Proposal for an optional curricullum

A Piece of European Treasure

I. Curricular areas involved :

1.Languages and communication (national languages, English)
2.People and society (history, geography, biology,ecology,religion)
3.Arts.Technology (ICT)

II. Argument

One of the main values that guide human life in the era of globalization is creating a favorable environment for a sustainable development based on the balance between man and nature, the harmony between social needs and economy and cultural activities.

This proposal for an optionally curriculum is inspired by the activities developed during implementation of the Comenius 2008-2010 multilateral project "European Journey through Legends" developed under the European LLP programme frame. This curriculum is a highly interdisciplinary one, and can be used for expanding students' knowledge in natural sciences, geography, history, civics,  Romanian, Polish, Greek, Turkish, Italian, Spanish but also English language and literature, art, and technology. The proposed activities are practical, and those allow to combine physical labor with intellectual development and contribute to the moral, aesthetic and vocational development of students.

Human impact on the environment must be determined by the idea of maintaining balance in nature. In this sense, knowledge of the landscape is important as a basic feature of this interaction. By focusing on this issue we will contribute to knowledge, to preserve and to sustain the development of European landscapes. In terms of teaching the landscape is very interesting  and can be used as a source of a modern and interdisciplinary approach.

The opportunities to enact feelings, human emotions and to arouse children's fantasy and creative spirit, make them actively participate in educational activities, are endless. For child this is a fun, but for an adult this is an opportunity to watch how the child's personality develop, an opportunity to stimulate and to influence the development of his personality. 

The artistically moments prepared and played during the activities of this curriculum can contribute to educating the feelings of friendship, the spirit of mutual assistance, the perseverance, honesty, initiating students as the filmmakers/ actors/ spectators. Working in teams, students will develop and will show their inclinations and skills,  will gain confidence in their capabilities. Talking in terms of personality,children can be known who they are, they can change themselves, (re)form and complete each others. 

This curriculum's aims are the training of children to have a wide general knowledge, to be able to understand the world around them, to communicate and to interact with peers by expressing thoughts, moods, feelings, opinions, to be sensitive and to use effectively their creative skills, to be able to preserve and to create beauty around them. 

III. General competences:

• Preservation of European heritage through developing the artistically skills of pupils into a non-formal educational environment.
• Valorisation of European cultural treasure through acknowledging the bio-geographical and historical reality
• Improving the pupils abilities to preserve or enhance the natural environment facilitating pupils’ implication into ecological activities and to developing a positive attitude regarding ecological issues
• Increasing pupils’ tolerance for the cultural, historical, religious and linguistically diversity 

IV.Values and Attitudes

• Develop interdisciplinary skills for systematization of information;
• Awareness of cultural identity and membership in the European community and broadening students' horizons by opening of the world;
• Training of the spirit of active citizenship and of belonging to common European values;
• Improving the skill of teamwork.
• Open to current problems of Europe and the world that concerns the social dimension, its cultural and development, playing a role in decisions at community level, forming a responsible civic attitudes towards elements of environmental degradation in the local community. 

V. Content table/ lessons units 

1. Myths and mythology

• Let's talk about myths
• Greek mythology
• European mythology: Zeugma, Romanian Mythology

Evaluation session: Where are you myths?

Reflection session: Diet and Myths

2.European historical legends

The legends of European buildings, places

• The legends of the fortresses Șoimoș, Șiria, Dezna
• The legends from Urfa
• The legend of Gaziantep Castle

Women in history

• Matilde din Canossa

The outlaws' justice spirit

• Serralonga

Legend vs. reality

• Dracula
• Boruta
• Legend About King Popiel

Faith and destiny

• Saint Cugat story
• La Morenetta- the Black Virgin story
• The legend of Saint George
• The story of Abraham

The legends of national flags

• The Polish White Eagle
• The Legend of Catalan Flag
• La Citta del Tricolore
• The legend of Romanian Tricolour
• The story of Turkish Flag

