Together for Inclusive Future!

^{_{3 Participating countries: Romania, Turkey, North Macedonia}}

^{_{Start: 01-09-2020 - End: 31-08-2022}}

^{_{Project Reference: 2020-1-RO01-KA229-079901}}                            

^{_{EU Grant: 83.543 EUR}}

^{_{Programme: Erasmus+}}

^{_{Key Action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices}}

^{_{Action Type: School Exchange Partnerships}}

Our motivation is based on equalizing the chances of each child individually and identifying the institutional needs within the Swot analyzes of the Methodical Commission and the CEAC commission. Thus, the need for change in order to meet more successfully the diversity of children's needs, the need for teachers to adopt modern practices during class hours, the need for active family involvement to ensure the child's school success, led to the creation of the project, TOGETHER FOR AN INCLUSIVE FUTURE! '', which includes four kindergartens from four different countries.
Because of these needs, we have come to the conclusion that we, as institutions, must provide teachers, children and parents with an experiential exposure to other educational systems, in order to produce a change in traditional perceptions, images and ideas in children's education. Every educational unit represents the ground of an early learning of social rules and must have a flexible, open program that corresponds to the education and training needs of all children. Also, kindergartens can only carry out their work tasks in partnership with family and community, even if the lack of time, lack of information and their low interest create difficulties. All these arguments are the priority factors for the application of an inclusive education. Through this project we want to emphasize not only the possibilities and developmental premises of each child, but also the potential and motivation for change and development of teachers, as well as focusing parents' attention on the education of the child regardless of his deficiencies.

Inclusive education at the kindergarten level does not only mean the integration of children with special needs, but also involves another approach of preschool pedagogy, an inclusive or curricular approach which essentially captures and highlights two basics concepts: uniqueness and diversity. Education for all supposes a proper use of the human, material and methodological resources, so that each player of the educational process has the opportunity to learn and develop. Starting from all of these, we decided to create this project in order to educate and support personal and social development of happy, independent and positive children under the careful supervision of professional and personal developed teachers which offer quality services, in order to integrate the children in a multicultural society and also they can change the mentalities and prejudices among the parents. The four partner kindergartens from Romania, Turkey and North Macedonia aim to create an inclusive educational act by collecting innovative methods and strategies in a guide of good practices, strengthening international partnerships by developing the transversal competences of the teachers and ensuring a inclusive environment in units, by developing the social skills of the members of the educational process. Through this project we want to emphasize not only the possibilities and premises of children’s progress, but also the potential and motivation for change and development of teachers, as well as focusing parents’ attention on children’s education.

The structure of our project includes:
A. Organizational activities:
1 activity of selecting the project team in each kindergarten
1 activity for creating a communication network with partners
4 activities of preparation on informative materials for participants
4 activities for preparing the logistics for the teacher’s movement
1 activity for developing the monitoring and evaluation tools: direct observation sheets for children, questionnaires for
teachers and parents, a monitoring sheet for dissemination activities in the classroom for each teacher
1 activity for elaborate, translate and publication of the guide

B. Promotion activities
1 meeting with the parents in each kindergarten
5 working activities within the Erasmus+ Club in each kindergarten
5 working activities within the project web pages
1 cultural-artistic event in each kindergarten
1 banner in each kindergarten
1 activity for distributing 100 flyers in comunity, each kindergarten

C. Mobility activities:
We carry out 4 movement activities with a duration of 5 days each. These will suppose exchanges of good practices of
teaching / learning methods and strategies, based on games and activities, traditional games, digital activities with
children and interactive activities through music and dance.

D. Dissemination activities:
1 training, 1 workshop, 1 team-building with teachers
3 activities for applying the new methods in classroom
1 workshop, 1 focus group, 1 exhibition with products made in the Club with parents
1 pedagogical circle/ regional workshop with teachers from others kindergarten
1 seminar with people from the community

E. Monitoring and evaluation activities:
1 activity of completing / interpreting the direct observation sheets of the children in each kindergarten
1 activity for completing / interpreting the activity monitoring sheets in the classroom of teachers
1 activity of interpreting the questionnaires given to the parents in each unit
1 activity of completing / interpreting the questionnaires of the teaching staff regarding the development of transversal competences
1 activity for collecting the final conclusions
1 activity for elaborate the final report

The impact of all the activities will highlight an increase of the level of acceptance of diversity and will adopt the principles of inclusive education among our communities. The teachers will have the opportunity to increase the methods and strategies of teaching/learning process with preschoolers, to evolve in collaboration with children, colleagues and parents and to develop socially, civically and professionally. The children will develop their social skills in the sense that they will accept the differences between them and cooperate with each other, showing tolerance and cooperation. Parents will become aware of the importance of accepting diversity and collaboration with the school environment and will become more flexible, tolerant and more informed about the dimensions of an inclusive school life. We thought that only together we could create an inclusive future!

Materials:

* Implementation Plan - HERE!

* Presentations throught the eyes of kids: North Macedonia - HERE! Romania - HERE! Turkey - HERE!

* Fairy Tales booklet  - HERE!    

* Digital education in preschool  - HERE!    

You can follow our work:

* Facebook Page of the project - you can find it HERE!

* eTwinning Space - HERE!

Disclaimer: This project has been funded with the support from the European Commission. This publication reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.