The acronym of the project is TITLE - Teaching, Improving and Training Literacy Education. Since PISA research showed that the results of Croatian, Portuguese and Italian students are below average considering reading literacy, and Estonian students were 5th among tested countries, we decided to improve these skills among students. We were guided by the PISA definition of reading literacy as the ability needed to reach personal goals, develop the reader’s potential and knowledge and achieve active participation in society through understanding and evaluating texts while reading.The main objectives of the project are development and improvement of students’ reading literacy, improvement of students' linguistic literacy and popularization of reading various kinds of texts in printed and digital sources. On the project will be actively involved around 100 teachers and around 900 students from all partner schools. Most of the activities will be carried out by language teachers and librarians, but the project will involve all subjects in school so every teacher will be somewhat involved in the development of these basic skills. Students who will take part in this project are 11 to 15 years old. Parents will have the opportunity to take part in some of the activities of the project. Most activities will be common for all partner schools. One of them will be designing an area in the school called the Book Nook, where students will be able to read peacefully, spend time, where a book club will be run, and numerous activities with parents or younger students held. Book Nook will encourage other students to read and will be thematically decorated based on the books that students read. Each partner school has selected one writer and a piece of literature to be read by all students actively involved in the project. Students will also produce illustrated cards based on these books. This will foster their creativity, and book-related workshops will encourage the development and improvement of their reading literacy. Additionally, through numerous exercises held throughout regular school subjects and through extracurricular activities students will work on the development of reading literacy. From these exercises that teachers will use we will make a manual that will serve in the further work of all teachers. Three eTwinning projects will be launched before Short-term exchanges of groups of pupils.The methodology that will be used to carry out the project are active learning methods like creative writing, meditation methods (fantasy journey, imagination of texts), project learning, cross-curriculum methods (combining music with literacy), creative work, critical thinking, problem-solving, research games, collaborative learning, etc.By having an active role during this project, students will learn how to approach different types of texts and read them with comprehension. This will improve their general knowledge, understanding of context and grades. They will be able to recognize false or sensational news by researching authors and subjects on scientific databases. Students will be able to express themselves and their emotions through the written word with acquired linguistic literacy skills or through spoken word, thanks to their widened vocabulary. Students’ self-esteem will be improved, and they will have more general knowledge such as climate change. Improvement of linguistic literacy will be based on learning and applying rules of language expression, grammar and writing in their native and foreign languages. The popularization of reading of various kinds of texts in printed and digital sources will be achieved through meetings with authors, family nights at school, etc. Students' creativity in writing a graphic novel and creating illustrated cards will be this project's heritage. Potential long-term benefits for participating students are skills that they will gain or perfect by using them in all subjects and throughout education, but also in everyday life, as they will learn how to approach any type of text critically, and will have a broader knowledge of the culture and problems of the present. Partner schools will after this project have illustrated cards based on the books that students have read that can be used for a variety of purposes, from stimulating creativity and designing stories to workshops regarding social skills and emotions. Teachers will learn and develop methods of working with students and of adequately transferring the knowledge and skills needed for their entire education and life. In addition, we will publish and disseminate a collection of exercises for the development of reading literacy, decks of illustrated cards and tactile books to neighboring schools and educational institutions. Learned methods, acquired knowledge and produced materials will be beneficial for teachers working with students with fewer opportunities.

2018 is the European Year of Cultural Heritage. One of the main issues declared by Europe is that “Heritage has a big role to play in building the future of Europe. That is one reason why we want to reach out to young people in particular during the European Year.”Firmly agreeing with this, we think that one sign of a healthy community is its coexisting ability to preserve and reinvent its culture—that is, to safeguard its Past and its Cultural Heritage while developing new expressions for current times.Through this project we intend to respond to some issues which we consider quite relevant for the well-being of young generations – as teachers, our main stakeholders. 1.We are noticing that in spite of a constant increase of quickly available sources, there are clear evidences proving a progressive loss of interest towards both tangible and intangible Cultural Heritage among young generations. There is a tendency in many young people to prefer products of mass consumption that are advertised worldwide, including commercial popular music, clothing or fast food – all of them to be found in malls, the most popular meeting places for young people. Yet, we firmly believe that young generations, if conveniently educated and trained, can contribute to local development as they can enhance their interest and energy to address concerns such as heritage management and local development. Their familiarity with ICT can allow them to network and promote such issues. 2. Moreover, we notice that schools are sometimes isolated from their own territory. The project aims to a constant interaction with other components of the community-local municipalities, families, libraries, museums, commercial and industrial bodies, which may significantly provide an added value to the education of young generations and their development as a whole. Moreover, the whole territory and the community will benefit from the activities carried out throughout the project in terms of attention and re-evaluation of tangible and intangible C. H. in danger of decay or oblivion.Our commitment through this project, then, is to let students become aware of the importance to know, preserve and promote C. H. to the benefit of everybody. They will be led to understand that although preservation is often interpreted as stasis, C. H. can represent innovation and advancement while stimulating their sense of entrepreneurship.In order to better succeed in such aims, we turn to opportunities offered by Europe: we know – also thanks to our previous experiences in this field – that Partnerships between schools from different European countries represent a fundamental way of enhancing the whole process described above.As school operators, we strongly believe that one of our main missions is to provide young generations with tools and opportunities in order to help them acquire basic competences, indispensable for a harmonious development and for the acquisition of self-confidence, sense of responsibility and of aware citizenship. Given this premise, we intend to project our activities throughout the two years in such a way that the achievement of our objectives and the production of concrete results is gradual, tangible, effective and consistent with the premise itself.As for our experience, we observed that schools involved in Erasmus+ project always develop significantly in their identity and educative/formative strength.Through this specific project on Cultural Heritage, we think that these goals will be even more evident thanks to the important and fundamental interaction between schools and their territories. We expect that schools, and particularly pupils, will develop awareness of what is around them also in terms of institutions, private and public bodies, places, art, music, traditions and community as a whole.

