My final project.

We all agree that Etwinning has widen the way in which learning languages (not only English) are learnt and taught. 

For that reason this widenning of views forces us to look for real situations where our students perceive the necessity  of using English (in my case)

Since my students are young (their ages range from 6 to 9) the types of projects must be not very demanding as far as their autonomy is concerned. The type of project that best fits their needs should be one where they can have time to work at their pace and, at the same time, fix some specific moments or activities to get in touch with other students.

The title for the project would be "Once upon a .... BOOK|". In this project the idea is to use children's literature to share stories with others and even create their own stories between all the partners.

In this general draft we have to say that the number of partners should be 2 or 3. I think it is better to start with small and clear goals that can be achieved rather than planning big goals that after a short period of time become unrealistic.

As far as the subjects or areas is concerned I have to say that I only teach English. However, it does not imply that any other subjects cannot be tackled (other languages may be valid to build bilingual stories) or subjects like art or music could be also interesting.

Within the objectives that we may aim at we should highlight these:

• Promote the use of English as a communication tool in real communicative situations.
• Allow our students to get in touch with other countries within the European Union.
• Increase the student's self esteem regarding the use of the Foreign Language
• Develop our student's creativity when reading and inventing stories.
• Introduce cooperative work in the class in order to create some materials or pieces of work.
• Introduce our students in the use of ICT tools like videoconference or creating shared books using different apps.

This project does not vary very much from the original one since the general outline I think that is ok. I must outstand that since it is an open project there are aspects that must be negotiated with partners in order to set a final and real project rather than imposing my criteria.

How is it going to be developed?

The idea of the project is to be carried out in a whole school year. We aim at setting specific topics to be carried out. The idea is to fulfill the school year with all the project working at two levels (class level and etwinning level). We have to bear in mind that the school year begins in September and finishes in June (at least in Spain) therefore it may determine the topics to be chosen.

• Who are we? Introducing ourselves and getting to know our new friends. We may desing some kind of symbol/icon/logo for our project and arranging some kind of videoconference to meet the partners.
• Who said fear? We have to consider that Halloween is very present for children and monsters are aspects that we may work in the class. We can use stories like "The Gruffalo" or "Room on the Broom", both by Julia Donaldson to work and create that atmosphere around Halloween. Then we may create a poster (for example using PADLET) with different elements that each country has around this festival.
• The next step may be related to a different festival, Christmas. We may exchange postcards and sing carols even creating a shared Christmas Carols to promote our partnership (At this topic we may use the story of "Stick Man" by Julia Donaldson.

Since this is a general draft I have given a quick view of how we may set the general development of the project.

As far as the curricular integration of the project it is clearly based on the curriculum itself. We are going to practice the different skills (listening, speaking, reading and writing) using contents established by our authorities.

The use of ICT tools will be very important, not only at student's level but moreover at teacher's level. All the planning and programming should be shared and material as well. We can use the Etwinning platform to keep a record of the whole process and there we may share the planning, resources or links to carry it out.

When thinking about the results we aim at we must look to the initial objectives that we set. We will desing different tools or techniques to check to what extend these objectives have been achieved. We will value not only the student's opinion but also their parent's. In order to promote this type of activities we will try to share it wherever we are allowed to, press, radio, television, our school's website, our Autonomous Community Website...

ICT TASK INVOLVING REAL COLLABORATION

The task that I am going to design is quite basic. Since my students are aged 6 or 7 the type of task must be not very demanding as far as ICT  managing is concerned.

Within our planning we have established the use of stories that catch up our student's attention. Among the stories we aim at working we would like to use incorporate "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" by Eric Carle. 

With it we may allow students to cope with food, likes and dislikes. It may give us an oportunity to work with our partners from other country typical food from our countries (we must not forget that we teach English and we want to communicate with other students by using that languate). We will include some kind of meeting (skype/hangouts) videoconference to talk about the story, student's opinion, favourite part, where they will talk to their etwinning friends. We have to consider that this is not the first time they met as they have already worked from the beginning of the school year.

After all this work is done, we will develop a collaborative activity where children will make up a new story. We will have to agree how will it go (who creates pictures, who writes text, if there is audio who records it, who incorporates it and who publishes it. This task will be agreed between teachers.

The general outline of the activity would consist of making up  a comic about a caterpillar where they will have to decide the food it will eat all through the week (it implies rewriting Carle's story) but incorporating the items of food they agree.

We should not lose perspective of our student's age and level of language regarding English.

To create the comic we propose the use of mobile devices rather than computers since it is easier for young children to tackle with them. Among the different apps we propose the use of PIXTON

as it may be used with iOS or Android devices.

The development of this within our eTwinning planning will imply work at two levels. On the one hand, with our students providing them with the necessary language and, on the other hand with our partners by the end of the project when building up the new story.

MY PROJECT DRAFT

We all agree that Etwinning has widen the way in which learning languages (not only English) are learnt and taught. 

