Celeste Simões EDITORIAL
9
Pilot Project Coordinator at Agrupamento de Escolas de Carregal do Sal - Portugal
I’ve always been keen on learning and eager to pursue knowledge, therefore I seek all opportunities to learn new skills, find new innovative methodologies and techniques that can lead my students to success, both academically and as human beings. As a teacher, I feel the need to keep updated on changes or progress in the educational field, and thus continuously think of ways to improve and help others – students and fellow teachers – improve.
As educators we must keep growing and investing in learning. We must keep moving forward, remain focused and come up with new ideas that will help us and our students understand this changing world.
With so much around us to learn from, we become sponges that absorb anything that can take us to the next level and boosts our confidence and self-esteem, thus enabling our personal growth. But we must be very careful who/what we choose to learn from and this was the main reason that led me to apply for the School-Based Case Studies of the School Education Gateway
/European Schoolnet: the opportunity to learn from a highly regarded organization, a network of 34 European Ministries of Education, the possibility to be part of an international community of teachers, the opportunity to shape school-level developments and inspire colleagues and to be able to exchange with like-minded colleagues and share experiences.
Being a teacher is much more than just teaching the syllabus, it is creating opportunities to widen horizons, not only the students’ but also ours and our colleagues’. Learning from online courses and joining MOOCs that gather people from all parts of the world allows us to learn more than just the course topics, it makes us connect with people from different cultures and with different world views. This is a privilege everybody should have and an opportunity everybody should try and I’m just happy that I managed to share this possibility of learning and developing in my school cluster, Agrupamento de Escolas de Carregal do Sal, and contributed to my colleagues’ and my school development.
