Creativity and eTwinning in the school curriculum

A Creative Classroom Group Edition

December 2013
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Editor: Irene Pateraki
Language Issues: Theodora Gkeniou

Contributors:
Marie-Helene Fasquel, Theodora Gkeniou, Renata Raicheva,
Andrea Ullrich, Fernanda Cristina da Silva Gonalves, Assimina
Lambrakou,Anna Drakotou, Niculina Chiper, Natalia Tzitzi,
Teodora Cosma









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Index
Introduction2
1. Creating an online book about environmental issues and
sharing it with other countries' students, commenting on
their own creations. An eTwinning project (2013-2014) with
Turkey, Italy and France..4
2. A brave new world9
3. Creative use of eTwinning activity.11
4. Be smart, do start..12
5. eTwinning, one challenge to creativity..14
6. eTwinning and Geography lesson..14
7. Flirting with eTwinning: a burst of enthusiasm.17
8. Graphic novels in the classroom.19
9. Physics and eTwinning project22
10. Using eTwinning in the Foreign Language Classroom.23
11. Active Learning.25





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Introduction

eTwinning is a successful European action that gives the opportunity to teachers all over Europe to organize collaborative projects with
the use of New Technologies. Until now it was part of the Lifelong Learning Programme and from 2014 it will be part of the new
European programme Erasmus+. As you will see below, its very popular among teachers of foreign languages but teachers of other
subjects from all sectors of Education, pre-primary to upper secondary, try to integrate eTwinning projects to their class curriculum. Its
not an easy task but as eTwinning is offering many opportunities for being creative, its always possible. And as Theodora Gkeniou, a
Greek eTwinning ambassador and English teacher, writes below: To put it otherwise, if creativity is contagious, as Albert Einstein
claimed, eTwinning projects are the perfect space to pass it on.
Irene Pateraki
Creative Classroom
Group Administrator



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1. Creating an online e-book about environmental issues
and sharing it with other countries' students,
commenting on their own creations. An eTwinning
project (2013-2014) with Turkey, Italy and France.
Last year, I used many different online tools and websites to make
my students use ESl creatively in an international context (with
students from 2 other countries via the eTwinning platform) in
order to defend a cause, the environment. This project competed in
the UNESCO Innovation Days Forum in Paris and was awarded one
of the 5 prizes (among 500 participants) and was awarded an
eTwinning quality label.
The students had to start from their very own environment and had
to take pictures illustrating their view of what nature is and then
write short articles, which we made into e-books and shared with
our partners. Then they all discussed them and exchanged their
work and ideas online. The second step was to write collaborative
short stories linked to the environment topic and to publish them
online as e-books. They also made cartoons using the website
Bitstrips. They created online posters to introduce themselves and
present them to their high school.
I tried flipping my classroom last year.
All the resources and links are on Padlet:
http://padlet.com/wall/flipped-class
Most of the links are here:
http://padlet.com/wall/2a-short-story
Here are some of the e-books:
http://issuu.com/mariehel2/docs/defending-the-environment
http://issuu.com/mariehel2/docs/our_first_international_ebook
http://issuu.com/mariehel2/docs/collaborative_ebook_2_-
_june_2013
http://issuu.com/mariehel2/docs/comic_strip-marie-001
http://issuu.com/mariehel2/docs/articles_2a_--_groupe_2--final
http://issuu.com/mariehel2/docs/international-ebook-3
Moreover, my students took part in many competitions: in class
and the major problem was to find nice gifts (Im still trying to find
some and was given very useful books to reward them), online (The
Paper Planes writing competition), and so on. This similarly
motivates them greatly.

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The project started with the students taking pictures of their
environment and of nature generally speaking. The pictures
were to illustrate environmental issues or anything related
to nature.
We started from what our pupils felt and thought.
Then, the students described and analyzed the message
conveyed by these pictures.
From these discussions, topics and major themes arose and
the students wrote articles (the first part of the online e-
book) about the pictures and what they stood for.
The students also competed for the creation of a logo for
our eTwinning group onTwinSpace.
They learnt how to use the e-book software or online web
tool.
All the creations were shared on TwinSpace with our
partners and online on Issuu and on Padlets.
We then started commenting on our partners creations and
discussing their projects too and vice versa.
The students made interactive posters on Glogster (called
Glogs ) this was also a competition: the best Glogs were
selected and awarded a prize as well as a diploma.

