Context/background of the project: all participating schools realized that their joint challange was a lack of motivation in students during puberty which led tounderachievement and even school failure. In order to change this, we wanted to use alternative ways of teaching and explore the importance of rich learningenvironments, which we did throughout the whole project.Objectives: Raise the students' motivation and thus improve their way of learning, create a better school performance, raise self-confidence in students, andhave less school drop-outs. This was done in the key areas of mathematics, science, and literature. We also gave them hands-on experiences, e. g. they baked and cooked like in the Middle Ages, learned how to write with ink and feather. Number and profile of participating organisations: 6 schools from Germany, Netherlands, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, Turkey. Including 1 primary school, 4secondary schools and 1 vocational school. The vocational school left the project after the first year.Description of undertaken main activities: We did workshops and went on excursions to rich learning environments during LTTs; the students worked on the storyline in between thesemeetings. And the teacher's passed on their new experience to other teachers of their respective schools.Results and impact attained: Intrinsic motivation of the students was increased, their horizons were broadened, English language skills were highly increased,alternative ways of teaching were implemented in the daily teaching routine, using social media platforms was fostered.

The Project “Empathy For Understanding And Tolerance for Others’ Mistakes” involves 5 schools from 5 European countries: SI, TR, MK, IT, RO. According to the SWOT analysis done by each partner in their institution, the partners identified a series of common needs that lead to the decision to implement a project about tolerance. Violence, aggression, intolerance, racism, ethnic discrimination are tendencies that can be observed in the behavior of the students from the partner countries. The project objectives are:-to develop civic competences and increase self-esteem of 96 students from 5 EU countries-to facilitate understanding the concepts “tolerance” and “mutual understanding” at a personal level and in the European context-to equip participants with practical examples for acting as civic-minded citizens-to raise awareness about diversity and cultural identities promoting social cohesion-to boost the feeling of belonging to the EU communityIn accordance with the Article 2 of the Treaty on the European Union, we envisage that this international cooperation will prepare our students for living in a multicultural society being aware of the EU values, appreciating diversity. Students will interiorize tolerance and mutual understanding as active civic attitudes. For reaching the overall aim of broadening the civic mindedness emphasizing the importance of tolerance and mutual understanding impact in daily life, we decided to use an innovative approach.To reach the project objectives an innovative approach will be used. Combining the advantages of using ICT in education with the Five Factor Model theory will tackle the 5 personality dimensions:-openness to experience: students will be encouraged to express their emotions and ideas using Art.They will create together the movie “Tolerance through my eyes”, scenarios for the Forum theater, digital photos, will prepare artistic moments for the Festival of tolerance and mutual understanding.-extraversion: team building activities, sports competitions and board games are going to stimulate students’ assertiveness, sociability and personality.-conscientiousness: students are taught self-discipline, planning and working towards goals-agreeableness: working in international teams and creating products together will develop students’ cooperation skills. The tangible products they will create together are flashcards about the topic, the dictionary of the project, handmade bookmarks and thematic puzzles.-neuroticism: students will experience (un)pleasant emotions, anger, depression, anxiety and vulnerability during the Forum theater/ theater activity. They will become aware of how intolerance is perceived by others, develop empathy and they will see how important is to be an active citizen.The use of ICT during the activities, supported by internal cognitive aspects of learning will lead to innovative outcomes results tackling learning abilities.The activities are designed to develop the tolerance, mutual understanding, intercultural competences, social and civic spirit. The international cooperation will broaden the cross-cultural knowledge and understanding about the countries, cultures and values strengthening the feeling of belonging to a united Europe.A number of 24 students from every partner (aged between 12 and 14 years old) will attend the transnational meetings. Students will be selected before the mobilities, using transparent criteria decided by each project partner taken into consideration: English skills, ICT skills, motivation and involvement in the school-based activities. A number of 44 teachers will be directly involved in the project mobilities, but teams will be formed at the school level to facilitate a better implementation of the project. Approximately 2700 students and 120 teachers/adults will indirectly be involved in the project. Other participants who will enjoy the benefits offered by this Erasmus+ project are the administrative staff, students’ families, pedagogical staff, educational advisors, policy makers and representatives of the local authorities.The tangible products of the project are an audio dictionary, photography exhibition, calendar of the project, common movie, e-book, flashcards, thematic puzzles, handmade bookmarks, project webpages, project logo, flyers, DVD of the project, brochure.The intangible results are the development of life skills, key competences, cultural horizon, intercultural understanding, team working skills and knowledge about the topic.The results will be made available on the project website. The dissemination plan will help to reach a large audience and make an impact at local, regional, national and international levels.

