This project has been designed to involve young people living in different sized towns as well as schools and countries. All teacher participants in the project realize the changing attitude towards education and schooling represented mainly by Sir Ken Robinson, Edward de Bono, Csikszentmihalyi and other innovators. We understand that the era of subject based learning is heading towards its end and a new age is coming represented by theme-based learning involving several subjects and developing and supporting 21st century skills. Which are they? We do not know for sure so we stick to Sir Ken Robinson´s advice (presented in his book Creative Schools: The Grassroots Revolution That´s Transforming Education, 2015) and would like to support 8 competences: CURIOSITY: The ability to ask questions and explore how the world works (to be reached through Self-knowing (results: trainings, presentations, essays, tests and workshops) and Mental problems (results: tips for handling burning out, stress, depression, low self-esteem) CREATIVITY: The ability to generate new ideas and to apply them in practice to be learnt thorough Learning techniques (results: mind-maps, flow charts in different possible ways - electronic, poster, etc.) and Project writing (result: project) CRITICISM: The ability to analyze information and ideas and to form reasoned arguments and judgments thorough Critical thinking (results: photos, interviews, newspaper) COMMUNICATION: The ability to express thoughts and feelings clearly and confidently in a range of media and forms through Presentation skills (results: presentations in prezi, thinklink, powerpoint, posters, etc.,) COLLABORATION. The ability to work constructively with others COMPASSION: The ability to empathize with other others and act accordingly through Evaluation (result: a manual of tips for teenagers including previous topics) COMPOSURE: The ability to connect with the inner life of feeling and develop a sense of personal harmony and balance CITIZENSHIP: The ability to engage constructively with society and to participate in the processes that sustain it through The world around us (results: workshops on democracy). According to Robinson, these competences should be developed by schools if they really want their students to be successful in life. And this is what all the partners in this project would like to achieve - to help our students to become successful in their lives. During those 2 years students from different countries would work in mixed international groups so they will look at each problem, topic from various perspectives. We are planning to use eTwinning as well as the main working field for all participants. We intend our students to become more interested in the EU, learning and using foreign languages, making international friends and increase their motivation to learn about real life in other European countries in context of future job choices. We need our students to see how teenagers live in different countries, we hope that together we can find a solution to promote European Union and how to increase awareness of historical, cultural diversity of a few European corners among students and teachers. It is an opportunity for those who are creative as the results of our work will have to be published, presented and documented in many different ways: photographs, drawings, PPt presentations, graphs, school and local magazine issues, school webpages, project blog, documentaries. It will also be a challenge and a great chance for students with some specific problems ( learning difficulties, social and economical problems) for developing language skills and improving ICT skills.
This project has been designed to involve young people living in different sized towns as well as schools and countries. All teacher participants in the project realize the changing attitude towards education and schooling. We understand that the era of subject based learning is heading towards its end and a new age is coming represented by theme-based learning involving several subjects and developing and supporting 21st century skills. We decided to support 8 competencies by designing thematic areas and activities to strengthen them. The proposed competencies were curiosity, creativity, criticism, communication, cooperation, compassion, composure and citizenship. We spread them over 8 periods, each of which we wanted to devote about 2.5 months to strengthen them. The topics with which we wanted to address the individual competencies were self-knowledge, mental problems, learning techniques, project writing, critical thinking, media education, active citizenship and presentation skills. For project documentation we set up an eTwinning project (at the end of the project we had 136 pupils and 20 teachers registered and active). We held a teachers' meeting in Nové Zámky in the end of October 2019 and agreed on the mobility schedule. The first topic was processed by each partner in the form of psychosocial trainings for pupils, presentations and workshops for self-knowledge. During the first mobility in Italy, pupils in international teams addressed the topic of mental health (they made videos on how to manage stress or how to prevent burnout), wrote tips on how to manage burnout, stress, depression, low self-esteem and created bookmarks with positive messages. After returning home, they made an online Advent calendar with 24 positive references. The project included one long-term mobility of a pupil, she travelled on 1.10.2019 and stayed for four months. She helped the Spanish partner school with project activities and the virtual platform Twinspace, as they were newcomers to the program. The topic of Learning Techniques pupils started studying through Twinspace and we were preparing a second mobility when the Covid-19 pandemic broke out in March 2020. All our activities were subdued, later moved to a virtual space – except for mobilities. During distance learning, pupils kept in touch through Twinspace – exchanging tips on how to manage quarantine, what to do at home during quarantine, etc. We took full advantage of their creativity and communication, especially when processing the topic of media education, where we included the pitfalls of the online space (during this period, sample lessons on various topics were created). The Covid period meant that we could not carry out mobility for the entire next school year, so we asked for an extension, which was also approved. In the last year of the project, we completed all the remaining mobilities and processed all the topics left to us. In Bulgaria, we addressed democracy, active citizenship through games, presentations, group workshops, the creation of digital posters on the importance of elections and voting, we also looked at competences and legislation at the national and EU level. In Spain, we have partially returned to media education and combined this with critical thinking. The activities were directed to critical work with the text, the work of journalists, how to get to know quality journalistic work, what the tabloids are characteristic in, etc. In Slovakia, pupils were engaged in writing projects, analysing needs, identifying the needs of individual groups of citizens, and also outlined a project proposal. In Latvia, we covered the topic of presentation skills, how to "sell" yourself, what good and bad advertising is, etc., and during the final meeting in Portugal, we evaluated the three-year work, summarized the results and acquired competencies. After each mobility, we also made an evaluation of the meeting, each time the participants evaluated both the program and the activities very positively. The pupils saw that they had acquired the ability to cooperate constructively with others, they were able to empathize more with others, they expressed themselves more confidently in a foreign language. They became more interested in the EU, made friends and increased their motivation to learn about real life in other European countries in the context of future work decisions. The quality of the implemented project is also evidenced by obtaining a national quality label in Slovakia and Bulgaria, and winning an award in the competition for the best eTwinning project in Slovakia, implemented in the school year 2021/2022 in the special category Erasmus+ project implemented through the eTwinning space. According to Robinson, these competencies should be developed by schools if they really want their students to be successful in life. And this is what all the partners of this project wanted to achieve - to help our students become successful in their lives.