eTwinning UK

UK eTwinning Awards 2013 - apply for a Quality Label by 12th May.

If you are at or near the end of your eTwinning project, you can apply for an eTwinning Quality Label.

Quality Labels give you and your pupils recognition for the work you have done with your European partners and is also a great way to evaluate the success and impact of your project. The achievement can also be used to gain further accreditation through the International School Award.

If your project has taken place during the 2012-13 school year and you submit a successful Quality Label application before 17:00 12th MAY 2013 you will be eligible for consideration for one of the 2013 UK eTwinning Awards. 

If you have already submitted a Quality Label application during the 2012-13 school year your project will also automatically be considered. You don't have to do anything else but if you want to submit further information on your project you can do so by email to etwinning@britishcouncil.org. 

You apply through your eTwinning Desktop, for more information and tips on what makes a good application visit the British Council eTwinning website.

Good luck!

eTwinning Professional Development in Sofia

 

 

eTwinning in Sofia, Bulgaria

 

This weekend, 140 kindergarten and primary school teachers from 20 European countries gathered in Sofia for the latest eTwinning professional development workshop.

Temperatures hit 30 degrees in the Bulgarian capital, as teachers learnt all about eTwinning, networked, planned projects together, and enojyed some of the cultural life of Sofia. At the end of the workshop, fifteen projects had been created as well as numerous side projects between teachers sharing ideas over coffee and lunch - if there was a table free it seemed as if a new eTwinning project idea was forming! 

On day one, the UK delegates found ourselves in a taxi from the airport with colleagues from Spain, and in the afternoon we found ourselves sat next to counterparts from Sweden, Turkey, Malta, France, Macedonia, Cyprus, and Italy. The NSS from Bulgaria went onto explain that all the workshops we wold attend would be run concurrently in English, German, and French - this was a truly European event! 

On Friday, we learnt about the basics of eTwinning. Bulgarin teacher Teodora Valova told us about her “eTwinning Café”, which she used as a medium for communication in their project. This involved splitting teachers and students up into different groups and then sharing ideas. For example, co-operative learning by exchanging work sheets and lesson ideas. The project parnters had originally met at a PDW in Belgium, and have since gone on to complete 9 eTwinning and 2 Comenius projects together – it was a really good example of how eTwinning and Comenius co-operate together.  We also heard from eTwinning Ambassador Evgeniya Tsvetanova whose positive talk confirmed what we were discovering - that more projects equals more ideas.

The next day we split into smaller groups and heard another positive message from Lachezar Afrikanov from Euroguidance Bulgaria. Lachezar talked to us about the seemingly strange idea of career guidance for primary school students - if they are so young how can we give them career guidance? His message was more about seeing how different and changing our world is, and how we need to make students always aware of the opportunites that are available. Studying languages is not just about vocabulary for example, but it is about leaning how to interact with different cultures and people. These are key skills in Citizenship  and we need to give our pupils the confidence and encouragement to develop themselves - after all who knows what unusual and exciting jobs will be available in the next month, let alone next decade? We also had some fun using story cards to make a random story, and a group exercise called "My Perfect Job". The answers were all so varied and interesting, and these are two activities you could easily do in the classroom.

We also learnt about some of the free EU resources available for schools. Here are the links. You can order these in for your school:

Kids corner for games: http://europa.eu/kids-corner/index_en.htm
Teachers’ Corner: http://europa.eu/teachers-corner/index_en.htm

On Friday we also learnt about some ideas for online collaboration and some tools for this. Prezi was very popualr www.prezi.com and quite a few groups used this to present the projects they had been working on in groups together. The final activity involved a "show and tell" session where each group presnted their project idea to the whole group. There were some fantastic ideas, from learning about each other's green spaces in and around school by sharing phots, video, and growing seeds, to a design & technology project that aimed to use Maths and Science to design and make toy vehicles, to projects where songs would be shared and sung together. 

There were so many positive connections made over the weekend, and a big thank you to the Bulgarian National Support Servie for organisng and running the event. We look forward to seeing all these projects grow! 

благодаря Sofia!

