The project CHECKMATES - CHESSMATES! - Fostering student motivation through logic games is a 6 school partnership: Romania, Poland, Spain, Lithuania, Hungary and Bulgaria. THREATS for our institutions: more and more student-student and student-teacher conflicts because of Ss coming from different social background and because of bad communication at institutional level; a growing number of students who are NOT motivated to learn and have lower academic results and also a growing number of teachers who cannot face communication issues as an expectation of a modern and dynamic school system. We looked for partners who have the same goal as ours: enable EACH single learner to achieve his/her potential by understanding and embracing the diversity of their needs, regardless of socio-economic, cultural or other differences. We wish to try answering our need at institutional level by introducing the use of chess and other logic games in indoor/outdoor learning. We also want to encourage communication, intercultural activity among children and teachers in order to strengthen the European character of the project. The GOAL of our strategic partnership entitled: CHECKMATES - CHESSMATES! - Fostering student motivation through logic games is Ensuring quality education to the students who deal with social issues through an active participatory approach that uses logic games in classroom activities. O1: To strenghten the relationship among the 6 schools participating in the project through 3 short-term student echange and 3 joint-staff teacher activities by the end of the 2 year project and with the participation of 18 teachers/school; O2: To develop at least 3 methods, improve and test them using logic games inside and outside the classroom through organising 3 teachers' workshops during the 2 year project time with the participation of 12 teachers/school; O3: To raise with 25% both teachers and students usage of ICT tools in effective and efficient way for the work inside and outside the classroom by using computer-game learning activities (including chess) through 3 short-term exchanges of 6 pupils and 2 teachers/school by the end of the 2nd project year; O4.To reduce with 25% the number of student-student and teacher-student conflicts on institutional level by participating at 6 common transnational activities by the end of the 2nd year with the participation of 18 teachers and 18 students/school as each activity focuses on developing efficient communication during the interaction among the participants; O5:To develop intercultural competences among Ss and teachers so that at the end of the 2nd project year they get to know cultural similarities and differences of partner countries and communities, being able to accept each other just the way they are so that after closing the project they do not have behavior problems, they can easily integrate in different social and cultural groups. Results are as follows: INTANGIBLE: improvement of participants' skills regarding the use of chess/logic games in inside/outside teaching and learning; the exchange of best practices between the partner institutions regarding game-based strategies and methods; creative thinking, an increased motivation for learning; improvement of English language conduct; improvement of computer using skills by using ICT resources for designing project products or using different online platforms; improvement of peer cooperation, group-work competencies and different other social skills; increased knowledge on different cultures; positive international relations and future cooperations. TANGIBLE: 3 short-term exchange of pupils, 3 teachers' transnational workshops; a website and a brochure to present the project; Christmas CHESS cards; eTwinning platform; chess classes twice a week as an extracurricular activity throughout the project; an album of snapshots as the result of the Snapshot time! activity; a Book of Games; Erasmus + project Book. Direct target group:18 teachers and students dealing with social behaviour issues as follows: 40 Ss aged 10-14 from Romania, 30 Ss aged 12-14 from Poland, 30 Ss 9-11/12 from Spain, 30 Ss aged 9-12 from Lithuania and 30 students aged 9-12 from Hungary. A total of 160 students at partnership level. 6 students will participate at short-term students exchange activities, 2 of the four is a student with difficulties concerning socialising. By getting to know other countries and moving among different socio-cultural environments, the image of participant institutions will be improved in our communities. Plans on project sustainability is under prepare and sharing European knowledge and experience is going to be our permanent focus. This project gives an added value to each school involved as focuses on exchange of good practices increasing the knowledge of participants about chess and game/based teaching, improve professional skills and competences, all these by sharing experience with each other.
The project CHECKMATES - CHESSMATES! - Fostering student motivation through logic games was a 6 school partnership: Romania, Poland, Spain, Lithuania, Hungary and Bulgaria. THREATS for our institutions were more and more Ss-Ss and Ss-Ts conflicts because of Ss coming from different social background and because of bad communication at institutional level; a growing number of students who were NOT motivated to learn and had lower academic results and also a growing number of Ts who could not face communication issues as an expectation of a modern and dynamic school system. We looked for partners who had the same goal as ours: enable EACH child to achieve his/her potential by understanding and embracing the diversity of their needs, regardless of socio-economic, cultural or other differences. We wanted to try answering our need at institutional level by introducing the use of chess and other logic games in indoor/outdoor learning activities. We also wanted to encourage communication, intercultural activity among children and Ts in order to strengthen the European character of the project. The GOAL of our strategic partnership was to ensure quality education to the students who dealt with social issues through an active participatory approach that uses logic games in classroom activities. O1: To strenghten the relationship among the 6 schools through 3 short-term student echange and 3 joint-staff teacher activities by the end of the project and with the participation of 18 teachers/school; O2: To develop at least 3 methods, improve and test them using logic games inside and outside the classroom through organising 3 teachers' workshops during the 2 year project time with the participation of 12 teachers/school; O3: To raise with 25% both Ts and Ss usage of ICT tools in effective and efficient way for the work inside and outside the classroom by using computer-game learning activities through 3 short-term exchanges of 6 pupils and 2 teachers/school by the end of the 2nd project year; O4.To reduce with 25% the number of student-student and teacher-student conflicts on institutional level by participating at 6 common transnational activities by the end of the 2nd year with the participation of 18 teachers and 18 students/school as each activity focuses on developing efficient communication during the interaction among the participants; O5:To develop intercultural competences among Ss and Ts so that at the end of the 2nd project year they get to know cultural similarities and differences of partner countries and communities, being able to accept each other just the way they are so that after closing the project they do not have behavior problems, they can easily integrate in different social and cultural groups. We developed 3 methods together with the partners for using logic games in- and outside the classroom: the LUK game method in and otside the classroom according to a specific program and tools for teaching different school subjects but mainly Languages; the Lego serious game methodology that mixes the visual, auditory and kinesthetic learning styles into a unique strong and creative approach; the Chess Palace method that in the Romanian school is already included as an optional subject in the school curriculum and Ts use it for teaching Maths, Science and Literature. We could achieve that a number of 12 Ts use ICT tools in effective and efficient way for their classroom work and this is the biggest long-term benefit of the project. Other outcomes and benefits: improvement of participants' skills as of using chess/logic games inside/outside teaching and learning; improved creative thinking, increased motivation for learning; improvement of English language conduct; improvement of computer using skills by using ICT resources for designing project products or using online platforms; improved peer cooperation, group-work competencies and other social skills; increased knowledge on different cultures; positive international relations. Outputs: a website of the project was developed, Christmas CHESS cards were exchanged, eTwinning platform was updated with actual information about the project, chess classes twice a week are organized on local level at each institution, an album of snapshots as the result of the Who plays more?activity, a Book of Games, a Chess and Art exhibition, Chess Hymn. And also the Logo of the project. Besides the LTT activities we organized lots of game competitions and tournaments both in person and virtually, we have an active chess club, we organized interesting activities that linked chess with Arts, exhibitions, disseminations with articles in newspapers, applied questionnaires, collected testimonials but the most important is that we have more motivated Ss who gained knowledge and are getting better marks using chess and games.This is the biggest added value to each school involved as chess and game-based teaching improves professional skills and competences.