Visibility of eTwinning Projects Group Newsletter 6 2016 | Page 91

Visibility of eTwinning Projects Group July 2016 Newsletter ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Why I Have Chosen eTwinning by Iuliana-Florentina Ispir
In the summer of the year 2011 I did not have a clue about eTwining activities . After being chosen as the coordinator of educational partnerships by the council of teachers , in the first local meeting I had on my town , I heard for the first time about eTwinning , even if the discussions were mostly about Comenius , Leonardo da Vinci and Grundtvig .
From that small corner I was sitting in I was listening in peace , and I finally understood that I can learn and do more .
Curiosity guided me and today I have in my personal map nineteen projects . In two of them I did not work , for two other I have not received the certifying card yet because of the poor communication , but I have fifteen eTwinning Certificates of National Quality and two of European Quality .
I managed to involve three other colleagues in projects , and next year I will try to involve two more .
What benefit did I get ?
I met great friends around the world , I improved my English skills , I understood that I can learn to work in a sector that was unknown to me until then and the introduce the new knowledge in my daily work with kids , I promoted many online courses that made me evolve and by learning new things at home , using the computer , I discovered new communities like I-Teach , Teacher Academy , School Education Gateway .
But the biggest benefit was that I improved a lot the communication with my students and their parents , by evolving them too on the projects I have developed .
What really satisfied me were the respect and the appreciation of my colleagues who have been working on Erasmus projects . They all were impressed by my personal work , which was sustained financially just by me .
Finally : why e-Twinning ? For a better development of the teaching process , for not getting isolated as a teacher in a world that has no perspective , for meeting new educational partners and finding out new things like the tradition of planting trees every year in our backyard in the project " Plant a Tree for Peace ".
Iuliana-Florentina Ispir is a teacher in Rm . Valcea , Romania . She has been working in the educational sector for the last eighteen years . She is a firstgrade teacher , and her educational activity is meant to prepare the younger students for school , by teaching them to socialize , to communicate and to learn new things about life and nature . She wants her students to learn by exploring and discovering on their own and not by simply accumulating the information that she gives them .
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