The first year of our partnership is ending and with this report we'll sum up our activities, and their results, opinions of the participants and our dissemination activities.
Period: 1 September 2015 – 31 July 2016
1. Activities
By the end of June 2016 the following activities have been carried out:
a) In October 2015 our first project meeting took place in Pistoia, Italy. The main objectives of the meeting were:
• for all the partners to meet and become acquainted with the project in detail,
• to discuss future activities carried out in all three schools,
• to discuss the first Learning and Teaching Activity that will take place in Italy in February,
• to discuss the dissemination activities,
• to discuss the financial rules of the project and our contracts with the national agencies,
• to finish the questionnaire for teachers and students participating in the project.
The meeting was attended by 3 teaches from Slovenia and 3 teaches from Bulgaria, as planned.
b) In November 2015 the participating students and teachers were asked to answer a questionnaire regarding the students’ previous knowledge, their expectations for the project, and their wishes for the continuation of the career in the artistic field.
Download questionnaire results students
Download questionnaire results teachers
c) In November and December 2015 our project’s webpage was set up, as well as our project’s facebook profile and Twinspace.
d) In December 2015 the first student’s activity was finished: the creation of the project’s logo. 45 students from Italy worked on their logos, 34 students from Slovenia handed in their logos and 40 students in Bulgaria finished the logos. This activity was carried out according to professional standards. A tender was issued describing all the requirements and the winning logo was chosen after two rounds of selection: the first round in each school and the second round in international selection.
e) In January and in February 2016 the students were working on the next activity: “An Eye to the Future” they decided which objects defined them the most as artists and human beings, and envisioned what archaeologists or art historians might think of our civilization 500 years from now; their focus was on national identity and cultural background. Work was carried out in different techniques: painting, posters, modelling, video film, short story writing, portfolios of students’ works, postcards, collage. A selection of works from all 3 schools was gathered in a digital brochure.
f) From 22 February – 26 February 2016 our first Short-term Student Exchange was taking place in Pistoia, Italy. The participating 7 students and 2 teachers from Bulgaria and 6 students and 2 teachers from Slovenia had an opportunity to get to know their peers and colleagues from the hosting school. During 5 working days the students learned how to create a self promotional digital book. They learned about the art in the Renaissance period and got to know how contemporary art is now produced and used for private and public benefit. During their visit of the local Chamber of Commerce they learned about the importance of copyright protection of original works.
Opinions of the students:
Lea Vidmar (3rd year student of Secondary school of design and photography, Ljubljana):
Erasmus + Student exchange in Pistoia, 2016
I was a part of Slovenian student group in the Erasmus + student exchange, which happened in the end of February, 2016. I gained new experiences, met new friends and found a lot of inspiration.
In my opinion, all the planned activities were interesting, informative and very beneficial. One of the main activities of the exchange was to create a digital portfolio. I think this is very important, since we started working on documenting our work, which will come in handy (maybe in choosing future study or later in finding our employment). We worked with Photoshop and InDesign, programs I’ve never used before. That was interesting and useful, since these two programs are essentials for digital creation of art.
Large parts of the timetable were also different classes. I found the class about Art and Nature the most interesting and inspiring. It motivated me to work more on personal projects. The class about Italian Renaissance was also very pleasant and helpful. I also liked the class about Photography, where we flew over history of photography and did some practical work with camera obscura. It was fun.
For me, the best part of the week was our common trip to Florence. We visited the Uffizi Gallery, The Academia Gallery and also some other city attractions. It was a real pleasure to see all these incredible masterpieces in person.
We also explored Pistoia thoroughly. We visited Marino Marini museum, The Chamber of Commerce, Biblioteca San Giorgio and different Romanesque churches. I found that interesting as well.
Overall, I have a very positive impression of the Erasmus + exchange. I’ve experienced many new things and was motivated to learn and create more that I did before. Generally I gained a lot.
Opinion of the Bulgarian students Yordanka Papalezova, Neda Angelova, Radin Rossenov, Svetlin Berkov, Zdravko Sirakov, Ralitsa Vatseva Ivan Stefanov:
During the week we spent in Italy, we met new friends, ancient cultures and new knowledge in technology connecting people and art in contemporary society.
We were warmly welcomed by selected students of architecture at the local school of arts. Our trip was extremely valuable to our cultural and international knowledge related to the local Italian culture. Besides culturally enriched, we were extremely impressed by the local cuisine and the public temperament.
Our meeting with young people from third country- Slovenia was great. Established social contacts gave us an idea of the development of modern and future European culture. The lecture given by Marko Turk on Camera Obscura was deduced theoretically and practically, in a creative way, bringing together a brief history of photography demonstration and opportunity for personal contact camera used by top photographers and Renaissance artists. Thus, place and theme united and set the lecture in the right place.
The second lecture was held on the history of Renaissance art. It was presented by excellent local teacher. The last third lecture was global "Land Art" by lecturer impressed with informative presentation and superb level of English.
We spent a wonderful week in a country new to all of us.
Download: Evaluation questionnaire: Pistoia pdf
g) In April 2016 our second Project Meeting took place in Ljubljana, Slovenia. The main objectives of the meeting were:
• to analyse the activities carried out so far,
• to analyse the evaluation questionnaires,
• to plan our future activities that should be carried out by the end of the school year,
• to discuss the second Learning and Teaching Activity that will take place in Slovenia in September 2016,
• to talk about the dissemination activities,
• to talk about the dates of our last project meeting and learning and teaching activitiy that will take place in Sofia.
