"•FRAME Nowadays, it has become imperative to adjust our teaching methods to the requirements imposed by the rapid development that we are experiencing. However, it should not be omitted that there are skills and methods which have started to lose ground in the technological era and it would be a pity to assist passively to them. With this in mind, we have set out on the journey of discovering and rediscovering the pleasure of reading, as a way of improving students' basic competences - language, communication, as well as skills such as interpretation, critical thinking and analysis. Alarmingly high numbers of students have never read an entire book in their lives, while others state that they only read out of obligation, but less than a book per year. Therefore, teaching English as a foreign language through stories can be a challenge as much as it can prove a source of endless inspiration and entertainment. BENEFICIARIES Our target group includes students of the ages 13-18 with basic English skills (minimum A2 level) from our schools. We chose this age group as they are old enough to read in English and young enough to still show enthusiasm for it. Therefore, we are addressing a number of approximately 400 students (the others, who do not have a working command of English, but are in the same age group will be involved in artistic activities, cultural activities or activities which involve their mother tongue. The project also addresses teachers of English from our schools who will update their teaching methods and exchange experiences and practices with their peers, thus contributing to the creation of a professional network of English teachers. 110 students and 32 teachers will participate in the 4 exchanges we have planned, participants who will be selected from the target groups. GOALS 1.to develop students' taste for reading and motivate them; (minimum 50% of target group) 2.to develop students' creativity and language skills; (minimum 80% of the target group) 3.to develop students' critical and creative thinking, personal and social capability; (min. 60% target group) 4.to develop understanding of their own culture in connection with other European cultures; (minimum 70%) 5.to promote European values and develop cohesion among European citizens. 6.to exchange teaching methods and improve the material bases of the English teachers. 7.to produce sustainable teaching materials and share them with foreign language teachers in our countries and others. ACTION We have planned 4 exchanges: C1- November 2018 – Turkey : For teachers to start on the project and the topic C2 - February 2019 - Italy: Developing literary and interpretative skills through stories. C3 - May 2019 - Bulgaria: Teaching reading and critical thinking skills through stories. C4 – November 2019 - Romania: Teaching writing skills and creativity through stories. C5 - April 2020 - Poland: Teaching speaking skills through stories. Developing self-confidence in the use of English The exchanges will comprise topic-related seminars and workshops, cultural activities, attending lessons. For the purpose of project management and evaluation plan , we will organise 1 meeting: in the beginning, in Turkey. APPROACH Project management implies planning, organisation, implemetation, monitoring, evaluation and dissemination of results. In the planning stage - we identified the needs and established the aims and objectives of the project. In the organisation stage, we will elaborate dissemination and evaluation plans, action plans, timeline of events, distribution of tasks and resources. In the implementation stage, we will organise the selection, preparation and participation in exchanges. We will produce the final results of the project. The dissemination plan is created to share the results and activities within our partnership and beyond it, so as to impact the target groups, the institutions, local/regional/national/European target audiences. The evaluation is done at every stage of the project and its results will be included in the impact study. DEVELOPMENT •Students are expected to become more motivated, improve their language skills and intercultural competence; they will become more self-confident in their ability to use English, improve their literary competence, their reading, speaking, writing skills as well as their interpretive, critical thinking skills and creativity. •Teachers as well will become more motivated, improve their leadership, team work, presentation skills, improve their material base, develop language, communication skills, interpersonal and intercultural competence. •Schools become more visible in their community, develop their human resources. Tangible results include: Compendium of literary theory for secondary school students; Collection of story-related activities and lesson plans for secondary school students; Curriculum for optional class ""TESS - Teaching English Skills through Stories"""

"The ""My Europe - Your Europe - Your Say"" project (ME-YOU-US) aimed at teaching students age 11 to 15 to be more open-minded, more tolerant and empathic, learn about the universal human rights and get skills and competences of living and acting in communities in which community member feels valued and accepted, know their rights and obligations as citizens. The second major target group were the teachers who got a tool and were trained so that they acquired the skills of delivering trainings to students making use of project outputs. The project used as a basis the manual of the ""Otherness"" Erasmus+ strategic partnership project (2015-2018) but took it a step further both regarding contents and geographical spread. The ME-YOU-US project involved some of the founding partner from Portugal and Greece, but also 3 new partners who contributed with their expertise, experience and potential to deliver trainings to larger numbers of numbers of teachers. The new partners were representatives of different stakeholders involved in school education - a representative of tertiary education, of regional authorities in school education and a nongovernmental organization working with vulnerable groups. The partners revised and upgraded the training resources from the ""Otherness"" project, created 18 new teaching resources (lesson plans and accompanying digital resources) and the final edition of the Resource Pack finally comprises 66 teaching resources which were used by teachers in the implementation phase. The collection of e-resources was created with cutting edge technologies. They are primarily meant to be used as complimentary to the activities described in the Teacher's