and acceptance of social, ethnic and cultural diversity O2. improve communication and collaboration among actors in the school – students, teachers, parents O3. improve transferrable skills – data selection and manipulation, ICT, critical thinking O4. improve language competence (English and other languages) O5. increase students’ self-confidence and creativity O6. increase the respect for the teaching profession O7. enable the exchange of experience and good practices among teachers dealing with similar teaching challenges Participants The target group is made up of students aged 13-14 in our schools – about 600 students. Out of these, 120 students are students facing social, economic, integration challenges – orphan students, immigrants, SEN students, Roma minority. Direct participants will be 60 students (4/country/C1-C3, 3/country/C4) and 40 teachers (2/country/C1-C5) Activities The student exchanges offer participants the opportunity to present aspects related to their culture – multimedia presentations, lessons, while interacting with each other and learning about the others. They learn about each other’s language, history, legends, music, hobbies, favourite games etc. Ss and Ts swap roles. At the end of each exchange, Ss and Ts discuss what they learned about each other, similarities and differences between countries, which are included in the meeting report. One short-term joint staff training event is included at the end of the project, in which Ts share common or innovative practices in terms of methods to use for bringing cohesion and enabling cooperation in multicultural and socially challenged classrooms. As a result, partners create a guide of good practices for tackling such issues which have become quite commonplace in European schools. C1 - Italy - NOV 2018 – History and Music connections C2 - Poland - APRIL 2019 – Legends and Hobbies C3 - Slovenia - OCT 2019 – Geography and games C4 - Bulgaria - MAR 2020 – Famous People and Customs C5 – Turkey – MAY 2020 – joint staff training event Results Outcomes: increased motivation, better awareness of European cultural heritage, improved language skills and critical thinking, boosted self-confidence, strengthened relationship between Ss and Ts; acquisition of values of tolerance and acceptance, increased self-confidence, more cooperative students, increased cooperation among teachers from European schools. Outputs: collection of legends, collection of songs, folders with lesson plans designed by students, collections of country/school/history/geography presentations, students’ testimonials in the form of digital diaries, guide of good practices in tackling culturally or socially challenged classrooms, certificates, management documents, reports etc. Impact There will be an improved level of cooperation among teachers, students and parents, which will result in better dialogue and more projects developed in schools that involve all these actors. Parents will thus start being more involved in the life of the school, which leads to an atmosphere of cooperation and mutual respect which will ultimately benefit all categories involved. Students will develop their motivation (due to their involvement in transnational activities), their appreciation for their teachers and the level of tolerance among peers. This leads to the creation of a stronger bond with the school and an increase in the interest the show for all school activities. They will learn to accept and embrace differences as part of a common cultural heritage. They will also improve their level of English and knowledge of other languages, their self-esteem, confidence, which will improve their school performance.
Context The title of the project CONNECT drew on two main directions that the project was focused on - linking representatives from different cultural backgrounds – Polish, Italian, Bulgarian, Slovenian, and Turkish, in hand with the minority groups existing in some of these schools. We studied each other’s traditions, customs, lifestyles and found out the aspects that connect us and what differentiates us. The second direction was increasing students’ respect for the teaching profession. Teachers nowadays have a hard time managing students’ behavior during classes. This results from the fact that the teaching profession has lost the respect of the community. Therefore CONNECT achieved a lot about linking people – students and teachers from different cultures, facing various challenges, and created a strong, cohesive community in which all the members feel valued by the others. Objectives From monitoring and final evaluation, we have to admit that the aims were fulfilled. After the interviews with all the participants, observations, evaluation questionnaires, analyzing the project documents and reports we are able to estimate the type and quality of the competencies acquired. O1. improved cultural awareness and acceptance of social, ethnic, and cultural diversity O2. improved communication and collaboration among actors in the school – students, teachers, parents O3. improved transferrable skills – data selection and manipulation, ICT, critical thinking O4. improved language competence (English and other languages) O5. increased students’ self-confidence and creativity O6. increased the respect for the teaching profession O7. exchange of experience and good practices among teachers dealing with similar teaching challenges Participants The target group was made up of students aged 12-14 in our schools – about 600 students. Out of these, 120 students are students facing social, economic, integration challenges – orphan students, immigrants, SEN students, Roma minority. Direct participants were 60 students Activities During the exchanges, participants had an opportunity to present aspects related to their culture – multimedia presentations, lessons while interacting with each other and learning about the others. They learned about each other’s language, history, legends, music, hobbies, favorite games, etc. They created international games, legends, traditional dances, songs, and artworks.Ss and Ts swapped roles. At the end of each exchange, Ss and Ts discussed what they learned about each other, similarities and differences between countries. During the short staff training event at the end of the project, Ts shared common or innovative practices in terms of methods to use for bringing cohesion and enabling cooperation in multicultural and socially challenged classrooms. As a result, partners created a guide of good practices for tackling such issues which have become quite commonplace in European schools. Mobilities C1 - Italy - JAN 2019 – History and Music connections C2 - Poland - MAY 2019 – Legends and Hobbies C3 - Slovenia - OCT 2019 – Geography and games C4 - Bulgaria - MAR 2020 – Famous People and Customs - mobility canceled due to COVID 19 pandemic and transferred to the next year C5 – Turkey – JUN 2021 – joint staff training event C6 - Bulgaria - MAR-APR 2021 - Famous People and Customs - again the mobility was impossible to implement according to the pandemic situation in Europe and was held online Results Outcomes: increased motivation, better awareness of European cultural heritage, improved language skills and critical thinking, boosted self-confidence, strengthened the relationship between Ss and Ts; acquisition of values of tolerance and acceptance, increased self-confidence, more cooperative students, increased cooperation among teachers from European schools. Outputs: a collection of legends, collection of songs, folders with lesson plans designed by students, collections of country/school/history/geography presentations, students’ testimonials in the form of digital diaries, guide of good practices, certificates, management documents, reports, websites and media groups Improved level of cooperation among teachers, students, and parents, which resulted in better dialogue and more projects in schools that involve all these actors. Parents were more engaged in school life, which led to an atmosphere of cooperation and mutual respect which will ultimately benefit in the future. Students developed their motivation, and appreciation for their teachers and the level of tolerance among peers. This led to the creation of a stronger bond with the school and an increase in the interest they show for all school activities. They learned to accept and embrace differences as part of a common cultural heritage. They also improved their level of English and knowledge of other languages, their self-esteem, confidence, which will enhance their school performance.