For instance, for the best logo
http://www.glogster.com/
Some of them wrote acrostic poems on
http://www.readwritethink.org/files/resources/interactives
/acrostic/)
And, last but not least: they wrote collaborative short
stories on Google docs : https://drive.google.com/ which
were then turned into e-books
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Our online tools: a selection

ebook creation:

Mobipocket (ebook creator and reader)
http://www.mobipocket.com/en/downloadsoft/productdet
ailscreator.asp

Myebook : ebook creator
http://www.myebook.com/

Photorcit : http://groups.diigo.com/group/photorecit

http://groups.diigo.com/group/esl-ebooks

Debates

Amap : debate mapper
http://www.amap.org.uk/create/

Wordle : for brainstorming purposes

Creation of multimedia content

Glogster
http://www.glogster.com/

ReadWrite Think (website)
http://www.readwritethink.org/files/resources/interactives
/acrostic/)

Voki animated avatars (for Twinspace)
http://www.voki.com/

Animoto videos
http://animoto.com/intro/animoto/22?gclid=CJe2n-
q2iLMCFXHLtAodD1wAiQ

Voicethread
http://voicethread.com/
Collaboration

Google docs
https://drive.google.com/

Google forms ou Survey Monkey online surveys
http://www.google.com/google-d-s/forms/
http://fr.surveymonkey.com/

Walwisher : to share notes
http://wallwisher.com/
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Pen io : web page creation
http://pen.io/


Diigo sharing links

The eTwinning first request

Creating an online e-book about environmental issues and sharing
it with other countries' students, commenting on their own
creations.
The online e-book will be a collaborative creation and will be made
up of texts written by the students (articles, opinion essays, poems,
short stories), pictures (taken by the students and which will be the
starting point of the project and of the students discussions, and
other pictures), videos (made by the students).
This e-book will be shared with the partner's students who will
comment on it and interact with the French students. Similarly,
they will share their own creations for discussion with my students.
The aims of the project are to share ideas with students from
around the world in a creative and collaborative way. The second
aim is for the students to improve their command of English while
studying an important topic and while using English in an authentic
way.
-- First and foremost, the students are analyzing nature and trying
to make pictures/videos with a message and we'll soon analyze
them. They will discuss the messages together and decide on which
ones they will use in the project and what specific environmental
problems they want to tackle.
-- Then, they will start working in groups: writing articles, essays,
poems (such as acrostic poems for instance), short stories, about
their specific topic.
-- We'll make an e-book from all these activities and share them
with our partner.
-- Our partner will choose her topics and share her students' work
with us too so that both groups of students should be able to
discuss the different projects and interact in as a natural way as
possible.
- better knowledge (even an intimate knowledge of the chosen
topic)
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- making friends from different countries,
- learning to respect other countries' values, differences, ideas,
- improved command of English
- being at ease to use English as a communication language
- authenticity.
Lesson plan (what Ill do in class to bring ideas & to make students
think about the topic)


Major task

You are going to make an ebook using pictures, videos and texts
to discuss environmental issues.
The ebook will be divided into different parts :
- The analysis of your own pictures and videos,
- Your ideas about the topic, what you want to say about
the problems,
- Poems (acrostic poems for instance, using online tools),
- Short stories about the environment.
You will make it together, using collaborative online tools.

The next step will be to share it with classes from other countries
and to ask them to comment on your work, ideas,...
Everything will be shared on TwinSpace (eTwinning platform).

They will also provide their own projects which we will discuss as
well.

This project is an online collaborative project.




