For our students, the European Union is a rather theoretic approach. Since many of them don’t have the finances to travel and get to know people of other European countries, our project aims to change that. We want our students to get to know other students from other countries, discuss about similari-ties and differences and also celebrate together.Our idea is that every school announces a “Day of foreign cultures” at their school. For this day, students from the partnering school travel to the organizing school and run different workshops based on their talents and interests. The students of the organizing school can participate in two of them. The students will prepare the workshops themselves and also set the specific topic based on their talents and interest. This may be dance, mini-language course, cooking special regional food, interactive city tour, presenting a play or something totally different which they may think interests other students. The special thing about our project is that not only directly involved pupils benefit, but the entire school environment. All pupils and teachers of the school visited are invited to take part in the workshops.A schedule for a visit could look like this:First day Arrival, Get-to-know partySecond dayGet-to-know-games; Students of organizing school prepare city tour of hosting city, in the afternoon workshop preparationThird dayDay of CulturesFourth dayField trip or school HospitationFifth dayDeparture

Our project entitled “My career in Europe” covered the time period of 1st September 2017 to 31st December 2020.It enabled us to set up all the activities that we had planned to achieve the goals we had set ourselves in the application form.Indeed, we had previously noticed that it was necessary to start a new project for our students to be more self-confident, to improve their skills in English as well as in the use of new technologies, and to develop their own idea of a European citizenship. This collaboration was supposed to open up new horizons for our students, most of whom having to face difficulties common among teenagers: getting out of their comfort zone and opening up to the world while daring to speak a foreign language. It was also supposed to enable them to cut off from the monotony of their curriculum.We chose participating organizations whose profile was different from our school’s. We targeted more or less rural schools and which shared our objectives. On the whole, 5 schools participated to this project. The diversity of the schools and of the partner countries enabled a larger multiculturalism. It was very interesting for our students to notice the cultural differences of several European countries: in Austria, the school is situated in the capital city but it also hosts many students born of foreign parents; in Bulgaria, the school is situated in a very small and rather underprivileged town; in Lithuania, the school is situated in a small town; finally in Greece, the school is situated in an area which has suffered from the 2008 economic crisis. This diversity enabled the students, whatever their country of origin, to become aware of the differences, but above all of the similarities between the young of very distinct countries: after discovering the culture and forgetting the language barrier, they very quickly created bonds: they are European teenagers with the same desires and dreams. On the whole, about 100 students and 30 teachers could get in touch with at least one of the partner schools, either when hosting foreign groups in their schools, or when sharing the preparatory material for the meetings, and even more people as the schools shared the results with all the students and personnel of their schools, without forgetting the host families who accepted to host a foreign student.The activities set up in the application form were held in a progressive way. First in class to prepare for the meetings (research work), then in group work during the Learning, Teaching and Training activities (sharing the results of the research and exchanges), the activities enabled to go smooth with our project and to achieve our goals. It is obvious that, apart from the fact of learning about the possibilities students can have if they want to study and/or work abroad, the meetings were essential and shaped the minds of all the participants towards a better self- and other people acceptance, towards more acceptance of the difference and towards more inclusion. Not only was our objective of improving language skills greatly achieved, but our goal of more open-mindedness among our students was even more greatly reached. Their stereotypes and prejudice soon disappeared during the different meetings.As for the teachers, the meetings were also the occasions to exchange their good practices, a useful thing to improve their working skills.Nevertheless, because of the sanitary situation, the last meeting in France, planned in March 2020, couldn’t be held and our project couldn’t be totally finished, and we don’t have any final product (simulation of job interviews respecting the work laws of each country). We were agreed a postponement of the project ending date (until 31st December 2020), but the pandemic never permitted us to be better organized, some of the partner schools teaching online only, others in a hybrid way, and even if in September we could have tried to organize something, some schools hadn’t started yet, and the time was too short. It is a real disappointment which was detrimental to the project itself, but not really to the participants, at least to the students: they surely benefited from all the advantages this kind of project offers in terms of exchanges, language, and learning about Europe and European citizenship, and they will necessarily keep a long-term benefit. As for the teachers, there is this feeling of unaccomplished task, but they know they haven’t done things for nothing; the student’s reactions were so positive that they can be proud of it.

