eTwinning Teachers' Blog

French student, Charlotte Durando, recently spent a week at European Schoolnet, the Central Support Service for eTwinning. About eTwinning, she had the following to say to her fellow classmates in Europe...

Get involved in a technologic class with eTwinning!!!

Not liking school? Finding the teaching boring? Wanting to have courses on digital media, and a new way of working? All this is possible thanks to eTwinning! If you agree, you will see the difference.

eTwinning promotes school collaboration in Europe through information technology and communication (ICT) in providing support, tools and services to facilitate the creation of school partnerships in the short or long term. eTwinning is very interesting because trough it we can get in touch with many other schools and works on a same project. It’s a new way of designing learning in schools.

For examples on how to get involved in eTwinning, eTwinning has also created a blog for teachers. On the teachers’ blog, teachers can post comments about their eTwinning project and discover what it is about. In this way, they can involve their class into the eTwinning project.

There are currently 68446 schools in partnerships with the various projects submitted by eTwinning. There is no principal blog for the teenagers, but there are some blogs within the different projects themselves. In France, there are 7769 schools involved in eTwinning.

So, if you want your school to change, to use more technology, ask your teachers and get involve into eTwinning!!!

By: Charlotte Durando, France

Posted by Christina Crawley at 05:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Hello friends! We want to tell you about our project. It started in 2007 year.
The project ‘Nosa Cultuta’ – ‘Our culture’ is about cultural heritage, traditions, customs and celebrations in both countries - Bulgaria and Portugal. Its main goal is to provoke thoughtful consideration amongst students towards learning and then presenting their traditions and customs before their counterparts.
Using the latest technologies, we are performing our project’s activities via photos, pictures, presentations, video clips from the most interesting moments in our work. We exchange IT information as part of student’s learning activities and motivation.
Introducing the interactive board as part of the teaching process is the biggest achievement in our work so far. The board provides equal opportunities for all students to take part in presenting and exchanging the information of relative subjects. It is a team work where the teacher acts as coordinator and consultant. Every team member presents and learns the subject and vice versa. The team work is an innovative approach of the education system.

Continue reading "eTwinning Bulgaria-Portugal" »

Posted by eTwinning Teacher at 09:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Dear friends of eTwinning,

Congratulations!!

“Hip Hip Hooray 5 years eTwinning!”

That deserves a lot of flowers! To celebrate this special event, a team of eTwinning Ambassadors created together with their pupils a carpet of flowers in a virtual way. Right from the heart for all who made this European project possible.

Project website: http://www.sintamandusmeulebeke.be/hiphiphooray/5yearsetwinning.htm
Kind regards,

'The 5 from Crete' ('5 eTwinners' who met each other in Chania (Crete) during a Professional Development Workshop in October 2009 and made a lot of plans…)

Anne McMorrough (Ireland) annemcm@eircom.net

Ursa Bajda (Slovenia) ursa.baj@gmail.com

Patrick Carroll (United Kingdom) pc@shawwood.doncaster.sch.uk

Heikki Kontturi (Finland) heikki.kontturi@oulu.fi

Lieven Van Parys (Belgium) lieven.van.parys@skynet.be

Posted by eTwinning Teacher at 08:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

This collaborative project is part of an etwinning project ‘Colours of Life’ for children of ages 4 to 5 years old. During this project children observed colour in the environment, colour in food and colours of the seasons. The children were encouraged to be creative and to discover the link between shape, form and colour. The partner schools from Malta and Poland wanted the children to think, imagine, explore, be curious and express themselves. They wanted the participating children to feel closer together by working online in a common task. A Web2.0 tool, www.sketchfu.com, provided the solution. Sketchfu is a simple drawing tool where children start a drawing, send it online to their partners who in turn continue the drawing. The drawing can be sent back and forth until it is finished.
The sky and sea were chosen as topics for the drawings. The teachers from both schools agreed that they didn’t want to encourage the finished drawing but the process of creating it to build the children’s thinking skills. The children did four drawings collaboratively. Using video editing software the drawings were turned into a digital story. The children made up the story from the finished videoclip. The English language was the agreed common language. The narration was recorded in English. The children had a lot of fun making sound effects for the story.
The children were highly motivated and excited with the whole project. This video clip took some time to finish as each day saw a progression in the drawings and the storymaking. The children came to school enthusiastically and looking forward to open the drawings to see what their European friends had drawn and what sounds they had produced. The enthusiasm infected the parents also as the children happily recounted what they were doing with this project. A parent volunteered to compose the background music for the video which was warmly welcomed. The parents can watch the video on our project’s website.

