<< Objectives >>Our project is based on an exchange of best practices for implementing cooperative learning in blended classrooms. Our aim is to prevent our students with special education needs and immigrant children from being exposed to prejudice and exclusion. We want to support healthy, happy and learning children who have developed social skills, have a sense of belonging, cooperate, integrate into their environments, without focusing on academic success.<< Implementation >>Our 1 teacher training and 4 different joint implementation activities with five different partners from four different countries are as follows:*Teacher Training on Recognition and Management of Mixed Classrooms*The Effect of Music and Dance on Cooperative Learning*The Effect of Digital-Educational Games on Cooperative Learning*The Effect of Creative Drama Practices on Cooperative Learning*Effect of Orff Applications in Cooperative Learning<< Results >>The main expected results of the project are:* Development of students, teachers and parents in the desired direction in line with the project objectives with the help of collaborative practices in mainstreaming classrooms.* Including the implementation activities within the scope of the project into the curriculum* Getting to know children in need better and contributing to their integration with school and society

"The main goal of the 3-year project called ""Our story - a real story"" was involvement of intellectually disabled and discriminated because of their origin and economic background children and youth in using on equal terms as their healthy peers, cultural goods and its creation. The project involved cooperation of 9 schools that provide teaching in the area of special and integrated education. The participating schools came from the Czech Republic, Germany, Latvia, Romania, Italy, Portugal, Northern Macedonia, Turkey and Poland. Each year of 3 years long project ended with the production of a specific project product. In the first year it was a series of 9 books with the legends of each of the participating countries. To implement the planned activities in the first year, children and young people attended reading meetings during which they listened to their national, regional and local legends. Then they selected two of the most interesting national legend and one regional and local one. After choosing the legends, they made drawings that illustrated the published books, and developed their own texts. In order to understand the process of creating books, students participated in bookbinding workshops and visited professional printing houses. The result of strenuous work were series of 9 books in a bilingual version (in national language and English). Each partner of the project published a series of books in several or over a dozen copies. They were donated to the local libraries and school libraries to promote the project. The Selected legends were read by the teachers and school staff and recorded in the form of audio books. In the second year of the project were implemented activities related to animated and puppet fairy tales. While watching cartoons students chose their favorite national fairy tales. The two most popular tales from each country were distributed among partners and presented at a specially organized meeting. Then, drawing and puppet workshops were organized, during which students learned the secrets of cartoon characters and puppet tales creation . A trip to the animated film studio was made, where participants learned about the history of animated and puppet cartoons in their country. The ending product of the second year were mascots made by workshop participants, namely the three most beautiful ones were selected in a competition. The third year of project activities focused on puppet theater and actor. While carrying out these tasks, students had the opportunity to participate in puppet theater performances and the actor, where they had the occasion to watch the art of acting.In schools the theater classes were also held for students preparing the final performance, who were the authors of script as well. The main character of each performance was the winning mascot from the second year of the project. All performances were recorded and distributed among the project partners, and then presented during several showings. The prepared performances were the product of the third year, and also the culmination of the entire project. The implementation of various tasks contributed to the development of social and civic competences by increasing their knowledge of art in its broad sense and reducing their belief in being alienated from society. Through international activities, they became acquainted with the diversity of cultures and different perspectives on art. By participating in the workshops, they developed their skills in simple professions that they will be able to perform in the future, which gives them a sense of being needed on the labor market. In an innovative way, their reading competences were strengthened, and the international products of the project, in the form of a series of books with stories and legends of each country donated to libraries, increased motivation to read, not only among the students of partner schools, but also the local environment in which the project was realized. The created series of books and the recorded audio book are permanent evidence of the successfully completed project. In addition, ""Our story - a true story"" contributed to increase the level of language skills among teachers, and established contacts have developed into acquaintances and friendships."

