WHERE DO CULTURES MEET?

1. WHERE DO CULTURES MEET?

2. Project Summary • The partnership will begin with the presentation of the cultural diversity in the different partner countries, looking at current situation. The group will initially work together to gather data on daily life, cultural heritage, new trends in the youth culture, architectural practices of each partner. Moreover we will focus on the life in the streets, "where do the young people meet?". Meetings through the course of the project at different partner schools will explore specific practice in the respective host country, whilst students share information on progress they have made regarding the sharing of good practice and identifying problems that must be addressed. The ultimate aim of the partnership is to improve the cultural awareness of students and staff in all the partnership schools and to spread the learning to the wider communities surrounding the schools.

3. Rationale of theproject • The overall rationale of the project is the need felt in all the involved institutions to develop cultural awareness among students and encourage them to learn foreign languages. Simply; "go, see, communicate and understand". We would like to broaden the concepts of "cultural diversity and cultural heritage" via this project. It is crucial to develop students appreciation of cultural heritage and cultural diversity with emphasis in the daily life and architecture in their hometown and their partners' cities as well. Moreover we need to encourage our pupils to understand, accept, and be tolerant to the others and the idea of living together. We would like to pull down the cultural and lingual barriers infront of our students with the help of this project.

4. Project aimsandobjectives • The vision of the project is: • - To encourage and develop intercultural understanding between school communities • - To develop cultural awareness and understanding in a European dimension among the students in the partner schools about the culture, geography, traditions and human behaviors. • - To make students conscious of local and international history, culture, traditions and to develop intercultural empathy • The concrete objectives of the project include: • - The establishment and management of a website by one of the partner schools to share information and have a dialogue (blog) about cultural issues • -The production of a topic-based short movie regarding the voice of the cultures • -A photograph exhibition concerning the life in the streets, architectural practices, daily life in the partner countries • -A unique logo representing the main idea and the partnership • -The production of an e-journal following each of the project meetings and the final conference • -An evaluationtool kit forforeignlanguagelearning • Activities during the project will include: • - The development of a website to which all schools will have a link from their own individual websites • - Use of a webcam based communication platform for students • - Four project management meetings in different locations (Italy, Poland, Turkey, Greece) for students and staff to meet and share ideas • - A school survey about foreign language learning, and different cultures • - Students blogging to share ideas and observations around cultural diversity • - Final conference (thelastmeeting)to evaluate progress made through the project and to discuss future needs and priorities • - Staff development through working collaboratively with teachers from other schools

5. Project outcomes • A website about our partnership to share information and have a dialogue. • A topic based short movie regarding the diversity and richness of the cultures • A photograph exhibition concerning the life in the streets, architectural practices, and daily lifein the partner countries. • E-journals about the project in a very general context following each meeting. • Four project meetings in different locations. • A logo with an original design • An evaluation tool kit about foreign language learning.

6. Europeanaddedvalue • Seen as a global issue,it is vital to take action to encourage cultural diversity and preserve cultural heritage in danger.During the project, students will begin to gain a wider perspective in dealing with problems and offering solutions. It also promote collaboration between them as they are European citizens of tomorrow’s world.

7. Impact • The project will benefit those involved and their institutions in a number of ways: • - For pupils, it will help to develop intercultural awareness, language skills and a deeper level of understanding of themselves as well. It will offer opportunities to experience aspects of Europe that they would otherwise not be able to experience – many of the students to be involved come from financially or culturally deprived backgrounds • - For teachers, in addition to deepening their understanding of different cultures across Europe, it will promote the development of new pedagogical skills through observing teaching at an institution in a foreign country. The project will help teachers involved to take new critical approaches in their own practice, particularly in relation to teaching about the culture. • - The institutions involved in the partnership should benefit from improved policy relating to the language teaching and improved language teaching practice, for example through a rise in the number of the students attending language classes in the school. The development of teachers’ practice should lead to improved exam performance among students at the institutions involved.

8. MainTopics • Foreign language teaching and learning • LearningaboutEuropeancountries • Culturalheritage

9. KeyCompetences • Communication in foreignlanguages • Culturalawarenessandexpression • Digitalcompetence • Socialandciviccompetences • Learningtolearn

10. Distribution of Tasks • The school in Turkey is responsible for general project co-ordination. This includes planning agendas for project meetings, supporting other partners in their tasks and ensuring that all partners have completed their tasks as necessary and on time. The Turkish school will also conduct the issues regarding the topic-based short movie. • The school in Poland is responsible for e-journal management. An edition of the e-journal will be published following each of the four project management meetings. Students at the Polish school, with technical support from teachers where necessary, will edit and produce each edition of the journal. The Polish school will also manage the logo design competition. • The school in Italy will be responsible for the establishment and management of the partnership’s website. The Italian school will also conduct the photograph exhibition. • The schools in Romania and Greece will organize and manage the website e-conferencing that links the schools and their students in additional discussions outside the main project meetings. The Romanian and Greek schools will also responsible with creating an evaluation tool kit about foreign language learning. • The school in Croatia will be responsible for project evaluation. In conjunction with other partner schools, teachers and students at the Croatian school will establish a common approach to the evaluation of all project activities.

