Context 2020 is a year with one huge topic all over the world. A topic that has led to many changes in people's lives. The new Coronavirus spread quickly from China to Europe and the rest of the world. Almost 5 million people in Europe are or have been infected. During spring it led to the lockdown of most countries. Borders closed and all of a sudden, society closed as well. Restaurants, cafés, museums, art galleries, sports facilities, schools... The world went online. As teachers we had to get used to virtual classrooms. We saw many students having difficult times adjusting to this new virtual life. Some got very lonely, while others found peace. Today we are facing, what is probably a second wave and some countries are beginning to lock down again. With this project we want to arise awareness of both the difficulties our students have dealt with, but also what makes us stronger. Through creative thinking we want to put transnational cooperation and teamwork in front. We have gathered a team of schools with different profiles from north to south, east to west. Participating countries are: Turkey, Spain, Germany, Norway and Denmark. The project will focus on 5 topics: 1) music's influence on young people 2) How to live with a pandemic 3) Young people's relation to health and wellbeing 4) Expressing yourself through painting and art creation 5) The future after covid-19 Students, participating in this project, are between 15 and 18 years old. During the 2 years, around 800 students and 50 teachers will participate at some point. About 125 students and teachers will participate in Learning/Teaching/Training activities, of which there will be 5. At Transnational Project Meetings, 3-4 teachers are represented from each country at each meeting. It is important for the project that the schools are placed in different areas and are addressed to a large variety of different social layers, because we want our project to be based on diversity. Students are going to work with: Debating, surveys, interviews, blogs/vlogs, filming, writing materials, art work, music, sports activities, presentations and much more. Some activities will be formed along the way. Main objectives: - reinforce cross-sectoral cooperation with experts in the fields of creativity, and cultural awareness. - develop students’ creative thinking, decision making and conflict resolution skills. - enhance greater understanding and responsiveness to social, ethnic, linguistic and cultural diversity - increase motivation and satisfaction in daily work - increase cooperation between students in an international scope - foster a willingness among students to include everybody through art and sports - Lifelong learning - create synergies between schools and organisations from other fields - promote a greater sense of European identity Methodologies The project will work with different methodologies, depending on the task or activity. Here are some: Learning-by-doing, Cooperative learning, Research, Direct instructions, Game-based learning, Virtual learning and Debating. Results Our main result of the project is a documentary by students - to students. The film will be the final product of 2 years’ work. We are following different young people on their thoughts on lockdown and the life after. We will see how they deal with this new situation in their everyday lives and also how they express themselves through creativity. Other results: Project song and music video - we will write lyrics and music for our own song and at one mobility we will produce a music video for it. Project group painting - so students can cooperate across borders and express themselves with colours. Posters and leaflets/postcards on the documentary/project Trailer of the documentary Surveys on the students’ knowledge/opinion on cultural, creative aspects of art and health Individual art to express the reactions to covid-19 Website to upload the results Project logo Impact on participants Knowledge on educational possibilities within creativity, culture and health Knowledge on different cultures of participating countries Knowledge on different creative expressions Knowledge on health and wellbeing Hands-on skills will be developed Develop learning skills such as decision making, project management, teamwork and ICT Students will increase their competences in the English language Students will increase their cooperation in an international scope. They will know what Erasmus+ is. Students will become more willing to include fellow students and other young people through art and sports Awareness on educational possibilities in the cultural sector Increased motivation and satisfaction in daily work Potential longer term benefits Firstly Lifelong Learning. Secondly, during the period schools will have new tools to handle another pandemic in the future. All stakeholders should have gained more interest in working across borders in new contexts.
Very aware of the pandemic going on at the time of application for this project, we wanted to create synergies between our schools and organisations from other fields with experts of creativity and cultural awareness. We wanted to develop students’ creative thinking as being part of decision making and develop their conflict resolution skills. Working across borders, the project enhanced greater understanding and responsiveness to social, ethnic, linguistic and cultural diversity. Because of the difficult times during the pandemic, it was important for us to increase motivation and satisfaction, not only in daily work, but also within a cooperation between students in an international scope. We wanted to foster a willingness among students to include everybody through art and sports. We also wanted to promote a greater sense of European identity, so they could gain a positive attitude towards the European project and Lifelong learning. As other objectives, students increased their competences in English language as well as hands-on skills.
Addressing this project came when the world stood face to face with a pandemic that we had never imagined of. Our schools got closed, so we had to go online. Borders, restaurants, museums, art galleries, theatres, sports facilities also closed for periods.. Us, the teachers could see that many of our students had difficult times, adjusting to this new virtual life. Some students got very lonely and depressed. A few found peace by working online. But almost everybody struggled as they were cut from their spare time activities. We wanted to raise awareness of the weaknesses and strengths that our students dealt with during the pandemic and we set up environments for them, so they could express themselves through music, art, dance, drama and sports. We wanted our students to feel alive again, and support their wellbeing. And we wanted to create this international space for them, so they could become social across the borders that were closed for a long time.