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The coordinating organization 2nd Junior High School of Kalamata along with the participating ones Anne Frank Schule Linden (Germany), Taurages Ausros progimnazija (Lithuania), Scoala Gimnaziala Bautar (Romania) and Osnovna sola Strocja vas (Slovenia) tried to highlight the primary effect that values such as respect, tolerance, cooperation, mutual help and responsibility have upon the thorough development of students through the Erasmus+ project Active Student, Active Citizen. Moreover, these exact values in fact shape our identity and determine our social status, thanks to their personal, social and cultural importance. Not only do they guide us by showing what is important, good and useful, but they also motivate us, bring humanity to the surface and cultivate our inner qualities. All partners who joined our project have deeply realised that an Erasmus+ project is not merely a short-term event, but also inducement for a constant process of educational development. Within this framework, we established a close collaboration among the school community, social workers, special tutors and therapists. The participants shared both responsibility and provision, even in classroom level – teachers and students learned how to argue for topics and experiences that relate to democratic attitude. Furthermore, they commited themselves to beliefs and roles and experience different points of view. It must be pointed out that the responsible treatment of the above constitutes a high priority for us, along with the moral schooling which carefully targets certain practices and experiences.Students were involved in the following thematic areas:1.Offering help at school (peer mediation).2.Democracy and active citizenship.3.Right decision making.4.Solidarity and mutual help.Through hands-on workshops, artistic expression, role-playing games, debating, collaborating learning and case study, students experienced values, strengthened their self-confidence and learned new skills. These skills enable them to help their schoolmates/fellowmen (mediation) and also cope with difficult situations successfully (right decision making). In addition, young people are able to take a stand at school, peer groups and society, as well as join voting and decision-making procedures actively. What’s more, they understand the role of citizens in connection with political authority and distinguish fair from unfair. They realize that equality and justice constitute essential keystones of a democratic society, whereas they become conscious of other people’s experiences by taking into account moral, social and cultural parameters. In particular, the exact goals of the project, which originated from the priorities set by the coordinators (development of higher value skills and the subsequent acquisition of relevant ones, support for schools against student drop-out), were the following:1. lingual development,2. exchange of innovative practices towards offering help and solidarity,3. active students’engagement in school and social happenings.Furthermore, a new and more positive attitude on behalf of the students towards school was pursued, together with the development of those skills that will enable students to be informed about the evolution of the above values over time and be in favor of them actively for the rest of their lives.During the project mobilities, students worked together and created the following learning outcome:1. Peer mediation – a video showing the necessary steps that we must follow to implement a mediation at school.2. Democratic citizenship – the construction of a tree, the fruit of which are human rights / the planting of a tree at the school yard ofthe Anne Frank Schule in Germany as a symbolic act in favor of democracy being continuously defended by citizens.3. Right decision-making – the creation of an e-book, where students themselves offer advice concerning the making of right decisions and dealing with life dilemmas / the construction of a pyramid that puts priorities about making important decisions on scale.4. Voluntarism and solidarity – the creation of a word cloud containing words from their native languages, English and German, which refer to the above values.Long-term benefits for students:1. The ability to handle conflicts through active listening, empathy and dialogue.2. The impetus for substantial participation in democratic procedures, both in local and national level.3. The skill to make the right decisions.4. The understanding of the value that voluntarism and offering have.5. The training in offering first aid. The results of our project are available in the common website, e-Twinning and Erasmus+ platform in order to act as multipliers for other educational and civil institutions.
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