Our first objective, based on our concept for teaching refugees, wanted to create a methods tool kit for teachers with activities and methods for internal differentiation in language teaching and social activities. At the end of the project, this tool kit should be presetnted to all the teachers of the Heinrich-Emanuel-Merck-Schule, who get access to the methods, usable for regular lessons or projects like the orientation days at the beginning of a school year. The colleagues should implement their previous experiences as well as new insights from the courses and the collaboration with European colleagues into the design of this tool kit. Our second objective was to offer workshops for the topics internal differentiation and empowerment in order to sharpen our teacher's view on the resources which our students already have and show them how to use individualizing and empowering methods in the classroom. The plan was to offer workshops designed by the participants, which are based on the personal experiences and competences according internal differentiation and language diversity. Likewise, the workshops should focus on new insights about empowerment topics like autonomy and self-determination, a positive attitude towards life and "luck".
At the HEMS, we teach a variety of students with migrant background (some with experiences as refugees) who are not only challenged by the content of a lesson but also by understanding the language. The resulting heterogeneity requires specific competences from the teachers. Additionally, to language difficulties we can recognize that lots of students struggle with a lack of perspective for future job opportunities. For example, in those classes, which qualify for a university entrance degree, a high number of students does not plan to go to university after finishing school. Their main motivation for visiting these classes is that they do not have any ideas how to find a job that would fulfil them with joy and commitment. On the other hand, we can see students in vocational classes who made a decision for a specific apprenticeship, but they, likewise, lack motivation to finish the education successfully. Many of these students leave the impression that their choice for an apprenticeship was not based on a deliberate decision according to their interests, talents and wishes.