Evaluation session: Connecting the past with the future 

 3. European Bio-geographical Legends

The legends of the landforms

• The myth of the creation of mountains and of the forests
• The Retezat Mountain Legend
• The Legend of Mount Găina
• The Legend of Scărișoara Cave

The legends of the waters

• The legend of Rivers Mureș and Olt
• The legend of Red Lake 

The legends of the towns

• The Warsaw Siren
• The story of the Momac Fountain
• Miss Piotrkowska

The legends of the being

• The legends of bee and of the spider
• The legend of violet
• Aesop's myths
• Miorița

The spirits of the lands

• The Vâlva
• The Water Ladies

 Evaluation session : Folklore and environment

 4. European Tales, European Folkstories and European traditions

The drawer with tales and stories

• Ferhat and Şirin
• Mrs. Twardowska
• Azurina
• Nasreddin Hodja

Traditions - priceless values of local and European culture

• The newborn 3 fates
• Mărțișor
• Dragobete
• The Merry Cemetery
• The story of the bread of Pecica
• The Maiden Fair on Găina Mountain
• The story of a lifetime: The Ethnographic Museum of Flutur Family
• Caroling across Europe
• Nazar Boncugu

Evaluation session : Once upon a time in Europe

VI. Methodology 

The activities will be organised as a non-formal and multi-subjects teaching, based on the projects’ method, through extracurricular activities such as trips, didactic visits, cultural activities. The idea of the curriculum  is based on the project developing approach.

Through this curriculum it could be possible to  enhance pupils' knowledge about national and European culture, history and geography by stimulation of motivation of learning through a non-formal topic learning. The pupils will be challenged to find and to relive the legends, myths and folklore stories. They will have to make essays about the topics proposed to be researched during the project implementation. The lessons will be organised in a such way to achieve all proposed objectives, and the pedagogical approaches will be drama games, role play and improvisation. During the activities from this curriculum it could be possible to organize recreated and socialization’s activities, in order the students would spend their free time in collaboration with school (visiting local touristy objectives, trips). The parents and the local community’s members will participate into these activities. Education in/and for modern age has set up a whole new set of challenges. Tested and time proven methods of education had to be replaced with something much more dynamic. New technologies break all barriers – social and geographical and demand of education systems to revise its practices. We will organized active lessons in schools and between partners’ schools by using ICT tools. Revising of the point of view above of the preserving or enhance of the environment will be done by addressing those problems:

• Improving pupils’ knowledge regarding the environment protection
• Keeping and preservation of the natural’s resources

Through diverse and adventurous outdoor lessons we intend to increase pupils’ interest for the nature, to promote a civilized tourism with the preservation of environmental equilibrium, respecting ecological criteria. During outdoor lessons, the pupils will be aware of the problems regarding the preservation and amelioration of the polluted areas into clean places.

Evaluation (assessments) will be done in an innovative way, in a non-formal framework through the staging of knowledge acquired by students during the study themes proposed in this curriculum. In addition, students will have to develop the (digital) portfolio of each of the four projects:

1.Myths and mythology
2.European historical legends
3.European Bio-geographical Legends
4.European Tales, European Folkstories and European traditions

More information about the pedagogical approaches: - click here

VII. The Digital Textbook: - click here

VIII. Webography:

http://euro-schools.blogspot.com/
http://six4europe.webs.com/vdc.htm
http://portofoliionline.webs.com/

Empowering teaching process

The teacher's role has changed in recent years. There has been a shift of emphasis from instructional techniques to developing learning techniques. Our role is no longer that of the "sage on the stage". Today our role leans more towards facilitator or "guide on the side". Our role is to increase student motivation and develop the skills or strategies that make a student more competent and to structure the learning environment so that students are able to take ownership of their own learning. Fortunately, many of the strategies that "empower" and "engage" students also lead to increased motivation.

Strategies For Enhancing Motivation

There are many strategies for motivating students. However, any one technique may not be appropriate for all students at the same time nor effective for even one student for extended periods of time.

