Visibility of eTwinning Projects Group July 2013 Newsletter
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------the audience realized from their words how they
had gone through the same educational experience
even though it was virtual but fully educational .
The eTwinning seminar was a chance for them to
know other English teachers from different schools
but also to get in touch simultaneously with
teachers of different subjects, all sharing an interest
in realizing projects of collaboration with other
colleagues, schools and classes. They were
introduced into a lively international educational
environment of inspiring project activities both for
teachers and for students, which may become the
practical field of everything they have been taught
through lessons and books so far.
One of them, Antonella Cesana, was an experienced
native speaker already teaching language in
“Linguistico” High Schools as a native speaking
assistant teacher. These are her impressions:
They talked about a new way of learning English,
they said they have overcome their shyness and
how much the project improved their relationship
inside the class as it was the first year they had
come to high school and did not know well each
other… They ended their presentation saying that
learning English with eTwinning was real fun!
On the other side of the education process we find
teachers or people studying and training
themselves to get that job. They are the trainees,
graduated people who are going to become
teachers and are supposed to attend a university
course and a training course at school under the
tutorship of an experienced teacher of the subject
they choose.
I am a Coordinator tutor for trainees who would like
to become English language teachers in high
schools, and I proposed them to join an eTwinning
seminar held in my school.
My first, and up till now, only, eTwinning experience
was an introductory seminar held on 24th May 2013
by "Santa Rosa Secondary School" in Viterbo, Italy.
I accepted the invitation, extended by the Lazio
eTwinning ambassador, Roberta delle Monache, as
an extra-curricular activity on a teacher-training
course I am currently attending. Not knowing what
to expect, since I had no previous background
knowledge, I later discovered eTwinning was a
virtual community of schools promoting
collaborative learning among pupils from a host of
European countries, as well as providing teacher
support, tools and services. I was immediately
drawn by the far-reaching potential of such an
innovative, state-of-the art learning and teaching
aid, especially by the idea that the focus of all
activities are the pupils themselves, who are guided
into becoming masters of their own learning
experience. On the one hand, such a motivating
and independence-building strategy can only
enhance self-esteem and boost the confidence
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