‘Here and elsewhere: my life day to day and my passions (my hobbies)”: five establishments in Turkey, Romania, Italy, Germany and France committed to and prepared together a project for their pupils aged between 12 and 15 years old. The chosen themes were common to all: ITCs – new technology and IT competencies, European citizenship – raising awareness and democracy, the teaching and learning of foreign languages. The foreign languages studied by the pupils are used alongside their mother tongue. The students will present their region through their everyday life and their passions, taking inspiration from the different media sources – the printed page in newspapers, audio recordings for radio programmes, video documentaries and the creation of serious online games. The relationship between the different groups participating is creates at a distance using Twinspace with the aide of the Etwinning platform. Following the creation of this online relationship, we will organise - for a number amongst them (approximately 125 pupils) - five international meetings in each of the schools in the partner countries. They will become the ‘ambassadors’ of their school and will present and explain to the students of the host school their local origins and their education system. Five teacher meetings are planned in each school in order to prepare the trips, receive the relevant training, organise the activities at a distance, prepare the assessments and exchange ideas on innovative teaching practices. The intended objectives are the following: 1) The acquisition of the capacity to use IT and multimedia through a) the preparation of written work, audio recordings, videos and/or presentations (slide shows) b) the exchange / meeting with employees of companies and / or members of associations with links to multimedia 2) The realisation of the necessity of using a foreign language as a communication tool – both written and oral – via different supports (including multimedia) with a) physical meetings and oral exchanges which will facilitate the acquisition of the vocabulary used in daily life b) the use of media and social networks to write c) the sharing – between teachers – of teaching practices for learning languages 3) To leave behind the exclusively religious and racial approaches and realise that life is not uniform throughout and that our differences are a source of riches- The exchange on subjects closely related to daily life and the concerns and worries of the young today will be an additional source of motivation as well as an opening, given the interest in other cultures and the learning to accept differences. The partnership aims to integrate the strategic objectives on the structure of the future European cooperation in education and training adopted by the Council in May 2009. Our student ‘ambassadors’ will not only benefit from a personal enrichment but will also relay the European values to their friends and families. The adults will receive training and discover new teaching practices which they will then be able to share with their colleagues.
"Here and abroad: my daily life and my passions": This project was carried out by teachers and staff from five different schools located in Romania, Italy, Germany, France and Turkey for their respective students aged 12 to 15. Topics included: ICT, New technologies, Digital skills, European citizenship, Awareness and Democracy, Teaching and learning of foreign languages, ESD (Education for Sustainable Development). During the 3 years of this project, students spoke and wrote in French, English and in their native languages as well. They used a foreign language as a tool for spoken or written communications on various media. Classes or groups of students from each country communicated remotely: letter exchange, days on shared topics, class-to-class videocalls, exhibitions in schools, production of videos, publishing on the twinspace... The students have discovered similarities and differences in the respective daily life of each country and understood that uniformity is not what life is about but that their differences added value. With the practice of ICT, they were made aware of the issues of rights and personal data, especially on the Internet. Several groups have worked on a Day for foreign Languages and a Day of the European Union in different forms: exhibition, board and games to play with their classmates and penfriends. Four student exchange sessions were organized over the course of this project; the receiving schools had to organize the trip. The mandatory criteria for the best possible experience were: students and teachers had to live with the families of their respective penfriends, activities had to be experienced together with students from the host school, students had to take part in lessons with the receiving students. The in-person meetings and the oral exchanges fostered the quick learning of new everyday-life vocabulary, as well as general communications in foreign languages. The students had to introduce their foreign friends with their region and their school, using a slideshow or a video which they created themselves. Back to their respective schools, the students had to present their trip to the other students so as to entice younger students to travel abroad and meet with new people from different walk of life. Teachers met 5 times to discuss around innovative teaching practices, exchange their best tips, train with foreign colleagues and to organize the various trips and schedule the different activities selected. We chose to select exchanges on topics related to the daily life and interests of our students. This triggered a higher motivation amongst them and greatly helped them to express interest for other cultures and their specificities. The early stages of the pandemic in March 2020 allowed us to obtain an extension of our project, but we were unfortunately unable to carry out all the activities initially planned: closed schools, travel bans for schools in some countries, lessons which needed to be re-organized (online, etc). Online activities and trips have enabled our participating students to enrich themselves from meeting others in person and to relay European values to their peers. This project also reinforced the students in their desire for participating in future projects in other countries, for instance as Erasmus students in their studies perhaps. Adults, teachers and non-teaching staff alike, have discovered and relayed new teaching practices in their own schools. An international spirit remains in the different schools which took part in this project and teachers are now more confident than ever in preparing for future projects. The new friendship developed between the schools will continue and serve as the basis for future projects.