The Project Getting along the Way, which was our first project in school exchanges, has allowed us to achieve the goal of internationalizing our school, IES Leiras Pulpeiro. We started this rewarding experience in 2019, when the participant teachers in the project and some other colleagues spent three days working hard to train each other in Mediation (Berta López) eTwinning (Beatriz Arévalo and José Teixeira) Pilgrimage (José Antonio Rey) and Radio (Xabier Díaz). After the lockdown period, in October 2020, we hosted two teachers from the Agrupamento de Escolas Muralhas do Minho, Portugal for Job Shadowing. These colleagues came to our school in order to meet our Mediation groups and learn from our school vast experience on this matter. It must be also added that since we started participating in Erasmus programmes, there has been an increasingly rise in the demand to participate in Erasmus+ programmes among our students (18 petitions in 2018, 33 in 2022) We have included a summary of the dissemination activities made in our four schools throughout all these years. From the very first moment, our main goal was to create a Youth Association called Itinera and finally it was created in February 2022, its statutes being focused on the Santiago´s Way/ Camino values, mainly the coexistence. This association in IES Leiras Pulpeiro is still working today in September 2022. This goal was the starting point to regain our Mediations groups work after few years of inactivity. As a matter of fact, the Erasmus students from IES Leiras Pulpeiro themselves taught the students from other countries participating in the mobilities, specially in Toulouse, how to work in Mediation. In addition to mediation groups, the association has never stopped spreading the importance of our Cultural Heritage focused on Camino de Santiago. One of the most significant moments was the visit to the Centro e Studi Compostellani in Perugia, led by Jaccopo Caucci von Saucken. Futhermore, our students created journals and presentations which were aimed at introducing our cultural heritage and making people aware of how important the Camino is for our four cities: Toulouse, Valença, Lugo and Via della pace for Todi. Through videos, radio programmes and the final video in Finisterre recorded by all the students from the four countries, we intended to tighten the bonds among us bearing always our common cultural heritage in mind. Also, we created a calendar with our own pictures, all taken by students and teachers and with one single topic, the Camino from France and Portugal to Santiago, promoting creativity at the same time. We also printed bags, t-shirts and bottles with our logo, all of them,useful pilgrimage material and dedicated to spread the Association. As well as taking pictures, we made videos teaching specific vocabulary of the Camino. This way, our students were hugely aware of the importance of Spanish language around the world. Actually, the students from Italy or France highly appreciated this project because the chosen language was Spanish. Moreover, we made a vast number of Radio programmes, and a final video with the summary of the experience of the last two stages of the Camino with most of the participants in this project. The students leading the main role in this project, were the ones who, by working with images, video and sound, carried out the whole process. Thanks to all this work, we regained our radio, which had been inactive for the few previous years. So, nowadays we keep on working with our Radio Leiras in many educational projects thanks to Erasmus+. We used our radio, while carrying out the project, to communicate among partners and to spread our work and its outcomes Consequently, we helped our partners so they could create their own radio studio. We have also managed to integrateTwinning in our daily practice, which helped with the creation of new bilingual sections in some subjects in IES Leiras Pulpeiro. In spite of the advance in this aspect, we plan to go on working in involving more teachers with eTwinning in future projects. In addition to all this, some other small projects such journals, presentations or the Treasure Hunt were carried out besides dissemination of mobilities in Toulouse, Todi, Valença and Lugo in MagMagaz, Power Point, Action Bound, blog, webs and Twinspace. Our main webs were Twinspace and the blog www.conviviendoenelcamino.blogspot.com, specifically aimed at disseminating our results. Finally, we established relationships with our partners which will allow us to create new associations with other European countries in the future and in the present with K120 Accreditation.
Getting along the Way originated in IES Leiras Pulpeiro, as a result of our experience in coexisting and the organization of pilgrimages to Santiago with our students, as well as an eTwinning project carried out together with the school in Toulouse. We are willing to develop the European dimension of our schools through their linking to the Camino and our common interests, such as respect for our heritage. Our partners are: The Instituto di Istruzione Superiore Ciuffeli-Einaudi, Todi, linked to the Italian Camino and the Vía Francígena, which contributes wide working experience in Erasmus+. A significant part of its students learn Spanish and some of them, who will assisst the rest of the partners, take Hospitality Vocational Training, The OEGC Sainte Marie des Champs, situated in the Vía Tolosana in the French Camino, contributes wide experience in eTwninning and in organization of exchange activities. Besides, 90 % of its students learn Spanish. The A.E Muralhas do Minho, Valença, Portugal has participated and keeps on doing it, in several Erasmus+ projects, in addition to the fact that it has been awarded for some of its eTwinning projects. It is situated in the Portuguese Camino, in an area where a variety of cultures and actually, three languages coexist, offering this way a hallmark which will enhance the project. The spreading of the Spanish language does not mean that other languages, such as Italian, French, Portuguese, English and even Galician are left apart. As a matter of fact, we intend to encourage their learning and use. The project focuses on founding a youth association and promoting the group awareness among the students. As the mobilities take place, students will go on small pilgrimages aimed at spreading the values, inherent to the Camino and learned during coexistence. The students selected for the exchange activities, to be held during a two-year-period, will make a total of 72 between 15 and 17 years old. They will be knocking the association into shape while carrying out the activities along the following two years: compiling information, creating a blog, writing statute, looking for partners and promoting the Camino. All the activities are to be designed in order to enhance not only the Key Competences: linguistic, digital, cultural awareness, personal initiative, enterprising spirit and learning to learn, but also the Soft Skills more and more valued nowadays: communicative and social skills, creativity, ability to work in group, responsibility, honesty, commitment and active attitudes towards solving problems and generating innovating ideas. The project was born with a interdisciplinar purpose and the commitment of several departments eager to cooperate along the different stages of the project. Two short training meetings will be held, when courses and workshops are taken by the participants in order to prepare more complex mobilities. Four short exchanges among students, main focus of the project, have been planned in order to guarantee its success . The four of them will get together 18 students from the visiting schools and as many students as possible from the host school. The first exchange will be a pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela, during which, they will coexist with a group of 40 students from the host school for 5 days. It has also been planned to carry out two-day-routes or alternate one-day-stages during the other pilgrimages, such will be the case of France and Italy. Both for mobilities a for in-between activities. the technological tools are essential to the development of the project, although they will combine with other activities which encourage cooperative work, physical exercise or inmaterial values, all of them very diverse and held in different spaces. The in-between-activities have been designed in order to spread the importance of the Camino heritage and develop the students skills. They will include all and each aspect related to the creation of the association, being possible as well to enhance any other not taken into account before: writing of statute, creation of web page, working on radio, making of a documentary film, leaflets designing, cooperation with NGOs and carrying our routes for the school community. The spreading work will be done while the project is carried out and it will continue after it comes to an end. This way, a great impact on its environment is guaranteed: spreading through the web,radio at school, YouTube channel. social networks, events in eTwinning and local press media. The documentary will be released and the enhancement of the Erasmus+ project in the schools plans will be assessed. We hope to get an improvement in coexistence, more European awareness and create healthy habits, enhance work in values, compentences and better academic achievements. The project will crystallize with an association which aims to live on beyond the carrying out of this project, thanks to the support of schools and institutions.