Sharing our Treasures for a Better Future Erasmus Project

Project Title

Sharing our Treasures for a Better Future

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 : Strategic Partnerships for school education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2016

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Teaching and learning of foreign languages; New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses; Overcoming skills mismatches (basic/transversal)

Project Summary

All the partners involved in this project were interested in developing, applying, collecting and sharing innovative teaching methods, techniques and practices with a special focus on engaging various intelligences, according to Howard Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences. We wanted to support our learners in the process of improving their competences, basic skills in their native languages and in English by taking advantage of the opportunity to cooperate with schools and organizations in different countries, which have different types and levels of expertise in the topics addressed by our project: some of the institutions we collaborated with have a significant experience with several European projects, other schools have been involved only in small scale, local projects but have a variety of tips and tricks related to intelligences, that we could all learn from. This project was challenging for us since we tried and managed to dig up and promote the treasures within and connect them to the treasures around us. At the same time, all partner schools worked upon the idea of creativity in teaching , in finding the right approaches and in reaching the desired outcomes. We need to keep up with an everchanging society tormented by financial crises, wars, conflicts, not to mention the loss of values and cultural identity. Therefore, it is extremely important to find solutions to these current issues by focusing on the individuals that will become the next generation. Thus, we focused also on teaching them the importance of overcoming prejudices, of being tolerant, of appreciating the differences and our own identities in a multicultural society, of communicating efficiently and of strengthening the bonds with other European countries for creating a friendly environment. More than that, they became more aware of the importance of improving communication skills in a foreign language, in our case, English and of the role it has when it comes to international cooperation and European exchanges of good practices. Both students and teachers had been motivated to improve their English while working on the tasks, while exchanging ideas, for and during the different types of meetings. With the expertise provided by each partner in the seven schools across Europe and one association dealing with Youth in Action projects, we developed, during the three years, a coherent set of activities to engage and motivate young students to improve basic and transversal skills. We also share our work with all the interested parties with the help of a specially designed platform/ virtual library, one of our intellectual outputs. We commonly agreed on the main topics to work on during the project activities; we designed them as modules that developed during the three-year partnership. By carrying out this project we managed to: – create innovative materials and activities to engage the multiple intelligences found in our classrooms – collect all the teaching/training materials , products and other intellectual outputs on our TreasureIT platform conceived as a virtual library/database – create OER and share our best work with the community – local , regional, national and international – integrate more modern and dynamic methods into daily practices in order to create a more commited environment within the organisation – improve ICT skills while working on the project tasks that resulted in quality products shared with every interested party – improve communication skills in a foreign language, namely English which resulted in higher self-esteem and inner motivation for truly becoming a lifelong learner – integrate nonformal training strategies into formal educational contexts. The teachers involved were able to experiment with innovative student-centered approaches, to improve them and share them within the larger community. They learned to cooperate with their peers, they learned from each other and, in the end, they could use modern tools, specially designed activities and innovative approaches so that they reach, engage and motivate young learners in a playful way. The students were involved in the process too and they were at the centre of the learning process; this helped them grow in multiple ways: academically , socially, from an affective point of view etc. Every child involved was aware of he/she uniqueness and that has his/her own talents; thus, while meeting face to face, working together on different topics, they reached success in at least one field. We also think they became aware of the fact that they need to invest time and effort in their abilities and interests, and in the end, realize that the most important factors that determine their success are linked to perseverance, honesty, knowledge and collaboration , creativity and committment.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 202790 Eur

Project Coordinator

Scoala Gimnaziala “Varlaam Mitropolitul” & Country: RO

Project Partners

• 1st Gymnasium of Galatsi, Athens
• COLEGIO PÚBLICO RURAL MARQUESADO
• ASOCIATIA SUPER TINERI (ASIRYS)
• DIMOTIKO SCHOLEIO ARADIPPOU 2
• Agrupamento de Escolas de Mourão
• SZKOLA PODSTAWOWA NR 22 w Zespole Szkol Ogolnoksztalcacych 10
• ISTITUTO COMPRENSIVO ARCE “GIOVANNI PAOLO II IL GRANDE”