This project uses the creation of a joint illustrated calendar as a ground for its development. We will be guided by the saying “A picture is worth a thousand words”. The main idea of the illustrations is to be taken at the same spot in our towns, month after month, revealing the changes in weather, scenery and people activity. The calendar will be put together using a collaborative tool (google docs) by the students in the two schools. But this is only one side of the project, let’s say the “artistic” one. The joint calendar will point out the most important events in the partner schools activity (celebrations, festivals, contests, exams), in order to get to know each other better. The school year overlaps two important years from the social point of view (2011, European year of volunteering and 2012, European year for active ageing and solidarity between generations), so the highlights will be the social activities dedicated to the voluntary work from September to December 2011 and to the elders’ involvement during the last part of the project. Every activity will be presented using an ICT or web tool at students’ choice and the final results will be a brochure of the calendar and a webpage with the presentations of every important activity. There will also be a contest for the project logo and icon, a trilingual illustrated dictionary regarding social involvement and citizenship, final evaluation surveys and quizzes, and 2 videoconferences, one in December 2011 and one in June 2012, to evaluate the work done in the project until that moment and to share our impressions.

• Subjects: Art, Citizenship, Cross Curricular, Environmental Education, European Studies, Foreign Languages, Geography, History, Informatics / ICT, Language and Literature, Music
• Languages: EN
• Pupil's age: 11 - 14
• Tools to be used: Chat, e-mail, Forum, MP3, Other software (Powerpoint, video, pictures and drawings), Project Diary, Twinspace, Video conference, Virtual learning environment (communities, virtual classes, ...), Web publishing
• Aims: - Develop the awareness of their own identity in the local, national and European context - Promote intercultural communicative competences... read more- Develop the awareness of their own identity in the local, national and European context - Promote intercultural communicative competences and an openness to other cultures and points of view - Increase their involvement and active behaviour as citizens -Learn English in a meaningful way - Motivation to learn foreign languages and to learn not only about world, but with the world as well - Develop ICT, artistic and communication skills - Foster team work and collaboration among classmates and partners. hide
• Work process: The starting point of the project will contain: introducing the teams, choosing the spot in our towns where the pictures... read more The starting point of the project will contain: introducing the teams, choosing the spot in our towns where the pictures will be taken, opening the google docs document and starting to create the calendar files. The important events will be shared (eg: School Opening ceremony, “Let’s do it Romania!” on 24th September, European Day of Languages on 26th and so on…) A different colour will be used as a code to mark events such as : School activities, Historical events, Traditional celebrations, Social events…. The next step will be the contest for the project logo and icon. Children will use their art and literature skills to create beautiful icons and also quotes that best represent the project idea. They will be chosen with the help of an on-line poll posted into pupils’ corner. The tool for our webpage will be chosen after that, and its creation will start in November 2011. It will contain our most significant activities during the project and it will increase our project’s visibility and accessibility... Of course there will be a lot of presentations to display until that project development. On 5th December (International Volunteer Day) we will have our first video conference to debate on what we have already done regarding voluntary work and what else we can do in the future. At the end we will have a common winter party and present our traditions and customs for winter season (eg: Saint Andrew in Romania on 6th December). During the second part of the project, in 2012, we will continue the calendar but we will also start the trilingual dictionary in January, every team proposing 3 words monthly to illustrate and translate. They will be connected with volunteering, involvement, activeness and citizenship. At the same time we will organize activities for the elderly people in our town, for example: on 8th of March “Grandmothers’ Day”, “Let’s celebrate with our grandparents” during Easter Holiday or other activities that involve elderly people in our school and town life. 1st of June - second videoconference presenting the steps in involving and activating elderly people but also a party for International children’s day. We will also talk about the evaluation of the whole project during the next two months, in addition to the quizzez, games, puzzles and other fun activities. The evaluation will cover two different angles: -a quantitative one, made by us, teachers, answering these questions to a joint report: 1. What activities have been carried out by the partnership in the past school year? 2. What kind of product(s) have been produced in the course of the past school year? 3. How effective was the collaboration between the participating institutions? 4. Has the partnership undertaken any joint evaluation of project activities and progress made? -a qualitative one, made by the students, answering these questions: 1. Did you like our Project? 2. What would you improve? 3. Which activity/activities did you like best? 4. If there is something you did not like, please write about it here. 5. How did the project help you? Please, give at least one answer. 6. Would you like to continue working on the same or a similar project next year? 7. Do you have any suggestions to make? Please write them here. hide
• Expected results: Tangible: * The illustrated calendar; * The trilingual dictionary; * The recordings of the videoconferences; * The project webpage; Untangible but... read moreTangible: * The illustrated calendar; * The trilingual dictionary; * The recordings of the videoconferences; * The project webpage; Untangible but of equal importance: * Develop knowledge, skills and habits conducive to critical 21st Century Skills. * Practice habits of responsible citizenship - locally to globally. * Develop Global Competencies by studying "with" the world instead of only "about" the world. * Become engaged in a rigorous, relevant and real-world project. * Engage the knowledge within the disciplines through research, problem solving and application. * Learn - as opposed to memorizing then forgetting discrete facts. hide

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