eTwinning Visibility Newsletter no. 4 eTwinning Visibility Newsletter no. 4 | Page 83

Visibility of eTwinning Projects Group July 2014 Newsletter ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------    stay relaxed and try to listen to your partners. Try to work with minimum of three partners – especially when you have not worked with them before. It can always happen, that one partner gets lost or fades away during the project – illness, other ideas of working, lost interest… Otherwise your kids can get very sad, and you have a hell of a time finding a plan B, when your only partner is lost somewhere in space. In case you venture to work bilaterally, you should know each other very well – many thanks to Anna in Spain and Turhan in Turkey. It may happen that one project does not work – do not give up, the next one will be better. Often potential partners are afraid to start a project because of the ICT skills that might be demanded from them. Do not push them out, as we eTwinners can help each other to overcome this barrier. Often those teachers have such good ideas and are very creative! It is always a team fulfilling the project tasks, a team of pupils, teachers and the whole school community which different competences in various items needed – probably somebody will fill the gap and take over the role as a project ICT trainer. As I wrote before - for me, projects are only one part of the eTwinning experience. It is equally important to get in touch with other eTwinners, exchange ideas, learn together – for me it is some kind of social teacher network. You can discuss with teachers in Teachers’ Rooms, you can develop your ICT skills, you have the opportunity to take part in Learning Events and much more. In the beginning I was the one who was only reading and learning from others. Meanwhile I changed the side, I try to help others to solve their problems and get a good way in eTwinning and European networking. I learned so much the last 5 years, you cannot imagine. By this I got to know many other teachers from various school types. And I am sure we can all help each other and learn from each other. All of us are winning in case we share our ideas and thoughts. It is a very inspiring community. Finally, I want to give thanks for the opportunity to write an article for this newsletter, although I am in a formal way not a teacher, which makes things a little complicated in Germany… I always felt welcome in the European eTwinning community and enjoyed seeing my contributions become part of this great European networking. I hope I can go on with eTwinning for many years and excite many others to have a try with European networking. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ An eTwinner Just Starting on the Road by Ahmet Morsumbul I have worked in three different schools so far. In these schools, I have had difficulties and easiness. At the beginning, I was the only one interested in eTwinning. Nobody else knew of eTwinning and its advantages for the school or for the students. In the second year, I had a lot of experience. I told my students, colleagues and headteacher about eTwinning. 83