Natural Born Teachers

<< Background >>NBT has been a natural idea born from common needs related to the importance of wellbeing, a term not used in 2022. Based on a needs analysis, a high risk of burnout and decreased motivation were observed among teachers in Europe. Administrators and teachers face overwhelming demands, while societal recognition of educators has significantly declined, impacting the profession's appeal to young people. Many teachers also experience pressure to deliver high-quality results in a fast-changing world marked by various crises that affect children's present and future, including climate change. Rising anxiety, emotional dysregulation, and student dropout risk characterize today's youth, often labeled as anxious or fearful generation amidst deep uncertainty. In this challenging situation, this project addressed the need to develop teachers’ awareness and competences to be able to build more resilient and inclusive learning environments, at the same time preventing teachers’ burnout and fostering their well-being and motivation. Integrating mindful approaches that connect with self, others, community, and nature is essential and educators can utilize these strategies to help children cultivate calmness, focus, alertness, and happiness.<< Objectives >>Our aim was to improve well-being and effectiveness in teaching and learning, through the innovative and powerful synergy among Mindfulness, Emotional competences and Outdoors/Nature-based education. We wanted to train, empower and motivate teachers going back to the essence of education through an holistic process, exploring the potential of integrated educational approaches that can better address the needs of teachers and students facing this period characterized by many existential threats. << Implementation >>JUMP has been responsible for the whole management and the implementation of different main actions.Financial guidelines and reporting, monitoring of the expenditures and support. Partners didn't know how to be partners of a small scale project. A common communication plan: - logo proposals creation, online votation and final logo decision- creation of a webpage https://associazionejump.it/project/natural-born-teachers/ and a FB page https://www.facebook.com/naturalbornteachers - 2 whatsapp groups: 1) for team leaders, 2) for all teachers MAIN ACTIVITIES - 3 international trainings for teachers focused on the development of skills related to Mindfulness, Emotional competences, Outdoors/Nature-based education, Non Formal Education. Valuable exchanges among teachers of the 3 countries of innovative good practices and different educational methodologies.- 6 Online follow-up meetings coordinated by JUMP where each partner, after the mobility in their schools, were in charge of the contents of 2 meetings. - 2 International Online Dissemination Conferences, exchange of good practices - Creation of a Toolkit with activities for teachers wellbeing and lesson plans to implement with students- A teacher training innovative format<< Results >>Concrete outputs were:- the collaborative creation of a Toolkit for educators, created collecting lesson/activity plans created by involved teachers and trainers from the 3 countries, together with comments about the activities that help the reader to implement them, reflections written by teachers about their learning process and the benefits on themselves and on children, with some feedback from kids too.- the creation of professional presentations realized by teachers, trainers, and school psychologists, who were the main speakers during the Final Online Dissemination Conferences- videos realized - articles that describe the methodology and practices developed togetherOther results- benefits on wellbeing on teachers and students- improved motivation of involved teachers, willingness to continue nurturing personal well-being and wellbeing at school, willingness to cooperate on a European level and be active in Erasmus+ and furthermore- benefits on students' learning process and motivation-improved ability of teachers to apply non-formal education, to be multiplier with their colleagues and with students