We feel, we learn

Education has changed and it is constantly changing. Schools in the past only taught basic knowledge. Now we know, thanks to a lot of studies and researches, that to have a successful life in which we feel comfortable, peaceful, and with good relationships, it is more important to have “Social-Emotional intelligence” than to have a high “intelligence quotient”(I.Q.). Therefore, children have to get skills to reach this Social-Emotional intelligence and schools have to help pupils to get these skills. Nowadays, the education has a wider view of what children have to learn. This view includes a holistic teaching in which teachers have to take into account academic objectives and also social-emotional objectives. We agree that behind some difficulties in learning there are emotional reasons.This partnership was born with the aim to help the students who faced with many difficulties in their daily or inner life such as; relationship with their families, or friends, school bullying, over protection by families, ethnicity difference, anger management etc. We wanted to learn how to teach our pupils in a holistic way, following the Social-Emotional Learning ideas and methods. Thus, we learnt the theory to have a solid base of knowledge and, so, to develop a good work to reach our objectives. We formed activities and shared them with each other. Moreover, during the transnational meetings we did some visits to learn more and to get new ideas to do in our schools: in Spain we visited a school that has a wide experience on Social-Emotional Learning to have a view about what can be done; in Czech Republic we visited two centres that deal with children with educational and emotional problems to see how they work with them; in Frankfurt, we visited two schools who work on inclusion; in Poland we visited a school with integrative classes in which children with special educational needs are taught, and also a kindergarten lead by Montessori method. We spread the learning and experiences with our colleagues in each school centre. We used Google Drive, email, skype and whatsapp to share ideas, doubts, resources,etc. Moreover, we created a blog about our partnership to show the community our work. We organised four meetings to coordinate, evaluate, improve and talk about all things needed to go on with the project. Between each meeting, we applied the activities proposed and we communicated through email, google drive, whatsapp and Skype.Our students communicated with postcards and letters and became penfriends. We are happy with the results of this project. It was an excellent way to achieve our objectives in a cooperative way. Our aims were: - To help the students identify their emotions and feelings, express them and manage them. - To create a peaceful climate and wellness in the classes for a better learning. - To acquire skills to control negative emotions and acquire affirmative behaviours. - To achieve positive attitudes in the conflicts resolution. - To gain a deep understanding about the principles and usage of Social-Emotional Learning. - To learn new teaching methods to reach the objectives. - To improve language skills in English. - To reinforce the European bonds. Since our project was a cross-curricular and cross-level subject, we used different methodologies depending on the activities and the target group. There were activities for the teachers and for the children. There were individual activities, team work and evaluative activities to see the progress and the impact of the project. Apart from that, our students wrote letters to their penfriends from the schools in the partnership. So, the range of activities were wide and the project was a benefit to all the school communities: students at all levels, teachers and families since we shared with them our work and results and so, it was a help for them as well in the education of their children.