MythEUROlogyContext/background:The idea to study local and european myths that provide the field of using innovative ways of representations in order to a) achieve curriculum objectives, b) introduce common European cultural heritage principles that will help us to learn how to live in a cultural diverse community.Objectives:1. The aesthetic recognition of myths language and plot. 2. Multidimensional enhancement of myths (geological, social etc).3. Comparative study of myths in different European countries.4. Creation of a new teaching methodology based in geomythology, particularly in European geomythology that encourages the emergence of European citizenship and is conducive to peaceful coexistence and a richer European identity.5. Cooperation of all involved members in and out of school environment in each country. Cooperation of all involved partners within and out of their countries.6. Promotion of new technologies in education.Number and profile of participants: at least 1000 pupils (6-12 y.o.) and 150 teachers.Description of activities:C1. A short-term joint staff training will be held in the first trimester, in order to discuss and consolidate the outline of activities to be carried out in the schools per period and the structure of the short-term exchanges of student groups. This will allow the more experienced schools to share their know-how about pupils' mobility arrangements, challenges etc.C2. The first pupils exchange will be held in Romania, focusing on the various approaches to studying myths and legends, the exploration of geo-mythological elements behind the myths and on the detection of common elements in the legends under study, by the schools. C3. On the 2nd pupils exchange, in Cyprus, the participants will present, study and work jointly to further develop the outcomes of the second trimester. Through a multimodal approach to legend study we will design maps, create art and produce informative illustrations.C4. Poland will host the 3rd pupils exchange, where we will explore the potential of using myths and legends to enrich the syllabi of various curricular subjects. Following the presentations, pupils will produce a booklet including the collection of myths from the participating countries. C5. On the eve of the second year, Greece will host the 4th pupils exchange. The participants will present the outcomes of employing modern educational technology (ICT) in studying mythology and folklore and reflect upon their experience. Moreover, each school will present the environmental challenges in their region. After identifying the common issues, we will set and plan the next assignment, an ambitious task of creative writing.C6. Italy will host the 5th pupils exchange. Since the task of the 5th trimester will be the development of multimodality, the participants will present their production of multimodal texts, introducing original modern myths, exploring modern day environmental problems with creativity.C7. Bulgaria will host the final meeting.The participants will present their final versions of their modern myths and explore alternative and more expressive ways of presentation, such as theatrical, dance and music performances. Students will produce an original performance, created with input from all project partners. It will be a natural conclusion to all the activities in the project.Methodology:Our methodology will deploy upon the theory and practices of “good practice exchange” between schools. The project will run for two years and the activities have been arranged in three trimesters per academic year. A short-term mobility of pupils is scheduled at the end of each trimester, so that common meetings can take place. These meetings will include field studies, workshops and conferences, where all the participants will exchange good practices by presenting the work that has been accomplished during the trimester and will demonstrate and evolve the acquired skills. The activities will be relevant to our schedule and objectives.Short description of the results and impact:There will be short-term joint staff training events and short-term exchanges of groups of pupils.There will be: a) tangible results: booklets, continuing professional development, material for teachers, online meetingb) intangible results: improvement of the academic curriculum in the field of European matters and the bond between students and the European environment (opportunities to study abroad, ECTS) increasing the expertise for improving the skills, knowledge and managerial abilities for school managers.Potential longer term benefits:a) Teachers, management staff- will improve their language skills in English, they will also find a new way to teach and cooperative learning, comparing the process with the international colleagues so they can transfer this experience to other colleagues from their regions.b)Students will discover the value and the importance of their educational training.

<< Objectives >>SKILLS To CATCH the FUTURE will aim at equipping students and teachers with computational thinking, to have personalities adapted to a changing society.The specific objectives include:1. developing critical thinking using digital communication techniques; 2.using computational thinking skills in teaching and learning; 3.applying computational thinking skills in individual and group projects; 4.enhancing cooperation skills for all communities involved in the project.<< Implementation >>We will use unplugged coding activities, computational algorithms, Scratch and other applications to create educational activities on different school subjects, according to the curriculum, in order to generate strategic mindsets and critical thinking. There will be at least 8 national activities each year, 4 for primary and 4 for secondary level, integrated in core curriculum in each partner school. During the transnational meetings we practise computational skills in real life context.<< Results >>The main outcome of the project is an e-book comprising a collection of at least 30 projects and worksheets, the project blog with all the videos, games, presentations realised during the project.

