The Year of European Cultural Heritage - opportunity for future The project is focused on pupils of pre-primary, primary and secondary levels. Participants of the project are Primary and Secondary school Častá, Slovak Republic as the project coordinator and two Norwegian schools - Kindergarten and School Koppang, partners of the project. The schools entered a partnership based on previous long term cooperation in exchange projects and similar needs and aims. The project will be implemented with approximately 400 participants overall. 10% of them are pupils with some disadvantages. The main outcom of the project is promotion of cultural heritage of the participating regions via opportunity to get real experience with the culture of partner schools. We would like to emphasize the possibility using new knowledge about cultural heritage and crafts it in the future. The project will span the whole curriculum of all levels of education. We are planning to do 12 project activities aimed to increase the interest in traditions and culture of own country as well as the country of the partners. A central element will be traditional crafts which can help pupils in future career and can increase their chance for better application in the job market. In the proposed activities, we will use the following teaching methods validated in practice in all levels of education: games, singing, dancing, poems, dramatization, work experiences in craft workshops, ICT. We will thus increase all key competences. Partial outcomes will be short films about the carried out activities. Final outcomes will be: - documentary film about implementation of the project and its effect on the participants - print and electronic versions of Multilanguage Picture Dictionary focused on terminology of traditional customs and crafts. Two exchange mobilities are planned - one in each partner country. The participants will be 10 pupils and 4 teachers. They will be selected based on their previous engagement during the project activities and their outcomes. Transnational cooperation brings about exchange of experiences in innovative educational methods in partner countries. In these activities we will use peer teaching to introduce the customs, traditions and crafts of the partner country. Each country will implement its own educational methods that can offer teachers and pupils the choice of efficient ways to educate themselves in the future with regards to their individual needs. An indispensable part of project will be activities for evaluation of the results - international e-quizzes and other tools to evaluate the progress towards the goals. Dissemination of the results and communication between participants will be implemented via the eTwinning platform and dissemination platform Erasmus+. During the course of the project we aim to: - increase cultural and national awareness in the international context - promote interest of the pupils in crafts and to give them the opportunity to study in real craft companies - provide the pupils/participants with new skills and knowledge for future career - promote initiative and entrepreneurship - skills to change own ideas into action - to plan, implement, analyse, communicate, asses progress and independently finish the task - increase key competences - communicative, social and autonomomous - give these opportunities to pupils with SEN as well to expand their individual skillsets through practical craft work for improved chance to use it in integrating into society and in future career - improve language skills of teachers to improve their lifelong education - promote personal growth - establish a stable team of qualified teachers in our schools - strengthen international partnerships for realization of new eTwinning and Erasmus plus projects with long-term benefits. Activities will be implemented by pupils and teachers of all levels of education. Everyone will contribute at their own level with the focus of Slovakian state education program and Norwegian Framework Plans for primary school and kindergarten. We have an effort to incorporate of project results into our own school education programs and their improvement. We expect the following long-term impacts of the project: - for pupils - development their initiative and entrepreneurship to help them in future careers - for teachers - enhancement of public credit by developing personal and professional competences - for organizations - establishment the stable pedagogical team, better credit, new international partnerships - for regions - improved status of craftsmen and promotion of tourism
The project was based on the education in the kindergarten, primary and secondary school. The Slovak secondary school and the kindergarten and secondary school from Norway were joined into this project. The partnership of these schools was established on the base of the long-term cooperation and similar aims and requirements. We took aim at about 400 students and approximately 10% of students had special needs. The main aim of the project was to propagate cultural heritage of the partnership schools and potential use in the future. We provided it for children to know, try, experience and check up their skills. The project ran the whole curriculum of education from all stated levels. We carried out 25 project activities instead 12 planned. We focused on the utilization the traditions in the present. We studied habits and traditions of our region. We also studied crafts such as beekeeping, making products in smithy, ceramics, wine-making and basket making. We and local craftsmen organized craft shops. Students gained theoretical and also practical skills with the whole process of the individual crafts from initial preparation to the final product. We found out that our ancestors had connected everyday working life with the folklore and habits. We concentrated on the way of spending of individual festivals. For spring, it was burning of Morena (a goddess), for autumn, it was a harvest festival of grapes and wine and for winter, it was presentation of Christmas decorations and bakery products, carols and wishings.... All these events were connected with typical songs, dances, making fun of somebody and congratulations. Children studied some folk performancesw for these festivals. They presented them during school celebrations and celebrations in our region. Norwegian schools devoted to their own regional traditions, for example folklore, mining, forestry, fishing, working with wood and wool... Two planned educational and training activities which were called „Teach me what you know 1 and 2“. 10 Slovak students and 4 teachers were participated in activity number 1 in Norway. 10 Norwegian students and 6 teachers were participated in activity number 2 in Slovakia. The programme was concentrated on gaining practical skills at individual crafts, presentations about songs, dances and habits. The students were working in the mixed international groups and they were creating materials for picture dictionary in three languages which was focused on terminology of folk habits and crafts between schools. The Slovak students and teachers visited famous places in Norway. It was historical town Roros and its Museum of mine. Another town called Sollia is famous for its metal statue of elk (called Storelgen - the biggest from all over the world), wooden church (from period of settlement), local primary school and beautiful nature. The town Elverum and its open-air museum with historical wooden buildings and exposition of traditional life like fishing, lumbering and forestry in the valley of the river Glomma. We and Norwegian students and teachers visited local winery called – Vína z mlyna and saw watermill and the traditional way of milling of corn. We visited Trnava and its local sights and Christmas markets. People from Norway saw our Red Stone Castle in Častá. They got to know about horse farming and they could ride a horse. When they visited the town Modra they could see historical objects and try to make the traditional products made of clay. The whole activities were documented by camera or videos. They were transformed into documentary film as another output of the project. The national partnership brought a lot of experiences about innovative and educational methods in the individual school in Norway and Slovakia. We were informed about different evaluation system which is focused on verbal evaluation. Norwegian students don´t get the school marks. These experiences helped us during teaching students at home. It was shared to all teachers from our school. We used it during the first Covid wave and also when the students got the certificate at the end of the school year. The Norwegian school inspired us because the school is situated near nature and educational process were connected with surrounds. It helped us to create new projects based on environment. We also like that the nature is used as an educational tool and space. All these experiences were also integrated to the new school educational plan. Long-term benefit of our project is our students, teachers and locals are interested in traditions. Unusual benefit is the conclusion of agreement about long-term partnership between our school and primary school in Norway. This agreement deals with preparation and realization of international projects.