"The idea of the project raised from some big immigration issues we had to deal with in our country and we felt the need to share this problem with other countries and schools and to see how other countries were facing this big issue and what they were concretely doing in terms of integration.So three schools, that were dealing with immigration issues though from different perspectives and involving different aspects of the immigration and integration question, gathered their strengths. Saint-Joseph Boondael, Brussels, Belgium. This school has a pedagogical project based on the IENA approach, known as an “active pedagogy”. It gives a lot of space to cooperation and active learning. Pupils are encouraged to collaborate to learn, work, play and help the school community. School Tiberiu Morariu, Salva, Romania have in their school an important percent of children who have parents working abroad. Some of them used to be migrants themselves in different countries in Europe. They came as partner in this project with good practices, methods and tools to integrate new groups of migrants in the European dimension of education. Istituto Comprensivo ""Barbera"", Caccamo, Italy Sicily has been facing many immigration events and problems, which need to be solved at various levels. They built recently a collaboration with a refugee center and that’s why they entered this partnership.These three schools worked to achieve the following project objectives:to integrate around 200 migrants/unschooled children in school activities and in non-formal activities with NGOs and stakeholders, to exchange good practices regarding methods and teaching materials aimed at integrating migrant children in schools activities with parents and the local community and to raise awareness amongst pupils and schools about the migrant issues and European citizenship. To this purpose, the partner schools organized 9 activities. “Information meeting and local dissemination”Parents and stakeholders were invited to attend a meeting where we described the project. We also wrote an article for a local newspaper and made a Facebook page of the project. “Art to meet each other.”Unschooled children were invited into the schools to meet a migrant artist. They created an exhibition with the pupils, made some wall paintings and learned songs together. “Discovering nature, discovering each other”Partners hosted migrant children and together they had a walk in a green area close to the school. Romanian team made a herbarium thanks to the visit of the green area. “Immigrants and European citizenship” Each partner made an interview with pupils, parents, teachers and education stakeholders to make a common movie about experience in other countries, work and integration in society.“Information meeting and local dissemination II”Each partner organized a meeting for the parents, teachers and education stakeholder. They gave a follow up of the project and also gave more information, and answered the questions asked. “Culture for childhood” Migrant children visited with the pupils of the school a museum adapted to their age. “Meet the nursery school”The schools had a breakfast for young children and parents and then several creative workshops as painting and dancing to music.“Let’s cook together!”Migrants children, their parents and the pupils of the school shared recipes and they cooked together.It was also the perfect moment to learn more about geography and show on the map where the migrant children and their parents originally came from. We learned more about the country and their favorite dishes. “Let’s celebrate !”At the end of the program,there was a party for all the people who took part in the project.It was the perfect way to end the project all together. During the project we had three transnational meetings for the monitoring and the coordination of the project. This was a great opportunity to learn more about the project and the activities lived in the other schools. During the project we also organised three training sessions where we shared good practices and pedagogical methods. It was the perfect opportunity for the participants to discover the reality of the partners, living in another country. We learned more about the project bus also we had a look at the school, the activities and the countries and their heritage and we could see how the immigration and integration problems were dealt with in the partners countries and schools, at various levels."