Context - BackgroundThe project “Innovative Generation ” has been submitted by a partnership of European secondary schools located in Belgium, Italy, Lithuania, Poland, Spain in order to satisfy the following current education needs:- enhance students’ awareness and understanding of Science and Technology- support interest in science studies and related professions- fight the decline in innovation and, consequently, economic competitiveness- improve levels of skills- create and share common innovative teaching materials- increase competence in foreign languages- encourage the awareness of differences and similarities among students and that we are able to go beyond them- promote European citizenship among students and Teachers- promote tolerance and respect towards other point of view The initial analysis of the project was that to get the European economy back on track the European Union needs to improve its performance in Research and Innovation, a “must” well underlined in the “Pocket Guide on a Europe 2020 Initiative”. The European research performances need to be boosted to master the many challenges ahead and to keep its place in the fast changing world. If the European companies are to remain competitive in the global economy the EU and national policies should focus on creating an environment that promotes tecnhnology, research and innovation. Many international reports identify the potential shortage of human resources in key scientific professions and call for modernizing science and tecnology teaching in schools. Generation Innovation” aimed to be a concrete response to these challenges improving the quality and efficiency of Science Education, making Mathematics, Science and Technology more attractive and promoting the knowledge triangle: education-research-innovation. Thanks to a synergistic partnership among five schools used to cooperate with research centers, incubators, universities, a better focus on the skills and competences required in the research and technological fields has been ensured. Through the European cooperation the partners aimed to:-- sharing and widening their knowledge, cooperating in planning and experimenting new teaching pathways in relation to contemporary societal issues; - exchanging best practices; - offering guidance measures to encourage more young people, particularly girls, to courses in the so-called MINT subjects (mathematics, information technology, natural sciences and technology); - launching a students’ science and cultural magazine as a place to meet, learn, present lab activities; 5 issues of the magazine have been published (one more than planned in the application)- carrying out a focused survey on students’ perception about science and how they study and use Science and Technology. The survey involved about 186 students and techers. All the answers have been compared and anlayzed and graphically represented - creating a spectrum of learning pathways where Science and Technology are taught in context with an integrated approach, and aimed to promote a positive attitudes towards Science and Technology. 12 pathways have been created (2 more than planned in the application) The Impact and long term benefits of Innovative Generation project has been: On participant learners- Raise the pupils’ interest in Science and Tecnology subjects and consequently increased uptake of Science and Technology studies at upper secondary and tertiary education levels- Allow students to see how Science and Technology are used, and bring a taste of working life into the classroom- Increase students’ interest in pursuing Science and Technology careers- Enable students to co-operate with peers from different countries- Contribute to respecting and valuing diversity- Prepare them for the challenges in a multicultural working world, which in turn leads to a sustainable society On Teachers- Improve the quality of Science and Technology teaching and teacher training- Increase the international cooperation among Teachers- Select and adapt OER didactical materials which will be used in CLIL activitiesOn participating institutions- Provide students with new learning pathways- Revise and strenghened the professional profile of the teaching profession- Develope synergies and cooperation between education and higher educationAs far as the mobilities are concerned, we were able to set up:- three Transnational meetings of Teachers, kick-off, intermediate and final meeting - students' mobility, 5 multilateral meetings of a total of 16 students for each partner were planned, actually the excellent cooperation between the partners, the careful control of the budget and the proper use of resources allowed to involve 137 students and teachers 37 more than planned in the application (+ 37%), which represent the real added value of the project.

