DEBATING across Europe for Life Skills

CONTEXT/BACKGROUNDSix schools, from Bulgaria, Greece, Italy, Portugal, Romania, Spain are involved in the project; Italy is the applicant school. All the schools are comprehensive and students are of different age. Students who take part are 12-14. Bulgaria, Italy, Portugal and Spain have already participated in an Erasmus project in the last 3 years, Greece hasn't taken part in an Erasmus project in the last 3 years,Romania has never taken part in any Erasmus project.Italy has got an eTwinning school label.NUMBER AND PROFILE OF THE PARTICIPANTSStudents directly involved in the mobilities are about 150 and the teachers who will take part in them are about 80. They can cooperate during the meeting and once they come back to their classes, they share their cultural and educational experience.All the teachers and students from the 6 European schools will be part of the project because everybody will work on the different project activities and they will keep in touch via eTwinning platform, Skype, emails and letters.OBJECTIVESDemocratic citizenship is a skill, and skills need to be learned. Not so many schools teach their pupils how they could have a voice in their society, and why it is important. Through debates we will create an environment which will offer students education, training, dissemination, information, practices and activities whose aim is to empower them to practise and defend their democratic rights and responsibilities in the society, to value diversity and to play an active part in democratic life. They will be good critical thinkers and will be able to find solutions to problems in every aspect of their lives.Debates bring a new culture of tolerance, empathy, active and creative learning, participation and confidence when facing new challenges. Collaboration and cooperation with other schools will provide students with the feeling of being European citizens in an active way and will enrich their lives forever as an essential part of their personal development.Teachers will have the opportunity to enrich their theoretical background, examine examples of school and classroom planning and practice. Through discussions, teachers will have the opportunity to share their stories, thoughts and experiences. Furthermore, a range of learning outcomes can be drawn placed in a European context to benefit themselves and their school. This facilitates the dissemination and exchange of good practices and professional expertise, either at a school or institute level or on a personal basis.School staff can also take some advantage not only giving managing support but also practisingin European projects.Taking part in this project will help all participants to pursue stimulating opportunities to learn across Europe, both inside and outside the classroom. On the other hand, new environments may increase motivation to learn and develop cultural awareness and open-mindedness, improve and gain language skills. DESCRIPTION OF ACTIVITIES We are going to have 2 debates during the meetings and share materials with partners' schools on the eTwinning platform.Debate methodology allows students and teachers to practise on all the key skill areas promoting basic competences and life skills.SHORT TERM BENEFITS:- to feel comfortable dealing with topics and speaking in public;- to encourage students to support their own ideas respecting other opinions;- to practise thinking on your feet;- to be able to use non-verbal persuasion, good styles of speaking.LONG TERM BENEFITS:- to understand that different tones and expressions could result in words having different meanings;- to understand those appropriate choices of languages used in discussing an idea could have a negative or positive influence on the audience;-to use the experience achieved during this project in future European projects.METHODOLOGY:- Debate- CLIL- Group work- Cooperative learning- Inquiry learning- Peer tutoring