Visibility of eTwinning Projects Group July 2013 Newsletter
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Music as a Starting Point for Learning Other
Things… Besides Music
By Manuela Correia
I love music! I love new technologies! I love
meeting new people and different countries. In a
word, I love eTwinning!
eTwinning opened a wide window in my classroom.
It brought a new breath to my teaching methods.
Now I always go to school with a ‘purpose’ in my
mind: collaborate and share my work with my
European colleagues. My students feel proud to be
the ‘founders’ of the projects we’ve done so far and
they like to be always ‘one step ahead’ presenting
creative activities and tools to their European
‘mates’.
Since April 2010, when I ‘discovered’ eTwinning, I
have found an all-new bright world out there, with
hundreds of new friends ‘waiting for me’ and tons of
new ideas and tools to use in my classes. It turned
out to be the ‘vitamin’ I needed at that moment not
to decrease my love for my profession.
Because I am a music teacher, all my projects are
related to music. But this does not mean that all
partners must be music teachers, too. I have
already worked with Art teachers, ICT, Science,
History or English teachers, for example, and even
with Primary teachers.
You may ask what one can do in a music project
apart from music itself. Here’s what I have done so
far in my short eTwinning life.
With “Beyond music!” partners tried to develop
creative works inspired on 10 musical masterpieces
listed at the beginning of the project. Among other
things, pupils made paintings, puppet shows and
short animations synchronized with the music. Its
aim was to compare feelings towards the same
musical piece.
http://beyondmusic.comze.com/index.html
On “WaterRings”, classical music was once again
the ‘spring’ for creativity. All the musical pieces
chosen were related to water, so all the activities
planned had to do with water, too. Students had
the chance to research about floods and drought or
to make experiments with water in their Science
classes. Stories were created as well as beautiful
art works made with or on water: paper masks and
marbled paintings. They discovered sea food and
learned about marine animals and fishing. They
also sang typical songs of the countries involved
and found out new ways of playing and creating
musical instruments: they made a bottle xylophone
and a ‘rain tube’ (cock-of-rain). Teachers taught
about the importance of the water and the sea in
our societies (present and past).
http://waterrings.webs.com/
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