The German Language Exchange project aims at getting more students interested in learning a second foreign language and engaging in intercultural exchange. We will use the project to explore and showcase how we can integrate international activities into our teachings through both virtual and face-to-face meetings. The activities will train the students’ communication skills in an authentic setting which gives them real life practice with intercultural communication. Through expanded knowledge of German language, the project will provide the students with an understanding of how to communicate internationally. Knowledge of foreign languages goes hand in hand with knowledge of culture and the project aims at providing the participants and our schools with practical experience and tools to facilitate intercultural dialogue. As a result of the project we will produce new teaching material for German B2 level classes on intercultural competencies and language skills and we will give recommendations on how to integrate global citizenship in schools’ strategies. The project will also strengthen the partnership between our schools and can be used to start an exchange programme between the schools. The project activities will be aimed at developing students as global citizen through German language skills (B2 level) and intercultural dialogue. To structure the project activities we will work with three themes 1) Our city (where we come from) 2) Youth Culture (differencies and similaries between Denmark and Estonia) 3) Intercultural Meetings (how to make positive encounters across cultures). The project includes two mobilities and virtual exchange and collaboration before, between and after the mobilities. The participants in these activities are 20 students who have chosen B2 level German classes and their teachers. The participant all have a particular interest in language which will be used as a kickstarter for the intercultural dialogue in the project. The activities will be building students competences gradually by increasing the complexity of the activities. This will culminate with investigations in international groups of self-formulated research questions about intercultural meetings where the results are presented as video productions. The students will also get a feeling of the everyday life at the two schools by for instance participating in lessons at the school. We will include home-stays in the activities in order for the students to get close to the local culture by staying with families. As part of the project activities the students will engage in learning activities which expands their vocabulary and understanding of gramma. They will also practice German conversation skills. These activities aims at improving the students academic level with in German. The intercultural dialogue between students (face-to-face as well as online) will to be an important factor in the project. Participation in international learning activities gives a better understanding of both others and ourselves. This is an important part of the international formation of the participants. The project will give both teachers and students opportunities for positive intercultural encounters. It is our experience that such intercultural activities contribute to changes in the self-image of the students - they get a different perception of what is possible for them and they get the courage to venture into new international experiences in the future. It also prepares the students as change agents who can have a positive impact on their surroundings, influence the future, understand others’ intentions, actions and feelings, and anticipate the short and long-term consequences of what they do. The project will be interesting for all students at the schools, teachers (at the participating schools and beyond) and the local populations. In our communication to these target groups about the project we want to show the benefits of learning a seconds foreign language and engaging in international activities. We will collect teaching material, student productions etc. on the schools’ webpages and will use social media and local media channels and our schools’ networks with other schools in order to have a broad outreach.

Open European borders in the Schengen Area, reduced fares for plane flights, the appeal of cruise ships - young people today grow up with an abundance of possibilities to travel Europe and the world. At the same time we are witnessing a young generation that cares about our planet and takes to the streets to demand action against climate change. Our project bridges both developments and focuses on sustainable tourism in the four participating schools' regions. Teenagers between 14 and 16 years of age will investigate historical and modern developments of tourism in their home area and create a vision for sustainable tourism in Europe. The results of their work will be published in multilingual tourist guides, which do not just offer their information in the four project schools' languages and English, but will furthermore provide QR codes which link to smartphone accessible additional information. The four project schools are from tourist areas which face fundamentally different problems, obstacles and chances for sustainable tourism. This position enables us to compare our situations and thus visualise a greater picture and look beyond our own horizons. In this way we believe to be able to achieve lasting changes in the touristic behaviour of the project participants and impact our schools toward more sustainable ways of conducting school trips.In every project school a group of around 25 students will meet on a weekly basis. They are tasked with researching, assessing and presenting adequate information in projects, independently and interdisciplinarily. Students will also plan their own school visits and trips to annual summer schools as a hands-on approach to bring theoretical knowledge of sustainable travel into practice.During these visits and the summer schools project students will have to cooperate with their European partners in small groups. Since English will be the project's language, this will further not only their intercultural, but also the students' communication skills. Most of the time electronic means will have to be employed for communication, especially e-mail and the TwinSpace. This and the innovative use of QR codes for educational purposes will improve the ICT competences of thestudents. Critical thinking, creativity, language skills, digital competence, tolerance, ecological consciousness, awareness of the EU's impact on our lives and the European cultural heritage - all of these aspects included in the project are desirable skills in today's and future European working environments. They are also essential abilites for EU citizenship and the means to shape a future of sustainable mobility.The project's results will be published for everyone interested on the Erasmus+ Results Platform. The tourist guides will be presented to the institutions supporting the project schools such as regional tourist offices and especially the University Gliwice and the University Rhein-Waal, which have kindly agreed to monitor the project and support teachers' education and students' workshops. We furthermore plan to present the tourist guides to our local city councils. They will contribute to the sustainability and distribution of the project's result.

