EUROPEAN MELTING POT

The post Covid19 pandemic: All partner schools have varied students, coming from different environments. The following common needs: -the need to make the educational process more flexible by combining the traditional style with the opportunities offered by technology so as the entire process be focused on developing functional key competences in our students- supported by this project; -the need to change the teaching-learning process using such techniques as to facilitate the inclusion of students with fewer opportunities and treat them equally; -the need to increase the number of teachers and students able to use the existent digital tools creatively and innovatively in order to make the didactic process more efficient and to ensure students’ active involvement in it -the need to improve teachers’ and students’ social and communication in a foreign language competence through collaborative activities, -the need to create a students’ community based on democratic principles in which they are taught to think, to act rationally, accepting, treasuring and respecting their peers’ values and principles. Projects activities were organized to meet all these, especially by its unique blending of traditional and modern approaches.

1. Reduce discrepancies related to access to education of the students coming from disadvantaged backgrounds. Output indicator- the number of students which have low ICT and technologies competences Target – number of students decreasing by 20%, measured by the average annual grade 2. Develop digital competences of the students and teachers in all partner schools by exploiting the opportunities provided by digital technologies. OI– the number of teachers and students using ICT in the teaching/ learning process Target increasing the number of teachers and of students using ICT by 15% measured by questionnaires applied at the beginning and ending of the project, online quizzes 3. Develop the students’ civic attitude, tolerance, mutual respect, acceptance and resilience OI- number of students involved in civic, cultural activities promoting European common values and the fundamental rights Target – 10% growth of the students involved in civic, cultural activities promoting European common values, measured by attendance forms, activity reports, statistics. 4. Improve student’s school results based on the development of the eight key competences OI-the annual average grade of the students involved. Target- minimum growth 5%.

We organised 4 Transnational Project Meetings whose aim was to prepare, make plans and organise the further steps and stages of the project. These meetings brought together the project coordinators in each partner school and at least one other member of the project team- responsible for different aspects of project implementation and progress, according to the specific purpose of that meeting. 1.Preparing Project Meeting in Romania 2 Mid term Project Meeting-in Italy 3 Mid term monitor and evaluation Project Meeting- in Spain 4 End of project Project Meeting- final evaluation of the project- in Greece. Students and teachers took part in 4 Learning Teaching Training activities organised in each of the partner countries in turn. Each activity had a definite, specific topic and included different activities such as workshops and trainings closely related to the project objectives and priorities, to its topics and to its final goal. C1 A revival of our ancestors' world through modern technology- Greece- the construction and implementation of the project site and Uploading the materials on the site 2.Using apps to work on images and videos- video and photo editors: Photoshop, Paint, VMV, Pow ton, apps for making a quiz or a poll- google forms, survey monkey, survey planet C2 A Digital Testimony of who we are and where we come from -Spain- making a virtual museum - uploading digital materials, making Presentations using PPT, Prezi, making a digital map of historical events using Padlet C3 A Snapshot of the Joy of life through dance, music, food and art.- Romania- media content, eBook of traditional food recipes, video tutorials of crafts and recipes, creating the project course and materials on site, posters and flyers using Jamboard, Padlet, Microsoft Publisher C4 Staying together beyond time and space boundaries through digital technology-Italy- making media content, upload on the site, making digital books of historical stories made with StoryJumper, Book creator- 13 Other activities meant to prepare the Transnational Project Meetings, the LTTs and to organize various workshops, trainings, a great variety of preparation activities, promoting, dissemination, multiplication, evaluation, sustainability activities. Such activities were also meant to prepare the final products of the project. We managed to organize all the activities local and transnational, as planned in the application form.

RESULTS The envisaged results and outcomes were: 1. results with impact on students/ teachers’ personal developments and soft skills: -better collaboration, interaction among students coming from different backgrounds; -More confident, motivated, determined and self-aware students due to being involved in common activities and valued for their particular skills (digital, knowledge of culture, traditions, history, folk, music and dances); -Tolerance and mutual respect and empathy among individuals by working in mixed multinational groups together with students with fewer opportunities;- Social inclusion of students with fewer opportunities; -Identity and diversity awareness; -Students' increased adaptability to different environments and settings by travelling to other countries and meeting new people and cultures; -An increased degree of students’ cooperation, interrelationship and involvement in activities, especially for students belonging to disadvantaged social environments or groups and of the students with special needs; -the feeling of belonging to a national and even European identity; 2. results with impact on students/ teachers’ learning outcomes: -A natural development of the key competences through interesting activities organized during the LTTs or on line project meetings, workshops, webinars or other non-formal activities of the project; -A revival of own history, culture, customs and traditions due to the topics of the project; -A visible increase in students' school results by developing their digital, language, social competences; -A reduction of school drop by involving students with fewer opportunities and helping them boost confidence and self esteem and feel accepted and respected; -An increased interest in national and European heritage; -Increase in students’ motivation for learning contributing this way to a reduction of school drop and absenteeism and to an improvement in school results; -A useful blending of new technologies and old backgrounds; 3. Project products: -collections of useful digital material to be used in future as Open Educational Resources by the entire staff in partner schools and by anyone interested as they will be publicly shared -the project domain and courses on the website- which contains all project results; -the project site; -a virtual museum; -virtual exhibitions -traditional recipes e-book; -tutorials and representative videos made by the students during the project (VMV, PowT); -digital photo albums of folk traditional costumes; -digital book of sayings, proverbs and popular wisdom -short digital historical story animated books using different applications (Story Jumper, Animaker); -digital posters, flyers, promoting project activities made with (Canva, Padlet, Jamboard); -digital map of historical events made with Padlet -a practical guide of teaching -learning -evaluating non-formal activities containing a total of 20 lesson plans (5 per each partner school). All these are available through our site.