"CONTEXT/BACKGROUND OF THE PROJECTThe development of new and improved services, systems, and products is an important driver for the EU market. Innovation necessitates people who can generate new ideas, cooperate in innovation teams, and boost environments that support the entire chain from idea creation to their implementation. But it requires competencies and especially personal characteristics, innovation modus operandi, i.e. way of thinking, which can not be easily taugth. Therefore, it is essential to start with youngsters. OBJECTIVESThe project empowered the innovation mindset in primary schools and trained teachers for innovative work - anywhere; in all subjects, in daily situations in school, in real life challenges. The target group were teachers for the 2nd and 3rd triad in primary schools (pupils aged 9-14); indirect target group were pupils.NUMBER AND PROFILE OF PARTICIPATING ORGANISATIONSIn each country, one or two schools and a core “knowledge” institution were project partners. These had know-how to develop InnoTeach concepts, materials and to transfer innovation best practices from industry to the educational system. MAIN ACTIVITIES, RESULTS AND IMPACT ATTAINEDFirstly, the profile of competencies for participating teachers was defined and a comprehensive training methodology prepared addressing three pillars: Development of Innovation, Innovative Teaching, and Making Innovation Work. Based on the training materials, we carried out an international joint staff training event. 18 trained teachers became mentors to their colleagues from school. For them, and also for the forthcoming generations, e-Training portfolio was prepared using state of the art andragogical approaches and digital solutions. It was finished with ""real-life"" interdisciplinary innovative projects, which required cooperation of various experts. Project were tackling: teaching process innovations, improvements for school and its local environment, e.g. innovations in school’s garden; development of tourist destinations, cooperation with elderly people’s home, local flower shop, socialisation and closer cooperation of pupils/teachers and parents, and suchlike. Also other various stakeholders actively participated, e.g. kindergarten, elderly people’s home, municipality, parents of pupils involved, etc. In cooperation with hundreds of pupils, teachers developed 16 innovative projects.In addition an international Exam System focused on validation and recognition of skills and competences was developed in line with the ECQA (European Certification and Qualification Association) exam methodology. Altogether 83 InnoTeach mentors were trained (212 cooperated and 2111 pupils and 52 stakeholders involved)The main project achievements were presented at 4 (inter)national multipliers events and 5 international conferences. The presence of two mayors, secondary and university level representatives, researchers, economy and policy makers additionally confirm our thesis that the InnoTeach idea and achievements should be an integral part of international innovation ecosystem. Within our events, there were also representatives of eminent institutions, such as Joaneum, Grenoble IOT, Jozef Stefan Institute and participants from France, Germany, Australia, Finland, Kazakhstan, the Czech Republic, Italy, Hungary, Austria and Slovenia.Moreover, the Project contributed to the application of various motivational elements, thus encouraging pupils to co-create a learning process. LONGER-TERM BENEFITSThe project addressed at least 3 of top 10 skills for businesses to thrive in the Fourth Industrial Revolution, identified by World Economic Forum (WEF 2016), i.e. Complex problem solving, Critical thinking and Creativity. At the schools’ level, a critical mass of teachers was reached and innovative culture in schools was enhanced by way of applying multidisciplinary approaches. The InnoTeach also received a very good media response. Moreover, the Austrian ORG Schulschwestern used the InnoTeach materials for new school subject called WIN (Wirtschaftlichkeit – Innovation – Nachhaltigkeit). In Slovenia, materials were included in some workshops for teachers organised by Slovenian national agency SPIRIT. It also expressed interest to continue the InnoTeach programme and include other schools. Also the University of Primorska- Faculty of Education expressed interest for cooperation on concrete courses for elementary schools. Based on project proposal evaluation by Slo NA, InnoTeach has a great potential to be transferred to other countries as well as to other educational levels. Based on this fact we already started activities in Czech republic, Italy, Germany and France. Last but not least, prof. Likar’s (project leader) student prepares a PhD thesis based on InnoTeach project.And what is more, our children can eagerly expect highly-motivated teachers, well-equipped with the competences for the 21st century. http://innoteach.itstudy.hu/"