This product was an experience in creative story ‘writing’ for these young children. They were free to fantasize, be creative and develop their thinking skills. Working together the children shared ideas, opinions and information. It promoted teamwork and it helped the children learn from and with their peers.

Continue reading "Drawing Adventures from Malta and Poland " »

Posted by eTwinning Teacher at 10:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The eLearning Awards 2009 is a great opportunity to promote your eTwinning project and get a cash prize too! The competition was launched in September and will close on 23 October. Winners will be invited to a ceremony in Lithuania on 26 November 2009.

If you have an innovative project matching the categories below, register it on http://elearningawards.eun.org/register. Joint prizes between schools will be awarded by sharing the prize between eTwinning partners. Prizes include cash money for schools as well as equipment such as digital white boards as well as a trip to Vilnius, Lithuania to attend the ceremony.

Here are the categories for this year’s eLearning awards:

Simple tutorial quide to create Podcast with Audacity.<
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Posted by Miguela Fernandes at 12:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Una tarde del otoño de 1985, apareció ante mí Europa en forma de alumno de intercambio. Un compañero de clase nos presentaba a un chaval inglés que había venido a vivir a su casa y a estudiar a nuestro instituto durante un trimestre.
Recuerdo que me pareció un sueño apasionante e … inalcanzable. Mi familia no podía permitirse tal dispendio y desde luego, aunque hubiera habido posibilidad de becas, no me imaginaba a un inglés en mi casa cenando noche sí, noche también, tortilla de patatas.
Han pasado más de veinte años de aquello y este otoño, por fin, puedo hacer realidad aquel sueño, en forma de proyecto Comenius. Ahora que disfruto de un destino definitivo como maestro de educación física en Náquera, puedo plantearme objetivos a medio y largo plazo y las posibilidades de participación en proyectos educativos conjuntos que ofrece la Comisión Europea con otros países de la unión suponen una oportunidad que no quiero dejar escapar por más tiempo.
El primer paso ha sido lanzar la propuesta de participar en alguna acción educativa de la Comisión a los miembros del claustro de maestros de mi centro. Después de contar con su apoyo y aprobación, el segundo paso ha consistido en la inscripción en el portal etwining. El tercer paso, previa presentación de la idea del proyecto, será la búsqueda de socios. A continuación, crearemos el proyecto formalmente y por fin, si todo va bien, lo pondremos en práctica a principios del curso 09/10.
He aprovechado los días de vacaciones de Navidad para hacerme un regalo personal: la inscripción en etwining. El regalo ha sido aún mayor de lo que pensaba cuando he empezado a recibir mensajes de otros miembros del portal. Reconozco que me he emocionado al ver que gentes de sitios tan distintos como el Reino Unido, Rumania, Grecia o Turquia han considerado atractiva mi propuesta de proyecto de Intercambio de Juegos y Deportes Tradicionales.
En unos días volveré al colegio con una sonrisa de oreja a oreja y pondré al corriente de las novedades a mis compañeros de claustro. Comienza un nuevo año donde los sueños pueden hacerse realidad.

Juan Dols
CP Emilio Lluch de Náquera (Valencia, España)

Posted by eTwinning Teacher at 10:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Once upon a time, in autumn 1985, Europe came out in front of me. It was in the form of an international exchange: I met an English boy who had arrived to Spain to improve his Spanish and who was going to stay with one of my classmates for three months.

I remember it as a fascinating and an impossible dream. My family had a rough time and we could not afford such an experience. Of course, even considering the possibility of getting a grant, I could not imagine a foreign boy or girl having for supper, almost every night, a spanish omelette.

More than twenty years have passed since then. And this year, at last, I can make that dream come true in the form of a Comenius project. Nowadays, I enjoy a definitive job as a teacher in Naquera (Valencia). For this reason, I can consider the possibility of participating in European educative projects in the middle and in the long run, and I do not want to miss my chance.

