WINDOW TO THE WORLD

Through the activities we performed, we aimed at sensitising the participants in the project to issues related to inclusion and the special students’ need to be accepted in a class / group work / ...

Through the activities we performed, we aimed at sensitising the participants in the project to issues related to inclusion and the special students’ need to be accepted in a class / group work / project activity / school community along with their typical peers, in the context of addressing in a creative manner the problems of the environment pollution and its protection. In other words, the project objectives were to develop teachers’ knowledge and experience in the field of special education, to raise the school and local community awareness of the need for responsible behavior towards the natural environment, to prepare the participants for the multi-cultural diversity we live in nowadays, to make them value diversity and what is different, to avoid bullying or discrimination towards special students, to promote a comprehensive approach to language teaching and learning. Overall, we wanted to prepare students for life beyond the classroom through enriching mutual learning experiences, interactions with representatives of other cultures and a mix of learners’ typical and special needs.

The project included 8 main activities focusing on certain themes, but each of these endeavours involved several smaller activities or actions. Each activity had preparatory and follow-up stages. We made presentations in pptx, mp4 format, using the Canva application, we created resources together (tutorials, a basic tool for learning English, specially designed for SEN students entitled When English Gets Special, Flipbooks, 1 mini-guide also translated into Romanian - Mini-guide for Special Educational Needs, we organized practical workshops, cultural exchanges, recycling campaigns, online meetings, international events (for Erasmus Days, European Day of Languages). We organized an internal competition with artistic and literary creations on the theme of protecting the environment and the beauties of nature that the modern man is no longer able to see, but we also participated in external competitions such as ECOTIC or Creo Creare. In the latter, we were awarded 26 prizes for our collaborative work and participated together in the award ceremony, by means of online platforms. We created a website, a Youtube channel, we physically and virtually exhibited our work in the school, local community, the media and online environment.

The greatest achievement of this project is the implementation of valuable experiences of mutual learning and cooperation within groups that are mixed not only from cultural point of view, but also from the perspective of the participants’ special educational needs. In an innovative context, it was enabled the contact of SEN students with typical peers from another culture, students and teachers engaged in a series of cooperative learning, practical, literary and artistic activities, and these authentic interactions generated experiences that enriched the participants not only cognitively and emotionally, but also developped their professional competences. Typical students learned from their partners with special needs through Teach me activities, including presentations and tutorials that were made available to the public. Students learned about climate change, the importance of reducing, reusing, recycling waste, they became aware of the importance of acquiring a conscious civic attitude and, in turn, they themselves tried to raise awareness through slogans, posters, artistic and literary creations displayed online, in the school and local community.