2o Ευρωπαϊκό Βραβείο eTwinning στην κατηγορία "4-11 ετών"

Σχολείο: 1o Δημοτικό Σχολείο Νέου Ψυχικού

Εκπαιδευτικός: Άννα Καραβόλου (ΠΕ06), Σοφία Καρσανίδου (ΠΕ06)

Συνεργαζόμενα σχολεία:

• EB 2,3/S Cunha Rivara - (Πορτογαλία)
• Szkoła Podstawowa (Πολωνία)
• CEIP Ramon Macip - Dolors Granés (Ισπανία)
• Istituto Comprensivo Renato Moro - Scuola Primaria "Renato Moro" (Ιταλία)
• Colegiul National Traian (Ρουμανία)

Καρτέλα έργου: 4151

Περιγραφή: This project started with the collaboration of Italy and Spain, Greece being the third participant to join in. Our aim was to teach our students about the cultural heritage of our European neighbours, focusing on the ideas of understanding, acceptance and respect, while developing their English language skills. To make the project even more motivating, we took into consideration our students’ interest in myths and legends, their attraction to music, as well as their aptitude for art and craft. Then, we combined them all in a process of three work phases: A. The students traced back to their favourite myths/ legends and decided on the ones they would like to share with their peers abroad. Each myth/legend was written in both English language and their mother tongue using ICT. B. Then it was uploaded on the TwinSpace and picked up by the students of another country, who, after classroom elaboration, illustrated it, engaging their imagination to conceive the characters and settings of the myth/legend in their own unique way. C. The third partner had to find a musical piece, representative of their country’s musical tradition, which would be suitable for this specific myth/legend. The musical theme selected, operated as the backbone upon which the whole story unfolded. Doing so, a totally new legend emerged, which combined elements of culture taken from all the participating countries and belonged to all of them equally, but as a whole it was a merely fresh product derived from collaborative work. As our project was in progress, we welcomed four more participants: Poland, Romania, Portugal and Turkey. Due to this multicultural approach, the cultural “load” running the whole project expanded and the outcome was tremendously enriched. An e-book containing 75 illustrated bilingual myths, legends or fables, each one of them coming along with a different musical theme, was the final result of the work of the students involved.

The project owes much of its creativity and innovation to the musical themes accompanying the reading of the illustrated myths/legends; functioning as acoustic stimuli, they created a unique, enchanting atmosphere in the classroom, reinforcing the emotional involvement of all pupils. Furthermore, they offered a straightforward exchange, which added to the overall cultural value of the project,

multiplying the final impression. No doubt that the integration of ICT in the foreign language classroom was also innovating, in that it promoted a new way of learning, which motivated both students and teachers. Moreover, the fact that mixed ability students of different ages and levels of linguistic competence were successfully involved was also an attempt introduced for the first time within this project. Another idea which excited the students, was the use of both English language and their mother tongue in writing the legends; a very simple idea, which apart from promoting linguistic diversity, also revealed the immediate relationship of history, language and culture.

Due to its multidisciplinary character, the project integrated perfectly in the school curriculum, involving subjects such as Art, Music, Geography, Citizenship and Greek Language. It was predominately based on the acquired knowledge of Mythology, Literature and History, recycling and expanding what the students had already been taught. Two of our main objectives, to improve students’ competence in English and develop their computer skills, were successfully fulfilled. Working on this project, students had to practise their writing skills, as they had to express themselves addressing a “real” audience, their fellow students from other countries. Reading skills were also improved, as they had to read and understand, broadening at the same time their vocabulary and engaging their imagination, since they had to “retell” the story through pictures. They were also given the chance to practise their speaking and listening skills, as legends were discussed in the classroom. And of course, communicative skills, a major objective of language learning, were successfully acquired. The intensive use of ICT tools provided them with sufficient knowledge to carry out their work satisfactorily.

