Students’ well-being and its associated motivation decisively determine performance at school. In the 21st century students are facing ever more complex challenges which go beyond accumulation of knowhow, especially with regard to using modern technology, developing social relations among students and evolving of a responsible and independent personality. The projects “[email protected]” seeks to promote students’ well-being at school in order to enhance their academic potential, thus improving results and reducing student dropouts. Hence schools face diverse developments to satisfy their educational mandate concerning inclusion, sustainability and health education in a digital world and a multicultural society. Four secondary schools (Niedersächsisches Internatsgymnasium Esens/Germany, IIS Romagnosi Piacenza/Italy, Zespol Szkol z Oddzialami Integracyjnymi Przemyśl/Poland and Saulėtekio gimnazija Siauliai/Lithuania) share a common goal which is to meet these challenges as well as to benefit from each other’s strengths and experiences. Four core themes have been constituted which are based on a survey analysing the everyday situation of students and teachers with their respective needs. To achieve improvement of school life, students’ personality development, well-being and success of all participants, it is to accomplish the following “missions”: - “be-4.0@school” (knowledge of learning types and adequate learning strategies, reasonable use of IT)- “be-ecofriendly@school” (sustainable use of resources)- “be-socially-aware@school” (socialisation with a special focus on integration and inclusion)- “be-healthy@school” (developing a healthy lifestyle)Four groups of international students (alternately swopping team leaders), each consisting of 24 persons (6 per country) aged 14-17, are involved in the project-based work. By means of IT such as eTwinning, videoconferences or social networks students do research on the missions outlined above, i.e. collecting data, gathering information and ideas, documenting activities and consequently establishing a broad overview of the necessity and possibility of changes. The insights gained are collated and presented in a meeting of all 24 team leaders. Expert groups present, enlarge upon and develop the insights further. With this European collaboration, students as well as teachers acquire a key understanding of what “European citizenship” actually means.Media-based lessons, padlets, a school garden, a play and a healthy lifestyle magazine – just to mention a few –will be created in the course of the project. All digital products will be collected in a multimedia e-book. The key essentials of the activities that follow the encounters of the groups are to implement the improvement measures in school as well as to publish the results within school community. This leads to mutual benefits for all involved. Participants are multipliers for students, encouraging them to reflect upon their behaviour and attitudes as well as to exchange positive experiences. Teachers together with their students initiate activities in order to promote internationalisation and modernisation of the participating schools. Furthermore, workshops to involve fellow teachers of other schools, publications of leaflets, press releases and teacher magazines are suitable platforms to share the results. In the long run schools will do better with regard to knowledge, competences and attitudes of participants and this will influence students, teachers, school community, families and the local environment of schools. It is to hope that test scores will improve and dropouts will decrease. Eventually, the project proposed raises awareness on the importance of the new European dimension in our society. The project also increases young people’s and basically every citizen’s consciousness of acting responsibly.
Students’ well-being and its associated motivation determine performance at school decisively. In the 21st century students are facing ever more complex challenges which go beyond accumulation of knowledge, especially with regard to using modern technology, acquiring social skills and developing a responsible and independent personality. The project “[email protected]” seeked to promote students’ well-being at school in order to realise their academic potential, thus improving results and reducing student dropouts. Hence schools face diverse developments to satisfy their educational mandate in the long run. This implies inclusion and integration, sustainability as well as health education in a digital world and a multicultural society. Four secondary schools (Niedersächsisches Internatsgymnasium Esens/Germany, IIS Romagnosi Piacenza/Italy, Zespol Szkol z Oddzialami Integracyjnymi Przemyśl/Poland and Saulėtekio gimnazija Siauliai/Lithuania) shared a common goal which was to meet these challenges, thus to benefit from each other’s strengths and experiences. Four core themes had been constituted based on a survey analysing the everyday situation both of students and teachers with their respective needs. To achieve improvement of school life, students’ personality development, well-being and success of all participants, it was to accomplish the following “missions”: - “be-4.0@school” (knowledge of learning types and adequate learning strategies, reasonable use of IT)- “be-ecofriendly@school” (sustainable use of resources/environment)- “be-socially-aware@school” (socialisation with a special focus on integration and inclusion)- “be-healthy@school” (developing a healthy lifestyle concerning diet and physical activities)Four groups of international students (alternately swopping team leaders), each consisting of 24 persons (6 per country) aged 14-17, were involved in the project-based work. By means of IT such as eTwinning, videoconferences or social networks, students did research on the missions outlined above, i.e. collecting data, gathering information and ideas, documenting activities and consequently establishing a broad overview of the necessity and possibility of changes. The insights gained were collated and presented in an international meeting of the current 24 team leaders. Expert groups presented, enlarged upon and developed the insights further. With this European collaboration, students as well as teachers acquired a key understanding of what a “European citizenship” actually means. Media-based lessons, padlets, a school garden, a play and a healthy lifestyle magazine – just to mention a few – had been created in the course of the project. All digital products were put together in a multimedia e-book. The key essentials of the activities that followed the encounters of the groups were to implement the improvement measures in school as well as to publish the results within school community. This led to mutual benefits for all involved. Participants were multipliers for students, encouraging them to reflect upon their behaviour and attitudes as well as to exchange positive experiences. Teachers together with their students initiated activities in order to promote the internationalisation and modernisation of the participating schools. These insights were spread not only by sharing information and materials within schools but also by reports and articles in teacher magazines and regional newspapers. Workshops to involve fellow teachers of other schools and were skipped due to lack of time or organisational reasons. Constantly conducted evaluations prove that students have been made aware of the four core themes outlined above. Hence they will influence their fellow students, school community, families and environment in these matters. A significant improvement concerning test results and a lower dropout rate has not been clearly observed yet. Eventually, the project has definitely raised the students’ awareness of Europe and a European identity.