For that reason this widenning of views forces us to look for real situations where our students perceive the necessity  of using English (in my case)

Since my students are young (their ages range from 6 to 9) the types of projects must be not very demanding as far as their autonomy is concerned. The type of project that best fits their needs should be one where they can have time to work at their pace and, at the same time, fix some specific moments or activities to get in touch with other students.

The title for the project would be "Once upon a .... BOOK|". In this project the idea is to use children's literature to share stories with others and even create their own stories between all the partners.

In this general draft we have to say that the number of partners should be 2 or 3. I think it is better to start with small and clear goals that can be achieved rather than planning big goals that after a short period of time become unrealistic.

As far as the subjects or areas is concerned I have to say that I only teach English. However, it does not imply that any other subjects cannot be tackled (other languages may be valid to build bilingual stories) or subjects like art or music could be also interesting.

Within the objectives that we may aim at we should highlight these:

• Promote the use of English as a communication tool in real communicative situations.
• Allow our students to get in touch with other countries within the European Union.
• Increase the student's self esteem regarding the use of the Foreign Language
• Develop our student's creativity when reading and inventing stories.
• Introduce cooperative work in the class in order to create some materials or pieces of work.
• Introduce our students in the use of ICT tools like videoconference or creating shared books using different apps.

How is it going to be developed?

The idea of the project is to be carried out in a whole school year. We aim at setting specific topics to be carried out. The idea is to fulfill the school year with all the project working at two levels (class level and etwinning level). We have to bear in mind that the school year begins in September and finishes in June (at least in Spain) therefore it may determine the topics to be chosen.

• Who are we? Introducing ourselves and getting to know our new friends. We may desing some kind of symbol/icon/logo for our project and arranging some kind of videoconference to meet the partners.
• Who said fear? We have to consider that Halloween is very present for children and monsters are aspects that we may work in the class. We can use stories like "The Gruffalo" or "Room on the Broom", both by Julia Donaldson to work and create that atmosphere around Halloween. Then we may create a poster (for example using PADLET) with different elements that each country has around this festival.
• The next step may be related to a different festival, Christmas. We may exchange postcards and sing carols even creating a shared Christmas Carols to promote our partnership (At this topic we may use the story of "Stick Man" by Julia Donaldson.

Since this is a general draft I have given a quick view of how we may set the general development of the project.

As far as the curricular integration of the project it is clearly based on the curriculum itself. We are going to practice the different skills (listening, speaking, reading and writing) using contents established by our authorities.

The use of ICT tools will be very important, not only at student's level but moreover at teacher's level. All the planning and programming should be shared and material as well. We can use the Etwinning platform to keep a record of the whole process and there we may share the planning, resources or links to carry it out.

When thinking about the results we aim at we must look to the initial objectives that we set. We will desing different tools or techniques to check to what extend these objectives have been achieved. We will value not only the student's opinion but also their parent's. In order to promote this type of activities we will try to share it wherever we are allowed to, press, radio, television, our school's website, our Autonomous Community Website...

My conclusions after the brainstorming

After a careful reading of differnet entries and thinking about my teaching practice I have come across some aspects that I would like to highligth.

Regarding those needs or areas of improvement and learning I have detected in my teaching I can say that one of the main points is in incorporating ICT in my practice. Not only for me as a teacher but in the use my students do of technology. I should try to foster the use of devices among my students, introducing them into the use of apps that may facilitate their autonomy and creativity in the English class. Sometimes we take for granted that our students are not ready to use devices, specially when they are young children. Therefore, we donot give them the chance to try. I think that I should try and take the risk to try and if it doesnot work them I may take a decission but not beforehand.

Other aspect that I have left aside is the importance of giving real situation to use English. We do use it as a means of communication within the English class but I should go one step forward an give them the chance to communicate with other children outside our school. I have already done it before but for me it has not been easy to find other teachers who are really willing to continue communication. I donot aim at creating a "big superfantastic outstanding project" but a simple one that really works and adapts to my children. 

I have already been on Etwinning before but after making many contacts there have not always been the success I expected to. So getting across good partners to develop these simple and effective project would be one of the main goals that would make this course effort worth.

Among all the information available I have found this ALL ABOUT US PROJECT is really awasome.  I think that it can really help me

It is very descriptive and really gathers a set of aspects that have been worked on along a fixed period of time. It includes collaboration among different countries and shows how students have been able to work together to build something. I aim at being able to carry out something similar.

MY PADLET ENTRY

EXPANDING THE IDEA OF "ETWINNING IN 140"

After reading some of the posts that my partners have made using either Facebook or Tweeter I can point out that all of us find common features that make ETWINNING a helpful tool to incorporate into our daily lives.

These advantages range from the fact of providing teachers with opportunities to interact with other teachers from all over Europe, not only in English but also in other languages that may be taught.

Etwinning may be used a free way to find partners to develop common projects about almost everything.

Other ways of teaching may be found after interacting with other teachers. Therefore Etwinning may promote the development of new methodologies.

MY FIRST TWEET ABOUT THE MOOC

#twinmooc eTwinning is a like a joker card that allows you to bring real communicative situations to our students and to enrich their lives.

— JA Lorca (@jesusantoniolor) 23 de abril de 2017