SUMMARY

Seven European schools from Germany, Italy, Spain, Slovenia, Romania, Turkey and Poland have prepared the project   “A MUSICAL HEPTAHEDRON – METAMORPHOSIS OF TRADITIONAL MELODIES”. At the center of our project, musical activities are divided into three parts:

Part I:

1. Each partner choses a typical, traditional and very simple melody of his country or region that he sends to all the partners.

2. Each partner then arranges at his school either all melodies or a choice of these melodies according to his own musical ressources, leaving a stamp of his own musical style and tradition(s).

Part II:

A famous melody known in all countries will be chosen as an anthem for our Comenius project. This melody will be transformed by adding regional styles of each partner at the meetings taking place.

Part III:

Each school is free to prepare a part of their own repertoire for the concerts at the meetings.

By means of these activities we will follow main objectives of the project: getting an intercultural insight, learning foreign languages, exchanging pedagogical methods and developing the personalities of all participants.

To support above-mentioned objectives, we are going to design a web page, which will also enhance ICT skills of students and teachers, foster the communication between schools, as well as communication with other people interested in the project.

The musical glossary will be prepared with the basic phrases in the languages of the participating schools and in English, to help students and teachers to communicate during visits. 

The identification with the project will be encouraged also with the creation of a project logo.

The project will be integrated into our schools curriculum as well as into the bigger context of cultural life of the participants.

RATIONALE

Germany:

The motivation for the project comes from many fields:

Apart from sporadic visits to the USA, the MPG or Mellrichstadt do not have any partnership or exchange programme on European level. To change that state, the project is seen as a starting point for EU partnerships to significatly increase mobility.

As a teacher of three languages, the coordinatig teacher sees the Comenius Multilateral partnerships as a possible to start into a multilingual future, Europe having become multicentered and multilingual. The students at MPG should have the opportunity increase their language competence.

The musical classes of the MPG representing about 1/3 of the learners at this school have reached a very good level that this project should help to improve or maintain, providing motivation by showing own skills and cooperating with students from other music-oriented institutions.

Aspects of our commitment are new didactic approaches, teaching experience, influencing school management and upgraded ICT competence.

The district of Rhön-Grabfeld, situated in the north of Bavaria and close to the former German-German border can stillbe seen as rather isolated, struck by economic and institutional restructuration. The loss of jobs and the moving away of a big part of the young generation create many problems, economically and socially. The participation in that project certainly is a step to give us the opportunity to present us as competent and open to the world.

Italy:

Our students will have the possibility of a highly stimulating and innovative teaching approach that involves the development of transversal skills to use in all areas of education and teaching. The project will give the opportunity for pupils to meet and discover, beyond the differences, cultural identities that make them European citizens. We believe that the musical language is universal and that, therefore, the meeting of different cultures can be achieved through music, the study will facilitate not only the creative mix of different music styles, but opening up new cultural horizons. Teachers, comparing methods and activities with other colleagues, will be encouraged to co-operation and research of educational planning and educational courses that provide innovative teaching.Using specific software tools and Web 2.0 collaboration tools, this project will facilitate the development of digital skills. It will also be crucial for the acquisition and development of communication skills in foreign languages through direct interactions between students.

Spain:

Our motivation comes and is directly and strongly linked to two different aspects: our application as the European Capital of Culture for 2016 and the inauguration of the new school building that will host the whole educative community.

The location of Spain in the occidental corner of the continent making it difficult and limitating our chances to visit other countries, we see the Comenius project as a real possibility for us to realise exchanges between teachers and students from other countries, because it offers us financial support  (a unique chance) to work out an educative plan in such a creative and intercultural project like this.

The “Musical Polihedron, Metamorphosis of Traditional Melodies” allows our centre for the first time (pupils and teachers) to visit schools of six different countries, also to exchange experiences, to take cultural influence from everyone, to get to know other pedagogical actions linked specially to the music education, and to offer our very rich musical traditions and culture trough our own way of feeling and living by sharing with our partners our cultural highlight: the Flamenco (UNESCO Heritage of Mankind).