The idea of the project is to implement activities to equip intellectually disabled primary and secondary school students with universal knowledge of traditional cuisine, national music and folk costumes as well as handicrafts of each of the participating countries, i.e. the Czech Republic, Northern Macedonia, Latvia, Turkey, Portugal and Poland. Another important aspect for us is the desire to bring the skills of people with intellectual disabilities to a healthy society by organizing at least 5 exhibitions with photos presenting their skills and a gallery of products made during the workshop of the handicraft technique of partner countries. The target group will be about 250 intellectually disabled young people of school age. Due to the set objectives, the project will be implemented in two planes: 1.WE! - ABOUT US, FOR US!In this part, we plan to organize National Weeks of each country during which each partner will present, using information and communication technologies enabling live coverage, cooking a regional dish, learning national or regional dance steps, regional folk costume, as well as dance music of a given country, at which everyone will be able to have fun at one time. Thanks to the use of existing IT capabilities, disabled students will be able to see and meet each other, as well as hear the sound of foreign languages. On the last day of the National Week presentation, craft workshops proposed by each country will be presented. The interactive method of communication will allow all viewers to participate actively in this meeting and learn new handicraft techniques that will be permanently included in the school's work program during art therapy classes . Model making workshops run by a school from the Czech Republic, ceramics by a school from Turkey, wicker and salt dyeing by a Portuguese school, rug weaving by a Macedonian school, tailoring - weaving by a school from Latvia and scrapbooking by a Polish school. Portfolios will be developed from the National Weeks conducted by each school, which will constitute a compendium of knowledge in the presented field about each of the participating countries. At the same time, a photo course will be organized for students who will learn how to take pictures. The photos they took, documenting their skills and products made with the techniques learned, will be presented in the second part of the project, which will be implemented under the slogan: - 2.WE ! ABOUT US, NOT ONLY FOR US! The activities undertaken in this part will be the organization of a photo exhibition and gallery of handicrafts made with learned techniques. These exhibitions will take place in at least 5 cultural or public institutions that will condition a large flow of people, thus ensuring a large audience. The implementation of the project will help to improve the manual skills of disabled students, which will help them enter the labor market, thanks to which their sense of value and self-acceptance will increase. Participation in the photo course will equip them with skills that will allow them to present their skills and present the world seen through their eyes. Purchased equipment for making handicrafts will remain in school and will be able to be used in subsequent years of working with other youth. Parents of the project participants will feel satisfaction with the skills of their children, and the increased employability after graduation will reduce anxiety about their future. Teachers will improve their language and workshop skills, as well as improve the organization of their own and team work. Contacts and friendly relationships will be strengthened. Prepared exhibitions organized in cultural and public centers will contribute to changing the perception of young people with disabilities in the environment of people with an intellectual norm, which will help them accept their participation on the labor market. The exchange of international handicrafts traditions and information on cooking, music and dance will guarantee mutual knowledge of their cultures and the exchange of European cultural heritage.

"“We School Europe” is a clear intention, an open claim, an effective solution to enhance the quality and innovation of Education in lower secondary schools, bringing European Citizenship Education in an effective way, fighting and preventing drop out, making local learning communities more international and appealing. “We School Europe” - following “WSE” - is still a strategic partnership in the field of school education proposed under the sub-action “development of innovation”, involving 5 primary schools based in Italy, Romania, Estonia, Poland and Macedonia. It began in the year 2017 being a special year for the European Union: we celebrate the 60th Anniversary of the Treaties of Rome, the 30th Anniversary of the Erasmus Plus Program, just 3 years ago we celebrated the Nobel Prize assigned to EU for having maintained Peace for a long time after the Second World War and since 2014 the structure and functioning of EU institutions changed radically thanks to a long term process aiming at ensuring a stronger democracy. There are many positive aspects in being a European citizen, but it is also necessary to make a balance and evaluate other aspects, negative and dangerous, like Brexit (since the 1st of March UK is not EU Member and European citizens are officially migrants - like any other foreigners from the world), in Poland and Hungary the trend is going towards another “exit"", but the situation is also worrying in Italy. We have extreme situations and negative phenomenon such as racism, xenophobia, violence, exclusion and political small parties that influence with radical ""claims"" decision taken against Europe. At the base of ignorance there is again a key factors lack ""EDUCATION"" and lack of deep knowledge of Europe. “WSE” has been a 2-years projects with a perfect balance of “Formal-Informal and Non Formal Education, a recipe for innovative and challenging activities which will follow these main steps: 1) Discovering, 2) Researching; 3) Challenging; 4) Sharing; 5) Building; 6) Innovating; 7) Embedding; 8) Developing 3 Transnational Project Meetings (in Italy, in Poland and in Macedonia), 3 Intellectual Outputs (We School Europe - Teachers Training Tool-Kit (TTTK - We School Europe curriculum for lower secondary schools in Europe - Policy Paper for Educational/European Authorities for recognition of the WSE Curriculum), 13 Multiplier Events (1 series of 5 events and 2 series of 4 events because Estonia just made 1 event at the end), 3 Learning Mobilities (1-We School Europe Teachers Training in Romania, 2-We School Europe Spring School in Estonia and 3-We School Europe Summer Camp in Italy) and hundreds of small, daily enthusiastic volunteering actions including open days, indoor and outdoor interactive activities, visits, workshops, focus groups, coordination meetings, hangouts and mentoring programs. We School Europe, as the title says is the voice of European schools saying: Yes! We School Europe and we don't wait to do it. How? Empowering teachers with innovative skills and motivation, involving our learning communities, welcoming international ""friends"" and sending learners abroad, with research and preparation, making advocacy and networking. Thanks to the Erasmus Plus program, for 2 years it has been taught ""European Citizenship Education"" inside 25 classes making this subject a concrete reality and a model practice to be transferred and enriched in the following years becoming a long term component of our school and (why not?) university curricula and also part of the necessary change needed in Education in Europe."

