OPEN MIND SKILLFUL HANDS

All partner groups participated in the mobility (17 students and 11 teachers) C3 LTTA on May 16-20, 2021 at the Primary School of EB1/PE de São Roque, Madera. The meeting aimed to develop participants’ cultural and language competences in writing, reading and speaking, to develop their ability to use modern ICT tools and express their artistic and manual skills during activities which were related to various areas- costumes, traditions, history, poems, texts of children's literature, comics, typical gastronomy, songs and music (folk songs). They practiced other types of social communication (live broadcast with own school, survey about Erasmu+) and learnt about the threats posed by the computer, the Internet, multimedia for health and social relationships and privacy. They prepared a leaflet to pass this knowledge onto parents in their schools. They participated in integration and team-building activities, music@dancing events and workshops, , outdoor activities, work in the school garden and a food workshop which was conducted with representative s of all school community- students, teachers, parents and other school workers. Host parents and students organized the evening with a dinner for guest students. Students could learn about the local food - ingredients, herbs, recipes, flavours.  Activities were conducted in international or task oriented groups (conversation, learning words in other languages, sport activities, language games and traditional Madeira games, dancing, quiz about Europe, Madeira guidebook and „Walk in the footsteps of famous compatriots". Students used internet, city plans to find and visit the places related to the stay, activity (or other relationship) of a famous representative of own nation and share they information to partner groups.

Some activities aimed at getting to know the history of the island, architecture of the city, the specific character of the island, its -nature, climate, tradition and coloring. Participants visited the old part of the city and the center of Funchal as well as a few natural places of interest to take photos which will be used for guidebooks which will be finished after mobility for the use in school libraries. Students visited the Mayor of Funchal to show the respect to representatives of the local authorities and promote their school and countires.

They also visited another school where they participated in math lesson using a DOC robot, (interaction with a group of children in a robotics lesson). They attended the workshop on Internet security and the meeting with a local writer. Teachers worked discussing and evaluating the project progress, activities and plans.

The last part of the meeting was dedicated to mobility’s evaluation and summary and celebration of closing the meeting at common dinner at Parreira joined with the performance of Portuguese folklore group and delivery of certificates and common photos. Evaluation included conversations, interviews, evaluation games (gestures, pictures) and will be followed up by online survey-students, teachers, and parents.

Achieving the assumed results was possible thanks to earlier preparations preceding mobility. With commitment of our hosts, all participants, students, teachers and local families we had the opportunity to participate in an event that was a new experience to the school and introduce a new Erasmus+ programme  to the hosting school's life. The students became part of an international group working within the eTwinning platform and Erasmus + program. Teachers joined the network of cooperation partnership in several areas in which The meeting of representatives of different countries and cultures stimulated all participants for a mutual better understanding, socialization and communication , friendly contacts, friendship between children and adult participants.

In follow-up activities they will use this experience to obtain, critically evaluate, store, create, present and exchange information, and to communicate and participate in the eTwinning platform

 Results include: new practical and ICT skills, lowering communication and language barriers, better spatial orientation, better knowledge about Portugal , Madeira and Europe, increasing awareness about threats from internet- Safe Internet leaflet, getting to know rules and way of conducting public opinion polls and the way of processing  their results.

Benefits:

-strengthening the partnership bonds

-reducing communication barriers

-improvement of language skills, attempts to use a foreign language to discuss specific, ambitious topics

- students are encouraged to use new ICT tools

- will learnt about Erasmus +

-Live broadcast to schools ( e.g with chosen classes)

- evaluating and modifying plans for the future