Gabriela Hlaváčová,
Primary and Nursery School of
H. Gavlovič, Pruské
A participant of an international eTwinning seminar in Portugal, 2009 and in Krakow, 2011
There is yet another form of motivation that attracted me to eTwinning, which is communication in foreign languages. I have always liked learning foreign languages; unfortunately in the socialist regime this opportunity was very limited and so after the Velvet revolution I took the opportunity to learn English privately in a language school and I welcomed every chance to communicate in the language. The eTwinning environment makes it ideal, not only through communication during projects but also international workshops, a few of them which I attended myself (Trenčianske Teplice, Portugalsko – Sintra, Krakow) and which helped me understand the international dimension and the possibilities of eTwinning.
Although the idea behind eTwinning is cooperation among schools over the internet, I find these international workshops very beneficial as you meet with European colleagues, exchange experience, ideas and information, and alternatively find a partner to cooperate on a project. In my seven years long eTwinning experience the most difficult thing has been to find reliable and hard-working partners, so when I manage to find them I try to keep them and work with them on several projects.
In seven years of my practice my teaching has been enriched by 8 eTwinning projects, some of which have been awarded the European Quality Label and I have learned that my students consider projects a common element of their learning process. We were really happy about having our latest project “Maths in real life” awarded (certificates and small presents). Children proudly wore their T-shirts with eTwinning logo to school and they agreed to wear it to a field trip to the capital of Bratislava. Only few children lost their “fight” with their moms and had to put on clean T-shirts!
Education is a combination of a variety of subjects, each one of them teaching pupils in its own way to explain how the world works. Project-based education enables children put together the pieces of information encompassed in the different school subjects and create their own comprehensive understanding of the surrounding world.
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I am one of those lucky people, who enjoy their work even after two decades of practice. What I like about teaching profession is the diversity. Each day in the classroom is different, each child has a different personality and I never deliver the same subject content in absolutely the same way.
Despite the diversity I constantly have to be on guard in order not to subdue to traditional stereotype of the same teaching methods and forms. I am interested in innovative and modern teaching methods, which is the reason why a few years ago a short spot on TV news caught my attention. It was about the success of Mrs. Denisa Križanová (at that time a teacher at Primary school in Omšenie near Trenčín) ,who together with her Czech partner carried out a project “The Ginger Bread House”, which was awarded 1st prize in European eTwinning prizes.
Almost immediately I went on the internet to look up www.etwinning.sk website and I tried to understand information it contained. Subsequently I participated in an introduction to eTwinning programme, which was delivered by the above mentioned teacher, Mrs. Križanová, who was in the position of a regional ambassador. This personal contact helped me find additional answers to my questions and complete my conception of eTwinning. Although knowing it would be difficult, I decided to try it out.
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Iveta Hidvegiová,
Primary School of Komenský in
Púchov
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