Visibility of eTwinning Projects Group July 2013 Newsletter
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------citizens. For example, we had candidates for Mayor
of the Rainbow Village. What did that teach us?
That there is a lot of work behind a campaign, that
having the right to vote - a fundamental right in
democracy - is a huge responsibility and privilege
alike. That we should get involved in the political
life when the time comes and express our wishes
and needs. It is our duty! Progress is no easy task.
It takes time and skills, and Rainbow Village made
us see that. Ruling a country or city is no easy task
either. We figured that out too. We understood the
stupidity of us wanting our leaders to have
solutions for every single problem right here and
right now! You cannot have that! Patience is a great
quality. Problems can be solved efficiently only
when they are taken care of one at a time.
More Than Just a Project
by Andrea Ullrich
Since 1999 I have been in charge of the Comenius
Projects at our school. eTwinning is something I
discovered only in 2008, when I was organizing our
first exchange with Rota, Spain and needed an
efficient way of communication for our students. We
presented ourselves, our schools and towns and
used the chat room at least once a week; when the
Spanish students finally arrived, there was not
much ice left to be broken.
What I found most intriguing about my first project
was the boost of motivation and self-confidence in
my students. So I joined several other projects –
good ones and less good ones – and I suggested we
used eTwinning as a tool for our Comenius projects.
First our partners were a bit reluctant, but with our
second attempt it finally worked out well, and three
of the hard(er)-working partners got the European
Quality Label.
So, as far as I am concerned, Rainbow Village is not
only about having fun and making friends; it is not
even about learning English, even though I began
my essay with that idea; it is about preparing us for
what is out there. It is about preparing us for the
full-time job we are going to have in the future: the
job of the responsible citizen. That is what makes it
great, that is what makes the efforts well worth it!
In 2009 and 2010 I participated in “A teacher’s
diary” and “Teachers’ summer blog” where I met
some enthusiastic teachers, whom I had some
marvelous projects with later. These projects will
not only stay in my mind, my students will
remember them too.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
It was just last week that I realized how much
working in these projects really means to them. My
year 8 students, who will be split up next year
according to the special branches they have chosen,
asked me if I would like to have a look at the photo
book they had prepared about their first four years
at our school… and the “Words” project we had
been working at 2010/11 covered half of the
pages. I have to admit the way they presented it
was touching…
47