eTwinning Visibility Newsletter no. 4 eTwinning Visibility Newsletter no. 4 | Page 117

Visibility of eTwinning Projects Group July 2014 Newsletter -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------I would say there are three key factors that make you become an eTwinning believer: integration, communication and support. A project integrated in your current curriculum provides the solid grounds required for interactive lessons where the students play the central role. Students and teachers work in teams, communicating with each other in a safe common space where they get immediate feedback. Everyone feels constantly supported and, consequently, highly motivated. Personally, eTwinning encouraged me to go ahead in my professional development and gave me the feeling of real success as a teacher. Do not miss the experience! It was in December of the academic year 20122013 when our district educational advisor and fellow EFL teacher Thalia Chatjigiannoglou mentioned the eTwinning project “Our Political Party” based on an eTwinning kit of instructions. At a first glance, I thought that it would be too hard for my 14-year-old students; still, what motivated me to adjust the five- page instruction kit to my students’ needs was its content and the cause: democracy and citizen initiative. The project won the 1st Prize at ‘Europe at School’ competition, http://www.europaeischer-wettbewerb.de/ueberuns/europe-at-school/, as well as the national and European Quality Labels for its collaboration and work, and was presented at the Professional Workshop in Stockholm, Sweden in 10-12 October 201 3: http://youtu.be/r4jgMX9kebA. The school was given the amount of 500€ and the participant students were awarded with a certificate in November 2013. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Young European Activists in the TwinSpace! YEA for Democracy! by Anna Drakotou This was an eTwinning project called “Our Political Party” (2012-13) with 14 year-old students from Athens, Greece and Zadar, Croatia presenting, sharing, debating and commenting on democratic values and citizen initiatives in order to create collaboratively their own political ‘voice’ on current issues under the umbrella of Democracy. 117