"This project corresponds to a KA201 - Strategic associations for school education in which four organizations from three countries (Spain, Greece and Romania) are involved. Its main purpose is to design and implement an educational model based on gamification and game-based learning with its corresponding manual to contribute from the very beginning to the causes that could make the reduction of early school leaving and social inclusion possible.In Spain there is the highest percentage with 17.9% of early school leaving. Despite the fact that in the Community of Madrid the rate is 11.9%, the area where CEIP Cuba is located exceeds even 17.9%. Located in one of the most culturally diverse areas of the community with a 44% population of different nationalities and a low social and cultural level, with serious economic difficulties, we must add that the data provided by the center is far below the national data in terms of PISA (481 points).In the case of Romania, there is a 16.4% of early school leaving. In the area where the SPG center is located, the average is again higher than the national average, among other things identified because there is a high percentage of families with economic difficulties and low qualifications. They are well below the OECD average with just 429 points.In the case of Greece, it presents a percentage of the lowest in the European Union with 4.7%. In this case, the city of Karditsa, where this project will be developed, finds the same figures. This is one of the reasons why we include this Greek center in the consortium. However, it also presents academic difficulties due to the few educational measures that are being carried out and reflecting this are the 451 points of PISA, with a downward trend.In all cases, a clear association between poor academic results and socio-economic status is identified, confirming the needs analysis carried out at the national level and in each of the centers and areas where the centers are located (Rumberger, 2012 & PISA, 2019) (https://www.oecd.org/pisa/publications/pisa-2018-snapshots.htm).Taking into account the needs and context set forth above, the following OBJECTIVES are established:● Improving the MOTIVATION of students to learn so that during their educational process they have good experiences that make it easier for them to continue learning.● Increasing the ACADEMIC LEVEL of the students, thus increasing their motivation and preparing them to face higher stages successfully.● Increasing SOCIAL INCLUSION, the improvement of social relations and coexistence among students, thus contributing to the improvement of key competences such as personal, social and learning to learn, citizenship and civic responsibility and in cultural awareness and its expression.● Improving FAMILY INVOLVEMENT in the education of students so that they have strategies that allow them to actively contribute to the child's school life.To achieve the objectives, two IO will be carried out:● I LEARN BECAUSE IT’S MY TURN. A pedagogical methodology and strategy based on a gamification program applicable to the 6 primary education courses which includes a methodology to increase family participation in the educational center, as well as school and family coexistence with each other.● MANUAL I LEARN BECAUSE IT’S MY TURN. Professional methodological manual and report of results for the validation and improvement of the gamification program that will allow any teacher to implement this methodology in their classes and centers. The obtained results will be included in the manual so that the teacher can implement those.TARGET GROUP:Direct target group: students from 6 to 12 years old: this is the age at which some of the factors that in the future have the consequence of dropping out of the school begin to appear. In most cases, after the age of 12, there is clear evidence of those students who have many options to leave the educational system.Indirect target group: teachers and management teams of educational centers.Transnationality:As shown from the analysis of needs, as well as from the experience of each organization that participates in this project, there are different levels of experience and multidisciplinary necessities to whom to address the objectives of the project. The European ET 2020 strategy is addressed, several European priorities such as social inclusion or early school leaving are addressed. This project addresses the challenges ""A Whole School Approach to Reduce Early School Leaving"" and is aligned with the strategy ""European Tools for Schools"" (European Commission, 2020)."

Begining from the title of the project, we want to demonstrate through the international partnership that although nature is the one that resembles us, education distinguishes us by the fact that theoretical and technical instruction based on healthy values and common sense, will always change the life of the scholars involved by identifying common needs at european level, in order to achieve local, national and international change. Concidering that a worrying percentage of children remain unskilled or isolated in their families due to a lack of effective alternatives, the special vocational education system continues to be the only solution basedon the medical approach of disability. We, Romania, Greece, Turkey and Italy, consider it absolutely necessary to get involved in an international partnership, to disseminate information about our work with these children with mild and moderate mental deficiency, in order to raise awareness of the importance of their integration in the labour market and in social life. Our project aims toincrease the students’ motivation and involvement in their own future, to integrate them into society, after graduation of the courses. The need to carry out this project is linked to the importance of learning a trade of current interest and demanded on the European labour market, by the students with special educational needs in