The European Commission has pointed out that: "Fighting high levels of unemployment - particularly among young people - is one of the most urgent tasks for European governments. Too many young people leave school prematurely running a high risk of being unemployed and socially marginalised" . TEAMSS - Together Europe Achieves More in School Success - is the title of our project.We feel this title clearly represents our goals for this project to achieve and improve the school results and to avoid drop outs that may lead to unemployment with young people.We are of the opinion that methods like sharing methods, common teaching and learning, collaboration among students and teaching staff will be benefitted by students first of all and will lead to a better and more prosperous future to our young people. Our project is based on achieving better school outcomes . We aim to train our students to a variety of relevant skills that will enable them to work successfully, think creatively and be confident enough for the challenges of the 21st century.We especially will focus on Foreign Language , Mother Tongue and Natural sciences and Mathematics as well as social competences.As mentioned before students are aged between 12 and 16/17 years. According to the number of students` and teachers`mobilities applied for we hope to work with over 70 students and about 40 teachers directly during LTT actions, aquired knowledge for potential longer term benefits should be multiplied and disseminated/shared with colleagues in the designated school departments and of course, among the students` peer groups . Activities to be carried out are 7-day mobilities (C1-C6) to collaborate face-to-face in mixed international groups in different countries on assignments decided on before. Activities between mobilities are described as P1-P6 and are assignments to do and being evaluatedfor the the previous and prepare the future meeting. One of the most important elements of this project proposal is the effort to combine expertise with education.We have planned to ask stakeholders or other highly skilled professionals as e.g. the German IQB (Institute for Quality Development in Education) or teachers` training seminar (Lehrerseminar Gera) to formally participate in our project in order to analyse not only German, but as well Italian, Portuguese, Polish or Romanian students by official competence tests. Conclusions will be drawn out of the results of those placement tests .Teachers will discuss, compare and adapt their methods to enhance students` scores and students will be enabled to work in national and transnational teams to apply new knowledge to reach higher academic success and put these skills in practical use. Therefore a first analysis of results achieved in three key competences (Mother Tongue, Foreign Language--> English and Mathematics) at school level and European level is indispensable. This process will have 3 different moments to diagnose the results: the beginning of the school year 2019 and compare them with the end of the first school year (2020 - second momen)t, and the end of the second school year (2021 - third moment). This way there will be some time to plan the work and monitor, adapt or adjust the work, concerning the school competences . Our team consists of five partners: Germany (coordinator), Portugal, Poland, Italy, and Romania. All of us have collaborated very successfully in the past on an Erasmus+ project, this strong relationship that we hold to this day will benefit us greatly in a new project. Our common experience will lead into another successful activities: nation-based competence tests and their assessments on an European level , creation of relevant workshops, presentations, management of international student exchanages and activities, competitions (e.g. academic decathlons on intermediate level) excursions and cultural activities . Philip Rosenthal, (23 October 1916 – 27 September 2001), a German industrialist said once: "Wer aufhört, besser zu werden, hat aufgehört, gut zu sein" which can be translated into English "If you stop getting better, you stop being good." This is what we want our students be sensitized for. Open minds, responsibility, personal education considered valuable , creativity, positive attitudes and abilities to collaborate are requirements European students have to meet for developing , working and living successfully.
According to the number of requested mobility of students and teachers, we hoped to work with over 70 students and about 40 teachers directly during the LTT actions, the knowledge acquired for potential longer-term benefits should be multiplied and disseminated/shared with colleagues in the designated institutions and, of course, among the peer groups of students. The activities to be carried out should be 6/ 7-day mobilities(C2-C6) to work face-to-face in mixed international groups in different countries on predetermined tasks. The activities between the mobilities were described as P1-P6 and were tasks that were intended to follow up on past meetings and prepare future meetings. The planned activities P1 and P2 (creation of the project logo, creation of competence tests in mother tongue, English, mathematics and natural sciences ...) could be realized without problems, the mobility C1 (Portugal) and C2 also took place, only the locations for C2 (Lacco Ameno/Italy and Zeulenroda-Triebes/Germany) and C3 had to be exchanged, as the Italian partner would not have been able to provide accommodation for C2 in February 2020. During the C2 meeting in Germany, we worked together excellently on an international level and experienced a varied teaching and learning program, which we later documented in our "TEAMSS MAGAZINE". All other mobilities C3 - C6 fell victim to the Covid -19 pandemic due to the strict lockdown regulations in all participating countries (Germany/Thuringia/Greiz district - lockdown March - May 2020 and from the end of November 2020 to the end of May 2021) and could not be realized. Likewise, it was not possible to process the tasks upstream and downstream of the mobilities, at least as planned. A lack of Wi-Fi and different digital equipment or platforms (most of which were not allowed to be used in Thuringia) at various schools significantly exacerbated this problem. Instead, the project coordinators agreed in regular Zoom conferences to digitally carry out the "Whole Europe reads" activity planned in the C4 as an e-book under the direction of the Polish partner. Students of different age groups of all institutions involved were invited to create a story under the title "A Blessing in Disguise", these were summarized in an e-book and are made available for free use on various platforms (school websites...). In addition, from 20.07 - 21.07.2021 a reading night took place in a 5th grade in the German partner school, all students dealt with a variety of reading material and different types of text. The 9th grade at the German school worked in lockdown in English on the topic "Jobs and successful application". On the one hand, this served to improve performance in the foreign language and, on the other hand, the students applied innovative digital learning methods in home schooling. The processing of this unit of material can be found in the "Compendium of successful Methods", so that the coordinators also agreed as an "exchange" activity. The teams from Poland, Romania and Portugal worked together here because of the similar peer groups, as did the team from Italy and Germany. The methods published here reflect a replacement of the planned C5 mobility, which should focus on successful learning / innovative learning and teaching methods. Unfortunately, we could not compare, discuss, let alone apply these methods in joint online conferences( as exchange to C6) LOckdowns in different countries or the extremely strict Thuringian data protection laws unfortunately prohibited the German institution from using the platforms Zoom or Teams! - Too bad! (Law on reading is attached). Conclusion: A great start! Without the pandemic, this project could have had a chance of great success, Covid - 19 has clearly shown us the limits of what is possible.