“Uniting through legends” was actually my first e-twinning project. As a teacher of English, I had a very close collaboration with the other EFL teacher of our school working on the same the project. As we were far from being experts in the use of ICT when we started, we sometimes had to address to the ICT teacher, who was really helpful and supportive. Also, meeting on a chat with the other teachers of our e-twinning team for at least three times a week, created a continuous flow of information about the matters of common interest and served as the starting point in probing the outer limits and the innermost reaches of this ever growing field of “knowledge” and its acquisition in the most exciting and provocative way. During the whole year, all our colleagues showed great interest in our work, which generated a fruitful dialogue at break time. As a result of this dialogue, sprang the idea of building the celebration for the end of the school year around myths and legends; an idea which every member of the staff welcomed straightway. The whole school community was activated: students, teachers and parents. All the school classes (from the 1st to the 6th grade) dramatized myths and legends in a celebration inspired by our project. The students involved in the project translated the myths/legends that had the greatest impact upon them and adapted them in theatrical speech. The teachers of Music and Art contributed significantly to the final result. During the performance, the PPTs of the legends were projected on a large screen. At a special place in the school yard, a selection of 10 illustrated myths was exposed on a big cardboard surface. The evening closed with an e-twinning song written by the students of all the participating countries. This great event was definitely the result of coordinative work.

The communication among schools of other European countries created a multi-cultural community of teachers and students. The idea of working with six other schools without having any previous e-twinning experience was more than challenging; and it proved to be really rewarding. Our students, being exposed to a variety of ways of cultural expression, became aware of differences and similarities among different aspects of civilisations and treated them with interest, care and respect. As their work was relevantly respected, they felt proud of it and free to express themselves as equal members of a big European family. No feelings of superiority or inferiority; total lack of prejudice; the spirit of this European collaboration gave the opportunity for the most precious humanitarian values to bloom and flourish in our school classrooms and the finest emotions of friendship and mutual respect to nest in our hearts. However, it was a pity we didn’t have the chance to meet our e-twinning partners!

In order to carry out this project and fulfil the aims we had initially set, we not only had to exploit or even extend our linguistic knowledge of English; to do so, we had to rely a great deal on the use of ICT. A new magical world, the world of technology was to be exploited as well. This handy and effective tool of ICT offered us a direct, easy and lively way of communication. On the one hand, our students learnt how to create PowerPoint Presentations, exploiting every potential the software offered (such as the use of movement effects, sound variations etc) to make their presentation as attractive as possible. They also learnt how to use the digital camera and video-camera to take pictures and the PC to give them the finishing touches. They used the scanner to scan the paintings for the illustrations, as well as the overhead projector to present the myths/legends in class. They selected music for the PPT slides and became familiar with music converter/editor software such as Windows Media Player and Nero StartSmart. Moreover, they exchanged e-mails and they used the internet to find useful information. Students always worked in heterogeneous groups, the most competent helping the less competent ones, but at the end of the project, the majority of them had greatly improved. Most important, they all had become aware of the fact that the proper use of ICT could broaden their minds, make them a little wiser, more communicative and respectful, less selfish and introvert, thinking that they are not but a part of a larger, exciting, friendly world, which is too easy to reach and explore! On the other hand, we, teachers, not only improved our ICT skills, but also experienced a much more stimulating, effective and pleasant way of teaching, incorporating the use of ICT as a permanent class tool.

Both teachers and students benefited a great deal from their involvement in this project. As English language became a means of “real” communication in a real-life situation, language learning was highly promoted. Students learnt a lot about other peoples’ cultures, while, at the same time, were improving all language skills in a non deliberate but successful way. Also, the fact that all legends were written in their mother tongue, as well, familiarized them with many other languages – apart from English - and encouraged linguistic diversity. Especially, very slow learning students were encouraged, as the multi-purpose tasks and the communicative character of the project made them more actively involved in tasks they never thought they could cope with. As a result, their confidence and self esteem gradually increased. The relations among them improved, as they stayed focused on a common aim, to which every single one of them contributed in his/her own special way. Moreover, they became more efficient in the use of a variety of technological tools, which was not a negligible goal in itself. As for the teachers’ benefits, they were clearly obvious; we experienced an innovative approach to the teaching of English as a foreign language in a highly motivated class; we explored ways for making ICT operate as stimulus to promote creativity and allow it develop in all children; we exchanged ideas about teaching methods and techniques; we discovered alternative strategies for reaching our teaching objectives; we improved our own ICT skills; but most important, we established strong bonds of friendship with the other seven teachers that were involved in the project, which, in turn, facilitated the work of us all with its soothing and supportive power.