Currently, all partner schools are aware of the benefits of developing children's emotional intelligence (EI) and sense of inner balance. Fostering emotional balance not only improves academic performance, but also shapes the young into becoming better citizens, capable of using coping strategies to prevent harmful consequences. In the context of the CoVid-19 pandemia, the emotional balance of citizens is needed, to preserve calmness in the face of panic-inducing events. The educational climates in partner schools are diverse, and so are our challenges. Despite our differences, we all share the same goals: to address education holistically, with our pupils' well-being in the centre: to build our pupils' self-esteem, reduce anxiety levels in social interactions, and equip them and their teachers with strategies to manage emotional dysregulation and bullying situations/social inequities.Objectives:1. Develop emotional intelligence skills for 180 (30 pupils/partner) pupils from partner institutions through a variety of curricular and extracurricular activities 2. Enhance the ability of 24 teachers (4 teachers/partner) from partner schools in implementing a teaching approach based on social and emotional learning and support 3. Reduce the frequency of pupil conflicts by 10% in all partner schools by shifting the focus from pupil's problematic behaviors towards the feelings that drove them4. Develop common teaching strategies to assist students in learning about and managing their emotions, comprised in 1 e-guide on implementing emotional intelligence curricular activitiesParticipants: There are two main groups that will take part in the main project activities: staff members and pupils. For each partner school, there will be at least 4 staff members in the project implementation team (4 staff members x 6 partner schools = 24 staff members), and 30 pupils (aged 10-16) as direct participants and beneficiaries of project activities (30 pupils x 6 partner schools = 180 pupils).Activities & methodology:The projects'main activity is the implementation of the 'in-school mindful teaching strategy' in each school, comprised of both curricular and extracurricular activities centred on pupils. By being at the centre of each project activity, pupils shall gain awareness about own and others' emotions, as well as the abilities to deal with the negative effect of emotional dysregulation. Also, most activities are based on teamwork. By encouraging students to engage in game play and per-to-peer teaching sessions, they will be provided with the opportunity to practice working cooperatively and prepare for a succesful adult life. To work effectively as a team, pupils must be respectful of their teammates and work with these individuals to reach a conclusion or solve a problem, thus enhancing their empathy levels.Also, the constant exchange of pedagogical practices during the project, through the 'In-school mindful teaching strategy' and by participating in project management meetings, teachers are going to learn from each other, develop strategies that not only will help pupils, but also increase the relevance and professional level of their own careers, by managing to address education holistically, as we tackle the different aspects of our pupils'lives (spiritual and physical): self-control, helping others balance their emotions, social interaction games, mindfulness techniques, yoga practice.Parents of the targeted 30 pupils will also be informed on the project activities and emotional intelligence practices to support their children’s personal development at home; this will be done during one parent-training event every 2 months.Results:6 on-going in-school mindful teaching strategies(1 per each partner school), including curricular and extracurricular activities on emotional intelligence180 pupils with emotional intelligence enhanced, able to use coping strategies to manage stressful situations and/or bullying issues24 teachers trained in fostering pupils' emotional intelligence through curricular and extracurricular activities1 eTwinning 'mindfulness challange' 1 e-guide on in-school emotional intelligence practices Impact and Long-term benefits:The staff involved will gain a deeper understanding of pupils' reactions and will be equipped with useful teaching practices to address their emotional imbalances, while focusing on curriculum as well. By working in teams and travelling, by taking part in the project workshops and other activities, pupils and staff will benefit from an increase of empathy level, an improvement of emotional intelligence skills, of relational skills, a decrease in the number of conflicts and bullying situations among pupils, an activation of negotiation skills, improvement of academic results. Our schools will gain experience and solid practice in better addressing pupils' interests, individual needs and fostering their mental health, along with their academic performance.

The ideas for the project arose as a result of reduced tolerance and increasing xenophobia in large parts of Europe. The main objective was therefore to make both adults working with education and youth increase their understanding of other people and cultures. Through understanding and experience, both tolerance and the opportunity to become aware of their own prejudices increases. In order to achieve this goal, another goal was to find and develop mutual educational methods and strategies in education to prevent xenophobia and intolerance. In this project it was 8 participation schools involved and the schools represent the following countries: Sweden, Portugal, Cypern, Italy, Poland, Hungary, Romania and Spain. All schools struggled with problems with Xenopobhia, but in different ways, and the schools and countries have different histories and backgrounds ackording to the main topic. Before every visit to the participating schools we had different activities with different topics, which everyone connected to the main project topic. It was both teacher activities and student activities, for example about minority groups in each country and famous people which has stood up against intolerance in different ways.Both staff, teachers and students who participated in the project, both through travel and through participation in activities linked to the project, have had a cultural exchange. Through this, their knowledge and understanding of the outside world has increased. the fear of the unknown, Xenophobia has thus decreased.During the project period, the project has been developed to include how to work with young people who are outside or at risk of getting out of society. Participants in the project have received training on how to work with new arrivals, students with downs syndrome, heterogeneity groups, youth who have been in youth care (/ youth prison, etc.). How important aftercare is in the last context.There have been new contacts, many certainly lifelong.Language skills have been developed especially in English, Greek, German and Spanish.The long-term benefits is that we gained new experiences and a method bank, for example there some of the activities during this project are very qualitative and can easily be used in education. We also think that activities and courses we taking part of can be used as training to teaching staff at schools and youth centers.