As the world is constantly and rapidly changing, education is becoming a problem in different countries. As a result, the teaching process needs to be re-adjusted by investing the students with expertise which can help them adapt fast to changes and integrate the society. Independent thinking, values, team work and social awareness should be taught to students nowadays. Social inclusion was identified by the project coordinator as the initial point in developing these delicate and flexible skills. The present project brings together 5 schools from Greece, Italy, Turkey, Spain and Romania. Diversity is one of the biggest challenges that societies face at European level nowadays and children are raised on this background. The students the project addresses (8-14) still have the age when they can be influenced in a positive way by the role models they are faced with, therefore they should be taught by teachers who encourage active citizenship and promote social inclusion at the same time offering their personal behaviour codes when they actively take part in voluntary actions which improve the community life. In this way, students can be determined to become responsible and active European citizens. By means of this project we intend to make students grasp the idea that active citizenship represents the cement of the society which keeps it united. The objectives of the present project are as follows: -raising awareness about active citizenship for 250 students in 5 European schools during a two-year project -developing 250 students’ insight, perspective and abilities needed to serve as active citizens within local community -strengthening the concept of lifestyle active citizenship within the students from 5 European schools from 5 European countries -creating an e-toolkit for schools with examples of good practices to promote active citizenship. The project addresses a number of 250 students from primary schools (8-14 years old) who will be indirectly involved and also 50 teachers directly taking part. A series of activities have been carefully planned to lead the fulfilment of the project objectives by using SEL, Social and emotional learning strategy which will help students become deeply involved in the development of the project. The SEL approach will help people taking part in the project to achieve knowledge, skills and attitudes necessary to understand and control their personal feelings and emotions, set individual goals, increase their empathy perception and create positive relationships. Different strategies such as role play, group discussion, debates, simulations, multimedia presentations, invited speakers will be applied to boost perception of active citizenship. These activities will result in 5 different multimedia presentations on the topic "What is active citizenship?”, 5 videos: “Cultural values in my country”, 5 seminars held by an invited special guest who will give a talk on civic values and will promote the importance of volunteering and they will be held by each member country in the project. By the development of activities which use SEL, namely group activities, comics, team building games and stories, our intention is to foster the students’ abilities, approach and insight into the active citizenship matter of their community. The following concrete products will be created within the project with the aim of enhancing the social awareness, self-consciousness, self-management and decision making of the students: 5 multimedia presentations on the topic "Active citizens and environment", comics’ exhibition, magazine with students’ stories, 5 presentations "My school, city, country” and a common garden named Erasmus+. There will be created 5 Active Citizens Clubs for the students, in each of the 5 partner schools with the aim of building up a lifestyle based on active citizenship. These clubs intend to increase motivation and involvement of the students in what regards civic responsibilities for a long time period. The student members of the club will have a common T-shirt designed. One type of the club activity will be the handicraft of souvenirs for their project partners. Teachers’ work will also include the devising of 20 lesson projects with the help of an interdisciplinary approach afterwards integrated in the e-toolkit for Active Citizenship which promotes active citizenship. This partnership intends to promote and support active citizenship and responsibility, boost cooperation between schools and local community institutions, support schools to tackle the SEL programmes to raise students’ academic achievements, increase students’ networking and organisation of activities linked to the project topic, enlarge the school curricula and teach interdisciplinary.
As the world is constantly and rapidly changing, education is becoming a problem in different countries. Therefore, the teaching process needs to be re-adjusted by giving students the expertise which can help them to adapt fast to changes and integrate into society. Independent thinking, values, team work and social awareness are vital skills which should be nowadays included in teaching. In order to develop these delicate and flexible skills the project coordinator identified social inclusion as the initial and essential point. The present project brought together 4 schools from Greece, Italy, Turkey and Romania. Diversity is one of the biggest challenges that societies face at European level nowadays and children are raised within this background. The project addressed students aged 8-14 years , an age when they can still be influenced in a positive way by the role models they meet, hence they should be taught by teachers who encourage active citizenship and promote social inclusion. At the same time, they should be taught how to rely on their personal behavior codes when they actively take part in voluntary actions which improve community life. In this way, students can become responsible and active European citizens. By means of this project we intended to make students grasp the idea that active citizenship represents the cornerstone that keeps society united. The objectives of the present project were the following: -to raise awareness among 200 students in 4 European schools during a three-year project about active citizenship -to develop 200 students’ insight, perspective and abilities needed to serve as active citizens within local community -to strengthen the concept of active citizenship as lifestyle within the students from 4 European schools from European countries -to create an e-toolkit for schools with examples of good practices which promote active citizenship. The project addressed a number of 200students from primary and secondary schools (8-14 years old) who were indirectly involved and also 50 teachers who had active and direct participation. A series of activities was carefully planned to lead to the fulfilment of the project objectives by using SEL, Social and emotional learning strategy which helped students become deeply involved in the development of the project. The SEL approach helped people participated in the project to gain knowledge and skills, develop attitudes necessary to understand and control their personal feelings and emotions, set individual goals, increase their empathy perception and create positive relationships. Different strategies such as role play, group discussion, debates, simulations, multimedia presentations, invited speakers were applied to boost the effective perception of active citizenship. These activities have resulted in 4 different multimedia presentations on the topic "What is active citizenship?”, 4 videos: “Cultural values in my country”, 4 seminars held by an invited special guest who gave a talk on civic values and promoted the importance of volunteering. These seminars were held by each member country in the project. By applying activities which use SEL, namely group activities, comics, team building games and stories, our intention was to foster the students’ abilities, approach and insight into the matter of active citizenship in their community. The following products were created with the aim of enhancing the social awareness, self-consciousness, self-management and decision making of the students: 4 multimedia presentations on the topic "Active citizens and environment", comics’ exhibition, magazine with students’ stories, 4 presentations "My school, city, country” and a common garden named Erasmus+. In each of the 4 partner schools 4 Active Citizens Clubs for the students, were created aiming at building up a lifestyle based on active citizenship. These clubs intended to increase motivation and long lasting involvement of students in activities referring to their civic responsibilities. The members of the club had a common T-shirt designed. One type of club activity was to make handcraft souvenirs for their project partners. Teachers’ work also included the creation of 20 lesson projects with the help of an interdisciplinary approach which afterwards were integrated in the e-toolkit for Active Citizenship. This partnership intended to promote and support active citizenship and responsibility, boost cooperation between schools and local community institutions, support schools to use the SEL programs to raise students’ academic achievements, increase students’ networking and organization of activities linked to the project topic, and finally enlarge the school curricula and interdisciplinary teaching.