11. Cooperationandcommunication • The partnership will be co-ordinated through a number of means: • - The main project meeting will take place close to the start of the partnership and then approximately every six months thereafter (4 meetings in total) • - The website will be regularly updated with information on the progress different partners are making • - An E-twinning webpage will be launched before the project, moreover we will get the opportunity for a pilot run of our project with this webpage. The E-twinning page will continue to be used as a discussion board. • - All activities will be strictly time defined so that partners complete anything to which they have committed themselves on time • - There will be monthly e-conferencing for students and teachers from different schools to discuss their activities, ideas and progress

12. Participation of thePartners • Throughout the partnership, pupils will be in contact with one another to discuss all elements of the project. Pupil steering groups will be established at each school to guide the nature and direction of the partnership; where possible, students will lead the work undertaken and will take a full part in the project management meetings. • Pupils will take full responsibility for: • - Gathering data in cultural, historical, geographical awareness with an evaluation carried by them as well • - Writing up reports based on this and drawing relevant conclusions • - Sharing this information in international project management meetings • - Peer education in home schools following project management meetings • Pupils will work in conjunction with teachers at their institutions with regard to: • - Agenda setting for project management meetings • - Developing and refining self-evaluation tools • - Managing the website and e-conferencing facilities • - Writing and publishing the e-journal following each project management meeting • Staff from a number of different academic departments in each school will be involved, particularly in terms of promoting international understanding. • In the Turkish school, the academic departments involved are English, Geography, History, Music, ICT, Turkish Literature, Science, German, and Math. • In the Italian school, the academic departments involved are English, Geography, History, Art, Literature, Science, ICT • The Greek school will involve English, History, Geography, Music, Art, ICT, Literature • In the Polish school, departments involved are : English, Geography, History, ICT, Polish Language, Art, Music • The Romanian school will involve English, Geography, History, ICT, Art, Music, Literature, Science • In the Croatian School, the academic departments involved are English, History, Art, ICT and Math.

13. Integration of theprojecttothecurriculum • Pupils from all schools will be involved in the project management through the transnational meetings to be held four times during the project. The learning from the project will be integrated into learning across the schools in a variety of ways. • The school from Turkey: Pupils who attend project management meetings will feed back to their peers through students’ clubs and English lessons; the current Geography and history curriculum includes lessons on cultural diversity; in history lessons they will be taught about "history of art"; students’ clubs in school will directly work on the topics; in English lessons the students are expected to design information gap activities for their partners. Moreover students will be taught about historical and geographical terms. • In the Croatian school: Participants will have an opportunity to use English throughout the project and will discuss project activities in their language classes and work on developing language skills for better participation in the project activities; in History and Art classes students will learn about history and culture of participating countries and will develop awareness of own culture and tradition; in ICT students will develop skills for use of modern technology in information search and presentation; in Math students will be exploring the importance of Math in scientific work of Nikola Tesla • The school from Poland: will publish e-journal, edited by students and supervised by staff after each Project Management Meeting; will manage the logo design competition; will organize the Comenius Club - students will prepare information about the countries participating in the project; will prepare the questionnaires - at the beginning of the project as well as at the end to find out what the student have learnt about culture, traditions, geography of other countries. • In the Italian school: students; will be encouraged to use English throughout the project; will be asked to prepare computer presentations about their cultural landmarks; will be guided towards a better knowledge of the partners' culture. • In the Romanian school: in English lessons the students are expected to design activities for the project; in History and Art classes students will learn about history and culture of participating countries. • In the Greek school, students are asked to create digital stories of the cultures in ICT, and in English lessons they are asked to design evaluation kit for language learning.

14. Evaluation of theproject • - The partnership will begin with schools evaluating their existing cultural awareness in order to have a baseline measure to use as a comparison point throughout the project. This work will be undertaken by students with support from teachers as appropriate • - This initial baseline, comprising a number of quantitative and qualitative measures, will be referred to at successive project management meetings to determine the extent to which progress has been made by individual schools • - All schools will work together to improve the self-evaluation process as the partnership progresses • - Evaluation of cultural awareness progress is therefore continuous throughout the project • - Evaluation of progress towards goals relating to intercultural understanding will be done primarily through qualitative means, with individual schools sampling pupils in their schools throughout the project cycle to assess the development of such understanding. Individual results from schools will be shared at project management meetings • - The development of language skills will be assessed by individual language teachers in partner schools with results shared at project management meetings • - Case studies relating to the sharing of good pedagogical practice will be shared in project management meetings • - Developments of intercultural understanding will be evaluated through he use of questionnaires and interviews with pupils, parents and teachers • - All evaluation results will be published in the final edition of the e-journal.

15. Dissemination of theoutcomes • The partnership will initially be introduced in schools through assemblies to explain the purpose and nature of what will take place. The local press will share information with the wider community. • Results and experiences from the partnership will be used and disseminated in a variety of ways in order to inform people about cultural, historical and geographical issues affecting our own communities and Europe as a whole and in order to positively influence people’s points of view on cultural diversity and differences as well as similarities. • Within the schools, the main target audience comprises pupils, teachers, school managers and the families of pupils. Information will be shared with them through the use of posters, assemblies, work in lessons, access to school websites, the e-journal and staff meetings. • Within the local community, the target audience includes local education authorities, local authority regional networks, surrounding schools and the local population around the schools. Information will be disseminated to them through the local press (newspapers, radio and television), encouraging outside people to access the website /e-journal.

16. Mobilities • November2011 Italy • April 2012 Poland • November2012 Turkey • April 2013 Greece