Mobility enabled the teacher to improve her pedagogical skills through active participation in workshops and lectures on teaching in the 21st century, which is in line with the development of students in the digital environment. The course was organized by the organization 'Learning Together', and the course was led by professors Marco Bento and Celestino Magalhães. Twenty teachers from Spain, Poland, Italy, Greece, Hungary and Croatia participated in the course.

The course included interactive workshops on the use of some useful applications:

Mentimeter: An application that enables interactive presentations and surveys, encouraging student participation in class.

Quizizz: An online quiz creation tool that encourages students to self-study and test their knowledge.

Padlet: A platform for creating virtual whiteboards for collaboration and information sharing.

Teaching in the 21st century also includes the method of 'storytelling' and the use of augmented reality in teaching, therefore the course included education about this type of application as well:

Quiver: An application that enables the creation of 3D drawings that come to life through augmented reality.

3DBear: An Augmented Reality Interactive Learning Tool to Encourage Student Creativity.

Edpuzzle: Platform for adapting video material for better education.

While the workshops were dedicated to education about working with applications and the creation of interactive materials, the teachers discussed the possibilities of changing the teaching paradigm, which takes into account the characteristics of adult students in a digital environment.

Mobility also included a rich social program in which participants had the opportunity to see beautiful Porto by riding a Hop on-hop off bus, enjoy a panoramic boat ride on the Douro River and see the famous 6 bridges that connect Porto and the neighboring town of Villa Nova Gaia, and engage in tasting famous port wine in one of the many wineries. Porto is a colorful city, rich in history, architecture and gastronomic delicacies.

This mobility left a deep, useful for the improvement of personal teacher competences, but also the improvement of school work in the 21st century. This was a unique experience that will improve our work and enrich the educational process.  

Brigita Gojak

The course brought together teachers, educators and education experts from different European countries, i.e. from Germany and Romania, and was focused on research and application of the latest information and communication technologies (ICT) in the educational process, as well as the development of skills necessary for the 21st century.

The organizer of our course is Euromentor (Empowwring Educators, Transformin Education)

We started the first day by getting to know each other and introducing our country where we come from.

Our colleagues Claudia, Salina and Isabell introduced themselves to us from Romania. Through the presentation, they presented their country, introduced us to their school.

Aleksandra and Nora from Germany introduced themselves to us. They are high school teachers. Also through the presentation, they presented their school and the country, that is, the city they come from.

Of course, I introduced myself from Croatia and presented the interesting and beautiful things of my country and introduced us to the work of our school.

Our host Miranda introduced us to the interesting things in Barcelona and we repeated some interesting things through the Kahoot game.

Our course was held from 9:30 a.m. to 2:00 p.m

I used the free afternoon to get to know the sights of Barcelona. I visited the famous basilica Sagrada Familia, Casa Mila, enjoyed tasting traditional food and drinks.

The second day started with the topic: Skills the students need in the 21st century. We talked about what skills we know and what skills we would need to keep up with today's youth. 4Cs. We worked with already known digital tools Plickers and Padlet.

I used the free afternoon to visit Casa Batllo, one of Antonio Gaudai's famous works, and enjoyed a two-hour hop-on-hop bus ride through Barcelona.

We used the third day creatively, outside the classroom. We visited the Montjuic Palace museum where we came to critical thinking through workshops. Very interesting, instructive, because in this way we came up with new ideas, seeing problems and solving them. Extremely interesting workshop. In the afternoon, I got to know the interesting things of Barcelona again and visited Boqueria, one of the most famous and visited markets in the world.

On the fourth day, he was working in the classroom again. We were introduced to new digital tools, Jeopardy Labs, Baamboozle, Blooket, Nearpod. We played together, but also came up with tasks for work that we presented to the whole group. In addition to digital tools, we also had a Creativity day. We had to finish the started sequences and lines by ourselves, but in a creative way to do something new, interesting.

On the fifth working day, we had a joint gathering and distribution of certificates. Exceptional experience, a good team and I hope to create new partnerships. Each of us shared our experience, our opinion. Of course, all the participants were delighted with the quality of the course, as were the organizers themselves. Exceptionally high-quality, full of understanding. I return home with new skills that I will use in my teaching. I spent my free afternoon getting to know Tibidabo, a hill overlooking Barcelona, Catalonia. At 512 meters it is the highest hill in the Serra de Collserola. It winds sharply to the northwest, offering a view of the city and the surrounding coast. The top of the hill is occupied by the SagratCor church and the adjacent Tibidabo park. After Tibidab, I went down to Barcellonete beach, which is 422 meters long and is one of the oldest in the city.

