We walk along our cities where we live in our everyday life and, imperciptibly, we do not realize that many men and women made the history of these places. We take these walks either as a means of escape or as an ordinary activity to do our daily duties, but we have to be mindful of the fact that the streets of our cities are more than buildings ans sculptures; they are part of our cultural roots, which are linked to different historical periods. Aim 1: ensure that our students know the historical heritage of the cities by a playful way and through the development of curriculum content. Our students will see why these sculptures are in the streets of our cities and will understand why they are set there by means of varied activities and of the acquaintance with different personalities who made our history. Not only the students will know the biography of these characters, but also the reasons why they deserved an urban spot, fact that will be linked to a learning area (Literature, Music, Science, Sports, Arts…). Therefore, the students will be able to get their own historical reality by a new way. Aim 2: use ICTs throughout the whole process and for the implementation of the final result. We will use these tools as a way of communication to prepare varied activities with the students. Also, they will be used by the teachers to design the project and specify the needed final details for all the meetings. Furthermore, at the teachers training session, the eTwinning platform will be shown to capture the different steps that the project is having. Aim 3: adquire better communication skills throughout a working language, different to the first one. This aim wil be got by the interaction that the students and the teachers from the different countries must have to cowork and to share the experiences during the meetings. In addition, it will be the way of relating towards the students in the encounters in the different countries. Spanish will be spoken when the students are in Spain and Portugal and English when they are in France and Serbia. Aim 4: design a cooperative working, normally used methodology at Siervas de San José School, and it takes a greater significance in a European project. The fact that you can be in constant contact by forums, chats and audio texts, gives the opportunity to have a close and steady colaboration among the participating schools. This idea of cooperative and collaborative work helps and encourages the learning of all participants. The teachers will ensure the good atmosphere and will facilitate the learning of the students by the discovery of new teaching ways while the experiences of the other teachers and students will be learnt. The project also involves the student’s families, the whole school community and the local authorities through the assignment of different spots where some of the activities will be carried out during the scholarly meetings. The activities that will be held throughout the course of the project will be advised on the school web-based platform. In this way, all of them will be known by the whole school community and will be part of the school curriculum. This idea means that all the activities will be assessed because some learning aims will be worked throughout the project. The mentioned aims will get some public final results in the expectation that they will be the start of imcoming projects. In adittion, the project will be open to the settings of the involved cities throughout the implication of the school community and the publication and the announcement in the local press. The project incorporates four countries (Portugal, Serbia, France and Spain). It is intended for 12-15 year old students (four mobilities will be held in the course of the two academic years) and the sharing of good teaching works, with an initial mobility in which the coordination, the establishment of timetables, the working methodology and the specification of evaluation intem will be worked. Finally, there will be another mobility in which the project will be assessed and the results will be disseminated. The mobilities will be done with the company of seven students of the different schools and the carrying out of varied activities will be overseen. Some of the activities are: -Virtual activities by Twinspace platform throughout the use of ICTs. -Classroom activities during the different student exchanges. -Targeted activities to know the history and the heritage of the involved cities throughout the different characters statues and sculptures.
CONTEXT/ PROJECT ANTECEDENTS: In our daily lives, we walk around our cities without realizing that around us men and women have made a contribution to their urban history. We walk either as a means of escape or as a routine activity to get to our daily tasks. However, city streets harbour much more than just buildings and sculptures. Urban structures and monuments convey information about contemporary historical periods. This project endeavours to unite art and culture based on the collaboration of schools implementing common goals: to get to know about the history of the participating cities based on their statues, to foment participants’ awareness of their different cultures, and to complete a collaborative effort between intercultural groups. Hence the project’s title “Taking a walk among statues”. A stroll in the cities can be a way to meet others, an opportunity to interact with the others, and togetherness. This is the first time the schools involved participate in the current project. The Spanish and Portuguese schools have collaborated in previous activities. OBJECTIVES: - To provide students with the means to acquaint themselves with our urban historical patrimony focusing on a ludic approach and the development of learning activities. - To acquire and convey to others the knowledge of the cultural and artistic patrimony we observe in our cities, emphasizing the contribution of men and women to our present historical reality, to illustrate the participation of both, men and women, in the creation of our historical patrimony in science, literature, the arts, politics, music, sports… - To develop learning activities to acquaint students with the history of other countries and create greater cultural awareness within the structure of the European Union. - To utilize TIC tools throughout the project and in the completion of the final product in the eTwinning platform. - To improve the participants’ oral communication skills by utilizing a language different from the mother tongue (Spanish, English). - To develop a whole school cooperative approach in the participating schools with the guidance of the methodological standards of the coordinating centre. - To involve, due to the interdisciplinary nature of the project, all the academic departments participating in the project to broadcast the history of the cities by means of the mobility which take place in each of them. - To organize the welcome week/travel for teachers and students in each participating school. PARTICIPANTS: - Schools: students and teachers. The curriculum includes activities for 12 to 17 years old students, and it includes 4 mobilities for students and 1 coordinating mobility for teachers. All faculty members and students actively involved in the project will participate. We have noticed an increase in the number of students in each of the participating schools without requiring a larger increase in the cost of the project, suggesting the cost effectiveness of the economic resources granted to the program at the onset. - Families: welcoming exchange students to their home. - Networks: to broadcast the project. METODOLOGY BASIS: - Peer collaboration and guide learning. - Information management. - Multilingual project (Spanish/ English). - TIC tools to implement the learning activities. OUTCOMES AND BENEFITS: - Collaboration among participants from each school by means of ITC. - Methodology for interdepartmental work, a sample of the work accomplished based on concrete information from each site. - Creation of learning activities. - Improvement of linguistic skills and the use of ICT. - Publication of the information about the project in TwinSpace. - Visibility and diffusion of the project in the social media and eTwinning; meeting with the local authorities; visits to urban landmarks and the knowledge of history. The schools involved in this project will continue to collaborate in future projects in order to enhance the acquired knowledge and to encourage the interaction among teachers and students. We intend to continue to use the European Cultural Patrimony as an educational and interdisciplinary strategy, combining academic departments in each educational centre, and applying the acquired knowledge through autonomous learning but guided by a teacher. We would like to continue improving our communication skills orally and writing, and to enhance our digital proficiency. In conclusion, we can affirm that this project will bring about the meeting of all participants, and increase our knowledge of our cities, based on historical figures (men and women) whose statues we come across along our stroll in each one of them.