10+Final+remarks+and+questions

** KISS ** One of the participants said it already. If you start international project work just keep this expression in mind: KISS. Which is short for Keep It Small and Simple. Often first projects are too complicated and give a lot of trouble, problems to be solved. Also the moment of having success is far away. So if you start try it with a small project first. Easy to do, a lot to learn and have the feeling of success quickly. An example of a KISS-project is the NewsPaperProject. You agree on a day where you bring a newspaper to your classroom (together with your partner) and ask your students to work with one of the articles in the newspaper (f.e. make a English translation of it) and sent these results already the same day. So next morning you will have the results from your students and from your partner and these result could be used to make posters or for comparisons (so long the level of the students). You can find this project within the eTwinning portal.



** Flexible ** International project work is also all about being flexible. Sooner or later things don’t go the way you had planned it, so be prepared for that and be open for changes in order to make the project work.

** Ownership ** As stated earlier it is important for your project the give ownership to your students as soon as possible. It gives them a chance to ‘take over’ and take responsibility. Too many projects are the result and work from the teachers who make a lot of efforts and not from the students. For example the project ‘ One Europe – one calendar’ students final job was to make one calendar for the whole of Europe to be used in the future when they would be adults. So it was straight from the beginning their calendar. They had to decide which items where on this calendar, and not the teachers. The teachers role was more to guide them, ask them questions about the why’s of their choices (as a critical friend).



** The project Method and Transnational Projects ** If you are interested in the kind of projects which involves students as much as possible then you should try to come up with problem orientated projects. Ask your students to solve a real life problem in a way that it becomes their problem (like stated above in the calendar project) In a way if can formulate the project in such a way that it become ‘ a stone in the shoe’ for the students, they might want to take out this stone, to come up with a solution. A very interesting booklet about this way of formulating projects appeared in 2002. There are still some copies left to purchase.

The Project Method and Transnational Projects Published as part of the Comenius Action 2 project TRANSPRO By Kirsten Anttila a.o. Edited by Signe Holm-Larsen

ISBN: 82-996435-0-3 c/o Pedagogisk Senter Karmoy Boks 1024 – 4294 Kopervik, Norway john.rullestad@karmoyped.no

** ECOLE ** A lot of what I learned over the years came through the ECOLE portal and materials. You can find them at: []


 * ERASMUS FOR ALL:[[file:2013-03-07 presentatie Comenius (1).pptx]] **