Little towns – big history – great opportunities Erasmus Project

Project Title

Little towns – big history – great opportunities

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 Schools Only

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2016

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Early School Leaving / combating failure in education; Regional dimension and cooperation; Teaching and learning of foreign languages

Project Summary

The project “Little towns, big history, great opportunities” lasted for two years, from 19 September 2016 to 18 September 2018. During this time, six meetings took place: two transnational meetings of teachers (in Poland and Spain) and four short-term student exchanges (in Italy, Cyprus, Romania and Poland). There were 5 schools participating in the project, all of them educating students on junior and senior high school level. These were: Seminarul Teologic Liceal “Ioan Iacob” in Dorohoi, Romania, I.I.S.S. “Carlo Maria Carafa” in Mazzarino, Italy, Pagkyprio Lykeio in Larnaca, Cyprus, Colegio Sagrado Corazon De Jesus in Trujillo, Spain and Powiatowy Zespół Szkół nr 1 in Trzebnica, Poland.
The project completed its goals which were:
– starting a long-lasting cooperation between students and teachers from partner schools;
– for students; improving communication skills in English and the ability to cooperate in an international group; increasing the sense of pride with their place of living and the knowledge of local history and culture; increasing the sense of identity with local community; perceiving similarities and differences between their own culture and the culture of partners; improving the ability to use available sources of information, especially Internet resources, in an intelligent way;
– for teachers: widening the scope of available teaching methods thanks to exchanging experiences with teachers from other countries, especially experiences concerning active teaching methods, using the method of educational project and exploiting diverse digital tools in their work; developing a digital educational materials database, common for all schools;
– for schools: increasing the role in local community;
– for local communities’ members: better knowledge of cultures different from their own, awakening the sense of belonging to the community of the citizens of Europe.
The main subjects of the project were: the situation of students in small towns, the advantages and challenges of living in such places, the history and culture of these towns, especially taking into account significant historical figures. Exploring their biographies, the history of their towns and the partner towns and local traditions, students learned to perceive in their environment not only challenges but also chances for personal and professional development. They improved the skills of finding and selecting information, group cooperation, language skills and IT skills.
The activities in the project comprised preparing:
– a flashmob,
– a presentation about the historical figures connected with the towns,
– a multilingual guidebook about the towns,
– a multimedia presentation about the towns and the regions,
– board games and interactive games about the towns,
– a treasure hunt,
– a traditional and popular songs concert,
– a theatre play based on local traditions,
– a book of poetry and paintings connected with the towns, created by students,
– crash language courses of the languages of partner schools, with vocabulary selected by the students and students acting as teachers,
– debates on challenges and chances of living in a small town.
Materials produced in the project are available on Google platform, eTwinning space and Erasmus+ dissemination platform. A link to the Google platform has been published on schools’ web pages, and some materials were made available to local institutions.
The project and its results were disseminated on school web pages, in social media, in school newspapers (some of them distributed also outside school), on educational web pages (the Cypriot Padeia News), on bulletin boards, in the local media, during school and local events (Poland: Open Door Days at school, Educational Fair, Seminar on humanistic studies; Cyprus: Student Conference Day). Students taking part in the project created Language Passports and their participation in the mobilities was confirmed by Mobility Passes.
The realisation of the goals of the project is confirmed by: creating the database of educational materials; high quality of the materials produced by students, evidencing very good standard of cooperation and IT skills; feedback from students and teachers from partner schools. Contests conducted in project, in the recruiting process for the mobilities, during the project tasks (games) and other points of schedule in mobilities showed a substantial increase in the knowledge on the subject matter of the project. The debates summing up the project showed students’ knowledge and appreciation of the cultural, educational and recreational offer of their towns, and the fact that they see not only problems but also achievements of their local communities.
Activities started, and methods of working observed and worked out during the projects (language passports, debates connected with workshops, trips to places “discovered” during the project, design workshops for summing up the project) are and will be used by teachers in their work.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 123040 Eur

Project Coordinator

Powiatowy Zespol Szkol nr 1 w Trzebnicy & Country: PL

Project Partners

• I.I.S.S. “Carlo Maria Carafa” Mazzarino
• COLEGIO SAGRADO CORAZÓN DE JESÚS
• Seminarul Teologic Liceal “Ioan Iacob” Dorohoi
• PAGKYPRIO LYKEIO