FLIP YOUR MIND!

Istituto di Istruzione Secondaria Superiore “Tommaso Fiore”, located in Modugno and Grumo Appula, has always been committed to innovation and didactic research. Our school’s activities have always been oriented towards the acquisition of language skills according to the labour market.

We have always been firmly convinced that language learning favours skills which allow students to be more internationally minded and ready to live in a global society without cross-cultural conflicts. Consequently, the need for international opening that we feel as teachers is complementary to our students' need to be part of a European education system and European labour market. But it also has to do with the necessity to develop and implement integrated skill teaching methods to face the inclusion.

This project includes two mobilities: a structured course and a job shadowing. Our staff involved in the job shadowing activities will face the exploration of a strategic field of interest in teaching (above all innovative learning and teaching environments), and the exposure to different approaches and methods, such as the Flipped Classroom.

The “Flipped Classroom: Total Classroom Makeover” course in Bruges is meant to understand how Flipped Classroom can be integrated into our regular classroom activities, thus focusing on active learning and student engagement giving the instructor a better opportunity to deal with mixed levels, student difficulties, and differentiated learning styles. The course will improve teacher 'quality' by emphasizing the importance of efficiency and reflective practice.

Our Erasmus+ 2019 mobility project "Flip Your Mind!” aims at: promoting a European dimension of education within our school, by giving our staff the opportunity to become familiar with innovative methodologies (such as Flipped Classroom) and learning environments; improving their language skills and communicative competences in English, by enabling a group of teachers, the Headmistress, and one IT technician to take part in an intercultural professional development plan with teachers from Scandinavian countries; learning good teaching practices, with a special focus on teaching/learning environments, from peers.

Our project includes a "Flipped classroom: Total Classroom Makeover" course in Belgium, and a job shadowing activity in Finland. Our staff will spend the job shadowing period abroad, comparing syllabuses and methodologies under the guide of an expert Finnish school, strongly committed in innovative teaching methodologies.

The creation of authentic teaching materials in an international context will prove advantageous not only to all the teachers involved and to all the staff in our school, but – as a planned outcome – to all our students.

Enhancing motivation in both teachers and students is the key objective of our project as we believe that the idea of focusing on contents that are relevant and meaningful in a European perspective and employing new approaches and methodologies will prove stimulating, and above all will promote inclusion.

We recognize that the teaching/learning environments are empowering instruments to encourage life-long learning and continuous training for teachers, and, as a strictly connected outcome, it could help our students develop the European eight key competences for lifelong learning.