Monday 5 January 2015

Logo contest


During the second transnational meeting in Spain (22-28th of February) the logo contest will take place at IES de Poio.

Our students can prepare as many logos as they wish, but only one for country will be presented in Spain where seven students per nation will vote:
5 points for the best, and then 4, 3, 2 and 1 points.

We will publish the proposals on the blog.

First transnational meeting in Pribram


According to our schedule, the first transnational meeting of the project took place in Pribram, Czech Republic,  from 3th to 6th of  December.



We organized the first stpes of the project and reached agreements about the organizacion and the implementation of Tourism for teenagers.




This is the summary made by our coordinator Giorgio Marsan












MEETINGS

The meetings will normally last 7 days (6 nights).

In Spain from Sunday 22 February to Saturday 28 February;

In Greece from Saturday 18 April to Friday 24 April (some groups might stay in Athens before the exchange, some after);

In Poland in the week between Sunday 4 October and Sunday 11 October;

In the Czech Republic  in the week between Sunday 21 February and Sunday 28 February;

In Rome in the week between Sunday 17 April and Sunday 24 April.




PAYMENTS

The HOSTS will provide:
1)      The final goodbye dinner;
2)      The local transport (that is, the transport home-school and in general in the place where we stay);
3)      One day (half day) trip;
4)      The accommodation, which includes breakfast and dinner.

The GUEST will pay for:
1)      The trip (flight, transfers);
2)      All teachers’ expenses (hotel, food, etc.)
3)      Lunches abroad;
4)      Special stay in big cities (Athens, Warsaw or Krakow), which are not included in the activities of the project (bit we will visit Prague and Santiago d.C. as a day trip during the meeting – and in Rome the city is part of the exchange)



ACTIVITIES

1)      The Guidebook, (both paper and online) which is the fundamental output of the exchange. Each country will provide a brochure to be finished before the following meeting. All brochures will be officially presented during the last meeting in Rome and they will be collected in one single book in Rome
2)      Interactive Tourist Maps: during the meetings in Poland and Czech R. The other countries will provide pictures and short texts;
3)      LEARNING ACTIVITIES: in Spain, Greece and Rome there will be basic language lessons in Spanish, Greek and Italian, organized by the local teachers with the support of some local student. The Italians during the meeting in Spain will follow normal Spanish lessons. I advise the Greek to consider also a lesson on the alphabet.
In Poland and Czech R.: computer lessons, mainly about the Interactive Tourist Maps.
4)      The local activities will include sightseeing, sports, games, etc., possibly from the point of view of the students.
5)      A multilingual dictionary at the end of the Guidebook, including specifically words about: 1) tourism; 2) young people’s most common expressions



To implement our activities we could use “PREZI” (www.prezi.com) and “ISSUU” (www.issuu.com



Things to start doing:

1)      Once you get the STUDENTS’ PASSPORTS, have it filled by the students who will travel to Spain and send them immediately to Carmen;

2)      Decide if the SATISFACTION QUESTIONNAIRE is OK, or tell everybody what you would like to change;

3)      Prepare a POWERPOINT PRESENTATION of your school and area to present once in Poio (5’ – 10’ min.);

4)      Ask students to draw a LOGO to be voted in Spain (they can prepare as many as they wish, but only one will be brought to Spain). In Spain 7 students per nation will vote: 5 pts. to the best, then 4, 3, 2, 1.

5)      SPAIN ONLY: brainstorming activity with your students: what do you want to show/do to/with your guests?

6)      SPAIN/GREECE: open the eTwinning site and once it is ready and approved, invite us;

7)      Hanka, open (or ask your students to do open) a FACEBOOK group where they can invite their friends. All the others: send to Hanka the names of those who participate in the exchange, so they can find them on the Net

8)      In Spain students will be divided in international groups from the very first moment


Sunday 4 January 2015

Activities

1) At the beginning of the project, in each school the pupils will analyse the historical and cultural aspects of their own country and specifically of their local area.  At the same time they will be also asked to write down what they expect they will find in the other countries. A short presentation will be prepared at the end of this activity.

2) The pupils will also set up an international club of students to exchange any experience of work that could make the project a rewarding one.

Schools will also create:

3) A common space inside e-Twinning, the Twinspace, which will be used for communication and for sharing our project outcomes with the wider community.

4) A free accesible website (containing all the activities and outputs of the project, including a detailed analysis on how to develop the project itself beyond the end of the funding period) (A1).

The project will include the following activities:

5) Before each project meeting, a programme of the visits to the local cultural/historical sites will be prepared by students under the supervision of the teachers and with the involvement of local authorities. The programmes will also include presentations, short movies, leaflets, games (e.g. treasure hunts - A6), sports activities (e.g. orienteering, running races - A5) and any other thing that the students may envisage, considering that the targets are teenagers as they are.

6) During the transnational meetings the local students will “guide” the others to the local cultural/historical sites and will present all the material which they have previously prepared (A8). During the meetings the data gathered at the beginning of the project will be compared. All this material will become part either of the final Guidebook or of other outputs (posters, leaflets, etc.).

7) Language lessons will be held in each school (using local resources if possible, or organising video conferences)  teaching pupils the fundamental aspects of the languages of the nations they will visit and especially the language of tourism. Some of the lessons will be held during the short term exchanges of students in Spain, Greece and Italy (C1, C2, C5).

8) ICT lessons will be held in each school. Some of the lessons will be held during the short term exchange of students in the Czech Republic and Poland (C3, C4).

