inclusion

Traditions across Europe

Teachers and students from 20 schools in 14 European countries blog about traditions in their countries on http://traditionsacrosseurope.wordpr

1. Project summary
Summary: 

The project consists in a blog about traditions where 20 schools in 14 European countries post materials (photos, video files, articles) about traditions in their countries and discuss online the differences and similarities between their traditions. The teachers and students have already posted articles, songs, recipes, stories and have attracted the attention of lots of internauts who left messages or inquires.

2. Country (City / Region)
State: 
Romania
City: 
Suceava
3. Company/organization/institute presenting the project
Organization: 
Scoala cu clasele I-VIII Comanesti, jud. Suceava
4. Type of organization
Select type: 
School
5. Project coordinator
Name and Surname: 
Liviuta Liliana Mihalachi
E-Mail: 
l.mihalachi@gmail.com
6. Website
The website of the project: 
http://traditionsacrosseurope.wordpress.com
7. Please select the category in which you candidate your project
Youth Education Project. Select Project Users by age: 
Up to 15 years
Helping youth step in the job market: 
NOT Helping youth step in the job market
Creativity and Social Innovation: 
Creativity and Social Innovation
8. How long has your project been running?
From: 
14/02/2008
9. Targets and Elements of Innovation
Please explain the targets and the background of your project: 

We are a small school in a north-eastern Romanian village trying to make our students acquainted with the modern technology and the whole Europe at the same time. My students' parents can hardly accept they do not have enough money for their kids to travel and find out about other European countries or get in contact with foreign people. Most of my students have never visited the capital of Romania and a good number of them have never been to the closest city to me. By means of the blog that we created in collaboration with other 20 schools in Europe, students can improve their English, can learn to use the internet and different online programs and have direct access to Europe.

What does it try to achieve and how: 

The aims of our projects are the following: - To establish contacts between students and teachers from different countries; - To improve students' English by means of online communication; - To raise awareness of the traditions and customs that exist in different countries by posting materials created by our students; - To use modern technologies in communication and learning by accessing them as often as possible both at school and at home; - To raise awareness of a Europe united in diversity through concrete experience, discussing and finding similarities and differences between different traditions in Europe

Which opportunities/problems does it address to: 

The main problem the project addresses is the lack of direct contact with other European countries that the vast majority of my students used to deal with. They are less-advantaged students firstly because they live in an isolated village and secondly because their parents cannot afford to offer him the opportunity to have contact or to see other countries or foreign people. We are part of the EU, but, unfortunately, our kids had never seen Europe and had never met an European person before this project started.

Please explain what is unique or special in your project: 

It is unique because it is an online archive of European traditions, made by teachers and students, commented and discussed almost every day. It becomes bigger and bigger every day and celebrates the unique heritage European countries and peoples got from their ancestors. All the materials are original, made by students and teachers and the experience they write about on the blog is direct and fresh.

10. Results
Describe the results of your project as per today: 

Among the results we can mention: - our students can use the internet and online programs to write to and communicate with foreign students; - we have quite a big archive of all the traditions in 14 European countries; - our students have improved their level of English; - our students have access to what we call "European mentality", which is what we need in order to go on as a people; - our teachers have learnt how to use different modern technologies in their lessons

How does it fulfill the users’ needs: 

The blog has offered the best virtual classroom where students and teachers from different countries have exchanged opinions and shown their ability to communicate and convey messages about their traditions.

How many users interact with your project per month and what are the preferred forms of interaction: 

Almost 300 students and teachers in the countries involved in the project interact with our project per month. Their favourite form of interaction is through postings and comments on the blog. Also, internauts from all over the world have visited our blog. At the end of April 2009, we had 44,374 hits on the blog and lots of comments from people all over the world.

How has it improved the quality of educational and/or training services: 

The project was a revolutionary one for our school and the first of this kind in the region. Both our students and their parents are proud of this achievement and the teachers have noticed that their students are much more interested in using new technologies in the classroom, they know more about the EU countries and manifest a high interest in foreign languages.

