"There are several factors that can interfere negatively or positively in the student's learning process, from economic, social, affective, psychological, family related, to physical and mental factors. Likewise, another factor that can be determinant to hinder or facilitate students' learning is related to the teaching performance. When teachers plan differentiated teaching strategies for the development of programmatic contents, aiming to motivate and arouse the interest of the student, they are encouraging the positive attitude and the concentration of students in the classroom, valuing their relationship with knowledge. The teaching work is very complex, it begins within the classroom, but goes much beyond it.In this regard, we establish the following priorities for our project ""THE INNER CLASSROOM RELOADED: Motivation and concentration through non-formal learning.""Firstly, we include non-formal practices in schools which allow simultaneously the development of the students’ capacity of focus and attention, the capacity for emotional regulation, compassion and empathy, as well as the capacity for relaxation and well-being. This will be achieved through the introduction of Mindfulness in the school's culture. Secondly, we use new technologies to make eLearning/digitalization an integral part of teaching/learning methods, since they have a growing and fascinating impact on young people. Participating schools will pass on their experience of ICT tools with the aim of motivating students and boosting concentration, social interaction and the schools' atmosphere which again will lead to better educational achievement.Last but not least this project promotes the European dimension through cultural heritage like art, music and language. It is imperative that our students become aware of cultural diversity and of the importance of understanding distinct cultural realities. It's the schools' responsibility to open students' minds towards different-minded and to educate them in tolerance and civic coexistence; Three schools from Austria, Spain and Portugal will participate in this project. During the project, six transnational meetings will be organized. Three of these meetings will be short-term staff training events, while the others will be short-term students' exchanges. Ten pupils of each school will attend each exchange, which is a total of 60 pupils. Two teachers per school will participate in each short term staff event. Participants will be selected taking into account their profile and involvement in the project. The short-term staff training events will focus on the three major priorities of the project, which are Mindfulness and Positive discipline, eTwinning and ICT tools in order to pass on the expertise of each school to teachers of partner schools.Teachers will have the opportunity of job-shadowing in order to share best practices, get objective feedback on activities developed, and to implement best practice examples in their own teaching. At each students' short-term exchange, pupils experience each schools' non-formal teaching and learning activities. Daily practices of non-formal learning methods (mindfulness, positive discipline, eLearning) will be implemented by both the visitors and the local students. Likewise, visitors will participate in workshops in art, music and culinary and will get to know aspects of cultural heritage of each country. Along with this school activities and also in the sense of promoting our cultural heritage, we will carry out guided study visits to the surrounding areas of the school. Since cultural heritage forms the background of the project, it is essential that all students work together in multicultural teams using methods of non-formal education in order to achieve the objectives established for the implementation of the project.All the teachers involved in the project will learn to include new practices of concentration, inverted teaching and the use of digital media in their teaching activity, to cooperate and to share good practices, with the aim of having a positive impact on schools, which will become an added value for all members of the educational community. Throughout the project, teachers create booklets with methods in non-formal teaching which will be shared as teaching tools. Non-formal teaching methods will create a positive study environment which positively affects the students' concentration. This guarantees better skills and competences for the students' careers and lowers early drop-out rates. At last, members of the exchange will be qualified to better handle and manage future changes with the help of experiences and resources gained during the project cycle."

The project “Man and the sea, history and prospects” is co-built by three partner schools which are complementary. As they are all close to the sea, their will to participate in such a project was born from the awereness they have of the present and future importance to train students to know the sea and its history better in order to act as responsible citizens when they are confronted to the various challenges of coastal management. The high school “Enrico Medi” in Battipaglia (Italy, area of Campania) is located on a territory with a rich historic, patrimonial and archeological heritage. The links between human activities and the cultural and natural heritage are highly interesting to study. The social and educative value of the European natural heritage will be tackled. Indeed, the school is involved in the training of citizens, young people’s rights to have an access to culture, and proposes an education with an inclusive approach in a climate of peaceful and efficient collaboration. The school Lucinda Andrade, in Sao Vicente (Portugal, North Coast of Madera Island) located on a rural territory depending on farming and tourism, must face a geographical isolation, related in particular to the characteristics of the island. The European opening, already initiated through other projects, takes here an essential form, for the community. The staff has furthermore developed computer skills that will help to implement open and innovative practices rooted in the digital era for this project. The high school of Suscinio, located in Morlaix (France, department of Finistère in Brittany) is a state farm school which offers scientific courses focused on biology, ecology, landscape development and agricultural practices. For this reason, the staff has a large and important experience in the study and practical ground practice on territories, with sensitive, economic, historic, professional and environmental experiences. This expertise will be particularly useful to promote the acquisition of the abilities and skills necessary for the study of the assets and weaknesses of the coast. The existence of a European section in the school will favour the motivation for language learning and will also enable, from a sample group of students, to multiply the knowledge and skills acquired to all the classes. This project is divided into four semesters with a mobility at each stage: in Madera, in France, in Italy and in France again. The mobile students, who will never be the same, will not be the only ones involved. Indeed, the three schools involved are committed to implement a large involvement of teachers and students in the thematic programme, with ambassador students during the mobilities. Initial research will be conducted by the partners before each mobility. This research will be exploited downstream through writing of accounts in school and local newspapers, video editing, exchanges on social networks, exhibitions. The promotion of the collaborative work will be ensured through new technologies and communication tools. The activities organized on each territory will provide for ground observations, meetings with local actors from the coast. They will favour the knowledge of the specificities of the territory as well as the understanding of the diversity of the situations, through periods of exchanges and practices. A festive week, completely dedicated to the sea, will be organized in the school of Suscinio to conclude the project. It will give the opportunity to value the knowledge and skills acquired while strengthening the links already created between students and teachers but also on the territory. After this project, young people will be able to grasp the sensitiveness and the strength of the links between the man and the sea, to perceive and express a common heritage on a European scale. In the field of coastal management, they will have the keys to understand the decisions made on different levels and to develop a critical view on the practices. Their language, cultural, social and professional skills will also be improved. The benefits of this project will go far beyond the staff and students directly concerned as they will also provide longlasting profits for the school community in general. Thus, each school will find the opportunity to strenghten its involvement in the relations between Man and the sea and the minimization of human impacts on the coast. European culture will thus be strengthtened for each participant. The dissemination of the project will enable to convey a concrete and positive image of European values.