The presentations from the PDW are available online here:
http://hrdc.bg/cgi-bin/e-cms/vis/vis.pl?s=001&p=0218&n=8&prev=1

 

Statue of Saint Sofia

 

For Spring ideas and similar professional development opportunties with eTwinning visit the website here

Recommended links and posts

eTwinning spring campaign launched - We are (eT)winning!

 
Taking part in the Spring campaign is simple.

• Click on the banner from the homepage of the Desktop to enter
• Organise an eTwinning event around the week of 13-17 May 2013 - and / or
• Design an eTwinning poster for your chance to win a HD pocket camcorder!
• You can also vote for your favorite eTwinning posters up until 16 MAY

NAACE Conference by Suzanne Bewell

UK eTwinning Ambassador Suzanne Bewell, tells us about her highlights of the NAACE 2013 Conference in March

Attending the NAACE conference for the first time, I wasn't sure quite what to expect. Following the pre conference tweets, I realized that I 'knew' a few of the delegates from Twitter and so this comforted me slightly. On arrival, I spent a good hour or so looking around the exhibits (see below) and then on to the first keynote. Most importantly I will say the speakers were totally coherent, no-nonsense and passionately committed to the best possible ICT outcomes for their learners.

As there was so much to report on, I have decided to focus on my Top 3 Conference highlights:

1. My favourite talk from the Thursday was that of Bob Harrison. Bob is witty, clever and totally on the ball in terms of his subject knowledge. He spoke with vim and vigor about how he has been working with teaching schools and how he sees the future of technology in schools.

2. I have to also touch on the high quality products and hugely approachable exhibitors – particularly deserved of a mention are: Lego, Windows 8, Clicker and Sonocent. See below for more web links.

3. The teacher-led Thursday evening Teach-eat after the gala dinner was not to be missed either. Grass roots ideas from some amazing practitioners, inspiring stuff! Enough to have me lying in bed for an hour (at least) unable to sleep for all the creative ideas floating around in my head!!!

The conference hashtags were #naace13 and #naaceconf13 – I would suggest that it is well worth following the back channel for a detailed summary of the 2 days.

Finally, a list of interesting companies and websites to pursue:

www.sonocent.com
Fantastic, easy to use software to promote speaking and listening across all curriculum areas

www.e-safetysupport.com
Subscribe as a free member and receive a free 5 page special report “What every teacher needs to know about social media”

www.legoeducation.co.uk

www.risingstars-uk.com/essentials
ICT Essentials Book – recommended reading RRP £12.99

www.naace.co.uk/cpd/intel1to1 and www.intel.co.uk/itfored
Flexible COD programme, designed to help practitioners learn about technology in education

www.cricksoft.com
After speaking with Jordan from Crick Software I went away and purchased a site licence and MFL software to use with my student teachers

www.onilo.co.uk
Digital children’s books for the primary classroom

www.just2easy.com
just2easy create easy to use, powerful online software for education

www.swgfl.org.uk
Useful source of e-safety info

www.360safe.org.uk
E-safety self review tool for schools.

Fantastic ebook (sponsored by Windows 8 in Education) written by Ollie Bray entitled “Exciting learning: Using technology to improve learning.”

 

You can follow Suzanne on Twitter at @suzibewell

Related articles

NAACE ICT Impact Award - A call for your help!

Professional development workshop for eTwinning teachers, Madrid, 23-25 May 2013

Are you interested in finding an eTwinning partner from Spain, Portugal, France or Italy to start an eTwinning project?

The British Council eTwinning team is giving 20 teachers from the UK the chance to travel to Madrid to join other European teachers at an eTwinning workshop.

Taking place from 23-25 May, this event gives you the opportunity to use your Spanish skills, find a partner school and discuss project ideas face to face. This event is open to teachers working with students aged 3-13. The working language during the event will be Spanish. This event is for you if:

• you want to find an eTwinning partner
• you want to start an eTwinning project
• you want to learn about tools you can use in your eTwinning projects
• you want to practise your Spanish in a professional environment

 “Entiendo que esta oportunidad de trabajar con este grupo de gente tan maravillosa nunca va a pasar otra vez. Un momento incredible,” UK delegate of Madrid Multilateral, October 2012

 Apply for your place by midnight 23 April

The British Council will cover travel, accommodation and meal costs as well as your participation fee. Supply cover is not included.

