"The project ""Living Books in Schools"" represents the cooperation of three primary schools from Serbia, Romania and Poland and one association from Slovenia. The main goal of the project is the implementation of the nonformal method Living Library into formal education. Living library is a method of holistic approach to education to deal with own prejudices and stereotypes. Through the activities that this method implies, teachers, students and all who participate, ""read books"" ie. talk to individuals from different, often marginalized or socially labeled groups. They come into contact with their social positions, raise questions about society. A Living Library is a place where we start curiosity, reduce differences, overcome fears, acquire new knowledge, and get acquainted with different views of the world. The method's goal is to create a tolerant, solidar community and as such is an excellent tool for building a bridge between formal and non-formal education. Implementation of the method is carried out through: - a training course for teachers - organizers methods, - realization of Living Library in all partner's organizations, - training of pupils through youth workshops on various topics and volunteer actions of pupils of schools, - activities within the institution, - coordination and meetings for intellectual work - and pupils mobilities. Behind written instruction for youth workshops, the main result of the project is teacher's book for Living Libraries in schools. We wish to expand the knowledge gained through the project through the implementation of the method in Development plan, publishing manuals and free downloads, organizing seminars in the institution and the local community, participating in an expert conference, in cooperation with partners and through pedestrian education."

<< Background >>Due to the COVID crisis, the educational system around the world has been upset. The restrictions imposed have led to a paradigm shift in education. Suddenly, teachers and students were put in a position to change their habits and how to relate in a way that they were not prepared for.Although students and teachers are digitally literate, their skills and competencies for online teaching are lacking. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0268401220310264 Statistics revealed that in all countries, a high percent of students were enabled to achieve knowledge at a satisfactory level or the specific competences as set in the curriculum . This was due to the lack of the necessary skills of both teachers and their own to conduct online school activities. Teachers had difficulty finding the right ways to ensure students' progress.The world has not been prepared for this type of learning, which has had the effect of adopting temporary solutions, more or less appropriate. Not even at the theoretical level there are instructions on the methodology of online teaching / learning nor on the good practices. Students learning suffered a setback.Teachers couldn’t find the best solutions to achieve the objectives of the lessons.66,9% of them performed for the first time online, according to the JRC report on Covid 19. Also, the applied surveys lead to the conclusion that there is a need for more digital educational resources, in order for the classroom activity to be more efficient.Online learning has a great potential, but only if it is well prepared by teachers and students.https://www.schooleducationgateway.eu/en/pub/viewpoints/surveys/survey-on-online-teaching.htm It can be seen that teachers and students from all European countries and beyond have faced the difficulty of adapting to online schooling. Being an unprecedented situation, at least in the first stage of the pandemic, there was no coordinated unitary action in any country, so the teachers did as they thought was best. But the requirements of a quality online education require new digital skills, as well as a know-how in terms of good practices. However, these good practices were not known in the educational environment. On the one hand, teachers did not know what tools to use to ensure proper interactivity in lessons, on the other hand, students were unprepared to organize their online learning, even being digital natives. There are no suitable guides in this regard. Even greater difficulties are encountered in the case of students with special requirements, integrated in mainstream schools. They need to be helped even more to overcome the difficulties encountered. Under these conditions, students could not acquire the necessary knowledge during online schooling. Students and teachers did not have the necessary digital skills, they were not prepared for such activities. To this could be added the fact that the use of web tools in the classroom was previously at a low level. All this has produced undesirable consequences, such as:students suffered learning loss and did not acquire the skills provided in the curriculum;learning outcomes have declinedthe quality of learning has decreasedlearning has become difficultstudents' motivation for learning decreased.Through this project these shortcomings could be eliminated.<< Objectives >>Objectives: What do you want to achieve by implementing the project?The aim of this project is to provide teachers and students with the necessary support to overcome the difficulties related to online schooling. At the end of it, students and teachers will be able to conduct a good quality educational process in distance learning. Main objective is to help teachers and students acquire skills to carry out educational acts that can prevent learning loss and improve students' school results even in the conditions of online schooling.Goals-Students and teachers will acquire the necessary skills for online teaching/learning;-Raise awareness of teachers and students of online schooling and the need to have an appropriate strategy, so that student knowledge is not affected;-Improve academic results as a result of increased quality of online educational activities. The ultimate goal of any teaching / learning activity is to ensure for students, the acquisition of knowledge and the development of skills and competencies. To achieve this result, several specific objectives must be met:students to be trained to develop the most appropriate digital skills for online educational activities;teachers to be trained to develop digital skills for online teaching;teachers to be helped to open up to modern teaching methods, using digital tools;students to accumulate a set of digital skills necessary for learning, and to help them in crisis situationsdigital tools to be easily used both online and onsite;teachers and students to be able to carry out high quality online educational activities.By achieving these objectives, the desired results can be obtained:students acquire the competencies provided in the curriculum;their school results improve;the quality of learning increases;educational activities become more attractive;students become more involved in learning activitiesstudents' motivation for learning increases.