Traveloteacher

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 t...

The learning event The Pedagogical Value of eTwinning projects that Bart and I are running in the eTwinning Learning Lab is now in full swing. The warming up part was well received by more than 150 participants. Bart and I have collected not only a lot of resources and tools to engage our particpants, but we've also prepared some fun tasks for them that they have been doing with pleasure and passion. We're delighted to see how enthusiastic and inspiring the eTwinners are and how committed they are to lifelong learning and collaborating with peers from across Europe. Our first fun activity was a Thinglink map of Europe where they were invited to introduce themselves with a video, photo or link to the website of their school, hometown or country. We have two maps now - one bigger ,  the other smaller and both are filled with beautiful videos and images. The second task was to write their favorite saying on the 21st century education and learning on a Linoit Board. T...

Today I'm proudly announcing and inviting you, dear readers, to take part in the learning event The Pedagogical Value of eTwinning projects , which I'll be running with my Belgian colleague Bart Verswijve l in the Learning Lab from February 28- March 9. This is the first time that I'm running such an event, and also the first time that a Croatian educator is doing it. Learning Events are short online courses aimed at improving teachers' skills and putting them in touch with other eTwinners. Learning events take place in a specifically designed platform called the Learning Lab . Our learning event is about technology, but technology that is used only as a means to achieve the learning goals set by the teacher and to develop students' 21st century skills.  As you can read in my bio, I'm an avid user of web 2.0 technology and have been using it in my classroom for quite some time now. I must admit, however, that at the beginning of my tech journey, ...

As a token of appreciation, the BaW team sent me this personalized badge of the 10th anniversary! This is my BaW story: But first some background: Every year  the Electronic Village Onlin e , a project of TESOL's CALL Interest Section, organizes five-week long professional development courses for teachers of English. Teachers can choose from a variety of topics. Becoming a Webhead (BaW) , a hands-on workshop on how to use web 2.0 tools in the classroom, is  EVO's longest running workshop. This year, the BaWers are celebrating their 10th anniversary. BaW represents an excellent way to get started with new technologies in education. It encourages teachers to pursue new ways of teaching and to bring changes into their classrooms. This is exactly what BaW did for me when I applied for the 2010 workshop! It opened up a new door and let me enter a new world of digital delights, which I continued to explore, to experiment, to learn! And the icing on the cake was me being ...

Here's my third Thinglink interactive image: this one is about Google tools that can be used in the classroom.

Recently I discovered Thinglink - a fantastic tool for creating interactive images. Today I created this one - about Microsoft free tools for educators. It's easily embeddable on Blogger (not on Wordpress, though) and all the interactive features function properly. The image can also be found on my Thinglink page . My first Thinglink was about Zadar, a beautiful city in Croatia, famous for the most romantic sunset in the world. My interactive image made it to the Thinglink's staff favourites:

What started in 2011 , continued in 2012 as well - I travelled, I learned, I was invited to speak at conferences, I ran workshops and I co-hosted teachmeets. To my delight, TeachMeet Int'l won second runner up in the Edublog Awards 2012! The year started with our trip to Cuba - it was a fantastic holiday with no internet access whatsoever! In March, we explored Berlin and Potsdam, in April we flew to Boston, saw the sights and tried our very first clam chowder in a bread bowl! (Absolutely delicious!). Then we headed for Toronto, and on our way there we stopped to visit the Niagara Falls, both on the US and the Canadian side. In Buffalo I treated myself to what is now my beloved Kindle Touch. I never leave the house without it! In January it was my school's turn to host a Comenius meeting. 31 students and 19 teachers from 7 European countries came to Zagreb to meet their project partners and to learn from each other. The spring was abound with conferences: Microsoft S...