ΡΑΛΛΕΙΟ ΓΕΝΙΚΟ ΛΥΚΕΙΟ ΘΗΛΕΩΝ ΠΕΙΡΑΙΑ - 10/2020-6/2021: Integration of the thematic areas of the Erasmus+ KA2 R4MAD program in the daily curricular teaching practice

Due to COVID-19 restrictions and the online operation of schools for more than 6 months during school year 2020-2021, all scheduled R4MAD educational and teaching visits were cancelled. Instead, the teachers of the Pedagogical Team of the program integrated the thematic areas of Erasmus+ KA2 R4MAD in their daily teaching practice, whether online or in person, throughout the school year, using alternative teaching techniques and methodology which contribute both to the lessons becoming more attractive and effective and to the development of the students' critical, creative and systems thinking. In this way, they developed R4MAD "Green Curriculum" comprising of lesson plans and educational scenarios to be uploaded in the designated European platforms at the end of the program. It should be noted that much of this work was based on the scientific lectures and presentations made on the second day of the 15th 2-day online conference "Biology meets Modern Society", organized, in collaboration with the Panhellenic Association of Bioscientists, by Ralleio Biology teachers Mr G. Katopodis and P. Markopoulos in the framework of the subjects of Biology and Chemistry. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=80NnhOADzWs
More specifically, the thematic areas of Erasmus+ KA2 R4MAD were integrated in the following subjects per class:
Α' CLASS

HISTORY, Classes Α1, A2, A3, A4, MARCH 2021: "Climate Change as a driving force of human history" (Nikolaos Panagiotopoulos, History and Sociology teacher). Climate Change affects not only the environment but also the economy, the daily life of people all around the world, politics and policies as well as cultural life. It could be considered as parallel to the American, the French and the Russian Revolutions in the sense that it changes the financial, social and political structures as well as the geomorphology of the planet. In the same way as those three Revolutions reshaped the planet, climate change determines the conditions for humanity either to shift to a form of social organization that will co-exist with the natural environment to the benefit of all or to be led to destruction. A' class students worked on the subject both in a plenary Q & A session and in groups to develop their critical and systems thinking skills.
CIVICS, 2ND TERM 2021: "Active Citizenship: The environmental impact of consumption", Classes A1 & A2: Dimitrios Chalikias (Economy & Civics teacher), Classes A3 & Α4: Stavroula Alevromageirou (Law & Civics teacher). All students worked in groups with designated roles to produce the mandatory 2nd term project in the subject of Civics by focusing on UN SDG's 12 & 13. They attended the recorded lectures and presentations on marine pollution made on the second day of the afore-mentioned 15th 2-day online conference "Biology meets Modern Society", studied the European Green Deal and focused on various case studies.

Β' CLASS

ENGLISH AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE (EFL), Classes Β1, Β2, Β3, Β4, OCTOBER 2020: "Fast Fashion and its global environmental impact" (Katerina Christodoulou, EFL teacher). Upon completion of Unit 6 of their English textbook entitled "Fast Fashion", students worked in groups to produce a relevant questionnaire in English which they shared with their fellow students of all classes in order to raise awareness on the subject. The development of the questionnaire functioned also as a self-reflection activity aimed additionally at revising the thematic vocabulary of the textbook unit.
GREEK LANGUAGE, Class Β2, DECEMBER 2020: «News, Advertising, Consumerism» (Dr Maria Panagiotopoulou, Greek Language Teacher). In the framework of their Greek Language textbook entitled "The News: news items and commentaries, organization and presentation of the news item", students worked on distinguishing between factual news items and commentaries, on recognizing the perspective of the journalist-writer and his/her writing style, on visualizing the news item using the inverted pyramid model and on identifying the appropriate title through texts referring to anti-consumerism. The series of online lessons took place just before the Christmas holidays and the subject of anti-consumerism was selected as counter weight to the "internal and external feeling of Christmas holidays loneliness", especially due to the pandemic lockdown. Students participated in guided group discussions on the subjects of biased journalism leading to overconsumption and of media role models connecting consumption to happiness. They developed short plenary speeches on the value of simple living and reached the conclusion that the pandemic illustrated even more the oxymoron nature of the connection between Christmas (as a religious celebration) and overconsumption during the holidays. Using brainstorming techniques, students wrote articles and paragraphs, painted pictures and created advertising posters to express their disagreement with consumerism advertising and to manifest the importance of human relationships, a value which became of vital importance during the pandemic lockdown.
ENGLISH AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE (EFL), Classes Β1, Β2, Β3, Β4, JANUARY 2021: "Analyzing the 17 UN SDG's", (Katerina Christodoulou, EFL teacher). The thematic area of Sustainable Development was chosen to serve some of the basic aims of the national EFL curriculum at upper secondary education, such as comprehension of authentic written texts, scan reading to identify important information in a text and selecting key information elements in a text in order to form an opinion and correlate it with other opinions. In the course of 3 online teaching periods, using the flipped classroom model, students watched an introductory video on SDG's, participated in guided plenary discussions and, in groups, completed a semi structured mind map of the 17 SDG's and their Targets. Group representatives presented the groups' findings, plenary discussion and peer correction followed and, finally, students were given individual writing assignments to consolidate the use of the new concepts and the thematic vocabulary.
GREEK LANGUAGE, Classes Β3, B4, MAY 2021: "Sustainability Issues as presented at news internet sites" (Anastasia Keskesiadou, Greek Language Teacher). In the framework of their Greek Language textbook entitled "The News: news items and commentaries, organization and presentation of the news", students discussed the subject in a plenary Q & A session and then, in groups, documented the news flow on Sustainability issues at certain news internet sites. Finally, the groups presented their findings to the class.

