‘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/
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
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.
‘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
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 1st European award for Primary schools.
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
The UK eTwinning team is currently looking for people teaching any vocational subject in the UK to attend a workshop in:
VIENNA, AUSTRIA 20th – 22nd JUNE 2012
Do you teach 16-19 year old students in a vocational environment? Are you interested in working with like minded teachers in other European countries on collaborative projects using ICT?
If so, click here to fill in the short application form.
The event will give you the opportunity to:
Meet and work with other vocational teachers from Austria, The Netherlands, Latvia, Finland and Turkey
Take part in practical workshops and activities that will help you find new eTwinning partners to work with
Establish new eTwinning projects that you and students will work on in the classroom
We are able to cover all travel, accommodation and meal expenses for this event, as well as the participation fee, however we cannot provide supply cover.
Places are limited, so to apply pleaseclick here.Applications must be received before 1pm on Friday 4th May 2012 to be considered.
The photos show the delegates by one of the 'white men of Esbjerg' as well as the delicious Danish sardines!
A group of teacher trainers met in Esbjerg, Denmark last week to look at how we can encourage trainee teachers to use eTwinning.
Delegates from Belgium, Denmark, Norway and the UK discussed the various teacher training methods across Europe and looked at how eTwinning could be incorporated into the curriculum.
We hope that by highlighting the benefits of eTwinning as a teaching method to trainee teachers, that they will use it throughout their teaching careers and realise the benefits of international links in the classroom.
Pilot initiatives will now be carried out at the Universities of Glasgow, Winchester and York and we look forward to working with more institutions.
If you are interested in this initiative please get in touch.
From our perspective at the eTwinning UK National Support Service, the annual European eTwinning Conference is a massive highlight of our year. It gives us a chance to be part of celebrating the success of eTwinning and an opportunity to contribute to the moulding of its future. This year we were able to take 24 UK teachers and ambassadors as well as 6 NSS staff and a colleague from the Department for Education to Berlin for the conference.
Age 4-11 Prize Category Winners: 'Adventures of the Twinnies around the World'
And the winners were...
4-11 Years Category - "The new adventures of the Twinnies around the world"
12-15 Years Category - "A Taste of Maths (ATOM)"
16-19 Years Category - “Reporting without borders”
French Language Special Category - "Journalistes en herbe"
Spanish Language Special Category - "Carpe Nuntium: voilà nuestra “FrItalianza"
The Marie-Skłodowska-Curie-Prize - "SOHO: Sunspots Online – Helios Observatory"
Day 2 - Workshops
On our second day in Berlin was all about workshops. A huge array were on offer, most being led by eTwinning teachers and ambassadors sharing their expertise and experience of being involved in eTwinning, with other experts contributing too. It would be impossible to review and sum up each workshop as there were just too many but you can get a flavour of their content and outcomes on the conference website.
On our final morning in Berlin we looked to the future. The future of eTwinning but also the future of teaching and learning. Marc Durando Executive Director of European Schoolnet spoke to us about whether schools were keeping up with their students in terms of harnessing technology, particularly mobile technology that has become extensions of ourselves, for the purpose of learning within the classroom. eTwinning has shown that it can and is being done, but we know that eTwinning, like the use of appropriate technology in the classroom has a long way to go until it is the norm across Europe so there is a great distance still to go.
It was an interesting and interactive conclusion to three interesting and interactive days where over 600 eTwinners from 32 countries came together, celebrated their achievements, shared experiences and explored ways in they could help share the benefits of eTwinning to students in their schools, their countries and across Europe. We can't wait for the future to arrive, the future is now.
The workshops are an introduction to eTwinning and will demonstrate the benefits of e-twinning in the classroom through practical use of ICT. The workshops are open to teachers in nursery, primary, secondary and special schools also FE colleges (pupils age range from 3-19).
Have you been in eTwinning for some time, but have difficulty finding a partner or are perhaps a little confused about the process? Then maybe we have a solution.
This year the Central Support Service for eTwinning will organise two online partner -finding fairs, the first in April and the second in the autumn towards the end of September. The aim of these partner-finding fairs is to help you network with teachers of your own discipline, discuss project ideas and hopefully find a partner to start a project with.
You will also learn about how to use the tools on your desktop to communicate with others, and the steps you need to take to set up a register a project. Each partner-finding fair will have an audience of around 100 people. It will last for three days with a combination of group activity on line as well as the opportunity to discuss with the participants in real time. You will learn the five important steps involved in finding a partner, get the opportunity to present your project ideas and will be guided in the process of how to register a project.
The first partner-finding fair is for teachers involved in Pre School and Primary Education and the dates are April 17 - 19. Applications will open on your desktop. The list of applicants will be sent to the National Support Service for final approval. We hope to see you there and help you on your way to an eTwinning partnership.
