This project is a Learning Based Project Based, aiming for a deeper understanding of the concepts, broadening the knowledge base, improve communication and strengthen interpersonal, inter-cultural and social skills, improving tolerance, acceptance of the different, inclusion of the minorities and increasing creativity and innovation, through cooperation, learning by doing and solving problems. The diversity of the partnership which will bring together different institutions, of different sizes, located in rural and urban areas, and with a strong European dimension will ensure us rich practices exchanges, experiments varied, with useful results and a strong motivation. The project undertakes the difficult work of trying to cope with a large spectrum of needs of minority students, foreigner students, Roma student’s immigrant and disadvantaged students and their families on one hand and the local people on the other. The main objective is to bring the people together, combine their needs and find solutions, accept one another and involve all parts in actively participating in the society by engaging them in collaborative activities and by enhancing their ICT skills reading, writing and learning new languages. All these different students, as they immerse into a society unknown to them, need to feel the security of being included in everyday life in all aspects. The project described here is an inter-cultural one. We aim to facilitate the inclusion of all these different students and their families in the school life and in the community as well. We prefer the word "inclusion" than "integration" as it is a word that means acceptance and recognition of one's culture and identity rather than "integration" that for us has the meaning of losing the identity of the culture that one brings to a new country and embracing a new identity. So, inclusive education is what we aim for.The acquisition of the notion of the importance of their respect, through sports, games rules, workshops activities - is the jurisdiction who will have to stand before the people of Europe. All activities we program (surveys, questionnaires, visits, recordings of dances and theatre drama) will be planned in this sense. Thanks to the diversity of the partner countries and the sharing of our findings, our experiences and our practices will give meaning to the training of our students. Indeed it will be promoting our best way to convey that attach to the tolerance and friendship.The message is that differences can be considered as a resource, the exchange between different cultures can represent an enrichment for the training of citizens around the world. In this project the instrument chosen to ease the integration is the dance and the dramatization Apart from learning models, this project stands for an opening towards tolerance and the awareness of the rewarding possibilities that cultural miscegenation brings in any culture, we better prepared for the inclusion of young people by a transgression of cultural stereotypes.It is a project that will last 2 years and involves schools from Greece, Italy, Romania, Croatia and Poland. Most of children in this Project come from disadvantaged backgrounds and all schools have lot of things in common, that is the main reason of the partnership. We aim through an inter-cultural partnership addressing low grades and dropout, also understanding the concept of cultural awareness and how to deal with cultural differences.We want this project be an educational change to our school’s organizational adaptations, by developing and implementing desegregation policies and to get knowledge of best practices at school for disadvantages children. Comprehend the importance of national and English language acquisition for disadvantages students. Children with a disadvantage background or from ethnic minorities are in a very disadvantaged position. For example, a recent study of 11 European Union countries revealed a large gap between Roma and non-Roma children.
Bridges over opened minds BOOM was a project that lasted 3 years and involved schools from Romania, Croatia, Italy, and Poland. The diversity of the partnership brought together different institutions, of different sizes, located in rural and urban areas, with a strong European dimension that ensured us rich practices exchanges, experiments varied, with useful results and a strong motivation. Around 1000 students were involved (10-14 ages) and around 350 students were direct beneficiaries. The main goal was to bring the people together, accept one another and involve all parts in actively participating by engaging them in collaborative activities. The main work was to show the beauty of difference and develop the acceptance and respect of our students. We wanted to enhance European values and European education. Our school was to become the field where all these different students would feel the security of being included in everyday life in all aspects. Our aims were a deeper understanding of the diversity, broadening the knowledge base, improving communication and strengthening interpersonal, intercultural, and social skills, improving tolerance, acceptance of the different, and increasing creativity and innovation, through cooperation and learning by doing. We created cross-curricular activities that helped students develop key competences, but above all soft skills, thanks to which our students will cope with in the future in a globalized world, and above all in the European and global labor market ( the Europass provided after each mobility will offer them this possibility). The key skills in our project were: cooperation in a group, adapting to the changing reality (pandemic time and the implementation of project tasks), resistance to stress (communication in English, learning in an international group, speaking in front of the camera), creativity and ability of making decisions, organizing work (also when working remotely) as well as developing personal culture by teaching children tolerance, respect, acceptance of diversity and drawing positive experiences from it. Working in an international group motivated our students to develop their communication skills in English, and encouraged them to learn the languages of the partner schools. The intellectually and culturally diverse groups of students built mutual relationships, overcame language barriers and prejudices which allowed them to experience success at school on an equal footing with no importance on their status in the peer group, at school, and regardless of academic performance. They also developed the positive attitude towards other people and learned how to work out compromises. We wanted students to enjoy diversity, to be aware of its positives and to love school, and above all, not to give up learning when faced obstacles. The ICT and computer skills of the project participants were of key importance in achieving the project's objectives. They strengthened and made the educational process more attractive and allowed for effective online work even during a pandemic time. The teachers involved in the project also formed interdisciplinary groups and international groups (teachers of the mother tongue and English, mathematics, ICT, music and art, as well as history and subjects in the field of learning in society and teachers for the students with special needs), which allowed them to develop personal, linguistic and pedagogical competences as well as on informal learning activities that encouraged students to work harder and learn. The value of willingness to learn and self-development was emphasized. In this way, it helped schools to cope with disadvantaged students, immigrants, quality childhood activities and social inclusion. A strong partnership has been established between teachers, students and schools which will be continued in future projects. All activities we programmed (surveys, questionnaires, visits, recordings of dances and theatre drama, dictionaries) were planned in this sense. Thanks to the diversity of the partner countries and the sharing of our findings, our experiences and our practices gave meaning to the training of our students. Indeed it promoted our best way to convey that attach to the tolerance and friendship. Some of our main results developed ICT skills and linguistic competences ( BOOM Dictionary, Human Flash Tales, the Phone application for emigrants, Human Rights Calendar, Children Rights Calendar, Puzzle of Migration book). All the materials developed by teachers: therapeutic stories, dictionaries, or an application, as well as presentations can be used by other teachers during classes. Workshops on the use of ICT tools in teaching, including language teaching, will be useful for every teacher in their further work. Also the Methodological Guide that include over fifty articles and project lessons can serve as good practice for a large spectrum of teachers on international level.