Quality Label in English

Description

Name: Music helps us live
Schools: Gymnasium Ceska Lipa, The Czech Republic and Kavasila High School, Greece

Names of teachers and coordinators: Mgr. Hana Homolova { music}, Mgr. Eva Pazourkova{ Art}, Mgr. Nadezda Kadlecova{ English, coordinator of the project}, Katerina Mavroudi { music}, Eleni Kostopoulou/ English, coordinator,}, Art teachers in Kavasila High School.

web page of the school: www.gym-cl.cz
{ English section/ activities/ eTwinning programmes in our school.}

Age of the students: 16 students in basic pairs. Czech students- 12/13 years old
Greece students from 12 to 15.

Number of involved teachers: 8 all together in both sides.

Time of the project: one school year

Languages: English, Czech, Greek

Brief description:
It is a music project in which the students will introduce each other national folk songs. They will also speak about the importance of the National Anthems and they will listen to them. They will also write letters on other topics to get to know each other better. In Art lessons they will illustrate the songs and they will scan the pictures into the twinspace. In English lessons they will translate the songs into English. In Music lessons they will practice the songs and they will make a sound file.

Final product:
The song book, a film, a CD

Connections: http://twinspace.etwinning.net/launcher.cfm?lang=en&cid=9069
http:// http://et-friendship.blogspot.com/
www.gym-cl.cz


Using ICT during the project:

At the beginning, the children wrote introduction letters and they made pairs. Then I invited all the students into the twinspace. The first song was about rivers and so we also spoke about the importance of the river and about the national rivers. We prepared the sound file in MP3 and put it into the twinspace. We worked with the song about The River Vltava and the Greeks with the song Potame mu/ the same way. The illustrations were put into the project photogallery in the twinspace. The song was translated into English and the students learned how to work with a dictionary. They also worked with pictures and they learned how to put them into the photogallery. I created a music shared file, where the kids can upload their favourite music. We did the next songs the same way.
Later we also tried to make a short video clip in Quick time player.

Results and asset:
The students have improved their knowledge in using ICT tools, software in twinspace and they go on with the friendly relations which we have had with Kavasila High School for a long time. The teachers have also learned a lot about new software and new tools in the twinspace. We used a new digital camera we have won in the last year competition. Modern children have MP3 on their ears all the time, but they do not listen to folk songs. This project has shown them that folk songs are beautiful, still alive and we must protect them for our future generation. Some of the Greek songs even do not have written form. They are given to the future generation from mouth to mouth.

We mustn’t forget about competences in the project. The first is the competence to learning. Then the competence to solving problems, communictaion, social and personal. The students have learned how to work in the team. They had to respect each other and to accept the fact that we are different. They worked with a text, translated it into a foreign language, they learned to be responsible.

Curriculum:
We follow the curriculum of the subjects in the project, such as Music, foreign language and Art. The project corresponds to the educational aims and it is included in the school programme. It is the part of the project teaching together with the cross-section themes such as Europe and the world interests us, multiculture, interpersonal relations, cultural differences, ethinc origin, selfcontrol, media education, presentation of our work.

We have included the project into Music, Art, ICT, English, Geography, History.

European dimension:
This project has given a unique opportunity to get to know our friends in Greece better. We have been working with Kavasila High School for a long time and we have had more than five projects during three years. Our children could compare Christmas in both countries which was ver interesting for them. They also made their own Christmas cards which they sent to each other by snail mail. Czech students could also learn that the techical equipment of the Czech school is better and that they can use the Internet any time they want. They had to accept the fact that the Greek children are not so lucky. They started tolerating the frequency of their letters.

Inovation and creativity:

This project can be used again. Music is not the most popular subject among the teenagers. They have voice changes, they are too shy to sing and so this project can give the opportunity to all the children. Some are better at computers, some can sing well. Everybody can realize in this project themselves.

Sustainability :

We have published the project in our school web page, there is a large notice board in the school corridor about eTwinning projects. We informed about this project also during the eTwinning week in September. We are going on with our weblog, where we are collecting other material which can be used during the project.

The quality of the project:
The biggest asset is that the students have been motivated to learn music seriously, they have improved their ICT ability and they have learned how to use the software which is given to us by the European Schoolnet. The relations between the teachers and the students have changed and we are friends now. They come with their problems and they are not shy to ask for help. The strict role of the traditional teacher has disappeared. I have given some of the students administration rights in the project and I think it must be based only on absolute trust between the both sides. And we have come to this trust thanks to the eTwinning projects.