To help you complete your task, you will discover many facets of
the problem in class and on your own thanks to our lessons but
also to our web page:
http://environment.pen.io/
and Diigo group:
http://groups.diigo.com/group/projet_environnement
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In class: we will study various texts, film extracts, audio files

1- Brainstorming (The Environment) / vocabulary (Extracts
from : Bac en vue, toutes sries, Spcial Vocabulaire, Marie-
Hlne Fasquel, Ellipses, Paris).
2- Logo creation
3- Test: are you ecofriendly?
4- Video: Beds are burning
5- Environmental crisis
6- Manifesto / poster / powerpoint (diaporama) / glog
the students write about what they have so far understood,
learnt.
7- Extracts from An Inconvenient Truth
8- Minor task: making a Podcast about an environmental
cause.
9- Assessment: Tree fighters (listening test), America goes
green (reading test)
In the computer lab, you will prepare your tasks
We will keep studying the topic.
You will analyze your pictures & videos, start thinking about the
articles you are going to write.
Group work: writing the book, imagining the poems, short stories,
learning how to use the tools & how to write these types of texts.
Marie-helene Fasquel
English Language teacher
France

2. A Brave New World
In Dead Poets Society, Mr. Keating used to advise his students:
Avoid using the word very because its lazy.
A man is not very tired, he is exhausted.
Dont use very sad, use morose.
Language was invented for one reason boys to woo women-
and, in that endeavor, laziness will not do
This quote made quite an impression on me, from the very
beginning. Being a language teacher, I found that it encapsulated
the quintessence of the message I had been trying to pass on to my
students ever since I set foot into a classroom.
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On a second thought, I realized that it applies to a variety of
situations since it refers not only to language use but to our
philosophy as teachers and learners, even further to our entire
lifestyle. It is not enough to carry through a project, just to get it
done. It simply wont do! One has to invest time, effort, mental
processing so as not to be mediocre, to reach a level less ordinary,
to allure his/her audience.
Yet, to be extraordinary, you have to be inventive; you have to be
imaginative; you have to be creative! I have often felt that
creativity has become the Holy Grail of education. Everybody is
pursuing it, but few, if not any, have found it. What does being
creative entail, though? Having a fresh approach to much discussed
subjects, looking at things from a different angle, thinking outside
the box, making the most of the available resources, are only few of
the ingredients of the magic potion!
When teaching teenagers, you know that they get bored,
sometimes even cynical, in a split of a second, when they dont feel
stimulated, enlivened, energized by the educators. For me, as well
as many other colleagues from all over Europe, the involvement in
eTwinning projects opened up a brave new world. It became a
springboard to activate and vitalize my pupils as well as myself, by
sparking the flame of creativity.

So, paraphrasing the aforementioned quote, I believe that teachers
are meant to engage their students, and in that endeavor, laziness
wont do. We have to stimulate their imagination by going beyond
the obvious, by experimenting, by implementing new methods, by
having our toolbox filled with new ideas and techniques. And in this
endeavor eTwinning projects can be of assistance to us in multiple
ways; as stimuli for authentic learning, but also as a means for
professional development, which goes hand in hand with our own
personal growth.
To put it otherwise, if creativity is contagious, as Albert Einstein
claimed, eTwinning projects are the perfect space to pass it on.

Theodora Gkeniou
English Language Teacher
E-twinning Ambassador
Greece



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3. Creative use of eTwinning activity
E-twinning project Holidays and Mindmapping is suitable for
creative use. It motivates pupils to make amazing mind maps of
holidays in different European countries. The participants are from
Bulgaria, Italy, Portugal, Romania and Turkey. They worked with
pleasure and made beautiful drawings, paintings, posters and mind
maps. Mindmapping is a good way to provoke children to be
energetic, creative and talent. The project motivates kids to learn
more and to improve their own language skills and English. Pupils
presented wonderful products in this reference. Here you can see
some childrens mind maps. Hope that you will like them!
Project link:


http://new-twinspace.etwinning.net/web/p80896

Childrens mind maps:




Renata Raicheva
English teacher
Bulgaria
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4. Be smart, do start

eTwinning has become part of my teaching in several classes.
There are my year 6 students who got addicted while working on
the Across the miles to you project and asked for the next one as
soon as we closed the blog. So we joined Europes sweet tooth,
prepared presentations on recipes, created logos, posters, etc.
Shortly before Christmas we organized a bake sale: prepared cakes,
using our partners recipes, and donated the money we earned to
charity - a great way to link an eTwinning project to the students
wish to help others who are not as lucky as they are.
So, that project has constantly been in our lessons, but the most
creative and fun part was our fashion show. I usually have that kind
of activity in year 6, but this time we dedicated it to the project,
which gave it an even more enjoyable and motivating touch.
Students presented clothes in groups, some of them designed their
outfit and found names like Sweet and Snow for their design.


