Students for promotion of healthy lifestyle

Students for promotion of healthy lifestyle is a project between 2 special schools for students with hearing impairment in Poland and Sweden. For two years, the schools intended to develop into a place which encourages and supports students to become aware of how one’s lifestyle may influence the quality of life. In order to reach the aims, we asked students themselves to undertake such activities which would be most beneficial and address their needs. Thus, they were responsible for the implementation of the project. At the beginning, we supported students in every activity and tried to teach them specific skills needed for undertaking their own initiatives. In the course of time, we gave them more power, so that, eventually, they became autonomous and ready to manage their own activities. This objective was extremely important and challenging due to the disability students face- hearing impairment. The indirect effect of the disability results in students’ becoming dependent on others, afraid to take action and rarely showing initiative. This also stems from the methods teacher apply- instead of guiding students, they often prefer to simply show step by step what should be done. The project involved 25 students who developed such entrepreneurial skills as creativity, social and management skills in order to conduct the activities which promote healthy lifestyle. These activities depended solely on their ideas, as we believe the only way to make students proactive is through allowing them to choose what they would like to do. The project also involved them in school decision making, therefore showing the schools are open to ideas from students. It also enabled teachers to see how they may include informal methodology into their classes. It is worth noting that the main coordinator of the project was deaf what is unique in such projects and may highly motivate deaf communities to undertake their own activities locally, nationally and even internationally. The results were published on Etwinning. At the end of the project, students became confident in undertaking their own initiatives in their communities. The participating teachers have developed understanding of new methodology. Schools became a place which promote healthy lifestyle and support students in applying their own ideas and initiatives.