Our two year project called I can, you can, we can do much more, aims at educational undertakings. The project partners are the following schools: Naklo Primary School from Slovenia as the leading coordinator, Scuola secondaria di1 grado Padre Pio Altamura from Italy, Siauliu logopedine mokykla from Lithuania, Yumrukaya Ozel Egitim Uygulama Merkezi from Turkey and Slovenian Institute for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing. This project will connect all the partners by common and clear vision, conceptual guidelines for creating a positive learning environment which will consequently affect the students’ wellbeing and their grades. All the partner schools have come to similar conclusions when it comes to educational undertakings. Most often these occurrences were dealt with sporadically, they caused occasional confusion and feeling of powerlessness and thus lead us to a vision which holds clear guidelines (documents, methods of work and models of action) and furthermore, will take us towards the common goal, an efficient model of education which will make teachers as well as students aware of positive skills and positive ways of thinking. We are certain that a well-planned, organised and properly supported educational model can lessen the unwanted students’ behaviour and that by internalizing certain concepts and skills we can reach a very positive atmosphere. The cooperating schools are all concentrating on children with special needs meaning that this project will have appropriate activities and will adapt them to their needs. The main outcome of the project will be a common document (education plan) containing a description of the model, activities of teachers and students and a plan of how to implement it into regular lessons. There will be extra activities carried out by teachers which will also be useful reference for parents when raising their children. This model will be useful and practical for all who are involved in the process of educating students due to its clarity and quality. Apart from the model with its implementation, the intellectual outcomes of this project will be scientific papers with actual instructions for implementing the model and examples of good practice and promotional material in the form of clear and efficient multimedia. We will an international conference where we shall present our findings. All the cooperating schools will organise open days for any visitors that wish to come and find out more about the project. This way we will raise awareness of how important it is to create a positive learning environment which is closely connected to success.
I can, you can, we can do much more (a 2-year project) A positive working and learning environment is not something that a school or any other organisation gets by itself. They have to be encouraged and guided since researches show they are consequently affected with student’s school success, motivation, they encourage new teaching ideas, goals, common values and participation. Beside good organisation and leadership, each school needs its common vison, school policy and clear guidelines on how to reach a positive school environment. The project partner schools (Naklo Primary School from Slovenia as the leading coordinator, Scuola secondaria di1 grado Padre Pio Altamura from Italy, Siauliu logopedine mokykla from Lithuania, Yumrukaya Ozel Egitim Uygulama Merkezi from Turkey and Ljubljana school for the deaf) had similar conclusions about the educational undertakings. Most often problems in a school’s environment are dealt with sporadically, sometimes with confusion and feeling of powerlessness, thus leading us to a vision to prepare an efficient model of a preventive programme which will make teachers, as well as students, aware of positive skills and positive ways of thinking. We were certain that a well-planned, organised, and properly supported educational model could lessen the unwanted students’ behaviour and that by internalising certain concepts and skills we can reach a very positive atmosphere. The overall objective of the project partnership, called I can, you can, we can do much more, was to prepare a clear and manageable document with a preventive programme, that each school could use to enforce a positive school environment. We carried out a connection of different experiences of schools from partnership countries and their school policies as well as exploited precious experience to effectively solve problems that we all have in common and we designed a model of a preventive programme that is applicable to different school systems and cultures. In this preventive programme, we are stressing the importance of establishing a positive school, based on guidelines of positive psychology and the idea of ensuring the well-being of teachers as well as students that originates from the need to be satisfied with the school. We gathered methods and strategies of educational interaction related to teaching itself, we also suggested internalising positive skills and basic values, described praising, the importance of student’s motoric abilities, and supporting community (parents and local community), we suggested how to implement that in 50 steps and how to evaluate (examples of short evaluations and questionnaires for students, teachers, and parents). We also provided answers to frequently asked questions. Our partnership also prepared a collection of examples of good practices, supported by videos. During this two-year project, all five schools gathered, tested, developed, and disseminated experiences, good practices, and knowledge about different methods, actions, and models of upbringing or preventive programme. We were also concentrated on children with special needs, meaning that we prepared appropriate activities and adaptations to their needs. In this time, a lot happened in our schools – we started to create a better school environment and feedback gave us power to work on and to spread the idea that really works.