Manual, but could also can be used independently by students as food for thought or tutorials for acquiring new skills. A project website was designed in 7 languages (English, and the partners' mother tongues - Bulgarian, Greek, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian and Spanish). Both intellectual outputs are freely available on the project website in the respective language version. The implementation phase of the project involved some 5200 students in training activities making use of the Resource Pack created within the project. The project was implemented in 3 new countries (Poland, Spain and Romania) as well as in the old partner countries: Bulgaria, Portugal and Greece. The students in the ME-YOU-US project took part in regular training activities during two school years (2019/20 and 2020/21) on a monthly basis. Two opinion polls were carried out to analyse what we have achieved by designing the Resource pack and organizing training activities with it. We evaluated the changes in students' attitude to people, the new concepts and ideas they learned about and embraced, their skills as active citizens and members of communities, as citizens who care about and value all people regardless of their social status or cultural background. The poll questions can be grouped in several categories: Differences between people, Tolerance – Diversity – Mistreatment, Traditions– Culture – Refugees/Migrants, Socioeconomic Status, Disabilities, Aggressive Behaviour and Human Rights. There are positive changes in all categories, especially concerning the percentage of students who initially indicated they had no opinion, were not sure in their understanding of the poll questions or stated that they were neither for nor against the statements. Project results and findings were disseminated through the partner websites and internal networks, through the project Facebook page, through the multiplier events organized as face-to-face events in Bulgaria, Romania and Greece, and through the project web site. According to Google analytics, which was activated in December 2019, the monthly average of visitors is 131 sessions, corresponding to 715 page views; the ratio of new to returning visitors is 53% to 47% for the project duration; the vast majority of visitors to the website come from the countries of the partner institutions in the project, but access from other countries in the EU, the USA and China is also relevant."

"For years now the Eurocar 2 project partners have had bilateral relations in education. During these exchanges the need to know better the education systems of partner countries was identified as well as the need to share education practices, specifically in foreign and second language teaching and in primary school. Foreign languages were chosen because they are a learning tool and a means of communication in international education. What is more, they facilitate the opening of oneself to the others, the building of European citizenship and professional skills development. To better respond to these needs, Eurocar 2 project unites university actors with education practitioners. More specifically, the project is aimed at carrying out a comparative analysis of the education systems of participating countries, along with a comparison of foreign and second language teaching practices. To this end, the project will be based on professional behaviour, which is a concept that allows for the better understanding the teacher's work and puts education actions to practice.The comparative analysis of education systems will contribute to identifying differences and similarities in the relevant ideological and pedagogical substrata and to shed further light on, among others, the actors and their roles, on organisation modes, the content taught, the frequency and distribution in time, on the place and role of foreign and second language teaching. Familiarity with the profession's context leads to proper understanding of teachers' practices, as they are always socially defined. The concept of professional behaviour encompasses the wider picture of the teacher's leading role (preparation and organisation of teaching), the management of the atmosphere (pedagogical relation), connection-building (lending meaning to what is being taught, creating links between different teachings, links between the class and society, etc), support (types of assistance for those in training), as well as the content itself. Thus the Eurocar 2 project will result in: i) establishing an overview of what exists in foreign and second language teaching in partner countries; this overview will be focuses on the methods, models, practices, tools and theory frameworks that form the basis of learning strategies; ii) analysing and comparing teachers' practices, as well as the representations and views of students and practitioners on foreign and second languages (their roles, interests, ways of learning, etc). Gaining better understanding of those views is important as they have an impact on language teaching and learning; iii) developing common pedagogical resources to benefit from skills and enhance foreign and second language teaching and learning; lastly, iv) foster mobility in education and teaching in the project partner countries.The project beneficiaries are future primary school teachers who are currently in training, primary school teachers from partner schools, education professionals (heads of institutions, inspectors, pedagogical councillors), researchers from universities, primary school students from the project partner schools, and, more generally, the entire education community, and political decision-makers.The main activities envisaged under the Eurocar 2 project are transnational meetings, an intensive study programme, short-term trainings for staff, as well as mobility. The expected outcomes at the end of the project are: i) gaining a better knowledge of educational systems, contexts and foreign and second language teaching in partnering countries; ii) enhancing vocational skills of education professionals in general and particularly of those involved in the project; iii) developing common pedagogical resources accessible to all and exchanging best practices by creating a digital pedagogical platform and module for regular and distance training, as well as publishing materials on education as a crossing point between research and training, and iv) establishing an enhanced network and interactions in the wider framework of ""pedagogy through exchanges"", which includes the mobility of researchers, teachers, trainers and students at university and school level."