In our project 'Inclusion through Art and Media' (I AM) we cooperate with 6 European schools, from Spain (Sitges), Denmark (Maaloev),Hungary (Budapest), Iceland (Reykjavik), Germany (Achim) and The Netherlands (Huizen). With the priority in our project on Inclusion, a diversity of partners in North, South, East and West of Europe, will give it definitely a more powerful dimension. At all partner schools, staff and teachers are aware of the task we have as educators to not just transfer knowledge to pupils, but also offer them the tools to enhance their abilities for good citizenship. Inclusion is part of everyday (school) life and teachers as well as students and parents, experience new challenges every day. Looking at today’s situation in Europe and the world it becomes more and more obvious that the challenges will not end very soon, and therefore teachers and students need to be equipped with the necessary competences to meet and adequately deal with diversity. All partner schools have integrated 'Citizenship' in their school curriculum either through special classes or project weeks.During the project our goal is to develop and exchange new teaching materials to be used for this purpose. In other words, appealing teaching materials for youngsters when dealing with inclusion, in the widest sense of the word. Evaluations among pupils having been involved in former projects made clear, that different art forms were really appreciated and enjoyed as tools when working on specific topics. Art connects people and is inspiring to work and communicate actively on a joint product in an international setting. Not learning by the book but being creative while coping with important issues will have a lot more (long lasting) impact on youngsters from 14-17 years old. (VWO-level)Improving language skills is another important objective of our project. Our language of communication is English and with all the activities online and through physical exchanges all participants will be challenged to use English, written and spoken. In this intercultural setting ' the need to know ' will boost their language skills, together with their self- confidence in speaking a foreign language.Although the number of mobilities is maximized, we have decided to travel with 4-6 students and 1-2 teachers per country to each exchange meeting. Which means at every meeting around 25 foreign students and 5-10 teachers from abroad will be hosted, so many families will be taking part in the project as well. We do our utmost to increase the number of participants. Not just by raising the amount of mobilities but also through eTwinning activities for all, traveling or not.These activities and results will be put on TwinSpace so they are accessible to all participants (around 800 students and at least 40 teachers in two years). Apart from this number, some partners (Germany and Hungary)will also involve students from a special school (in their communities) for disabled students. These schools will also be involved during the exchange meeting in their town and through eTwinning. All partners will strive to involve pupils with a migration background or refugees in the project.During the two-year project, each country is responsible for the organization of an exchange meeting which will last 6 days including two travel days. Which means three each year, in November, January and March. Apart from the meeting, each country is also responsible for the development of teaching materials prior to the meeting and put them on TwinSpace so all participants can work on them and the whole project community can be in touch, working, comparing and discussing the outcome of these assignments. During the meeting results and experiences will be exchanged with those at home. After the meeting, evaluation and final results can be found on TwinSpace as well. Each country has decided on which specific field of Inclusion it will focus and what art form it will use in the process. Topics which we will work on vary from bullying, gender issues, refugees/immigrants and peers with a mental or physical disability. Art forms range from drama to painting, photography, videoing and sculpturing.Students will learn through workshops, organized by experts about different art forms and use of different media, challenging their creativity and thinking out of the box.With this project students will be involved in a one-year (and maybe for some even in a second year) lasting experience. The continuous interaction between peers from different nationalities and working with pupils with disabilities or those with a migration background or refugees will have a huge impact on our students. We expect to enhance a personal growth for all participants whether it be students, teachers or parents. Through dissemination of the project results, we also hope to create more tolerance, an open-mind and empathy in our wider (school) communities for those who seem different at first.

"Context of the project: In this project 6 schools from Spain, Italy, Sweden, Netherlands, Germany and Latvia were involved. Each country experienced in international projects and having profound expertise in art. As for interdisciplinary learning and teaching, some partners had little experience. By working together we learned from each other and now spread our experiences in and outside our schools. Art played a central role (in connection with the Sciences and Social Studies) in interdisciplinary learning.Objectives: Acquisition of new skills and competences for both teachers and students. It was our goal to focus on interdisciplinary teaching and learning in connection with Art. The activities developed by each partner to prepare the groups before the meeting and during the exchange meetings, implemented in a European context, synthesized many competences (awareness of meaningful connections between disciplines, creative and critical thinking, communication in foreign languages, digital competence, learning to learn, interpersonal and intercultural competence, sense of initiative, cultural awareness and expression).Number and type of participants. We can divide this in different groups that took part.Teachers, at least 100, directly or indirectly involved in the project. Developing teaching material, coaching the students, accompanying them during the exchange, discussing school related issues when joining colleagues from abroad for lunch or in the stafroom. Hosting colleagues and giving workshops.Students: We travelled with a lot more students than the maximum amount of 100 mobilities. Only Germany and Sweden travelled with 3 students to most countries. All the other countries travelled between 6 and 10 students. The total amount of mobilities is therefore around 150. During the exchanges around120 extra students were involved to take part in the activities or for hosting. Parents: During each exchange at least 25 to 45 families were involved in the project as host families, and for activities like joined buffet for all participants, presentations of final products and evaluation.Experts: Around 20. Some countries organized workshops in and/or outside the school for which experts were hired (Spain, Latvia). Some countries had organized guided tours in museums. (Latvia, Germany, Netherlands, Spain)Description of undertaken activities: Each partner had to develop assignments on interdisciplinary learning in connection with art and send them