LEARNING/TEACHING/TRAINING ACTIVITIES

The project will consist of six major activities (two per year) that will be pursued in the individual schools as well as during transnational learning activities. These activities will make use of innovative teaching methods and will be designed to achieve the project objectives.

Before each transnational learning activity, students and teachers will come together in the different schools and the students will work on the pre-tasks set for the following learning activity.

 

All of these activities will lead to the intended result or product of each activity which will also be presented to a wider audience at a conference held at the end of each transnational meeting. Products will also be shown at an international evening or dinner, which will be one of the social activities of a meeting.

 

The transnational learning activities are not only "added value", they are central with regard to the project objectives. Students and teachers will develop their skills and methodology especially during these activities. Meeting their peers they will experience the idea of European citizenship working in an international environment and will train their entrepreneurship, ICT, language and teaching skills while working on the activities. In this project, learning activities "on the spot" will provide the students with an understanding of the European city, its development and future as would hardly be possible without actually "being there" - if at all.

 

As part of the learning activities students and teachers will explore the local communities (e.g. for the photo essay) and go on field trips and excursions relevant to the project and visit other cities or institutions (e.g. model cities, universities). Additionally local institutions relevant to the project will be visited, such as the local energy supplier or homes for the elderly. Students and teachers will also be introduced to representatives from the town administration and town council, if possible during a reception or discussion at the town hall (especially when preparing for the public debate). This will enable students to experience life in the different cities, meet experts and get more and deeper insights relevant to the project, from which the project results will benefit a lot. Furthermore, the students will also be able to compare and contrast the different cities, which will also significantly add to their results. The expectation is that students will create and put forward a proposal for local councils as result of their research and recognising needs of the communities.

 

What is more, these field trips and excursions will contribute to the skills development and project objectives: Students will improve their basic, transversal, language and ICT skills (e.g. through doing research, interviewing, debating, preparing brochures and filming), but they will also experience EU citizenship and entrepreneurship making an impact as EU citizens on the future of their communities. During the activities students will work in mixed, international groups helping each other with tasks and sharing their methodological and language competences as well as their knowledge, which will help to develop their skills further. The teachers from different countries will have to create innovative tasks and develop new methodological approaches to their teaching while also sharing and comparing their national approaches and experience. Finally, in order to further develop their language (students) and methodological skills (teachers), students and teachers will be given the opportunity to take part in or observe some lessons at the host school during the meetings.

 

During the activities the participants will also experience the culture of the hosting country. Most importantly, the students will live in host families thus experiencing the culture first hand and at the same time improving their language skills. In addition there will always be an international evening or dinner with national specialities from the different countries to which also stakeholders such as parents and local representatives will be invited.

 

The local press will be invited to report on the meetings and learning activities and thus contribute to disseminating results.

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