Even the boys, who presented sportswear, told us their outfit was
perfect for a good work-out after tasting too many desserts found
in TwinSpace .
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But there is another class, usually reluctant and waiting for you to
entertain them I joined the Be smart, dont start project with
them. And what a surprise, with an activity for a local health
campaign I got them.
First I asked a young colleague, music teacher, if he could compose
a song for usthen I brought the idea of creating a non-smoking
song to our English lesson. In groups we worked on lyrics, decided
on our favourite versions, and then students took them to their
music class. My colleague created the tune, and they started
practicing. When we performed the song at the town theatre with
all year 8 students of the local schools around and got a special
award for that, they were ready for going on with the project.
We asked our partners to contribute a stanza to create a
collaborative song.
http://padlet.com/wall/besmartsong
Every week we check TwinSpace for the latest uploads, one student
presents whats new and we leave some comments on our
partners cartoons, videos, etc. And, of course, the project provides
us with the best examples to be used in language exercises. Its
more interesting to put phrases from a partners cartoon into
indirect speech than just using the textbook. And when we
practiced conditional sentences we had to smile, reading some
statements ;) http://padlet.com/wall/besmartgrammar

Andrea Ullrich
Gymnasium Georgianum Hildburghausen,
Germany





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5. eTwinning: one challenge in creativity

With preschool children, eTwinning is a challenge all the time.
Children can make researches, interact with other children by
videoconferences and cooperative activities, they can improve the
knowledge in using the computer as they are native digital children,
and they can learn different languages.

The creativity in using eTwinning is a challenge because they can
work different projects in an interdisciplinary way. Sometimes the
colleagues ask me, how I can implement my projects because I have
a lot, in their opinion. For me it is easy, because I have and I work
the projects in different curricular areas and when I do some
activities, in one activity, I can cover all the areas that I want to
work and I can develop all the competences I want the children to
acquire. In this way one activity can belong to more than one
eTwinning projects and children love work like this, because they
have always new things to do, there is novelty all the time. For me,
work as I do, is a creative way of using eTwinning. ETwinning
nowadays is my way of working with children; they give ideas for
implementing the projects and sometimes it is surprising what they
can do because they are only between 3 and 6 years old. It is
amazing!

The participation and collaboration among children develops the
learning in the process of producing, raising questions, researching
and creating relationships that encourage new searches,
discoveries, understanding and reconstruction of knowledge and
understanding of the world. The role of the teacher is important for
creating different kinds of learning situations and the mediating
role of knowledge.
Fernanda Cristina da Silva Gonalves
Preschool teacher
Portugal





6. eTwinning and a Geography Lesson.
Thoughts and proposals on using e-Twinning projects in the
Geography class:

We must not forget that the most prominent feature of eTwinning
projects is the development of cooperation as well as teamwork
spirit. It's not always easy to do so, however, it's worth giving it a
try. The satisfaction and the benefits of this process can reward our
efforts.

Geography lessons at the second grade of high school are about
Europe. The subject is suitable to be developed in cooperation with
other schools from Europe and that's what we did last year.
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We took part in two projects: Lets discover Europe was the one
in cooperation with 24 other schools, and the other, ours (in the
sense that it had been suggested by us), Baltic sea
Mediterranean: two closed seas two big hugs.

. Lets discover Europe

We tried to integrate the project into the curriculum of the subject
of Geography, according to the specifications set for the second
class of high school by the Ministry of Education.

Through every progressive step of the ''Lets exchange information''
activity, we produced reports and we engaged into discussions
based on our book.

The e-lesson we formed was supplemented with materials created
with interactive tools (pps, camtasia studio-video, youtube,
articulate quizmaker). The choice of the way we would present our
topics was made in the class during the normal teaching procedure,
with the use of interactive devices use as IWB, video, pc, lesson
plan, and questionnaires. Afterwards we made the presentation
material ready in English, to be posted in twinspace. Rather than
getting into more detail about the part of the lesson relevant to
history, structure and functions of the EC, we decided to make an
appointment in order to visit the European Parliament offices! For
this reason and after a discussion made in the class, we prepared
the questions which we wanted to ask and students did this with
real pleasure.