An excellent team of mentors and organizers did everything to make us feel welcome and safe in Kalamata, Greece, and to successfully overcome the planned outcomes.

https://www.areadne.eu/course/education-for-sustainable-development-in-our-schools/

The communication with the course organizer Areadna before arriving at the course was detailed. Via e-mail, we received all the necessary information about the course, travel, and accommodation. They answered all our questions quickly and in detail. The hotel was very affordable, with rooms overlooking the sea. Even though it was the beginning of November, the weather was great and every day we could swim in the Ionian Sea, even I, who is always cold. Kalamata is full of small restaurants with acceptable prices. We had an interesting tour of the city with our mentor, as well as a visit to nearby Ancient Messinia and a dance course of traditional Greek dances with the indispensable sirtaki. All this was included in the price of the course. At the end of the course, they shared all the documents and presentations we used during the course, useful materials and photos, and expressed their desire for further cooperation.

The working part was organized from Monday to Friday, the first part from 12.00 to 14.00 h and the second part from 16.00 to 20.00 h. The first day of the course was Sunday, where the two groups together received basic information about the course and a welcome dinner where we got to know each other.

There were 8 participants (teachers and directors) from Croatia, Poland, Finland and Spain on the course, and the lecturer was exceptional, experienced and a very good motivator who shared with us a handful of practical activities related to our topic. We spent socializing and excursions together with another group of ten participants, and we also got to know them well.

All our activities were included in the price of the course, we only paid for the food according to our choice.

I can wholeheartedly recommend the city of Kalamata and the Areadne team to anyone who is planning professional development and who likes to stay in a smaller town where they will feel safe, welcome and gain new knowledge and experiences in a relaxed atmosphere with a very pleasant climate.

On the first day, our hosts introduced us to the activities that will be held throughout the week. We introduced ourselves and got to know each other and received basic information regarding accommodation and stay in Kalamata, activities carried out by Areadne LLC and the Erasmus program. The gathering ended with dinner at a local restaurant.

We started the second day with a tour of the center of Kalamata starting from the Church of Ypapanti - the cathedral. We compared the historic city center and the new center with an emphasis on sustainable development. The continuation was with an emphasis on basic terms related to sustainable development, sustainability and the goals of sustainable development until 2030, and education on sustainable development. The workshop started with a motivational game to get to know each other better. According to the first letters of the name and surname, we should have listed the nouns that describe us and explained that choice. We also had to list three things we know about the topic, two things we would like to learn and ask one question. We received a worksheet that we can use to motivate students when teaching this topic in digital and paper form. Such practical tasks proved to be very useful throughout the course as we can use them when we return to our schools. There are eight of us in the group, which provided us with ideal working conditions.

Education on sustainable development is a tool that shows how to achieve sustainability not in words but through action. We discussed why the nations with the best education systems also have the biggest ecological footprints. (noises in communication, a broken phone, we remember the worst by watching and listening, and we learn the most by doing) We repeated what we learned through an interesting quiz and at the end we had to come up with one sentence on how we can teach sustainable development in our schools.

On the third day, we continued working on a series of practical activities related to consumption and sustainability.

First, we visited the city quarter, where we saw concrete examples of how the construction method helps protect against high heat and how the rocks can collect the sun's heat during the day and then release it easily in the evening and heat the apartment. the vast majority or almost all buildings in the city have panels on the roof and tanks with water in which it is heated.

In the second part, we talked about food, which is our fuel so that the body can work properly, healthy and strong. We limit the consumption of processed food, rich in salt, simple sugars and fats. In addition, this food is high in energy density and low in nutrients. The longer the food has been standing, the less nutrients it contains. The emphasis is on plant food. When deciding what to cook, we first think about what vegetables are available and how they taste. The last thought is what protein source we can add. It doesn't have to be meat every day, it can be cheese, egg or some vegetable source like legumes.

We reduce food waste. Cook the required amount. If there is an excess, it can be "flowed" into another meal . We check expiration dates and don't buy food that we can't use

We buy domestic, seasonal products. If the food is imported, it means that fuel was used for its transport and the more it is stored, the more it degrades in nutrients.

