Europe class let’s go Erasmus Project

Project Title

Europe class let’s go

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : School Exchange Partnerships

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2019

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: EU Citizenship, EU awareness and Democracy; Teaching and learning of foreign languages

Project Summary

We chose the topic „Europa vámonos” in order to put Europe and the EU into the spotlight at both schools. Furthermore, the language class at the Gymnasium Hartberg will be renamed as “Europaklasse” and a new subject “Europa erFAHREN” (experiencing Europe) will be introduced in year 11. The IES Doña Jimena already has a lot of experience when it comes to European projects, which makes it the perfect school partner. On the one hand, it is the aim of this project to emphasise the Europhile idea. On the other hand, the students will be given the opportunity to improve their language skills through getting to know the language and culture of the target country better and learning to understand differences and similarities between the two cultures. All that leads to a better global understanding and lets them see that it is not all about the individual countries, but about a united Europe. When the project starts the students are in year 9 and have been learning Spanish or German for the third year. 30 students of each school will take part and the project language is Spanish. (Note: Not all Spanish students learn German). The project is going to start in September 2019 with getting to know each other through the platform etwinning. The teachers are going to open a twinspace and add all the participants. Then the students create their profile and present their school. In September/ October 2019 both schools work on a common concept for Erasmus day. Moreover, the German language course “alemán por ti” will start, so that the Spanish students who do not speak German yet have enough time to acquire some basic German language skills. The students slowly get to know each other via etwinning so that the ones with the same interests can find each other for the exchange. The exchange in Austria should have a language, sportive and also cultural focus, which means that we will organise a skiing day and a day at a thermal spa for the students. In general, they will spend their mornings taking part in the classes at the Gymnasium Hartberg, where there will also be a special EU workshop. The following months are going to be used to create songs and a film together. Before visiting Spain, the students prepare suitable topics about the Spanish history and culture. In Spain the students are going to live with host families, like the Spanish students do in Austria, and go to school in the mornings. The emphasis will be put on the language skills there, whereas in the afternoon the students are going to do sports (for example surfing). Moreover, the students should also be able to experience the capital and its cultural offer, the same way the Spanish students are going to do during their stay in Austria. There will be some parents’ evenings and the public will be informed about our project using different types of media. The third year of the project should be used for a longer individual stay. Five students from Austria and accordingly from Spain are given the opportunity to stay in Austria for two months in order to really get to know the mentality and the daily life of the people there. The students will go to school with their hosts. The IES Doña Jimena prefers to keep the individual stay to two months, so that the fear of going abroad for a longer period of time can be overcome and in order to make the exchange more attractive to the students. After all, it is their first stay abroad for a longer period of time. Both schools expect the outcome of the projects to be meaningful and sustainable, which the students can also identify with. In addition, the language progress of the students should be significant. The projects of the students should also be presented on the homepage and in the local press, so that the public can read and see more about the positive experiences of the students and their Erasmus project. Both schools expect higher numbers of students; The Gymnasium Hartberg would like to have more students for their future Europe classes and the IES Doña Jimena would like to have higher numbers of students learning German as a second foreign language.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 79118 Eur

Project Coordinator

BG/BRG/BORG Hartberg & Country: AT

Project Partners

• IES DOÑA JIMENA