eTwinning UK

eTwinning for Hospital Schools in Gothenburg, Sweden

 

eTwinning for Hospital Schools in Gothenburg, Sweden Last month a professional development workshop was held in Gothenburg, Sweden for Hospital Schools. This was the first time a workshop has been held for this particular teaching group, and in total the event brought together 75 teachers from 24 countries across Europe.

 

The workshop ran over three days and gave participants a chance to share experiences, network, create new project ideas together, and plan eTwinning projects for the future. There was a strong focus on giving the teachers time to mix and talk together in groups. Although all present were teachers in hospital schools, this covered a broad range of institutions, teaching practice, and levels of pupil engagement so there was a lot to talk about and compare.

 

As well as this, there was the opportunity to reflect on ways of working. A talk on Inclusive Education in the Swedish education system from lecturer Thomas Barow of University of Borås, prompted a lot of debate. Participants valued the chance to share and discuss their own experiences. How do teachers

manage with the range of pupils in their care, for example? How are school classrooms provided and paid for? We also heard from a representative of HOPE, the European Network for Hospital Schools, and visited the National Competence Centre for Rare Diseases at the pastoral setting of Ågrenska on the outskirts of Gothenburg.

 

In the second and third days of the event, there was a focus on creating projects. Although everyone was new to eTwinning they came up with some excellent project themes and ideas. As the teachers busily worked in groups, the eTwinning staff present were able to think about how eTwinning could support and work more with Hospital Schools in the future. With this in mind, the eTwinning team in the UK are looking for ways that eTwinning can engage with UK Hospital Schools in the future.

If you would like to contact us about this, please e-mail the team at eTwinning@britishcouncil.org

Short-term Olympic project idea for eTwinning

Locate the 2012 Olympian!

Partner schools research inspirational Olympic and Paralympic athletes and upload pictures, stories and map coordinates of the Olympians home town to their TwinSpace.  Partner pupils have to identify the home town of these athletes using the given co-ordinates.

Age Group:     5-18 years

Level:             Intermediate

Duration:        2 -4 weeks

ICT tools:        Google Earth, TwinSpace,  

 

Pedagogical Objectives

Pupils improve their research and ICT skills, whilst learning about inspirational athletes.

 

Preparatory discussion work

Is there an aspiring Olympian or Paralympian in your or your partner school's country or region?  Where did the athlete go to school?  Did the athlete have to overcome anything? How does that compare with challenges faced by the pupils?

 

Process

Step 1:

Pupils research an athlete’s story, then search for and gather photographs of them on the internet (they must be conscious of copyright issues).  They compile a short life story and locate the athletes’ home town on Google earth, taking note of the map co-ordinates.

Step 2:

Pupils then create a game on the TwinSpace or elsewhere, where they upload images, life story (without detailing the home town) and Google earth coordinates of their chosen athlete for their partner school to identify which town the athlete is from.

 

Useful resources:

BBC - Olympics 2012 Sites

www.bbc.co.uk/wales/raiseyourgame/sites/inspiration/

www.bbc.co.uk/worldclass  

www.bbc.co.uk/sport/olympics/2012/world-olympic-dreams

                                    

 

The 2012 “Your Story” competition is launched

 

Have you got an eTwinning story to tell?   

You can share your eTwinning experiences by entering the 2012 "Your Story" competition.    

Tell your story through words, photography or film and you will have the chance to win one of a host of great prizes. 

 

We want to know what impact being part of eTwinning has had on you. Has it given you new skills? Has it changed your perspectives or changed how you teach or learn? Has it opened up new opportunities?

 

We want you to tell us your story.

Visit our competition website for full details.

The competition is open to all Lifelong Learning Programme - Comenius, Erasmus, eTwinning, Grundtvig, Leonardo and Transversal - and Youth in Action participants.

Good luck!

 

 

100 Word Challenge

Guest post from Julia Skinner founder of 100 Word Challenge. We think it is a great way to get pupils writing - why not involve it in your eTwinning projects or invite your eTwinning partners across Europe to be part of it too. 

What is 100WC?

‘The unread story is not a story; it is little black marks on wood pulp. The reader, reading it, makes it live: a live thing, a story.’     Ursula K. Le Guin

We ask children to write in school but often there is no apparent purpose that they can see other than pleasing their teacher! This can prompt some very reluctant writers in our classrooms. The 100 Word Challenge seeks to address this problem.

It is a weekly creative writing challenge for children under 16 years of age. Each week a prompt is given, which can be a picture or a series of individual words and the children can use up to 100 words to write a creative piece. This should be posted on a class blog and then linked to the 100 Word Challenge blog. The link is usually open from midnight on Wednesdays until midnight the following Tuesdays.

By setting a limited word count with a focused theme and a guaranteed audience beyond the class teacher, children have far greater motivation for writing. Those who are reluctant writers feel safe with only 100 words to write, whilst those more advanced writers can really extend themselves with the word restriction.

One of the special things about 100WC is that those entering a piece are encouraged to visit other blogs and leave a constructive comment. Peer ‘talking’ to peer is very powerful and we have seen a real improvement in some writing that has come from suggestions from other children. It also provides another teaching point for teachers to show children how to comment constructively.

The 100 Word Challenge has been used for homework tasks and up leveling practice as well as a regular writing activity. Teachers have found that this has helped with their workload. It certainly helps drive traffic to a blog which in turn helps the motivation for blogging in general. The Quadblogging phenomenon has been able to use 100 Word Challenge for a shared activity. This of course provides an international audience.

Above all – it is fun! Children feel challenged and then really rewarded when they see the comments (please see Team 100WC). Do join in and see writing improve!

