3rd prize in the national eTwinning prizes competition 2014
Since I teach pupils in grades 1 through 4, I had an opportunity to watch them change as the work on the project progressed. While initially the initiative was only on the part of the teacher, gradually the children became so involved in the project that they started to propose activities and the future direction of the project. Although at first they experienced difficulties expressing their own ideas, by the time they were in 4th grade they had been able to formulate problems clearly, discuss the situation in hand, propose solutions and verify them in practice.
Another positive aspect of being involved in a project is that the project work significantly contributed to strengthening in-class relationships as well as the development of a positive classroom climate. In my class I have a lot of strong personalities, who are unable to tolerate opinions of others. They lack humbleness, modesty and respect. This usually concerns only children, children raised by the mother only, children of elderly parents or children with adult siblings. None of these children lack self-confidence and I often have to resolve conflicts caused by intolerance between them. They compete over whose mobile phone or tablet is better and without hesitance exclude a child from a game, because he/she is not dressed according to the latest fashion. It is also through our project activities that we learned to respect one another, help the weaker ones and develop a sense of team play and cooperation. We tend to support each other following a motto – everyone is entitled to a success.
It wan’t only the pupils who got actively involved in all project activities but also their parents, who closely watched the entire process via class and school websites. Many of them not only gave a material support but also helped with implementation of a number of activities. I must assert that it was also due to the continuous publishing of partial project results that the parents’ understanding of the work of a teacher and of the whole teaching process changed. Until then they had only been able to peek into the process of teacher’s work with pupils on isolated occasions, such the open day in school. However, now they were personally involved in eTwinning activities and could see for themselves all the aspects that such work encompasses. They were surprised to see how much children in lower primary level can achieve once they become enthusiastic about an activity. They really appreciated having their children make new friends in a foreign school, being able to compare their work with ours; having gained knew knowledge and skills by adopting observations and ideas of their foreign peers, creating collaborative output.....
What else can I add? The eTwinning project experience I have had up today has brought me a lot of priceless experiences, which are both motivating and inspiring. I have learned a lot of new and interesting things, gained lots of precious partners in a number of foreign schools, improved at using a variety of information technologies.... Thanks to eTwinning and the people involved, I have made a big step forward in my professional life each year.
I was introduced to eTwinning and to project-based work by a good friend, Denyska Križanová, who is also an ambassador. She described her early experiences with eTwinning cooperation so vividly and enthusiastically I just had to try it. I will try to describe shortly my initial experiences with this type of work and especially changes which it brought to teacher-pupil, teacher-parent and also pupil-pupil relationships.
Although I was very careful when starting my first projects I must say that I got used to this form of teaching very quickly. It was amazing to watch both the children and their approach to learning change. By assigning problem solving tasks on which they worked collaboratively we managed to trigger their interest and curiosity. They quickly became enthusiastic, as all our projects were based on their own exploratory activities, creative work and play. This resulted in their more active participation both in and outside the classroom. Another great benefit was that the pupils started to look forward to many of their classes, as they were led informally, without textbooks, in a friendly environment and often outside the classroom (school grounds, local cottage area, forest, town park, school library, computer room...). Being engaged in a variety of playful and creative activities, it became easier for the pupils to acquire as well as retain new knowledge. Due to significant number of exploratory activities and the use of non-traditional approaches to teaching we managed to spark activity and curiosity even in less advanced pupils, thus satisfying their inner needs. I think that through this form of work the pupils gained a positive approach to learning free of fear of failure. I remember a mother proudly watching her son present results of his work during a class meeting. His performance was very self-confident, despite his severe speech impediment and despite being one of the most poorly performing pupils in the class. However, he achieved the results on his own and was so proud of it that he had thoroughly prepared himself for the presentation. It was evident that he enjoyed working on the project and was proud of his contribution.
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13
9
Janka Koštialiková,
Primary School
Medňanská, Ilava