<< Implementation >>The planned activities are meant to ensure the achievement of the objectives and to increase the quality of online teaching / learning.We will conduct research on online teaching at EU level, to identify good practices , to identify what worked and what didn’t in the process. Teachers will collect 10 example of good practices each, and will present the examples in the first LTT, in which the best 30 will be selected. The results will be included in a booklet for teachers that will include the 30 examples of good practice, selected. Teachers will thus have a benchmark on the path to follow in online teaching; We will develop a training program based on process facilitation, designed for teachers, through which they acquire the digital skills and competencies needed to provide quality educational activities.The reports and analyzes performed on the problems of online education will be the starting point for establishing the content of the course. The content will be optimized based on the suggestions and recommendations received from the experts in the focus group that will evaluate the course ;A training toolkit will be created, applicable by all the stakeholders, and distributed as an OER. A guide for teachers about how to involve parents in online school’s activities will be also developed. We will organize an LTT activity, during which teachers from partner countries will be trained. They will then pilot the program in their countries. The feedback obtained from the pilot will be used to improve the program ;We will teach the students how to create digital portfolios to have at hand the digital resources they will use in the learning process. An evaluation workshop will be held during students exchange. Students will acquire the skills and competencies needed for online learning activities. Peer learning activities will take place, after the students will return home. A guide for students will be developed, with instructions on how to create a digital portfolio and use it for online learning;The planned activities will have an eco-friendly character, in order to develop attitudes and behaviors to protect the environment: green travels will be prefered, as few printed documents as possible, CSR practices will be implemented. The aim of the eTwinning project that will take place is to develop the digital skills of the students involved, but also to integrate environmental issues into classroom activities.We also want to give the project an inclusive character, considering that in the boarding schools are integrated children with special needs, and students belonging to disadvantaged categories. They will be included in activities, and the products made in the project will reach these categories of students, too.Target groupIn the project we included two target groups:-Teachers who need to improve their digital skills in order to deliver quality online education;-Students who need new digital skills and competencies in order to successfully complete online learning.Teachers and students will acquire:-Digital skills for effective online teaching / learning activities;-Competences to use web tools for different types of teaching/learning activities;-Skills to use ICT in data collection and processing;-Innovation capacity in conducting online activities;-Learning to learn skills;-Abilities to facilitate the online learning process;-Exchange of good practices.Number and profile of participants:8 partners from 7 countries are involved in this project. The choice was made taking into account the needs resulting from the planned activities, and the expertise of each partner in a certain field, necessary for the successful implementation of the project.Thus, we selected partners who have expertise in conducting research, in developing training programs for digital skills, who have the capacity to organize large-scale actions for the dissemination of results.24 teachers will present good practices on online t<< Results >>1. Developing teachers' digital skills for online teachingAt the end of the project, the teachers in the target group will be better prepared to carry out online teaching activities, with a set of new digital skills. By applying examples of good practice, they will give to all their students an extra chance at a quality education.2.Developing students' digital skills for online learningStudents will benefit by improving their ability to manage and organize online learning activities. Even students with special needs will increase their self-confidence through the skills they will acquire. Online schooling will become a friendlier environment, and less stressful.3.Diminishing the negative impact of online schooling on students' school progressDue to the pandemic, students suffered from learning loss, which led to poorer results for most of them. By acquiring the necessary digital skills, they will become able to overcome difficulties and lessen the negative impact previously felt. Through a good organization of online learning activities, the premises will be created to ensure a proper school progress. 4.The good practice booklet can be taken as a benchmark for establishing the online teaching strategyAt this time, there is no good practice guide on online schooling that supports teachers. In the absence of such a tool, everyone did according to his skill, more or less well. This booklet has a very high transferability potential, because it can be easily shared in digital format to teachers even from the most remote areas, who do not have access to training on this topic.5.The teacher training program can also be used by other schools in the communityThe Training Toolkit developed can be used by any training provider, as it can be downloaded from the project website. It will contain all the necessary components for running the training program, and additionally, a guide for teachers on how parents can be involved in providing the necessary support to students during online schooling.6.The training kit with tools and suggestions for online teaching becomes a useful aid for any teacherThe content of the materials made in the kit can become a source of inspiration for any teacher, because you will find suggestions for using web tools, recommendations on how students can be prepared to manage their online activities, and how to collaborate with parents on duration of online school.7.The training program can be implemented by any stakeholderThe training program will also be available in electronic format, so that it can be implemented in any community of teachers. It can also be taken over by training providers and included in their offer.8.The student guide&portfolio becomes a handy tool for every student, helping them to manage the online learning activitiesAnd this guide has the character of uniqueness, because so far no such tool has been developed. It will be accessible to all interested students, and can be downloaded from the project website. It will be presented in a suggestive visual way, to be easy to navigate.