"CONTEXT/BACKGROUNDThe idea for this project originated in the teaching of social studies in vocational schools. Under the main topic ""Technical Progress and Social Change"" we increasingly dealt with the structural changes and developments in the course of increasing digitisation, discussed in Germany under the keyword ""Industry 4.0"". This topic has already been implemented at the David Roentgen School for several years in the field of technology. Of central importance is the project Industrie4.0@school, an interactive learning project in which students demonstrate how industry 4.0 works and its philosophy using a real, functioning production scenario. In the social studies and ethics lessons, however, the students became aware that digitisation is more than a technical development; social, political, ethical and pedagogical issues also play a very important role. In particular, young adults were concerned about the security of their own jobs.PARTICIPANTSThe topic becomes even more exciting with a view to the European Union. Despite all the successes in enlargement and integration, the differences in the structural development of the economy are considerable, and the framework conditions and prerequisites diverge. In this way, the individual member states, regions and cities create their own individual way of dealing with the current and future challenges of structural change and digitisation. The selection of our 3 partner schools is supposed to reflect part of this diversity: - Romania (Liceul Tehnologic Petru Poni) suffers strongly from the emigration of young, well-qualified workers to Central and Western Europe and at the same time fights for the settlement of high-tech companies and service providers.- Estonia (Tallinna Mustamae Humanitaargumnaasium) enjoys the reputation of a progressive, digitised education landscape and relies primarily on the information and services sector.- Italy (Liceo Orso Mario Corbino) is currently suffering from economic and financial problems, with Sicily occupying a special position as an island tourist magnet.GOALS/AIMSThe diversity of these four countries/regions serves to achieve two main objectives: 1. The learners gain a differentiated view of digitisation/structural change from different perspectives. The assignment to the partner schools takes place according to their competences and experiences: Germany: A View to Technology - How is digitisation changing our world of work?Romania: A View to Social Policy - What responsibility should politics and companies have?Sicily: A View to Ethics - What role does the human being play?Estonia: A View to Education - How must tomorrow's skilled workers be qualified? 2. The learners get to know other regions of the EU and their respective structural challenges. They discover parallels to their own real life, but also very different framework conditions.ACTIVITIES AND METHODOLOGYIn order to achieve the above mentioned objectives, the procedure is as follows before, during and between the meetings:PREPATORY: Creation of a uniform working basis; preparation of the participating students in a teaching unit on the topic of Digitisation/Structural Change and development of the four view points (24 students per country)PER MEETING: intensive discussion of relevant questions from each view point (6 students per country) through texts, documentations, involvement of experts and excursion (obligatory!)Elaboration of the results, e.g. in recommendations for action, presentations, comments, interviewsGetting to know the partner region through lectures/presentations by the hosts, excursion to extracurricular place of learningSUBSEQUENTLY: written and visual processing of one's own impressions of the newly discovered region, collage, illustrated bookProcessing the subject matter in a mind mapPresentation and transmission of the work to their own classmatesDURING the project: creation of a student video (e.g. with the app iMovie) about their life, wishes, future worries in their region; publications in local and regional mediaRESULTS AND BENEFITSThe materials used as well as the results of the students' work and elaborations will be combined on eTwinning to form a comprehensive teaching unit on the subject of Digitisation/Structural Change. The aim is to contribute to the further development of teaching in the subjects of technology, social studies, economic geography and ethics. The four videos will later serve as a motivating introduction to the topic. In Estonia, however, the teachers will also gain insight into the question of the right qualification of future skilled workers and the associated school digital offerings."