With the elaboration of the glossary of musical terms, words and sentences in a pedagogical context in seven languages, our students can have the possibility to get in contact with the other languages, making easier the relations and friendship during the visits. Also they can maintain this contact by using the blog.

Regarding the field of the new technologies, we consider important to give a collaboration by designing a web page that displays all the information relative to each school (compositions - anthem, melodies -, way of working, photographs, logo, etc.)

Slovenia:

On the basis of our experience with small-scale cooperation with schools  in Croatia and Czech Republic, we decided that a multilateral Comenius partnership would help us, as the first Slovenia music school,  to gain insight into the culture, general education and music education system of our partner  schools, to foster positives perceptions of national and international identities and to enhance and enrich the school curriculum in terms of its European and International elements and dimensions.

The approach “learning through experience” will give our students new useful skills  - how to work in an international team, to plan activities, to carry them out successfully and to improve  their foreign language skills as well as the use of ICT.

Our teachers will have the opportunity to expand their personal and professional horizons, to work with teachers from different European schools, to get  know different school systems and teaching methods, to share experiences, to reflect  their own work, to improve communication in a foreign language, as well as to improve the use of ICT.

At our school we believe that  project is an excellent opportunity for  students, teachers, parents and also people from the community to respect the differences among cultures, to learn from each other and to cultivate tolerance  and understanding.

Romania:

Due to our experience with a Comenius project, we find it very helpful for our students and teachers and we would like to carry on with our cooperation with European schools in form of the Comenius program. As we noticed extensive advances not only concerning the impacts on pupils and teachers, but also the effect on the school as a whole, we would like to continue with the promotion of intercultural dialogue between students of different countries and informational, digital, visual literacy of students and teachers.  Besides that, we want to stimulate our students’ consciousness for Art and its role in society and engage the students’ interest referring modern foreign languages. Moreover, it is important to teach the pupils to give equal opportunities to pupils with different economical backgrounds. Another aim is to develop a sense of solidarity, responsibility and tolerance towards other cultures and religions, as well as a sense of European democratic values. In addition, we would like to end some prejudices that sometimes exist towards some cultures or religions, caused by the lack of effective knowledge of those peoples and realities.

Turkey:

       Turkey is trying to become integrated into the European Union. This project will help us to increase and develop the general and concrete knowledge of European countries, their cultures, languages and precious traditions. The project will enable the partner schools to learn more about our culture and tradition. It will give opportunity to both students and teachers to create international work teams and thanks to mobility for students and staff, this project will contribute to the improvement of students’ knowledge of English as well as their language and ICT skills in general.

      This project will also give the occasion to the students and teachers to reinforce the European dimension of school education and, at the same time, to develop the European consciousness. It will help our teachers to improve pedagogical approaches and to enhance the teaching quality in Europe.  We believe that the project will increase our students’ motivation in language learning and  performing musical activities. The students will have chance to show and improve their abilities in music and also will enlarge their horizons, being eager to discover more about foreign languages and other countries' folk music.

Poland:

The main motivation for our school is:

1.Developing knowledge and practical skills of our students

2.Confrontation with students from different countries and getting familiar with their culture and folk music

3.Starting an exchange programme as our school has no previous experience in this field and we would like to change this     state and open us to Europe

4.Teaching our students an importance of foreign language skills as a tool in musicians life and profession

5.Motivating students and giving them opportunities to be creative in music and to cooperate with students from other music-oriented institutions in Europe

6.Giving our teachers an oportunity to exchange knowledge, experiance and practice with teachers from other countries and enhance the teaching quality in Europe

7.Encouraging our students and teachers to use modern communication systems to share experiences with partners in the project

PROJECT OBJECTIVES AND STRATEGY

1.Arrangement of traditional melodies of each country participating in the project (min.3).

2.An anthem of the project will be composed or arranged.

3.Each school will offer a part of their own repertoire.

4. The partners will prepare basic words and phrases from their musical activities in their own language and in English to create a musical glossary.