 

Kind regards,

 

Florence Anderson

florence.anderson@britishcouncil.org

eTwinning Team

Success for eTwinners in Cardiff at Partner Finding Workshop

eTwinning and 21st Century Skills Partner Finding Workshop, Cardiff, Wales

Two weeks ago (22nd-24th March), the UK eTwinning team hosted a networking event in Cardiff, Wales welcoming teachers from the UK, France, Germany, Belgium, Netherlands and Luxembourg.

The weekend was constructed under the theme of ‘21st Century Skills’ and was filled with exciting workshops and presentations, hosted by members of the National Support Service of all the countries involved. After an excellent introduction by Bill Burson, Head of Education and Society for British Council Wales, the delegates took the time to listen to an inspirational array of successful projects founded and presented by eTwinning ambassador, Ruth Sanders. Later, a series of activities from Human Bingo, to speed-partner-finding enabled each of our candidates to find themselves a partner, or two (or three)!

From this point onwards the teachers worked hard all weekend to learn the ins and outs of eTwinning and came up with some intriguing and exciting ideas for potential projects. By Saturday afternoon almost everyone at the event had registered a project (in fact even a teacher that couldn’t make it had a project). So, with what was looking like a 105% success rate, our teachers headed to Cardiff Castle for a cultural experience that will not be forgotten.

Over the weekend the delegates showed a great deal of enthusiasm and desire to improve their students’ means of learning which was really encouraging and made the whole experience extremely valuable for everyone. eTwinning is all about connecting, collaborating and progressing through sharing ideas with others across Europe. The teachers really wanted to develop projects that would help their students take control of their learning and get them actively engaged and involved in their work. This sense of motivation is unlike any other and having a real audience to showcase their work to will give students a sense of value and pride in their work.

The projects that were created as a result of the weekend, covered a wide range of subjects, topics and interest areas including Mathematics, Sports, Geography, Sociology and many more proving that eTwinning projects can be incorporated in any setting.

Take a look at our Cardiff Story book for pictures of the weekend and keep an eye on our Events page for more details about upcoming events in your area.

Related articles

eTwinning Network event in Sofia, Bulgaria, 25nd-28th April

eTwinning Network event in Sofia, Bulgaria, 25nd-28th April

Are you interested in finding a partner school from Europe to start an eTwinning project?

The British Council eTwinning team is giving up to 4 teachers from the UK the chance to travel to Sofia to meet and network with other European teachers at a joint eTwinning event

Taking place from Thursday 25^th to Sunday 28^th April, this event is for primary school teachers and will include sessions on how to use eTwinning, how to use ICT tools and how to fit eTwinning into your school life.  

 This event is for you if:

•  you want to find an eTwinning partner
•  you want to start an eTwinning project
•  you want to learn about tools you can use in your eTwinning projects
•  you want to actively involve your students in project work, improve their language competences and skills in collaboration, intercultural communication, ICT or team building

 

This event is open to teachers working with students aged 3-11 teaching any subject.

All workshop sessions will be delivered concurrently in German, French and English, so this event would in particular suit someone who can speak either French or German. However, this is not a prerequisite.

The British Council will cover travel, accommodation and meal expenses as well as your participation fee. Supply cover is not included.

 

Click Here to Apply for your place by Sunday 7^th April 2013

 

etwinning@britishcouncil.org  

 

 

Related articles

Meet, network and learn with eTwinning teachers in Cardiff, 22nd-24th March 2013

eTwinning Conference Lisbon 2013

Our UK Ambassadors have been blogging for the Central Support Service blog of the eTwinning Conference 2013.Here's what our eTwinning UK Ambassador, Fatima Duerden, said from the day of workshops we had yesterday: "Teaching European Citizenship Project & eTwinning Kits This workshop was run by Beate Vollmer, a secondary school teacher of English and Philosophy. During the introduction, Beate explained with visual PowerPoint slides how the project was planned and shaped by the students, which were aged 12-18 year olds. Two years of project work we subdivided into 3 project kits, aimed at 10-13, 14-16 and 17-21 year old students. After a very interesting introduction, the participants were divided into groups of 4/5 - by working with partners on the ideas that had been presented and on how to turn these ideas into practice for the pupils. This was an interesting activity for secondary age teaching, unfortunately there was no catering for primary school age planning in this session. The feedback from the different groups was very interesting, with different ideas relating to the subject of European Citizenship and how to use eTwinning and various ICT tools / video. The crucial aim was for a project with sustainability by creating a community of responsible European Citizens working for a democratic and peaceful world, and at the same time give students a boost of self confidence, encouraging artistic expression and developing intercultural understanding through eTwinning. A very well thought out session, delivered professionally. Well done, Beate!!" Have a look at the CSS Blog from the Conference for more inspiration: http://conference2013.etwinning.net/

