The „Equal rights, open minds”project is undertaken with the broad objective of promoting equality amnongst students and teachers of Europe. Its main aim is to teach ideas of equality using modern and innovative methods and tools, especially ICT tools. The underlying idea of this international partnership of 6 primary schools from Poland, Netherlands, Turkey, Slovakia, Italy and Spain is to work on raising the students' awareness concerning diversity and equality of people and to develop their understanding of the needs of others in their communities. Through the activities proposed by the project we want to combat racism, xenophobia, gender discrimination as well as discrimination on grounds of religion, economic status, age, disabilities. This will be achieved through creating and participation in at least 36 innovative lessons on 6 sub-topics of equality: 1. Equality between men and woman (gender equality) 2. Equality between disabled and healthy 3. Equality between old and young people 4. Religious equality 5. Eguality between ethnics groups and citizens 6. Equality between poor (homeless) and “normal” The primary goals are to extend pupils' knowledge of equality, increase skills in ICT and English and to cause a significant change in attitudes towards diversity. Apart of lessons we intend to carry out equality projects with pupils concerning idols (people connected with equality mainstreaming) as well as their own researches about equality state in their countries and cities. We will organise big events about each of equality sub-topics wich will be widespread among the local community and the media. We endeavour to create realistic and hands-on experiences for pupils in which they will learn new topics. These opportunities will encourage great commitment from the whole school community and will provide worthwhile and exciting experiences for the students, teachers and parents. The main impact envisaged is that staff and students will have learned or improve their foreign language skills to varying degrees. Thanks to constant exhange of didactic ideas staff will be able to make changes in language teaching policy. ICT use by pupils and teachers will increase through the communication between learners of European schools via the internet, trough getting to know new ICT tools, teachers will develop their knowledge about twinspace on eTwinning portal, they will register on “School beyond the walls” students will have changed their attitude towards their schools, the participation in the project will save them from boredom or frustration and will boos their creativity, confidence, will let them experience the joy of learning, this way a group of students at risk of being a “early school leavers” will not give up education and training prematurely Throughout the three years this project will involve into on-line cooperation many other teachers from other European countries thanks to collaboration with "School beyond the walls", CDRSEE and through eTwinning sub-projects. The ultimate end-product of the schools cooperation will be a book containing at least 36 innovative scenarios of lessons covering equality topics designed for different subjects and for different age groups of pupils with comments and set of additional materials. The scenarios in pdf format with all materials needed will be ready to download form a blog of a project ( http://kamavlacar.blogspot.com.es/) from eTwinning page, Erasmus+ dissemination platform and "School beyond the walls" web page (http://horslesmurs.ning.com/).
The project "Under the same sky" was teachers’ and students’ cooperation of 6 primary schools from 6 countries (Poland, Netherlands, Turkey, Slovakia, Italy and Spain) in order to spread the idea of Equality. The idea was promoted among the students mainly through preparing 46 innovative scenarios of lessons and taking part in them in partner’s schools. Implementing the project we wanted to develop the understanding of the needs of others - especially excluded groups like elder, disabled, refugees, followers of different religions, people of different races and gender in pupils’ communities. The main objectives were: To extend pupils’ knowledge of equality in different fields of life, to show them an alternative way of living, without xenophobia and manifestation of bullying. Through the participation in lessons we wanted to change their attitude towards people who are somehow different. This main idea was also developed by involving students in Equality events and small students’ projects implemented in particular schools or through partnership. The lessons, events and activities were carried out also during visits. We visited Humanity House in Netherlands where pupils felt like refugees, Synagogue and Jewish museum where they got to know other religions, schools for disabled people in Slovakia, school for Visually Impaired and Blind in Poland, we met disabled artists and sportsmen. Pupils had a chance to meet and become friends with disabled and old people, they attended workshops concerning gender equality and were a part of the discussion with University professors about equality. The main aim of this international cooperation was: to improve and to increase the volume of mobility involving pupils and educational staff in partner countries; to encourage pupils to take more responsibility for their own individual learning, including those with Special Educational Needs and those who are disadvantaged; to actively participate in the activities through the use of a variety of learning styles, levels of support and groupings; to support the development of innovative ICT-based content, good practice, different teaching methods for lifelong learning. The final aim achieved was a real and effective feeling of equality between pupils, teachers and educational community in general. We took the following strategies: collaborative discussion, involvement of large number of people, including the project into the school curricula, active use of ICT, collaboration with peers, constant communication, effective lecture, creation of materials, linguistic preparation, group discussions, debates, exchange of information and experience and creation of a blog for a project, a webpage with lessons and E-twinning project. Our final product is a printed and on-line book with 46 innovative scenarios of lessons covering 6 sub-topics of equality: 1. Age equality 2. Disabled and healthy equality 3. Race equality 4. Religious equality 5. Gender equality 6. Refugees’ equality 54 teachers prepared the scenarios for a book, 85 teachers conducted lessons in their schools, 1424 pupils took part in lessons. 13 lessons was conducted during international partners’ visits. The lessons were observed by other teachers, parents of pupils, head teachers of schools and methodologies. They all gave their feedback to teachers about observing lessons. We disseminated all lessons via E-twinning project, Equality Lessons web page (www.equalitylessons.eu) and project’s blog (http://eraequal.blogspot.com/), web pages of schools and via groups for teachers on Facebook. The printed version of the book of lessons was sent to many institutions and schools. The pupils created a logo and a song for the project, they made posters about partner countries, posters about equality idols, models of schools for disabled pupils, albums about religious buildings, they sent Christmas and Valentine’s cards, they attended lessons in their own schools as well as in hosting schools. They endeavoured realistic and hands-on experiences taking part in ceremonies, music, dance and art festivals. They took part in activities that created the conditions of developing social solidarity and democracy. Their change of attitude towards diversity of human beings was constantly checking by ongoing evaluation. Some of these handcraft works and other similar and investigation tasks were presented, developed or exploited in the mobility's in foreign countries, increasing these idea previously cited about effective teaching-learning. Students, teachers and all the partners involved in the project also discovered more about other countries’ way of life, traditions, customs, food and daily life at school. The students who attended the meetings were hosted by local families and they had to use English as a medium of communication. All the planned objectives and aims of the project have been accomplished with the activities carried out during these three years of worthy collaboration.