"Today's society is flooded with incivility, insults, bullying, self-centeredness, abuse, the breakdown of families and violence. You can add technology addiction, substance abuse, materialism and dishonesty, and it seems clear that our schools cannot be ethical bystanders. Most people see the problem, but there are few widespread commitments to do something about it. Our classrooms are a kaleidoscope of students, all with needs for recognition, self-worth, empathy and belonging. And our curriculum, however, seems to be caught up in the constant pressure to raise test scores nowadays. But should it be our mission to ensure that our youngsters become the kind of quality, trustworthy human beings we all want them to be? “Education worthy of its name is essentially education of character."" (Martin Buber, philosopher) Also at the schools of the participating countries demands focussing on teaching values and values have become louder, either by parents, by teachers or even by students. So we decided to work on the topic of character education, an approach which has been implemented in many schools around the world and whose significance is growing. Because character education focusses on the teaching of core values like trustworthiness, respect, responsibility, fairness, caring and citizenship. Good character education means cultivating virtues through formation of good habits. Character education is most effective when it is spread throughout regular school courses. In science, maths, history and especially in creative subjects and sports. Many character education schools are reporting reduced violence, fewer discipline referrals, less vandalism, improved attendance and higher academic performance. With our partners we found a reliable group willing to work hard and enthusiastically on this project and hoping to find ways to teach e.g. the six pillars of character education in a suitable way at school which later could be used by other schools, institutes or even districts. We wanted to become a starting point in making a change. In our project we learned, we made first experiences, we challenged ourselves and students. We also wanted to distribute our results in order to open eyes and maybe change school's reality focussing on demands of today's society and its challenges. But due to COVID pandemic we were not able to finish the project and were stopped in the middle of work. Meetings were held in Germany, Portugal and Spain forming international classes in which we implemented key terms of Character Education in common subjects like sports and arts. In between students participated in activities on our eTwinning platform and exchanged ideas and got in contact. All results so far were published on our blog http://charactermatterserasmus.blogspot.com. We found out that effective programs engage students activities where good character is emphasized throughout the school environment as well as through the curriculum. In seminars and workshops, in classes and daily school life we learned about how they can be applied to our schools. During three of our six learning activities, we planned to bring students aged 14-18 together, to work in international groups, to experience the impact of character education in daily lessons and to evaluate the results.Teachers should be introduced and educated in the topic of character education, students should be taught respecting the principles of character education and given ways to evaluate and monitor themselves and parents should be informed about new ideas and ways. Due to COVID pandemic only two af these activities could be realized. So it is not possible to evaluated if it's recommendable to establish a character education program at each school, within which subjects and how. A guidebook or a video to report about the project work and its results could not be published. Summarized, the key aims of the project were to inform, to experience, to evaluate, to report and to recommend. We increased the understanding of effective approaches that support other schools and colleges to develop and build character and we wanted to encourage colleagues and organizations."

"The whole project dealt with the problems pupils faced every day by the teachers in schools,an issue that is being addressed by developed countries worldwide.These are behavioural problems of pupils,psychological problems,problems coming from the family environment or from society.Our aim was to involve these pupils in the project activities and at the same time we observed the behaviour of the pupils in the group and collected knowledge important for prevention.The decision to implement the project proved to be the right one,because during the3 years(the project was extended by one year due to the covid epidemic),we saw improvements in pupils with specific problems:1.Psychological problems2.Learning difficulties(dyslexia, dysgraphia, Asperger's)3.Overweight4.ADHD, behavioural difficulties in the school environment5.Pupils at risk of failureWe emphasized the involvement of these students in sports and cultural activities,which we implemented in international meetings,as well as during the school year when we worked on outputs.Mixed groups of students with special needs with students of different grades or their classmates proved to be a good solution for socialization, motivation to achieve better results, competitiveness, but also cooperation.We concluded with our partners that pupils from all organisations made a huge progress and were more outgoing, friendly and communicative in school after each return from an international activity.Throughout the project they communicated with each other via social networks, but even now that the project has ended,some of them maintain regular contact with their international friends.Teachers became convinced that teamwork, the relationship between pupils and teachers,but also a change of environment can have a beneficial effect on solving and especially preventing conflict situations that lead to bullying,racism,exclusion from school society and eventually to failure at school.In addition,we have found that pupils with psychological problems,ADHD,or Asperger's syndrome function well in the work group and that active meaningful activity reduces their problems (especially noticeable in pupils with psychological burdens).Pupils with different problems were no longer seen as""troublemakers""or""special""by their classmates,because other pupils from the school had worked with them for a long time,had the opportunity to get to know them well,to learn about their peculiarities and to respect them.They have learned that when everyone works as a team and does what they do best,they can all apply themselves and work better together.They discovered that many of them have a number of strengths that they have not had the opportunity to discover or show before.Pupils have learned to get along in and out of school and generally co-exist harmoniously in the school environment.During the implementation of the project,we held 3 international meetings,each in a different setting with different sports and cultural activities.The 1st meeting was about canoeing and rafting in the mountains of northern Greece,with visits to local nature reserves and museums.The 2nd meeting took place in Italy.We sailed on the sea and visited the most important archaeological sites between Salermo and Ischia.The 3d meeting took place in Prague,team sports thrilled all participants,we also visited the most important monuments of Prague and its surroundings.The organization of these meetings was challenging because there were sports activities in different environments,we always had to take into account that we were going with students who might react in unexpected ways.The 4th and last meeting,which waxs going to take place in Iceland,was unfortunately not held with the pupils due to covid restrictions.Thanks to the excellent cooperation of all the organisations involved,good preparation and a well thought out program,I have to say that we managed to meet all the objectives we set ourselves.We consider the most important goals achieved to be:improving the physical and mental health of the teenagers,the friendships that have been created between the pupils of all schools,the relationship between pupils and teachers,socialization,teamwork,a better relationship with sport,getting to know another culture,strengthening self-esteem,improving communication between peers,the use of foreign languages,earning about European countries-nature, culture,creating a good atmosphere in school.For the teachers, the implementation of the project was a huge benefit in gaining experience and working with pupils with special needs. These students often avoid group events, so the teacher meets them only during lessons or when solving a problem.The length of the meetings was around10days, his helped all of us to build trust with each other,but most importantly we could observe the pupils from close proximity and react quickly as needed.This experience is very important for the future prevention of problems of various kinds."

