CONTEXT We are five European schools which want to make joint efforts to increase our students’ knowledge and interest in subjects connected with the cultural heritage of our countries – Geography, History. Furthermore, in a world affected by globalization in which people have a tendency to look down on their own national heritage, we need our students to go back to their own roots by learning the customs and traditions that have been passed on from one generation to another. We think that if you don’t know your roots, you don’t know where you come from and if you don’t know your foundation, you can never develop. Therefore, we intend to cultivate our students’ patriotic feelings, determining them to look back to their past and their origins, at the same time broadening their horizons to other cultures and their specificities. PARTICIPANTS Students – the target group is made up of about 1000 students aged 11-14; 100 students have special education needs. About 150-200 students will be selected as members of the work group (at least 30 / country, but the number may vary according to the size of the target group up to 40). They will be the engine of our project: they will be involved in the training activities before the exchanges, about 100 will participate in the activities during exchanges and will disseminate the information to the other members of the target group after the exchanges. Accompanying teachers – 2 teachers/country/exchange. One of them will be the coordinator, while the other one will be a History/Geography/Literature/Arts/IT teacher. OBJECTIVES The main purpose of the project is to boost the cultural and intercultural awareness of all actors involved in its implementation. However, being specifically aimet at students, we have established the following objectives for them: OS1. To boost the cultural awareness of at least 80% of students, making them more knowledgeable about the history, geography, literature, customs, traditions, dances, music OS2. To boost intercultural awareness and competence of all students, making them more knowledgeable about the other European countries, history, geography, literature, customs, traditions, dances, music. OS3 To improve students’ computer skills by having them use mobile applications and online tools for presentations, activities, assessment, creation of outputs OS4 To improve students’ transferrable skills – team work, adaptability, organisation, communication, research and analysis OS5 To improve students’ self-confidence and motivation for learning At the level of the institutions, our objectives are: 1. To improve the European dimension and international cooperation 2. To motivate teachers 3. To improve cooperation and communication among all school actors MAIN ACTIVITIES We intend to organize five exchanges, each hosted by each partner: 1. C1 - The Austrain heritage – hosted by AT in September 2020 2. C2 – The Lithuanian Heritage – hosted by LT in May 2021 3. C3 – The Slovakian Heritage – October 2021 4. C4 – The Turkish Heritage – March 2022 5. C5 – The Polish Heritage – June 2022 RESULTS Tangible results include: presentations made by students (30), workshop materials, online brochures (5), the final output “The European Heritage”, guest students’ travel journals (80), the eTwinning space, eTwinning forum, photo albums (5), certificates of attendance (112) initial and final assessment forms, mobility documents (agenda, methodology, questionnaires, assessment forms) , Europass mobility documents (112), etc. IMPACT The institutions will have the chance to benefit from the good practices acquired and transferred through students and teachers’ participation in the exchanges. They will promote intercultural learning and will open to new models that will benefit the students in the medium and long run, too. We will develop the European dimension of our schools and will be better trained to manage projects under the Erasmus+ programme – both the experienced schools and the less experienced ones. This project will be the foundation for future cooperation among schools through eTwinning and Erasmus+.
CONTEXT We are five European schools which intended to increase our students’ knowledge and interest in subjects connected with the cultural heritage of our countries – (Geography, History. Music, Literature...) Furthermore, we wanted our students to go back to their own roots by learning customs and traditions that have been passed on from one generation to another. We think that if you don’t know your roots, you don’t know where you come from and if you don’t know your foundation, you can never develop. Therefore, we intended to cultivate our students’ patriotic feelings, determining them to look back to their past and their origins, at the same time broadening their horizons to other cultures and their specificities. Due to the pandemic, we had to adapt our original plan somewhat: as an alternative to the well-prepared mobilities in the first 18 months of the project, each partner created tasks for all others, which made it possible to "experience" a country in advance. These tasks were transmitted online, but were not always to be solved only on the computer. Due to the possibility to extend the project by one year and due to the improvement of the European Covid situation, we were able to carry out the mobilities as planned. PARTICIPANTS Students – the target group was made up of about 1000 students aged 11-14; About 100 students had special education needs. About 200 students were selected as members of the work group, ultimately more than the originally planned 30 per country because of the change in participating students due to the pandemic-related project extension. They were the engine of our project: they had been involved in the training activities before the exchanges, about 100 participated in the activities during exchanges and disseminated the information to the other members of the target group after the exchanges. OBJECTIVES The main purpose of the project was to boost the cultural and intercultural awareness of all actors involved in its implementation. We had established the following objectives: OS1. To boost the cultural awareness of at least 80% of students, making them more knowledgeable about the history, geography, literature, customs, traditions, dances, music OS2. To boost intercultural awareness and competence of all students, making them more knowledgeable about the other European countries, history, geography, literature, customs, traditions, dances, music. OS3 To improve students’ computer skills by having them use mobile applications and online tools for presentations, activities, assessment, creation of outputs OS4 To improve students’ transferrable skills – team work, adaptability, organisation, communication, research and analysis OS5 To improve students’ self-confidence and motivation for learning At the level of the institutions, our objectives were 1. To improve the European dimension and international cooperation 2. To motivate teachers 3. To improve cooperation and communication among all school actors MAIN ACTIVITIES The main tasks were the fulfillment of work assignments, which each country provided to the others and which made it possible to get to know and experience the special features of a country. We implemented three exchanges, hosted by the foolowing partner: 1. C2 – The Lithuanian Heritage – hosted by LT in October 2022 2. C3 – The Slovakian Heritage – May 2022 3. C4 – The Turkish Heritage – March 2023 RESULTS Presentations made by students, workshop materials, Instead of the guest students’ travel journals the students solved the tasks of the partner countries, the eTwinning space, photo albums, certificates of attendance, i, mobility documents (agenda, methodology, questionnaires, assessment forms) , Europass mobility documents. IMPACT The institutions had the chance to benefit from the good practices acquired and transferred through students and teachers’ participation in the exchanges. They promoted intercultural learning and opened to new models that benefit the students in the medium and long run, too. We developed the European dimension of our schools and are better trained to manage projects under the Erasmus+ programme – both the experienced schools and the less experienced ones. This project is be the foundation for future cooperation among schools through eTwinning and Erasmus+.