Healthy living is a combination of variety of factors nowadays, including good nutrition, regular exercise and a positive attitude. However, some healthy life habits have disappeared in recent years among teenagers, since fast food, passive lifestyles and excessive use of modern devices have taken over their daily time. According to the World Health Organization, only one in ten people exercise regularly and a majority do not follow a healthy diet. Overweight and obese people suffer from many health complications such as diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol and even cancer. Modern society, including schools with many students, face more and more challenges how to tackle the issues connected with addictions, mental state, fitness and overall well-being. School lessons and traditional methods are seldom outdated and students at risk age should be offered exciting ways how to deal with challenging problems. Our target audience will be students from the age 12-15, because the emphasis on healthy lifestyle in its broadest meaning should start at a young age and accordingly parents and educators must offer their children healthier choices in life, physically and mentally. We also feel that students whose daily life is dangerously closely linked with social media, should be offered variety of other healthier alternatives, or at least combined with numerous choices. "Prevention is the best cure" is a popular saying among healthcare professionals. The main goals of our cooperation are to increase the knowledge of the importance of a healthy style of living in each partner's country and to find out and introduce the good habits of each culture, as well as to improve our school study process by introducing non-formal methods as a way to engage students and teachers in this challenging process. We will pay special attention to one another's eating habits, products and traditions and the way each school and community deals with the emotional education. Profiles of the involved schools share common features being state schools in big communities, also trying to find solutions and provide engaging methods in order to prevent addictions, increase awareness about widely discussed topics; moreover, searching for effective ways of presenting knowledge and involving students. All partners think, that Erasmus+ is as an effective, exciting and long-lasting opportunity to spread good practice across different schools in Europe. Results of the collaboration are planned as follows - 10 practical plans for lessons and events will be produced, 8 educational videos about cooking and languages will be made, 4 research magazines will be issued to use in lessons, 1 wide primary school level research about teenagers' habits will be carried out among more than 1000 European students. Valuable educational lectures and practical workshops will be held, important international teamwork will be carried out during several mobilities, local community will be involved as help to organize events, various sporting, cooking, entertaing activities will be organized. We will use such methods as group work, case research, pair work, using meaningful IT tools, interviews, questionnaires. The educational process at schools will be considerably improved by giving creative approaches to teenagers and their families, plus enriched with non-formal methods and innovative lesson plans. Students will rise their awareness and widen their essential skillsets regarding vital values- health, well-being, mental state and practical life experiences. We hope that - due to our cooperation – our students and their families will take responsibility for their own choices concerning a healthy style of living. We believe, that the cooperation among different European countries will open our students' minds to other cultures and nations. By carrying out a variety of practical activities, we would like them to feel a part of the European community - to broaden their horizons and to get to know and accept people from other cultures. Another important advantage of taking part in this partnership is the use of English as the project-language. Students and other involved school staff members will learn and practice English in real-life contacts, which will increase the motivation to learn more European languages. Also, school staff members will have to practise their management and organization skills. The project results will be published online, so they are available for free to any public members. School webpages and project webpage will be used for this purpose. The eTwinning platform, in particular Twinspace, will be used to establish contacts, disseminate project materials and other documentation. Lesson plans and magazines, alongside with video materials will be distributed in the local school meetings, if possible also internationally and during local events for school members. Thus, we will provide a wide dissemination of our project.
Our projects main object was to exchange best practices regarding the theme "Eat Right! Move Right! Feel Right!". The project duration was from October 1, 2022, to August 31, 2023 (extended due to COVID-19). The participating schools were Gazi Ortaokulu in Kirrikale, Turkey; Adazu vidusskola in Adazi, Latvia; Istituto comprensivo statale Alvignano in Italy, and Gymnasium Ernestinum in Celle, Germany (coordinators). The originally participating Portuguese school had to leave the project due to the pandemic. At each school, there was a project group consisting of 10-20 students aged between 12 and 17, who worked regularly on the project. The groups primarily communicated through email or WhatsApp, and their results were published on their respective school websites. Besides the project work at the schools, each person had at least one opportunity to participate in a mobility event in one of the other countries (Learning Teaching Training - LTT). There were 18 mobilities for each LTT, and initially, there were 8 mobilities for the teacher workshop. Our aim was to highlight mindfulness towards the specific needs of a school routine and investigate them with the students. In a fast-paced society with many unhealthy options in school canteens or kiosks, unhealthy eating habits can develop. By offering possibilities to create quick but healthy recipes in daily life, we wanted to show the youth the path to a healthier eating behavior (EAT RIGHT). Similarly, students often spend long hours sitting in school and don't get enough physical activity. Therefore, we aimed to present different possibilities for incorporating short mobilization exercises into the school routine to keep the circulation and body active (MOVE RIGHT). Furthermore, since young people today spend a lot of time on social media, it can lead to dangerous comparisons with others, making mindfulness of mental health crucial (FEEL RIGHT). To address this, the project included mindfulness exercises, for example. "Prevention is the best cure." Thus, in collaboration with all project partners, we tried to demonstrate how each culture deals with these aspects, enabling mutual learning from one another and possibly adopting best practices. Through mindfulness and attention, each culture could bring its own ideas and traditions into the project. Through interaction among the different country groups, the youth became more aware (e.g., through shared cooking, sports activities, creating posters on health aspects, etc.). Each school group individually delved into the topics, conducting surveys and presentations shown to younger classes, fostering in-depth engagement with the issues. By independently creating and cooking recipes, students were encouraged to engage directly with food items. For instance, incorporating breathing exercises during breaks between classes allowed students to briefly relax amidst the hectic daily routine. Another topic was ensuring sufficient hydration during school time, and the planning for multiple water dispensers in the school is underway. There were four Learning Teaching Training (LTT) events, each taking place in one of the participating countries, where students and teachers from each country came together to learn about the cultural habits regarding the project theme. During these gatherings, the youth exchanged ideas and conducted research to create videos and posters on the topics. The emphasis was on practical activities and exchanging ideas between the groups. Mindfulness in everyday life towards oneself is crucial for leading a physically and mentally healthy and balanced life. Now, the students can easily pause in their daily lives and make small changes to create a more balanced life. The multicultural collaboration has made the youth more tolerant of people with different cultural backgrounds. Through their participation, friendships were formed across borders, and language and different perspectives were no longer barriers. This is important for their own lives and for a united European community.