Be linguae
Start date: Jun 1, 2015,
End date: May 31, 2016
PROJECT
FINISHED
The Escorial High School is the only bilingual centre of secondary education in the village of El Escorial which is located in the North East of Madrid. It offers compulsory education (ESO) and post compulsory: Bachillerato, training and basic training courses orientated to a profesional activity.
The Escorial High School has been a bilingual centre since the school year of 2013/2014. This means that some of the teaching is being done in English and as a consequence 16% of the teachers are already empowered to use this language as a tool for the teaching activity.
Our school has been involved in exchanges with other schools in Europe and The U.S.A Some of them even started to take place in year 2004 – the ones that affected the training cycles-.
Both our managment team and our teachers are committed to such an extent that teacher training is one of the issues in the school and most of the departments participate.
Since this project affects the school as a whole, lots of teachers take part in it : teachers directly involved in the project, managment team, members of the English Department, assistants, coordinator of information and comunication technology etc.
If our school were provided with the granting of this project, the teachers who took part could easily improve their English skills and the ones that have to do with the managing of a teaching centre. We would certainly find it very enriching the possibility to get to know other teaching aproaches and the reality that we all belong to the European Community.
All this would be achieved thanks to the mobility plans provided by the KA-1 and would serve as basis for a possible and necessary KA-2.
The teachers participating in this project must be committed to interest in increasing their English level, in the managing and organization of bilingual schools, in exchanging methodological experiences, in developing and spreading the idea of real belonging to the European Union.
A multi-professional committee that will ensure an independent and transparent selection will select the teachers.
Of course, when the teachers finish their courses abroad, they will provide concrete proof of the outcomes of their participation. These will be properly certificated in the country of origin and in the one where the courses will be developed. The European Competence Passport and several external exams will also be used as evaluation instruments.
Once the participant teachers have been selected, they will carry out a series of activities, previous to the courses.
Travel and stay management shall be made not only by electronic mail, but also using European platforms, as well as through the associated institutions. The teachers will assist to conversation courses in their schools, or to any others organized by the Comunidad de Madrid. During their stay abroad, the participant teachers’ learning will be followed by the institutions that organize the courses and, at the same time, the teachers themselves will keep a journal to write down their academic experiences and progress. Once the teachers have returned to their schools, the benefits of this Erasmus program will also reach students in short, medium and long terms, since better linguistic skills, as well of other skills concerning management and organization, methodology and school curriculum will have been achieved.
All the above will be objectively evaluated by the English Department teachers, through interviews to the participant teachers, as well as through individual memoranda and surveys to other members of the school community.
We will also make our achievements evident. The information about our results will be spread both internally and externally, trough the school web site, on a blog, and trough the Department of Education of the municipality. A network of bilingual schools will be established in order to report on the European dimension of this project. Such dimension does not only imply the idea of belonging to a supranational community such is the UE, but also cherishes the values of multilinguism and multiculturalism. The exchange of diverse experiences will be our contribution to values that form an essential part of the European project.