One more aspect of the project that activated the students was the
additional research work in order for them to collect the necessary
material. The research took place at home, using books, the
internet and Facebook.

Finally, for the presentation of the rivers of Europe, we ''took
advantage'' of the relevant sample teaching of the educational
adviser Mr. Georgios Pavlikakis. After it was tested at the
classrooms, we gave it the proper form so that the students of the
other cooperating schools could watch and check the acquired
knowledge. The same process was followed in our presentation on
the subject European seas. The quizzes following the
presentations became part of the final lesson exams.


B. Baltic sea Mediterranean: two closed seas two big hugs.

The task was integrated into the Geography lesson and the
respective chapters of the textbook of the second class of high
school yet where it was necessary, some items matched the
curriculum of the first class of high school.

Since both the sections related to the seas, we had a
discussion/research in the class, helped by the book, concerning
the similarities and differences between these two seas. In our
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report we used also data from the first class of high school
geography book and specifically the chapter Water in nature. We
gathered the relevant material and got a course ready using the
scribbler tool that is quite easy to use. We translated the texts and
sent them to the partners to be used and completed. Thereafter,
based on the course's material as it was prepared, we made a quiz
to test students knowledge in the Greek language. We checked it
out in the class to certify the convenience in use but also the gained
Knowledge for ourselves. It was translated in English and using the
photopeach tool we uploaded it on twinspace site for our partners.

In the courses section concerning EU, history, structure, functions,
state-members, currency etc., we studied in brief the info in the
book, made a questionnaire and asked for a visit to the European
parliament offices in Athens Greece. The presentation on behalf of
the Office representatives as well as the conversation following the
questions we had prepared, became an interactive lesson, in an
almost entertaining way, despite the long duration of our visit to
the Bureau. Back to school we returned to the book's material and
through this all the gained Knowledge was confirmed.

he inquiry which consisted of a certain number of quizzes,
organized in such a way as to relate with the presentations, as part
or as the whole throughout the trimester of the final lesson exam.

Outcomes and benefits

Progress in awareness: We've come to realize the similarities and
differences, so we enriched our knowledge as a natural
consequence of the networking contact.
ICT usage We could run the program according to the lesson while
having the chance to try out web2.0 tools which helped us with the
communication and collaboration in order to accomplish our goals.

Activating and developing creativity: We integrated successfully the
project into teaching.
During the programs, students worked out information, created
questionnaires, expressed their point of views and knowledge in
order to correspond to the specific themes explored in the course
and the project.
The school opened up to society;
We organized and informed the parents at the beginning of the
school year's period.
Kids got their parents involved into preparing the questions asked
to the European Parliament representatives in Greece.
They had contact with European Parliament representatives in
Greece and interviewed them.
From time to time we displayed some of our activities in a blog and
to facebook so as to be judged by the users.

Development of team working spirit and self-respect: through the
activities, when there was a reason and need for someone to work
in a team, we proved the necessity for teamwork and rewarded it.
The effectiveness provided the basis for growing self-respect and
the integration of each student in a working team played an
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important part. Yet the individual participation contributed a lot to
the self-respect development through the results and contact.
Growth of critical sense: the growth of critical sense among the
team members was due to the collection of elements via research
and presentations as in the communication and the "acceptance"
of elements.
We did practice and improve our Knowledge of the English
language.

During this year I consider that I engaged several students as far
as participation and self-respect development is concerned,
thanks to these programs' activities.
You could check our action points down here:
http://baltic-mediterranean.blogspot.gr/
http://discovereu.blogspot.gr/
Assimina Lambrakou
Teacher of Physics
Greece




7. Flirting with e-Twinning: a burst of enthusiasm!
Teaching has always taken out the best of me in order to be
creative, giving, inventive, imaginative, effective and efficient.
Teaching along with e-Twinning, e-learning courses, groups and
learning activities has helped me enrich my knowledge, develop my
imagination and use such creativity more effectively in class.
Being an EFL teacher for some time now, I assure you that
eTwinning offers new portals to differentiated teaching and
learning. Being a novice user of web 2.0 tools, I was hesitant at first,
when our school advisor introduced the idea of joining eTwinning
to make a difference into our teaching. When I did so I got hooked!
Without realising it, I started three projects, one for every grade of
the junior secondary school I taught. It was out of an ongoing
enthusiasm shared with my students; out of an initial need to have
a good time while being at school. I started planning and preparing
the scenes of all projects progressively.