1. Challenge Them

Offer student opportunities to undertake real challenges. Encourage them to take intellectual risks. This gives students an opportunity to discover the relationship between effort and success, between success and motivation, and to develop higher self-concept. If the students do not see the need to make an effort they sometimes will not bother to make one. Even brilliant students are not motivated to achieve if the work is too easy. Gifted behaviours are often not evident until the student is actually being challenged. Most children are excited by a challenge if they have the strategies that they need to succeed.

2. Build on Strengths First

Building on strengths first give students an opportunity to use their talents to achieve success by developing their strengths. While they are engaged in these successful tasks we can help them to learn how to improve other skills (teach to specific needs) in an environment where the child cares about doing a good job. Failure is unmotivating. Success is motivating when students understand why they are succeeding and are able to develop their confidence and competence.

3. Offer Choices

Offering choices develops ownership. When the child makes decisions he or she is more likely to accept ownership & control of the results. This sense of control fosters responsibility. When the control belongs to the teacher so does the ownership. However, always offer choices that are equally acceptable in your eyes.

4. Provide a Secure Environment

Permit children to fail without penalty. Learning how to deal with failure is critical for developing motivation and successful learning. Students should learn that they can and must learn from their mistakes. Fear of failure sometimes causes students to deliberately sabotage their own efforts because deliberate failure is easier to accept than the failures to which they fall victim. (No control is equated with being powerless.)

5. Teach Them How to Make Their Tasks More Manageable

Narrowing or broadening the topic to a challenging but manageable size is very important for developing motivation. However, it is not just sufficient for us to just give them manageable activities. Not only is this is an essential problem solving strategy, but it is also an essential life skill. Children need to know how they can make their own activities more manageable. Even the most challenging tasks can be made more manageable by breaking them down into smaller parts and then prioritizing the steps. As each small part is achieved a measure of success is attained. As the successes mount up students begin to recognize their own enthusiasm for learning.

6. Use Rewards & Punishment with caution

Although there are appropriate places in education for both rewards and punishment, they are both external factors that can rob students of personal control. Obviously there must be consequences for different kinds of behaviors, and real success needs some kind of recognition or attention. However, both rewards and punishment can be negative factors in developing intrinsic motivation. Rewards cause students to work for the wrong reasons. Punishment often fosters resentment and lack of co-operation. When rewards are external factors, motivation is also external and it will only apply when monitored externally.

Rewards are most effective when used with lower ability or unmotivated students when the rewards is used for a short time only.

• Never use rewards over a long period.
• Never increase the reward for increased expectations.
• Decrease the rewards as soon as they begin to become effective. Long use only reinforces the external control.

The real reward for good work must eventually become the satisfaction derived from effort and success.

7. Help Students Develop An Internal Locus Of Control

Locus of control is closely related to motivation. Students who feel they have the power to control some events in their lives are more likely to become self motivated than students who see themselves as powerless. If they don't believe they have any power/control over the events in their lives ... then everything that goes wrong is someone else's fault, not theirs.

8. Avoid Power Struggles

Poorly motivated students are often very manipulative. Avoid power struggles whenever possible, and never get into a power struggle unless you have the means to win. Choose your battles. Children who engage in power struggles also need to be offered choices, but the choices must always be limited to the ones that you find acceptable.

9. Use Ambiguity Occasionally

Give children opportunities to learn strategies for dealing with ambiguity and or frustration. Some children are convinced that every question has only one right answer. Help them realize that there is often more than one right method or answer. If they see all questions as being either right or wrong they will probably see themselves as being good when they are right and bad when they are wrong. This doesn't leave much room for motivation.

Brainstorming with someone else is an excellent strategy for looking for alternative interpretations of and solutions to the problem of ambiguity. Frustration can be motivating when you have problem solving strategies and you see problems as something to be solved rather than to be avoided.

10. Offer Open-ended Activities to Develop Creativity

Give them opportunities and strategies to develop their creativity. Students perform with higher motivation when their creativity is engaged. Challenge students to construct original & creative products to support their written reports.

