The project "For Equal Chances" with the acronym "ForEC" joins 4 European secondary schools, one from Estonia, one from Romania and two from Italy under the common objective which is Exchanges of Practices with the priorities Social inclusion and Strengthening the profile(s) of the teaching profession. Accordingly, Institutions participating in this project are oriented on cooperation in order to find more effective teaching methods to prevent our students, coming from multicultural areas with immigrants, refugees and ethnic minorities, from social exclusion or unemployment. The aim of the project is that through an interdisciplinary approach we help students become active and responsible citizens. On the one hand, the project will contribute to growth of the students' level of understanding between what they learn and their active participation in socio-cultural life, on the other hand, our purpose is to give the students good experiences helping those in need, developing awareness of democratic values: tolerance, mutual respect, cooperation and empathy and fighting against the stereotypes and prejudice. The project is called For Equal Chances, the first word "for" meaning striving for something in order to make efforts toward any goal. Accordingly the participant schools with their project teams of teachers and students try to make their best, striving For Equal Chances to any groups of people feeling being treated unequally. The objective of the project is to reach our goals mainly through Citizenship, History, Literary and other lessons, involving a wide range of different elements of learning, including out-of -class lessons. As a result of all the project activities we compose an open integrated Citizenship Teaching Course of 35 lessons 1,5 h each dealing the matters of providing equal chances for all groups of citizens. In order to to share each other’s good practices, teaching and learning mutually, use the diversity in curricula to deal with the same subject matter and discussing the problems face to face, each country is hosting a Learning and Teaching event with a different Topic Sub-Theme: ForEC for Immigrates & Refugees, to Genders & Age groups, to all Races & against Bullying and to all Ethnics & Disabled People. First, the school teams are formed and the project eTwinning homepage is established. Next, rules for the lesson plans are framed. Then, in each partner school, a research on the Focus Topic of the next L&T Event in most of the following areas: School Syllabus, World, EU, Media, Films, History, Beaux Arts - Literature, Drama, Music, Art, e.t.c. is carried out, on the base of which, the teachers develop lesson plans and carry them out. At the same time, an on-line questioning of target groups is carried on, an overview of which being presented on the following L&T event. The teachers of each country share 2 lessons of 1,5 h - 8 lessons in total per L&T Event - and take part in recording and documenting the lessons and lesson plans for the Teachers open e-store. By participating in this project, students will develop critical thinking and the ability to analyze information, we will encourage them to express their opinions, taking part in discussions and debates and they will also practice negotiating and solving conflicts. We are convinced that the active mutual participation of our students will not only bring positive changes in their life and in our localities but in some degree it will also make a little contribution to improve the social inclusion in our countries in Europe.
The project "For Equal Chances" with the acronym "ForEC" joined 4 European secondary schools, Loksa Gümnaasium from Estonia, Liceul Teoretic German Johann Ettinger from Romania and two schools from Itay: Liceo Vittorio Emanuele III from Patti, Sicily, and Istituto Istruzione Superiore A.VOLTA from Frosinone. The common objective of the project was Exchanges of Practices with the priorities Social Inclusion and Strengthening the profile of the teaching profession. Accordingly, institutions participating in this project were oriented on cooperation in order to find more effective teaching methods to prevent our students - coming from multicultural areas with immigrants, refugees and ethnic minorities - from social exclusion or unemployment. The aim of the project was helping students through an interdisciplinary approach to become more active and responsible citizens. On the one hand, the project was about contributing to growth of the students' level of understanding between what they learn and their active participation in social and cultural life, on the other hand, our purpose was to give the students good experiences helping those in need, developing awareness of democratic values: tolerance, mutual respect, cooperation and empathy and fighting against the stereotypes and prejudice. The project was called For Equal Chances, the first word "for" meaning striving for something in order to make efforts toward any goal. Accordingly the participant schools with their project teams of teachers and students tried to make their best, striving For Equal Chances to any groups of people feeling being treated unequally. Our intention was to reach our goals mainly through Citizenship, History, Literary and other lessons, involving a wide range of different elements of learning, including out-of -class lessons. As a result of all the Project activities we have composed an open integrated Citizenship Teaching Course of 35 lessons 1,5 h each dealing the matters of providing equal chances for all groups of citizens. In order to share each other’s good practices, teaching and mutual learning, using our diversities in curricula dealing with the same subject matter and discussing the problems face-to-face, each country hosted a Learning and Teaching event with a different Topic Sub-Theme: ForEC to Immigrants & Refugees, to all Genders & Age groups, to all Races & against Bullying and to all Ethnics & Disabled People. First, the school teams were formed and the project eTwinning homepage was established. Next, rules for the lesson plans were framed. Then, in each partner school, a research on the Focus Topic of the next L&T Event in most of the following areas was carried out: such as School Syllabus, World, EU, Media, Films, History, Beaux Arts - Literature, Drama, Music, Art, e.t.c., on the base of which, the teachers developed lesson plans and carried them out. At the same time, an on-line questioning of target groups was made, an overview of which results was presented on the following L&T event. The teachers shared 2 lessons of 1,5 h each, 8 lessons in total per L&T Event and took part in recording and documenting the lessons lesson plans for the Teachers open e-store. Thus, together with Lesson Plans, Presentations and Final tests of all 4 Learning & Teaching Events, the open Teachers Store on the project's homepage in eTwinning twinspace provides materials for ca 70 x 45 min or 35 x 1,5 h integrated Citizenship, History or other subject's lessons. By participating in this project, students witnessed developing critical thinking and the ability to analyze information, they were encouraged to express their opinions, taking part in discussions and debates and they could also practice negotiating and solving conflicts. We can declare that the active mutual participation of our students have not only brought positive changes in their life and in our localities but to some degree in the future it will also make a little contribution to improve the social inclusion in our countries in Europe.