Traveloteacher

Looking back at 2013, I can say that never before has there been a year with so many ups and downs as this one.  There are both good and bad moments every year, but in 2013 the oscillations between the ups and downs were really huge. But now, at the end of the year, I'm going to leave behind all those disturbing, terrifying and utterly devastating moments, along with all those failures and disappointments and take stock of the good moments only, of achievements, of successes which will hopefully continue in 2014 as well. 1) Academically, it's been a terrific year - my husband got his Masters, my older son is just about to get his Bachelor's and will continue to pursue his Masters and my younger son enrolled at college. And I got a grant for a year-long ELA - eLearning Academy by CARNet, so this year I'm a student again - studying about e-learning and pedagogy, writing papers about it and getting grades for my work! 2) We travelled a lot - on stand by, of course. ...

I've been tagged in a blogging meme by my dear friends  Eva Buyuksimkesyan ,  Janet Bianchini  and  Cristina Silva . The task includes: Acknowledge the nominating blogger. Share 11 random facts about yourself. Answer the 11 questions the nominating blogger has created for you. List 11 bloggers. Post 11 questions for the bloggers you nominate to answer, and let all the bloggers know they have been nominated. Don’t nominate a blogger who has nominated you. So here I go: 11 random facts about me 1. I'm a proud mom of two boys who are now at university, studying mechanical engineering and ICT. 2. My husband and I swim 2 kilometers every Sunday. We've been doing that  for 12 years now. 3.  I travel a lot, but always on stand-by, which means that we can travel only if there are free seats available on the plane. It can get really nerve-racking, but it's worth it. 4.  Until last year I thought  jogging was not my kind of spor...

I love Twitter, I always have, ever since I first started following Ashton Kutcher @aplusk, (yes, really!) in April 2009. Only a month later, my PLN began to take shape. That was also the time when the first educational Twitter chat took place. 4,5 years later, my PLN plays a very important role for my professional, but also personal development and Twitter chats are events I take part in whenever I can.  I have grown both professionally and personally over those 4,5 year, as Italian educator Alessandra Pallavicini aptly said: Yesterday, I went even further than that -  I led the first eTwinning Twitter Marathon together with Bart Verswijvel , with whom I have already done lots of educational projects that have inspired a huge number of educators worldwide. ETWION as we called it, brought together more than 150 educators from all over the world. It lasted for 5 hours non-stop, with Bart and me welcoming the audience, involving them in the conversations, making ...

These days when the West Jet Christmas video is going viral, I've been thinking about the message it conveys - Miracles do happen if we all work as one. Yes, I know, it's a fairy tale, but still, I want to believe and I do believe that miracles really happen - if we join forces we can make things happen, do the unthinkable, make dreams come true! Take my school for example. It's old, it desperately needs a complete makeover, which will most likely not happen, not even in the distant future, with all these cuts in the field of education (unfortunately, my government doesn't understand that investing in education brings prosperity to a country). This time last year our computer lab looked like this: Today it looks totally different: Inspired by the Future Classroom Lab in Brussels, it is now a flexible learning space that motivates students, sparks creativity and instills the love of learning and teaching. I've written about it so m...

#ETWION is an eTwinning Twitter Marathon that Bart and I are organizing for eTwinners and educators from all over the world on December 19. We're really pleased to see that lots of teachers have opened a Twitter account and are getting ready to take part in the twitterathon. Here are some tips for newcomers on how to make the most out of #ETWION: First and foremost, we communicate with other Twitterers (or tweeps) by sending short messages or tweets which are up to 140 characters long. Even though this may seem really short, we can add links, photos and even video clips to our tweets. Every Twitter user has a Twitter name, also known as Twitter handle , which consists of the symbol @ placed before the username. If you don't add the @ , the user might not see your tweet, so make sure you always add the twitter handle of the person who you're addressing this tweet to. For example, I sent out this tweet to no one in particular so it appeared on the timelines of all t...

  Many teachers use social media to connect and collaborate with peers from across the world. Twitter is one of the social networking sites where they can communicate by sending short messages to their peers. Twitter chats on different educational topics are very popular among educators because they can easily share their ideas, experiences and examples of best practice and promote their professional growth. That's why Bart and I have decided to do a new project together - on December 19, 2013, we're organizing the first ever ETWION - eTwinning Twitter Marathon - a five-hour festival of teaching and learning on Twitter for eTwinners , but also for educators from across the world, no matter what subject they teach or where they live. The ETWION will be held from 6 pm - 11 pm (check your  time zone   here). It will be divided into five time slots - Twitter chats -  each featuring a different educational topic. The topics are as follows: ...