The project "The Saint James Way - the oldest European cultural way - yesterday and today" is a bilateral Erasmus+ project between IES Benlliure in Valencia, Spain and the Humboldt High School in Trier, Germany. In times of nationalism and anti-European feelings in the media, we consider it important to strengthen the cultural heritage and thus counteract the tendencies that lose sight of the common cultural heritage and the feeling of solidarity in Europe. The Pilgrim's Way to Santiago as Europe's first cultural route and as a link between European countries, people and cultures seems to be the appropriate topic here. The project should thus bring to the fore what we have in common in the past and present and thus lead to a "tolerance of ambiguity" in today's Europe. The concrete goal of our project is the creation of a virtual pilgrimage book as part of a website and the planning and implementation of a pilgrimage to conclude the project. These final products will be successively worked towards during the two-year project phase. On the one hand, the core group of participants, i.e. year 9 and 10 students of both schools, will work interdisciplinary in different subjects on topics related to the Way of St James: Landscapes, Climate, Cuisine, Legends, Multilingualism, History (Spanish / History), The Golden Section (Mathematics / Physics / Art), Gothic Cathedrals and Churches (Mathematics / Physics / Art/ English), The Saint James Way in Literature and Film (German / Spanish/ Religion), Geographical Data and Consequences for Pilgrimage (Geography) and many more. We orientate ourselves on the concept of "problem based learning", in which questions and problems arising from the lessons are posed by the students of the other country to be solved as a task. In addition to the lessons, the students learn to efficiently use digital media for information procurement and research and the possibilities of TwinSpace for the exchange of ideas and products, i.e. for collaboration as a whole. In terms of teaching, about 150 students will be integrated into the project on the German side, and about the same number of Spanish students. Students that are particularly interested and committed to the project will then be able to participate in the project meetings. On the other hand, the project meetings prepare for the final big pilgrimage on the "Camino de Levante". In spring 2020 we want to spend a week in binational groups intensively dealing with the theme of the Way of St James. Among other things, web quests about the Way of St James will be solved in binational teams, "Spanish-Valencian-German for Beginners" - courses will be held in groups of three, the Ruta Matemática in Valencia will be passed through, workshops on the topic of orientation in the terrain with maps and compass and the sky as orientation will be held and, in addition, a day on the Levante Way will be pilgrimaged. The method of collaborative work will be introduced and work on the digital book will begin. At the second project meeting in autumn 2020 in Trier, the following workshops are on the agenda: Man as Homo Viator/ Mindfulness, shooting a short commercial about the Way of St. James in Trier, designing one's own cathedral and replica in model size, writing a short play, investigating church architecture in Trier. In addition, the work on the digital book will be continued in binational teams. Finally, the preparation for our final pilgrimage should not be neglected; planning and organisation will be tackled (route, accommodation, equipment, luggage). In this context we want to spend another day together on the Way of St James, this time around Trier. After having spent almost 24 months on the Pilgrim's Way to Santiago, we will conclude the project with a five-day pilgrimage on the Camino de Levante. During the project meetings and the pilgrimage on the Way of St. James, the students develop determination and resilience, having to overcome difficulties and crisis situations. They must be proactive and work independently in a team. They become aware of themselves and develop a strong, self-sufficient self. In summary, the competences aspired to in this project are a prerequisite for young people to develop into independent and tolerant people who feel at home in Europe and connected to one another. For this reason, we will ensure that the project "works" beyond the project time by passing on the developed teaching series and continuing to develop them, that the pilgrimage becomes an integral part of our schools and is promoted and supported by external organisations and that the digital book is made available to an online travel agency.
The project "The Saint James Way - Harnessing the Power of the Way to Build Competences" was a bilateral Erasmus+ project between IES Benlliure in Valencia, Spain and Humboldt-Gymnasium in Trier, Germany. In times of right-wing landslides, nationalism and anti-European sentiments in the media, we felt it was important to strengthen cultural heritage and thus counteract the tendencies to lose sight of common cultural heritage and the feeling of being connected in Europe. The Way of St. James as Europe's first cultural route and as a connecting route between European countries, people and cultures seems the appropriate theme here. The project brought what we have in common in history and the present to the fore and filled it in thematically, thus leading to a "tolerance of ambiguity" in today's Europe. The concrete goal of our project was the creation of a virtual pilgrimage book and the planning and implementation of a pilgrimage to conclude the project. These final products were to be worked towards successively during the two-year project phase and involve as many pupils as possible from both schools. Due to the emerging pandemic, we had to adjust our demands on the project. As planned, both schools worked interdisciplinarily on topics related to the Way of St. James in various subjects: Landscapes, climate, cuisine, legends, multilingualism, history (Spanish/History ), The Way of St. James and chemistry (Chemistry), The Way of St. James in literature and film (German/Spanish/Religion), "Homo Viator" (German/Religion). We tried to integrate elements of "problem based learning" into the project by asking the pupils of the other country to solve questions and problems arising from the lessons. However, the binational cooperation was completely shifted to the digital world. Especially in the second year of the project, we were only able to work with a limited number of pupils from both sides. Beyond the classroom, the pupils learned to make efficient use of digital media for information gathering and research and the possibilities of TwinSpace for exchanging ideas and producing products, i.e. for collaboration as a whole (video conferencing platforms, etherpads, apps for producing podcasts and digital books, etc.). Two versions of a digital book have been created, one to be shown within the school community and another one for a wider audience with information on other educational resources created for this project and in accordance with the school data protection policy. The joint pilgrimage at the end of the project period was replaced by a day on the Way of St. James in both Spain and Trier. Determination and resilience had to be developed and demonstrated by both students and teachers during this period, as they had to deal with the difficulties and crisis situations of teaching in a pandemic together. Teamwork and the ability to compromise were required. During this time, young people developed a bit more into independent and tolerant people who feel at home in Europe and connected to each other. The products of the project are made available to the public, so hopefully the project can have a lasting effect for those who are interested.