Visibility of eTwinning Projects Groups July 2019 Newsletter Newsletter 9 | Page 98
Visibility of eTwinning Projects Group July 2019 Newsletter
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
In May 2018 my school was surprisingly awarded
an Erasmus+KA1 grant for the project 'Shaping the
future of our school' which has given the
opportunity to 26 members of the staff (24
teachers, the headmaster and the administrative
director) to develop themselves professionally by
attending structured courses and doing job
shadowing experiences in several European
countries. The main objectives of the project are:
a) to improve the school educational standards by
implementing innovative and interdisciplinary
teaching methodologies that allow pupils to acquire
the 21st century competencies;
b) to improve pupils' wellbeing and the efficacy of
their learning thanks to a more inclusive school
environment, able to meet the students' needs in a
personalized way;
c) to develop the school European dimension which
will help to direct its future policy.
In order to reach these goals 4 actions have been
designed: 1) CLIL all around: Courses to empower
language skills and improve CLIL methodology 2) A
school for the 21st century: Courses on innovative
teaching methodologies 3) A school for all: Courses
about inclusive teaching 4) A school of the future:
Job shadowing experiences and courses for
improving the English knowledge.
time had some useful tools, like the possibility of
integrating different media and apps, creating
forums, sharing pictures and storing material.
I suddenly realized that eTwinning was the online
environment I was looking for ! I came up with the
idea of setting up a TwinSpace for the project and
to make the most of its different features. The
project journal was perfect to give notice about the
project progresses and I could create different
pages, some of which would be public and some
others visible only to the TwinSpace members, that
is all the beneficiaries of the projects. Besides, it
could have been a different way to introduce
eTwinning to my colleagues.
Setting up the environment
The project was due to start in autumn 2018 so I
devoted the summer to create the TwinSpace
environment. First of all I asked my National
Support Service about the possibility of opening a
project for an Erasmus+ Ka1 project. They said it
was absolutely fine and that they even encouraged
it. I started from the very beginning by filling all the
fields required in order to get the approval and I
asked a colleague of mine to be a founder member
as for this project I did not need a foreign partner.
eTwinning had proved to be a valuable ally during
the writing of the project application form, as I had
found some schools available to host my
colleagues. Furthermore I had found some advice
concerning the courses which could fit my school
needs that had to be included in our European
Development Plan.
An environment for any needs
After the joy for the approval had faded, the time
came to wallow in thousand doubts. It was my first
time as Erasmus+ project coordinator and I hadn't
ever been in charge of running such a big project.
How could I manage to my drive my colleagues
through all the project phases (pre-mobility,
mobility, implementation, dissemination) in the best
way? How could I gather all the materials and make
them public, so that the wider school community
could benefit from it? Last but not least, how could
I make the project accessible to as many people as
possible?
After a few days I received the approval and I could
start working on the TwinSpace.
I started to browse the internet in search of
inspiration. I came across different projects pages,
mostly embedded on their school websites. They
were usually showcasing all the work done through
the project, which is absolutely fine, but I wanted
something different. I needed a more dynamic
space which was easy to handle but at the same
98