World's Biggest School Assembly - May 8th

On May 8th the BBC will be holding the WORLD'S BIGGEST ASSEMBLY. Schools from across the world will hold an assembly at some point during their school day and discuss issues that matter to them. Teachers can then send their school's thoughts to worldclass@bbc.co.uk or tweet #bbcassembly. Comments from schools around the world will be displayed in a live feed.

This sounds like a great way to encourage your students to engage in their international peers' thoughts. We'd like to hear about eTwinners engaging in this project and we will blog about some of the most interesting comments.

There is a forum on eTwinning so that you can keep us updated. Perhaps you will also be able to find a partner to do a follow up project with.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldclass/17549048

Primary Project Presentation 4/5...UK/Malta

‘1, 2 Buckle my Shoes’ is an activity orientated eTwinning project for preschool children. Participating preschools are from Malta, Poland, Spain, United Kingdom, Scotland, Lithuania, Iceland, Italy and Sicily. A preschool from Canada has recently joined the team.

In this activity oriented, media rich project the children are encouraged to explore and discover fascinating mathematical concepts in an exciting context and interesting way. They perform a series of innovative hands-on mathematical activities which they share between the participants through developing ICT skills. Children invent and play games whilst they learn to follow rules. Developing a continuously evolving and shared pedagogy between enthusiastic and creative teachers and learners is central to this project. http://etwinning.skola.edu.mt/2009/03/1-2-buckle-my-shoe-project/

Web page: http://twinmath.wikispaces.com

Moodle platform: http://moodlepp5.webhost.pl/moodle/

This very successful project developed in to a Comenius project across many of the partners involved.

If you would like to see other material from one of our partners follow this link. http://schoolnet.gov.mt/fguraa/etwinning.html

 

Text and pictures: Thanks to eTwinning Ambassador, George Glass at Cauldeen Primary School

Primary Project Presentation 3/5...UK/Malta

The ‘Little Explorers’ project followed on with our partner in Malta. The theme was interesting mathematical and fun scientific activities were carried out.  The children enjoyed singing and dramatizing songs about the weather and creative, artistic activities were ongoing to support the themes. Web page:  http://webnews.textalk.com/en/view.php?id=8842

We followed up with many joint learning and teaching activities and projects including ‘Buzz Bee’ in the Nursery stage developing joint programmes of socialisation skills. Buzz bees was the spring project created to compare and contrast spring in Scotland with spring in Malta. The children enjoyed getting out of the classroom to look at the flowers which were appearing and also the spring blossom on the trees. It was interesting to compare and contrast the range of flowers, plants and insects around at this time both in Scotland and in the much warmer Malta. As part of the spring project the teachers involved also devised Personal and Social motivators for both classes based on developing good social skills and work practices. This was delivered through the cartoon character ‘Buzz Bee’ who really engaged the children’s imagination and motivated them. There was a second language element as the motivators were in both English and Maltese. The theme of bees and honey and flowers grew exponentially and let to a great deal of visits and work involving, dance, crafts, art and super parental involvement as well as healthy eating for the children.  Many of the serendipitous benefits for the children both in Malta and Scotland came shining through as the project developed a life of its own.  http://buzzbees.wikispaces.com

 

Text and pictures: Thanks to eTwinning Ambassador, George Glass at Cauldeen Primary School

Quality Label - Deadline for National Award entry - 9 MAY 2012

Dear eTwinners,

If you are at or near the end of your eTwinning project, you may want to apply for one of our eTwinning Quality Labels.

Achieving a Quality Label gives concrete recognition for your European collaborative work and helps boost pupils’ motivation, as well as enhancing your school’s profile. The achievement can be used to gain further accreditation through the International School Award. And if you submit a successful Quality Label application before 9 MAY 2012 you will be automatically entered for an eTwinning Annual National Prize, which will be awarded at the eTwinning national conference in June 2012.

For more information and tips on what makes a good application visit the British Council eTwinning website

If you need any further support, please don’t hesitate to contact us through etwinning@britishcouncil.org.

Wishing you all the best,

The UK eTwinning Team

Primary Project Presentation 2/5...UK/Malta

‘Chocolate & Chips’ was a project promoting healthy lifestyles in a European context. This is an eTwinning project on the theme of healthy lifestyles between Ms M Schembri’s class (Kindergarten 2) and a Prep 1/2 class in Cauldeen Primary School, Inverness , Scotland.

The project aims to enable 4-6 year olds understand the foundations of healthy lifestyle and share it with their peers in another country.  Teachers exchange lesson plans and ideas by emails. Digital photos and videos as well as PowerPoint Presentations of activities held in the two partner schools are exchanged.

The children show great interest when they see these presentations. Drawings done by the children are sent by email and exhibited on charts in the partner school.

Text and pictures: Thanks to eTwinning Ambassador, George Glass at Cauldeen Primary School

 

Introducing: Primary Project Presentation 1/5...UK/Malta

The first partnership with Malta was ’ Talking through Time’  based around interviewing grandparents and veterans about the 1939-45 conflict. Malta was heavily bombed and on a number of occasions close to collapse due to shortages of food and fuel. Our Partner school was on Gozo and their responses were informative and interesting. We could compare and contrast the information with the same period in the Highlands of Scotland. This project won the 1^st European award for Primary schools.

 

http://79.170.44.88/ww2inthehighlands.co.uk//etwinning/index.htm

 

We have continued each year with Maltese or partners from Gozo. We are well suited as partners with very supportive and hardworking staff. We have historic, cultural and linguistic links going back centuries and a common history while celebrating the many, varied and rich differences between our geography and lifestyles.

Text and pictures by eTwinning Ambassador, George Glass at Cauldeen Primary School