eTwinning Project year plan (2015-2016)
Description of the project As global citizens, we must address issues we face on a local level and embrace our rights and responsibilities to create the universal virtues of acceptance and understanding to achieve global equity. We strongly believe that the current elementary and secondary school curricula are lacking in cultural and global studies and as a result students are not being made sufficiently culturally sensitive or globally aware at school. With this project we intend to respond to this issue. Inspired in global programmes like Taking IT Global (TIG) and Global Youth Service Day (GYSD), this project aims to help young people find inspiration, access information, get involved and take action to improve their local and global communities. It brings together young people (aged 11-15) from Portugal, Italy, Spain, Cyprus, Serbia, Czech republic, Poland, Portugal and Turkey (more may join) to collaborate on concrete micro-actions addressing global problems and creating positive change. The participating teachers will be working collaboratively to: -
Increase awareness and involvement in global issues which are relevant to local communities ultimately influencing attitudes and behaviours towards creating a more sustainable world; Strengthen global social movements by collaborating with other organisations to ensure youth participate and become key stakeholders in these efforts; Foster cross-cultural dialogue and understanding so as to promote peer-to-peer knowledge sharing, grassroots networking and students-led actions; Promote the development of communication skills.
Objetives:
By taking part in this project we hope pupils will: - develop a sense of social responsibility and awareness of global issues (poverty, health, refugees' crisis and peoples' migration, - become socially active young people who can work collaboratively with other youth to make a difference towards a more sustainable world; - develop a sense of social responsibility and awareness of global issues (poverty, health, refugees' crisis and peoples' migration; - become socially active young people who can work collaboratively with other youth to make a difference towards a more sustainable world; - learn how to collaboratively identify a problem in their community, design and implement an action-plan intended to improve the issue ; - get a better understanding of the world's language and cultural understanding so as to appreciate and respect different beliefs, cultures and backgrounds - improve their communication skills in the foreign languages; - learn how to use apps sensibly and sustainably for their personal and educational development;
- use ICT tools and social media more often for collaboration, content generating and sharing.
Our Mission This project will empower teenagers around the world to actively engage in shaping a more inclusive, peaceful and sustainable world by developing a sense of social responsibility and awareness of global issues.
Expected Outcomes: After a stage of awareness raising towards global issues, investigation on local heroes, choosing of an important issue to be addressed, the project will culminate in the celebration of the Global Youth Service Day (GYSD), in which participants will implement their planned actions. These actions can range from learning sessions about current social and environmental challenges to clean-up actions, exhibitions about local heroes, a festival to honour those heroes, nursing home visits, concerts, etc‌. GYSD is an international youth movement. It is designed to encourage youth to participate in community service and service-learning and to honour those who have contributed to their communities through voluntary commitment. GYSD 2016 will be will be April 15-17 followed by sharing a report in May (for more details: http://www.gysd.org/).
PREPARATION STAGE -
Participating teachers will have to accept the invitation to join the project sent by eTwinning CSS,
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see here: and accept the invitation. Then, register the pupils who will take part in the project by no later than 16th October. Pupils introduce themselves by editing their profiles on the Twinspace until 30th October.
Pupils will leave a comment on their partners profile. We need to make sure everyone will have a comment, I will think of a strategy after I know how many pupils from each school. (Note: this is why it is important to have pupils registered the latest by 30th October) Teachers will fill a shared online document to identify all registered pupils. Note: you can copy the list from the excel document provided on the members Twinspace section (until 30th October).
STAGE 1- Be inspired to make changes for good (16th November to the end of December) Aims: -
Raising awareness of social, environmental and global issues in order to motivate learners to contribute to achieving the Millenium Global Development Goals (MGDGs)
Methodology: -
Lessons to learn about the MDG’s goals and the major global issues (resources will be shared); Collaborative brainstorming to define what a hero is and online debate on Voicethread about inspiring heroes;
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As a whole class team: Choose your personal hero and present him or her (video, podcast, interview, photo report, a poster, etc…). You can pool your students to vote their hero; Take part in the celebration of the Human Rights Day (10th December) in your school/community with an exhibition on the chosen heroes or an article on your personal heroes and share what you have done.
STAGE 2: Get informed (January)Aim: Identifying an issue of importance that needs to be addressed or solved in your class, school or community; Methodology: Pupils can interview people to deepen their understanding on the problem or they can research local newspapers’ articles and other resources.
STAGE 3: Start planning (January and February) Aim: Teambuilding to make a plan of action to be implemented to address a problem of their community Methodology: -
Pupils will select the problem they care about and that would like to needs to be addressed or propose a solution for; Each country team will fill in a form to present their action plan’s timeline, objectives and strategy (The form will be shared in January)
Each participating can decide on the number of teams they will work with. You can either: Option1: work as a whole class team on ONE issue and design and implement ONE action plan to address that issue Option 2: or create Two teams in a class to address Two different issues and design and implement TWO action plans. Option 3: or involve more than one class and create one team for each and so on.
Important tips for the plans: Be clear – make your objective easy to read and understand Be specific – know what you want to achieve to create change Set targets – set short-term goals that support your objective Be reasonable – don’t aim too high; make sure you have reasonable targets Determine roles and responsibilities for each member of the teams Make a list of tools and supplies you might need(poster paper, markers, t-shirts, computer access, banners, etc.) Include information on how you will promote your event Be flexible, don’t be afraid to change your plans as you go along
How we can organise our classes into task teams and involve all pupils: Team 1: Build partnerships and engage. Engage public officials. Team 2: Gather resources. Team 3: Tells the story (fills in the GYSD form). Team 4: Organize event logistics. Team 5: Documents your project through photos and videos.
LOGO COMPETITION STAGE 4: Collaborate (March) Aim: - Sharing experiences and knowledge on the issues identified and giving each other’s suggestions to improve their action plan; - Appreciating other people’s feedback and suggestions. Methodology: - Teams will be connected by coordinating school on the Twinspace around the specific issues; - Teams will share ideas and comment on each other’s action plans and give suggestions. - Each team will edit their plan on the GYSD webpage “Map it out”
STAGE 5: Act (April) Aim: Taking action on Global Youth Service Day to address the issues identified and contribute to improve the life of the people in their community -
Each team will edit their plan and share it on the GYSD webpage “Map it out” ( On GYS Day pupils will take action and keep a record of their action (video recording, Photography etc…)
STAGE 6: Reflect and disseminate results (May and June) Aim: -
Evaluating the project’s outcomes and telling the world about your experience
Methodology:
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Filling in an evaluation questionnaire to give feedback on the impact of the project; Organising photos and write articles for the local newspaper and the school’s webpage; Completing the GYSD report; Interviewing or collecting written feedback from pupils, teachers and people who participated or benefited from the action; Showcasing the projects’ results.
Expected Results After a stage of awareness raising towards global issues, investigation on local heroes, choosing of an important issue to be addressed, the project will culminate in the celebration of the Global Youth Service Day (GYSD), in which participants will implement their planned actions. These actions can range from learning sessions about current social and environmental challenges to clean-up actions, exhibitions about local heroes, a festival to honour those heroes, nursing home visits, concerts, etc…. As for the produts, we intend to make reports, videos, a webpage, an ebook and a public Twinspace to disseminate the results of the project. The project is primarily aimed at improving and fostering pupils' motivation to learn and to take part in their school and communities. Resources: http://tig.phpwebhosting.com/themes/mdg/YouthMDG.pdf for The Youth and Millenium Development Goals (2015) International Days: International days http://www.tigweb.org/global-issues/intdays/