some european special schools. The objectives of the project derive from the educational needs identified in partener schools, society and in the European community. The key objective addresses the most important issues: the individual development of 40 children with SEN (Special Educational Needs), on the level of developing the manual skills abilities in 24 months that are necessary for the future profession of textile worker. Ensuring equal opportunities for 40 students in the European Union area, in order to maximize the personality and specific skills for tehnical profession (textile tailoring and art design). Ensuring the accessibility of educational programs through the exchange of experience between teachers working with students with SEN in the EU. In our project will participate 10 scholars with special educational needs from each partner school, 2 accompanying scholars (1 attendant per 5 scholars) from each participating country in international trips and 3 teachers representing the respective unit for transnational meetings. Taking into account that we, Romania and Greece, as partners and coordinators for the first time in a project funded by the European Union, we want to be a practical example of involvement in our educational instructive work with scholars with special educational needs. Although the textiles industry is relatively developed and there are jobs in this area, the students' motivation to get a job after graduation, will grow. Through the work shops and work sessions that we will carry out, we will learn along with our partners fromTurkey, Greece and Italy how to follow the stages of building-up a traditional fashion product, the traditional stylized blouse for both boys and girls. Students will deploy various, stimulating, practical activities based on the development of key competences, learning how to describe raw materials and auxiliaries in textiles, how to select sewing materials for different fashion products, how to check the details of the products and auxiliary materials etc. In the same time,the project team will get involvedin a management activity, wich will determine the necessary tasks in achieving a quality management. Another task is to write the job description and the attributions of each member of the managementand implementation team of the project. This will be a good opportunity to transfer good practices and knowledge between the participants. The tangible intellectual results will be all the fashion products, layouts and conclusions from the exchange of best practices, wich we will bring together in an attractive brochure and the teaching tutorials. We will try to ensure free of charge through internationalization by translating into all the languages of the partner countries to encourage good practice examples with beautiful results in changing the lives of disadvantaged people with whom we will work within this project. The impact will be positive at the European Union level, with the aim of increasing the quality of education and training of pupils with special needs in Europe by aligning the education system to the opportunities of the european market. At the end of the project, we will continue to implement the objectives with the examples of good practices purchaise din the partner countries and we will look to make other projects at european level to develop and to continue to reduce the risk that after finishingthe studies, students with special educational needs will not succeed to get a job and also the social inclusion won’t be achieved.

When teachers present the child’s achievements portfolio to the parents they often focus only on the content, but not on how to present it to the parents, in order to help them fully understand and engage them in further cooperation. The understanding of importance of successful cooperation between teachers and parents and our intention to bring more professional approach of the feedback in the preschools brought our partners organizations together. Within this project we would like to share the best practices and to combine together the experience and knowledge of different European countries.The aim of this project is to encourage more effective cooperation between teachers and parents in preschool in order to contribute to the development of high quality early childhood education and care systems. The following objectives have been set to achieve the project’s aim:– to investigate how teachers provide the feedback to parents about the child’s development in the preschools; – to define the elements of high quality feedback and share the good practices how to implement those elements in the preschools;– to prepare, test and publish the methodological recommendations for preschool teachers how to provide high quality feedback to parents.The project teams of 3 members from Lithuania, Latvia, Romania, Bulgaria and 2 members from Greece will participate in the mobility activities. Those teams will be represented by: headmistresses, preschool teachers, child support specialists. Apart from the project’s team the important role in the local project activities will be given to all members of preschools communities.Project activities are planned according to the project’s aim and objectives and will cover whole project period. There will be five Short-term joint staff training events organised. During the first workshop in Lithuania participants will learn about the high quality feedback components in preschool. Second workshop will be organised in Latvia to share the best practice examples how ICT tools can be used to provide more attractive and interactive feedback to parents. During the third workshop in Romania our teams will analyse the most common case scenarios based on real data from preschools. Workshop in Greece will be organised to discuss and evaluate the difficulties which teachers faced when were practicing feedback to parents at their preschools. At the end of the project the Closing