Also, fruits and vegetables are tastier if they are produced locally and support the local economy.

All these conclusions were derived from the specific activities we carried out, and the motivational games encouraged us to think about how only by working together we can successfully complete a task and reach the set goal.

On the fourth day, we worked on the ecological footprint, all with practical activities that required teamwork. It was very interesting and enlightening to show the path on the map of the world that coffee takes to find itself in our cup. The message was that we should use local products whenever possible. The video showing the fate of 29,000 yellow ducks that set off from Hong Kong to the USA was shocking to us. The container fell into the sea in the middle of the ocean, and even after five years they were floating in various parts of the ocean and even reached the Scottish coast. It was an instructive indicator for oceanographers studying the movement of plastic waste. After the discussion about micro and nano plastics, which are also big and unavoidable pollutants, we concluded that this topic is very difficult and pessimistic and that attention should be paid to the way in which these topics will be taught. Our leader excellently combined these difficult topics with motivational games for getting to know the members of our group, which I recommend doing in class as well. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AvchlWftt80

The visit to ancient Messenia was a well-designed practical activity in which, through the role of students, we were able to develop key competencies for teaching on the given topic.

Thanks to the excellent host Johanna, we met ....

We learned about digital tools that can be useful in teaching about sustainable development:

QUIZ - Quertions

•WordWall https://wordwall.net/

•LearnigApps https://learningapps.org/

•Quizziz https://quizizz.com/

•Quizlet https://quizlet.com/en-gb

•Quizalize https://www.quizalize.com/

•Kahoot https://kahoot.com/

•EduCandy https://www.educandy.com/

•EducaPlay https://www.educaplay.com/

•LiveWorkSheets (advanced users)

https://www.liveworksheets.com/

POSTER digital tools:

•Befunky

•Canva

•easel.ly

•Glogster

•Infogram

•PicCollage

•Piktochart

•Posterini

•Poster My Wall

•Smore

•ThingLink

•Vengage

Class Happy Tools:

https://www.online-stopwatch.com/

• https://www.online-stopwatch.com/random-name-pickers/magic-hat-name-picker/full-screen/

• https://www.online-stopwatch.com/world-games-running/full-screen/?characters=6&bubble=true&countdown=00:05:00

https://www.classtools.net/

https://bouncyballs.org 

Puzzle + Word Games:

•https://www.jigsawplanet.com/

•https://im-a-puzzle.com/

•https://puzzlemaker.discoveryeducation.com/

•https://puzzel.org/

Concept mapping

• Bubbl.us https://bubbl.us/ 

• CMapTools http://cmap.ihmc.us/ (download)

• VUE http://vue.tufts.edu/ (download)

• XMIND http://www.xmind.net/ (download)

• FreeMind http://freemind.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/Main_Page (download)

Photo Album, Multimedia Poster, Picture eBook, Multimedia Story Book

•StoryBird http://storybird.com/

•HTML5 DIGITAL PUBLISHING PLATFORM https://fliphtml5.com/

•StoryJumper https://www.storyjumper.com/

•MyStoryBook https://www.mystorybook.com/

•Glogster http://www.glogster.com/

•Voci https://voki.com/classroom/

•Flipcreator https://www.flipcreator.net/

Some more digital tools

1.Genial.ly

2.LearningApps

3.Canva.com

4.https://www.futuretools.io/

5.DALL-e

6.Kahoot

7.https://www2.lunapic.com/editor/

8.Comic Gen

9.Toonytool

10.http://www.timetoast.com

11.QR monkey

Finally, we talked about topics that give us reason for optimism:

•The natural world

•The lives of other people

•The collective struggles - teams that have fought for their rights

•The visionaries

•Faith and beliefs

•The view of oneself

•Human creativity: art, music, sports

•Teachers-Centers and Colleagues - Support, Encouragement, Inspiration

•Relationships: friends, family, loved ones

•Being funny

•The roots: the knowledge of the ancestors and the connections to the past

Feel free to add to the list when teaching these difficult topics to your students and always make sure you teach it in a way that leaves hope for a better future despite all the difficulties we face.

From November 3–17, 2023, on Tenerife, five days, 25 hours—so much to learn, apply, and step outside of our comfort zones, all on the beautiful island of Tenerife (and a bit in Paris).

