What is a “rhapsody”? According to Oxford Dictionary, it is a “free instrumental composition in one extended movement, typically one that is emotional or exuberant in character”. This definition contains four key-words for our project: free, movement, emotional, exuberant. That’s the way our students are. Following such a vision of our students as a sort of “melody”, our project aims to make a “creative” connection between our teenagers’ inner universe and the natural environment they live in. We believe that one of the most relevant aspects of a teenager's growth, for a full self-knowledge, is the harmonious development of his creative and expressive area. Music, dance, body expression, art, sports, these are favourite activities for many of them, and these can increase their motivation to learn. All project activities will therefore be organized to allow pupils to create and express themselves around a theme that is common to all partner countries, located in coastal regions: the sea, in its various shapes (cultural, historical, economic, environmental). The inhabitants of coastal regions have always had a special relationship with the sea. Ours are lands of sailors, expert fishermen, hardworking women. It represents the natural theatre of man and his history: place of exchange, civilization, languages, cultures, arts, ethnic groups, thought. Furthermore, the Goal n.14 of the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals Agenda is about the seas: "Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development". Taking into account all these aspects, the Project wants to make pupils aware that the sea represents the greatest message of peace, respect for the environment, disdain for violence and prevarication, rejection of social injustices, love of difference, passion for communication and dialogue, cult of freedom. Around the project main idea we have selected our priorities. We will lead the students to understand the importance of protecting our environment and acquire basic skills and key competences. They will learn more about other European countries culture and tradition, mainly about music, songs, plastic arts. In each meeting, partners will choose a different meaningful aspect of the project topic: Environment protection, the sea in our history /traditions/ culture, economy and tourism. Concrete results of this projects are mainly "art products" and events, linked to music, dance, play, body expression, handcrafts. They are described in details in the webform section devoted to LTTA. Some examples: folk dances and folk songs, songs about the sea in English and French, games, plays, amber bracelets, construction of drums, game of tracks and map explorations, excursions, sailing, cup printing/T-shirt printing, potery, reinterpretation of famous paintings about the sea, Flash Mob. Each song, dance, workshop and activity will become a selection of photos and videos to be collected in the project website and shown at the final meeting in Italy. A CD will be produced, containing all these materials, with the title of the project "Sea Rhapsody in Europe". All planned activities are closely linked to the priorities and topics of the project. All pupils participating in the mobility will therefore develop a natural respect for the environment they will visit, for the cultural specificities of the families that will host them, and will have the opportunity to express themselves while having fun, in activities that involve fantasy , originality and personal interpretation. The Portuguese school is an ETwinning school and its contribution will be relevant for the creation of a project in support of the Erasmus+ project. During the first months of the project, all teachers and students who intend to take part to the activities will register on the portal, in order to form an eTwinning Group within eTwinning Live. The project activities are aimed at achieve the progressive change of our educational institutions and their European dimension. Through the project activities, the participating teachers will acquire new techniques and methodologies to be used with pupils in the didactic approach, both in class and in extracurricular activities, and they will strenghten their know-how for future projects and activities at school. The initiatives envisaged in this project will become part of the Institutes' curriculum and educational offer, therefore benefits on pupils' learning will be long term, even after the end of the project.
We created our project inspired by the seaside we live close and by the music we like. We asked ourselves: what is a “rhapsody”? According to Oxford Dictionary, it is a “free instrumental composition in one extended movement, typically one that is emotional or exuberant in character”. This definition contained four key-words for our project: free, movement, emotional, exuberant. That’s the way our students are. Following such a vision of our students as a sort of “melody”, our project aimed to make a “creative” connection between our teenagers’ inner universe and the natural environment they live in. We strongly believed that one of the most relevant aspects of a teenager's growth, for a full self-knowledge, was the harmonious development of creative and expressive area. Music, dance, body expression, art, sports, these were and always are the favorite activities for many of them, and these can increase their motivation to learn. All project activities were therefore organized to allow pupils to create and express themselves around a theme that was common to all partner countries, located in coastal regions: the sea, in its various shapes (cultural, historical, economic, environmental). The inhabitants of coastal regions always had a special relationship with the sea. Ours are lands of sailors, expert fishermen, hardworking women. The sea represented for us the natural theatre of man and his history: place of exchange, civilization, languages, cultures, arts, ethnic groups, thought. Furthermore, the Goal n.14 of the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals Agenda is about the seas: "Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development". Taking into account all these aspects, the Project wanted to make pupils aware that the sea represents the greatest message of peace, respect for the environment, disdain for violence and prevarication, rejection of social injustices, love of difference, passion for communication and dialogue, cult of freedom. Around the project main theme we selected our priorities. Students were leaded to understand the importance of protecting our environment and acquire basic skills and key competences. They learned more about other European countries culture and tradition, mainly about music, songs, plastic arts. In each meeting, partners chose a different meaningful aspect of the project topic (environment protection, the sea in our history / traditions/ culture), giving a title to the meeting itself. Concrete results of this projects were mainly "art products" and events, linked to music, dance, play, body expression, handcrafts. They were described in details in the webform section devoted to LTTA. Some examples: folk dances and folk songs, songs about the sea in English and national languages, games, plays, amber bracelets, game of tracks and map explorations, excursions, sailing, cup printing/T-shirt printing, pottery. For most of the songs, dances, workshops and activities we made a selection of photos and videos to be collected in the project website and shown at the final meeting in Italy. A final product was produced (using Genially), containing many moments and materials, with the title of the project "Sea Rhapsody in Europe". All planned activities were closely linked to the priorities and topics of the project. All pupils participating in the mobility had the opportunity to develop a natural respect for the environment they visited, for the cultural specificities of the families that hosted them, and also had the opportunity to express themselves while having fun, in activities that involve fantasy, originality and personal interpretation. The Portuguese school was an ETwinning school and its contribution was relevant for the creation of a project in support of the Erasmus+ project. During the first months of the project, all teachers and students who intended to take part to the activities registered on the portal, in order to form an eTwinning Group within eTwinning Live. The project activities were aimed at achieving the progressive change of our educational institutions and their European dimension. Through the project activities, the participating teachers could acquire new techniques and methodologies to be used with pupils in the didactic approach, both in class and in extracurricular activities, and they could strengthen their know-how for future projects and activities at school. The initiatives envisaged in this project have become part of our Institutes' curriculum and educational offer, therefore benefits on pupils' learning are long term, even after the end of the project. The project was completed as foreseen in the application phase, but the duration was extended by 12 months. The first year, in fact, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, was carried out with entirely remote activities (meetings on line with countries in pairs, exchange of presentations of our countries and videos containing our typical songs).