The project is a cooperation for innovation and exchange of good practices among 5 partners: Liceul Tehnologic Dumitru Motoc from Galati, Romania, Colegiul Tehnic Transilvania from Brasov, Romania, Sule Muzaffer Buyuk Mesleki ve Teknik Anadolu Lisesi from Turkey, IPSSEOA from Italy and Bragamob Training Centre from Portugal, over a period of 24 months. Following the many years of experience in teaching and observation, each partner identified as a big problem, the tendency of the students to be more and more isolated. They are not anymore able to act in groups, to be accepted as sociable people by the others because they are not enough prepared to face society 's demand. In this regard, the project called „SWEETS' TASTE ALONG EUROPE” will have as the main goal creating a framework for giving students strategies and tools to increase their abilities for social inclusion and for the teacher to acquire the necessary tools to combat social alienation. The planned activities of researching, preparing together and serving specific sweets will be used as the main tool in combating social alienation and will contribute to give the target-group members the self-esteem and respect for the others. The project main aims are : - increasing the social skills of students belonging to a target-group chosen from every partner by encouraging them to work in groups and by sharing results. - enhancing the teachers’ professional competence of setting-up and teaching by workshops on personal development and motivation. -decreasing the schools' dropout rates by promoting learning to learn. The project's main results, which we consider innovative by the idea they bring, that we can socialize, interact and communicate better by cooking and tasting sweets, are A Sweets’ Booklet, An interactive Europe's Sweet Map, videos made by students on the topics like personal events, sweets as friendship messengers, invite a friend to dinner and a glossary of ingredients and flavours/spices used to prepare sweets and desserts in the partner countries' cuisine translated in English and then in each national language of the participant countries. Each partner will contribute equally to the obtaining of the project results: apart from those already mentioned, a website and a Facebook project group will be created, also 2 newsletters with results and activities, a CD Rom to spread the project’s experience through a media delivery, flyers, booklets as dissemination means, questionnaires and interpretation of results where we can watch the progress, E-twinning upload, statistics about students' attendance and exam results and their participation in the school projects at the end of each year of project, promotional materials will be made, interviews with students, a display corner in each partner institution and a forum on the project web site. The participants are 36 highschool students from the 2nd and 3rd levels going to 3 learning and teaching activities in the partner countries: Galati, Romania, Turkey and Italy and 16 teachers to participate in a course in Portugal where they will be trained to teach the students to become more socially competitive and adaptable. There will also be 2 Project meetings, at the beginning of the project in Brasov, Romania and at the end of it in Portugal. Also, before each learning and teaching transnational activities for students in Catania - Italy, Galati- Romania and Manavgat-Turkey and before the course in Portugal we will have an online meeting with all the local coordinators where we will establish all the details concerning the preparation, the planning and monitoring of the meeting. A min of 100 students and minimum of 40 teachers functioning as target groups will be the beneficiaries of this partnership per total. The selection of the participants to the mobilities will be well-organized and according to well-established and published criteria and ranking will be done according to some agreed scales. Participants will be involved in promoting the project at the school and local level, in dissemination activities at writing the press articles, in creating the final products by the means of the IT and developing the workshops on social inclusion and personal development. The local workshops facilitated by the teachers who were trained helped by other teachers will empower the students' capacity to increase their social skills but also will multiply the training outcomes. The dissemination will consist of the press releases, published both in local and national press, at least one every 6 months, the project website published in a dedicated space, demonstrative lessons, a CD Rom to spread the project’s experience, the 2 newsletters, flyers, brochures, booklets, workshops, school magazines, at conferences and other events using promotional materials to make the project and its results known. The project requires further international cooperation for more research in the innovativeness of the method.
We fullfilled all our goals, meaning to: - increase the students’ social skills (realized by means of the technology and learning activities: online meetings, chatting on WhatsApp, on Facebook, playing Kahoot games, collaborating at the creation of the Sweets booklet, Sweets Map and Glossary, exchanging recipes) - enhance the teachers’ professional competence (IT and English abilities and professional knowledge sharing with the other teachers) - decrease the schools' dropout rates by promoting learning to learn (as students at risk were glad to be involved in the creation of movies, presentations and IT products) - develop the students' abilities in finding solutions, their critical thinking as a consequence of applying new technologies to make traditional products as a means of socialization - enlarge the Ss’ self-esteem, self-confidence and motivation to learn - grow the teachers' social skills and their knowledge on non-formal activities meant to stimulate Ss' motivation, aquired during the course in Braga. - improve the students' digital skills (they used Web 2 Tools in creating videos, logos and posters, plays, Codeweek activities etc.) - include the students with different needs in activities and improve their social skills.
Following the many years of experience in teaching, each partner identified as a big problem, the tendency of the students to be more and more isolated. They are no longer able to work in groups, to act as sociable people. They spend most of their time in front of the computers, being unable sometimes to establish a healthy relation with their peers. In this regard, the project called „SWEETS' TASTE ALONG EUROPE” had as the main goal the creation of a framework for giving the students strategies and tools to increase their social inclusion abilities and for the teachers to acquire the necessary tools to combat the Ss' social alienation. The research done and cooking together specific sweets in team-building activities were used as the main tools in combating this social alienation and in giving them a better self-esteem and respect for the others. Unfortunately, most of the students came from very poor families and disadvantaged areas with high risk of unemployment and social exclusion. It means that their self-esteem and confidence were mostly low and the risk of dropping out school was high. We made it as a goal to involve also these vulnerable students in the activities and this way, the dropout rate has decreased considerably.