As already mentioned, one of our school policies was to provide the necessary opportunities and incentives for the teachers' continuous training on pedagogical issues, issues of contemporary educational methodology as well as in technological applications needed in education. More specifically, this course would help the teachers of our school to: a. Enhance their skills by using various gamification and innovative teaching methods and techniques. b. Boost teachers' skills by using ICT in their classrooms. c. Learn about techniques for supporting the inclusion of various minorities into the mainstream education based on democratic values and for promoting the student's active participation in society. d. Revise and develop our personal and professional competences and to build confidence in promoting innovative and active pedagogies that are responsive to social and cultural diversity. e. Meet colleagues of different nationalities within the EU, engage in cross-cultural learning experience, exchange ideas and build a network for future international cooperation. f. Use games for educational propose. g. Share our best practices, ideas and materials with colleagues within the EU. h. Gain broader understanding of practices, policies and systems of education of different countries. i. Enrich our communication skills, improve our foreign language competencies, broaden our professional vocabulary and promote EU’s broad linguistic diversity. One of our aims was also to gradually increase the number of teachers in our school to take part in these European projects and courses. The course outcomes would also help students: (a) Develop relevant, high-level skills such as creativity and critical thinking. (b) Become happier in the school environment and have better academic achievements. (c) Develop cross-cultural competencies, intercultural skills and improve their language learning through future international cooperations.
Globalized societies often require teachers to work with students from various cultural backgrounds. Nowadays the frequent migration of entire populations caused by global economic change and war is making such a challenge even more critical. As a result of this, we decided that digital technologies can be used to support teachers working in a multicultural environment by helping them teach a foreign language, or promote group communication, collaboration, and inclusion. The use of technology to raise our students' engagement and motivation by using the most popular social media, as well as the new Web platforms for education was one of our school policies. We wanted to provide the necessary opportunities and incentives for the teachers' continuous training to develop skills in order to diversify our teaching by making it more attractive and efficient. By this way, our students will form a positive attitude towards the school, become happier in the school environment and have better academic achievements. Still, the interaction with other European colleagues would give us the opportunity to become familiar with their own educational methods, practices and cultures. The course would help us exchange experiences and good practices among people coming from different countries working in the same field.