As to create a United European Society, cultural heritage is one of the major points of European Strategic Development Plan and thanks to CPTL - Culture Promotes Teaching and Learning, we aim to bring a valuable contribution in raising awareness and promoting Europe's cultural heritage targeting pupils who are 10-14 years old. The fairy tales, legends, myths, Arts & Crafts, Traditional games, Folk dance & music, Puppet and Shadow plays are all in this Project binding 5 schools of 5 countries jointly created two-years work plan based on developing pupils' and teachers' literacy skills, enhancing social inclusion, digital skills, language skills, cultural diversity and critical thinking and creativity While mainly aiming teachers to meet and learn about new teaching/learning approaches and how to use cultural elements in their classes. According to the SWOT analysis and the institutional development plans of each partner, we reached the conclusion that our students need to be encouraged to explore culture as a way to help them better understand settings outside their experiences and exercise their imagination in a safe space. We designed a project that is addressed to all learning styles - using Neil Fleming's model of student learning: visual, auditory, reading/writing preference and kinaesthetic. This core idea will help in organizing and managing this project that will foster success for our pupils and teachers, including the ones having a migrant background, will strengthen the cooperation schools-families, schools-external stakeholders. CPTL-bringing together 5 schools of 5 European countries, the project is based on the needs identified by all partners in their institutions. These are to reduce students' tendency for early-school leaving, for aggressive and antisocial behaviour and tendencies to cultivate cultural knowledge and freedom of thought and equip students with the necessary knowledge for better integrating in a multicultural society, to encourage their interest in self-development and internationalize the school curriculum. The main aim is promoting European cultural heritage among our pupils/teachers determining them to improve their school success. Using stories, Arts & Crafts, Folk Dance and Music, Traditional games...are main core elements of CPTL and Students have an innate love of main cores of this project. As a teaching tool, if they can be used well, all main cores empower developing imagination, creativity, empathy, respect, tolerance, appreciation for different cultures and in encouraging a positive attitude among people no matter the country, religion and race. Main objectives: – to raise awareness about commonalities and differences of partners – to increase students' willingness to express thoughts and feelings and their cultures creatively – to encourage using English and promote ICT skills via new methods in all areas of the curriculum In order to achieve the project's objectives, we have planned the following activities based on the VARK model addressing to the all types of learners: -visual learners: logo, digital stories, Erasmus+ corners, questionnaires, bookmarks and wrist bands -aural learners: group discussions, web-chat on Facebook page and eTwinning Platform, email exchanges. -read/write learners: presentations, stories for the magazines, scripts for Puppet plays, dictionary, flyers. -kinaesthetic learners: carnival, materials produced during Arts & Crafts, Folk Dance & Music workshops. These activities; will foster success of students, including the ones having a migrant background, will strengthen the cooperation schools-families, schools-external stakeholders. The direct target group is represented by 50 teachers. The participation in the project will increase their awareness about the importance of tailoring teaching materials according to different learning styles. The indirect target groups are represented by students, families and local communities. There will also be many concrete results such as digital stories, play scripts, sample lessons...etc. We aim to create teaching materials that boost teachers' motivation to use digital and non-digital innovative practices, helping pupils to acquire key competences needed for living in multicultural societies. The results of CPTL will reflect participants' learning/teaching experiences. We aim to motivate other participants of the education system to use our materials adapting them to their own needs. The schools’ institutional development plan will be expanded, and the school curricula will be internationalized as we intend to continue using the teaching materials and tools used during the implementation. The project results will be available free to be downloaded in all virtual platforms. The dissemination plan will help to reach a large audience and make an impact at local, regional, national and international levels.
As to create a United European Society, cultural heritage is one of the major points of the European Strategic Development Plan and thanks to implementing activities carefully planned in the Culture Promotes Teaching and Learning Erasmus+ project, we aimed to bring a valuable contribution to raising awareness and promoting Europe's cultural heritage. The project participants were pupils who are 10-15 years old and teachers. The fairy tales, legends, myths, Arts & Crafts, traditional and teambuilding games, folk dance & music and puppet and shadow play were means of achieving the projects‘ objectives in this project binding 5 schools from 5 countries. The project activities were based on developing pupils' and teachers' literacy skills, enhancing social inclusion, digital skills, language skills, cultural diversity, critical thinking and creativity. Three out of five project partners were novices in international projects and we witnessed that the schools’ institutional development plan was expanded and the school curricula internationalized. According to evaluation questionnaires, all the partners expressed their motivation to participate in international projects even in future and the participants expressed their belief that they are going to utilize all the newly gained skills and knowledge namely educational materials, presentations, video magazines and other project results such as Kahoots, Baamboozle and Blooket games, digital books and other tools that were made during the implementation of project activities in their teaching/learning practice even after the project will have finished. As for the long-term benefits: promoting European cultural heritage among our pupils/teachers and motivating them to improve their school success and performance while using stories, Arts & Crafts, folk dances and music, traditional games and teambuilding games will be practised in all partners‘ schools even after the project will have finished. We believe that these elements will foster S.E.L. (social-emotional learning) and soft skills and by a gradual development of imagination, creativity, empathy, respect, tolerance, appreciation for different cultures and encouraging a positive attitude, the skills and tools gained thanks to this project will hopefully prevent early school leaving and increase pupils motivation to learn. The main objectives were to raise awareness about commonalities and differences between partners' cultures, increase students' willingness to express thoughts and feelings and their cultures creatively, encourage using English and promote ICT skills. In order to achieve the project's objectives, we have planned the following activities based on the VARK model addressing all types of learners: -for mainly visual learners: project logo, digital stories, Erasmus+ corners, questionnaires, bookmarks and wrist bands -aural learners: group discussions, team building activities, traditional music and dances workshops -read/write learners: presentations, gamification-based activities - Baamboozle, Kahoots, studying scripts for puppet plays -kinaesthetic learners: carnival, materials produced during Arts & Crafts, Folk Dance & Music workshops During the LTTAs we realised that sorting pupils into learning types categories may have its limitations and we observed that the majority of pupils and teachers are happy to participate in all the project activities. The project results were: -evaluation questionnaires, the logo of the project, Erasmus+ corners, presentations of the schools, cities and countries involved in the project, presentations of national fairy tales or legends or myths and stories; of outdoor or teambuilding games, Turkish/Slovak/Italian Nights – meetings with parents and local participants, possibility to attend open lessons, meetings with parents, other teachers to promote the materials produced during workshops and LTTAs (limited by covid restrictions), scripts suitable for 5 Puppet/shadow plays or videos of these plays, 1 thematic carnival (using characters from stories, fairytales, myths, etc.), a project magazine, lesson plans or shared online teaching material that could be used by teachers in their classes, 1 webpage of the project, promotional materials: badges, bookmarks, wrist bands,, videojournal of the LTTA in the Slovak Republic, a programmed Dance Party on www.code.org The project results will be available free to be downloaded on all virtual platforms. The dissemination plan will help to reach a large audience and make an impact at local, regional, national and international levels.