It is a common saying that teachers are brain changers but at the same time there are numerous examples showing how little we know about or use the knowledge of brain functioning in the context of teaching and learning today. Having so much evidence that today's schools and public education in general are not brain-friendly in so many cases, we have decided to start a big discussion in the area of neuroeducation in different parts of Europe. It goes without saying that teaching is a challenging profession today. We are bombarded with new approaches, techniques and tools every day. Yet, the most important tool - student's brain has been ignored for the last decades causing different educational failures. That is why, we should do our best to inspire teachers and make them more interested in the topic of brain-friendly education that combines the knowledge of neuroscience, psychology and education, which can help them optimize both learning and teaching processes and reach the maximum potential of each individual student. It will not only improve teaching quality but will also help students improve their academic performance. Our main objective, therefore, is to provide teachers with the profound theory supplemented with plenty of practical, ready to be used methods and approaches that will make their teaching much more stimulating and enjoyable for students, who will ultimately become an active part of the educational process. With this transformation, we want to develop our students' creativity, autonomy, teamwork skills, confidence and responsibility for lifelong learning, which are crucial for their future personal and professional life. On the other hand, we want to make our teachers more innovative and self-confident in their everyday work and international cooperation. The planned activities will lead to strengthening the profiles of teaching professions and will result in more effective and enjoyable learning inside and outside the classroom, better classroom atmosphere, greater engagement and autonomy of students who will feel responsible for their own process of learning. We also intend to develop a long-lasting international cooperation between our schools and mutual support in continuing professional development of our teachers. Developing interpersonal competences as well as reducing the cultural and language barriers among our students and teachers are also important objectives we want to achieve. We truly believe that transferring the responsibility for learning from teachers to students will make the latter independent, self-reliant and intrinsically motivated to push their educational process forward, without too much dependency on their teachers. It is a long-lasting process challenging not only for students but also for teachers, who will have to alter their teaching habit of being in the centre of the classroom and start thinking outside the box to find new tools to guide and monitor the process of learning standing at the back. Therefore, all the project activities are student-centered and designed in the way that allows creativity and taking the initiative and responsibility for the results.Thanks to this project, our teachers will learn how to implement Flipped Classroom, The Escape Room, Discovery Learning, The Mystery Skype Lesson, The Learning Cafe Method, The Game-Based Learning and Problem / Project-Based Learning. What is more, they will have a chance to observe a number of lessons prepared and conducted in harmony with brain-friendly education principles. On the other hand, students will engage themselves in different educational challenges and four different eTwinning projects which will help them prepare for the foreign mobilities. They will also experience all new methods and approaches being implemented by their teachers. We want to share responsibilities for all the project activities with our students aged 9 - 15 from the very beginning. We intend to organize 99 mobilities for students and 52 for teachers from all partner schools.We are planning to engage in our activities as many students, parents and teachers of various subjects as possible and make the local authorities and whole communities familiar with the ongoing or completed actions. That is why, we intend to use different means of communication such as local press, radio, TV, social media and school websites to reach a wide audience. As a group of five countries from Cyprus, Finland, Italy, Poland and Turkey we have planned six meetings during these two years. The first teacher-oriented mobility taking place in Finland will be devoted to the theory and practice of brain-friendly education and will be a great starting point for the whole project. The next five meetings will be organized in all partner schools where our students will have a chance to meet their new friends and develop their language competence in meaningful and purposeful situations.

Over the last year we have seen an unprecedented rise in public awareness regarding the unnecessary use of plastics especially single use plastic bottles, plastic bags and in food wrapping. This has led to campaigns in the media by young people on social media and other public platforms.As a result, in January 2018 the European Commission launched the First-ever Europe-wide strategy on plastics. In their report the Commission claims ‘The million tonnes of plastic litter that end up in the oceans every year are one of their most visible and alarming signs of the plastics problem, causing growing public concern. And with a single market for goods, this is a problem that necessarily requires a joint European response’. We simply could not manage this project on our own. We need a Europe wide approach to this global crisis.The Commission's strategy sets out plans to protect the environment from plastic pollution whilst promoting growth and innovation. This is the first Erasmus+ project in our regions to take up this mantle. Through this project we aim to develop teaching methods which tackle these issues and capitalise on the growing interest by young people in this topic to improve the competences and skills of our learners and their teachers whilst enthusing children from all backgrounds to engage in education. We aim to meet the challenges set out in the Erasmus+ Programme Guide and encourage young learners to play a role in active citizenship.Teachers will work closely together to support young learners and develop new classroom materials, promoting creativity and innovation throughout. They will engage in mobilities to develop their own skills and competences. Not only in teaching and learning, and creative teaching practices, but in confidence in managing a project such as this. Classroom practitioners will share good practice and bring new ideas to their own teaching practices in addition to disseminating good practice with other professionals in school and across regions.Pupils will benefit from training in running campaigns in their schools and in the community to reduce plastic waste. They will learn negotiating skills, understand the impact economically of plastic use reduction and apply this knowledge when approaching their campaigns. We will encourage our young people to be innovative in their approach. They will produce digital materials for use locally by the wider community but that they will share with other schools in their regions. More details can be found in the intellectual outputs section of this application.Pupils from all countries will engage in intercultural dialogue with each other through etwinning and other digital media, such as Whatsapp, Skype, email etc on a regular basis. We recognise the importance of pupil exchange so have built in number of pupil exchange visits. These visits will enrich the cultural understanding of all participants and impact greatly on global citizenship skills. A pupil conference will be held at the end of year 2 to which other schools will be invited and encouraged to start their own projects through, perhaps Erasmus+ KA2 Strategic or School Exchange Partnerships.Teachers, too, will benefit by engaging in the teacher training and job-shadowing activities which will develop competences in all participants.