The educational landscape today is full of challenges: how to use new technologies? How to make students love learning? What are the most effective practices? How to combine discipline and liberalism? How to promote acceptance of diversity, active citizenship, awareness of the ecological impasse, democratic values and European identity? To answer, the teacher needs continuous training, innovative approaches, exchange of experiences with counterparts from other countries, an open-minded attitude, imagination and creativity. He should be satisfied with the opportunities for personal and professional development that are given to him. These were exactly the main objectives of our plan. In addition, we wanted to know the organization and administration of the host schools, the legal framework and the school's support institutions, the curricula, the digital infrastructure, the functioning of the student councils, the ways in which they deal with issues of assessment, distance learning, innovation and entrepreneurship, discipline, counseling and cooperation with parents, integration and inclusion, and finally teaching humanitarian and positive orientation courses.
The project Broadening the horizons of teachers was organized by the Directorate and the Teachers' Association of the First Arsakeion Tositsei GEL Ekali, with the aim of promoting internationalization and extroversion and the professional-teaching-personal development of teachers for the benefit of themselves, the students and of the school as a learning organization. The 1st Tositsio High School, with 200 students and 32 teachers, is one of the schools of the Philanthropic Society, which since 1836 has been providing education to students from all walks of life. It focuses on general culture, the development of students' abilities and talents, language skills and inclusion through groups and events that give opportunities for personal development to each student, especially those with learning difficulties. The cooperation with European schools since 2018 through Erasmus+ has shown how beneficial the exchange of experiences is. So we wanted four teachers and the Principal to go to partner schools in the Netherlands (RSG 't Rijks) and Norway (Sandnes Videregȧende Skole) to study their organization, adopt good practices, update their knowledge and try new methods, while promoting the European identity of our school.