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United in Diversity - Wir Sind Europäer
Start date: Sep 1, 2015, End date: Aug 31, 2017 PROJECT  FINISHED 

In a problematic international context, in which more and more people are afraid of, or even show rejection towards persons with different backgrounds, cultures, or abilities, our « United in Diversity – Wir Sind Europäer » project aims at helping European students from five highschools all over Europe to discover themselves, to discover other ways of life and cultures, and to show more respect towards their peers. This project brings together five schools from Finland, Germany, Italy, Turkey, and France, which teach 11 to 15 years-old students. These schools do not necessarily teach the same types of students, as some are essentially composed of socially-deprived students when others welcome wealthier students ; some teach a mixed public of students with a lot of different cultural backgrounds, when another one is only composed of students belonging to the same cultural and linguistic minority in their own country. However, all these schools share common objectives, and will work together, both from a distance and during real meetings, to reach their aims. The first objective of this project is to bring all these students, who may feel they are very different from one another, because of their nationalities, social and cultural backgrounds, school abilities and languages, mostly, and, at times, handicaps, to realize they can actually understand one another, and even work together to produce common creations. The second objective is to have our students improve their digital abilities, and start using foreign languages (as well as, for some of them at least, their own mothertongue), as real means of communication, rather than seeing these languages simply as objects of learning. The third objective, which results from the first two, is to have all our students learn in a more peaceful atmosphere, which will be more suitable to efficient learning, and which will help them, in turn, to grow up as responsible, respectful and tolerant adults and European citizens. This project is coordinated by the French school, a medium-sized school composed of more than 70% of socially-deprived students. This school will manage the project in a forthright but gentle and flexible way, and all the partners will contribute to the common tasks we have set together, according to their students’ abilities and to their own possibilities, while being at the same time free to implement their own activities in their schools only. All the results and creations, whether national or international, virtual or « physically » created during a students meeting in one of the schools, will be shared and showcased on our eTwinning collaborative platform, which will be made public for the benefit of anyone interested in our work. The expected results, beside creating a more relaxed and tolerant learning atmosphere in and outside our schools, and developing a common sense of European citizenship, are the following : - Better achievements at school for our students. - A better knowledge of our partners’ cultures and traditions, among our students and their families, who will be invited to take part in some multicultural events and who will also be requested to host our foreign partners. - Closer links with local primary schools, associations, and, in some cases, institutes for handicapped people, with whom we will strive to work on this project. We plan our students to create, among other things, short films and plays which will be reused in the different schools after the end of the project, and, if possible, by other schools and organisations concerned with these topics as well. We also plan them to create, all together, a « European jigsaw puzzle » which will show the diversity of our cultures and which will at the same time remain as a memento of our collaboration, thus illustrating our « United in Diversity – Wir Sind Europäer » motto. In the longer term, we expect this project to lead to more permanent multicultural actions in the different partner schools, and to create more positive and tolerant ways in our school communities – as well as a common will to continue working with a cross-curricular and international approach. We also hope it will lead to better employability for our students, who will use this project to grow up as mobile, responsible persons, and who will undoubtedly gain at collaborating with foreign partners and, for some, at joining a meeting abroad.
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