"The project was proposed by parents long involved (over 15 years old) as representatives in elementary and middle-schools. This status helped to identify gaps in the measures for the inclusion of children with disabilities and special educational needs (ESH-EBES) and for the newcomers, condsidered, in our project, as children with special educative needs. Since the Salamanca Declaration, 1994, the Luxembourg Charter, 1996 and the ""handicap"" law, 2005 in France, the ""integration"" of (ESH-EBES) has taken an important place in European public policies and education systems. Children are educated in ordinary schools. This policy is certainly positive for equality and equity between children. However, the human and technical resources put in place for its implementation are highly questionable in several European countries. 1/Lack of individualized support for (ESH-EBES); 2/Lack of competence of teachers in regular classrooms; 3/Lack of involvement and information for the parents concerned; 4/Lack of coordination between educational and professional institutions.The project focuses on one of the points, which is considered to be the cornerstone for improving inclusion. The aim is to strengthen teachers' methodological skills through an exchange of practices between peers. This aspect of the project allows positive intervention on the isolation, powerlessness and emotional crises experienced by ordinary classroom teachers. Objectives/ *Understand the context, policies, mechanisms and resources invested for ""inclusive education"" -EI- in the 4 countries involved in the project; *Enable teachers to observe and exchange practices, methods and approaches put in place by their colleagues in the contexts of the 4 project countries; Give teachers the opportunity to overcome their isolation and powerlessness in welcoming ESH-EBES. To be able to express their emotional feelings with other teachers; *Incite public policies to promote horizontal peer-to-peer training for more effective inclusive practices.121 direct participants in the Transnational Meetings TM were able to experiment and discuss the issue of inclusive education IE. Some of them made several trips. more precisely, 85 people participated. the host partners involved actors and beneficiaries on site. a total of 200 participants in workshops, conferences and seminars (excluding direct participants). We did not take into account the public meetings participants. Out of 4 organized, 40 to 50 participants per public meeting, excluding direct parties.Profiles: teachers, directors - elementary, middle school, high school and vocational high schools-; families; professionals (special educators, psychologists, speach-therapists, physiotherapists, ergotherapists, pedagogues); ESH-EBES; newcomer students; researchers and academics; teacher trainers; trainers of special educators; community leaders for disabled adults, academic inspectors; political representatives (Mayor, Deputy 20th Paris-FR; Mayor of Braila, Rou; Mayor of Sopot, Pol; Mayor and Deputies of the city of Kumanovo, Macé); Journalists - Media-; Spot on the Macedonian national TV. The particularity of the project is the contribution of exchanges by experimenting and work on the ground. For the implementation of the project objectives. 3 methodological levels: 1/Political and social context of the IE/country; 2/Exchange of practices by immersion in the classes; 3/transcribe the activities into a guide with tool sheets from the 4 countries.Immersion in class. Methodological;Meeting of diagnostic structures for learning disabilities;Workshops in centres for adults concerned with mental disabilities;Meeting of parents affected by the EI. Sharing their Testimonies;Debates with researchers, political representatives/ status of inclusion at local, national and European level, statistically and historycally speaking.Inspectors, political rep, professionals: proposal of ways to improve the ESH-EBES welcoming in an ordinary environment.1/devices discovered by teachers to be replicated/proposed in public policy. e.g, ergo-therapist, speach-therapists, physiotherapist, psychologist available at school/students, families and teachers; artist.educat. tools for learning. Self-esteem of children and awareness of disability among children; awareness that the questionning on inclusion is the same in many countries; breaking the isolation and powerlessness of teachers; re-appropriation of innovative observed tools; types of organization for dialogue with families; co-construction of ESH-EBES individuals programs between teachers+parents; For the new participants involved in E+ projects, the experience was very positive on learning about how to set up, implement and coordinate a project.A website with a blog to show the project dyn. and the activities carried out over the 2 years. An animated and up-dated FB page. A guide to inclusive practices from our field experience"