I can say that my „international story” is quite extensive and probably, more jokingly, more seriously, in my old age, I will write a book about all the pleasant and unpleasant moments I have experienced during these 21 years since I started this fascinating journey with the Comenius and then Erasmus+ projects. It is a huge opportunity for anyone and it is a life lesson that you live and will tell your children and grandchildren. These Erasmus+ experiences are about tolerance, friendship and communication, about personal development, about the opportunity to get to know customs and traditions, about diversity, about how we humans are the same, regardless of race, religion or language.
I will write about my first experience as coordinator as an eTwinning project. I knew it would be hard to find reliable and hard-working partners, but I was lucky enough to find a partner from Turkiye who is very skilful in ITC, very determined to do good job and very reliable as partner. We started our adventure together in the summer of 2024. We planned everything in minute details hoping to find at least 4 other partners from different other international cooperation projects. Unfortunately, our dream stopped when we faced a lot of promises, but no real action. When September started, we are two schools eager to start work but with no other real possibilities of having other partners. Later on, a partner from a previous project from Croatia joined our work and we successfully managed to bring our project to life.
Our eTwinning project is entitled Our Cultural Heritage. It started from my desire to expand the students’ knowledge about wonderful UNESCO Geopark, our Buzau Land. The project ‘Our cultural heritage’ aims to help students discover the inheritance passed on through generations that represents a testimony and an expression of our community’s living values, beliefs and traditions. It helps students discover their roots, their ancestor’s way of living and, by doing so, discover themselves. It promotes intercultural understanding, friendship and collaboration among European schools. Through this exchange, students will have the opportunity to explore the cultural traditions, history and heritage of their respective countries, while developing language, digital and social skills.
The objectives of the project are:
- Cultural Exchange: To encourage students to discover the similarities and differences among European cultures, exploring the intangible heritage (stories, legends, oral traditions, etc), immovable heritage (old churches, monasteries, old buildings, fortresses, but also old houses, memorial houses, old settlements, funeral monuments, or archaeological sites) and natural heritage (cultural landscape)
- Language Development: To improve students’ language skills in English through online communication activities, video exchanges, collaborative writing and video conferencing.
- Virtual Collaboration: Promoting collaboration among students through online platforms and digital tools, encouraging the shared creation of multimedia content and educational resources.
At the end of the project, students will develop a better understanding of European cultures, acquire language and digital skills, and experience collaboration with their peers in an international learning environment.
- A digital booklet of immovable heritage of town/region by focusing on buildings bearing historical value: old churches, monasteries, old buildings, fortresses, but also old houses, memorial houses, old settlements, funeral monuments, or archaeological sites
read.bookcreator.com/MtTH8F0kPIa4v48LeFMyoLL0qXE2/NHzE8Xa6Rfm2ASOFYa-MYw - Virtual exhibition of posters
view.genially.com/67badc7807fa8a664a46db71/interactive-content-our-cultural-heritage-poster-exhibition - A digital booklet on customs and festive events
padlet.com/contracomanescu/storyboard-82oy0n0wnptyma4g - A joint story in story jumper on the topic of legends and myths
- Mind map on cultural expressions (language, authors, traditional cuisine, beverages, musicians, etc)
https://www.canva.com/design/DAGh54TUy_c/L07ZUfqDsj-m2cOBJs7rdg/view - Joint newspaper – Interview with our grandparents about the life in the past
view.genially.com/679fe19713ce7508af0525b0/presentation-interview-with-my-grandparents - A mini booklet of common proverbs and their translation on our own languages
padlet.com/relaxedalittle1/our-cultural-heritage-mini-booklet-of-proverbs-r9tbl7jf0ao6wd8c - A contest on tongues twisters in the languages of the project
view.genially.com/67db027a3a690d7ebc010e64/interactive-content-guess-the-language-tongue-twisters - A virtual exhibition on posters with legends
www.emaze.com/@ALFLCFTCC/romanian-legends - Video booklet on traditional recipes
create.kahoot.it/share/traditional-food/8346e80f-174e-460b-a78c-e5d2311626bb
The project will have impact not only on the participating schools but on other people at the local, national and international level, too. Participation in the project will contribute to development of the participating schools as they will improve the range and the quality of their international cooperation, quality of their work with pupils, the schools will become more popular and more visible for public. The participation will also help the schools create tighter, more personal and friendlier contacts among teachers, between the teachers and pupils, teachers and parents, schools and municipalities, schools and various environmental NGOs, or schools and school community.
International cooperation projects gave me the chance to meet people from all over Europe, to exchange ideas and opinions with people from the most different backgrounds. It is a continuous adventure, which challenges you to face new situations where you have to find a solution, this bringing an extra experience to my personality. This challenge gave me the chance to discover a new school environment based on practical things, which influenced my personal development and shaped my professional one. Today, this is my advantage now – a vast experience in international cooperation, the use of English in a real context, thinking “out of the box”, an extraordinary baggage of knowledge.