The project is aiming at making students aware of their own cultural and historical roots to foster their cultural identity. The implementation and realization of the project is ideally integrated into the curricula of year 9 and year 10 students who will have to design and develop on their own how customs and traditions can be implemented into daily school life e.g.: including the German -Sorb cultural origins and relationship and with topical importance that of migrant students families. The project is divided into three stages: discover – practice – disseminate. The project will also have its impact on students of various different school years and will extend up to extracurricular project activities including visits, guided tours and workshops with local/regional craftsmen, partners and local/regional authorities. All activities will be appropriate to the skills and capabilities of each age group. Among others, arts, music presentations, foreign languages and homestay in local families will be an imminent part of the project. All activities will be closely coordinated with all participating schools via Twin-Space tools of eTwinning. The basis of our successful cooperation is a well-designed timetable with stages, responsibilities of students and teachers alike, deadlines and expected results for each stage. Follow-up scenarios are included such as: in reach, out-reach and monitoring. Last but not least, the international cooperation between the participating schools (from student to administrative levels), local/regional partners, authorities and student homestay families will surely help develop and foster a European consciousness and togetherness in a time of populist, nationalist trends all across Europe.
The project aimed to make the students aware of their own cultural and historical roots and thus to promote their cultural identity. To do this, the project partners selected characteristic examples of the culture of their own region and developed work assignments that enabled the students to recognize and appreciate the contribution of their culture and the cultures of the project partners to the cultural diversity of Europe. It was important that these assignments were designed according to the framework “discover – foster – pass on” as well as in a way that they could continuously be used in the schools beyond the end of the project. At the same time, the activities established a close connection with local actors. They included appropriate, age--appropriate activities that promoted and challenged the creativity and imagination, communication and thus the foreign language skills of the participants. During the project meetings, the guest students stayed with host families, which allowed for a particularly intensive encounter with the culture of the host country. The results of the assignments were shared in a joint TwinSpace on the eTwinning platform. Teacher and student administrators thus gained insight into the progress of the project. The project made a significant contribution to sensitizing the students to their own cultural identity and arousing their curiosity about the cultures of other European countries. Through the joint activities, in which the participants met their cultures on an equal footing, the project promoted confidence in and identification with their own culture and their own region, but also strengthened the sense of togetherness and European awareness of the project participants and thus made a contribution against populist and nationalist trends in Europe. The project also contributed to counteracting the emigration trend of young people from rural regions and to promoting their economic development.