"The Erasmus+ project ""Entrepreneurship: a step to the future"" with the students and teachers from six countries; Lithuania, Portugal, Italy, Romania, Greece and Turkey had the new possibilities to learn about European Union and six countries of the project, to travel, to improve their geographical knowledge and deeper comprehension of the world which were deficient in the beginning of the project.The project organizers searched the ways to inspire young people to take the initiative, encouraged experienced entrepreneurs to share their experiences and skills about organization and development successful business, promote discover their creativity, innovation and entrepreneurial abilities. The most important aim of the project “ENTREPRENEURSHIP: A STEP TO THE FUTURE "" was to foster the economic and entrepreneurial skills of school communities, to develop the ability to work in international teams in different economic and entrepreneurial projects, to create business plans, to foster national heritage and to adapt them to the modern competitive environment.To reach the aim, the project fulfilled several objectives: 1. involved young people into positive economic and cultural activities of the country, acquired students with skills for entrepreneurial initiatives in the world of economy, enabled access to the traditions, business change in the region, country, the European Union and the world; 2. while developing entrepreneurial skills of the students it was necessary to provide economic, legal, cultural knowledge needed not only for business but also for the presence in it as an employee; 3. educated creativity, responsibility, diligence, integrity, achievement of the objective values needed for both business and personal life, taught to express their needs convincingly, realistic assessment of the circumstances, as well as the ability to plan, organize and to implement the work qualitatively to take risks in decision-making.4. presented the professional courses as a valuable alternative in which young people could not only achieve various competences but also, conclude their compulsory education and create conditions for a transition to working life. The target group: students aged 13-17 from Lithuania, Turkey, Romania, Portugal, Italy, Greece.The partners were chosen via eTwinning platform.To reach the aim and objectives 4 teaching/learning activities were organized where students worked together in multinational and multidisciplinary groups. The creation of a single group, with members from different countries, cultures, genders, religions, and social and economic conditions, worked on a theme that was transnational, involving different strategies and methods with the same goal. The skills and competences that students acquired would be useful in different contexts nowadays and in future mobilities and experiences within Europe or worldwide where might find employees/ employers from different cultures and different working conditions and methods.One more important moment-donation of products students sell at their Students' Training Companies, presented at the last meeting. Through this action, we wanted to let them experience the joy of helping others. Besides, for project management 2 transnational meetings were held for signing the agreement in the beginning and evaluation when the project ends.Several innovative learning methods were used such as thinking based learning, collaborative learning, modern and digital teaching/learning methodology which was organized during the mobilities, within a real-world environment.During the project a few final products were prepared:1. Students Training Companies set up in each partner school;2. Documentary about the economic situation in each country;3. Economical e vocabulary in English-Lithuanian-Romanian-Turkish-Portuguese-Italian-Greek languages.For educational purposes, all the materials will be free and open to everyone.As a result, this partnership not only helped our learners to develop spoken skills in foreign languages and build their European citizenship but has raised their future social inclusion opportunities as well.Teachers involved were given the opportunity to develop their language skills and learn the teaching practices related to discipline in the partner countries, how to incorporate innovative digital and ICT teaching tools in their practices and make their classes more engaging and more challenging for their students.Taking part in Erasmus+project gave a broader view of European values, as well as the impact of knowledge and experience for the future projects."

