CONTEXT
Between October 6th and 10th, 2020, pupils and teachers from the partner countries involved in the Erasmus+ project “Hand to Hand – Together in Europe” (reference number 2018-1-RO01-KA229-049337) took part in the fifth short-term exchange of groups of pupils (C6), which was hosted by the coordinating school Liceul Tehnologic “Mihai Eminescu” Dumbrăveni (Romania).
This transnational learning/teaching/training activity, scheduled to take place in June 2020, had to be postponed and then organised online due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The participating pupils and teachers connected for approximately three hours a day using Google Meet video-communication service, divided into two sessions. Unfortunately, the partner school Istituto Comprensivo “Giovanni Pierluigi” Palestrina from Palestrina (Italy) was unable to attend the exchange visit, and for this reason the online activity brought together only four partner schools.
Entitled “The theatre – art of free expression”, the last exchange visit of the HHTE project was dedicated to the works of the club “The magical world of fairy tales” and had as topic becoming acquainted with the cultural and literary heritage from the partner countries.
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 10TH
The fifth short-term exchange of groups of pupils began by introducing the attending pupils and teachers, and by playing an ice-breaking game in which each participant presented one or two objects that best reflected their personality or preferences. As an example of good practices, the hosting school presented a video about the activities carried out on World Teachers’ Day and dedicated to education.
The second session of the online exchange visit started by presenting the videos about the activities carried out at school level within the clubs “The magical world of fairy tales” between November 2018 and October 2020, a wonderful opportunity to find out details about the literature from the partner countries.
The next activity was a presentation of Windows Movie Maker video editing software program, having as objective to improve the ICT skills of the participating pupils. They were then divided into six transnational teams and received as task to create videos with poems recited in the native languages of the project, previously selected by each national team.
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 7TH
The digital activities continued on the second day of the exchange visit with a presentation of the Padlet platform, a virtual bulletin board in which people can collaborate to create and organize posts of any content type. A new transnational team was formed and received as task to create a Padlet board on the topic of fairy tales from the partner countries. Then, all the participants had fun watching the dramatizations of folk tales from each partner country, preceded by a short presentation of its author or content.
At the beginning of the second session, the pupils from each partner school presented literary events and festivals, which transport us into the wonderful world of tales and stories, and help participants find out interesting information about books, authors and culture.
Afterwards, each national team presented recordings of various artistic performances, gathered in an online show called “Creativity in Europe”. The Latvian team presented a puppet theatre performance preceded by a PowerPoint presentation about this art. The Romanian team presented a carnival of characters from fairy tales and stories, the Turkish team presented a pantomime performance, and the Portuguese team improvised a funny sketch about a Science lesson.
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 8TH
The third day of the transnational learning/teaching/training activity started with an informative presentation about cultural heritage prepared by the host school, and continued with a quiz on the game-based learning platform Kahoot that beautifully illustrated the interesting cultural information discovered during all the exchange visits of the project. You can also take the cultural heritage quiz by following this link https://kahoot.it/challenge/03520680?challenge-id=d8773f62-6456-4876-8af0-7104bfa31938_1605884310150 or using the Game PIN 03520680 on the website https://kahoot.it/ or the Kahoot App. The challenge ends on December 17th.
During the second session, each national team presented either a photo-voice exhibition on the topic of “The Little Prince” by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, which included significant quotes from the book, illustrative drawings made by children and a short presentation of the book, or a virtual tour through the library of the school, highlighting valuable books of well-known national authors. As a conclusion of the activity, the participating pupils and teachers were invited to add words in their native languages regarding the experience of reading in a Word Cloud created using the interactive presentation software Mentimeter.
The next activity was a Kahoot quiz on the topic of international fairy tales that helped pupils remember common characteristics, themes and settings, as well as characters and story lines from tales loved by children from all over Europe. You can also take the fairy tales quiz by following this link https://kahoot.it/challenge/03782783?challenge-id=d8773f62-6456-4876-8af0-7104bfa31938_1605883821116 or using the Game PIN 03782783 on the website https://kahoot.it/ or the Kahoot App. The challenge ends on December 17th.
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 9TH
The fourth day of the online exchange visit began by watching the animated short film “The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore”, written and co-directed by William Joyce. The participating pupils and teachers were then asked to express their impressions about this beautiful allegory by adding words in a Word Cloud created using Mentimeter.
Afterwards, the pupils wrote and presented heartfelt letters or messages for friends from the project, especially for those who hosted them during the previous exchange visits.
One of the most eagerly-awaited and enjoyable activities was the flashmob, during which the pupils from all the participating schools danced at the same time on the popular song “Jerusalema” by Master KG Feat. Nomcebo. In the afternoon, the pupils worked in their transnational teams in order to prepare the tasks assigned on Tuesday and on Wednesday.
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 10TH
The end-results of the pupils’ tasks were presented during the last day of the fifth short-term exchange of groups of pupils. The pupils from the six transnational teams presented videos that happily mixed poetry and technology, lyrical sensibility and digital skills. Each team recited fragments from a poem in one of the four native languages of the participating partner countries, and then edited the materials using Windows Movie Maker video editing software program.
The seventh transnational team also presented their work, a Padlet board entitled “United in Diversity: Fairy Tales across Europe”, on which they uploaded information, photos and links on the topic of well-known fairy tales from the partner countries and their common characteristics.
The activities continued with one of the most important products of the “Hand to Hand – Together in Europe” partnership, the anthem of our project, which was composed by the Latvian team from the partner school Rīgas 22. vidusskola from Rīga. They have used the music from the song “Say So” by the American singer Doja Cat, and the lyrics were written by the pupils, reflecting their view on the project activities. Each team made a recording of the anthem, and then all teams sang the anthem together.
The final day of the last short-term exchange of groups of pupils ended by adding words in Word Clouds created using the Mentimeter website, which reflected the feelings of the participants regarding the online mobility and the Erasmus+ programme. After an ingenious online certification ceremony, the pupils and teachers said good-bye to each other with tears in their eyes.
CONCLUSION
The fifth short-term exchange of groups of pupils organised online by the coordinating school Liceul Tehnologic “Mihai Eminescu” Dumbrăveni (Romania) was an opportunity for the participating pupils and teachers to become acquainted with the cultural and literary heritage from the partner countries, and also to step into the wonderful world of books and literature.
During the preparation and the presentation of the materials and the artistic performances, the pupils developed many useful competences, such as their ICT abilities, teamwork skills, critical thinking, artistic abilities, as well as their English knowledge. In spite of the distance and of some technical difficulties, this transnational activity allowed the students to communicate and become friends, fostered a fruitful exchange of good practices among the teachers from the project teams, and represented an extremely positive experience for all the participants.