School project in herzogenaurach: europe meets europe
Ingrid kieninger is convinced that projects like "erasmus" are the right thing to do calling for europe to grow together. The project, which involves schools from six countries, will last two years. The schools get to know each other, visit each other, perform common tasks. "Europe should get to know each other better, says the teacher of the middle school. "And we contribute to that".
The "erasmus" school project has already been running for a year. In addition to the middle school in herzogenaurach, schools from poland, croatia, greece, romania and latvia are also involved. They have now all sent young people to herzogenaurach. After visits to crete in greece and zagreb (croatia), the next stop is herzogenaurach. In may, it's off to latvia.
"Erasmus" summarizes several individual projects required by the european union. They are based on the idea that "europe is only more than an economic union when people from different countries meet, get to know each other and work together"." what is formulated rather nuchternly in the press release works with a lot of commitment and elan, as kieninger reports. "We are in constant contact with each other", says the herzogenaurach native. 33 teachers from all schools have formed a whatsapp group, with pictures and information posted daily. They all learned about the floods in crete that flooded the roads, or they were taught about the school strikes in croatia. The social network is close-knit. "We learn an incredible amount about the details of the countries". In this way, they get to know each other's tradition and culture at first hand, as it were quite incidentally.
Creation and motivation
"It's more than just a school exchange," says the, says ingrid kieninger. For the schools have been in intensive contact for two years. Together with colleagues ute schott, andrea duthorn and werner forst, she is also in charge of the current project in herzogenaurach. "Creation and motivation" it's called and the focus is on communication in english.
It's not the native language for all the students, says kieninger. All the more, the students can examine and experience that english also plays a role in their everyday lives and in their professional future. "The aim of the project is to make the importance of a common language of communication (english) clear to the schoolchildren on many levels and to challenge their motivation to learn the language", it says in the project description.
This has been implemented on several fields since monday. Privately, the 30 or so students, of whom the letten form the largest group, are accommodated in host families. This already demands the mutual contact. At the school itself, there were five joint workshops yesterday. The children made pottery, handicrafts and sang, and were allowed to take all the products home with them. But before that, they will be used as decorations for the grand finale dinner on friday.
The activities focus on christmas themes, but also on an in-depth look at herzogenaurach "as a small but very international city. The organizers are being supported by the companies puma and schaeffler, which are giving the schoolchildren an insight and also providing interview partners on these topics. In english, of course, which is usually the norm for international companies anyway.
Mayor german hacker also gave his speech in english on monday at lunchtime. The young people were to be received at the city hall. In addition to the guests, around 40 students from the fifth to eighth grades of the middle school also took part in the event.