5.A logo of the project will be designed by art classes.

6.A web page with the blog will be drafted.

Our objectives will be reached by the following approach:

a) In the field of music

Before the meetings:step by step arranging the partners´ melodies, blending them with  own musical tradition;

Coordination of meetings:which ensembles will meet at which school,after deciding on the programme;

Rehearsing for the programme;

In music theory:adapting the curriculum to give special emphasis to the music of the partner countries and regions, by interdisciplinary approach;

During the meetings:

Performance of the music prepared at home;

Practising and performing together,using the musical glossary

b) In the field of language

Establishing the musical glossary:collecting and editing necessary and useful words and phrases translated into English;

To prepare the visits for the students,they should contact their hosts/guests;

the teachers have to prepare the dialogue with their partner colleagues, by working on their language competence;

General education schools:Papers about the partner countries (subjects e.g.history, geography, s.a. point a) will be prepared in English and published on the web side;

Documentation with subtitles in English;

c) The social interaction

In the schools:

Staff,directors,secretaries receive the information about project details;

The parents are informed about the project;

Between the schools: information about project details and perhaps problems with the project will be exchanged by ICT media and ultimately published on the website;

students will have the possibility, esp. those visiting the partners schools, to communicate individually; these strategies, plus the documentation, will improve the ICT competence of both pupils and teachers;

d) Integration into the school curricula

General education schools:

Fine arts:creation of the logo, competition between schools

Interdisciplinary teaching:historical and geographical teaching combined with music theory;

Languages and ICT:drafting and editing the glossary:

Practical class:teacher–pupil cooperation in the organisation of the projectSUMMARY

Seven European schools from Germany, Italy, Spain, Slovenia, Romania, Turkey and Poland have prepared the project   “A MUSICAL HEPTAHEDRON – METAMORPHOSIS OF TRADITIONAL MELODIES”. At the center of our project, musical activities are divided into three parts:

Part I:

1. Each partner choses a typical, traditional and very simple melody of his country or region that he sends to all the partners.

2. Each partner then arranges at his school either all melodies or a choice of these melodies according to his own musical ressources, leaving a stamp of his own musical style and tradition(s).

Part II:

A famous melody known in all countries will be chosen as an anthem for our Comenius project. This melody will be transformed by adding regional styles of each partner at the meetings taking place.

Part III:

Each school is free to prepare a part of their own repertoire for the concerts at the meetings.

By means of these activities we will follow main objectives of the project: getting an intercultural insight, learning foreign languages, exchanging pedagogical methods and developing the personalities of all participants.

To support above-mentioned objectives, we are going to design a web page, which will also enhance ICT skills of students and teachers, foster the communication between schools, as well as communication with other people interested in the project.

The musical glossary will be prepared with the basic phrases in the languages of the participating schools and in English, to help students and teachers to communicate during visits. 

The identification with the project will be encouraged also with the creation of a project logo.

The project will be integrated into our schools curriculum as well as into the bigger context of cultural life of the participants.

RATIONALE

Germany:

The motivation for the project comes from many fields:

Apart from sporadic visits to the USA, the MPG or Mellrichstadt do not have any partnership or exchange programme on European level. To change that state, the project is seen as a starting point for EU partnerships to significatly increase mobility.

As a teacher of three languages, the coordinatig teacher sees the Comenius Multilateral partnerships as a possible to start into a multilingual future, Europe having become multicentered and multilingual. The students at MPG should have the opportunity increase their language competence.

The musical classes of the MPG representing about 1/3 of the learners at this school have reached a very good level that this project should help to improve or maintain, providing motivation by showing own skills and cooperating with students from other music-oriented institutions.

Aspects of our commitment are new didactic approaches, teaching experience, influencing school management and upgraded ICT competence.

The district of Rhön-Grabfeld, situated in the north of Bavaria and close to the former German-German border can stillbe seen as rather isolated, struck by economic and institutional restructuration. The loss of jobs and the moving away of a big part of the young generation create many problems, economically and socially. The participation in that project certainly is a step to give us the opportunity to present us as competent and open to the world.