"Education have the key role for the future success of todays pupils. The Europe 2020 Strategy calls for efforts to reduce number of school drop outs. According to Eurostat (2011), pupils with disabilities in the European Union were nearly three times as likely to leave education early. In Education 2030 Framework, Goal 4 aims to “ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all.”. The Inclusive education is already part of educational policy in EU. The idea of its philosophy is to orient the education to the individual needs of the student, and not vice versa - the student to adjust to school. Inclusive education allows students of all backgrounds, general and with special needs, to learn and grow side by side, in the same classroom, to the benefit of all. But are we, today's General Education Teachers, prepared to face Inclusion in the classroom? Last months, with the outbreak of Coronavirus being declared a pandemic by the World Health Organisation, people worldwide are facing a major challenge. The schools in EU are closed. The education sector is responding to quarantine with a sudden shift to online learning. But are we, both teachers and students, ready for that shift? Just as students are new to distance learning, most teachers are also novices in being distance coaches. The project aims the increasing of quality and the efficiency of teaching and learning by giving equal opportunities to all type of students, in mixed classes, implementing Inclusive education, eLearning and ICT.Participants: students 13-18 year old and teachers different subjects from 5 secondary schools in Bulgaria, Estonia, Portugal, Italy and Serbia. One of the project's added value is reaching pupils from special needs/disadvantaged groups in our schools and in other schools in our countries. The project objectives are:1)To give teachers the opportunities to collaborate and share methods to create guidelines and materials for Inclusive Education Framework, to apply it into daily teaching;2) To give teachers opportunity to collaborate to create guidelines and materials for eLearning at school;3) To train 5 teams of students to understand how e-platform and e-tools can differentiate learning process. To can identify and share similarities & differences in the practices of our countries in Inclusive education;4) To develop digital skills for both students and teachers, to create digital related content by using ICT. The project results are Quantitative: baseline survey in the 5 schools; publicTwinSpace; comic strip""We learn best when we learn together"" (students share real stories); teachers guide ""How to Transform General Education Materials into Inclusive Education Materials?""; toolkit ""e-Pedagogy for Distance Learning and for the Classroom""; A set of 5 video tutorials ""Three steps to build a truly inclusive classroom""; 5 local workshops; 4 online trainings; online discussion ""Three steps to build a truly inclusive classroom"" Qualitative: developed digital skills; better understanding the benefits of Inclusive education for students with and without disability/special needs; improved schools policies for inclusive education or unexpected vacation issue; developed teaching skills for Inclusive Classroom and Distance Learning. The methodology to be used in carrying out the project is in relation with real life issues and Intercultural education and includes blended activities for teachers and students like: researches; surveys and workshops; Forum theater; online and onsite trainings; eTwinning collaboration; teaching material creation; e-pedagogy; eAssessment tools creating; interactive methods and such from non-formal education, pear learning etc. We are planning 1 short-term joint staff training event for teachers and 3 short-term exchange of group of pupils for students. All LTTAs are designed as blended mobility, combined online mobility on TwinSpace (online traing or discussion) and Face2Face mobility at one of the partner schools.Tsar Simeon Veliki school created evaluation plan to evaluate the quality of project's activities and expected results. For monitoring and evaluation we will use Quantitative and Qualitative indicators. The project will have long-term benefits at any level: students, teachers, institution and other stakeholders. Some of the benefits are: Teachers will familiarise with new teaching methods for Inclusive classroom. Successful inclusive education happens primarily through accepting, understanding, and attending to student differences and diversity. They will know how to implement distance learning for period of time and what are the benefits of using eLearning tools to suport teaching and learning in the classroom.The goal and the objectives of our project are crucial for all schools nowadays. That is why we think that many schools could benefit from ourresearches and project outputs."

"Gifted and talented students possess high potential in various areas, such as, specific academic aptitude in a subject area, creativity, talent in the visual or performing arts, natural leadership skills, a high level of measured intelligence or an outstanding performance in sport or other areas requiring motor coordination. According to UNESCO classification (ISCED) for Special Educational Need, so called SEN students, gifted and talented students belong into category defined as students with disadvantages.Most comprehensive schools in nowadays educational landscape were not able to involve gifted and talented students into their educational support system in order to empower their full potential. Gifted and talented students experienced wide range of difficulties in succeeding their studies. Project ""GATES"" aimed to overcome different national interpretations of concepts regarding gifted and talented students with special educational needs. Project focused on providing tools for teachers to deal with gifted and talented students. The aim was to develop internal guidelines, so called tool-kit for teachers in partnering schools helping them to identify, assess and provide individual curriculums for gifted and talented students. The main target group were the teachers at project schools. During the project, teachers gained new knowledge and skills of which students benefit for years to come. The second phase of the project was focused on the implementation of the tool-kit. By the end of the project each school had developed sustainable activity for gifted and talented and was therefore strengthen the quality of education they provide. During the 24-month long project period the schools' development managers and ambassadors of this project met in total of five times. Each partner hosted a project meeting in their school in order to develop and improve the tool-kit and ensure the quality of teachers training events. In total of 10 people (2 per school) formed the core group responsible of project management and implementation activities. The input for the tool-kit came from the short-term joint staff trainings, which were organized as teacher training weeks in each partner school. Five days long teacher trainings focused on sharing each partner's success in providing educational support for gifted and talented students. Partners involved outside experts to multiply the benefit of trainings provided. Combining the exchange of good practices from five schools and experts across EU through aforementioned activities helped partners to involve gifted and talented students to each partnering schools' educational support system. In order to enable teachers to develop expertize and improve their professional skills for the benefit of students, the project aimed to involve teachers in the whole project cycle: planning, team work, decision making, reflecting, sharing, implementing and disseminating results and conclusions. The tool-kit, methodologies and activities designed for gifted and talented students during project period were implemented in each schools' working plan. Trained teachers spread their experience and work on with their next students with improved skills and act as ""multiplicants"" in their schools . Partnership expected a positive ""long term"" effect from the project and the overall improvement of quality of the education provided in their school. In case of excessive success regarding the outcome of project, the partners were expecting to use the same methodology to assist teachers and provide educational support for other SEN (special educational need) students."