FIVE INSIGHTS INTO RUNNING AN ERASMUS+ PROJECT ON THE EXAMPLE OF THE STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIP “MAY ICT BE WITH YOU” Triin Lingiene
Coordinator of Erasmus+ projects at Tartu Tamme Gymnasium
The first insight is about unity among Europeans, and how Erasmus+ projects help to build it in a concerted action. The majority of those who have got a taste for transnational collaboration will probably agree that it feeds their professional curiosity and builds bridges between like-minded teachers. The same is true for Tartu Tamme Gymnasium. We carried out our first staff mobility project in 2014 with only three teachers participating, but six years and four projects later, we find ourselves coordinating yet another strategic partnership, which already involves nearly 100 participants. It is a smart language project that revolves around European values and aims to teach language with film and content with language. Not only have five partner schools come together to pursue their stated objectives, but they have also joined forces to help their students and teachers grow as European citizens. The second insight takes us to the priorities of the Erasmus+ programme and their role in project activities. Quite rigid at first view, those priorities can be adopted with some divergent thinking rather easily. For example, we have decided on “Open education and innovative practices in a digital era”, “Promoting a comprehensive approach to language teaching and learning”, and “ICT ‒ new technologies ‒ digital competences”, which we interpret as the Six-T’s Approach to Content-Based Instruction, soft CLIL and blended learning. Also, we are seeking some good answers to the following questions: 1. To what extent will teaching language with film motivate students to work harder and achieve higher? 2. To what extent will teaching content with language make foreign language instruction more effective? 3. To what extent will combining e-learning with face-to-face instruction encourage teachers to modify their teaching practices, and students improve their learning skills? The third insight allows us to discuss the impact that Erasmus+ mobility flows have on participants. Surely most students (and many teachers) join Erasmus+ projects because of free travel, language practice and new contacts. Some of them soon find out that travelling is hard work and project activities are too intensive; still others understand that flexibility and good humour, as well as thinking outside one’s cultural space, do come in handy. In the end, what matters most is a sense of accomplishment. Students feel it because project work makes them grow in multiple ways, be it intercultural awareness, language skills or transnational teamwork. Teachers feel it because project work enables them to look for a better balance between demanding high and stepping aside. Mobility flows are at the core of any Erasmus+ project as they inspire teachers and students alike, and they certainly add European dimension to the partner schools’ development activities. The fourth insight looks into European youth and how wonderful it is for them to go and make things 28