So, the content of these projects was inspired by school
coursebooks and the objectives set by the EU for 2012 -13. Think
Teen and Join in for first graders, European Youth Murals for
second ones, and Our Political Party for third graders; all three
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integrated in the curriculum, of a social content and relative to the
psyche and values of a teenagers personality.
The participation and cooperation was enthusiastic and the
outcome quite rewarding. All of them got a National and European
Label and the last one on democratic values and active citizenship
got the first prize in a European competition. Both students and
teachers shared a feeling of achievement and fulfillment.
What is the most important though, is that the students awareness
and self esteem is boosted. During the program, the students
processed information, prepared questionnaires, formed opinions,
expanded their knowledge so as to respond to specific topics. For
the first time, the school itself came out in society; the parents
were skeptical but helpful; on the other hand, my colleagues were
hesitant.
I introduced videoconferencing via skype I did not expect the
reactions I saw! E n t h u s i a s m to the fullest, as well as surprise
accompanied by exclamations like: They are like us! Skype contact
remained unforgettable. We inspired and were inspired!
I would definitely urge you to join eTwinning community for it is
flexible because it can support the teacher who wishes to improve
his/her learners language skills and at the same time to instill
values in students. It caters for all subjects by attempting Content
and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL); we had Geography, Art,
History, Languages, Culture, ICT.
It has been a different year full of enthusiasm, surprises, fun-in-
learning, tech-skilful lessons, art, awards and rewards for all the
school community, both the doers and the viewers, thanks to the
eTwinning programme.
Anna Drakotou
English Teacher
Greece









