The Brexit is what moves the people in Europe today. It is the expression of the developments that could be seen throughout many European countries: people get together and separate themselves from the European Union. We as a school and an international team, still believe in the power of the EU to be the only way of ensuring our kids a peaceful life within the EU and beyond. Thus, we want our participants to get to know the EU´s dimensions as well as the benefits of a European membership. Three schools experience the EU. Each one sends a team. At first, each school and each country will be visited. At this point the EU und its influences on individual lives will be examined. Finally, the teams will travel to Bruxelles to get to know the institutional EU. The project follows this principle: „the journey is the reward“. We utilize the journey in order to get the students used to the idea of the EU as a peace project. Special competences should be strengthened throughout the participation and the students should be able to carry these competences into their peer-group. The goals, with regard to the competences, can be describes as followed: Intercultural communicative competences: - personal horizon expansion - gaining new perspectives on European topics - diplomatic communication with others Language competences: - gaining access to different languages - learning strategies for efficient learning - equipment with new communicative methods Personal development: - enhanced self-efficacy - ability to cope with challenges like the final school exams Media and methodic competences - expansion of existing knowledge in the field of (digital) research, analysis and presentation - making use of new apps. In total 30 students will take part in this Erasmus+-mobility. Each school sends up to ten students who are in the age between 14 an 16. These children all show an advanced fund of languages, especially English. And they already have a few methods regarding independent learning strategies (working on/with content, presentation of content) at hand. The participating children are mature enough to recognize the relevance of the European peace project. They are aware of their function as ambassadors for the EU. The national groups are heterogeneous themselves and as a whole team even more. We welcome this fact because it attributes to a sustainable exchange. The project is based on the idea of mutual visitations and the joint reconnaissance of each others worlds. Activity C1 will take place in Germany. This stay will focus on experiencing the Rhein-Ruhr-Metropole (importance of the coal for the genesis and development of the EU). We will visit the EZB in Frankfurt (aM) as well. Activity C2 leads us to Ireland where we engage ourselves with the topics Irish division, Northern Ireland Conflict, and the Brexit from an Irish perspective. We would like to visit Dublin, Dundalk, Carrick-on-Suir and Cork. Afterwards, Activity C3 is going to take us to Romania where we will visit Bukarest and Timișoara. The goal is to research linguistic parallels within or among the European languages. Last but not least, Activity C4 is going to take place in Bruxelles. The international team is going to have one day of orientation within the city and one day for studying the academics. Still, the main aspect will be to learn more about the institutional EU (parliament, council, commission). We conclude our activities by installing a „Future-Laboratory“ where we want to collect ideas on how to strengthen the feeling of affiliation towards the EU. Methods: The main aspect will be the documentation of our journey. Herein lies special potential for gaining skills in the fields of linguistic and methodical competences. The participating children form a team (each country one team) and they are responsible for digital (filming) and analog (diary) documentation of the journey (the responsibilities will switch depending on the current whereabouts). Vital outcomes should be the development of the before mentioned skills in the fields of communication, languages, personality, and media and methods. We would like to raise the students’ awareness for their role in maintaining a peaceful EU and empower them to distribute their experiences. Also the learning products such as a film, fotos, travelguides, presentations and quizzes are targeted outcomes for this project. In the long run the Erasmus+-project should initiate international networks that can be used as a platform for student exchanges in terms of Europe. Furthermore, we want the experiences and learnings to be of influence regarding the curricular development of our schools. This affects additional projects like AGs, Europe-lessons, and much more. The benefits of the peace project EU will be spread by our students and thus carried out within the school’s community as well as the familial environment. Our hope: International exchange helps decline European tendencies of fragmentation.
Our project "Dear EU, what would we ever do without you? An international cooperation between Germany, Ireland and Romania as an active countermeasure to European fragmentation tendencies" can be summarized as follows: A primary goal was to get to know the EU as a peace project. The project itself was highly influenced by external events: Three years ago the world was moved by the "BREXIT", which brought the EU into difficulties and also questioned the political system of the EU. Furthermore, the Corona pandemic brought the entire world to a temporary economic and social standstill. School activities were no longer possible for a long period of time. In addition to that we had problems planning further activities when the Ukraine war started in February. Consequently, activities scheduled last year and this year had to be cancelled. Our Erasmus project was originally planned to be trilateral: Together with our partner school in Ireland and Romania, we planned to use this project to teach the students that the European Union is the only way to ensure peaceful coexistence for Europeans. We wanted to make them aware of the important dimensions and benefits of EU membership. This should be done by each project team getting to know the respective EU country culturally and politically. Three activities (C1-C3) were planned in each country. A final joint activity (C4) was planned. It should have been a tour to Brussels, Strasbourg and Frankfurt in order to get to know the EU institutions. Unfortunately, our partner school in Ireland dropped out shortly before the start of the activities, so our project became bilateral. The Irish partner school did not give us any reason. Due to the events described above, only one activity (C1) actually took place. At the beginning of February 2022, a delegation of the Romanian partner school came to the Martin Luther European School in Herten. The activity had to be cut short for weather reasons. A storm ("Sabine") had come up. The Romanian travel group had to make an earlier return journey via bus to ensure their safety. The activity was therefore shortened by one day. Nonetheless, many activities could be realized in Germany: Getting to know the city of Bochum: climbing (Neoliet), getting to know the city of Bottrop, skiing in the Skihalle Bottrop and exploring the Tetraeder, city tour of Herten - tour to the "Siebenbürgersiedlung", exploring Schlägel und Eisen, Zeche Ewald, climbing the Halde (Hoheward), trip to the Zeche Carl (Essen), concert in Essen of the group "GURR" goals, musical "Dance of the Vampires" in Oberhausen. In addition to the regional and (inter-) cultural exploration of the Ruhr area, the activities trained social-communicative skills as well as media and methodological skills. Some of the activities included team-building activities that brought the Romanian and German students closer together. The social and linguistic barriers were low right from the start. The German pupils were able to break down clichés and prejudices. They were fascinated how well the Romanian pupils communicated in German. We formed mixed groups so that the participants could not avoid an exchange. As a result, one of the most important achievements was that friendships were made. Through digital presentations on both the German and Romanian sides, the students were able to expand their media knowledge and skills. Due to the events described above, activities C2-C4 could not be realized. Some goals weren't fully achieved: If we had been able to go to Romania we could have worked on our learning products, which we had already started. We could have refuted or confirmed stereotypes and we could have developed further competences. The project initiated the following long-term results: The Nikolaus-Lenau-Lyzeum and the Martin-Luther-Europaschule are in constant exchange. At the moment our schools are working on a cooperation agreement that will allow students from both schools to do a school internship every year. Without the C1 activity this positive networking would not exist. We are proud to have contributed a relevant part to the German-Romanian dialogue.