Featured projects
So Far, So Near, an attractive kind of communication
Title: So Far, So Near
Educational stage: Compulsory Secondary Education
Subject: Foreign languages (English)
The fabulous level of communication established between the Polish and Navarran teachers involved in this project has achieved varied and very attractive results. The initial objective behind achieving real practice of the foreign language, together with the use of various ICT tools, has been successfully reached.
The activities proposed in this project are not really different from what is usually done in English lessons, but the methodology is different indeed. Thus, topics like Christmas, music, food, cinema, themselves, etc., have managed to establish real communication between partners. Students have reflected upon themselves, but also about the features provided by the different ICT tools, and so they have managed to work with their European partners in a more attractive way. As a result of the students' high levels of motivation towards this project, they have proposed new collaborative tasks with their partners, as well as the creation of a mini-dictionary.
One of the most interesting activities is the photography contest, thanks to which they have shared their culture. The quality of the materials shown in this contest is close to professional levels.
With the following presentation you can expand information about this project, as told by the students:
You can also visit their TwinSpace and the Teacher's blog, by José Javier Baile.
I, you, we, blog
Title: I, you, we blog!
Educational stage: Compulsory Secondary Education
Subject: Foreign languages (English)
The title of this project is a great reflection of what it contains: a blog created by students from 5 European schools, including the I.E.S. Bioclimático school in Badajoz, who, without realising it and in a very creative way, have developed different skills in the foreign language. Articles about family, cities, favourite topics, cinema, sports, music, holidays, the gastronomy in participating countries...appear in dozens of text documents, presentations, videos, images, photos and posters. These messages have led to comments from partners, who have shown an interest about the most famous sportspeople, a recipe, youth heroes, popular singers or places to go on holiday. The excellent levels of collaboration between the coordinating teachers has resulted in a very extensive and varied blog, which is very well-organised into categories.
It must be said that this website is a blog, a kind of notebook that teachers have provided students for them to record the progress of the school year. An educational blog that can be used as a model for other teachers. Go to Blog
Hello Europe! Welcome Europe!
Title: Hello Europe!
Educational stage: Primary Education
Subject: Interdisciplinary
Famous, functional, easy to remember...the English voices Hello and Welcome have become the main characters of an artistic project where schools from 12 European countries have taken part, such as the CEIP Argantonio school from Sevilla. Like actresses do, these two words have been touring around classrooms in European schools, where they have also casted with their equivalents Ciao, Merhaba, Benvenuti, Hola, Sdravo, Bienvenidos, Bonjour, Γεια σας καλώς ήρθατε, Bienvenu, etc., The whole cast has worked together to promote cultural richness and variety all over the continent.
The objective was quite simple at first: the idea was for hosts to simply greet each other using the different languages of the participating countries; but as it became increasingly popular amongst the public, it also became more ambitious and the teachers in charge of the tour have used the most relevant celebrations in Europe - Christmas, Carnival, Easter, Peace Day, Mother's Day, Saint Valentine's Day, amongst others - to introduce the characters in the different events organised by schools to celebrate these days. Therefore, Hello and Welcome have been present in gastronomic events, religious processions, declarations of love, carnival parades, art exhibitions and/or with the Three Wise Men.
The artistic skills of students-helpers in the project, combined with the ICT tools they had at hand, have generated a series of materials to accompany the students during their stay at schools: postcards, posters, puzzles, greeting cards, symbols, videos, photos, images and the song Hello Europe have created a nice atmosphere for the classrooms-stages where students have performed.
Critics have made a positive assessment of this European adventure, which has required months of intense collaborative work, and have highlighted two relevant aspects: there has been no translation service, so those in attendance and participants have had to make an effort to communicate in the language arranged: English. In addition, the presence of this show has not distorted the work plan established months ago by the Board of teachers-organisers, but has rather become perfectly integrated.
You can follow the celebrities' steps by accessing the following links:
Travel all over Europe with Syrius
Title: The diary of Syrius’ travels
Educational stage: Primary
Subject: Environmental Science, Foreign Languages, Geography, Maths and Geometry, ICT, Natural Science.
