#eTconf15 - 10 steps to effective communication in eTwinning projects

Last week I attended the eTwinning Conference in Brussels (#eTconf15). It was a fantastic event, I met amazing people, saw inspiring keynotes and participated in fantastic workshops.I learnt a lot and now I am ready to use my new skills and spread the passion!

We were spoilt with the amount of available workshops, click on the programme to see how difficult it was to choose! There was one I definitely wanted to see : 10 steps to effective communication in eTwinning projects run by Irene Pateraki and Paraskevi Belogia. 

I tweeted the whole workshop presentation, here on my blog I will briefly list the 10 steps the Irene and Paraskevi suggest:

1, The pupils need to be confident with the technology they use throughout the project. This includes getting to know Twinspace.

2, Create Twinspace accounts for your pupils, and encourage them to participate on this platform and interact with other pupils. (I am struggling with this as I am a visiting teacher and I haven't got enough time and computers to give everybody the chance but there must be a way around it and I won't give up!)

3, Respect each other online, because the online world is like the real world!

4, Plan ice breaking activities so that the children can get to know each other and build better relationships.

5, Use the Twinspace communication tools: Twinmail, Discussion Forums and the Teacher Bulletin.

6, Add regular live elements (games, quizzes, chats).

7, Integrate collaborative activities into your project (team work, group work).

8, Engage the pupils in active learning: plan fun and creative activities.

9, Provide feedback, because good feedback is where learning happens.

10, Use the right ICT tools! Some examples:

• schedule an online meeting in Meetinfyre or Doodle
• use Twiddla for brainstorming or creating a logo for your project
• use Voxopop for discussing and debating ideas
• find each other on Zeemap
• watch a video together on Watch2gether
• play and learn in Kahoot
• evaluate in TodaysMeet
• more: http://www.symbaloo.com/mix/etwinningcommunication

If you want to see the slides, check my tweets (@Erzsiculshaw) or search for #eTconf15 on Twitter.

Next blog post coming soon: tablets in eTwinning projects!

Now off to do some exercise after all those Belgian waffles:-)

New Year - new toys (6): a teaching trolley

The last "new toy" blog post is the best one - my teaching trolley! 

Happy New Year to all of you working in schools! I am just as nervous as I was 30 years ago!!!

New Year- new toys (5): clapperboards

These are not new either but I had to buy some because the old one broke after excessive usage by enthusiastic pupils:-) I saw them on Carmen's blog first, follow her for more amazing ideas!

We do lots of role plays in the lessons, I set the scene and give different jobs out: the pupils love to volunteer to be the directors with the clapperboard, hold the spotlights and record the "movie" on the iPad, many times with a green screen in the back. Use big microphones for more drama!

The clapperboards are under £2 on ebay or Amazon. 

New Year - new toys (4): a parachute

I have a very old photocopy called "Parachute games in the primary languages classroom", and every time I tidy my resources, I just look at it and say: one day I will try this, but not now...

This year I am teaching lots of little ones (Reception and Year 1), so I am finally ready to give it a go, even if I have to use a hammer to knock some classroom walls out:-)

I bought my parachute on Amazon, and then another one on a local Facebook selling page, so no excuses for me, I will let you know how I get on.

Have you tried parachute games? Leave a comment if you want to help me out!

New Year- new toys (3): window pens

We used window pens before, they are great to motivate the pupils to write sentences and the window will be a lovely display area. 

It was an expensive activity until I found some very cheap white window pens in a local store last week (the Range), 4 for £1. I tried one and the quality looks OK. I also bought some coloured pens, these were £8.

The one thing I have never tried are window crayons, but now I have a beautiful set of them, too.

 

New Year - new toys (2): syringe pens

I am sick of the missing full stops in my pupils' written work, so I bought some syringe pens online- these will be used by the sentence surgeons who will walk around during the written activity and check the sentences!

New year - new toys! (1): answer buzzers

If you have seen my previous post, you must be thinking that there is something wrong with me for buying new things, but if you look carefully, you will realise that there is a little room left in those boxes!

August is a great month because I don't pay for childcare so I think I am incredibly rich and buy quite a few things for work. I will post a toy each day for a week to celebrate the start of the new year:-)

Toy number one: Answer Buzzers from Amazon - I am planning to use these for quizzes.

Thank you for the idea, Vikki Bruff!