First of all, I suggested to the members of my staff the possibility of participating in some educative action related with the European Council. After having their support, the second step was to sign up as a member of the etwining site. The third step, after having launched my idea, will be the search of partners all aroung Europe. Next, we will design the definitive project and finally, and if everything goes according to plans, we will put it into practice by the beginning of 2009/10 school year.

I have been making good use of my time during my Christmas holidays, by making myself a present: as I said before, I have register as an etwinning member. And the present have become better than best when I have started receiving e-mails from other members of the site. I must recognize I have felt deeply touched when I have been contacted by people from a variety of countries like United Kingdom, Rumania, Greece or Turkey. People who have considered that my proposal of an exchange related to traditional games and sports should be attractive.

In a few days, I will come back to my school with a huge grin, with the purpose of filling my staff on the results of my work. A new year when dreams can be made true begins!.

Juan Dols
(Tr: Toni Moragas)
Primary School Emilio Lluch in Náquera (Valencia, Spain)

Posted by eTwinning Teacher at 10:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

La présentation du projet eTwinning classes virtuelles WKTO est disponible sur le site de l’AGENCE NATIONALE DES USAGES DES TICE :
http://www.agence-usages-tice.education.fr/template.asp?page=2&idtem=1121
Le projet WKTO-eTwinning accueille 1000 élèves en provenance de 30 établissements scolaires de 15 pays. Les élèves sont répartis au sein de 60 classes virtuelles de 15 personnes environ. 250 élèves du lycée l’Oiselet de Bourgoin-Jallieu participent au projet, ce qui représente 15% des élèves de l’établissement.
http://www.ac-grenoble.fr/wkto/

Posted by Bernard garcin at 09:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I joined eTwinning in 2005 after that my school organised an evening seminar by the NSS Mr Emile Vassallo. The way he described eTwinning made me very curious to explore this new world, and when I got home I registered. I placed my ideas for a new project about how Avian Influenza was affecting different countries in Europe since that year it was a very hot issue. Another teacher soon replied that he was interested to start off a project with me, and I was too enthusiastic. My form 5 students , did research about this microbe, and were monitoring all newspapers and news regarding how this Influenza was being dealt with in Malta and in other countries etc. We did a lot of work, but our parnter ended up doing nothing, and that was a big blow for us. We were very disappointed, but our headmaster appreciated our work and that was an intrinsic reward for my students and me.

Continue reading "My eTwinning Experiences - Josephine Ebejer Grech (Malta)" »

Posted by eTwinning Teacher at 01:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

In the previous school year my pupils and I together with a group of pupils and teachers from Italy and Spain worked on an e-Twinning project called ‘Discover Europe’(a safe web-based collaborative project focused on cultural awareness and intercultural learning).
Apart from exchanging information and photos about our local communities and our customs and traditions we decided to create a set of interactive learning objects based on the participating pupils’ personal accounts about their cultures (multiple choice exercises, drag and drop exercises, crosswords, fill-in exercises etc). These are digital modules built on certain didactic sequences aiming to enable a learner to acquire knowledge and skills on a specific topic or theme.
They help teachers increase their learners' interest and motivation in learning. Besides, they make learning and teaching more dynamic, intuitive and interactive and improve both pupils’ and teachers’ ICT skills.
As regards our learning objects, they are focused on cultural awareness and intercultural learning and aim to help pupils reinforce the information learned in the project.
I was really surprised to see how much of their own time my pupils devoted to participating in the project as they found eTwinning a rich and rewarding experience!
That is why, beginning with this school year our School Board has decided to include it in our school curriculum and allocate an optional course addressed to the 5th grade A and 7th grade A.

