eTwinning Visibility Newsletter no. 4 eTwinning Visibility Newsletter no. 4 | Page 52

Visibility of eTwinning Projects Group July 2014 Newsletter -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Our school’s students cooperated with students from the school “Lafrançaise” in France, formed a team with members from both schools and created a collaborative photo story. This is an innovation in the educational process, since it presupposes authentic student experiences and their “exit” from the limits of the classroom. The students were happy coming into contact with their partners and communicating in authentic learning environments through the teleconferences we organized. On the eTwinning Platform, We Are in a Family! by Crina Aurelia Bercovici Year 2014 has been declared by the United Nations, the International Year of the Family. In a figurative way, family is a large group of people, of many peoples, with common interests and ideals. What is the eTwinning platform? At the address http://www.etwinning.net we find the definition “eTwinning is the community for schools in Europe, is an free and safe platform for teachers to connect, develop collaborative projects and share ideas in Europe”. This is the reason that entitles us to affirm that we are all members of the same family, learning together (in the Learning Lab - by participating in Learning events or online Seminars), learn and share experiences with our partners and the students (in projects and outside after their conclusion, in eTwinning Groups - private platforms for eTwinners to discuss and work together on a specific topic or theme), live nice moments (involved in competitions, feeling happy together in meetings of European type workshops, etc). The project was assessed by students who found it creative, pleasant and wonderful! Finally, the cooperation among teachers was fruitful and harmonic, and contributed to the exchange on educational practices. All this work has already started to be rewarded – the project has won two French Quality Labels and the 1st Prize in the National eTwinning Competition 2014 in Tunisia. In December 2014 on the 15th there will be 5 years since I have introduced our school in this family. My first steps in learning the secrets of this platform were guided by the volunteers in education, Romania's Support Service teachers: Irina Vasilescu, Alexandra Bunica, Olimpius Istrate, Simona Velea. They are those who led me and encouraged me to learn, so as to be a mentor to my other colleagues. The list of my mentors can be completed with a few names of hearty, experienced teachers whose example I tried to follow. It is about Cristina Nicolaita, Gabriela Crisan, Cornelia Melcu, Daniela Bunea, Dumitra Balan and Cristina Gila. I made my first steps in project management on the platform with Carole Tearpereau from France, Paulien du Fosse from the Netherlands and Andrea Ullrich from Germany. 52