A Day In the Life of… Erasmus Project

Project Title

A Day In the Life of…

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: Intercultural/intergenerational education and (lifelong)learning; Cultural heritage/European Year of Cultural Heritage; Key Competences (incl. mathematics and literacy) – basic skills

Project Summary

Since we live in the world of globalisation and multiculturalism, developing key competences, with the emphasis on developing or improving intercultural competence, plays a significant role in the education of young people. Building up students’ intercultural competence is targeted at helping them to develop the ability to communicate and behave in appropriate ways with people from other countries or with those who are culturally different, thus, with those who might have different values, beliefs and experiences. To achieve that, students should be equipped with necessary tools, enabling them to recognise and deal with different cultural and behavioural situations. However, although we want our students to be able to engage and act globally, we consider it extremely important not to forget one’s own cultural and historical background and identity, since reflecting on one’s own culture and history helps to understand and appreciate others and, as a consequence, find a compromise between the different cultural norms.
Thus, we would like to start a project with the primary aim of raising students’ awareness of European culture and history. We intend to focus on two European countries, Germany and Latvia, with a special emphasis on what life is like in both the countries in different cultural settings. The project is supposed to give students the opportunity to look at, analyse and compare the life of a typical teenager in Germany and Latvia, paying special attention to the values a modern teenager of the above-mentioned countries has. Within the framework of the project, students will have to research, analyse and interpret the historical and cultural past of the two countries, looking at possible ties and influences between the countries (including past influences on modern life). Thus, through the process we intend to enhance students’ knowledge of history, culture and traditions of their own country as well as that one of the partner school’s country. We also hope to develop students’ critical thinking skills as well as we would like to arouse students’ interest in tolerance for a new cultural background. Since the project will be conducted in English, which is not students’ mother tongue, one of our objectives is to improve students’ communicative EFL skills. Apart from communicative and intercultural competences, the project will give students the opportunity of learn from each other; thus, it will equip them with different learning strategies, which could be useful not only for the project as such, but also for any learning process in the future. Through the project, students will improve their social and civic competences, which will enable them to participate in an effective and constructive way in social and, later, working life.
The participants of the project will be students of Freie Schule Guestrow in Germany and Jelgava Secondary School #5 from Latvia, 12 teenagers, aged 15 – 17, from each school. Those students will have to show genuine interest in the project and they should have a good command of English (level B1 is expected) to be able to take part in the project. The students will be supervised and assisted by English teachers and supported, if necessary, by informatics teachers. During the project the students will have to do research, analysis and interpretation of the historical and cultural background of their country, which will include not only researching the topic on the Internet, but also going to libraries, visiting museums and exhibitions. The exchange of the materials and general communication among the students will be done through e-mails, video conferences and Internet platforms, for example, the TwinSpace on the eTwinning platform. The students will be able to exchange ideas, create photo galleries and upload short videos on the project topic, get and receive feedback. Apart from that, the students will script and stage short theatrical plays, illustrating teenage life in Germany and Latvia, with the focus on the values of young people in those countries as well as exemplifying some existing stereotypes about the countries. The students will also look at the similarities and differences in the day to day life as a teenager in Germany and Latvia, which they will be able to do during the actual students’ exchange. We intend to organise two exchange visits, which will give the students the opportunity to get to know each other in person and experience life in a different cultural background.
The overall project result will be a manual with basic information for foreigners who plan to visit one of the countries. In addition to this, the students will devise working materials adapted for different language levels to be used during English classes at school with the aim of learning about another culture using English as lingua franca. The materials as well as the manual will be made publicly available.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 19206 Eur

Project Coordinator

Freie Schule Guestrow & Country: DE

Project Partners

• Jelgavas 5. vidusskola