Safety and protection. Children are vulnerable in a world which they have limited knowledge of. They know neither its system, nor its rules. All the more so in the case of special needs children, who find it harder to understand the signs of the world that encompasses them. Attention deficit, concentration problems, and the cognitive developmental delays make it harder for them to recognise rules and to comply with them. It makes things even more difficult that they often come from a family with multiple disadvantages, which means that they do not recieve any kind of proper guidance from the family environment, which leads to a clear dependence on their part. The pupils of the partner schools are mostly special needs children with multiple disadvantages. The core of their social integration is education, which aims to stop them from becoming the victims of their surroundings.The objective of the project is to teach these children road traffic safety and the correct, safe usage of the internet. In order to achieve that, the project improves their learning abilities and cognitive skills. With a playful approach during developmental exercises, the children will learn about the meanings of traffic signs, types of vehicles, the signs of vehicles designed for a specific usage, their hotline numbers, and the job of their crew. They will learn the correct traffic morale and the rules that they should consistently abide by during their independent living. They will learn the proper usage of IT devices, the advantages of social media, and how to avoid becoming victims of con men.The teachers will recieve short-term tranings, while four special education schools from abroad will take part in the partnership.The Hungarian Pécsi Éltes EGYMI special school will present and teach their methods within the framework of animal assisted therapeutic sessions and classes that aim to encourage a higher standard of road safety amongst SN children.The Slovakian special school (Špeciálna základná škola, Speciális Alapiskola) seeks to develop a proper traffic morale amongst the children with the help of the school’s drama group—through performances and follow-up group sessions. Furthermore, in their well equiped workshops, they will educate the teachers of the partner schools on how to do mockups of traffic vehicles and roads.The Slovenian bilingual special school (DOS II Lendava) aims to support traffic safety with the help of story yoga. Through the meditative world of yoga, while listening to stories, the SN children will move along with the music as a fun and interactive way of learning about traffic rules, behavioural norms and all the needed knowledge that will ensure their independent mobility.Last but not least, the teacher of the partnership will have the chance to learn the teaching methods of a special school in Transylvania (Scoala Gimnaziala Speciala Sfintu Gheorghe). Following performances, conversations, ice-breaking activities, class visits, workshops, debates and games, the children will learn the basics of safe internet surfing, and to ask for help from their peers, parents, or teachers. They will learn about the dangers of uploading personal data - such as their passwords, phone number, or even pictures - onto social media platforms. This safe method of using the internet will help SN children to learn how to properly communicate in the cyberspace and to realize that the use of online platforms could have several dangerous consequences. They will learn how to handle their own personal data and that of their family’s, and to successfully filter the content that reaches them through the internet.The best practices offered by the partner schools will help the participating teachers to inform children about traffic and internet safety - with the incorporation of a wide array of new methods. With the incorporation of these new methods, the teachers will be able to improve professionnally, and to form more personal relationships with the pupils and their parents. The adaptation of new methods will be made possible by team work, which will lead the way to creative cooperation inside the schools.The “Be Safe Today” (BEST) project provides a great opportunity for Hungarian language special schools from across the border to get to know each other’s work, all the while enhancing amongst themselves the need for preserving the Hungarian language and culture.

“Our heritage” states the EU official website, “has a big role to play in building the future of Europe.” As primary school educators, we could not agree more with this statement. Yet, teaching young learners about their heritage can often be an unproductive endeavour. Cultural heritage is all around us, but fragmented across disciplines and curricula. Celebrating multiculturalism is a laudable goal, but it is yet to be translated into comprehensive pedagogies. Young learners’ engagement with heritage is essential in building the future of Europe, but any interaction other than respectful preservation is often considered hubristic. Motivated by these observable needs and inspired by the discourse of the European Year of Cultural Heritage, this project aimed to develop new and innovative pedagogies for teaching and learning about cultural heritage. Our objectives have been to make cultural heritage an appealing subject for both teachers and learners, to approach it creatively through digital technologies, to consider it in relation to the increasingly multicultural composition of our classrooms. Underpinning all these objectives is an understanding of cultural heritage as a dynamic and participatory field of learning, one that warrants not only the preservation of the past, but also our interaction with it in the present, for the purpose of building a better future. As the slogan for the European Year of Cultural Heritage succinctly puts it, “Our heritage: where the past meets the future.” We appropriated this slogan into the title “Cultural Heritage: Cherishing the Past, Building the Future” for a 22-month project involving six primary schools from Cyprus, Italy, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, and Spain. We envisaged the project as an all-encompassing experience for our schools, involving different groups of participants. To ensure that all children took part, an array of activities had been planned, including three transnational pupil exchanges. Teachers oversaw the implementation of pupil activities, designed and delivered innovative teaching on the project’s topic, and took part in two transnational training