conference in Bulgaria will be organised to present project results along with the workshops on practical presentations how to use the publication of methodological recommendations in every day work. Between the mobilities the local activities will be organised at each partners’ school and will contribute a lot to the quality of final project’s results. The project will start with the information seminars to teachers and parents. Also at the beginning and at the end of project the surveys for teachers and parents will be conducted. To practice the feedback delivery skills teachers will have individual meetings with parents. Workshops and round table discussions will be organised before mobilities and after. Also there are dissemination activities planned at local, regional and national level.Based on the project’s objectives, the following results are expected:- teachers will gain knowledge about high quality feedback and how to apply its elements in communication with parents;- teachers’ and parents’ motivation to communicate and cooperate will increase; - teachers will develop the digital competences while working with ICT tools;- methodological recommendations for preschool teachers how to apply high quality feedback to parents will be published and disseminated. The project will have the impact on the higher quality of feedback provided by teachers to parents about child’s development. Also we expect that the cooperation between teachers and parents will increase and it will bring positive changes not only to the project’s participants, but to the whole preschools communities. The potential longer-term benefits can be indicated to the following groups of schools community: - teachers will build more successful cooperation with parents;- child support specialists will receive more accurate information about child’s development from teachers;- parents will receive the individual recommendations for their child’s development;- child will receive a full-fledged education based on close cooperation between teachers, child support specialists and parents;- administration staff will introduce the main principles of effective cooperation between teachers and parents in their educational programs.The experience gained during this project will provide all partner preschools the expertise and confidence to share their good practice with other preschools in the area in order to build the networks and spread the message about the importance of high quality feedback in communication with parents.

"<< Background >>The introduction of modern technologies and methods into teaching has long been our school’s priority. In recent years, we have managed to implement many of projects aimed at building modern classrooms for teaching IVT, foreign languages and science subjects, and we have tried to use these classrooms for more modern teaching methods, strengthen the interdisciplinary relationships and increase the connection between effective teaching and practice. The coronavirus epidemic, which resulted in long-term closure of schools and the introduction of online learning have accelerated the process of introducing modern teaching methods and demonstrated the need to improve the digital skills and competences of both teachers and students. During this time, we have made a great progress and gained valuable experience. That is why we would like to compare the level we have reached in using digital technologies in teaching with the level achieved by other schools, and at the same time we would like to find new sources of inspiration. We want to develop cooperation with schools from different regions of the European Union in order to get acquainted with their ways and methods of education, so that we can exchange experiences in the field of innovation and increase the quality of our teaching. We want to learn about the regions our partner schools come from more closely and reciprocally introduce them to our region. At the same time, we want to focus on the changes the regions have undergone during this century and notice not only how they were affected by climate change, but also show our students positive examples of solving environmental problems, such as using renewable energy, conversion of former industrial buildings into modern technology centres, introduction of organic practices in agriculture, etc. We support use of digital technologies in science and foreign languages teaching and we try to link geography teaching with that of mathematics, ICT and foreign languages to increase students' chances in the labour market where there is a lack of experts in science and technology. We are looking for innovative teaching methods to increase students' motivation and efforts. We are trying to focus on connecting field teaching using IBSE (inquiry - based science education) and GIS (geographical information systems). The essence of the IBSE method is the involvement of students in discovering the laws of science, connecting information into a meaningful context, developing critical thinking and promoting their positive attitude towards the natural sciences. GIS technology is an excellent tool for engaging students in class work. The project activities represent GIS integration strategies to support teaching, discussion and extended learning on any topic. It also shows practical ideas for GIS activities that improve students' learning and critical thinking skills. The project will help students visualize local and global data and make connection to the partner countries environment. Moreover, project activities will include GIS exercises and methodologies, as well as all the necessary guidelines for using GIS in teaching, which will expand teaching materials and approaches to organizing effective lessons and increase students' motivation. At the same time, we want to pay attention to engaging girls who have not been interested in studying ICT for a long time, although it is increasingly used in many fields. We want to introduce them to ICT in an interesting way and improve their skills through solving practical tasks. We emphasize the usability of acquired skills in practical life, we wish to develop students´ entrepreneurship, creativity and critical thinking and use mathematics as part of the skills they will need in the future. We want to work with universities that use GIS in their teaching and have the necessary equipment. We will also cooperate with business companies to show students that it is very close to the practice from theory.