Let`s learn and know each other.

Our school keeps following the labour market needs, so the long-term goal is to create new fields of study or to introduce new subjects into teaching. Thanks to the efforts of our school management, this school has become one of the pilot secondary schools that have introduced new study fields: Internet and Networking Technologies, Logistics and Electrical Engineering with a focus on Industrial Informatics. We belong to the largest and most requested secondary schools in the region with a unique offer of study fields. So far, we have been the only ones offering the Information and Networking Technologies study field in the Žilina Region. This field of study is attractive for pupils, so for the second year we have opened three classes in this field. The innovated fields also include the focus on industrial informatics, where new subjects have been added to enable pupils to work with the graphics program system OrCAD 16, LaB VIEW, program in C, designe and program control systems based on single-chip microcontrollers AVR and PLC, create web pages and other internet applications.Our students from some study fields are demanded on the labour market, many of them work in automotive and engineering companies or carry out network administrators or computer administrators in smaller institutions or primary schools during their studies. The school is trying to modernize the teaching space from outside and inside - it is setting up new computer labs, classrooms for teaching engineering, electrical and logistics subjects. Each class has a computer with internet access and a multimedia board. The school tries to improve the quality of teaching and make the study of individual disciplines more attractive. The school has a barrier-free access, so pupils with physical disabilities are also studying.The goal of the school is also to improve English students' performance and improve communication with the possibility of better employment in the labour market, as knowledge of the language in these fields is essential. We would like a larger percentage of pupils to graduate from English at B2 level. This project should also help us.The school tries to use all opportunities to improve students´ learning and teachers´ teaching conditions. We would like to exchange experiences with other European schools - not only with regard to school management but also with the content of teaching and ways of working with pupils. That is why we welcomed a project for exchange partnerships enriched with an educational dimension - in the ICT field. We were looking for schools with a similar focus to enrich not only the cultural dimension but also the educational one. We approached a school from the Czech Republic with which we have a good experience from the previous project and we know that in the teaching process they have things that would be of great benefit and enrichment for us. We chose the second school from Turkey. This country is a great unknown for us, many of us have various prejudices, so we would like to try to dismantle them, get to know the people of this country, their school and educational system, the way and content of teaching, their culture, customs and religion. Both schools have accepted our invitation to this project, neither of them has any experience with exchange.We plan to make three four-day meetings in the project - all participants in each country. Each meeting will be attended by 8 pupils, 2 teachers and 1 member of the school management from each country. Each school will prepare a program for the other two schools, which will include a learning, knowledge, sports, cultural and evaluation section. We agreed that the Czech school will prepare activities for optical cables, the Slovak school will enrich others with LEGO Mindstorm activities, and the Turkish school will prepare activities for design and CNC machines. Students will enrich their knowledge and skills not offered by the home school, teachers acquire new knowledge and motivation for further work and leadership gains inspiration for further school development. They all will learn to communicate in English. The way how to enrich the others with the cultural heritage of the country was left to the organizers of the meeting. Sport has the task to enrich the interaction between pupils from different countries. The final evaluation should result in the creation of a common website where the participants would share their impressions, experiences and acquired knowledge. We would like to know similar schools in other European countries, share teaching experiences, improve mutual communication, break prejudices.