11. Teach Students to Evaluate Themselves

Self-evaluation needs to address the questions: "What was done well?" & "How can it be improved?" It is far more powerful for students to recognize the answers to these questions than it is for them to be told the answers. Student self-evaluation is often difficult for the first few attempts. Students want to achieve a high evaluation but are reluctant to "brag" about their success.

12. Attention Seeking Behaviors

Unmotivated students frequently seek adult attention. They can actively demand attention or passively demand attention, and the attention they seek can be either negative or positive attention. Positive adult attention can be a highly motivating factor but only if it is earned by reasonable effort. It can reinforce poor motivation if it is overdone or given for the wrong reasons. The child who is motivated by excessive praise may do very little when the praise is absent. Negative attention for some children is just as satisfying as positive attention and in fact if they are used to a great deal of negative attention it may be more comfortable because it is so familiar. Difficult as it is, ignoring demanding attention seeking behaviors is sometimes more effective than giving negative attention. However, positive attention should be used to reinforce acceptable behaviors.

Passive students are the most difficult to motivate because they tend to waste their energy trying to get others to feel sorry for them. They refuse to take risks, sometimes sabotaging their own efforts to prove they deserve our pity. It is important to recognize these behaviors and guard against compounding the problem by being too sympathetic. Sympathy only convinces these students that they really do have a problem. It is important to recognize the moment when these students actually make some progress and to give the appropriate attention at that moment. They should receive a positive attention response any time they take a risk or make an effort.

13. Competition

Competition can enhance or reduce motivation depending on how it is used. It is good for some, but it may result in a few winners and many losers. Unmotivated and or underachieving students often have difficulty dealing with defeat. Until they are ready to cope with defeat it is more productive to encourage students to compete against their own performance rather than with someone else's. Competing against oneself under controlled conditions means that everyone wins. Use the clock. Time their performance for 1 minute, estimate what can be accomplished in 5 minutes. And challenge them to beat their own record over a longer time span. Gradually increase the time factor and expectations. You can challenge students to compete against their own performance in the quantity and quality of their productivity, within a specific time frame or it can be used to increase on-task behavior or decrease inappropriate behavior. In fact most criteria which can be used to evaluate progress can be used for a student to compete against his/her own previous performance.

The long term goal is to teach children to loose gracefully and use defeat as motivation to improve. Eventually students must be encouraged to see "failure" as a positive experience. Every loss in competition and every failed attempt is an opportunity to learn what can be improved.

14. Students Need To Understand The Relevance Of All Their School Activities

Students who do not understand the relevance of a school activity are not usually motivated to accomplish it unless they are motivated to please the teacher. (External motivation.) Clearly establish the expected goal and required method. Let the students know the benefits that will be realized.

15. Perfectionism - Is It Good or Bad?

Perfectionism goes beyond trying to do ones best. Perfectionism is getting hung-up on being perfect. Students need to take pride in their work but perfectionists allow their fear of making a mistake to inhibit progress. It can be seen in the child who keeps erasing everything, or keeps starting over making slow progress or not finishing. It can sometimes be seen in the child who procrastinates too much, forgets homework or loses work rather than admit it is not perfect.

These children need to learn that completing work on time is more important than being perfect, attempting is more important than succeeding, and failure is an opportunity to learn. Students need to see us (teachers and parents) making mistakes occasionally. We need to model and demonstrate the process of learning and recovering from our mistakes.

And we, as teachers need to remember that if it can be done perfectly, it is probably too easy. If it is perfect they are probably practicing (rehearsing) previously acquired knowledge or skills and may be learning nothing new at all.

16. Reinforce Required Strategies

One reason students have difficulty sustaining their motivation when working independently is because they either don't understand or don't remember the required strategies. Never assume a student knows how to do something independently unless you see it demonstrated.

Also children can sometimes remember all of the steps within a required strategy and still not understand why they are doing them. Conversely they can understand the strategy but forget the steps or the sequence involved. As Graham Foster has often said: "Just because it's been taught, doesn't mean it's been caught."

