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Children Tell the HiStory
Children Tell the HiStory
Start date: Sep 1, 2015,
End date: Aug 31, 2017
PROJECT
FINISHED
The title of the project "Children Tell the HiStory" implies its main idea, i.e. that pupils take an active part in the learning and teaching process: they learn from their own research (experiential learning), creative writing and through empathy (role-play), and teach each other using their unique teaching approach (child-to-child teaching). Three European schools – Rokiskis school-kindergarten "Azuoliukas" (Lithuania), Prywatna Szkola Podstawowa Academos (Krakow, Poland), and Istituto Tecnico Commerciale e per Geometri "A.Oriani" (Faenza, Italy) – are involved with more than a hundred active participants, including teaching experts and historians, a great number of beneficiaries at the participating schools, primary teachers and history teachers (from local to European level), and local communities in participating cities.
The project aims to enhance awareness of history as it is known that an interest in the subject is the best motivation to study it at school. Parents involvement in the projects will ensure that this motivation will be family driven in the future. It introduces an innovative approach in the participating schools, which is to study history in an authentic environment, just where it happened so to speak, to understand the facts through developing empathy while role-playing, and to communicate the knowledge to peers.
Moreover, this project reconnects three countries through their common historical background and so promotes and strengthens the awareness of European oneness. Teachers participating in the project will improve their skills to apply innovative methods and assess their effectiveness. The project combines 4 educational methods: experiential learning, creative writing, role-play and child-to-child teaching.
The intellectual output, i.e. the educational script "Involved in History with the Jagiellons, Radziwills, and Sforzas" in 4 official EU languages will be provided as an Open Educational Resource on the European Schoolnet portal, Comenius projects dissemination database European Shared Treasure, and available on request via the eTwinning platform and on participating schools' websites. The output may increase the quality of general education in participating schools and in schools which will make use of them in history teaching.
Public exhibitions of informational stands and historical stage costumes produced during the project are expected to attract not less than 900 visitors in regional museums and libraries of each project country in total and to evoke their interest in history, as well as to increase the awareness of European oneness.
Project participants will take part in 2 transnational meetings (12 foreign and 20 local participants), 2 training sessions of 60 working hours in 10 days (43 foreign and 22 local pupils, 11 accompanying people), two online meetings (8 participants), community meetings in each school (estimated number of 150 participants in total), and in the final conference (8 foreign and 32 local participants). All participants will improve their English skills and multicultural competence. Their social communication skills, tolerance and flexibility will be developed while working in teams whose members will be of different nationality and age (early school age children, teenagers, adults).
High quality of training sessions and the intellectual output will be ensured by careful selection of project team members.
The project's results will be disseminated through numerous channels such as local, regional and national newspapers, local and regional TV channels, European educational platforms and databases, schools' websites and those of social partners'. The estimated number of indirect benefitors such as local communities, teachers, users of social media, users of European databases is estimated to be more than five thousands.
The long lasting effect will manifest itself through: higher learning motivation among pupils and increased interest in history among adult participants; methodical and social cooperation among participating schools; full incorporation of innovative teaching methods into curriculum and their wider application than merely in history teaching; school events such as public performances, an annual ball, creative workshops, and exhibitions on historical topics; further research of common historical roots among European countries; new projects which bring cultures and citizens of the EU together.