Europe has come to Taurisano. Teachers and coordinators from Lithuania, Norway, Poland, Portugal and Hungary have been at the center of the activities planned for the "Erasmus plus 2017/2019" project. In addition to signaling itself as a privileged opportunity for cultural exchange, sharing of educational experiences and experimentation of English as a shared means of communication, the event was an effective moment for the promotion of our beautiful land and our ... tasty ... traditions.

From the Hotel Joli Park in Gallipoli, which welcomed them, guests have reached some of the most famous places of the "Grande Salento": Baroque Lecce, Alberobello, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, Otranto with its castle and other places of cultural interest. In addition, last but not least, our European colleagues were delighted by the specialties of our kitchen, the preparation of which also provided the mothers and grandmothers of our boys.

As part of the ERASMUS PLUS project, from 15 to 19 January 2018 our school has been at the CENTRO DELL'EUROPA to share and compare the different teaching experiences.

In particular, on January 18 - 2018, at the conference room of the Hotel Joli Park in Gallipoli, high-level professors from the University of Lecce in collaboration with the UNIBOCCONI of Milan and the University of Bergamo confronted each other to propose the challenge of a innovative teaching that moves to the foundations the logic of the traditional school.

The teachers of the partner countries presented their Best Practices and the particular strategies for learning Mathematical Sciences.

"GEOMETRIKO" was our original ludic-innovative proposal for the easy learning of plane geometry.

The experience has seen the children of our school as protagonists who immediately let themselves be involved in the various activities. In particular, they were the protagonists of the competition for the creation of the project logo: a carefully selected jury chose their proposal.

In addition, they have created useful tools for a different application of the teaching of the discipline: chessboards, checkers, Olympics of Mathematics and Problem Solving, using only materials easy to find, revisited by their imagination.

Alongside mathematics, the English language, an official tool of communication between the partners, has proved to be an opportunity for the development of a key competence. In English, in fact, the lessons were held and in English the students will continue to communicate with their peers: letters, e-mails, in-depth texts.

Thanks also to technology, which will encourage online meetings, the experience can be qualified as an opportunity to "make Europe" concretely: talking about themselves and their land with their peers, the kids will break down every border and every distance , to actually feel citizens of that community dimension that was in the dreams of the founding fathers.

It was a great pleasure for Aspøy skole to welcome 14 teachers and coordinators from the 5 cooperating schools to 5 days of teachers training in Ålesund on the 24^th-28^th of October 2018. Since it was our first time of hosting a transnational meeting, we were quite excited, and the whole staff took part in the preparation and implementation of the program. It has been important for us to involve all the employees in the project. On the first day there was a welcome lunch to get to know each other better, a session with practical maths and then on the last day a farewell dinner with staff and guests.

The focus of the gathering was to improve onse experience and expertise in “Integration of digital tools, platforms and technology within the didactics of mathematics”. Four lecturers from Volda University college led a day seminar with the topics “Students understanding of the equal sign, fractions and decimal numbers”, “Use of photography in mathematics education”, “Use of coding in mathematics education” and “GeoGebra: instruction and testing”.

During the week, all participating schools also presented several of their best practices within the topics “Accurately work with 2D and 3D graphics abstraction”, “Organize and understand information from a collected data” and “Solve real-life problems in a critical, yet creative and alternative way”.

In order to increase the level and interest towards Natural science, a collaborating project between NTNU (The National University of technology and science), NMK (National Maritime Competence centre) and the municipality of Ålesund started this autumn. The Erasmus guests visited NMK when our 7^th graders had a full day lecture in “The Newton room”, learning about programming robots. NMK also is among the world leaders on technology creating various simulators used in off shore and maritime industry, and we had a guided tour through several of the newest simulators.

We are always proud to show visitors our beautiful city and surrounding areas. Unfortunately the weather was not the best during the week, but luckily it was good enough to have a tour to the fjords and mountain area of Trollstigen and Geiranger, and even experience the newly fallen snow!

The Erasmus+ project in mathematics also generates exchange of cultures and knowledge about the participating countries. That off course includes presenting local food traditions like dried, salted meat, “lefse” and “svele” (kinds of pastry), and after a boat trip to Godøy island to visit a beach by the ocean, the guests and some of the staff were treated with a baccalao dinner at one of our teachers house.

There was also time to visit “Jugendstilsenteret”, a museum that shows the history from the catastrophic fire in 1904 and the rebuilding of the city in “Art Nouveau”/”Jugend style”, and the mayor and her deputy welcomed the group in the City hall, where the guests generously presented gifts from their home towns.

We are very thankful for having the opportunity to join in this project. It definitely has had an impact on our work with maths, but even after just one year of collaboration, it also has given us lifelong friendships.