to the other partner schools prior to the exchange meeting as preparation for the meeting. Students then had to give a presentation on the work prepared at school. Teaching material was also made by the hosting school to work on the topics in mixed groups coached by teachers. Each country had chosen a specific school subject in connection with art. Excursions were always part of the program. Related to the topic dealt with and one cultural activity.Results and impact attained on different levels:For students:Knowledge: Understanding that school subjects are not independent disciplines but are intertwined.New knowledge in various disciplines, Increased language skills (English), Being able to develop research questionsAttitude: Personal growth, Being more open-minded towards people of different culturesBecoming aware of different economical, political and social problems, Motivating for international study and working possibilities in Europe. Improve relationships among youngsters of different origin at home and abroad. Becoming more self-assured in speaking foreign languages, taking initiative and public speakingStudents were given questions (learner report) to reflect on their gained experiences. Students from Germany, Netherlands, Italy travelled on their own to their host family during the summer holidays.Skills: Improved performance skills (in English) with PP presentations, improving ICT skills , More creative/critical thinking, For parents after evaluation: Better cooperation between parents, school, language skills,Stimulating children to become involved in international contacts ( for study and employment in the futur).Results for local community and institutions: Increased involvement/communication between school, local authorities and institutions.For teachers: Improved language skills and improved intercultural skills, More international experiences (also to be used for internationalisation ' at home'), Exchange of best practises/learning interdisciplinary teaching, in short widening their horizon in teaching methods,increasing skills in groupwork and cooperative learning;increasing skills in ""content and language integrated learning"" (CLIL)Long term benefits: international projects influence students in different ways: from choosing for an international study, increased language skill to improved understanding of different cultures. In this specific project students learned to see that topics are always linked and never limited.n"

"Six countries were involved in our project TEACH: The European Art Chain. Each country experienced in international projects and with profound expertise in specific art disciplines. Finland: music/dance/media, Spain: painting/cinema, Germany: music, The Netherlands: design/sculpture, Italy: theatre/archtecture, Latvia: folk music and dance.Artistic expression often has its origins in admiration of an existing masterpiece of a different art form.So Michelangelo paints his ""Giudizio universale"" thinking of Dante's ""Inferno"", the novel ""Girl with the Pearl Earring"" starts from a famous Vermeer painting, Ravel and Débussy composed music taking their inspirations from Impressionists' paintings. A film can move from a free interpretation of a novel, a novel from a painting, a painting from a poem, a poem from the views of a city, in a sequence that is maybe never-ending. In our work we emphasized that continuous exchange of materials, narrations, suggestions is part of the play of the never-ending creation, from art to art. We involved European students in ""creative transitions"" through the disciplinary realms of literature, architecture, sculpture, cinema, music, theatre, photography. In this project, from September 2015 to August 31 2017 we explored how art worked as a tool for international language and understanding, both in a historical and environmental way.Art group activities, in a European context, effectively enabled to synthesize many competences (communication in foreign languages, digital competence, learning to learn, interpersonal and intercultural competence, sense of initiative, cultural awareness and expression).During the two years of the project an average of 40 students (per year/per country) were involved in the project. Either at home, at an exchange meeting or both. Students worked at home as well as during the exchange meetings on the different assignments. At home students did research (f.e. research in your own country on design in 20th century/folk music and dance/film genres) on the topic for the next exchange meeting. While at the meeting, the assignments were more into the transition of different disciplines.Teachers monitored the activities but students had to take initiative, devide tasks. Using the PDCA method (plan-do-check-act), the group of teachers, through a practice of action-research, had as their main aim the continuous improvement of the learning process, which is considered very important. Each working group prepared a presentation on the process and the result of their work for a large audiance. Students were free to choose how they wanted to present their product.During the project different groups within the community were integrated in the project. (primary school, home for the elderly, children with (learning) disabilities)Taking part in an international project influenced the student' s life in different ways: from choosing for an international study, increased language skills, improved understanding of different cultures and more open minded towards people to developing cooperative skills and taking initiative and doing research. At the same time parents' ideas on European citizenship. As for the teachers, the experimental use of innovative methods of teaching / learning and the employ of action-research in the teaching practice, in a context of activities based on Art, brought them new insight and ideas for their teaching profession.For teachers, as well as students, the activities included in the TEACH project was a way to acquire new skills, hone new method and internalize new operating processes. The experience gained during TEACH project allows the involved teachers to act like ""baker's yeast"", key-persons, multipliers in the process of disseminating and transferring methods and practices within the educational contexts of each partner-school. Cooperation with foreign teachers was an interesting experience; exchanging differences in teaching methods/didactical approaches and coaching a group of European youngsters from different backgrounds is a perfect tool to diminish prejudices. It encouraged teachers to look from a wider perspective. Teachers increased their personnel development of educational skills, but also exchanged f.e. problems in education in a specific country (financial problems, amount of drop-outs, ICT problems, minority groups, broken families).It made teachers and principles aware of the necessity that we have to implement national projects in our curriculum, as it is our duty to prepare our students for a life in an international context. At school we can develop their international sense and scope. Several PP on the project (one with a general idea and 6 of each meeting will be uploaded on the E+ , so that they are available for other people, eager to work on the same or similar themes and applying the proposed methodology.Participating schools will use their website to show work done during the project."