According to the European Development Plan, all teachers should consistently increase the level of their professionalism and classroom management. Participating in the courses in the UK and Croatia helped teachers to upgrade their foreign language teaching proficiency, including knowledge of contemporary English and British life. Also, the teachers were eager to become equipped with powerful tools and exercises that would help them and students relax, handle problem situations during classes, establish a stress-free and favorable school environment by incorporating mindfulness into classrooms, and acquire techniques to prevent or minimize teachers' "burn-out".
The main reason for applying was the necessity of getting help and information on how to improve teachers' well-being as it goes without saying that teaching is a demanding and often stressful profession. Teachers are more likely to experience work-related stress and suffer from the impacts on physical and mental health. Self-care is essential for teachers to ensure that they stay healthy and ready to take on many challenges of dealing with pupils. Mindfulness is one of approaches to self-care that can be relatively easy to incorporate into teacher's daily routine. Another worrying issue for educators is professional "burn-out". Quite often, they report feeling exhausted and disillusioned with the role they had once considered to be their dream job. The main triggers for burn-out are classroom behavior issues, dealing with difficult parents, not enough planning time, feeling underappreciated, etc. Another area for improvement is to help teachers of English to enhance their professionalism, and upgrade their knowledge of British culture and contemporary English as there have been significant changes in British life after Brexit. The chosen courses were supposed to help participants to achieve the above-mentioned goals.