Continue reading "Discover Europe through a set of interactive learning objects!" »

Posted by eTwinning Teacher at 08:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The evolution and the transformations in the social area which took place in our country for the past years, have highlighted the necessity of some special services in the phicho-pedagogigal and social fields. These special services are addressed to several categories of beneficiaries- people in difficulty or with several needs which they cannot handle and who often end up behind isolated, maladjusted, marginalized or isolated from the society.
With this project, we hope to reduce some of this difficulties which characterize many children who come from a family or from The Recovery Centre of the Children with severe Handicap Galata, Iasi.
“Tudor Argezi” School, The B structure of “Titu Maiorescu” school from Iasi, wants to facilitate the access of the pupils with special needs to free speech, education, games, songs, arts, practical abilities, stories, theatre, puppet plays by giving them a programme centered on the individual. We have chosen various activities, we have become partners with other schools and institutions, which will help our pupils to socialize, make friends and communicate.
There is no doubt that these children are seeking for love and support, just like the rest of us. That’s why the society cannot oversee or abandon these children with special needs and must offer them an equal chance.
All the activities we planned focus on reducing the marginalization of the children with special needs by the community and also, we want to give them opportunities to enlarge their knowledge horizon so that their social and relational results improve.
eTwinning is a great opportunity for all kids from Europe .
Teacher Eugenia Apetroi
“Titu Maiorescu” School-structure ”Tudor Arghezi” - Iasi (Romania)

Posted by eTwinning Teacher at 06:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Maria Vaida, "Ioan Bob" School, Cluj-Napoca, Romania

Posted by eTwinning Teacher at 10:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Last year, in October, Romania was accepted in eTwinning and I was very delighted that I became a member of this community. In a short time I find a partner for my project, a school from Spain, Colegio Caja Granada.
Our project is called THE CELEBRATION OF THE MONTH. The pupils, coordinated by the teachers work on gathering information related to the most important holidays of each month (ethno-folkloric, literary, historical etc). In the same time different products are developed: articles for the school magazine, pp presentations, a web site, CDS, a holiday calendar, an album with all the phases of the project. The representative works are published on the Internet in English, Romanian and Spanish.
During the activities performed together with the partner school the teams will identify the similarities but also the differences between the two cultures. There will be supplementary foreign language lessons, lessons about local and national history and geography. These activities will constitute a good opportunity for practicing linguistic competencies but also for socializing and developing tolerance and mutual respect.
The development of the project will be permanently monitored, the suggested objectives will be followed, and the activities will be adapted to the newly appeared needs.
The dissemination of the results will be an important aspect of the project. It will be realized throughout the whole period of the partnership. Finally, they will be presented at both schools involved and to the public in order to generate interest for learning foreign languages and to understand the similarities and differences between European cultures.
http://thecelebrationofthemonth.wetpaint.com/ - here you can see a part of our work
We do our best in order that our school should obtain a European dimension with a large opening towards Europe, conditioned by the entrance of Romania into EU.

This project constitutes an opportunity for our pupils to practice and develop their linguistic competencies. On the other hand involving pupils in an intercultural dialogue would improve their personal development and would contribute to a better social cohesion.
Our expectations are:
- The cooperation between the involved schools in order to identify cultural similarities based on the Latin origin of our countries; involvement in an intercultural dialogue.
- The promotion of some national and local elements together with the acceptance and respect for the cultural identity of each country.
- The formation of research and learning skills necessary for personal development and social integration.
- Raising awareness of the importance of life long learning.
- Improvement of pupils motivation and their communication skills in a foreign language.
- Formation language competencies in other languages besides those learnt at school.

Maria Vaida, "Ioan Bob" School, Cluj-Napoca, Romania

Posted by eTwinning Teacher at 10:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Let´s make the European heart beat!

Posted by Miguela Fernandes at 10:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Posted by eTwinning Teacher at 12:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Hello!
My name is Aurelia; I`m chemistry teacher in Constanta, the most beautiful Romanian city port from Black Sea. I want to tell everybody about my eTwinning`s practice.I have 2 European labels, a lot of friends and many teaching`s experiences. Last school year, I was involved in a few eTwinning projects. For many projects, collaboration was`nt only virtual: I found my partners for Comenius project (the project was winner!), I knew new friends from Czech Republic (we have visit each other), I met new colleagues for new eTwinning projects.
eTwinning experience was the most interesting part of my past school year! I love eTwinning! Welcome for the new partners!
Aurelia Cezar, Constanta - Romania

Posted by eTwinning Teacher at 12:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