<< Background >>Current complex diverse realities in European schools in terms of students' cultural backgrounds, economic status and social inequalities open up a whole new field of study to approach diversity, inclusion, and children’s background (in any sense) during schooling.Many schools have identified a lack of knowledge on cognitive, social, and emotional development processes among their professionals. It is evident that this lack of knowledge hinders their daily work, as they cannot devote as much time as it is needed to addressing the conflicts deriving from differences among students in the class; don’t mention the lack of resources and tools to do so. Besides, given the high complexity in European educational centers deriving from multicultural, heterogeneous, and diverse realities in terms of children’s backgrounds and status, it urges to meet school teachers needs in terms of training and provision of materials to ensure optimal class management. The WE ARE COLOURFUL project focuses on the prevention, identification, and reduction of the problems generated in the classroom due to differences between pupils. We start with the hypothesis that these differences can be related to 4 independent but interacting dimensions: 1) neurodevelopmental disorders, 2) learning processes and styles, 3) cultural diversity, and 4) social inequality.The main needs the project will address are : - Lack of knowledge of teachers of new discoveries about the cognitive development of children and their developmental process within a group. This can translate into their incapability to identify the roots of the problems they identify in class and a limitation in the practical resources to support them. Early detection is key in preventing many of the problems occurring in the classroom related to inclusion and integration. - Wide variety of problems in classes where diversity is the norm: socioeconomic differences, cultural differences, cognitive developmental differences are present in all European schools, and they live together throughout all children’s schooling. Too often, teachers lack the resources to provide their students with the opportunities and support needed to overcome certain difficulties born from the above-mentioned problems. - A need to bridge the gap and break stereotypes that hinder a proper development of children's education. There is an urge to provide teachers and educators engaged in non-formal and informal education of children with training on inclusive education, focusing on students with different learning processes, different backgrounds and different needs.<< Objectives >>Many educators, most of them trained through traditional approaches and perspectives, are not capable of helping their students in terms of affective, conductual, and cognitive development. Even some of the teachers belonging to the so-called “new school” lack this holistic approach, which usually slows down students’ with special needs and socio-cultural differences to fully develop their capacities, improve their performance and feel accepted in a classroom setting. Hence, educators’ role in children’s development is completely constrained by a lack of knowledge on methodologies that, for a long time, have been exclusive of rather ‘therapeutic’ approaches. Partners have also perceived a low understanding among educators and teachers of phenomena related to cultural diversity and socio-cultural and economic disparities. It seems that many teachers don’t value (most probably due to their training) the scope and influence diversity can have in a group-class performance and progress. One of the main objectives is to provide theoretical and practical instruction on cultural diversity and social inequality in the classroom, as well as on developmental disorders and different learning processes: cognitive functions, contextual, emotional and motivational aspects. This is expected to improve the reach of people with fewer opportunities; including people with disabilities, those with an immigrant background, those facing socio-economic difficulties or any other source of inequality that may hinder the creation of an inclusive environment.Partners have set the following specific objectives: - To thoroughly select psychology, pedagogic and neurocientífic data to make it comprehensive and applicable in schools by educators untrained in the area. - To equip teachers with the necessary tools and strategies to detect and solve problems caused by cultural diversity and social disparities and differences in children’s development and learning processes.- To develop new methods that can be used for the detection of learning difficulties and implementation of solutions.- To raise awareness of problems and difficulties that can occur in a classroom as a consequence of students diversity and the lack of training and resources of teachers to tackle them; - To promote action plans that are centered on processes of interaction in the classroom with an inclusive approach.- To establish international and cross sectorial cooperation through knowledge transfer and exchange of good practices<< Implementation >>(1) PROJECT MONITORING ACTIVITIES:- 3 transnational meetings with 12 participants each;- Online meetings every 2 or 3 months;- Regular quality monitoring activities as described in the Quality Control plan (monitoring questionnaires, meeting of the Quality Assurance Committee…);- Elaboration of Quality Reports every 6 months.(2) ACTIVITIES RELATED TO RESULTS/PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT:Result 1: Development of an online course for the school educational community “How to turn diversity into our ally”Developed in 7 main activities:A1 (January 2022): Development of interactive platform.A2 (January-February 2022): Didactic grid and templates for the course modules. A3 (March-May 2022): Development of Course materials. A (June 2022): Peer review of the modules. Modifications. Development of the platform section with the interactive course. A5 (July 2022): Adaptation in partner languages. A6: (September 2022): Pilot courses in partner countries schools. A7 (October 2022): Adjustments and fine-tuning.Result 2: Toolkit for the detection of learning difficulties and socio-affective problemsDeveloped in 6 main activities:A1 (November2022 -January 2023): Research and collection of existing tools and strategies to detect learning difficulties and socio-affective problems. A2 (February 2023): Development of needs-solutions action plans. A3 (May 2023): Embedding in the online tool kit. A4 (March 2023). Adaptation in partner languages. A5 (April -May 2023): Testing of the toolkit in partner countries schools.A6 (June 2023): Adjustments and fine-tuning.Result 3: Development of videos and workshops to promote cultural diversity, intellectual variability and developmental differences among students.Developed in 5 main activities:A1 (July 2023): Development of templates and video storytelling boards. A2 (August-September 2023): Development of videos and workshops for screening in schools. A3 (October 2023): Organisation of screening and workshops of the videos in local schools. A4 (October 2023): Embedding of the videos in the interactive platform. A5 (November 2023): Preparation of the booklet with a summary of the workshops in schools. (3) PROJECT SHARING AND PROMOTION ACTIVITIES:- Regular dissemination activities as described in the Dissemination Plan.