International Conference from 16.05 - 20.05, 2022 Šiauliai, Lithuania
The school year 2021/2022 is coming to an end so is the international Erasmus plus project “Traces of Otherness: Developing European Citizenship”. The last international youth conference took place from the 16th to 20th of May in Šiauliai, Lithuania. It was hard to believe that it was the last students’ and teachers’ exchange. Students and teachers are happy that we have managed to fulfil all the expectations that we had when we stared the project “Traces of Otherness” in spite of pandemics, uncertainty because of the war in Ukraine. All the participants from Germany, The Netherlands, North Macedonia and Lithuania are proud to say, that we have done even more than we planned. Šiaulių Simono Daukanto gymnasium administration and I as a host coordinator of the project wanted to share information about the international Erasmus plus project “Traces of Otherness: Developing European citizenship” with the public in Šiauliai district, Lithuania. Local television “Šiaulių apskrities televizija” broadcasted the information about the project on the news program.
Diana Vaidžiulė Teacher, Šiauliai, Lithuania
‘Traces of Otherness’, Erasmus Plus Project International Conference from 27.09. – 01.10.2021 Skopje, Macedonia
We had the privilege to be the hosts of our ‘Traces of Otherness’ project partners, i.e. our friends from Lithuania, the Netherlands and Germany. I have to point out that our German partners could not fly to Skopje, so they joined us digitally. The topic we focused on in Skopje was Prejudice. The students did various activities so that they get an insight into this very sensitive notion Prejudice. They did interviews in the city centre, then the following day three field trips were realized where students found out more about the prevailing prejudices in Macedonia. Consequently, they could make comparisons with their home countries. All in all, we all, including us, the coordinators, had a wonderful time together. I, as a host coordinator, feel grateful to NASA TV, one of the Macedonian national TVs, for the interviews done with our coordinators and some of the students, as well as for filming the closing ceremony. Thank you NASA TV for making the whole event public through the wonderful program which has been on three times so far. Veselche Leontevska Teacher, Skopje, North Macedonia
A trip to the Masterlithany
On the 18th of March two participants of the project “Traces of Otherness: Developing European Citizenship“ from Lithuania Ema Petrošiūtė and Monika Naginskaitė took part in the national conference “Improving public speaking skills: travel impressions” in Meškuičiai gymnasium (Lithuania). Monika and Ema presented group four film “A trip to the Masterlithany” Extracts from their presentation: “As far as I can remember myself, traveling has always been one of my passions. I really enjoy everything about traveling, from planning, to going by car, bus or plane and seeing new places, exploring them. I do not think I have ever skipped a single school trip, because I am the one who agrees to go anywhere one can take me, especially if it is a place I have never been before. One day, students in my school were given an opportunity to participate in Erasmus plus project, I and my classmates were really excited to take part in this project, because we already knew that it would be a great experience and we would get a chance to travel abroad, meet new people, strengthen foreign language skills and deepen our knowledge about other cultures. Our aims were that by participating in Youth Conferences twice a year students would be able to come together, form an opinion on current political issues such as migration, minorities and stereotypes and discuss their ideas. Unfortunately, because coronavirus situation in the world, Erasmus plus project participants are unable to travel and we had no possibilities to travel to North Macedonia or to the Netherlands or to greet someone visiting Lithuania, but we are fortunate that we had a chance to meet and communicate online with astonishing people from different countries.” (Ema Petrošiūtė) “We had to turn on our imagination, think outside the box and that gave us a purpose to work and grow as people, improve our personalities, it is undeniably arduous to find motivation when you cannot leave your house. Also, we had a chance to get to know more about other countries, for example, I have never thought about how other country schools are full of different nationalities, people speaking different languages, different races and in my school where I see only Lithuanians. I wish that my school was full of international exchange students, just thinking about people from different parts of the world, each one with an inspiring story, makes me excited. This project has given us an opportunity to show our knowledge, skills, to learn how to work as a team with strangers. It was a getaway from the everyday problems, it unlocked our imagination and brought exquisite life changing ideas. To respond to the lack of traveling the participants of the project have thought about this question: “What would you do… if you could build the ideal European state for young people?”. So that’s why participants from Lithuania, North Macedonia, Germany and The Netherlands decided to analyze different aspects of their countries like politics, economics, culture, education, social welfare and share ideas to create short films about an ideal country.” Written by a student Monika Naginskaitė