Visibility of eTwinning Projects Group Newsletter 2017 No. 7 | Page 74

Visibility of eTwinning Projects Group July 2017 Newsletter ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ children was very challenging. Exploring as a method is a great way to learn in kindergarten. Our children took the lead in applying experiments, and they were pretty independent in these activities. We adapted the activities of the project into our daily lessons, plan, and themes. Through collaboration, teamwork, small groups and independent work, we aimed the personal, social and emotional development of preschoolers. Our participation in projects wasn't an extra task; it was a tool we used to improve our teaching skills and developing the student's key competences. We were exchanging experiences with our partners through different kinds of communication, Facebook, TwinSpace (forum, journal, materials, pages), e-mail, eTwinning live mail etc. We made a Facebook private group “Small Scientists“, which we were using for different kinds of agreements and appointments, and sharing some materials. For fast communication we used Facebook Messenger, it was appropriate for some administrators’ instructions and partners’ questions. We were helping each other in accomplishing all the project activities. We were not only working parallel, we really worked together (we discussed everything in our Facebook group, we chose our logo together by voting, we tried out our partners experiments and so on). Teachers from different educational systems worked together on the same aims. We shared all the work with other teachers and pupils. We held videoconferences, we talked to each other, sharing rhymes, introducing ourselves and our group mascots etc. The kids enjoyed our Skype meetings; this was one of their favourite activities. This project was a great idea, one that encouraged us more to see that we were not working parallel, but working together. In order to achieve the project’s pedagogical objectives we used many ICT tools (computer, laptop, photo camera, mobile phone, projector). For the evaluation we used a questionnaire for exchanging experiences and results with each other. We made an evaluation for children and colleagues. Participation in this eTwinning project was a great opportunity for the teachers and the students to play with experiments. They really enjoyed it, and told their parents about the experiments they liked and also did them at home. The parents saw the positive impact this project had on their children and this is really amazing. Edita Vuković Antolović is the headteacher of the kindergarten “Don Ivica Čondrić” in Žepče, Bosnia and Herzegovina. By profession she is a Professor of Preschool Education, Bachelor of Pedagogy and Master of Educational Sciences. Currently she is a PhD student at the Faculty of Education at the University of Sarajevo. She is an eTwinning ambassador and has been active on eTwinning since 2015. She likes the challenges and creativity that eTwinning provides us with, so she enjoys promoting eTwinning. 74