The diary of Syrius’ travels is a project coordinated by teacher Cristina Asensio Soriano from CEIP Les Aigües school in Cataluña, and Szkoła Podstawowa Nr 1 (Poland), which were later joined by other schools.
The main character of this project, Syrius, is the lead to introduce the project to the students. Syrius has travelled all over Europe with his GPS, but by the time his trip has ended he only has the coordinates of the places he has visited and has to ask students from the nine participating countries for help to compile all the information, so students must design and solve a wide range of activities.
Aside from TwinSpace, the project uses a Moodle platform to carry out the work, which has made students become aware of their progress. In addition to this, amongst other ICT tools, students have used: Google Earth to find places and coordinates, Camstudio to record “Syrius' letter”, Photobucket to show photos, JCloze to make real distance and time calculations, JQuiz for speed, route or time, and JMatch to match photos of the same country.
Students have followed this work plan:
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Firstly, they received a postcard from Syrius, sent by another participant.
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Once they had read Syrius' letter, students designed the corresponding stage of the trip, they searched for the coordinates of the important places in their country and they shared information to help their partners with their task.
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A PowerPoint presentation was made for each country.
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They created Maths problems.
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Partners solved the tasks posed.
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Students played “Syrius’ game” and they recorded Syrius' letter in several languages.
All in all, “The diary of Syrius’ travels” approaches the development of contents connected with Maths from an interdisciplinary perspective, including aspects related with Social Science, Natural Science, Foreign Languages and ICT. The main feature is the collaborative work amongst the partners in the project, which has focused on the students' main role in the creation and solution of activities, the teachers' role as mediators and the variety of ICT tools.
Have students been able to help Syrius compile all the information required for his trip? Take a look at the project and check for yourself.
Links:
Check out the possibilities offered by music with Songs, Language & Culture
Title: Songs, Language & Culture.
Educational stage: Post-compulsory Secondary Education.
Subject: Foreign languages, Technology.
Songs, Language and Culture is a project coordinated by teacher Marta Pey from IES Jaume Callis Secondary School in Cataluña and ITAS D'Annunzio (Italy), which were later joined by other secondary schools. Music is the axis around which cultural and social aspects of the partner countries revolve, and it is also an attraction to make students work and communicate in a foreign language using ICTs.
Typical tools in Web2.0, such as PowerPoint and Slideshare presentations, audios with Slidecast and Voki, videos with Youtube, photos with Picasa, surveys with Polldaddy or Widgets like Clustrmap and Vodpod have been used to show song lyrics, songwriters, current singers and all-time famous artists, as well as to provide a context for the topics: the protest song, problems in societies and the lack of freedom are some of them. Beyoncé and Metallica, Madonna and LLuis LLuch, Rihanna and S-Kape have shared the same stage and have sung in key.
Students organised mixed-nationality teams; they were really motivated by the topic chosen and the content of the songs and they have gone even further: they have presented their surroundings, relevant characters, national symbols, gastronomy, leisure, etc. The level of satisfaction and the students' interests about the topics chosen have promoted the use of English without any doubt as a communication tool in a real context.
The publishing of the materials produced is very well organised and is easy to access: an excellent model for other projects. The Twinspace tools (notice board, inbox, forum and chat) and the blogs (national and international) have stimulated partners' responsibility in the creation of documents, the presentation of results and the fantastic level of coordination in spite of the large number of partners. It was structured through a wiki so that teachers, based on a general scheme written on the notice board, could suggest ideas and make decisions, which were then reported weekly via email to the different partners.
Do young Lithuanians listen to the same music as Italians? Do young Latvians know the song L’ Estaca? And who would venture to sing it in English? And what if all participants did it together? Take a look at the project, which was awarded in the Summons to eTwinning Awards 2010, and you will find out.
Links:
Wiki
Blog
Spanish teacher's blog
Czech Republic group blog
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