Through this project, “Inclusion and Equality, our challenge”, we try to give an opportunity to a group of students who, due to their special needs, are less favoured by our education system in particular, and by society in general. This project will provide the setting to facilitate to students with special needs an essential experience which if it was not for it, they would not be able to get. In this sense, it is really important to mention we deal with disadvantaged families who rarely go out of our village. They are 30 students (from 15 to 19 years), all together with their teachers, the ones who will have the chance of participating in this project, being the first receptors of its benefits. The participating schools are: - “IES Villa de Abarán”, Abarán (Spain). - “IISS Charles Darwin”, Rome (Italy). - “Escola secondaria Padre Antonio Vieira”, Lisbon (Portugal) This project aims try to provide these students with a series of capacities that hardly might be developed in other way. Some of the aims matching with Europe 2020’ strategy are: - Greater social insertion. - Acquisition of social abilities. - To avoid the school desertion. - Motivation towards the learning. - Peer learning, fostering the collaborative work in equipment. - Learning to get on in a new environment (the European one). - Attention to diversity. - Inclusive education. Furthermore, the work with other students will motivate them to achieve the improvement of their communicative abilities. It will also lead to an improvement of the autonomy and resolution of adverse situations. As a consequence of these issues, it is important to mention the search of the improvement of the students’ integral capacity, based on the European citizenship promotion. Finally, the achievement of these competences will lead to one really important, that is the ain of the self-improvement, breaking up with the barriers pre-established beforehand. Furthermore, we will find covered some of the important areas for our role as teaching assignments: - Greater professional development, further motivation and satisfaction in their daily work. - Interchanging pedagogical strategies with other teachers. - Getting resources to achieve innovative and creative working dynamics. Scheduled activities are a really important aspect. So, the mobility activities by themselves, are a source of learning, due to the fact that students will have to deal with new situations for them (using the public transport, buying some tickets…) and adapting to new cities, customs, languages… Simultaneously, during the mobilities some activities have been scheduled to push and improve the interaction, foster the attention, perception, memory and auditory processing skills. All the activities promote the equality and inclusion, according to diversity, getting better achievements in learning and providing them with capacities for a better integration. In addition to the activities to develop during the mobilities, some quarterly ones will be carried out during the two years the project will last, which will contribute to give continuity to the work of the students, and which will be useful for Twinning Project. The methodology will be active, the students will be involved in taking part in both processes of learning and acquiring competences, they will work together with students from other schools, improving their communicative competences and social abilities. At the same time, they will be given autonomy in order to develop them, strengthening that capacity. Another important activity will be a learning workshop in which all the teachers will take part. This will make possible get some conclusions and draw up materials to support the students with special educational needs, being extremely important to ensure they will be long-lasting. The scheduled activities and the development of them are expected to be an innovative way of working in which creativity will be given special relevance. Actually they are a great incentive for teachers and students due to the fact they allow getting away from the daily routine. The expected results and aims will be achieved in short-term as well as long-term. Both of students and teachers are supposed to get them. Finally, it will be the implied schools the ones that will get some benefits thanks to the methodological innovation and the didactic resources which have been produced. At the same time through the generated synergies, the rest of the schools in our environment will be able to get some benefits by diffusion meetings. On the other hand, the e-Twinning platform will be used to further its cause through Twinspace, providing new experiences to students and teachers whose consequences will find future collaborations.
Through the project "Inclusion and Equality, our challenge", the opportunity has been given to a group of students who, due to their special characteristics, are less favored by our educational system, in particular, and society, in general. This project has provided students with special educational needs (ACNEE) with a life experience that, if it wasn’t for this, they could not have reached it. This takes on a special relevance when, in many cases, we speak of families that have a disadvantaged socio-economic situation. There have been 30 students (between 15 and 20 years old), together with their teachers, who have participated in this project in a direct way, being the first receivers of their benefits. The participating centers have been: - “IES Villa de Abarán”, Abarán (España). - “IISS Charles Darwin”, Roma (Italia). - “Escola Secondaria Padre Antonio Vieira”, Lisboa (Portugal). These students have been endowed with a series of capacities that they would hardly have developed in another way. Some of their objectives, coinciding with the strategy "Europe 2020" are: • Greater social insertion. • Acquisition of social skills. • Avoiding dropping out of school. • Motivation of the student towards learning. • Peer learning, enhancing collaborative teamwork. • Learning to function in an environment new to them. •Attention to diversity. • Inclusive education. In addition, working with other colleagues has motivated them to get an improvement in their communication skills. It will also lead them to an improvement in their capacity for autonomy and resolution of adversal situations. With this, a comprehensive improvement of the students' capacities is searched, relying on the promotion of European citizenship. As an ultimate goal, the achievement of these competencies will lead to a very important one, which is the goal of an improvement of self-esteem, breaking barriers that are considered pre-established previously. In addition, teachers will see some important areas covered for their work as teachers: • Greater professional development, greater motivation and satisfaction in their daily work. • Exchange of pedagogical strategies with other teachers. • Obtaining resources to achieve innovative and creative work dynamics. An important aspect is the scheduled activities. Thus, mobility activities, in themselves, are a source of learning, since students will have to cope with new situations for them (use of public transport, purchase of tickets, ...), having to adapt themselves to new cities, customs , languages, ... During the mobilities, as well, other activities have been designed to: favor and improve interaction; improve attention, perception, memory and auditory discrimination; promote cooperative work; exercise basic cognitive abilities (perception, memory and discrimination); … The activities promote equality and inclusion, attending to Diversity, obtaining better achievements in learning and providing them with capacities that help them to better integrate. The methodology has been actively active, the students have taken part in the process of learning and acquisition of competences, working together with their colleagues from other centers, improving their communication skills and social skills. At the same time, they have been given autonomy for their development, thus reinforcing this capacity. Another important activity would have been the realization of the training seminar in which the teachers would take part. This would have made it possible to draw conclusions and develop materials that would help in the formation of ACNEEs, but it has not been possible when the state of alarm due to COVID-19 was declared in March in Spain. The programmed activities, and the development of them, represent an innovative practice in which creativity is given greater relevance; They have been an incentive for teachers and students by allowing the departure from the "routine" of day to day. The expected results and objectives will be obtained both in the short and long term. In the first place, they have fallen on the students, achieving the objectives indicated above, as well as those indicated for the teachers. In the longer term, it will be the centers involved that will benefit thanks to the methodological innovation and the didactic resources generated. Likewise, through the synergies generated, other centers in the environment have benefited from dissemination meetings at different conferences for teachers. On the other hand, the use of the eTwinning platform has been deepened through Twinspace, providing a new experience to students and teachers that will result in new future collaborations.