<< Objectives >>Our project wants to use the improvement material equipment of schools and the experience gained during online teaching in the use of digital technologies for the systematic development of digital skills in everyday teaching. It proved necessary to develop digital skills of teachers and share their experience gained in the use of digital technologies, which can modernize their teaching. The socio-economic situation of parents and their ability to help their children in the learning process play an important role. As a result of the coronavirus pandemic, schools were closed for some period of time and teaching was realized online. During this time, differences in students' digital skills grew. An important task of schools is to offer students such opportunities, so that the differences in digital competencies acquired during distance learning are gradually levelled out. Student motivation is also very important. As digitization is not self-saving and spending several hours a day at a computer can be stressful for students' well-being and can worsen their concentration, we want to link the development of IT competencies with the research form of teaching. The regions in which the partner schools operate are undergoing economic transformation. They face the departure of young educated people to more promising regions. They are looking for opportunities for further development, and the way will be the use of digitization and the development of such economic activities that will not harm the environment. The requirements for school graduates’ skills are changing. The importance of the development of creativity, critical thinking, mutual cooperation, lifelong learning is growing.However, new job opportunities are emerging, which are associated with digital competences. We have chosen the field of geographic information systems that are widely used in practice. In this field we cooperate with universities. We want to show students the positives of our region and increase their motivation to form a deep relationship with it, to make them return back after graduating, live here and help transform the region for the better. Economic transformation combines climate change with achieving carbon neutrality. Educators and young people should view this process positively and stress its positive impact on the region's environment. In the future, the education system should combine digital and personal learning experiences. We see possibilities in students’ involvement in group work, where experiential pedagogy can be used to search for non-traditional solutions and to perform assigned tasks together. We will motivate students to form a relationship with science and technology (STEM) and extend it to STEAM, i.e. engage their creativity; to formulate their ideas and present them. We plan to visit science centre to mediate knowledge of science and technology in an entertaining way and inspire students in choosing their future profession. The use of modern teaching methods will lead to the development of key competencies. From September 2021, a new framework of the educational program will enter into force in the Czech Republic, which applies to lower secondary schools. It brings a new goal, which is to help students enter to the digital environment and lead them to the safe, confident, critical and creative use of these technologies. Digital competence will become part of key competences. We will look for a balanced relationship between the use of IT technologies and creative activities that bring new ideas. We will lead our students to mutual cooperation and through their international contacts to develop their language skills.<< Implementation >>We are going to implement various activities which can be divided into several groups. One of them consists of three eTwinning projects, which are dedicated to the promotion of partner schools, knowledge of their region and the state of its environment and positive examples that contribute to its improvement. These eTwinning projects will enable students to get to know the project participants before carrying out international educational activities, promote their digital communication and the improvement of foreign languages knowledge, and develop their creativity and media competence. In the period before the implementation of Learning and Teaching Activities, seminars of teachers will take place with the aim to teach them digital educational methods with a focus on geographic information systems and the environment. Educators will then teach their students to master the required skills in the above fields, which they will need in the implementation of international educational activities. This will improve the digital competencies of teachers and students in fields in which they do not yet have so much experience, but which are very useful in practice. This will strengthen the link between teaching and practical life. During Learning and Teaching Activities, 10 teams of students and 2 teams of teachers will be created, including one participant from each partner organization. These teams will work in the field using research form of teaching and collect data, which will then be used for digital results processing. This will develop their creativity, critical thinking, ability to cooperate with others and communicate with them, to seek compromises, through experiential pedagogy. The field work will focus on