Motivamaths is a European project based on the collaboration between a Spanish school and a French school and created by 5 teachers, 2 maths teachers and 3 foreign language teachers who are based in both countries. These teachers have decided to bridge the gap between two very different subjects, namely mathematics and foreign languages. The project will concretely consist in a bilingual maths competition held in French and Spanish. A total of 30 questions/answers will be prepared by French and Spanish students. The project is to take 2 years and targets 15-16 years-old in both schools. The main goal is to improve the students’ social and educational skills through content and language integrated learning (CLIL), teamwork, creativity, digital projects, comprehension, communication, arithmetic, logic...Content and language integrated learning in maths is not very common in Spain or in France and the teachers want to develop this educational approach. The school in Spain is small and located in a rural area. As a consequence, all the pupils who study French -- which is not a mandatory course in Spain -- will take part in the project. There are about 300 pupils who study Spanish at the French high school in 2nde, therefore the project will include one class of 35 pupils who all study Spanish as their second mandatory FL. 4 trips are scheduled: there would be a France to Spain and a Spain to France trip every year. The point is to have students work together at every step of the project: making the questions, preparing the answers, concrete plans for the contest: the final results, the awards and the ceremony. The dates for these trips have been planned so as not to disturb the national exams and the holidays. It is also necessary to leave enough time between two trips to make sure the students can work on the project before and after meeting. Each trip will focus on a stage of the project to create the maths competition but it will also be an immersive experience in both countries. Regarding the two-year period, the students will start by communicating through digital applications to present their school environment to their fellow exchange students. The first online sessions will include logic games in the target language. Then, students will take the Mathematical Kangaroo competition in their country to observe the rules of a maths competition. One hour every two weeks will be a CLIL maths/FL class in the computer lab of the schools. Teachers have already started to communicate through Whatsapp. The project is also on Etwinning which will enable students to use every app offered by the Twinspace. We plan to assess skills through tests in maths and foreign language at the beginning, half-way through and at the end of the project to measure the actual progresses of the students taking part in this project. These tests will give us data regarding the students’ evolution. This project will enable both schools to promote their activities to a broad audience through several activities that will take place throughout the exchange programme. Such activities could include articles on the schools’ websites, exhibitions during the schools’ open day to which the school community, inspectors, town officials and local papers could be invited. The closing evening will enable us to invite the same people and to pave the way for similar projects in other schools through our inspectors. This two-year project will enable our schools to apply for the Etwinnings certification and the Label européen des langues (a certification offered by the French government and the Erasmus programme) in 2021.
Motivamaths is a European project based on the partnership between a Spanish school and a French school . It was founded by 5 teachers, 2 maths teachers and 3 modern language teachers who are based in both countries. These teachers have decided to bridge the gap between two very different subjects, namely mathematics and foreign languages. The project consists of a bilingual maths competition held in French and Spanish. A total of 20 questions/answers will be prepared by French and Spanish students. The project eventually took three years because of the Covid pandemic. The main goal has been to improve the students’ social and educational skills through content and language integrated learning (CLIL), teamwork, creativity, digital projects, comprehension, communication, arithmetic, logic...Content and language integrated learning in maths is not very common in Spain or in France and the teachers wanted to develop this educational approach. The school in Spain is small and located in a rural area. As a consequence, all the pupils who study French -- which is not a mandatory course in Spain -- took part in the project. There are about 300 pupils who study Spanish at the French high school in 2nde, therefore the project included one class of 35 pupils who all study Spanish as their second mandatory FL. However, because of covid and of social considerations, there has been some variations in the selection of students who took part in the projects. 4 trips were organized: every year, both France to Spain and Spain to France trips were organized. Covid made traveling difficult. For example, the Spanish group had to cancel one of their trips just a few days before their planned departure. Regarding the work completed during these 3 years, the students first shared their school environment and experience through many video calls in class. Each session included short logical quizzes in the target language. Then the students learned about Maths Kangaroo to define the rules of a mathematical competition. The different teams communicated with Whatsapp throughout the project. Etwinnings and its resources on the Twinspace were also thoroughly used, especially in the first year. Soon enough, students started engaging with each other on social media. The competition was held in both schools, with the exchange students, each school having decided on their own rules. All the 2nde students could enter the competition. In France, about a third of each class took part in the competition, it was a real success. We wanted to assess students’ progress in core skills through an evaluation of every student in both languages and math to compare the evolution of students involved in the project. This evaluation was made in the first steps of the project but was not completed. Core skills were achieved through the students’ investment, motivation and grateful attitude during these three years. The project enabled both schools to acquire an international dimension. The influence activities were more important in Spain as the students were received by Toledo’s educational and governmental officials. The closing ceremony brought the teachers, the head, the families and the students together. This experience enabled the schools to consider applying for an Erasmus+ certification to further develop European exchanges.