How has it improved the participation of professionals, children, youth and other stakeholders: 

It encouraged them to use foreign languages, ICT and made them proud of being Romanian and European at the same time. Also, they acquired information and direct experience in dealing with foreign people and in the future this experience will be of use to them for their jobs and/or projects.

How does it promote the use of ICT for the educational and cultural development by professionals, children and youth: 

The main tool used in the project is a blog and in order to be able to post on it one needs to learn about certain other tools and programs. Everybody in the school knows now what a blog is, what online communication is, how to communicate instantly and how to post a material online.

Describe how you measure (parameters) these results: 

By the impact on the local community. By the hits on the blog. By the interest of the students in ICT and foreign languages. By the acnowledgements we received at national and European level.

11. Sustainability
What is the full duration of your project: 
From 1 to 3 years
Is your project economically self sufficient now: 
Yes
Insert date: 
04/28/2009
12. Transferability
Has your project been replicated/adapted elsewhere: 
Yes
Specify: 

We used the experience on this project for a Comenius project on traditions that we will be doing in our school in 2008-2010.

A French teacher asked for our help online to do a similar blog, but focusing on the Mediterranean heritage of the countries in that area.

An Italian teacher who collaborates with us brought an English school partner in the project and they started presenting their own traditions and customs, doing the work that we did and do on the blog and in our school.

What lessons can others learn from your project: 

Communication is everything! We can preserve our traditions by means of the new technologies.

Respect diversity!

We are available to help others starting or working on similar projects: 
We are available to help others starting or working on similar projects.
13. Background information
Background: 

"Traditions across Europe" is an eTwinning project. We have no financial support from anyone because all our work is online and the materials we post on the blog are created by our students. The team is formed by the following schools: St. Brendan’s N.S.- Ireland (Thomas Duggan) Humoreni and Comanesti Schools- Romania (Liliana Mihalachi) Istituto Tecnico per il Turismo e Geometri- Italy (Anastasia Ciavattella) Bundesbildungsanstalt für Kindergartenpädagogik- Austria (Barbara Cermak) ImPULS Schule Schmiedefeld- Germany (Christine Amberg) Colegiul National “Nicu Gane”- Romania (Daniela Varvarei) Istituto Comprensivo “Don Bosco”- Italy (Gina Antonietta Mango, Carmelo Mario Martino) Saint Attracta’s Senior National School- Ireland (Joseph Molloy) Vilniaus Prano Mašioto pradinė mokykla- Lithuania ( Jurate Masiuliene) Zespół Szkół w Deszcznie- Poland ( Katarzyna Latuska) CEIP Sara Fernandez- Spain (Maria Jesus Sendra) Churchfields Primary School- England (Philip Johnson) Scuola Secondaria di I grado “A.VIVALDI”- Italy (Piera Ferranti) “Geo Milev” English Language School- Bulgaria (Tsvetelina Ilieva) Zespół Szkół RCKU- Poland (Wioletta Pietrzak-Dukalewska) Fludaskoli- Iceland (Elin Jona Traustadottir) Margaret Mortimer Girls Junior Lyceum- Malta (Noel Vella) Zespół Szkół Ogólnokształcących nr 8, Gimnazjum nr 18, Gdańsk-Poland (Anna Li Gregni) Szkoła Podstawowa nr 5 w Gdańsku -Poland (Izabella Łukaszewska) Scoala cu clasele I-VIII nr. 92. Bucuresti-Romania (Irina Vasilescu) Üzümlü Şehit Mehmet Primary School Beysehir, KONYA - Turkey (Nihan Kandiş) Individual contributors Dragos Apostu (Romania), www.dragosescu.com

Barriers: 

Being the first online project implemented in the region, there were people who didn't really think it could lead to such good communication and collaboration.

Solutions: 

We kept promoting the project and the online tools that we used pointing out that the blog is a means of communication just like phones or letters.

Future plans and wish list: 

We want our students and teachers who have worked in the project to meet for at least 2-3 days and for that we need financial support.

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