UK eTwinning Ambassador Steven Hales, Independent Primary School Adviser, attended the NAACE 2013 Conference on Friday 8th March 2013.

Steven Hales, Independent Primary School Advisor, attended the NAACE Conference on 08.03.2013.

www.naace.co.ok/events/conference2013

The most poignant moment of my day at the NAACE 2013 Conference came when Julia Kedwards, Headteacher of Ecton Brook Primary School (Northampton), was talking about the transformation that had occurred at her school. This started when it was identified that change was needed in the way that the curriculum was delivered. It began, in collaboration with 4 other local schools, with a ‘Dull and Boring’ week, where all the children initially met the very grey characters.
Using a secret password on the school blog, the children could enter a multi-coloured world, where creative learning was at the heart of all that they could do. Learning beyond the classroom became the norm, with personalised learning and the use of technology being the keystones.

All 18 classes now have a blog, where their learning is celebrated for the world to see. The range of mobile technology is significant, from iPods, iPads, Apple TV, Skype and Oovoo to Facebook and Twitter. An amazing school!

A similar theme, ‘Tablets for Schools’, was presented by Dr Barbie Clarke from ‘Family, Kids and Youth’. She talked about her extensive research project, which tracks the introduction of tablets in a number of secondary schools. She commented that student motivation and engagement increased significantly and reflected that Year 7 pupils were more focussed on using tablets as a learning tool than their older peers. It was interesting that some of the schools were moving from ‘Apple’ technology into other manufacturers like ‘Samsung’ and ‘Sony’.

These two presentations provided me with an opportunity to reflect on where primary schools are at, particularly in developing children’s learning and their engagement with school link projects, like ‘eTwinning’ and ‘Connecting Classrooms’. The challenge has been set and the context for learning is there. Young people are the global citizens of the future. They must have access to the mobile technology, if they are to be skilled. But are schools, particularly primary schools, ready? It takes ‘maverick’ strategic leadership to see the journey ahead and astute judgement to overcome the hurdles, like costs, e-safety and parental support. But it is possible – just look at Ecton Brook Primary School!

eTwinning Workshop in conjunction with the South West Teacher Network

We are holding a free eTwinning workshop in Exeter on the 7th March 2013.

This is a face-to-face session with an experienced eTwinning teacher who will give you advice on registering projects and how to incorporate eTwinning into your classroom including some of the best hints and tips.

The workshop will allow you to explore the eTwinning platform, introducing the various tools available and offering you advice for using ICT throughout your classroom projects.

The workshop is open to teachers from nursery, primary, secondary and special schools and further education colleges.

 

There are still a few spaces available for this event.

Please click here to sign up.

eTwinning Plus launches on Monday 4th March 2013!

eTwinning expands

Ever wondered what is life like in Lviv? Or what’s on the curriculum in Chisinau? What kind of technology is most popular in Tbilisi?

From the 4th of March 2013, you’ll be able to find the answers to these questions, and many more, with the official launch of eTwinning Plus. eTwinning Plus is a pilot that will see a select number of schools and teachers from Ukraine, Tunisia, Moldova, Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan join the thousands of eTwinning teachers who are already collaborating online.

The pilot is part of the European Commission’s Neighbourhood Policy, which encourages links and collaboration with those countries in our immediate neighbourhood. From the 4th of March, you will be able to invite teachers from the eTwinning Plus pilot to join your existing project or set up a new project with an eTwinning Plus school and a school from another eTwinning country.

You will not automatically see them, however, only if you click on ‘I am ready for an eTwinning Plus partnership’. You will then have access to these schools and teachers and to the eTwinning Plus partner finding forum. So, if you’re ready, click on the button on Monday 4th March!