Visibility of eTwinning Projects Group July 2014 Newsletter
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As with every project, it is not easy to captivate all
your students with just one project. I am still not a
very experienced eTwinner so I cannot say I have
achieved that goal just yet. When we knew “YES”
would have a follow up, a big brother, called “YES
2.0” (http://newtwinspace.etwinning.net/web/p97693) programmed
to start in September 2014, we brainstormed,
evaluated “YES” and decided that imposing four
topics was way too restrictive – our solution: no
restrictions, our students got to talk about anything
they wanted. Since the demand for eTwinning
projects was on the rise, we involved 7 classes, not
all of them working on “YES 2.0” though. But those
who did found it unique fun.
Once again, one class in particular posed a
challenge. As 5th graders, they had been studying
English for 3 years, but typical methods never
worked. They were the embodiment of our ‘NoWay’ group. Not even working with schools from
the U.S.A., Taiwan, Africa, the U.K. got them
focused and motivated for long. But when
eTwinning swooped in, it was like a completely
different class. Everybody wanted to be at the
videoconference, to record messages, to post
messages, mainly those whose English was barely
even there. But once they decided they wanted to
work on eTwinning in class, something unexpected
happened. Their colleagues helped them with the
spelling, the pronunciation, the technical stuff. I, as
a teacher, was staring at them in disbelief. They
were all over my laptop, typing, making mistakes
and not caring, having fun.
And as in the years before, we came head to head
with “Made for Europe”, again, this time in Brasov,
and we came back with another 2nd prize, for the
same website youngeuropeansspeak.eu. Only this
time, there were almost 200 new materials as part
of “YES 2.0” on that website, materials in English,
French, Spanish, Italian and German, but also in
our native languages.
But I was saying, talking did not appeal to all my
classes. Some preferred to attend
videoconferences, speak there or just listen but
work on different projects, so I asked them to make
a list of topics they were interested in and we
looked for projects that would suit them. And we
did. “Traditional Games” (http://newtwinspace.etwinning.net/web/p100661) was a fun
project, a project we could not carry out outside
because of the snow and rain and cold months… so
we adapted and played in the classroom. Once
again, I was a mere spectator, watching my 5th
graders decide on the games, explain the rules,
choose the participants, translate the rules, take
pictures. We played dozens of games, ours and our
partners’. It did not matter we were during the
English class, we learnt Geography, a bit of History,
lots of things about traditions, and we put teaching
grammar on a back shelf away from our class. We
had eTwinning now. And just like before, the shy
and the linguistically challenged came out to play
and learn in a different manner.
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