The project Let’s visit home town we are going to develop meets the needs of modern European societies. Nowadays one of the aims is to look for unity through diversity. Young European citizens are fully aware of cultural differences and similarities among the countries and their inhabitants. The main goal of our project is to strengthen students’ internal motivation and to make them use foreign language in a communicative way. We would like our pupils to be able to take advantage of modern technologies while fulfilling the tasks of the project, which will help them in their future carriers as adults. That is why we are going to motivate our students to gain knowledge through immediate contact with their mates, to use ICT tools creatively not just being told to learn in a traditional, old fashioned way. The project is addressed to young learners aged 12-15. There are four schools participating in the project, that is: Greek, Italian, Polish and Portuguese and 20 students of each school will participate in it. Each target school established teachers Erasmus group. They are responsible for gathering information, dealing with problems, carrying out project tasks, evaluating and being an aid for their students. Erasmus team will take care of dissemination of the results as well as sustainability of the project in the long run. At the preparatory stage students gather information about each of partner countries, their history, culture, and traditions as well as the region their mates live in. When the project is founded, students directly involved in the project, selected from a larger group of participants, will form the Erasmus Club in each school. Since the main goals of our project are focused on productive language skills and motivation being built up, the activities are adjusted to them. There is a variety of events such as Be a guide for a day, Art treasure hunt, City games, Photo contest, Package tours, Visits to a museum etc. Students are the creators of leaflets, posters, handcraft works which are to be exhibited as well as websites, blogs and fanpage all of which promote their home town. Participants of our project are encouraged to present their own ideas and it is up to them in what way they work on given tasks. The Office of Town Promotion and Tourist Information Center will be involved while public events, promotion materials are being worked on. Methodology that is going to be used is based on holistic approach towards teaching learning process. Teenagers want to be trusted and the moment their effort is appreciated make them feel important and unique. Working in a group, sharing responsibilities and enjoying cooperation give students satisfaction and raises their inner motivation to learn and explore. Another, powerful means is eTwinning program which will be used during the Erasmus project. We are going to convey two projects My hometown through the year round and My hometown is worth visiting. They will let students broaden their knowledge about their home towns and improve their ICT abilities. Through the process of gathering information, doing some research and communicating with their foreign partners students develop their key competences and improve English productive skills. Doing things for the sake of local community can be satisfying and important not only for the participants but also for school and teachers. Being local patriots make people proud of their heritage and they are open to share what is worth sharing and exchange their experience. As to the results and impact of the project we aim at, is to change students attitude towards learning process as such. Project tasks enable students to use English in an active way thus they will become speakers and creators not just passive receivers. Developing ICT skills both for students and teachers will help them communicate and spread the results of their work through social media such as TwinSspace, Facebook and other platforms. Our project aims at giving students opportunity to exchange the experience with their mates from abroad and show their partners that there are places worth seeing even if they are not to be found in popular guide books. The impact will be measured at two levels quantitative and qualitative. The first one will be checked through surveys, multiple choice questionnaires and observation files. The latter is focused on the change of students’ motivation level, their creativity independence and self-confidence. The system of checking and measuring results will be present on every stage of the project realisation. The effects of the project will be profitable for the whole school community as well as hometown itself as it helps local authorities to raise interest among young tourists who would like to visit a given place once they get to know about it thanks to students’ work. The future economic development of these local places depend on their young citizens who are important part of a community.
The project “Let’s visit our home town” has been meant to meet the needs of modern European societies. In contemporary times one of the main goals is to look for unity through variety. Young citizens of Europe are aware of both diversities and similarities that occur among European countries and their inhabitants. The main goal of the project was to develop students’ motivation and encourage them to use a foreign language in communicative way. Another aspect of this project was to enable its participants to use modern technology tools while fulfilling given tasks. It is vital for their future career as adult employees. The immediate contact with mates of the same age superimposed not only active speaking and writing skills but also creative usage of ICT tools while project realization. This project was addressed to young learners of 12-15 years of age. There were four schools in it from Greece, Italy, Poland and Portugal. There were twenty participants involved from each school and there was the Erasmus group of teachers established in each school. The main tasks of a teacher group was to gather information, solve problems, carry out project tasks and help their students in any possible way. It was them who evaluated students’ work and effort as well. The Erasmus team was responsible for dissemination of the results and its sustainability in the long run. First, students collected some information about the history, culture and traditions of their partner countries, as well as about a particular region in which their mates live. There were numerous events organized by a special group called Erasmus Club in each of participant schools. Among them there were “Be a Guide for a Day”, “Art Treasure Hunt”, City Games”, Photo Contest”, package tours and visits to museums. Students created leaflets, posters and handcraft works which were exhibited at school. Moreover, fanpage, websites and blogs aiming at the promotion of a certain region has also been prepared by the students who have been encouraged to profit from their own imagination and creativity while doing the tasks. That was essential for the holistic approach towards learning process that was followed throughout the whole time of Erasmus project realization. Teenagers want to be trusted and the moment of appreciation makes them feel important and exceptional. Group work, mutual responsibility and sharing the pleasure of cooperation gave students a lot of satisfaction and strengthened their inner motivation for learning. Another powerful tool turned out to be eTwinning Program, which was widely used and explored during Erasmus project. There were two programs entitled “My Hometown through the Year Round” and “My Hometown is worth Visiting”. Both of them let students enrich their knowledge about the place where they live and master their ICT skills. Thanks to the necessity of gathering information doing the research and communication with their foreign partners students developed their key competences as well as communicative language skills. Another aspect worth to be mentioned is cooperation with the local communities which turned out to be satisfying for both sides. The awareness of local patriotism helped participants to feel proud of the heritage their community has been built upon. This in turn evoked their need to exchange and share the experience they gained. Furthermore, the result that was especially important to us as teachers is changing students’ attitude towards the process of learning as such. What mattered was that through project tasks students used English in an active way thus they became creators and speakers not just passive observers. ICT skills was the second vital factor both for students and teachers. If one knows how to communicate and spread the results of work through social media then they will be present in the contemporary reality. The Erasmus team used TwinSpace, Faceboook, public platforms and websites for real life communication. Thanks to the project one could see places worth visiting yet not present in popular guidebooks. The impact of the project was measured on two levels: quantitative and qualitative. The first one was checked on the basis of surveys, multiple choice questionnaires and observation files. While the latter one was focused on the increase of participants’ motivation for learning their creative independence and self-confidence. The system of control and measurement had been used on every stage of the project so as to evaluate its results in the most effective way. He effects of the undertaking as such turned out to be profitable both for the local school communities and for a given hometown. It helped to evoke local authorities’ interest towards young tourists who have become more up to visiting different places, when they heard about them thanks to the Erasmus project. The future economic progress of these local places is in the hands of young citizens constitute an important part of every community.