The farthest place I've ever visited is Tenerife, a beautiful volcanic island shaped like a duck. Its northern side is covered in forest, with the ancient Anaga forest, the volcanic peak of Teide, and stunning black sand beaches…

Twenty-one teachers, educators, or associates, all eager to explore new ways of teaching, gathered for this adventure of a lifetime. We quickly broke the ice on the first day, connecting through games and laughter. On the second and third days, we visited the ancient Anaga forest, a black sand beach with amazing waves and currents, and Teide volcano.

On the fourth and fifth days, we visited a SOS Children's Village and the permaculture farm Finca el Mato, witnessing firsthand how cultivation methods can make a world of difference.

Attached is a PDF with links to the resources we used and will continue to use, filled with optimism. 

Full of impressions from Tenerife, I'm already on my way home, enjoying a "treasure hunt" in Paris.

Looking forward to the next adventure,  

Physics teacher and nature lover,  

Kim Džananović

The workshop was organized by the Bulgarian Erasmus organization "Motivated Learning for Everyone." Under the guidance of our trainer, Rute Machado, we spent seven very engaging and educational days. Our lively and diverse group consisted of five teachers from Romania, a teacher from Cyprus, a teacher from Germany, and myself. We actively participated in various activities included in the workshop’s program.

One of the main goals was to introduce teachers to development strategies and methodologies to more effectively teach and apply sustainable development and climate change topics in our schools. Given the workshop’s location, we first explored the Portuguese education system and how climate change education is implemented in Portugal. Discussions covered integrating these themes into school curricula and exploring key terms like social equality, ecological management, environmental actions, and the competencies needed for those working on climate change mitigation and sustainable development. This exploration included comparing similarities and differences between Croatian systems and curricula and those of other participants’ countries. Through activities, we designed action plans for schools to reduce climate change effects and promote sustainability, evaluated current practices, and developed initiatives to create greener school communities, among other efforts.

During the workshop, we had organized visits to the 15th-century Jerónimos Monastery, the Calouste Gulbenkian Museum, and the Oceanarium. These three completely different sites illustrated the deep connection between people and nature throughout various periods. Each day after the workshop, we had enough time to explore the city’s museums, parks, landmarks, unique architecture, and Portugal’s iconic tiles, as well as enjoy the local cuisine. We also visited Cascais and even experienced the Atlantic. It was a wonderful experience, and I warmly recommend that if you ever have the chance, visit Portugal. Check out the photos and see for yourself!

Organized by the Bulgarian Erasmus branch "Motivated Learning for Everyone," and as part of the Erasmus+ KA1 Smile project, a workshop series titled "Climate Change and Go Green - How Eco-Friendly Schools Can Shape a Better Future" took place in Stockholm from May 6 to 12, 2024, under the guidance of expert trainer Mustafa Günes. The seven-day workshops were attended by three teachers from Spain and six teachers from Croatia, one of whom was our English teacher, Petra Poljak.

The seven-day event began with an "icebreaking" activity that successfully fulfilled its purpose. After an interactive introduction where each participant, accompanied by their favorite song, had to use movements to represent themselves, their hobbies, habits, and more, everyone relaxed. Following this, it was easier to present the countries, regions, and schools we came from using previously prepared presentations. 

The main focus of all the workshops throughout the week was reflecting on how eco-friendly schools can shape a better future and implementing these ideas in our schools. All participants highlighted positive examples already in practice in their schools, as well as learning new approaches from our trainer’s school in Turkey and examples from the UK. 

During the week, we worked on finding different strategies to engage students in thinking about climate change issues and encouraging them to take action. This included calculating the carbon footprint we directly or indirectly leave as individuals, role-playing, and discussing films that deal with this specific topic. Through various activities, many tools were introduced to help make climate change issues more relatable to students in an engaging way. For example, an outdoor learning activity was conducted at the Stockholm City Museum through the interactive Actionbound game. We particularly enjoyed creating songs with the Suno ai program, which can serve as motivation for various activities.

During our stay in Stockholm, we had the opportunity to enjoy the beauty of the blooming city, which in spring truly radiates greenery, and its well-organized transport system and flower-filled corners made the experience even more delightful. The weekend program of the workshops included visits to the Royal Palace and the Viking Museum.

The knowledge and experience gained from such international exchanges contribute to learning new, innovative skills and creative teaching methods based on observed examples. In addition to education, it strengthens and nurtures a sense of community and cultural exchange, fostering new friendships and potential future collaborations.