As we have observed in recent years, Europe has experienced a massive displacement of refugees and immigrants. In addition, the economic crisis has increased the number of disadvantaged people. Given this situation, our project Put Yourself in my Shoes had as its main objective to awaken, foster and instill the spirit of solidarity in young people, both in their immediate environment and at European level. For this reason, the participants have been 14 students from each centre between 13 and 17 years of age. The participating schools, due to the characteristics of their social environment, have been always aware of the challenges that the arrival of displaced people implies for the hosting society. Mestres de la Creu Coop. Vcna (Colegio Santa Cruz) in Mislata (Spain), Istituto Superiore Vittorini Lentini in Lentini (Italy) and Escola Basic e Secundária Dr. Ângelo Augusto da Silva in Funchal (Portugal) have led educational projects in their local communities where collaboration with disadvantaged groups has been one of the main objectives. In these projects, students from these local institutions have collaborated and participated together. The overall objective of the project has been to inform and sensitize the entire educational community and our local communities about the importance of mobilization, empathy and solidarity in the global world in which we all live. Therefore, after analysing the needs of our centres and their surroundings, we decided to establish the following objectives: to acquire ethical and moral values; to promote the sense of European citizenship; to improve social, civic, linguistic and digital skills; to foster intercultural awareness and to strengthen cooperation between different schools. In addition, the project included different types of activities aimed primarily at the educational community, specially students, and institutions that work with people at risk of exclusion. Moreover, preparation activities, such as signing agreements, work planning and meetings were carried out. Subsequently, several workshops and materials were developed and created with collaborating institutions during the mobility. All these activities were based on the performance of solidarity tasks through youth volunteering. In addition, complementary mobilities among European schools have been carried our providing added value to the project and complementing the work done by the schools with local organizations. The project methodology has been based on the elements of education for development that seeks to promote knowledge, attitudes and values regarding social inequalities and promoting volunteering as an educational practice. In addition, a practical approach has been implemented through cooperation and short exchanges of groups of students with other European institutions. With regards to the results, we can distinguish between tangible and strategic. On the one hand, tangible results such as statistics, presentations, audio-visual material, etc. have been published on the website of the Strategic Partnership www.k219putyourselfinmyshoes.org. Furthermore, several materials such as calendars, brochures, posters, bookmarks and T-shirts have been created. On the other hand, the strategic results are allowing the development of new solidarity activities for the benefit of local communities. New methodologies are being addressed to assist social, ethical and linguistic diversity in schools. Moreover, through the use and implementation of ICTs, the centres are being modernized creating a more dynamic, committed and professional environment. Regarding the impact and possible long-term benefits, there has been a great influence mainly at local level, improving the quality of school education and its cultural level. Therefore, the number of volunteer and solidary activities has been increased and local administrations have been sensitized to the objectives of the project. Finally, we intend to continue developing good practices between European schools, complementing personal training with socio-cultural and professional activities. This will enable us to develop new educational projects that imply an improvement of the results, sensitizing the educational community with the reality of newcomers, disadvantaged groups and Human Rights.