The strategy therefore is to make sure that the skills required for an independent task are readily available when a student is expected to apply them. This can be done by oral review, by have students keep a note book on skills and strategies, or by using posters and skill charts on the walls. When a student appears unmotivated to work independently have him/her demonstrate that he knows what to do. Verbalizing instructions means they remember the steps, it does not necessarily mean they know how to do them.

17. Teach A Variety Of Organizational Strategies

Students need to know that there are countless numbers of effective organizational strategies. Initially it may be sufficient to have at least one effective method. However, as teachers we need to remember that non-sequential organization is not necessarily disorganized. Some children are very organized but they may be non-sequential or non- linear in their thought patterns. For these children a linear sequence of steps 1-10 may be inhibiting. They may be confused by what seems to be a logical sequence for a sequential thinker. A variety of organizational strategies encourages students to build on the strength of their own thinking style, and they will develop an arsenal of strategies to chose from. Eventually they will learn to vary the strategy to suit the requirements of the task.

18. Role Models

Some apparently unmotivated student are not really unmotivated but are motivated to follow an inappropriate model. For example a significant person in their life might be demonstrating the role of "drop-out", "non-academic", "unsuccessful" or the "I didn't need to work because I was so clever or because it is boring " type. These students need a positive role model. Parents should be encouraged to fill this role, or an uncle, aunt, brother sister or even... the teacher.

Teachers can become role models for students. We can demonstrate being an effective writer, an independent learner, a good loser etc. When time permits it is highly effective to model quality work by rewriting a few of their sentences or brief note facts (jot-notes) and ask them to decide which is better and why.

19. Differentiate Instruction with Tiered Assignments or Layered Curriculum techniques

Differentiated Instruction is another good way to empower and motivate students. Students are very much aware how ability levels differ in the average classroom. Ask any student who in their class required enrichment or who reeds extra help and they can tell you. In my experience they can also easily identify other students performing at the same ability level as themselves. With this awareness comes an understanding that a single classroom activity can simultaneously be too difficult for some students and too easy for others. Once the issue of "what is fair" has been clarified students comfortably adapt to the idea of tiered assignments or Layered curriculum activities. However, it is necessary to make it clear that treating all students the same is not

20. Scaffolding

Scaffolding relates to the supportive role that a teacher undertakes to ensure success in activities where a student is being challenged. By consistent evaluation of student work teachers can provide just-in-time small group instruction to facilitate students being able to perform effectively at a level above that which they handle independently. It is important to remember that if a student can succeed thoroughly independently then he/she is only practicing something that has already been learned and the student is not being challenged to construct new meaning in the learning process. When encouraging students to stretch and take on greater challenges it is important the the teacher provide the structure and guidance to make the learning successful. Scaffolding for Success

21. Use Computers

Most students are intrigued by computers. Applications such as Word Processors, Desktop Publishing Programs and Authoring programs permit students to revise and edit their work many times without the tedious process of rewriting it over and over. The computer produces a neat and attractive presentation which encourages students to take greater pride in the quality of their work.

Computer Programming provide opportunities to develop excellent problem solving & higher level thinking skills, as well as to develop persistence and tolerance for frustration (essential attitudes for good problem solving.) This is a particularly valuable activity for some high ability students who need an interesting challenge.

Developing quality presentations using authoring software, or presentation software, such as PowerPoint, is also highly motivating for students. It may be necessary to allow the students to experiment with all the sounds, animations, transitions and special effects the first time they use the program. However, we need to guide student in the practice of using special effect in moderation to emphasize only the most important points.

Equally motivating (and not nearly as difficult as some teachers may think) developing web pages to present student work is one of the most highly motivating activities. If Internet access is a concern, Web pages can be run right off a disk for viewing only from within the classroom with a single (possibly portable) computer, or they can be posted on the Internet for all of the world to see. Developing computer skills frequently motivates students to want to produce high quality work, especially when their work is on view for parents.

In conclusion, some main effects of technology on classrooms are:

• increase students' motivation and their self esteem
• develop students' technical skills
• accomplishment of more complex tasks
• more collaboration between students

(quotation from http://members.shaw. ca)