Italy:

Our students will have the possibility of a highly stimulating and innovative teaching approach that involves the development of transversal skills to use in all areas of education and teaching. The project will give the opportunity for pupils to meet and discover, beyond the differences, cultural identities that make them European citizens. We believe that the musical language is universal and that, therefore, the meeting of different cultures can be achieved through music, the study will facilitate not only the creative mix of different music styles, but opening up new cultural horizons. Teachers, comparing methods and activities with other colleagues, will be encouraged to co-operation and research of educational planning and educational courses that provide innovative teaching.Using specific software tools and Web 2.0 collaboration tools, this project will facilitate the development of digital skills. It will also be crucial for the acquisition and development of communication skills in foreign languages through direct interactions between students.

Spain:

Our motivation comes and is directly and strongly linked to two different aspects: our application as the European Capital of Culture for 2016 and the inauguration of the new school building that will host the whole educative community.

The location of Spain in the occidental corner of the continent making it difficult and limitating our chances to visit other countries, we see the Comenius project as a real possibility for us to realise exchanges between teachers and students from other countries, because it offers us financial support  (a unique chance) to work out an educative plan in such a creative and intercultural project like this.

The “Musical Polihedron, Metamorphosis of Traditional Melodies” allows our centre for the first time (pupils and teachers) to visit schools of six different countries, also to exchange experiences, to take cultural influence from everyone, to get to know other pedagogical actions linked specially to the music education, and to offer our very rich musical traditions and culture trough our own way of feeling and living by sharing with our partners our cultural highlight: the Flamenco (UNESCO Heritage of Mankind).

With the elaboration of the glossary of musical terms, words and sentences in a pedagogical context in seven languages, our students can have the possibility to get in contact with the other languages, making easier the relations and friendship during the visits. Also they can maintain this contact by using the blog.

Regarding the field of the new technologies, we consider important to give a collaboration by designing a web page that displays all the information relative to each school (compositions - anthem, melodies -, way of working, photographs, logo, etc.)

Slovenia:

On the basis of our experience with small-scale cooperation with schools  in Croatia and Czech Republic, we decided that a multilateral Comenius partnership would help us, as the first Slovenia music school,  to gain insight into the culture, general education and music education system of our partner  schools, to foster positives perceptions of national and international identities and to enhance and enrich the school curriculum in terms of its European and International elements and dimensions.

The approach “learning through experience” will give our students new useful skills  - how to work in an international team, to plan activities, to carry them out successfully and to improve  their foreign language skills as well as the use of ICT.

Our teachers will have the opportunity to expand their personal and professional horizons, to work with teachers from different European schools, to get  know different school systems and teaching methods, to share experiences, to reflect  their own work, to improve communication in a foreign language, as well as to improve the use of ICT.

At our school we believe that  project is an excellent opportunity for  students, teachers, parents and also people from the community to respect the differences among cultures, to learn from each other and to cultivate tolerance  and understanding.

Romania:

Due to our experience with a Comenius project, we find it very helpful for our students and teachers and we would like to carry on with our cooperation with European schools in form of the Comenius program. As we noticed extensive advances not only concerning the impacts on pupils and teachers, but also the effect on the school as a whole, we would like to continue with the promotion of intercultural dialogue between students of different countries and informational, digital, visual literacy of students and teachers.  Besides that, we want to stimulate our students’ consciousness for Art and its role in society and engage the students’ interest referring modern foreign languages. Moreover, it is important to teach the pupils to give equal opportunities to pupils with different economical backgrounds. Another aim is to develop a sense of solidarity, responsibility and tolerance towards other cultures and religions, as well as a sense of European democratic values. In addition, we would like to end some prejudices that sometimes exist towards some cultures or religions, caused by the lack of effective knowledge of those peoples and realities.