"While at school our students are protected from the outside world. They just need to go with the flow and do their best to finish compulsory school successfully. However, when they leave school or university they are faced with their first life challenge: being able to find their first job. Bearing this in mind, it is rather important to provide our students with useful tools which will definitely be helpful when the time comes to find the most suitable job for each one of them. Therefore, this project ""The World of Work - Preparing for Real Life Adventures in School Education"" aims at helping young adults to achieve their professional goals by getting to know the current labour market in the three partner countries: in Bulgaria, Hungary and Portugal; by becoming aware of their strengths and weaknesses; and by becoming acquainted with active job search techniques and entrepreneurship.Throughout the project, and as expected, there were four Transnational Project Meetings and three Learning, Teaching and Training Activities: two Short-term joint staff training events and a Short-term exchange of groups of pupils. On the whole, the no. of teachers who participated in the TPM was fifteen, in the LTT Activities there were eighteen teachers, and in the LTT Activities for students there were thirty. During the two years around thirty teachers and around five hundred students were involved in the different activities. The teachers that engaged in the project were highly motivated to contribute with their expertise. The students, on the other hand, were secondary school students, from regular or vocational education, as they were the main target subjects of the whole project.To start with, it was important to find out the secondary school students' expectations when leaving school by answering a questionnaire. The results of this questionnaire show what the older students from the three partner schools intend to do when they finish school, what difficulties they expect when looking for their first job, how much they expect to earn, among others. In the International Study on Labour Market created by the Portuguese team there are also the results of the focus groups research on the features of each country's labour market, in which there is a comparison between the data collected from the three partner schools regarding the following topics: each country's population; no. of young people aged between 18 and 30 years old; unemployment rate between 18-30 years old; jobs/courses with the highest and lowest employment rate; unemployed education level; employed according to their level of education; and youth emigration. By checking this International Study on Labour Market our students can find valuable information that might help them tread a fruitful path.Then, it was time to move on to a personal level by attending TIE – Theater in Education workshops, which consisted in TIE role games aimed at students‘ self-knowledge and self-consciousness, i.e. getting to know one‘s strengths, weaknesses and personal skills and competences. As a result, the Bulgarian team produced a Methodology Book on these TIE workshops. At the same time, the 12th form Portuguese students attended information sessions performed by a psychologist, a sociologist and a representative of the job center. Both the psychologist and the sociologist dealt with the personal development, i.e. the self-consciousness. In order to know their own strengths and weaknesses better, the students were asked to fill in a questionnaire by Myers Briggs. After finding out the results of this self-knowledge tool, the students got to know what type of person they are and what they will be like in a future job scenario. Besides, a few suggestions were also given so that they could take advantage of their strengths and weaknesses, not only in their personal life, but also in the labour market. On the other hand, the representative of the job center focused on active job search techniques, which the Hungarian team worked on and created a booklet. This Booklet on Job Searching Techniques is a useful tool when looking for a job as it contains, step by step, the necessary information to accomplish this goal.Finally, at the Learning, Teaching, Training Activities: Short-term exchange of groups of pupils that took place at the Portuguese school, the thirty students, who attended this meeting, had the chance to develop their entrepreneurship skills in order to start designing their own future by setting up Start-up ideas.The end products produced by the three partner countries can be useful tools to prepare our secondary students for their future real life adventures outside the school gates, whether they go to university or join the labour market after leaving school."

In accordance with the framework for ET 2020 and Paris Declaration 2015 scools should recognize the need to develop their students’ critical thinking skills and digital literacy required to handle information and createnew resources so that they become informed citizens able to fully participate in all aspects of society after graduation and equaly recognize, analyse and reject any form of discrimination. Consequently, schools need to adjust their instruction to the students’ interests and to the constant digital changes. In their endeavour to keep up with the rapid technological changes mirrored in the nowadays society, schools are concerned about the amount of unselected information students are exposed to, but mainly overwhelmed by the impact media and digital media have upon students. As a follow-up to Europe’s Digital Agenda and of ET2020, the project‘s scope is to ensure media and digital literacy through critical thinking to high school students, aged 14-19, in 4 European schools from Romania, Bulgaria, Portugal and Malta, for a period of 2 years, based a cross curricular approach.The objectives of the project are:1)To offer teachers cross-curricular opportunities to exchange views, share methods and create useful teaching materials, incorporating ICT and allow them to become creators of a critical thinking framework to be applied into daily teaching, by designing 1 teaching guide2) To train 4 core teams of students to understand how digital and social media influence our lives, by identifying and sharing similarities & differences in the practices of different countries, using inquiry based learning and critical thinking for 2 years3) To develop cross-curricular civic and intercultural competences enhancing the learning responsibility of the students’ use of critical thinking regarding media information encountered, enabling them to discriminate between fake news and the authentic ones, between discriminatory messages, in order to reject manipulation, combining at least 3 school subjects4) To develop digital skills in creating media related content by using digital art for both students and teachers under the form of 1 e-magazine and 1 set of flashcards during the 24 months of project implementation.The methodology of the project uses blended activities for teachers and students in relation with real life issues: internet exploratory ones, a mixture of creative and real world activities, surveys and workshops, eTwinning couses and teaching resource creation.Without being exhaustive in reaching the objectives, 2 training activities for teachers and 2 learning activities for students are envisaged, stongly interconnected and dependant on each other, with the aim of linking media-critical thinking-digital media with the view of non-diacriminatory citizenship and educated acces to information.The expected results are, briefly: 1 survey in the 4 schools; 1 e-magazine for students( digital literacy and art); 1 teaching guide including concrete critical thinking materials applied to media and digital literacy;1 set of flashcards to be used into teaching, 1 webpage for the project; 4 workshops locally organised, etc.; intercultural skills, critical thinking skills, digital skills, collaboration and teamwork developed.All things considered, by developing students’ digital skills in a creative way, learning becomes meaningful and might be easily related to their future, helping perceiving the benefits of education towards goal-directedness and self-confidence.