Students for promotion of healthy lifestyle is a project between 2 special schools for students with hearing impairment in Poland and Sweden. For two years, the schools intended to develop into a place which encourages and supports students to become aware of how one’s lifestyle may influence the quality of life. In order to reach the aims, we asked students themselves to undertake such activities which would be most beneficial and address their needs. Thus, they were responsible for the implementation of the project. At the beginning, we supported students in every activity and tried to teach them specific skills needed for undertaking their own initiatives. In the course of time, we gave them more power, so that, eventually, they became autonomous and ready to manage their own activities. This objective was extremely important and challenging due to the disability students face- hearing impairment. The indirect effect of the disability results in students’ becoming dependent on others, afraid to take action and rarely showing initiative. This also stems from the methods teacher apply- instead of guiding students, they often prefer to simply show step by step what should be done. The project involved 25 students who developed such entrepreneurial skills as creativity, social and management skills in order to conduct the activities which promote healthy lifestyle. These activities depended solely on their ideas, as we believe the only way to make students proactive is through allowing them to choose what they would like to do. The project also involved them in school decision making, therefore showing the schools are open to ideas from students. It also enabled teachers to see how they may include informal methodology into their classes. It is worth noting that the main coordinator of the project was deaf what is unique in such projects and may highly motivate deaf communities to undertake their own activities locally, nationally and even internationally. The results were published on Etwinning. At the end of the project, students became confident in undertaking their own initiatives in their communities. The participating teachers have developed understanding of new methodology. Schools became a place which promote healthy lifestyle and support students in applying their own ideas and initiatives.

Freedom to Learn (F2L) is based on the notion that for significant learning to occur, this needs to be based on personal involvement and most importantly, it must be meaningful for the learner. This project spanned a period of 3 years, one more than originally planned due to the pandemic. It supported 3 mentors from the Senior Management Team and numerous teachers from Italy, Malta and Poland, to provide the freedom and structure for learners to engage in truly meaningful learning activities. Supported by the mentors in each of the schools, and through an online network, teachers explored ways in which their actions as teachers can support this freedom while at the same time providing the structure that the learners need for significant learning to actually take place. This implies a concrete move from a teacher-centred to a learner-centred approach in which the teacher becomes a facilitator of learning, giving up some of his or her power in the classroom while modelling democratic competences in action.Teachers were encouraged and supported to give as much freedom as they felt comfortable to give in their classrooms, taking into account the different contexts, as learners took on different small-scale projects of their choice. Teachers were supported to provide the resources that the learners needed to accomplish their self-initiated tasks. These ranged from material resources to specific activities that the teacher needed to carry out to support learners’ understanding. The mentors and online networking between the schools provided a forum where teachers could ask for help and support, discuss, share frustrations and good practices, and in so doing, created a small-scale community of practice.Throughout, teachers were encouraged and supported to relinquish more and more of their power and authority in favour of as much freedom as they can afford. By the end of the project, teachers developed a deeper understanding of the learning process and felt more comfortable in a truly learner-centred classroom. By the end of the project, some teachers felt confident enough to adopt the same approach to specific curriculum content, giving the learners the freedom to choose how to learn the specified content themselves and engaging them in all aspects of the process including any final grading of the work where applicable.The different contexts and levels provided an added value in terms of the common challenges that the participants faced. The different contexts and levels also provided for objective reflection and candid support as well as cross-fertilisation of ideas. The mentors in the different schools offered immediate face to face support whereas the online network provided a context for reflective practice, as teachers made their actions explicit. Four Learning, Teaching and Training Activities involving mentors and teachers consolidated the network and provided opportunities for participants to experience the different contexts, share good practices and develop their competences further.The success of the project exceeded expectations and led to a new and extended partnership.

'Visual Europe: Exploring ourselves through visual art' is a project which aims at developing students' abilities to express themselves freely through different forms of visual art. The project lasts 2 years and includes 9 teachers and 24 students at the secondary level from 3 different countries.It stems from students' great interest in using visual art, especially the one based within the digital world, to present their daily life, their interests, perspectives and reflection. Through giving students the opportunity to experiment with a great variety of visual forms we would like to develop their skills in creating conscious pieces of work.During the project we will invite the participants to try working with:- filmmaking, including 360-degree films and 3d animation- painting, including synaesthesia- photography, including using Photoshop- computer art, including creating a websiteAll workshops will be managed by teachers who have the necessary knowledge and experience in the subjects taught during the learning activities. They will be intertwined with discussions and debates on the use of visual art, how it has changed and how it may change in the future. Each learning activity will allow for self-reflection through participatory evaluation in order for the students to deepen their understanding of the competence gained.The project also promotes social inclusion. One of the schools is a special school for students with hearing impairment. Through organising sign language courses, discussions on how school communities can become more inclusive and most importantly initiating working in mixed groups, we would like the participant to broaden their awareness and understanding of disabilities and show that hearing impairment does not create borders which can stop from creating something together.Throughout the project, the participants will create concrete works of art within each planned form (this will include a film on social inclusion or a 360-degree film of the exhibition of the students' works). We hope the project will impact students’ creativity and encourage them to undertake activities connected with visual art in their free time to address their need for self-actualization.For the long-term benefits of the project, we hope that students equipped with the knowledge will begin working with the most interesting for them form of visual art with their peers, creating new art to better express themselves. Teachers will continue working with the methods taught during their lessons, inspiring students and helping them become creative.The project will also establish a strong partnership among the three participating schools with the potential of initiating new inspiring projects within the European context in the future.