The meeting was attended by 2 teaches and the head teacher from Italy and 2 teaches, the head teacher and the accountant from Bulgaria.
h) »My Hobby – My Profession« was our last activity in this school year. Students tried to turn their hobbies into business ideas. They created logos, illustrations, blogs, power point presentations, texts.
2. Results
a) Tangible results:
• project logo (In Italy 45 logos were created, in Bulgaria 40 and in Slovenia 34)
• project website: http://ssof.si/raiseanartist/index.php
The website for this project was created by an IT teacher from the Slovenian school. We use it to publish all relevant informations for the partner schools and all the partisipants, results of the activities, links to the students' works, reports, pictures etc. All three partner schools contribute to the content and the Slovenian coordinator edits it.
Here is the statistics of the webpage by June 2016:
HitsPage:
1 201 Project logo (December 2015) (Alias: activities)
Category: Activities
2 154 KA2 – What Does It Take to Raise an Artist? (Alias: raise-an-artist)
Category: Home
3 83 Pistoia, Italy, 22nd February – 26th February 2016 (Alias: italy-2016)
Category: students exc italy 2016
4 80 An Eye to the Future (January 2016) (Alias: an-eye-to-the-future-january-2016)
Category: Activities
5 74 Ljubljana, Slovenia, 19th September - 25th September 2016 (Alias: slovenia-2016)
Category: students exc slovenia 2016
6 63 Pistoia, Italy, 26th October 2015 - 30th October 2015 (Alias: pistoia-italy-26th-october-2015-30th-october-2015)
Category: Meeting Italy 2015
7 60 Ljubljana, Slovenia, 20th April - 22nd April 2016 (Alias: ljubljana-slovenia-april-2016)
Category: Meeting Slovenia 2016
8 50 Partner schools (Alias: partner-schools)
Category: Partners
9 45 Sofia, Bulgaria, January 2017 (Alias: sofia-bulgaria-january-2017)
Category: Meeting Bulgaria 2017
10 44 Dissemination Bulgaria (Alias: dissemination-bulgaria)
Category: dis_bulgaria
11 44 Sofia, Bulgaria, 27th March - 31st March 2017 (Alias: bulgaria-2017)
Category: students exc bulgaria 2017
12 42 Description of the project (Alias: description-of-the-project)
Category: Project description
13 42 Dissemination Slovenia (Alias: dissemination-slovenia)
Category: dis_slovenia
14 26 News (Alias: news)
Category: Home
15 21 Dissemination Italy (Alias: dissemination-italy-2)
Category: dis_italy
16 18 What Does It Take to Raise an Artist? (Alias: raise-an-artist-2)
Category: Home
17 10 My hobby, my profession (June 2016) (Alias: my-hobby-my-profession-june-2016)
Category: Activities
18 7 Project logo (December 2015) (2) (Alias: activities-2)
Category: Activities
TOTAL HITS: 1020
• project's facebook profile https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100010683015265
The facebook profile has 211 members.
• project's eTwinning page
https://twinspace.etwinning.net/15126/home
• project's youtube channel
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnV-36-UNwS8Q_yjoPDxd0A
• school corners dedicated to Erasmus+
• bags with the project's logo printed during the Students' Mobility to Italy
• OER brochure »An Eye to the Future«
• 8 video films posted on youtube channel
• 29 postcards
• 17 digital portfolios (power point presentations, pdf files)
• 43 blogs
• Europass cetificates after the mobility to Italy
• 222 students answered the questionnaire regarding their previous knowledge, their expectations for the project, and their wishes for the continuation of the career in the artistic field.
• 12 teachers answered the questionnaire regarding their expectations for the project.
b) Intangible results:
• increased competence in English
• increased interest in learning other foreign languages
• increased level of digital competence
• greater understanding of social, linguistic and cultural diversity,
• more positive attitude towards the European projects and EU values
• broader understanding of practices and educational systems across countries
• increased motivation and satisfaction of students
• increased motivation of those students who usually struggle with regular attendance to school
3. Evaluation
The activities that were carried out were planned in such a way that they could be included in the students' curricula. The teachers who carried them out are qualified professionals who assessed their students' works and progress.
In the beginning of the project the participating students were surveyed about their prior knowledge. This way we could identify what the students know coming in so we can identify more sprecifically the knowledge and skills they have gained during the project. We pla to use the same set of questions in the end of the project to see the progress the students have made.
The students participating in the students' exchanges also wrote reports about their experience and answered a questionnaire about it.
4. Dissemination
For dissemination inside the schools we used these methods:
• project corners in our schools to inform all the students and exhibit the students' creations,
• school magazines,
• school's websites,
• schools' facebook pages,
• presentations of the project meetings and the students' exchange in teachers' meetings, in School Open Days and in students' lectures.
For dissemination at local and international level we used these methods:
• project's web page,
• project's facebook profile,
• project's youtube channel,
• project's Twinspace,
• articles on school's official web pages,
• posts on schools' facebook pages,
• press releases.
Download dissemination report pdf