Me as a European – promoting EU citizenship, language and intercultural skills Erasmus Project

Project Title

Me as a European – promoting EU citizenship, language and intercultural skills

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; EU Citizenship, EU awareness and Democracy; Teaching and learning of foreign languages

Project Summary

All participating schools are interested in spreading the idea of Europe at the time of tumult and change, and we all want to contribute to the increase of European awareness, as well as language and intercultural skills among our students. The objectives are to make students more aware of what different faces of Europe look like, how the EU offers them a multitude of opportunities to live and study abroad, to offer them chances to practice and improve their skills in many different European languages and to gain personal growth by spending time abroad in a two-month student exchange. The different activities included are 1) the training of school staff in the use of digital tools that make it possible to have international cooperation at school without leaving the classroom, so that a maximum number of students can participate in and benefit from it. The teachers will then incorporate different activities into their lessons in which students from different corners of Europe in the participating schools will get to interact with each other through the sharing of videos, slide presentations and in video conferences. 2) Long-term student mobilities in another country, so that the students will live in host families and attend the local participating school, learning about another culture and getting to use and improve their language skills. 3) Short term teacher exchanges when teachers accompany the students on their long-term mobilities and when they have a chance to perform a job shadowing activity and to discuss with colleagues from another European institution. 4) A short term study visit to Strasbourg, to the heart of Europe, to learn more about the working of the different European institutions situated there.

In activity 1) the number of participating teachers is 2 from each participating school. The idea is for the individual teachers to become more confident in the use of different digital tools (eTwinning included) and also for them to spread what they have learned in their own institutions and encourage other teachers in their use. When the teachers are able to use these digital tools, they will then be able to incorporate Me as a European themed activities into the lessons so that as many students can participate in the project as possible, even if they don’t participate in the student mobilities abroad.
In activity 2) the long-term mobilities, 1-2 students from each school will participate in it a a time and spend a two-month period in another school, preferably in a country whose language they have studied at school. If they haven’t studied the local language (for example Finnish or Czech), then they preferably will have studied one of the languages taught in the receiving school so they will gain the maximum benefit from their exchange. The host families, as well as all the students and teachers who come into contact with these exchange students will all gain from the experience by increasing their own intercultural awareness and learning about different countries and cultures.
In activity 3) one teacher will accompany the students on their way to the long-term exchange and will also participate in a job-shadowing experience.
In activity 4) two teachers and two students from each participating country will attend a short term exchange to Strasbourg.

The methodologies used will include sharing work done on videos or slides or in discussions in live video conferences in the classroom, language and culture immersion in the case of long-term mobilities, job shadowing in the case of teachers and a study visit to European institutions in the case of the final short term exchange.

As a result of this project we hope to have made our students more aware of their identity not only as Austrians, Czechs, Finns, French or Spaniards, but also as Europeans who are able to better understand and appreciate the differences and similarities between countries and nationalities across Europe. This will make them better equipped to enter the European labour market as they will have gained skills that are needed in intercultural communication and co-operation. We also want to offer our students a chance to improve and deepen their language skills not only in English, but also in other languages, such as French, German, Russian, and Spanish. Hopefully participating in a long-term mobility will spark an interest in the participating students to live and study in other countries in the future as well. And finally, we want to improve the understanding of how European institutions work by bringing teachers and students to visit them in Strasbourg.

All participating schools are happy to share their knowledge gained during the organisation of long-term student mobilities, which haven’t been very common so far, in order to encourage other institutions to incorporate this activity into their syllabus as well, since the school curricula must evolve with the times to better serve the needs of tomorrow’s Europe.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 113590 Eur

Project Coordinator

Nousiaisten lukio & Country: FI

Project Partners

• Bundesgymnasium/Bundesrealgymnasium/Bundesaufbaugymnasium/ Bundesaufbaurealgymnasium Horn
• Gymnazium Frantiska Martina Pelcla, Rychnov nad Kneznou, Hrdinu odboje 36
• Lycée International
• I.E.S. Fernando Aguilar Quignon