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8. Graphic novels in the classroom
Through the Graphic novels in the classroom (http://new-
twinspace.etwinning.net/web/p83117) project, the students were
trained to create graphic novels, having as a starting point well
known tales, which involve a positive modeling of expectations, to
nurture an instinctive analytical demeanor and design an
autochthonous interpretive method, using pictures (drawings or TIC
instruments) and written English language. The project can be
easily carried out in any other school. The students proved to be
open to the idea, placing a prospective line of work based on the
subject in their future.
The project is unraveling at eTwinning.net, is addressed to
pupils between 14-18 years old and gathers together the
contributions of 8 partner schools. The aim of Graphic novels in
the classroom is to facilitate intercultural dialogue among
European students, by creating graphic novels (illustrative
narrations) with various themes: cultural diversity, genre
complexity, folklore, ethnicity and globalism.
The initial step was to research the genre of graphic novel
(i.e. What the Heck is a Graphic Novel? -
youtube.com/watch?v=P8-04ISNPsA;Introduction to Graphic
Novels -slideshare.net/RaeAnna/graphic-novels-1137714).
Unlike the species it branches from, the illustrative
narration is forging its story using by-products of comics: non-
conventional plots animated by visual arts and text. The term
however can describe nonfiction or short prose, sequentially
composed to fit the style. As the text is available together with the
image, the reader can decipher the intrigue without translating the
words or even reading them. The graphic novel invites the reader
to participate more lively in the action and therefore become
aware of the adventure unraveling in front of their eyes.
Following research, individual blog presentations and
information about origin school/town/ country were posted.
Students displayed actual interest in the issues of partner schools
through comments.
Subsequently, a draft analysis of some illustrative novels
was done and reference authors were identified and studied.
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Student papers were consistent with rigorous, eloquent analysis
(cohesion between visual and linguistic articulation, sequential
essence, character evolution) and a further analysis of target
audience (as it is focused on certain age groups with specific
interests). Romanian students have chosen the following graphic
novels: The Picture of Dorian Grey (Oscar Wilde), From Hell,
The Ballad of Halo Jones, and Promethea by Alan Moore.
Our team has faced a challenge by deciding to illustrate a
novel studied in Romanian Literature class. The students came up
with two independent versions of graphic novels, inspired by a
folkloric fantasy original to Romania, The story of Harap Alb, by Ion
Creanga. It was hard work for Ciprians team, to convert into
drawings the essence of the story, and it took them two and a half
months to do so. On the other hand, Bogdans team forged a digital
version quicker, by familiarizing with web 2.0 tools such as
Blabberize, Voki, Xtranormal, Go Animate, Make Beliefs Comix and
other such. The combo of illustration and English text promoted an
easy communication of the plot.
(slideshare.net/nchiper/the-tale-of-harap-alb-by-bogdan-cameni,
slideshare.net/nchiper/the-tale-of-harap-alb-by-ciprian).
The exhibition displaying the illustrations took place in the
high school premises and was a relish for teenagers. Another expo
took place during a workshop organized by Information Centre
Europe Direct Bucharest, hosted by European Institute Romania
called Ways to promote active citizenship among young
population.
All the schools involved in the partnership enjoyed a fruitful
and pleasant cooperation. All the information, notes and reading
were posted by the Norwegian team, the founder of the project. All
the comments and correspondence bear witness to synergy and
efforts submitted by collaborators throughout the tasks. The
partner schools were unconstraint in choosing topics and manners
of developing and formulate final products. The views of the
students and teachers regarding the on-going of the project can be
found in the handout of the evaluation module.
The complexity of the universe comprised by the graphic
novel and the hard work involved in the genesis of this project
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caused the students to appreciate the capacity to tell a story in
English using images and illustrations.
Contemporary educational tools and methods are in
continuous reshaping and renovation to sync up with technology.
Making good use of technology and information require a certain
type of attitude, criticising and analysing the quality of the
information. Delivering ideas and information in a foreign language
has a lot to do with communication in our mother tongue, but also
involves intercultural apprehension. Raising awareness towards the
importance of cultural assertion requires a grasp of the relevance
of ingenious ideas, an open minded view towards cultural diversity
and the European linguistic heterogeneity.
The eTwinning Graphic novels in the classroom the parties
involved initiated an original cross-curricular dialogue.



Niculina Chiper
Liceul Teoretic Nichita Stnescu,
Bucureti, Romnia










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9. Physics and eTwinning project
Here are some thoughts and proposals about developing Physics
tasks as part of an e-Twinning project.

Lets keep in mind that the most important aspect of e-Twinning
projects lies in the growth of cooperation and teamwork spirit. It's
not always easy to be achieved, however it's worth trying. The
pleasure and benefits of this process has been the reward of our
efforts.

First lets make clear what cooperation means in our case. It entails
sharing responsibilities among the teams involved; it is thus
gradually understood that the participation of each team affects
the participation and effectiveness of the others, as well as the
entire outcome of the project. Moreover the national teams do not
merely contribute in each part of the project separately but they
collaborate closely on every stage towards the final product.

Having this in mind and based on the last year's experience, I can
suggest two activities that can be implemented in the Physics
classroom.

A. the story of the small bulb "To glow"
(Referring to the function of the simple electric circuit in a fairytale
form for children.)

The subject of Physics, which is taught at the participating
schools, was enhanced in a Scribbler with simple words and
figures, taking thus advantage of the potentials offered by
this learning environment.

The cooperating schools, using web 2.0 tools such as Prezi
and Google doc., in real time or not, compiled a
questionnaire relevant to the lesson.

By using photopeach, quizmaker/internet and google
docs, a quiz is set in order to confirm the knowledge gained
by the children.

As for Storybird, the cooperating schools were divided in
small groups of students, so that the users of the tool are
assisted and the results are improved. The stories were
created on the topic: the story of the small bulb "To glow".
The fairytales were read with the participation of the school
community members.

One of the teams assigned the fairytales e-book creation
while another team was engaged in creating pictures
relating to the stories.
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Example: http://issuu.com/assil/docs/__________________


. I can explain it!
(Accounts of natural phenomena as they become known every day
and their explanation according the physical laws)

The collaborating groups have to upload photos and videos on
twinpace, about the phenomena observed in everyday life. These
are saved in a particular space.