H2O project has got a new approach to both environmental education and intercultural learning whilst fostering cooperation amongst Spanish, Slovakian and Icelander youth. The main goals are to explore various possibilities of water engineering and give students the opportunity to cooperate internationally on solving environmental issues. The basic and fundamental reason why four European countries- partners want to carry out the H2O project is a better opportunity for international perspective of increased cooperation in the field of ecology of water.While achieving these four aims during the project we will learn through new methods of international cooperation within European Union. Besides the mobilities among the project has the programs connected with purification, water acquisition, thermal waters and hydroelectric power stations. The project uses various innovative online tools to spread the project’s works and outcomes. It’s a huge adventure for students and their teachers in which they’ll develop their general knowledge about the ecology and improve their communication language skills. The project also teaches how to gain basic ecological habits which should be learned by children from the very beginning. The scientific approach to the topic makes the project more interesting and gives the participants the real possibility in touching the problem in adults life. We have to encourage them for the future protection of the environment so that they can one day make a difference for the better. Each school chooses from their students only 7 pupils who will be the ambassadors of their nation in solving the project’s main problem. Their further actions will continue in spreading to local communities what was learned about water industry during the project’s research. The youth is taught that to live ecologically is possible and it’s not so demanding.Each participating school involved as many members of its teaching staff as possible, encouraging a mixed participation of both experienced and newly-qualified colleagues. This allowed a fruitful exchange of innovative and time-tested methodologies as well as a multi-disciplinary approach to everyone’s teaching. Final products include innovative, transversal and interdisciplinary CLIL materials, lesson plans, didactic units, which we hope will be shared and used in various teaching environments.All actors in the project are made aware of the European dimension and far-reaching advantages of an Erasmus+ experience on individuals, schools and the community as a whole. All partners , from the outset, for the duration of the project and beyond, have the responsibility of informing the community of Erasmus+ actions and activities. Diseminaion activities continue up to now.

Exceptional accomplishments in exploration and further development on the sea, in the mountains and in the world of nature and society, feature strongly in our European history. Reflecting this heritage, European states have led the way in the use of outdoor learning and adventure for the development of young people. Instead of formal education we invited students to learn by doing. By doing this project we intended to strengthen the unity among students and their immediate environment. We managed to connect elements of natural and cultural heritage and reawaken the local heritage through a portrayal of past daily activities linked with the present. The project´s aim was to highlight, protect and promote each country’s cultural heritage, natural beauty, tourist attractions as well as using all gathered information in an educational environment. Moreover, we adapted gathered knowledge to needs of school curriculum which reflects requirements of modern education in the 21st century. Although in text books and/ or tourist brochures they can easily find information about the most interesting sights, they are unable to distinguish those sights and their role and importance in their natural/ cultural environment. Going out of the classroom to the towns, old factories, castles, agricultural dwellings, mountains, parks, meadows or gardens we guided students through the process of active and engaging learning with strong connection to their history and culture. Teamwork ability of students nowadays is decreasing, as well as the ability to find compromises, cooperate and work out mutual strategies. Enabling participants to work in multinational teams contributed to enlarging their open-mindedness towards differences in languages, cultures and traditions. Since English was the working language of our project and all coordinators possess language, ICT skills, our main aim was to promote, develop and improve language competences through transversal skills. Some of partners have worked together before and we have been aware of the abundance of related information to be found on the Internet, some of which is valid, much of which is a waste of time. IT tools used included the Etwinning website platform, Wikiloc, Joomag, Google docs and maps, school radio...Therefore, continued our dedicated search for open-source digital tools and educational resources, selecting only those applications which have been truly tested among our pupils and received their positive feedback as well as didactic success. Our intention was to transform all the information gathered while exploring our immediate surroundings into interactive, learner-centred, multi-disciplinary CLIL lesson units, which can be re-used in the CLIL classroom, as an independent learning tool or, in a simplified format, for peer teaching. Each school prepared at least two lesson plans. The information include references to Nature, history, geography, ecology and economy and it is presented in English. The other objectives of the Edu- paths project can be expressed as follow: 1) to develop sense of responsibility and solidarity among countries, 2) to make students to be actively involved at presenting their cultural heritage 3) to promote the value and necessity of local, national and international cooperation in the prevention and solution of preserving natural and cultural heritage 4) To gain the skills, abilities and qualifications in a new educational surroundings to get a better professional and personal development, adapt