NO BARRIERS FOR EUROPEANS

We are 6 schools from 6 European countries Turkey, Portugal, Lithuania, Poland, Italy, Spain that have come together with the same problems. This Project “No Barriers for Europeans” was created to raise awareness on the situation and needs of disabled pupils in society, how they feel, what they can achieve to be aware of their abilities.It was also our purpose to raise awareness among the non-disabled students at our schools so that they’d never have negative feelings about people with disabilities. In society we frequently encounter disabled people, most of us think that they cannot achieve anything. We feel sorrow for them and do nothing else. We also wanted to break down this prejudice and want people, especially our pupils, to see that they could achieve by sharing and involving them in the activities. We thought this should begin at an early age for the children to feel empathy for them. Workshops and seminars about disability provided deep understanding of their feelings, situations, obstacles and achievements as well. The questionnaire at the beginning and at the end of the project let us see the achievement of the project and how their attitudes changed towards the disabled and special needs children. The films let everybody see that how our project changed people's point of view. The trips to disabled foundations let everybody notice and observe what could be done for the disabled people. The abled and disabled students were included in the same chorus which made it possible to sing songs from different languages. As story writing was done by the participating countries, the students felt they were achieving something with European Peers. A search was done on education systems and a chart was prepared to compare the systems. Success stories of famous disabled people encouraged both abled and disabled people to overcome barriers. Drama brought out abilities at role-playing. Art workshops and digitales provided different ways of expressing their thoughts and feelings. Web-site, notice boards, brochure, posters, exhibitions, stands and digitales were helpful to disseminate the project. There were teacher training sessions on marbling, assistive technology, drama and art, morning cycle and light table, empathy pack and Boccia sport and art workshops. As the teachers got these trainings they applied the recently learnt methods in their own classrooms and shared the feedback in the next meeting in detail. The staff could increase their professional competence and learnt how they could approach and reveal the disabled pupils’ abilities. They learnt new methods and gave a start to renovate themselves for the 21st century. Project basis learning was a great innovation for both students and teachers.The disabled pupils and pupils with special needs gained self-confidence of achieving something and they are now more enthusiastic to join the activities. They were given more tasks to perform so that they could see what they achieve and don’t feel the difference. The families are now more conscious about sending their children to school instead of educating them at home. The pupils, the staff, the families of both abled and disabled students can now see that they can be educated. They have a positive point of view for future life. The abled students learn how to work together and help each other. They are now aware of the fact that “one day they can be disabled too, who knows?” The project not only helped to be aware of disability but also helped to develop technological innovation. The students discovered that technology such as filming is not a process they could be frightened but a way that they could do and improve their skills too. We beleive that this project is an innovation that our teachers are delivering for students to really change lives. This partnership brought out for all participating teachers and pupils to gain the spirit of working together with different countries of Europe to reach a common goal. The participants gained a deep understanding of breaking down the walls in spite of cultural diversities, improve language skills, raise awareness of other languages, gain knowledge on the state of disability in other European countries and enhance pupils' learning as well as teachers' effectiveness.All the participants are inspired by each country's strategies; innovation and good practises promoted language skills too. Lanugauge teaching and learning was also encouraged and this project fostered quality improvements for students, teachers and even parents.