Freedom to Learn 2 builds on the success of Freedom to Learn - an E+ project based on the notion that for significant learning to occur, this needs to be based on personal involvement and be meaningful for the learner. The results and impact of this project (completion date November 2020) are exceeding expectations, and the original partners aim to further consolidate and develop the methodology, while strengthening but also widening the network to include new partners. The project will address the United Nation's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) through the methodology advocated by Carl Roger's philosophy, giving students the freedom to explore and truly engage with the SDGs. It also aims to support the development of students' digital competences through the use of the eTwinning platform, with an emphasis on their responsibility as online content creators rather than mere consumers. The objectives of the project are ambitious but realistic. The main focus is on developing teachers' competences and confidence as they shift from a teacher-centred to a truly learner-centred approach. In this scenario teachers become facilitators of learning, giving up some of their power in the classroom while modelling democratic competences in action. The SDGs will be explored in line with the goals and values of the EU, the EU's role in reaching these goals and how every individual can actively contribute towards a better future. Digital competences will be strengthened across board, with direct reference to DigiComp 2.1 and DigCompEdu. Spread over 2 years, the projects will support 5 mentors (preferably from the Senior Management team) and at least 10 teachers from 5 different countries and across multiple school levels to provide the freedom and structure for students to engage with the SDGs. Supported by the mentors, and through an online network, teachers will explore ways in which their actions can support this freedom while at the same time providing the structure that learners need for significant learning to actually take place. The different contexts and levels will provide an added value in terms of the common challenges that teachers face. They will also provide for objective reflection and candid support as well as cross-fertilisation of ideas. The original partners will support new partners with the methodology while the new partners can provide a fresh and objective outlook on the methodology. The mentors in the different schools will offer immediate face to face support whereas the online network will provide a context for reflective practice, as teachers make their actions explicit. The project will be divided into 4 phases, each phase lasting for half a scholastic year. A Learning, Teaching and Training (LTT) activity will be held at the beginning of each project phase with a final LTT at the end of the phases. The LTTs will involve mentors and teachers and will help to explore the SDGs and the methodology further, consolidating the network and providing opportunities for participants to experience the different contexts, share good practices and develop their competences further. Each project phase will see the teachers in the different schools addressing different SDGs with their students through the Freedom to Learn methodology to address all the SDGs over the project's lifespan. Each project phase will start off with an exploration of the SDG being researched. Students will then be supported to identify a focus, to create an action plan, researching the topic, presenting their findings and finally evaluating their own learning and achievement. At the end of each phase, the students will also need to present their work through eTwinning across the partner schools. It is envisaged that a approximately 250 students will have directly experienced the methodology. The work will also be shared with the wider school community through various media in each partner country, promoting the SDGs and a call for active commitment to the SDGs. The project will directly impact mentors, teachers and students in the 5 schools with concrete plans for dissemination throughout and across board. The mentors will also be responsible for the dissemination of the project’s ideals, methodology and results in the respective schools through the organisation of dissemination sessions targeting teachers not directly involved in the project and the long term sustainability of the project. A final meeting/training activity involving all mentors and teachers will be organised in order to evaluate and disseminate the results of the project and to identify plans for further collaboration and networking among the partner schools. The potential long term benefits of the project include strengthening the profile of the teaching profession, the development of digital competences and greater awareness of the SDGs and the role educators and individuals play in creating a sustainable future.

Equal opportunities for young deaf people in Europe has been the focus of our work. In this project we have researched in the field of social and labor inclusion, and the interaction of our deaf students with the hearing students. We have compared the different situations in different countries and schools to see if inclusion is possible and if our deaf and hard-of-hearing students have any chance of living a normal life among hearing people once they leave school. We have observed what students experience in their post-secondary education or vocational training and also the difficulty that it entails for them to find an adequate job and how they work in them. One of the main questions we initially raised was: is Europe ready to accept deaf people as a workforce? We have done research on how and how many deaf people go to university or achieve a degree in Vocational Training. We wanted to demonstrate that deafness is an important disability, since it can affect the person cognitively, and when the attention to this fact is late, as is the case of most children in many countries, they reach secondary school with a low level educational, that connected to his poor command of oral language, makes insertion very difficult. And in the case of people with hearing problems, an invisible disability, teachers who are not familiar with them tend to think that they are distracted, lazy or not interested in different subjects.We have also compared the different ways in which schools prepare students for life after high school, do we have enough equipment for our students, with knowledge and realistic ideas about opportunities? Are they prepared for the obstacles they will face and are they strong enough to overcome them?In this project, we have also worked with hearing students. Some of the participating schools are exclusively for the deaf, while others have only a small department dedicated to them. Schools with deaf students exclusively have the capacity to organize activities at the local level of greater importance.With the mobility of students in this project has been achieved:1. Development of a social network.2. Obtain international experience (traveler) and European awareness.3. Practice international communication with the help of sign languages ​​and English (written and spoken).4. Use modern means in our own international network (through Facebook, Skype and the blog we have). This is an additional aspect of great relevance that directly improves the lives of our students and broadens their horizons.Three things stand out in this project:1. We have worked with students with total deafness and students with hearing and language problems, who can compare their experiences and establish ideas for early integration in an attractive way for young people, how they can help each other, where they can cooperate, being active in the search for ideas and solutions.2. Students have participated in this project during their study time in high school. By making them part of the project, we have given them a different role, have been our fellow researchers, helping others in the future or helping each other.3. We have shared with all European schools the results and the intercultural idea of ​​the deaf. We have dealt with a linguistic minority in each country, with a culture and society that does not always understand its difficulties and helps integration.