Max Ernst Gymnasium in Brühl, Germany has applied for the funding of a project concerning the mobility of staff for the development and improvement of methodology and practical teaching techniques and skills at the school. The English department of the Max Ernst Gymnasium is determined to achieve these goals by sending a staff member abroad. It is planned to choose a course with the specific course title "Active Methology" (School of English / Edinburgh, GB). The course aims at updating the methodology and practical teaching techniques and skills at school. As the Max Ernst Gymnasium is currently developing a new syllabus for English as a foreign language, new ideas can be included there within. Course objectives such as new approaches and attitudes to teaching and learning will be disseminated within the English department, which consists of 20 English teachers. Subsequent visits of classes among colleagues will allow feedback and deepen the understanding of what the individual teacher and his/her colleagues do in the classroom. This will lead to an increased awareness of teaching English as a foreign language. However, the English department does not only expect positive impact on staff competence, but - obviously - also on pupils. The course contents will enable to heighten the pupils' language skills and therefore improve individual communication skills in the commonly used English language and thus prepare the pupils for the internationalization and integration in the European Union. The application is submitted for one member of the English department. This teacher will also personally profit from the course, as she will be able to discuss problems, ideas and language, and techniques with other teachers of English from different European countries who will be participating in the course. On a wider scale, the teachers' training course potentially supports establishing long-term ties with other European schools, which might cooperate via etwinning, exchange programmes or in other ways in the future. Finally, the teacher will also be sent abroad to improve her individual language skills as well as her confidence and competence when speaking in a foreign language. All in all, the participation of the teacher will improve teaching skills in the short term and render possible the school's integration in the European framework on a long term basis. The participating staff member will be chosen on the basis of individual committment, subjects and participation in further European programmes (i.e. The big challenge).