We'll be well - well-being Europeans

We wanted to increase mutual understanding, since there had been lots of disintegration within the EU in recent years. Our goal was to give the participants to cultural knowledge and the necessary skills to interact internationally. Well-being of our students had suffered during the pandemic, due to distance learning and social distancing. Together the pandemic and disintegration created mental and physical barriers that we wanted to tackle. We all shared the same worries. Our students has less social skills and more need of pedagogical support due to mental health issues. They had too much screen time. All this manifested itself in prolonged school years and a higher drop out rate.We wanted to give the participants tools for taking care of the well-being and to broaden their views. By doing good for others we benefit ourselves as well. We wanted to share good practices and enhance the social sustainability. We also wanted to give opportunities for teachers and headteachers to develop their professionalism and thus increase their work satisfaction. We wanted to teach social skills needed at work life: teamwork, communication, resilience. Our aim was also to increase internationalism in different lessons and give new ideas.

Our objectives were to increase knowledge of well-being, cultural knowledge, the common sense of Europe, social sustainability as well as help the participating teachers with cross-curricular planning, cooperation, share best practices on diverse pedagogical methods and strengthen the teaching profession by pedagogical cafes and workshops on different subjects. Well-being consists of many areas: exercise, stress management, sleep, healthy eating. And by being well, we have the energy to tackle other problems in the world. We wanted to give participants skills for the future. By participating the students and teachers increased several skills: communication, IT, digital, social, language, project management, team work, taking responsibility, and being an active citizen. The participants are more willing and ready to study and work in an international setting. The tasks and activitiesworked as a tool for these We also wanted to support the participants -, so that their school, work satisfaction, and motivation increases, which is important for well-being. We wanted the teachers to learn how to run a successful, sustainable project and make internationalism more visible in our schools.

In total we had 6 LTTs and 6 TPMs, and before each LTT and TPM we had virtual meetings for both students and teachers. The teachers met virtually more frequently: we had the first 3 Teams meetings even before the project actually started, as the start of the project was delayed by several months. We also had some charity events, that benefitted the whole community: plogging run swapping day, good deed day, to mention a few. Students had various tasks: some of the tasks done before the LTT were presented in the virtual meetings and some served as background tasks for the tasks done in the on-site meetings. Each of the LTTs had a different topic, all related to the well-being and sustainable way of life. The first LTT concentrated on healthy eating, food loss and getting the project started. In the second LTT the topic was physical well-being and exercise, food, sleep and hobbies: whether sports or creative arts. We also launched our Walk the Europe challenge before the second LTT. We were supposed to collect steps and 'walk' from one school to another, but this challenge did not work out. Some partners collected the steps, but some did not, so during the second year we had to abandon it. The third LTT concentrated on stress management and future skills, the fourth on social sustainability, the fifth on identity, social media, bullying and climate anxiety, and the sixth on wrapping all these topics together and social commitment and consumerism. Apart from Walk the Europe, another thing we did not do as initially planned, was Twinspace and eTwinning. The platform had such problems and we had to forget it. It did not make sense anymore, when the project was as far as it was. The TPMs for teachers had lots of pedagogical cafes and workshops, where also other teachers of the hosting country were invited. On top of that teachers had teacher meetings discussing the organisational matters and the swots and feedback. Very often there were new teachers, so sometimes we had to repeat certain things, but that was not a problem. We also marketed our project outside our communities and sought for media attention: we managed to get our project into some social media sites and press. Here the link to our Presono: https://my.presono.com/share/a5b9f17e-e150-4fbf-ac16-144014d18184/play?autoplay=15&email=false. Some of the partner schools also marketed the project on their Instagram and FB sites (e.g https://www.instagram.com/kimpisenlukio/ )

The concrete outputs were the activities: the tasks, workshops, pedagogical cafes, charity events, evaluations, questionnaires, interviews etc. Also our social media visibility, Presono and the blog posts very concrete outputs. We did not do any final product, nor multiplier events. Unfortunately there were some issues with Presono: the teacher responsible for it changed schools and at some point we could not access it anymore. This was something we had not anticipated, and had not taken into account, but luckily he could prolong the site's link. The other results were the met objectives: we got what we had wanted from the project. The participating students got tools for their well-being and the participating teachers got new ideas, improved their job satisfaction and both groups increased their skills in various fields: language, communication group work, presentation, ITC, etc. Participants understood the importance of international projects and saw that even though we come from different European countries, we share the same challenges. Both groups widened their international networks and it was heartwarming to hear the students say that this will not be the last international experience for them, but they look forward to new opportunities in higher education. The feedback in the final evaluation was very good, and the participating students felt that they had gained a lot by participating in the project. They especially increased their communication and language skills, and also their self esteem and self confidence increased. They learned about the other cultures and made friends: for most this was the fact that they appreciated the most: getting to know other European youngsters and cultures. The final feedback was very good, which encourages us to participate in similar projects in the future too. The partner schools also improved their image by being international: the projects are one of the most discussed topics in open day nights at school. For many they are one of the reasons new students apply for the school.