knowledge of the region and positive solutions to environmental problems. At the same time, project participants will realize that the ongoing transformation of the region can be a way to improve its environment, and will be motivated to take an interest in it, which will contribute to the development of citizenship competence. Educators will be able to get acquainted with the education system in partner schools, and because two of them are inclusive, they will be able to gain experience in educating students ""with fewer opportunities"". Students will get into contact with these students and learn tolerance and mutual help. Teachers will also get acquainted with the level of digitization of schools in the field of digital teaching and evaluation of student results, management of pedagogical documentation, communication between students and teachers, among teachers and between teachers and parents. They can then transfer this experience to their organizations and thus contribute to the development of digitization within their own organization. The digital processing of the results by students´ and teachers’ teams that will follow after the Learning and Teaching Activities. Students´ and teachers´ digital skills will be developed, as well as digital communication through suitable communication platforms. As all the educational activities are focused on the fields of ""STEM"", students´ motivation to learn science and mathematics will increase. We want to increase the motivation of girls not only to learn science and mathematics, but also ICT, to which they are not as much attrated related as boys, but which is very important in practical life and in the future the demands for mastering digital skills will increase. The girls will make up 50% of the student teams and thus gain space for employment. When working in a team, students can learn from each other. As the making of outputs will also include the processing of photographs, videos, the formulation of ideas and creativity, it will naturally expand the area of ""STEM"" to ""STEAM"".<< Results >>We expect the project to test innovative approaches in teaching which will combine elements of research-oriented teaching with a focus on the local region and the environment followed by digital processing of data obtained during this teaching. Project activities will develop students´ and teachers´ the digital skills and contribute to the development of digitization of partner schools in the management of pedagogical agenda, communication between pupils and teachers, teachers to each other and between teachers and parents. As well, we want to expand digital procedures in the field of student evaluation. Mutual contacts among students as well as teachers of partner schools will enable the improvement of communication skills of both students and teachers in foreign languages and awareness of the importance of foreign languages knowledge in international communication. Students and teachers will get to know the regions in which the partner organizations operate, their social and cultural diversity. At the same time, they will get acquainted with positive examples of solving environmental problems in individual regions and will be motivated to become real initiator of change and prefer ecological practices in everyday life (saving energy resources, choosing greener means of transport, etc.). Project activities will develop teamwork, the participation of students “with fewer opportunities” will lead others to a greater understanding and empathy to different types of diversity (social, cultural diversity, diversity of abilities). The introduction of innovative teaching methods with the support of science and mathematics education and the use of digital technologies should increase graduates' chances on the labour market and adapt the educational process to the requirements of changing world. It is also important to increase the motivation of girls to study science, mathematics and IVT. The use of experiential pedagogy and group work will contribute to the development of creativity, critical thinking and a positive attitude towards learning in students as well as to increasing teachers´ motivation towards introducing innovative methods and using digital skills. What is more, the importance of lifelong learning for teachers will be demonstrated. The development of contacts between teachers of partner organizations will also contribute to the development of partner organizations themselves. These project activities will bring new experiences and thus will improve the skills of these organizations in the preparation and implementation of project activities and strengthen cooperation between secondary schools and universities.During the implementation of the project, a project website will be created by the international students´ team, which will share and promote created teaching materials, outputs of international teams from the implementation of Learning and Teaching Activities and other materials related to the project.The outputs of the project will include three eTwinning projects that will enable the presentation of schools and regions and improve students' knowledge of the environment in their surroundings. During the implementation of the project, a thematic glossary with basic specific vocabulary for geography and the environment will be created in the languages of the partner countries, English, German and French. Teachers from partner countries will create a list of freely available digital applications usable in teaching science, mathematics, IVT and English. Partner schools will offer their students an optional subject in the field of geoinformatics or the local region in the form of research-oriented teaching with digital outputs or the environment. They will include the topic of geographic information systems in geography teaching. Schools will also include research-oriented teaching Project Days which will use geographic information systems."