Rechercher des projets européens

Améliorer le niveau des enseignants en langues et la mise en place de la pédagogie de projets
Date du début: 1 juin 2014, Date de fin: 31 mai 2016 PROJET  TERMINÉ 

Our initial project was based on the opening of an experimental class "erasmus" for students in their first year of high school. Our objective was to provide equal opportunities to students upon entering high school. A lot of students who attend our school have a high standard of education and many of them are enrolled in optional courses (SEA - a European section in which history and geography are taught in English; SEE - a European section in which biology is taught in Spanish). But those who have a poor standard of education are, generally, not involved in any kind of projects, hence our goal was to have students of both poor and good standards of education working together, helping and stimulating one another on an internationally-oriented project. Unfortunately our project was not validated by our local educational office, however by making several adjustments we were able to turn our initial project into an EDEX, which is an official multidisciplinary course for those students in their first year of high school. This multidisciplinary course implied the collaboration of an economics teacher, a math teacher, a history and geography teacher, a biology teacher, an engineering teacher and an English teacher. Throughout this course we were able to maintain our initial targets and our primary focus on sustainable development. This experience sparked innovative activities: a blog was created on twinspace, featuring illustrations and descriptions in English of plants indigenous to Reunion Island. our students' final task was an oral presentation of the work they did during the year and also the opportunity to present their work to their parents and other students. This included a tour of our school's arboretum and the school's photovoltaic system. This not only enabled to raise our students' awareness to sustainable practices but it also helped to improve their level of English. School trips were arranged to create a link between the sustainability-based activities done in class and the students' local environment. The first trip was to Reunion's National Park (which is part of the UESCO World Heritage Centre) and the second trip was to the sugar cane factory (Usine du Gol) which also produces electricity and a power plant in the western part of the island. Thanks to twinspace our students exchanged with students of a middle school in Switzerland (Collège de Vevey), and an ebook was created listing the endangered species in Reunion Island and Switzerland. Unfortunately this multidisciplinary course had to be canceled after a year because some of the teachers sustained health issues. Despite this setback our school rallied by capitalizing on the dynamics created by the mobility of teachers. Our school is part of the UNESCO network and is eager to adopt an internationally-oriented perspective, innovative teaching and exchanges with other European cultures. The mobility of several teachers provided them the opportunity to not only improve their language skills but also to become more creative professionals who are able to design lessons that are more stimulating and challenging. The Teacher training courses broadened the participants' outlook on their teaching but also provided many opportunities for exchanges with other European participants that were were valuable and useful. This triggered a wave of enthusiasm in our school, here are a few examples: Several Czech teachers met in Exeter came to our school to acquire a job shadowing work experience. A project based on virtual exchanges between our students and students from the North of Italy. A project in which students can engage in the Amateur Radio on the International Space Station, or ARISS. This project came to be after the lecture given by those in charge of mission Rosetta, Jean-Pierre Lebreton and the astronaut, Jean-Jacques Flavier. Some teachers who have a certification that entitles them to teach a subject in a foreign language (certification DNL) intend to teach math, philosophy and engineering in English. This year the engineering teacher was able to follow up on the skills acquired during the teacher training course by supervising a group of students who took part in a competition based on innovative technology. During the competition he was able to help students in their exchanges with a private Australian Lab. Thanks to this outstanding work our students even won several prizes. Unfortunately not all teacher mobility allocations were fulfilled. Out of the 10 allotted, six teachers were able to enroll on a teacher training course. The reason lies in the opening of a new European section which was time-consuming for those Spanish teachers who were initially designated for some of the mobility allocations. The results brought about by the participation in the teacher training program are highly positive and will undoubtedly continue to trigger new incentives and innovative ideas in our school.

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