Vision 2021: Rebroadening the Horizons

"<< Background >>""Vision21 - Rebroadening the Horizons"" was planned in order to return back to a normal life after the Covid pandemic. The five coordinators all agreed on the fact that we want to support our students to study in the normal social environment again and to enable possibilities to work together with our European partners. We find the ability to communicate in multiple languages important in today's Europe. Also the ability to understand the cultural differences, the knowledge of our cultural background and the mutual understanding are essential for everyone. All these competences can be best improved by cooperating together face-to-face with people from different countries and backgrounds. Our goal was to encourage the participants to use foreign languages in their interaction by offering them possibilities to gain confidence in their oral and written communication. We also aimed at sharing good practices in all teaching. One challenge was to support the learners' motivation to study. We also wanted to innovate new types of activities, which could be carried out with the help of ICT in all participating schools. This would offer the teachers possibilities to reflect on evaluation and assessment of language learning, for example.<< Objectives >>We wanted to innovate and use multiple and some new teaching and learning activities. With the help of these diverse activities we aimed at encouraging our students to work in multicultural environments. After all the restrictions due to the covid pandemic we wanted to create a positive change in the attitudes towards others. The returning to normal school life, enjoying learning together, regaining the ability to interact with others were the most important goals when designing the contents of our project. We wanted to give our students the opportunity of knowing and appreciating both their own cultural identity and that of other peoples. The mutual understanding and respect should improve when cooperating with people from different cultures and backgrounds. Mobilities for students would add value to the project. Living in a host family for one week will help students to realise how much they have in common and how their way of life is maybe different from other European countries. Students should participate in international creative workshops during the mobilities. That should encourage them to work together in a foreign language. From the teachers point of view we wanted to compare good practices and evaluation. << Implementation >>The activities carried out during the three years project time and five mobilities in participating schools in Finland, Spain, France, Italy and Germany were numerous. In Finland (November 2022) the topic was to compare school systems and our five languages, to learn to know the culture in Finland in general. All Teams had to prepare presentations of their own school system and to present it in Oulu at Myllytulli School. The students did City orienteering in international groups. All the visiting and hosting students plus the teachers did a one-day trip to Rovaniemi, Lapland. In Spain (May 2023) under the topic food and well-being we concentrated on food production and typical meals of each country. The students did videos in advance in order to present two typical dishes of their culture. We planted together an European garden on the school yard in Valladolid with typical plants from our home towns. On one day we had the chance to play games in international groups. We also did two day trips to neighboring cities to study the local cultural heritage. In France (October 2023) the topic was sports and outdoor activities. The chosen activities were kayaking, hiking and speleology. The Erasmus Olympic games were organized where the students could try out table tennis, basket ball, board games and also create an art sculpture of french food. As during all five mobilities, we did a day trip to visit another town (guided tours in a chocolate museum and in a castle). In Italy (April 2024) we had important goals: to familiarize us with history, theater and architecture. The chosen activities were among others: to create drawings about the people who used to rule in Sicily, different art games with art workshops, ""the living picture"" activity to show a famous piece of art by dressing up and acting. Also two excursions were made, one to Mount Etna and Catania, one to Syrakusa and the island of Ortigia. Our project's final mobility was a week in Germany, Erding (October 2024) where we concentrated on music. We split the group of students in two international workshops in order to practice singing in a choir and to prepare dance show with three different dances. One the first afternoon the students learned to know the city by doing a scavenger hunt - orienteering in the city center by walking in small groups. We did two excursions all together: one day trip to the medieval city of Landshut and another trip to Munic and the Deutsches Museum. On the final evening there was the ""European Song Contest"" -activity where the participating students presented their work that had been practiced in workshops during the week. Each national team also had prepared a show in advance, either individual pieces of music or dances or songs played together.<< Results >>The project coordinators of all five participating schools agree that many expected outcomes actualized. During each one-week mobility we could observe our students working together with a great enthusiasm and commitment. The chosen activities managed to encourage our students to work in international groups. To cooperate with other students and teachers from different countries demand courage and self-confidence. No task was to do alone but always in smaller or bigger groups; so the cooperation skills would automatically improve during every single activity. Students had to find solutions and learn new skills together, communicating mainly in English and being alert to ask for help. When working in a new surrounding with foreign people was something new for the most of our students. They seemed to learn to enjoy it and could build up their self esteem during the one week mobility. We were able to create some good new practices that we will continue to use in our five schools. For example, we want to preserve the showcases or the so-called ""EU-walls"" where we can show our cooperation for the school community. Our common will is to continue the cooperation of these five schools involved in the future. We are designing a new application for the years 2025-2027. One important outcome are all the personal relationships that were established during the project. Both the students and the staff members had many positive experiences while succeeding in cooperation in an international surrounding and using a foreign language. Many new friendships were made and life-long relationships started. Every single positive experience and new friendship are the key ways in order to reduce prejudices. What we can see in the behavior of teenagers while working in the international groups is something very heartwarming: first they might be a little bit shy or reserved but after a while their confidence improves and they become more brave and open-minded. Students being accommodated in host families is the best way to familiarize them with the local people and the local culture. The coordinators have worked a lot to find suitable host families who are willing to do their best in order to make the visitors to feel like home. We had a lot of positive feedback from the host families how well everything was organized and how well the students behaved. And vice versa, the students were quite happy to be in their host families. A lot of new friendships were made. We strongly believe that these three years of cooperation have promoted tolerance, collaboration and innovation. Our work together has enriched everybody's way of seeing and understanding the world and people around us. We understand different cultures better and are able to put value on different backgrounds and history. All this can and will strengthen democracy and help us to cooperate in international environments. We have to teach our European youth to feel unity, to care and to share."