<< Objectives >>Through this project, the causes and casual loops of poor motivation and lack of engagement in each school context with a special focus on the STEAM classes will be identifies and solved by a continuous and close relationship with other schools and universities. Also, the continuous training for the teachers will be the mechanism to find new solutions (project-based learning, Career development) to old problems, especially in the STEAM areas.<< Implementation >>The first activities are going to be virtual ones where teachers are challenged to think systematically and to learn more motivating and engaging ways of teaching. After this reflexive practice and learning process, teachers are invited to try it out, to evaluate and to exchange practices with the other schools with a mobility opportunity to see in loco some strategies.<< Results >>Through this project it is expected to see a systemic change in each school with an increase of the student’s motivation and engagement in the school, especially in lessons where teachers were directly involved in the project - The use of project-based learning The introduction of the activities to promote Career development and the continuation of the new pedagogical practices in the following years.

“You can learn more about people by listening to their songs than any other way, for into the songs go all the hopes and hurts, the angers, fears, and the wants and aspirations”,John Steinbeck quoted and inspired us to put his thoughts into practice or even try to get a bit further than that: The context /background of our project is thinking about songs and music as historical artifacts and resources for learning, as, like other historical sources, musical compositions reflect the values and biases of the individuals who created them. Since the earliest days of every nation's and country's history, people have always creatively expressed themselves in lyrical form—in hymns, ballads, marches, limericks, love songs, and elegies. The songs and poems they have left for posterity are unmatched in their vitality and variety, and the events and emotions that these works describe together make up a portrait of the heritage of every country. Thus, when music is used as a source, it must be analyzed to see what it depicts. The projects aims to provide the students and teachers the relevant and high quality skills in today's society and to make use of the national and European identity through music in order to foster social inclusion and education through music related topics. The project targets at 12-15 years old ordinary students but also at students with fewer opportunities who are from underprivileged backgrounds and experience social, economic or learning difficulties. The project also targets at teachers who are interested in continuous personal and professional development for a better world. There will be 140 students and teachers who will directly take part in the transnational Learning/Teaching/Training Activities. as a result of the selection criteria to meet the objectives of each project meeting. Our group of 5 schools will decode the information presented in pieces of music or different sources related to music so that the target group should develop their social, civic, English, ICT skills, raise their cultural awareness, boost their self-esteem and motivation to improve continuously. through the understanding of the attitudes, emotions, and complex circumstances that shaped the perspectives of creative Europeans. The project lasts 24 months, with 5 transnational Learning/Teaching/Training Activities for whose achievement we will have activities in preparation of the final products and that have as follow-up the evaluation stages and disseminations of results. All partner schools will cooperate and communicate continuously so that there should not be any interaptions regarding the task achievement and project implementation The project tangible results will be:.'Project Logo', 'Story of music', .'Songs:not only tunes, but the mentality of a nation'., 'Landscape in songs', 'Lanscape and Traditional Songs, Dances and Clothing', 'Traditional instruments', ' My musical instrument', 'Friendship through Music',' 'Music- what and why I listen to', 'Music unites people', 'Let’s teach our mother tongue to our partners through music',.'Intercultural communication through music' and 'Songs in the English class' . To create these final products, we will do research, make documentation visits, attend lectures, produce presentations, make comparisons, write booklets, make videos, CDs, conduct surveys, construct our own musical instruments, play musical instruments, learn songs in the partnership's mother tongues and in English and learn English through songs, all of these representing ways through which the musical history and identity of each country will be revealed and interpreted.and the students and teachers will develop the skills aimed at by the project objectives. As a result of the participation in this project, through the acquired skills,competences and attitudes, the students will actuvely campaign for a society that will be more tolerant and respectful of diversity, they will have access to a better life, they will not feel socially excluded, they will not be at risk of dropping school and they will continue their education for better careers. Teachersl will have the opportunity to adopt innovative methods of teaching and CLIL will be applied, as a variety of school subjects will be involved, and e-lectures will be available,stimulating innovative projects/methods and sharing good practices. A successful dissemination and exploitation of our project will lead to external recognition of the work carried out, adding further credit to it and multiplying its effects. All results and materials will be shared on the project and the schools' websites, project Twin space, through paper publications and through workshops in each participant's region. Our aim is to work towards lifelong learning and maximize the effect of the developed activities, by making our products accessible and sustainable beyond the end of the funding period, via optional courses, accreditation or mainstreaming.

"The importance of cultural heritage is not the cultural manifestation itself but rather the wealth of knowledge and skills that is transmitted through it from one generation to the next.Our project was undertaken by 6 partner countries from different parts of Europe-Ireland, Bulgaria, France, Portugal, Cyprus and Italy. The working language of the project was English with opportunities for countries of course to explore the topic of Cultural Heritage within their native tongue also.This further strengthened the idea of Cultural Heritage that was encompassed within our project. The еТwinning platform will be the basic tool for communication,collaboration and active involvement of all partners and all participant members. The objectives of our project ""Culture for Kids Beyond the Textbook"" were: 1.To provoke desire and interest to learn and preserve the cultural heritage of national communities and those of the partner countries also.To promote a sense of belonging to the European multicultural community in which citizens share common and specific values. 2.To enhance the quality of education in the early childhood by exploring culture ‘Beyond the textbook. 3.To increase the motivation of children to learn and provide opportunities for them to collaborate and communicate using technology. 4.To provoke desire and interest to non-formal and informal activities that promote the acquisition of knowledge and skills in areas of Culture Heritage. 5.To increase self-esteem of children and improve their desire to ‘learn by doing’ and engage in guided discovery of their own culture and history and that of others by bringing it to life. The planned activities were based on three guidelines that supported and consolidated the Culture4Kids project: -Ongoing interaction and collaboration between teachers,parents,local artists,museum and library employees-it gave children an opportunity to explore cultural heritage through a variety of means.Whether it is for a specific assignment or topic or any other learning need, the library and the museum has a variety of resources and opportunities for you to learn.When the parents are engaged and involved, everyone benefits, and our schools will become increasingly rich and positive places to teach,learn and grow. -Child-led initiatives, non-formal activities in formal education-in contrast to structured learning activities at school,our children had opportunities themselves to take up the leadership of child-led initiatives, through support from an adult adviser.By the non-formal educational activities we gave creativity to our children's structured learning, reinforced their self-esteem and helped them find ways to contribute to their communities.We used the non-formal education activities also to provide additional support to children who are in school. -The use of ICT and Project Based Learning in teaching young learners-many of the activities required the use of ICT and this helped achieve our objective of motivating our young learners to be active within the topic of Cultural Heritage.It also helped to reinvigorate the teacher’s learning and teaching in this area.The results from our activities gave the rest of our colleagues concrete ideas and a bank of resources that can in future be implemented easily within a classroom scenario and these were disseminated to school staff during the project and also can be afterwards.The teachers, involved in our project,felt confident afterwards in engaging in workshops for other schools with relation to the teaching and learning of cultural heritage within a European and National context. The active involvement of all school communities promoted effective implementation of the project.This will of course benefit long term not only direct participants,but schools as a whole.Made in both English and mother tongue project's results and common products will be available through its link in the eTwinning platform and the project website.Any interested persons that wish to discuss our methodologies will be afforded our results after the project conclusion and support will be given by the coordinators where appropriate. Through the project ""Culture for Kids Beyond the Textbook"" our children became familiar with the cultural heritage of national communities and those of the partner countries also.They found,presented and visited various places of their country which are protected by UNESCO and are considered as World Heritage.They examined,played,learned and developed their own basic, language, literacy and digital skills."