Embrace diversity to live better together

This project application came up after the pandemic and through this project, I wanted to open my school to Europe and have students understand how richer we are together, opening boarders to a ne...

This project application came up after the pandemic and through this project, I wanted to open my school to Europe and have students understand how richer we are together, opening boarders to a new thinking and learning about others. I teach in a school where there are lots of disadvantaged families, students issued of the late immigration, and I felt the need to give them the chance to see how is "abroad", how others live, how enriching other cultures are and to what extent tolerance must be a part of their daily life. Hence the priority we chose, that is to say, diversity, togetherness and inclusion. Throughout the project, the students had to develop their knowledge of English, overcoming linguistic difficulties (during discussions, activities and work on the etwinning platform or on mobility). They had to prepare presentations and materials by using ICT tools, which developed or enriched new digital skills, and a lot of autonomy. One of my key objectives was inclusion: motivate students with special needs and those with fewer opportunities in taking part into the school atmosphere, developing enthusiasm for learning by a different approach, and being involved by any means in the project. And it is a victory!

We started with virtual presentations (avatar creation, cultural quiz, virtual meeting). We developed the theme "cultural heritage" through traditional dances (tutorial) before the mobility, cooking (tutorial + recipe book), heritage and history of our regions, art, etc., and brought all the results of the work in Turkiye to share during the mobility. Then, we developed the theme of ecology and sustainable development (trash picking in our cities, organization of the climate fresk at school, forum on recycling and upcycling, invention of a futuristic ecological machine), and we each presented the actions during the mobility in Greece in May 2024, where we continued the work (flower planting, awareness paintings, hiking, visit of a mill). Then, we worked on stereotypes about the other partners (Mentimeter word cloud, powerpoints, mixed football teams). We concluded with the myths and legends that are transmitted from a generation to another and are part of each partner's folklore (creation of a collaborative legend at a distance + photos and recordings during the mobility). One theme led to a mobility to explore further the topic.

We were strangers, we started working on the project and our collaboration was so strong, on a daily basis, that we built true friendship between our schools. Students are still exchanging! Students got involved in the activities related to the project at school, and went out of their confort zone on mobility. We saw them grow within a few days, go back to school with a different eye and spreading a positive word about their experience. They acknowledge the diversity they experienced but they like being different. Once home, they are able to develop their opinion and their enthusiasm shows how life changing the mobility has been. The concrete outputs sre: more motivation for school, and learning a foreign language makes more sense. We shared recipes and created a cookbook. We recorded traditional dances to be learned by all partners. We brought cultural traditions on mobilities for the Erasmus corners. Erasmus is a word known by the whole community and everyone is involved at school.