Every single team (group) had to interpret the phenomenon as
showed on the picture or video clip by using the laws of physics as
well as some interactive tools like, video, pps, google doc etc.

So finally the presentation of the teams' work has been designed
using Prezi tools (so that all the activities are included) and
connected in real time.

The most active and effective team has been awarded a prize, even
though I would have preferred just to exchange gifts as souvenirs
(e-gifts or real one), in order to avoid developing inferiority
complexes to the rest of them.

End.
Example: http://new-twinspace.etwinning.net/web/p88836


Assimina Lambrakou
Teacher of Physics
Greece





10. Using eTwinning in the Foreign Language Classroom
As an EFL Teacher for more than two decades, I have noticed
repeatedly that students, particularly Primary School ones, get
easily bored in class. There are a number of tricks that the teacher
can use to attract their attention and increase their motivation but,
in my opinion, nothing compares to eTwinning because
it involves ICT and, as everybody knows in this line of work,
children both love computers and are expert at using
technology. I am very proud to admit that my pupils have
taught me quite a number of ICT lessons. For example, Paul,
an 11-year-old showed me how I can build my own blog
page and Joseph, a Fifth Grader, downloaded for me and
showed me how I can use HyperCam
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it caters for all subjects. Attempting Content and Language
Integrated Learning (CLIL), I was obliged to teach various
subjects in English. eTwinning came in handy in that case,
too. More specifically, in last years project Lets talk about
our countries, the 5
th
Graders studied Geography, collected
information in English and prepared powerpoint
presentations of Greek castles and islands as well as a
presentation of their hometown in English. Moreover, other
subject teachers such the Music Teacher, the Drama
Teacher and the PE Teacher cooperated with the English
Teacher and facilitated the children in singing and dancing
regional dances and staging myths and legends for their
partners to watch on TwinSpace. Click on the links to watch
The Myth of Europa and Alexander the Great and the
Mermaid. For these short performances, the children
studied Greek Mythology and History in English and acted
out the myth and the legend in English, too.
it is flexible because it can support the teacher who wishes
to improve his/her learners language skills and at the same
time to instill values in the children. To prove my point, I
should mention two projects, Volunteerism and Human
Rights (school year 2011-12) and School Reporters
(school year 2012-13). As part of both projects, the learners
improved their writing skills because they had to contribute
their own articles to the partnership online magazines
(Volunteerism and Human Rights and European Stars).
More importantly, the former project raised the childrens
awareness of the value and importance of altruism and
volunteerism and eventually led to an increase in
volunteering within the whole school while the latter taught
them journalism ethics such as reliability, objectivity,
integrity, politeness and respect for the publics self-dignity,
which are all fundamental but scarce in contemporary
journalism.
it is fun! Doing away with the coursebook (or so the pupils
think), giving a plausible excuse to leave the classroom and
visit an NGO, another school or listen to an expert at school,
preparing a performance, singing, dancing, experimenting
with online tools or talking with project partners on Skype
are only a few of the advantages of doing an eTwinning
project, all of which are fun for the children.
it boosts childrens self-esteem. At the end of every school
year an eTwinning Event is organized for the pupils to
present their work to their school mates, teachers, family
and friends. After the presentation the children feel they
have accomplished something special because everybody
congratulates them on their Foreign Language skills and the
amazing things they can do in the ICT class preparing voki
profiles, making and uploading powerpoint files, chatting
and finding their way around New Technology, in general!
That is why, I assume, everybody at school wants to take
part in an eTwinning project.

Natalia Tzitzi
English Teacher
Gree
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11. Active Learning
Through the eTwinning projects, the activities of the students are more
collaborative, they are interested to cooperate with colleagues, to learn
new things, to be creative.
In math lessons, students were interested:
to apply theoretical and practical knowledge about the similarity
of triangles to determine the height of a tree;


to solve crossword puzzles and problems, in contest between
groups, with roles of personages from the fairy tales;
to solve exercises and issues through exposures, comparison,
analysis, debates, explication;
presentation of knowledges and problem-solving through
collaborative activities for realising of interactive posters, for
fixing and deepening of the knowledge.











Teodora Cosma
Maths teacher
Romania







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