9) At the end of each meeting and at the end of the project, evaluation and/or satisfaction questionnaires will be filled in by all the participants in the project (teachers, pupils, parents, other actors) (A7).


The final outputs of the project will be:

10) A Young Tourist Guidebook (Intellectual Output O1).

11) An Interactive Map (Intellectual Output O2).

12) A final conference in Rome where the Intellectual Outputs will be presented (Multiplier Event E1).

13) A multilingual conversational guide specifically addressed to tourism (A2).

14) Information leaflets to disseminate in the local areas where the five schools are located, with the support of the local authorities (A3).

15) Posters about the meetings and their results to locate in the schools and - if possible - in the seats of the local authorities and sports and touristic associations (A4).

Partners

The partners were chosen because all the schools already have some experience in the world of partnerships and exchanges, which is an added value, especially considering that this project is quite ambitious in its aims.

Liceo Scientifico Peano has a long experience in coordinating international partnerships and in participating in international projects of various kinds. Our partnership "Basic Guide to Survival in Europe", which dealt with prejudices and cooperation among European countries, can be a useful background to this project. The school teaches four foreign languages and prepares its pupils to the international certification for all of them up to C1 level; we also participate in several international activities, including the United Nations simulations both in Rome and in New York City; the presence in the school of several foreigners is an added value to the international atmosphere of the institute.

IES de Poio has a wide experience in working in international projects using ICTs. For the last 5 years they have worked in several e-Twinning projects. Some of them have been awarded National and European Quality Labels, as well as two National prizes and a European one. Moreover, they have experience in working in innovative educational projects using ICTs, and some of them have been published as best practices.

Gymnazium pod Svatou Horou has had great experience with international projects and they have been very beneficial for the whole community - not only the students and teachers but also the families and the local area. The projects have also discussed differences and similarities amongst European nations, however, from different points of view than it is proposed in this project, e.g. by studying and presenting national tales and stories by the means of the theatre. Also, the school is familiar with hosting large groups and organising international meetings which have always been very enjoyable. Further, e-Twinning platform has been used at this school as well.

ZSO nr 4 also has some experience in multilateral projects. They worked with 5 other schools on a Comenius project which aimed at developing cultural awareness and understanding cultural diversity.

4th Geniko Lykeio Kalamatas has had experience on previous Comenius partnerships and it has also carried out e-Twinning projects. The school also has some experience in the field of tourism. Therefore all school educational staff is convinced of the necessity to provide a European dimension to its pupils' education.

The partnership was established through informal contacts both online and during international meetings. All the partner schools have already been involved in some kind of European partnerships.
We intend to include – even though informally – the local authorities and municipalities, and possibly local sports and touristic associations, and none of them has ever been involved in this kind of projects.

Tourism for teenagers

Our project aims at putting our pupils in touch with each other and make them understand the importance of cultural diversity. We want to highlight the fact that every country has its own cultural identity and heritage, but also that these identities and heritage have the same value and very often have a common or similar background.


This will done by encouraging our pupils to become “tourist guides” of the pupils coming from the other countries, by selecting by themselves what they consider historically and culturally relevant in the area where they live.
For this reason pupils will first analyse the historical and cultural aspects of their own country and local area. At the same time they will be asked to write down what they expect they will find in the other countries in terms of culture, history and entertainment, and also if there is some specific things that they would like to do or see. These different elements will be analysed and compared during the project meetings.

During the international meetings pupils will get a clear idea of the differences and similarities between their cultural and historical heritage and those of the other countries. This will help them remove their prejudices: when people are more aware of each other’s culture they also gain a better understanding of each other’s habits and customs, which will finally result in more respect between the European nations and rejection of any form of xenophobia.

At the same time, by taking part in this project, pupils, teachers and families will also become more conscious of the artistic, natural, and cultural treasures of their country and more specifically of the area where they live. In this way, areas which don’t traditionally have a touristic appeal – or they are marginal to more touristic areas – may become more interesting and appealing both to the people who live there and to foreigners who visit them. An added value will come from the involvement of local authorities who might be interested in the touristic promotion of their areas and in the comparison between their point of view and the students' one on this issue.


Pupils will get a deeper knowledge of what is there to see and do where they live and in the countries they will visit. Working on this project will provide them with the basic and necessary knowledge to travel, live and work in the European Union. More specifically, pupils will get into contact with the working environment of the world of tourism and entertainment and this might help them get some specific skills required by ther labour market. Therefore our project will also contribute to give a little support to overcome the socio-economic crisis that affects Europe and boost growth on jobs.
Besides, the feeling of being proud of their own culture and heritage will hopefully develop. Teenagers generally, especially in some countries, have not experienced any pride of their own country and this project might be a surprisingly positive change.


The project also pursues the promotion of language learning, language diversity and digital skills. The use of several European languages beside English during the project will motivate our students to learn more foreign languages and to be more interested in what happens outside their country and get into contact with people belonging to other cultures. The integration of digital skills in our pupils' competences is also a key element to improve their possibilities to find a job in the area of tourism.


As dissemination and exploitation of results is one of the crucial areas of the Erasmus+ program, as main product of our project we will produce a tourist guide that could be used as it is or as a guideline for other schools and groups of young people in different European countries. Moreover, we will use eTwinning throughout the entire project life, not only for the project management, but also for the dissemination by sharing our project outcomes with a wider community of teachers and pupils across Europe.

In our opinion, one of the main aims of this partnership is to encourage schools and more in general groups of young people from other countries to continue our project by adding new materials to it so that it might really become a “lifelong learning project” to be used by young people all over Europe.