IT'S ABOUT US, IT'S ABOUT EUROPE!: September 2013

9/27/2013

Greetings to the project - Slovenian Member of the European Parliament Mojca Kleva Kekuš

Slovenian Member of the European Parliament, Mojca Kleva Kekuš on the beginning of the project sending us sincere greetings and good wishes on our way of learning about Europe.

Mojca Kleva Kekuš - english version

slovenian version

9/22/2013

ZAKLADNA ŠKOLA Námestie

Our first meeting is going to be in Zakladna Škola Námestie, Košice in Slovakia from 6. - 10. November 2013.

Dear hosts, we are looking forward to get to know your school and the city soon.

Košice the second largest city in Slovakia. (klik, to see the photos)

On pupils:

Pupils will develop awareness on EU citizenship and children's rights.
Pupils will be motivated to work with and actively explore other countries Geography, History and children’s rights.
They will develop learning competencies, in terms of all European key competencies.
They will develop knowledge of the partner countries.
By working together with other children across Europe, they will get rid of prejudices and stereotypes and learn to appreciate and respect other point of view.
Using English in real life situations will make them develop fluency and gain motivation and interests towards learning of English.
They will learn basic words and phrases in their partners languages and thus become real European citizens.
They will be able to connect learning process with real life environment and will learn to benefit from real life situations.
They will develop all their personality, especially self-confidence, creativity and thinking styles.
They will be able to better communicate with their peers and also with other people.
Working in an international context will increase the motivation and the team spirit of the pupils.
The project will stimulate independent learning from own experience and joy.

On teachers:
They will develop teaching competencies within the field of Geography, History,EU citizenship and children’s rights.
They will learn and exchange experience related to new and creative teaching strategies.
They will develop intercultural competencies.
They will improve their competence in English.
They will develop ICT skills.
They will benefit from new teaching resources.

The project will offer the teachers the possibility of interacting with pupils in a more scholastic environment and the satisfaction of working with more motivated pupils.

On the participating institutions:

- an opportunity to renew education: discovering new teaching methods, getting to know other didactic materials, using
- getting to know new ICT;
- promote interdisciplinary teaching in the school curriculum;
- improving dialogue and tolerance among cultures;
- enriching school curriculum;
- enable cooperation between schools and parents/local community;
- opportunity to develop institution’s policy;
- enhanced school prestige;
- develop European dimension in each participant institutions;
- transfer and adapt best education practice;
- creating a more motivated learn.

EUROPIEN ADED VALUE

Students
Students participating in the project will have a unique opportunity to learn more about their partners' geography and history not only through making posters, emailing, singing the project song, creating a logo, but also thanks to mobilities that will enable them meet their peers and take part in their school life. We hope that friendship formed during the partnership will last. We want our student to become informed EU citizen and that is why we want them to learn basic words in other languages. When they travel they can use this words and communicate with the local people.

Teaching Staff
Teacher exchanges will result in improved practice and a wider European perspective including the development of creative and innovative teaching methods. Two of the partner schools (Slovenia and Italy) had created such a strong bond in their previous multilateral partnership that they decided to unite in one more partnership.

School Leaders
School leaders will gain a broader European view both in terms of school leadership and in terms of their place in a wider European context. They will be able to exchange information regarding running schools with their counterparts.

Institutions
Institutions will develop new relationships and contacts with other European schools and agencies. These contacts and relations will be built upon in future years. Institutions will develop a more European feel, with staff and students regarding themselves as European citizens, members of a wider European community.

Welcome to our Comenius school project

" IT'S ABOUT US! IT'S ABOUT EUROPE "!

The year 2013 is the European Year of Citizens, and that is why we decided to use this opportunity to create partnership that will make our students truly informed European citizens. Each of the partner countries is unique in its geographical and historical features. There is one transcontinental Eurasian country, one island, one land-locked country. All of them have rich histories; one has other currency than EURO, one of them is a constitutional monarchy. All these factors will contribute to improving our students' awareness of how rich our European heritage is.

Every day through radio, TV, newspapers our students hear disturbing information that EU is in trouble, the best example are the events in Greece and England. Do we really face the risk of disintegration? Can we live in harmony despite the current economic complications and crises? How much do our students actually know about EU? What do they know about individual countries , their geography, history, childrens rights, basic words and phrases? What can they expect as members of the EU from it? How do our students in visage EU if they are regularly informed only about troubles. We want to focus on the information that is true and relevant.

We guess that all of us do not know much about EU, therefore, we decided to disseminate the European horizon, during the project activities. Every child has rights, no matter what country they’re from, no matter how old they are, no matter if they’re a boy or a girl. Even though every child has rights, these rights are violated every day. All partner countries think this project will allow our students achieve new skills and knowledge through a wide range of learning experiences in Geography, History and children’s rights education. The project will also address the issue of prejudices by developing "intercultural intelligence" (understanding diversity and "making profit" of it). It will be a means of finding out European values, similarities and differences between the countries involved and reflecting upon preconceptions and stereotypes we can have about our European partners.

All the six countries involved in the project are seeking new educational approaches to meet the needs of the 21st century learner. Project-based learning is one of this forms. Teaching with the project-based method enables students to work cooperatively with peers and mentors in a student-centred environment where learners are encouraged to have a voice in how and what they learn, while building intrinsic motivation towards problem-solving.

The partnership will be a motivation for all educational actors (students, teachers and parents) to get involved in joint activities and a way to link school with Europe and cultivate European values and attitudes.

Students and teachers will develop fluency in English language, improve skills in other modern languages, like Italian or Spanish or get aware of less studied languages, like Turkish, Slovenian and Slovak.

Partner schools: (in alphabetical order of country names )