Project titled: "Outdoor education-as a way to explore the world through experience" will be carried out within 12 months by two schools: Non-public Primary School of the Foundation of the Queen Saint Jadwiga in Przyłęków (Poland) and Preilu Briva Skola (Latvia). The main aim of the Project is to enable the teachers from both the schools to share their experience and knowledge concerning the methodology of Montessori education, forest education,inspired by tutoring programme as well as methods of informal education. Our intention is to continue the established cooperation by further development of modern methods in accordance with the individual needs of the social education environment. By sharing good practices at our school, and developing joint solutions suitable for adaptation in both partner institutions, we want to develop teachers' expertise to help students acquire the skills desired in the world more effectively. Thanks to this international project its participants will be able to acquire better results than it will be in the case of a local one. Teachers from Montessori school are ready to implement into their everyday work all the good practices and new methods; to cooperate with organisations working in various branches. Continuing cooperation at the international level, completing the initiated changes in education at the level of partner schools, describing the developed models as good practices can significantly affect the dissemination of the model itself as well as inspiring change in general.Project’s assumption is also connected with professional development of teachers in order to improve the quality of teaching. This fact should bring positive and long-term results. What’s more important, Montessori school is located on so called affected area (mountain area) that is way it has reduced chances. Receiving the grant would help us to level playing field for teachers as well continue partnership in Europe due to visible similarities between both schools. Such a partnership based on key values for education will be a significant strengthening for the continuous development of both schools. The main aims of the Project: 1)sharing knowledge and experience in the field of forest education based on proprietary teaching methods 2) searching for good practices and new methods, finding a way to combine working methods to achieve complementarity in accordance with the individual needs of the social environment of education 3)improving the skills and qualifications of employees in the use of forest education at all levels of education from kindergarten to grades 1-8 of primary school 4)developing proprietary curricula in the fields of mathematics, nature, language and emotional development, including forestry and field education methods on a European scale 5)improving teachers' skills in professional profiles, i.e. pre-school, early school and mathematics and natural sciences as well as in the field of foreign languages 6)exchange of the knowledge about creating the optimal environment educational, testing existing solutions,which will help to better develop in children and young people not only the knowledge but will help build self-esteem, independence and also social skills, i.e. work in a group, creativity, openness to changes, empathy, mindfulness 7)promotion of healthy diet and a healthy lifestyle as a friendly educational element 8)continuation of contacts and permanent cooperation with the school in Latvia 9)preparing the school as a place and team for national and international trainings in the field of outdoor education 10)improvement of work qualities in the field of forest/outdoor education Results that we want to obtain: 1)understanding by teachers methods and tools used by partner organisation 2)using these methods in daily work 3)higher quality of teaching in Europe 4)being ready to implement good practices and new educational methods into everyday work with students 5)continuation and increase of international cooperation in the field of education We will achieve these goals thanks to the activities carried out during the project: the participation of 4 teachers from our school and 2 partner school during 2-week visits to partner organizations. Except for the above activities we will elaborate a rich documentation of the project including the syllabus and forming of the abilities based on learning through experience the access to it will be provided through placing of the materials in the open educational resources, among other, on the Propagating Platform of Erasmus+ program and in professional magazines/internet portals.
Project entitled "Outdoor education - as a way to discover the world through experience" was carried out by two schools: the Private Primary School of the Queen Saint Jadwiga Foundation in Przyłęków (Poland) and Preilu Briva skola (Latvia) for a period of 12 months. The main goal of this project was to share knowledge and experience in the field of specificity and methodology of forest education, Montessori, development tutoring among students and original teaching methods of our school teachers with a partner organization. The project was a continuation of the previously established cooperation through the further development and development of modern methods in accordance with the individual needs of the educational environment of individual places - project partners. Through the exchange of good practices, common solutions were developed that could be adapted in both partner institutions. The professionalism of teachers was developed to help students acquire competences desired in the world, as well as to create a development environment for other teachers, principals, parents - that is, adults who have a direct impact on the quality of education in specific places. Participation in the project in an international group allowed the participants to achieve incomparably better results than in the case of local projects. The environment inside the Montessori organization is in the process of incorporating good practices and new proprietary methods into everyday activities. The implementation of the project also contributed to to the official development of the methodological path - including forest education in the creation, modeling and development of an educational environment for children and adolescents, as well as the development of a training center - helping adults to implement new solutions (preparation and conducting of workshops and courses). It is open to cooperation with organizations operating in various fields. The assumption of the project was related to the professional development of teachers in order to improve the quality of education. The received funding allowed us to provide equal opportunities for teachers working in small schools (rural - school in Przyłęków and municipal - Preila), and thus indirectly for students. A permanent partnership has been built in Europe due to the high similarity of work in our schools. The main goals of the project were: 1) sharing knowledge and experience in the field of forestry / outdoor education based on original teaching methods; 2) developing good practices and new methods, finding a way to combine working methods in order to obtain complementarity in accordance with the individual needs of the social education environment; 3) improving the skills and qualifications of employees in the use of forest education at all levels of education, from kindergarten to grades 1-8 of primary school; 4) developing proprietary teaching programs in the fields of mathematics - science, language and emotional development, taking into account the methods of forest and field education on a European scale; 5) improving the skills of teachers in professional profiles, ie: pre-school, early school and mathematics and natural sciences, and in the field of foreign languages; 6) exchange of knowledge on creating an optimal educational environment, testing existing new solutions that will allow children and adolescents to better develop not only knowledge, but also help build self-esteem, independence, social skills, i.e. teamwork, creativity, openness for changes, empathy; 7) promotion of healthy eating and a healthy lifestyle as an important element of the educational environment 8) continuation of contacts and permanent cooperation with a school in Latvia; 9) preparing the school as a place and team for national and international training in the field of field education The concrete results we have achieved: 1) acquiring by employees participating in the activities of methods and tools of work used in the partner organization (educational and the so-called soft skills related to cooperation with parents); 2) acquiring by the same group the skills to use the newly learned methods and tools at work in the home institution 3) higher quality of education and work with students; 4) incorporation of good practices and new teaching methods into everyday activities at work at school; 5) continuation of transnational cooperation in the field of education and its strengthening. We achieved these goals thanks to the activities carried out during the project: participation of 4 teachers from our school and 2 partner schools during 2-week visits to partner organizations. In addition to the above activities, we have developed a wealth of project documentation, including a sample experiential learning curriculum. Access to it will be ensured by placing the materials in open educational resources, incl. on the Dissemination Platform.