Why Erasmus+, in short
Participating in the Erasmus+ program has been accepted as a standard form of teachers’ professional development in the last decade.
And that fact is amazing from at least three points of view.
First, it has done so much good for the teachers’ community.
Teachers have incredible opportunities to experience various teaching processes, methods, and approaches along with different cultural backgrounds, enhancing personal and professional improvement.
Second, and consequentially, by teachers’ training and growth, students face changes getting better concerning their working motivation, learning abilities, and, finally, results.
Third, and logically followed, their schools are exposed to more vital and significant impacts that we can witness the rebirth of their strategic and development plans.
Again, this part is well-known, and we all adore Erasmus+ options.
How do we achieve Erasmus+ benefits and outcomes?
The sequence of events happening when we think of Erasmus+ can be shortened in these keywords:
Teacher training, plan, teamwork, application, project activities, mobilities, dissemination, impact
If you are familiar with all these stages, you are already a skillful Erasmus+ beneficiary.
Good for you!
But let’s analyze them to revise their importance and make our Erasmus+ possibilities more fruitful.
Teacher training
- Identify your teacher’s needs
- Choose a training option: courses, job-shadowing, teaching assignment
- If you are more into getting a course training, then you need to know:
- what you are interested in
- what your expectations are
- what are your strong and weak sides
- how and when are you going to apply the outcomes of the course in your teaching work
- what kind of impact are you going to leave on your students by attending that course
- how it is going to affect your future professional development
To help you initially, you can check Lina Edu course programs that meet Erasmus+ topics and priorities: https://linaedu.eu/courses/
It is expected to choose a proper course based on the priority of the course destination.
There’s nothing wrong with that criterion because the point is, except by learning and practicing, gaining cultural experience at its best and therefore enriching personal and professional knowledge. Here, it is essential to point out that Erasmus+ is not just a traveling experience; on the contrary, it is above and beyond!
Lina Edu Erasmus+ Courses team has prepared attractive, active, and methodically planned field classes that are important to understand the significance of cultural heritage in Split, Croatia, and connect knowledge at the cross-curricular level achieved to implement it in your future teaching activities with your students.
Don’t hesitate then! We will gladly be your hosts!
Plan
Every step in your Erasmus+ adventure must be planned if not flawlessly, but at least designed by some crucial elements: place, time, endurance, mobility, activities, collaboration, evaluation, and self-reflection. When you have it categorized, then the vision of your application has started to be more straightforward.
Teamwork
A project team is necessary to make your Erasmus+ plan possible, but how big should it be?
There needs to be a coordinator who will take care of each project stage and is undoubtedly the most responsible function in the project team.
The number of members cannot be precisely given, and there is no secret formula, but what that old one says, “The more, the merrier,” is not always true.
Your team needs teachers/educators eager to develop themselves, keen on learning and sharing, responsible, and creative. When you plan your team, focus on gathering different subjects, teachers of different levels, school pedagogies or psychologists, and your headteacher. That way, project outcomes can widely impact the whole school itself.
Application
To successfully apply on time, keep being informed by your National Agency.
You will get all the necessary data relevant to the application process there.
Then, again, your school project team is a largely important factor in preparing the application. Rarely can one person, if not a professional and a super advanced project maker, write a whole plan and project for one team, and why should it be that way?!
Each team member needs to participate in forming the Erasmus+ project plan and contribute to its success through its expertise and engagement.
It is not easy to fulfill all the areas in the application, especially the number of characters limit theaters to insert, but it is not impossible. Expressing its parts should be easy with a precise and clear vision. The point is, where everything starts from, you need to answer the main questions clearly before you begin writing the Erasmus+ application. If you have all the answers neatly prepared, adjusting your thoughts to those “small” boxes will not be so demanding.
Project activities
Since everything in an Erasmus+ project is connected, like in a giant puzzle, this refers also to planning project activities. The main questions to be answered are:
What, where, and when will be done, and by whom? If you plan to attend a course, you need to know which activities to design according to the school development plan, your plan, your teaching needs, and the project plan.
Although project activities are short-term, the impact must be broader and more robust.
So when you plan them, think of who and how much the outcomes of these activities will affect if their influence is when your project realization will be successful.
Mobilities
What you need to be careful, at first, is to plan your mobilities for the period you are sure your school will be funded. For example, if the positive application results come in April and you want to go to a course in June, then it will be too risky because it can happen that in that period of two months, your school still waits for the Contract to be signed and funds in the end. If you need to cover the expenses on your own, you will get your money back when the funds are transferred.
Nevertheless, keep that in mind.
Usually, when mobility is planned, two days for traveling are counted: one to get to the course destination and the other to return home.
As soon as you get to your course destination, you can start enjoying discovering the place and raising your general knowledge and cultural awareness. All course activities should be at least 80-90% to consider the courses accomplished.
What makes Erasmus+ an extraordinary experience is that you will meet fellow teachers/educators, exchange experiences, make kind relationships and even friendships, eventually build new projects, and widen your professional network.
Here, participating in Lina Edu Erasmus+ courses, you can quickly get an enjoyable professional trai comprising all previously mentioned moments and fully reached outcomes.
Dissemination
It is a significantly important part of an Erasmus+ project that makes us more motivated, effective, and creative when you think of it a little deeper. Why?
We want to apply practice and freshly developed skills gained in Erasmus+ courses in well-designed, meaningful activities that will positively change our students’ working levels, which will undoubtedly benefit your students.
Be aware that your final report needs to be well-explained to the large extent that we can call it the showcase of your project-gained skills, competencies, and teaching and professional results. So, you need to plan your dissemination period very well in your project plan in order, when the dissemination moment comes, not to waste your time, to be productive, and to make efficient impacts on your students, colleagues, school, and yourself.
Remember!
Dissemination can be done through short-term activities, but its real point and it is also the point of Erasmus+ programs, is to make it long-lasting in your teaching community, at your school, in your teaching practice, that it evolves through future projects and continues, on and on.
Impact
When you are an Erasmus+ “freshman,” you usually expect slight difficulty understanding that blurry line between dissemination and impact.
The impact is of dissemination, but much deeper and more influential.
This part is the hardest “to see” in advance, especially when you need to explain it either in your project application or in your final report.
We have already mentioned the impact on three levels: school, students, and teachers.
To recognize and form them so that they become real and practically provable, you need to find weak sides that are not always easy to acknowledge and place them in the future as your improved, stronger points. The path that leads to that final Erasmus+ project stage is a dissemination process.
Ready to dive into the Erasmus+ world?
Definitely!
You already have enough motivation to start with your project plan, and hopefully, after reading our short guidance, where you can find some useful tips and tricks, you can make it happen.
Moreover, Lina Edu Erasmus+ Courses is more than just a course provider.
We are your project partner to the fullest.
If you want to know ow to be successful in the Erasmus+ program, contact us today.
Learn more about Erasmus+ on the official page