new methods into school curriculum 5) To show the improvement of mobility and promoting among young people the idea of learning through the whole life Realization of the project included not only those members who took part at LTT activities but also all of the students/ teachers who profited directly from produced CLIL material as well as educational path. Most of the products have already been incorporated in each school curriculum so having an European project have been the most effective way of integrating and adapting cultural/ natural heritage for educational purposes. The main target groups are students at the age of 12- 16 as well as teachers using new pedagogical approaches. In order to achieve the outcomes which project has produced we intend to continue cooperation with partners in further European projects, maintain and develop common website on etwinning for those interested in outdoor education. All learning/ teaching materials will be available to download/ adapt for use in the classroom. Our work on edu- path will continue in order to master connection between local environment and education and offering a new edge to presentation of country/ area of partner countries. The educational material produced during realization of the project will be used in the curriculum of each school in following years.

Our Cultural Heritage in a European Context project was created by four secondary schools from Hungary (coordinator), Finland, Iceland and Spain. The four schools have already worked together in different projects and possess varying degrees of experience regarding international cooperation in the Erasmus + framework. The partnership would like to offer pupils with the opportunity to work together in international teams on cultural topics, honing their foreign language and IT skills as well as their communicative and interpersonal competences.Among the objectives of the project, the most important ones are: raising the number of pupils participating in international cooperation, teaching and learning about culture in informal and non-formal ways, making pupils better understand the importance of cultural heritage, strengthening their attitudes towards European citizenship, improving their English language skills, strengthening the international networks of the partner schools, developing creative thinking and promoting the use of IT tools in education.The participants of the project are the pupils of the four participating schools, the actual number of pupils participating in mobility is 64, 60 pupils would participate in short-term exchanges of groups and pupils and 4 pupils will participate in long-term study mobility of pupils. The participants of the project are secondary school pupils aged 14 to 20. Local participants of the project will add to the number of pupils participating in the exchanges. Also, during the project activities we will involve all the pupils of the partner schools in activities such as 'Culture Days.'To begin with, we will organize a teachers' meeting in order to discuss the components of the project with the participating teachers. We are also planning four short-term exchanges of groups of pupils, one in each participating country. In the preparatory phase, the host school's pupils will create videos and online quizzes for the guests to be published on the eTwinning space of the project. During the meetings, host schools will organize cultural activities for the guests and the local pupils. The pupils will have to work together on international teams during the meetings and gather as much information about the culture of the host country/region as possible. After the meeting the pupils will continue to work in international teams and create online magazines summarizing their experiences. The magazines will be published in English and will be available on the participating schools' websites as well as on the eTwinning platform. Teachers will create lesson plans using the materials devised by the pupils. With these lesson plans, the participating schools will organize 'Hungarian / Finnish / Icelandic / Spanish Culture Days' in their schools. Between the meetings project work will be continuous, both pupils and teachers will publish blog entries, the teachers will select the participating pupils, teachers will prepare pupils for the meetings and the work, participating schools will organise culture days and exhibitions and dissemination activities. We are also planning long-term mobility: pupils participating in the long-term mobility will be immersed in another culture for a period of 2 months, they will learn about a foreign culture in great depth and use English as a language of communication.During the project's lifetime we will use a variety of methods, in the preparatory phase we will concentrate on the use of IT tools, such as creating videos and online quizzes, and during the meetings we will make sure that the participating pupils engage in communication with their international peers. It is essential for us to create situations where pupils from different countries can work together and use English as a language of communication. After the meetings, pupils will continue to improve their IT and language skills when they prepare their magazines. On culture days, pupils will have the opportunity to join interactive activities focusing on the given country's culture.We expect the improvement of pupils' language, IT and interpersonal skills. We wish to raise cultural awareness through the planned activities, and an improvement in participants' motivation. We foresee growing numbers of language exams and better results in school subject such as English and History/Cultural History. We are planning to create videos, quizzes, magazines, blog entries, newsletters on schools' websites, Facebook articles, Instagram stories as results of the project. With culture days we are planning to reach all the pupils of the partner schools.Among long term benefits we await the enhancement of the participating schools' internationalization activities. The visible results of the project will draw focus to cultural studies and make the schools more popular with primary school pupils. The project will make international cooperation smoother and more fruitful.