- 5 multiplier events with at least 30 local participants in each, 150 in total.<< Results >>The tangible project results are:Results under PR1: -Designed and developed an Open Education Resource-Elaborated the didactic grid and teaching materials of the online course for school teachers in English and all partner languages- Carried out pilot testing sessions of the course in schools from each partner country (with at least 10 school educators per country) Results under PR2:- Elaborated a toolkit with tools and strategies to detect learning difficulties and socio-affective problems in a classroom- Developed Action Plans with a needs-solution approach -Carried out a testing phase of the toolkit in local schools (at least 2 teachers per country will test it in their classes) Results under PR3:- Developed story-telling boards for the videos to be developed- Developed 18 videos in a story-telling format about good practices of creation of inclusive environments in schools (in English and in partner languages) - Organised 18 workshops in local schools using the materials developed under PR1 and PR2- At least 6 screening sessions of the videos in local schools -Elaborated a booklet summarising the workshops organised in schools Results related to project mobilities:- 3 transnational meetings with 12 participants each- 5 multiplier events organised in December 2023 in all partner countries with a minimum of 30 local participants each.Intangible results and outcomes:School teachers and staff working with primary school children will: - school teachers and educators in general working with children aged 7-10 will become more aware of their capacity to turn diversity in their classes into a positive asset; they will acquire the skills and competences necessary to identify problems related to inclusion and integration in their classes and to address them adequately;- upskill their professional competences to work with groups of children with very diverse capacities and backgrounds; - have access to more materials and tools to detect and solve problems caused by cultural diversity and social disparities and differences in children’s development and learning processes; - have access to action plans, activities and workshops with an inclusive approach available to teachers who need to intervene in their classrooms after detecting problems. The school education community will: - take advantage of the results by the mainstreaming of the materials among other schools; - will see a raise in the general awareness and appreciation of problems and difficulties that can occur in a classroom as a consequence of students diversity and the lack of training and resources of teachers to tackle them; - establish more international and cross sectoral cooperation through knowledge transfer and exchange of good practices in the school field; - open doors to cooperation and synergies between schools and other organisations working in non-formal education of children and of school teachers will be strengthened.

The project EcoStep around Europe was based on mutual interest of the participants towards a more environmentally conscious life and is devoted to working on topics related to nature and eco-tourism. It was composed of five countries: Lithuania, Portugal, Slovenia, Croatia, Romania. All of the participating countries are aware of the dramatic situation caused by Global warming and are aware of the fact that transportation, traveling, and tourism are also contributors to the greenhouse effect. Our main aim was to analyze current trends in tourism and promote future trends which have been inter-twinned with culture, traditions environment, and heritage. By involving international cooperation, we compared cultural and eco-tourism with standard tourism and solve tourism-related problems by finding new creative methods and techniques. The main issues were to provide students and teachers with a deeper understanding of responsible tourism and to widen their knowledge in subjects connected to culture, history, traditions, gastronomy, environmental protection, English language, and ICT whilst integrating students who have come from different cultural backgrounds. Our main objectives with this project were: -To raise our students' consciousness on environmentally conscious tourism. -To encourage students to respect the environment in which we live, to preserve natural monuments, to develop students' eco-culture and creative initiative -To develop teachers and students' knowledge on the topic of responsible tourism connected to culture, history, and traditions. -To raise students' knowledge of other cultures and encourage them to discover and engage with Europe's cultural heritage, and to reinforce a sense of belonging to a common European space. Target group-students aged 12-17 from Lithuania, Croatia, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia. The partners were chosen via eTwinning platform. To reach the project's aims and objectives 5 teaching/learning activities were organized where students will work in multinational and multidisciplinary groups. (3 teaching/learning activities were physical, 2-virtual because of the situation of Covid-19 and the project was prolonged 6 months). The creation of a single group, with members from different countries, cultures, genders, religions, and social and economic conditions, will work on a theme that is transnational, involving different strategies and methods with the same goal. The skills and competencies that students may acquire were useful in different contexts nowadays and in future mobilities and experiences within Europe or worldwide where might find employees/ employers from different cultures and different working conditions and methods. Several innovative learning methods will be used such as thinking-based learning, collaborative learning, modern and digital teaching/learning methodology which was organized during the mobilities, within a real-world environment. During the project a few final products were prepared: -Creation of a green e-dictionary with all the words related to eco-tourism in English-Lithuanian- Portuguese-Romanian-Slovenian-Croatian languages. - Can and Can't do eGuide on eco-tourism. -The research results will be presented to see how the level of knowledge on eco-tourism has increased. -Creation of e-book on Tourism. For educational purposes, all the materials will be free and open to everyone. As a result, this partnership not only helped our learners to develop spoken skills in foreign languages and build their European citizenship but will raise their future social inclusion opportunities as well. Teachers involved were given the opportunity to develop their language skills and learn the teaching practices related to discipline in the partner countries, how to incorporate innovative digital and ICT teaching tools in their practices, and make their classes more engaging and more challenging for their students.