Educational program in European schools with special needs is not as developed as it should be. Students with disabilities are often pushed to the sidelines, and yet they are sentient beings who want to live in an equal opportunity society. Our students have less opportunities to be included in international projects and projects, which would give them skills for life. United Nations conventions on the rights of persons with disabilities states that persons with disabilities should be treated with dignity, they should not be discriminated and should be given appropriate education. Based on stated above, schools with special needs and special programs have decided to team up in an international project. We wish to include our students in activities, which will help them develop independence, responsibility, social skills and acquire language skills. We named our project G.R.E.E.N. because we want to keep in mind the following objectives: Global - Recyclable - Environment - Employment – Nature. We chose to make the environment the main focus of our project because, as scientists have been warning us, we are in a state of planetary emergency. Uncontrolled exploitation of natural resources, waste accumulation and excessive consumption lead to great climate changes that are already happening. We want to raise awareness in the student that it is important to take care of the planet in which we live. We want to encourage them to become aware of the impact an individual’s actions has on the health of the environment and the wellbeing of society, and teach them how to design sustainable products that create less waste. Many of these students come from economically disadvantaged backgrounds, making it difficult for them to take advantage of cross-cultural exchanges and projects that would equip them with lifelong skills. With the activities we wish to approach the goals of the program “Education and training 2020” that provides a long term goal of increasing innovation and enabling employability to vulnerable groups. We wish to encourage our students to pass from passive viewers or observers to active individuals who are involved in caring for a better tomorrow. The partnership will include six countries: France, Germany, Latvia, Macedonia, Romania and Slovenia. Students involved are aged 6 to 26 and have disabilities in different areas. All the countries included have similar needs, problems and limitations in our work. We also have the same long term goal for our students – living as independently as possible. Although new technologies and online tools have increased the prevalence of remote learning, we believe that face-to-face contact and experiential learning activities still have an essential place in education. Based on the exchange our students will learn about different cultures, acquire foreign language knowledge and meet pears from other countries. Combination of different teaching methods and curriculums, that each school uses in raising awareness of the importance of the environment, will provide new knowledge and methods. We have organized round tables and workshops which will expose students to various topics and enable them to participate in hands-on activities. These could be used and transformed to different areas of education. Knowledge and experience on the importance of clean environment gained during the project, will be multidisciplinary included in further educational process by the teachers. Not only will project benefit its participants, but we expect it to have a lasting positive impact on the wider community. We wish to reduce the amount of waste and by that the consumption of consumers. Students will see that they can do a lot of things by themselves. Activities that will be performed in the gatherings have been carefully planned. We payed attention to individual needs of the students. We pursued a goal to include all students as much as possible in the project. Students will be encouraged to treat the environment responsibly by various activities, such as debates, different workshops, making of teaching aids. Teachers are going to help the students in communication and at their language skills with various visual materials. Teachers will gain new knowledge, methods and strategies, which will help them in their education process. In the end of the project we will publish a manual with examples of best practice and methods that will be presented to local educational institutions. Students will also gain new knowledge, skills, independence and responsibility that will have a great impact on their further independent life, which is the goal we all wish to achieve. We want to show students that each individual can develop their abilities and thus contribute to society. We believe that together we can make life long changes for wider society.
Educational program in schools with adapted and special program in European countries is not as developed as it should be. Our students had the opportunity to participate in an international project and therefore acquire skills that will benefit them throughout their lives. The inclusion allowed students to develop similar possibilities as them the other students have and we are proud to have successfully completed the project.During the project, students developed independence, responsibility, social skills, communication and strengthened their language skills. In addition, we also touched on the pressing topic of environmental changes and care for the environment, and through the project, we raised the awareness among students that we too must take care of the planet we live on. Raising awareness of the importance of environmental protection and the strategy of reducing the quantity or recycling of waste namely lead to a better future. Students acquired new knowledge through activities that prepared them for an independent, adult life. Participating children changed from passive observers into active doers and in their own way cooperated to the best of their abilities in taking care of a better tomorrow. The involvement in the project provided teachers with broad, balanced, sustainable and new teaching methods. Through teaching, this knowledge was then transferred to the students, which helped them to fulfill their potential, acquire new experiences and skills, and gradually integrate into society. Six countries were included in the partnership: France, Germany, Latvia, Macedonia, Romania and Slovenia. Participating students were between 6 and 26 years old and have deficits in various areas. A combination of different teaching methods and the curricula that each school uses in the field of awareness about the importance of the environment, brought us new knowledge and methods that we teachers began to use and transfer to different levels of education. The knowledge and experience about the importance of a clean environment, which we acquired during the project, have been and will continue to be multidisciplinary integrated by the teachers in their further educational process.With the G.R.E.E.N project, students gained knowledge and awareness of the importance of a clean environment. We have reduced the amount of waste at the school level, and we hope that this will also reduce the consumption of individuals. We showed the students that they can do many things by themselves.The activities that we carried out during the seven meetings were carefully planned. In doing so, we took into account the individual needs of the students and followed the goal that all students were involved in the project as much as possible. We organized workshops and round tables where we interwoven different topics and involved different participants (students, teachers, adult experts).The visual material created by the teachers was helpful to the students in communication and improving their language skills. The positive effects of our project were felt by teachers, students, parents and the wider local environment. During the project, our results were visible and presented to the general public (whole school, local level, other schools in the countries). As teachers, we acquired new knowledge, methods, and strategies that will help us in the educational process in the future.Since we wanted to transfer this to a wider level, we published a manual with examples of good practice and methods, which we spread to various educational institutions with the help of the Internet and principals. Students acquired new knowledge and skills and became more independent and responsible. All this has a good influence on their further independent life. Greater independence of persons with special needs is the goal we wanted to achieve. Despite the fact that the teaching profession and education are constantly struggling with new requirements and legislation, authentic contact with students is still crucial. By participating in the project, we encouraged students and teachers to grow in the educational and personal fields. The results of the project are new methods and products that can improve the educational process. By empowering the individual to design a product himself and therefore not buy it, we aimed to reduce consumption and take care of society as a whole. In this way, we encouraged students to be aware that individual actions have a great impact on the well-being of society as a whole. Unfortunately, we notice that students and adults with special needs are often pushed to the sidelines in society. Many of these students also come from economically weak backgrounds and, perhaps for the first and last time, they had the opportunity for intercultural exchange, which certainly enriched their lives. The students realized that as individuals they can significantly contribute something good to society. We can do a lot together.