Etwinning

Hola là! Le blog franco-espagnol

Project title: Hola là!

Project coordinator: María Teresa Martín

School: San Valero (Zaragoza)

Age category: from 16 to 19 years

Links to project material:
Project TwinSpace

Project blog

Hola là! Le blog franco-espagnol is a project among one French and two Spanish secondary schools for students from 15 to 17. The project aims to contextualize the contents worked on in the foreign language classes (French) by creating a blog to encourage communication between French and Spanish students. Through these activities the students learn a lot about the culture of the partner country, improve their communication skills, and work in collaboration with the others.

We will hand over to María Teresa Martín, project coordinator in the San Valero school, so that she can tell us about her impressions of how the project developed and pass on the opinions of some of the participants.

Some years ago I discovered the eTwinning platform and I immediately began to look for partners. I briefly participated in some projects which had very positive results both for my students and for me as a teacher. Willing to continue and enrich my experience at the end of the 2013-2014 school year I began to look for a project for the following year. That was when I replied to the request of my partner Valérie who was proposing a very interesting idea. By chance, another Spanish colleague Dolores Sánchez, replied almost simultaneously to the invitation. So this opportune chain of circumstances led to our pedagogical adventure, our blog “Hola là”.

From the students’ point of view the benefits are innumerable. Firstly it opens up our class to Europe and gives us the chance to discover who is on the other side. eTwinning has given us the opportunity to present our students with situations in which there is real communication and to put what they have learned immediately into practice.

ICTs offer endless possibilities, allowing us to provide the students with an infinite number of activities which break the monotony of the classes and where they can find motivating tasks which provoke their enthusiastic participation.

The advantages of this type of projects are equally important for the teachers. Firstly, because we are not alone. We form a united group with our partners and we reflect on, create and carry out the project together in true collaboration. All this is tremendously stimulating and creates solidarity and complicity which grows into true friendship.

An eTwinning project also presents the opportunity to get up to date with ICTs and become true experts. You learn as you go along so that now participating in chats, blogs, videos and on-line surveys no longer holds secrets for us.

Our participation has been very positive, from the professional and personal point of view. We have learned from the experience and knowledge of the others, we have shared ideas and creativity and the results of our research to be able to transmit them to our students, who are the end users of our work, and the ones who stimulate us to look for new pedagogical and human adventures.  

"I think the eTwinning project is very enriching as, apart from working with your class mates, you also come into contact with students from other schools and countries" Alba Arias, a student at the Spanish partner school.

"Starting an eTwinning project is both a human and pedagogical adventure. It is a journey which is full of hope, pitfalls, friendship, discoveries and marvellous surprises which in the end brings a positive benefit and enhances the work. A journey of wonderful experiences and memories for the heart and the mind." Valérie Poussigue, a teacher from the French partner school.

"These are the key words for me when you take part in an eTwinning project: adventure, friendship, enthusiasm, motivation, Europe, enrichment, team, and many others which perfectly describe our project.” Dolores Sánchez, a teacher from the Spanish partner school.

Source of the images: The Hola là! Project