Issue of privacy and security in ICT is more and more relevant, especially in the group of young people, who use the modern technology every day and it is an obvious part of their lives. Therefore it is important to talk about potential threats and challenges that the use of new technology brings. This project was focused not only on the private level of ICT security areas (e.i. the spread of private information via social networking sites or the Internet, bank access, electronic signature, open source x licensed programmes) but also on the business level with the practical use of students´ firms (as a practical part of the project, students will prepare an ICT security plan for students´firms or general public). All this with the emphasis on the EU frame in the selected areas of security in ICT. The objectives of the project were: - increase students´ competencies for the secure use of ICT - increase students´ awareness and understanding of the EU legislative in the selected areas of ICT security - increase students´knowledge and competencies about ICT security for companies/own business - promote students´entrepreneurial skills by creating ICT security plan for students´firms - promote teachers´ knowledge and competecies in the selected areas of ICT by participating in the joint training. The project was composed of 5 schools and was designated for students aged 14-19. Students worked on project materials and results, they helped with preparation of joint meetings and activities at the school level including project dissemination. The project was well structured and covers the following topics: Introduction in ICT security, the EU legislative and partner countries´ rules, Threats and challenges for persons/ companies/ own business and ICT Security plans for firms or general public. Students worked on the topics above and presented materials during the short-term student exchanges (3 international exchanges). The project also contained a short-term training for teachers about security in ICT. The project covered, in an innovative way, theoretical and practical part and involve modern teaching methods and approaches with the empahis on the collaborative learning and use of modern technology. The methods used: students´presentations, videos, worksheets, quizzes, international work groups, students´active participation with the emphasis on collaborative approaches, discussions with experts, examples of good practice, cooperation with Metropolitan university in Prague). The main project result are ICT Security plans, created by students, where they used both theoretical knowledge and practical skills. The project enabled students and teachers increase their digital, language and social competencies, promote entrepreneurship education and implement new teaching approaches and activities in partner school curriculum.

Project Title: Looking Out Looking InToo many young people feel like they are connecting with others, but are not successfully creating meaningful relationships. Social Media encourages what Martin Buber would call Ich-Es (I-It) superficial relationships, but people really need deeper Ich-Du (I-Thou) relationships. Factors that bring this about include:· information overload caused by modern forms of media;· the ever-increasing pace of the world;· the misuse of technology that unconsciously leads people to rely on a hit of dopamine;· the blurring between what is acceptable and unacceptable behaviour in the real world caused by the misuse of social media platforms;The same logic can be applied to both cultural awareness and to self-awareness. Young people are aware of other cultures, and news from other countries, but too often experience them as separate and distant – as content on a feed on their phone. And Socrates’ cri de cœur that we should “know thyself” also suffers from the same issue: how does someone have the time to concentrate on their own wellbeing and being comfortable with who they are if they become used to superficial interactions?Adler and Proctor’s seminal book, Looking Out Looking In, considers the importance of forming meaningful interpersonal relationships and the factors that define such relationships. This project seeks to enable and nurture meaningful interpersonal relationships between young people around Europe through music. We want young musicians to work together to create a “Symphony for Europe” and, as they compose, collaborate and perform together, they get to know each other properly, find out about each other’s cultural and personal similarities and differences, and discover something about themselves too.Through Erasmus+ funding, we would have the power to combine and cross-fertilise music and cultures across Europe. Music plays a unique role in countries across Europe. We want to explore our intertwined cultural and social histories. From local traditions through to renowned European orchestral works, we want to celebrate Europe’s greatest creative achievements.Ultimately, we want the project to culminate in a pan-European concert that at first shares and revitalises local musical and artistic traditions – particularly ones that are at risk of disappearing – and then the musicians join together to perform classical pieces that have a clear European connection. Finally, they would perform an orchestral piece composed as a collaborative project between the participating schools: the “Symphony for Europe”.There would be six participating schools, working together over a 24-month period. Some of these schools include pupils from disadvantaged socio-economic backgrounds. At first, the teachers from the six schools will meet together to plan the structure of how the project will unfold, timelines and parameters for the Symphony. Then the schools would be paired together to work with each other on writing one movement of the symphony. This collaborative composing would use technology appropriately and encourage dialogue and a common goal. A staff and pupil exchange visit between the two schools would take place in year one. We estimate each school would have around 15 participating pupils in the exchanges, with more being involved in other ways. This would allow the young people to perform together, discover local musical and artistic treasures, and to get to know each other forming proper “I-Thou” relationships. We would generate opportunities for multilingualism and creativity.In year two, all six schools would collaborate to create the final movement of the symphony. This would culminate in all six schools travelling to the one place and meet in person, share local traditions and see each other as real people, forming unique relationships. This coming together would culminate in a concert featuring the complete “Symphony for Europe”.Erasmus+ funding is vital for the project to take place. Simply put, there is no other funding source that could pay for such an enriching and exciting project.To quote Buber, “All real living is meeting”.