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Sustainable Development
Sustainable Development
Start date: Dec 31, 2014,
End date: Dec 30, 2016
PROJECT
FINISHED
Our main areas for improvement are staff competences, new teaching methods and tools, European dimension, language competences and the organisation of teaching and learning. As far as staff competences are concerned, our teachers would like to improve their knowledge in sustainable development and teaching methods/tools in partner countries as well as skills in intercultural communication and English language. Along the years we have been concentrating on several green values and volunteering activities which have been mostly taken place outside school lessons. Now it's time to establish new subject based approaches and get more detailed information on how these themes are included in our partner schools' curricula and subject teaching. How could we, for example, include the good practices from Italy, Poland and Portugal to our own activities on both individual and community level. Also, as we already are quite experienced in the field of sustainable development, we feel we could disemminate our knowledge and good practices to our partner schools in Europe. An example of this is the inclusion of a specialized volunteering course to our school curriculum offered to our students twice a year. According to the UNESCO's principles, each teacher is a key agent for bringing about the changes in values and lifestyles the world needs. Therefore, we need to foster – through education – the values, behaviour, and lifestyles required for a sustainable future. Teaching and Learning for a Sustainable Future is rooted in a vision of education that helps students better understand the world in which they live, addressing the complexity and interconnectedness of problems such as poverty, wasteful consumption, environmental degradation, population, health, conflict and human rights that threaten our future. During our job shadowing periods we intend to monitor and focus on the partner country's school management and student councelling as well as subject curricula and the tools and methods used in teaching it. Our 14 teachers represent Art/Media, Biology, Geography, Drama, English, German, History and Social Sciences, Mathematics, Physics, Music, Physical Education and Religion/Psychology. For this particular project, we are especially interested in learning how the challenges of sustainable development are included in their subject curricula. Also, we wish to find out how our partner school's students and teachers are participating in the local development projects and implementing environmentally sound policies in their everyday school life. We hope the competences and experiences acquired through job shadowing will reorient the aims and content of the education and teaching and learning approaches used by our teachers so that they contribute to a sustainable future. We expect it will enable our teachers to plan learning experiences that empower our students to develop and evaluate alternative visions of a sustainable future and to work creatively with others to help bring their visions of a better world into effect. It will also enhance the English language skills of our teachers and build their skills in having international contacts and presenting multicultural examples in their teaching. We wish to foster the holistic development of all our teachers, by promoting personal and academic growth. The experience will increase our awareness of worldwide environmental and social issues, and of the need to take action to cope with the increasingly demanding challenges of the world. Our school has been involved in some solidarity initiatives, and this project will further enhance the educational community's sense of responsibility towards those in need. Furthermore, this will be a privileged opportunity for collective learning resulting from the exchange of experiences within such a rich Comenius partnership.