« To be or not to be addicted ? that is the question ! Am-I ? » is a project born from the common and known concern to understand better what is at stake with addictions, their consequences on our young population, teenagers mostly. By awakening our teenagers to the inherent mechanisms which « imprison » them and to the numerous and diverse consequences, often dreadful and painful, whether it be on a psychological, physical or social point of view, they are subjected to, we also wish to fight one negative and important result of addictions ; school drop-out which is most of the time the outcome of their consumption. An internal study and survey made in 2019 in our school showed this topic was at the core of most of our issues. We decided to open that topic on a large scale and we created and filed this project on e-twinning which enabled us to find and cooperate with 5 European partners who were thrilled at the idea of this theme and eager to answer and work on this project for the same reasons ; fighting shcool drop-out, promoting the European spirit, awakening our teenagers to their European citizenship which they tend to ignore or neglect, and to practice languages (French and English) ; This topic is the cement of our virtual cooperation first and maybe more !. Our main objectives are : - To awaken to the mechanisms and consequences of addictions in our modern society - To find the means to fight addictions - To develop transversal and interdisciplinary skills - To use the I.T tools - To exchange on our methods and share experience to improve our common skills - To awaken to their European citizenship - To promote integration and mobility - To awaken to the cultural differences and to the respect of other cultures - To develop the « European feeling » (being part of Europe) - To promote our students’ skills and social and professional integration The students will all be of the same age (13 to 19 years old) and from diverse fields of study. The French coordinating school is a vocational school training and forming students in the professional fields of sales and marketing, electrotechnics and logistics. The other European partners are either technical schools, general schools and vocational schools. They will bring diversity which will also be a force for this project. It will imply students, various social and professional organisations to manage and understand the addictions and the apprehensions they create in order to promote a common message of prevention. We will confront the different views and ways of living, the analysis and common critics will put an emphasis results which will be exposed and validated by professionals. In the end, these activities and common works will enable our students to become more responsible, more independent and more respectful of their well-being and of their body and mind, to broaden their state of mind and to increase their self-esteem by sharing and confronting with others. We will edit our productions on various supports for everyone to consult ; families, institutions and medias. The results will be posted on the e-twinning and Erasmus platforms. They will be fed with the productions as we get on with the activities. To reach these objectives, we plan activities on a two-year period. This experience will definitely benefit everyone and will open up new perspectives for our students.
CONTEXT:faced with the problem of students dropping out of school and losing interest in learning, the coordinating school conducted a survey (questionnaires) and found a link between dropping out and excessive weekend drinking and/or telephone and social networking use. The teams decided to make the fight against addictions a priority. Awareness-raising initiatives were put in place and the desire to take the issue to a European level led to this Erasmus project. The European partners were brought together thanks to E Twinings, as the 5 partner schools in the project were facing the same problems. Together, we decided to tackle the issue of addiction from these angles: Involving addiction professionals, avoiding guilt-tripping, putting pupils into action (workshops), working in multinational groups, proposing activities to get to know each other, encouraging collaborative work and openness to others and the world. OUR MAIN OBJECTIVES: We wanted : -The pupils to understand the mechanisms of addiction, become aware of their addictions, look for ways of combating them, mobilise their skills to build communication/awareness-raising tools (particularly digital ones, also to share productions), develop the feeling of being European, be as numerous as possible to benefit from the project (especially the PWFOs), cultivate a spirit of openness and tolerance. -The teachers to meet their pupils in a different context, discover their skills other than academic ones, share experiences and get involved in their school's European projects. -Our schools to increase their European openness and develop their European network TYPOLOGY OF ORGANISATION: Our students were 13 to 18 years old. The coordinator was a French vocational school, which involved pupils from all its streams (commerce/electrotechnical engineering/logistics). The Austrian partner is a technical school, the Portuguese school has pupils in general and vocational training, and the other 3 partners had pupils in general training. The variety of target groups was a great asset. About the 6 partners : https://padlet.com/rachelpellizzari71/the-6-partners-to-be-or-not-to-be-c25h14f00qi663xm ACTIVITIES IMPLEMENTED:For each meeting, we proposed workshops: knowledge of the host country and the education system, otherness (our differences/our similarities), language. Each partner focused their workshops on their own knowledge and understanding of addiction: production of digital presentation materials, debates, interviews and press articles (Portugal) - participation in intervention theatre, debates on educational films, training in the creation of scripts and the shooting of mini films (France) - combating violence at school, leading a healthy life through diet (Romania) - sports and outdoor activities (Romania, Austria and Turkey) - understanding the mechanisms of addiction (Romania, Austria and Turkey) - understanding the role of addictive substances (Austria and Turkey), Austria and Turkey) - understanding the mechanism of addiction to narcotics - making films, getting to know Europe (Austria) - making posters and comic strips, meetings with health professionals, raising awareness of public policy to combat addiction, radio recording (Latvia) - art therapy workshop, practising yoga, raising awareness of addiction to new technologies (Turkey) RESULTS ACHIEVED: Following each meeting with the professionals, the students produced materials designed to visually reformulate the training content and raise awareness among their peers: posters, a mini-film for broadcast on the networks, recordings of radio programmes, written productions, flyers, etc. Over the course of our partnership, we have tackled related aspects of addiction: harassment, particularly via the networks. IMPACT : For the pupils involved: empathy, respect for differences, a different relationship with their teachers/school/learning, self-confidence, involvement in representative bodies, taking a step back from their use of social networks and screens. They easily become spokespersons for the dangers of addictions. For other pupils: obstacles to mobility removed for pupils who were afraid to leave. The To be or not te be addicted project has become like a mascot ("we, at the lycée, are fighting against addiction"). For teachers: expansion of the mobility team, teamwork and cross-disciplinary work, development of project-based teaching, At school level: Expanding the network of European and local partners (involved in the workshops), as well as dissemination activities that have raised the profile and image of our schools.