One of the most important and most generous features of the eTwinning concept is learning by means of cooperation.
Some time ago, I noticed that there was a widespread opinion among teachers that only competitive relationships generate a proper motivation for learning, but many experimental research and analysis have highlighted the differences between learning through cooperation, learning in an individualistic manner and the one done in a competition situation, emphasizing the high efficiency of groups of students facing a common task of learning.
A class is a specific social group that mediates, in time, fundamental changes at the cognitive level of each of its members. The climate in the class has a huge impact on the perceptions that the students and teachers have, reflect the reasons for which they work (or don’t work) together, the ability to talk together and to examine ideas critically and reflects the characteristics of that class as a learning community.
The collaborative learning climate, such as the one in the projects, brings:
• in terms of school performance: more effort to succeed, therefore, better results for all the pupils (labeled in the traditional manner as "very good", "mediocre", "weak"), inner motivation, involvement in solving tasks, a better dosage of the available time in order to achieve the task, critical thinking;
· in terms of interpersonal relationships: deeper and warmer pupils’ relationships by boosting team spirit, appreciation and valuing of multi-ethnical diversity through the development of empathy and cohesion at the national and international group level.
· in terms of personal identity: self-identity strengthening, development of social skills, self-image improvement, developing the capacity to handle stress and adversity.

Through such an management of the learning situations, students positively rely on each other, and this positive interdependence leads to loyalty towards the group. Other essential elements in learning through cooperation are :
· the responsibility of the individual
· stimulating interaction
· interpersonal skills and competencies
· awareness and assessment of the way the group works
When learning is achieved through cooperation on a regular basis, students can turn from “lonely learners” into “colleagues who learn together”, reaching levels of academic competence both in the group and as members of teams.
Groups that learn through cooperation focus on maximizing the academic success of all the group members.

Irina Vasilescu, School no.92, Bucharest, Romania

Posted by eTwinning Teacher at 03:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

We are two schools: Základní škola Malecí, Nové Město nad Metují, Česká Republika and Scoala "Ioan Bob" Cluj-Napoca, Romania and we start a project in which we would like to associate with us a lot of many schools to create a great Eurobook.

Eurobook: Around Europe. This is our project. http://eurobook.wetpaint.com/

What is the project „Around Europe“?
It is a tendency in it, that children of all EU will make together one big book about the place, where they live. That place called Europe. Each school will process a few of pages about their country, towns and surroundings, famous people and school. A part of the book will be an internacional vocabulary with the most use phrases. If the book will finaled, it will printed and gived to weave.

Continue reading "Invitation to be our partner " »

Posted by eTwinning Teacher at 06:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

My students come from Romania, from a country school named "Dimitrie Anghel", a flower's poet.She is situated near Iasi city, in Cornesti-Miroslava.My name is Dorina Marin and I'm their primary teacher.
We have participated at several etwinning projects since 2006, firstlly as guests, then as partners.We have started with "Across The Bible Across Europe", a project about truth, justice, sympathy, generosity, forgiveness and love, coordonated by Teresa Fernandes from Escola Secondaria de "D.Dinis"-Lisboa-Portugal and Irene Szymansky from "Peter Petersen"School-Frankfurt/Main-Germania.In time, we have descover new friends: from IES-Thalassa-Barcelona-Spain-Eva Campoy and Marc Julia-"How young european combat boredom",from GBS De Waterleest, Eppegem-Belgium-Kristof de Loose-"Happy faces join us",from 1ο Δημοτικό Σχολείο Γιαννιτσών, Γιαννιτσά-Greece-Zoe Abrazi and from Direzione Didattica Rionero in Vulture, Rionero in Vulture (PZ) -Italy-Maria Teresa Carrieri-"My school through time", from Szkoła Podstawowa nr 9 im. Orląt Lwowskich w Tarnowie -Poland-Krystyna Gądek-"How we spend our freetime" and from Escola Secondaria de "D.Dinis"-Lisboa-Portugal-Teresa Fernandes-"Joy@Singing".In the new school year 2008-2009 we have found others and we have started new projects.
That experience, since last years, from etwinning portal, was a good opportunity for our students to learn how to identify cultural similarities and differences, about new customs and values and how to gain intercultural experience.
We have learn many things about each others and we think now that Europe is not just a "strange place"but a open gate for making friendships, and we can define that in three important words:"We love eTwinning !"
We invite you to see some memories from our life on eTwinning:http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8243889612660642319&hl=en

Posted by eTwinning Teacher at 11:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)