Imaging Europe

Two and a half years ago I was invited to join a group of teachers and students from seven European countries who were about to apply for a Comenius project about movies and students and the future and Europe.  

Our project "Imaging Europe 2011-2013" was accepted by our national agencies, and now, two years later, we have proved that it really was an outstanding project that has left a huge mark on all the participants. It made us realize how similar yet different we are and how important it is to get to know each other in order to better understand our differences and to respect people from other cultures.

The main task of the project was to create a road movie about Europe's past, present and future: as our students see it today, what it looked like to be a European from the perspective of an 18-year-old student 20 years ago and how today's young people see the Europe of the future, in 2020.

We worked on the videos in our schools and then showed each other our work in the f2f meetings organized in our schools. The meetings were fantastic opportunities for all of us to connect and to learn from each other. The first meeting was held in Greece. Croatia, Romania and Turkey followed in 2012, Belgium hosted the fifth meeting at the beginning of 2013 and Spain organized the final meeting and the awards ceremony in May. The ceremony was the climax of our work – just like the Oscars – no, actually, it was much merrier, more dignified, more impressive and festive than the Oscars – with tuxedoes and long gowns… well, not really as most of the girls wore short dresses and super high heels and outstanding hairstyles. Each team showcased what they had been doing over the past 2 years. The awards were given in eight categories –and what a coincidence! – each team got one award. We won the Best Acting Skills Award!

The project is now over but friendships are here to stay forever.

Comenius is  part of the Life Long Learning programme funded by the European Commission. Schools from European countries are encouraged to connect and apply and if their project is accepted, all the participating schools get a grant to carry it out.

When technology fails, teachers will save you

Yesterday we held yet another virtual Teachmeet. Just like the previous three teachmeets, this one was a true celebration of teaching, learning and sharing. There were 16 speakers from 16 countries from across six continenets. They talked about eTwinning projects, classroom publishing, concept mapping, Edmodo, extensive reading, writing, gaming, entrepreneurship, mentoring teachers and Wordle, just to mention a few. The atmoshpere was incredible - you could feel the immense enthusiasm, energy and passion that radiated not only from the speakers, but also from the audience, both in the chatbox and on the stage.

Technology, however, is another story.  Everything that could go wrong went wrong. At one point, the ACP simply refused to obey our orders, requests and pleas to upload the speakers' presentations. I was devastated, even though I know very well that  technology often lets us down, but we still love it! Luckily, having teachers in the audience means that  all problems can be fixed! Teachers wouldn't be teachers if they didn't have a contingency plan for each and every situation that could go wrong. So when they came up with the idea to share the presentations on Slideshare and talk in the ACP, I knew  that the TeachMeet was saved!

MS PIL Alumni Reunion

In July 2011,  I was proud and honored to be one of the top 50 educators selected by the Microsoft Partners in Learning Network to take part in the first PIL Institute that was held at the Microsoft Headquarters in Redmond, WA.

This event has greatly impacted both my professional and personal life - it influenced the way I teach, the way I learn and the way I connect with educators worldwide.

I'm still in close contact with most of the educators from Seattle -  on the PIL Network and on our Facebook page, fondly nicknamed the Dirty Fifty.  Some of us have also had the pleasure of f2f meetings in different countries worldwide and we all know, more or less, for most members of our group what they are up to, what they have done since Seattle, where they have traveled and how they have implemented the knowledge they gained at the Insititute.

A year and a half later, Bart and I are organizing a virtual PIL Insitutute Alumni Reunion - or an informal follow-up meeting as an opportunity for the PIL Insitutute Alumni to share their experiences and their expertise.

We're pleased to have received all the support from the PIL Network for the organization of this event, which will be held on the Microsoft Lync videoconferencing platform. What's more, Ms Razan Roberts and Ms Taryn Benarroch of Microsoft will join us and deliver a presentation on the Expert Educator Program that Microsoft is about to launch real soon. This will be a huge privilege for all the attendees to hear about this program even before it is launched. We'll learn how educators can apply for it and what it will bring them for their professional development.

The meeting will be held at 7:00 pm CET on Thursday April 4, 2013. Check your time zone here. To join us for the event, follow this link to the Lync Room. The room will be open half an hour before the event.

Find out more about the PIL Alumni here.
Here's my video about the PIL Institute:

Odysseus goes Portugal

The ten-day long Learning Odyssey that Bart and I were running in the eTwinning Learning Lab moved from the virtual to the real world in Portugal last week. At the annual eTwinning conference, held in Lisbon, we delivered two workshops about The Pedagogical Value of eTwinning projects.

The workshops were well received by the teachers who wanted to learn more not only about the web 2.0 tools that they can use in their eTwinning projects, but also about the pedagogy behind the tools (or ahead of the tools). We received fantastic feedback and I'm still over the moon about it, because so many teachers approached us after the workshops to tell us that our sessions were the best or among the best sessions of the entire conference.  Also, after the first workshop the good word about what we did and how we presented this topic spread around and we were asked to let in some other teachers who hadn't previously signed up for our workshops.

What the teachers liked most about the workshops (and so did we) was that they were full of surprises,  just like  Odysseus' voyage was full of unexpected twists and turns – however, in our Learning Odyssey, all the surprises were more than pleasant, from beautiful sandy beaches, Nutella jars and TTYPs to  exit slips, treasure troves and  sailor's wisdom for eTwinners.

The PORTalisbon is now in a safe harbor but ready to set sail to new, still undiscovered learning beaches and treasure islands.