activities. Parents and the wider community participated in outreach activities and events targeted at the project’s dissemination. Methodologically, activities were designed to foster participatory and experiential learning. They all had a parallel implementation stage, an interactive stage between pupils at different schools, and a follow-up stage that connects them to other activities and/or dissemination events. Digital technology played a key role, both in developing innovative approaches to teaching cultural heritage and in facilitating learners’ participatory engagement with it. To this end, the project also included activities targeted at increasing both teachers’ and pupils’ digital fluency. The project was designed to yield sustainable results that would last beyond the project’s timeframe and have an impact beyond our six-school partnership. In terms of teaching, the key result was innovative methods for addressing questions of cultural heritage in primary education. Teachers also gained transferable digital skills, especially in the areas of multimedia output and interactive digital lessons. These improvements did not load existing curricula with new material, but renegotiated our approach to existing material and its incorporation into formal and informal lessons. Concrete output with long-term benefits for our schools includes new lesson plans, templates, and games in adjustable digital formats. To broaden the project’s impact, this output has also been made freely available on TwinSpace and open education databases. Our pupils did not only gain factual knowledge about the different facets of cultural heritage (tangible, intangible, natural, and digital), but, more pressingly, they actively participated in its development and gained a deeper appreciation of multiculturalism. In addition, they improved their digital literacy skills. The project’s concrete results comprise all the material and digital outputs of pupil activities, including a calendar of European traditions, a digital museum of project artefacts and a code of multiculturalist conduct. All these results and many more have been digitally shared and disseminated. Looking to the future, the project’s benefits can only increase as European classrooms become more multicultural and more reliant on technology. Apart from their intrinsic value for education, these benefits become more relevant, more topical, more exigent in the context of a project that teaches the future generation of European citizens to cherish their cultural heritage and work together in building a better future.

Project finals“Course book future – development of sustainable lifestyles”As part of the strategic partnership between the Scoala Gimnaziala in Sf. Gheorghe in the Danube Delta (Romania) and the highschool Salzhausen at the edge of the Nordheide (Germany) a “course book future” was developed, which enables students for future living. This product is the result of an exchange between teachers and students of the partner schools. Further it was supported by the ESD (Educations for Sustainable Development) and other educational partners of environmental education in the local regions.This course book is a strategy paper, which enables students to develop sustainable lifestyles in terms of professional orientation, sustainable use of resources, conservation of biodiversity and a healthy lifestyle. This paper is also used in the concerned local regions for further sustainable development. The results are consistently incorporated into the formal education as well as into quality development in schools.The cooperative work on the “course book future” enables students to actively deal with their own future perspectives. The outcome of the student’s work is shown in the “course book”, both in printed form and publicly accessible through a website. In addition to the course book accompanying materials are created, that can be used for the implementations of chosen methods. The course book is used in training and in workshops. As innovative methods for knowledge generation, students performed interviews, invented a creative map which shows the development of future perspectives. Furthermore, they did rallies to analyze the future perspective of their home town and local businesses. Communities as well as institutions could participate activities of the students and public discussions about sustainable lifestyles.In addition to the creation of the course book, the project supports understanding between the European peoples by opening our eyes to the potential of European neighbors and thus contributes to a peaceful living. The acquisition and consolidation of foreign language skills are particularly supported as the language is English. The development of the project was communicated through the internet platform e-twinning.Activities such as project meetings of experts to prepare as well as for follow up and evaluation of the project were carried out. With the participation of 17 students from both schools, the project activities were carried out regularly via e-twinning but also during two exchange visits with accompanying teachers. During the entire time of the project the cooperating partners of the schools were included. The partner schools and the cooperative partners feel intensely committed to the development of sustainable lifestyles.Different people were involved in the activities of the project. In Germany the Center of Environmental Education “Schubz” supported the project. In Romania the project was supported by “NGO Mioritics”. Employees of the Administration of the Biosphere reservation “Niedersächsische Elbtalaue” and “Danube Delta Biosphere Reserve” gave professional advice and accompanied students on excursions. The mayors of Salzhausen and Sf. Gheorghe as well as representatives of local businesses, such as Salmatec, Tierpark Lüneburger Heide, fishfactory Sf. Gheorghe and holidayresort Green Village supported the examination of regional possibilities to develop sustainable living and future professions. Parents organized fieldtrips, school clubs planted flower beds, organized excursions and rallies. Furthermore, exhibitions for different professions were organized by students. The schools presented the project and the results as a public event.It can be expected that teachers, responsible representatives of the partners and the communities use the course book for the development of necessary competences of adolescents to be flexible and sensitive to the pressing questions of the future and generate sustainable solutions.