Turkey:

       Turkey is trying to become integrated into the European Union. This project will help us to increase and develop the general and concrete knowledge of European countries, their cultures, languages and precious traditions. The project will enable the partner schools to learn more about our culture and tradition. It will give opportunity to both students and teachers to create international work teams and thanks to mobility for students and staff, this project will contribute to the improvement of students’ knowledge of English as well as their language and ICT skills in general.

      This project will also give the occasion to the students and teachers to reinforce the European dimension of school education and, at the same time, to develop the European consciousness. It will help our teachers to improve pedagogical approaches and to enhance the teaching quality in Europe.  We believe that the project will increase our students’ motivation in language learning and  performing musical activities. The students will have chance to show and improve their abilities in music and also will enlarge their horizons, being eager to discover more about foreign languages and other countries' folk music.

Poland:

The main motivation for our school is:

1.Developing knowledge and practical skills of our students

2.Confrontation with students from different countries and getting familiar with their culture and folk music

3.Starting an exchange programme as our school has no previous experience in this field and we would like to change this     state and open us to Europe

4.Teaching our students an importance of foreign language skills as a tool in musicians life and profession

5.Motivating students and giving them opportunities to be creative in music and to cooperate with students from other music-oriented institutions in Europe

6.Giving our teachers an oportunity to exchange knowledge, experiance and practice with teachers from other countries and enhance the teaching quality in Europe

7.Encouraging our students and teachers to use modern communication systems to share experiences with partners in the project

PROJECT OBJECTIVES AND STRATEGY

1.Arrangement of traditional melodies of each country participating in the project (min.3).

2.An anthem of the project will be composed or arranged.

3.Each school will offer a part of their own repertoire.

4. The partners will prepare basic words and phrases from their musical activities in their own language and in English to create a musical glossary.

5.A logo of the project will be designed by art classes.

6.A web page with the blog will be drafted.

Our objectives will be reached by the following approach:

a) In the field of music

Before the meetings:step by step arranging the partners´ melodies, blending them with  own musical tradition;

Coordination of meetings:which ensembles will meet at which school,after deciding on the programme;

Rehearsing for the programme;

In music theory:adapting the curriculum to give special emphasis to the music of the partner countries and regions, by interdisciplinary approach;

During the meetings:

Performance of the music prepared at home;

Practising and performing together,using the musical glossary

b) In the field of language

Establishing the musical glossary:collecting and editing necessary and useful words and phrases translated into English;

To prepare the visits for the students,they should contact their hosts/guests;

the teachers have to prepare the dialogue with their partner colleagues, by working on their language competence;

General education schools:Papers about the partner countries (subjects e.g.history, geography, s.a. point a) will be prepared in English and published on the web side;

Documentation with subtitles in English;

c) The social interaction

In the schools:

Staff,directors,secretaries receive the information about project details;

The parents are informed about the project;

Between the schools: information about project details and perhaps problems with the project will be exchanged by ICT media and ultimately published on the website;

students will have the possibility, esp. those visiting the partners schools, to communicate individually; these strategies, plus the documentation, will improve the ICT competence of both pupils and teachers;

d) Integration into the school curricula

General education schools:

Fine arts:creation of the logo, competition between schools

Interdisciplinary teaching:historical and geographical teaching combined with music theory;

Languages and ICT:drafting and editing the glossary:

Practical class:teacher–pupil cooperation in the organisation of the project

RESULTS AND OUTCOMES

Design of the project logo – 12/2011

Construction of the project website offering information about our objectives, school profiles and programme – 12/2011

Creation and maintenance of a blog for the communication between the participants – 12/1011

Creation of a musical glossary – 5/2012

Arrangement of traditional melodies of each country participating in the project. Each school should arrange at least three. – 2011-2013

An anthem of the project will be created. The melody which will be selected for the anthem will be transformed by adding regional styles of each partner at the meeting that take place during the project period. - 2011-2013

Mobilities, where the music prepared by each school will be presented. - 2011-2013

Creation of DVD and CD as a documentation of the project .- 2011-2013

Integration of the project into the curriculum of the individual schools. - 2011-2013

Evaluation of the project by or in the partner schools. - 2011-2013