"The orchard of sustainable desires", is an Erasmus + and eTwinning project idea, which arises from: "to wish means to project the future", "if you want so much one thing you must do everything to obtain it", "educate today’s teenagers means assuring a better future for the adults of tomorrow". Therefore, we think that if we "seed" well and make our students understand the importance of achieving the global aims of sustainable development (UNESCO-2030), and by desire so much, the "seeding" will give its "fruits", such as " desires "will become a need and will be carried out in the future. These premises, joined with the need to disseminate the study of the Spanish language, to innovate in the teaching-learning process and to promote exchange and share good practices, have led us to the election of the participating partners and to the creation of a useful and innovative project. The project includes 6 colleges -one Italian (eTwinning School), one Portuguese, one French and 2 Spanish-, is aimed at 12/14 years old students of the different structures, it will also participate in the school exchange 28 students per center, and it foresees: - Virtual didactic activities, carried out on the Twinspace platform, with support from ICT - classroom activities during the school exchange; - concrete actions to support sustainable development. The activities, in presence and in network, will address the following objectives of sustainable development: -OSD n.4: Quality instruction; -OSD n.3: Health and Well-Being -OSD n.11: City and sustainable community; -OSD n.14: Underwater Life; -OSD n.15: Life on earth; -OSD n.12: Consumption and responsible production. The students, therefore, will have a way of knowing and reflecting on some aspects of the main environmental problems, on men’s responsibility in this aspect and their possible solutions. These themes also allow us to approach and address the issue of democratic participation, chosen by eTwinning for 2019. Through the proposed activities, cooperation and through the school exchange, students will also have a way of knowing, assessing and getting in touch with the participants’ cultural, environmental and social heritage. The project also aims to contribute to obtaining the OSD by means of concrete actions: the schools will seek to become "Ecoschools", that is, they will become part of the international program certified for the schools that promote the sustainability, launched by the FEE, with the support of the European Commission. The Spanish language is studied as a second foreign language in the Italian, French and Portuguese institutes, and has been chosen as the communication language of the project. That is, it will allow the promotion of integrated language and content learning. In order to develop not only linguistic competences, but also cultural, digital, social and transversal, as well as promoting teaching / learning forms, the project aims to deepen the themes chosen through innovation through new technologies (ICT). Using also a digital environment of encounter, exchange and work, the "twinspace", the students will have the place to "build" their learning, to collaborate, to organize and publish their digital works, to express opinions and make decisions. The technology will be used to facilitate the work, to produce real interactions and communications, to obtain the real objectives, to obtain didactic objectives and to motivate the students. The possibility of interacting among the members of the project, through forums, chat and audio / video, games, conferences, etc. will allow a constant collaboration. With this new collaborative approach, which transforms into collaborative learning, it will contribute to the learning of all. Teachers will seek to constantly maintain a positive climate environment and facilitate learning, getting into discussion, learning from students and discovering ways of teaching and learning with them. The project will also involve the students’ families, the entire community and local authority; will work with cultural and environmental associations of the different localities. The project is in line with the indications, objectives and priorities of the Erasmus + program and in synergy with the training offer and other projects of the different structures. The activities of the project will be shared with the different collegiate bodies of the different centers, they will be integrated in the normal scholastic activity and will be carried out during the curricular activities. It is understood that with the realization of the project the objectives will be obtained and the results, publishing and divulging them, will have a continuity beyond the life of the project.
"The orchard of sustainable desires", is an Erasmus + and eTwinning project whose idea arose from some considerations: "to wish means to design the future", "if you really want something, do everything to get it", "educating today’s teenagers means ensuring a better future for tomorrow’s adults". We therefore think that if we "sow" well, if we make our students understand the importance of achieving the global goals of sustainable development (UNESCO-2030) and aim to accomplish them, the "sowing" will give its "fruits", such ”desires" will turn into necessity and will be fulfilled in the future. These premises, together with the need to disseminate the study of the Spanish language, to innovate the teaching-learning process and to promote the exchange and sharing of good practices, led to a targeted choice of participating partners and to the creation of a useful and innovative project. The project involved 4 institutions: one Italian (eTwinning School), one Portuguese and 2 Spanish. It was aimed at the 12/14 years old students of the different schools - with 28 pupils per center participating in the mobility - and provided: virtual didactic activities, carried out on the Twinspace platform, with support from ICT; didactic face-to-face activities during mobilities; concrete actions to support sustainable development. The activities, in presence and online, made it possible to address the following sustainable development goals: - SDG n.3: Good health and well-being - SDG n.4: Quality education; - SDG n.11: Sustainable cities and communities; - SDG n.12: Responsible consumption and production; - SDG n.14: Life below water; - SDG n.15: Life on land. The pupils, therefore, had the opportunity to identify and reflect on some of the main environmental problems, on man’s responsibilities and on possible solutions. These issues also made it possible to approach and address the theme of democratic participation, chosen by eTwinning for 2019. Through the activities, cooperation and mobilities the pupils had the opportunity to know, enhance and get in touch with the cultural, environmental and social heritage of the participants. Moreover, the project made it possible to contribute to the achievement of the aforementioned SDGs through concrete sustainable actions: the institutes laid the foundations to become "Eco Schools", that is to adhere to the international certification program for schools wishing to promote sustainability, launched by the FEE, with the support of the European Commission. Spanish, studied as a second foreign language in the Italian and Portuguese schools, was chosen as the communication language of the project. This made it possible to promote integrated language and content learning. Therefore, aimed at developing not only linguistic skills, but also cultural, digital, social and transversal skills, as well as trying new forms of teaching and learning, the project allowed to deepen the themes chosen through innovative activities carried out by means of new technologies (TIC). Besides, using a digital environment of meeting, exchange and work, the "twinspace", students were able to "build" their own learning, to collaborate, to organize and publish their digital documents, to express opinions and make decisions. Technology was used to facilitate work, to produce real interaction and communication, to achieve educational goals and to motivate pupils. The possibility of interaction between the members of the project, through forums, chat and audio/video, quizzes, conferences, etc., allowed a constant collaboration. With this new collaborative approach, which turns into cooperative learning, everybody, both pupils and teachers, contributed to everyone's learning. Finally, the teachers tried to constantly maintain a positive atmosphere and facilitated learning, proving capable of questioning and learning even from students and discovering with them new ways of teaching and learning. The project involved the entire school community, families and local authorities, supporting the work of the cultural and environmental associations of the various sites. The project is perfectly in line with the indications, objectives and priorities of the Erasmus+ program and in synergy with the training offer and other projects of the various institutes. It is believed that with the realization of the project the set objectives have been achieved and the results, properly publicized and disseminated, will have effects that will go far beyond the life of the project and will last for a long time. All the centers involved have received the eTwinning Quality Label for this project