C' CLASS

ENGLISH AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE (EFL), Classes C1, C2, C3, C4, C5, DECEMBER 2020: "EU and the climate crisis: The more you know, the more you do" (Katerina Christodoulou, EFL teacher). In the framework of their EFL classes, C class students attended a specially designed series of online lessons/ project on Sustainable Development and the EU Commission's holistic approach for sustainability and UN SDGs 12, 13 and 14 in particular. The integration of Sustainability in the daily teaching practice of English as a Foreign Language was achieved by using authentic UN and EU texts, videos, charts, concept maps and info graphics which were used by the students to develop their personal Sustainability portfolios. One hundred and thirteen senior students (aged 17-18, CEFR: B2+-C2) were involved in 5 classes. The selection of the authentic UN and EU material provided to the students was based on their orientation for the university entry exams in June. Therefore, classes C1 and C2 (Humanities) worked on the subject of Textile Industry, class C3 (Science and Biology) worked on the subject of Plastics and classes C4 and C5 (Economics) focused on Circular Economy. The aims of the project were to serve the National Curriculum for C class English (comprehension of authentic written texts, authentic multimodal texts, scan reading skills, summarizing, correlating information with opinions), to raise awareness about the current state of the planet and the need to face the anthropogenic factors causing and/or contributing to the climate crisis, to provide learners with information about EU legislation/ policies/ measures regarding action (to be) taken to tackle the climate crisis and to promote sustainability, and, finally, to encourage students to act by changing some of their daily habits and by volunteering at school. The expected outcomes concerning the cognitive aspect of the project were: enhanced reading skills in English (formal, authentic texts) using SQR3 methodology, enrichment and/or revision and/or consolidation and/or use of environment-related vocabulary in English, practice of writing and viewing skills in English, improved note-taking, organizational, ICT and presentation skills in English, development of learning strategies in a context which combines elements of Content, Communication, Cognition and Culture and enhanced meta-cognitive skills. Other expected outcomes included: reinforced student-centered learning, Raising of self-awareness, environmental and sustainability awareness, encouraging oneself and others, empathizing with others thus leading to volunteering, improved ability to compare, contrast, draw conclusions, enhanced reflection on decisions made, collaborative decision-making, and, finally, taking responsibility for present and future generations. The implementation of the project was based on plenary brainstorming sessions, individual work, self-reflection and meta cognitive skills development on a KWL chart-portfolio as well as on problem solving activities in groups with assigned roles. All the teaching material was uploaded on a Padlet document for easy access by students.
GREEK LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE, Classes C4 and C5, MARCH 2021: « Sustainability in Literature» (Dimitris Christopoulos. Greek Language & Literature Teacher). In the framework of the subject Greek Language and Literature, C4 and C5 class students studied the Greek translation of the poems "Dolphins whistling" by Helen Dunmore και "Hope in Wings" by Brendan Kennely, which refer to the destruction of life under water, using the methodology of interpreting dialogue and writing their own comment, which they shared with the rest of the class. They also were engaged in a series of creative writing activities. In addition, they attended a two-hour lecture by Dr D. Kalaitzidis, Educational Coordinator on Sustainability of the Ministry of Education, on the subject of climate change and its impact on the environment, human societies and the economy. The lecture was followed by a Q & A session and discussion on the subject.
ECONOMY, Class C5, MARCH 2021: «THE MODEL OF CIRCULAR ECONOMY» (Dimitrios Chalikias, Economy & Civics teacher). Class C5 students attended a specially developed presentation on the models of Linear and Circular Economy and their environmental implications followed by a plenary Q & A session. They then worked in groups to study the case of Social Cooperative Enterprise Staramaki, which produces drinking straws from wheat stems providing an environmentally friendly alternative to plastic drinking straws.
GREEK LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE, Class C2, APRIL 2021: "Group work activity: Studying the 17 UN SDG's in depth" (Charalambia Kaneletopoulou, Greek Language Teacher). Students worked online in groups using the Internet to look up information and documentation on the 17 UN SDG's. They then presented their findings to the class and suggested ways for the effective implementation of the Goals in daily life. Because the SDG's are of the utmost importance, all student groups underlined the necessity for synergies between the public and the private sectors at national and global level as well as for the cooperation of the civil society in an inclusive way towards their achievement, given that Sustainable Development includes equally the financial, the social and the environmental aspects.
MATHEMATICS, Classes C1 & C2, APRIL 2021: "Recycling and Reusing in Mathematics" (Dr Georgios Panopoulos, Mathematics teacher). C1 & C2 students solved a Probability problem in their Mathematics class, whose scenario was based on the activities of Ralleio "Second Life" environmental teams for recycling and reusing, thus integrating the subject of Sustainable Management in the subject of Mathematics.