The eTwinning project “Let the Music Speak” is a collaborative project which aims at bridging the gap between various cultures by creating a relaxing learning atmosphere in which students of different personalities share their musical interests and try to understand the values of universal and national music. Music as a universal language that connects people worldwide, fostering understanding and unity across diverse communities.
It started in September 2024 and it will end in June 2025. The project founder is Nicolas Durand, from France (Collège Notre Dame, La Ferté Macé) and there are eight more countries taking part in the project: Romania (Laura Delighiosu – Colegiul Național ,,Ana Aslan”); Spain (Ana Belén Egea – IES Jose Manuel Blecua); Greece (Christina Tsilimigra 4ο ΓΥΜΝΑΣΙΟ ΤΡΙΠΟΛΗΣ); Poland (Alina Derylak- Publiczna Szkoła Podstawowa w Harasiukach), Germany (Heinrich-Böll-Schule), Italy (Angela Rivetti I.C. F. Gesuè ), Turkey ( HasibeYalçınkaya Hasan Aybaba Anadolu Lisesi); Ukraine (Nataliia LavrykOtyniia Lyceum of the Otyniia Settlement Council). Altogether, there are 9 teachers and 147 pupils aged 12-13. Project link: school-education.ec.europa.eu/en/etwinning/projects/let-music-speak/twinspace/pages
Aims
The objectives are linguistic and cultural. Pupils will cooperate and communicate with their European neighbours in English, thus developing their language skills (oral and written). Works on the theme of music will be exchanged and interactive activities will take place between our pupils. This project also aims at improving students’ intercultural skills: they will be able to get to know their young European neighbours better through music. This project aims to unite pupils from different countries around this topic.
Expected results
Students will carry out various works, including videos, logos, slideshows, cards and questionnaires. Interaction between all the participating pupils will be encouraged through collaborative activities, especially through the creation of a song. Oral and written language skills will be developed, as well as the ability to work in a group and take the initiative. The works will be published on the twinspace and shared on the websites and social networks of the participating schools, as well as during events where it can be showcased, such as school open days.
Working plan
In September, the first step was filling in a form, an initial survey (name, age, country, level of English, expectations from the project, musical tastes etc.).Then, of course, each country was asked to obtain parental consent and each school member had to create a google form which was signed by the students’ parents.
The next stage of our project was called ‘Get to know each other’, in which the pupils had to fill in a padlet, where they introduced themselves and described their musical tastes. They could also interact with each through written messages.
Then, each country was asked to offer a school presentation, so as students of different nationalities could take a sneak peak of the educational system from various countries. Here is our presentation: drive.google.com/file/d/1hfZ9NC3HAUy9SBv3uwPisM0npanH1HL1/
In October, each country had to create suitable logos for the project (either digital or handmade drawings) and chose only 3 (the best ones for each country).
school-education.ec.europa.eu/en/etwinning/projects/let-music-speak/twinspace/pages/romania
Then, there was a logo contest with all the participant logos from all 8 countries. The best one was voted as the logo of our project and the winning country was France. school-education.ec.europa.eu/en/etwinning/projects/let-music-speak/twinspace/pages/results
In the meantime, some video calls were facilitated, so as to allow students to interact with each other and speak about various aspects of their average teenage life. Another challenging activity was the online meeting we had on the 7th of March with the French students from Collège Notre Dame, La Ferté Macé, coordinated by Nicolas Durand. The Romanians and the French communicated in English about various topics, mainly music. They discovered they have common interests. They all loved this lesson and had a lot of fun, especially when one of the French pupils, a fan of Michael Jackson, did the Moonwalk dance or sang famous choruses from their favourite songs. Here are some pictures: school-education.ec.europa.eu/en/etwinning/projects/let-music-speak/twinspace/pages/video-calls
The activity scheduled for December was called Christmas Cards exchange. The students from different countries created wonderful handmade Christmas cards and they sent them to students of different nationalities. Here are the cards that the Romanians sent to the French pupils and the cards that we received from France. Great surprises for the winter holidays!
school-education.ec.europa.eu/en/etwinning/projects/let-music-speak/twinspace/pages/chrismas-cards
school-education.ec.europa.eu/en/etwinning/projects/let-music-speak/twinspace/pages/christmas-greetings-romania
In January and February, our project page was called: ‘Quizzes: Our countries and music’. Each country had to come up with a Kahoot quiz with 15 questions about their traditions, musicians, personalities, language etc. Here is our product:
create.kahoot.it/details/f0a90b76-e9d7-474f-849c-3b2ebf48a2f4
To end this activity, a final collaborative quiz, using a few questions from all the countries’ kahoots was created and played online, during a video call. Here is the link: create.kahoot.it/share/our-countries-and-music/93313e4c-d95c-4b68-84ac-ba1bbb667592
Our next activity was writing a protest song. Nicolas Durand, the coordinator of the project asked each country to provide suggestions concerning possible topics and famous songs to cover. We suggested the topic Global warming and the song Heal the world by Michael Jackson. A twinboard was created and each country from the project wrote their ideas. school-education.ec.europa.eu/en/etwinning/projects/let-music-speak/twinspace/pages/twinboard
After an online voting it was decided the topic would be Protecting our natural environment and the song would be Lazy Song by Bruno Mars.
school-education.ec.europa.eu/en/etwinning/projects/let-music-speak/twinspace/pages/online-voting-0
Then each participant country contributed with a verse and a chorus, and the final variant will ideally be accompanied by students playing musical instruments. In the end, we will make a virtual exhibition with pictures presenting various moments from our activities, which will be designed on the spatial.ro platform.
All in all, this project has been a great experience and we are looking forward to our next international adventures!