Visibility of eTwinning Projects Group July 2014 Newsletter
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------eTwinning Before eTwinning?
by Ana Zivkovic
“If you can find a path with no obstacles, it
probably doesn’t lead anywhere.” – Frank A. Clark
“I've learned that people will forget what you said,
people will forget what you did, but people will
never forget how you made them feel.” – Maya
Angelou
If you really want something, you will find a way to
do it, if you don’t, you will find an excuse. –
proverb
My story about eTwinning experience really is an
unusual one, and I hope I grabbed your attention
by starting it with these three quotes. I am an ESL
teacher and I teach at Primary school “Čegar”, in
Niš, Serbia. In spring 2014, my 8th grade students
and I participated in the project about World War I
called – “Echanges autour de la Première Guerre
Mondiale” (WW1)
http://www.etwinning.net/en/pub/connect/browse_
people_schools_and_pro/profile.cfm?f=2&l=en&n=
98716
myself: “This is something I’d like to do with my
students.” However, when I tried to register, I
realized that Serbia was not on the list of
participating countries. I was disappointed at first,
but then I decided to find another way to connect
my students with their European peers. Attending
one webinar where colleagues from different
countries presented their ways of teaching and
engaging their students in class, I met a likeminded English teacher from Romania, Daniela
Bunea, who happened to be an eTwinning
ambassador. She kindly offered to explain how the
platform and the exchange worked and suggested
two projects she was already doing with her
students. My students opted for the one dealing
with History, and the History teacher in my school
gladly accepted to help us. After the phase of
planning was over, my students and I got to work
and the final product were interactive maps of Niš
and the Balcans (showing the main battles that
took place during WW1) and an animated video
depicting the landmarks in our town, related to
WW1.
How did we manage to be a part of eTwinning when
Serbia still is not part of EU, you might wonder? If
you really want something, then you do your best
to achieve it. In my teaching, I try to give my
students opportunities to practise and use their
knowledge in real life situations like talking to their
peers from other countries via Skype or
interviewing virtual guest speakers. My biggest wish
is to make my lessons unforgettable, to give my
students something they would remember for the
rest of their lives.
When I learned about eTwinning, I thought to
These students’ works were posted in the
TwinSpace by Véronique Sarrere on our behalf, so
that all the project participants could see them. My
students were very eager to see the videos and
interactive maps the other students had made and
to compare those with what they had learned in
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