The project is separated into 4 periods where teachers/staff will participate:

1. Period: Dec. 2020 - June 2021
2. Period: July 2021 - Nov. 2021
3. Period: Dec. 2021- June 2022
4. Period: July 2022-Nov. 2022

The needed course contents are the following:

Communication:

These courses should enhance positive thinking, reducing negative self-talk, personalizing and catastrophizing, practicing gratitude, humour and mindfulness, and learning the importance of praising students/colleagues. This project fosters positive communication with ourselves, our students/colleagues, learning how to convert a negative, disruptive, un-effective communication in a virtuous circle of positive relationships, also using modern communicative tools and social media. The seminars must give theoretical background information on communication strategies.

The courses gives insight in communicative strategies and systems in other European countries and answers:

• how teachers handle problems between each other.
• how modernisations and changes in school are discussed and introduced.
• how problems with students are communicated between teachers/students/parents.
• how important teachers’ and parents' meetings are.
• how teachers communicate in difficult situations in a positive way.

Teambuilding among teachers:

Courses of this project should be inspirational for the development of a sense of belonging and an atmosphere of community, of tolerance and team spirit, and for the improvement of communication skills. Team building activities and training will create a climate of cooperation and contribute to collaborative problem-solving, develop empathy and trust in the group and in yourself, enhance creativity and boost self-esteem. These courses should also give theoretical background information on teambuilding methods.

Teambuilding in class:

The courses offer participants tools and methods how to foster teambuilding in class but also among students, teachers and parents. The seminars should offer motivational activities that are inspirational for the development of a sense of belonging, community, tolerance, team spirit and for the improvement of communication skills. Team building activities will create a climate of cooperation and contribute to collaborative problem-solving, develop empathy and trust in the group and in yourself, enhance creativity and self-esteem. The seminars also offer concrete learning activities to support students to develop entrepreneurial mindsets and assertive attitudes and to avoid early school leaving. This project should also show teachers which digital tools, social media, collaborative IT tools and virtual platforms can be used in class to foster teambuilding in class but also with other students from other European countries (e.g. eTwinning or Erasmus+ projects).

Leading other teachers:

These courses empower participants to teach entrepreneurship and leadership while sharing best practices and experiences with fellow participants and trainers at school and to gain insight in leadership strategies and methods on a European level. Only by doing courses outside of Austria teachers will get a deeper insight and a broader understanding of education in Europe.

The project also:

• gives theoretical background information on leadership methods
• trains teachers in strategic planning and dealing with resources, projects, daily work and responsibilities, school infrastructure, etc.
• shows how to raise teachers’ and colleagues’ morale / how to lead collaborative work and interdisciplinary projects / how to manage responsibilities and lead other teachers in a team / how to prepare, plan and introduce changes in school’s infrastructure, new curricula
• motivates teachers to share best practices and to foster entrepreneurship

The courses contain methods to foster initiative, leadership and coaching to develop entrepreneurship skills and raise satisfaction of students. Participants should have the opportunity to get to know theoretical background and a series of practical exercises in order to develop skills for development of motivation, initiative and leadership among students. The seminars for teachers will offer leadership strategies to identify and defeat and avoid problems in class (bullying, earlyschool leaving, learning challenges etc.).

Job-shadowing

The job-shadowing sessions should help to find out how communication, leadership and teambuilding are introduced in other European schools on a daily basis. The following questions should be answered:

• Which teambuilding, communication, leadership methods are used in other schools?
• What are the forms of leadership in different kinds of learning environment?
• Are there certain ways to lead that gives good results in education?
• What kind of learning environments are used in the visited school?