e-cultural kaleidoscope
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Let’s brainstorm.. .
CULTURE OF EUROPE reminds me of…..
Let’s visualise it…
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Something very colurful And beautiful‌
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Something symbolising Richness and beauty Of different cultures‌
A K
D I E L
S O
P O C
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N I B
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The idea of using kaleidoscope as a phenomenon symbolizing the beauty and richness of European cultures was very successful and appealed to students imagination.
The kaleidoscope is a symbolic way we can imagine all colourful bids locked inside one tube and create most amazing pictures when mixed together.
The kaleidoscope is a toy through which one can look through to view beautiful, multicolored, shifting images and patterns. We present culture of Europe and beyond Europe as beautiful, changing and interconnected.
Looking through the kaleidoscope usual things become extraordinary, so we will look at our cultures through the eye of kaleidoscope to see Europe's changing colours, sights and impressions.
LOGO OF OUR PROJECT
MAIN IDEA OF OUR PROJECT Europe is a mosaic of multiple cultures, not just those that are part of the old continent, but others from other countries that have influenced the culture of them. It is also a fact that the world's cultures influence each other. Culture is a broad concept, however, in our project, we focus it on three main themes: music, art and cuisine of different countries. Europe has a wide and varied range of materials incorporated by tradition, but also enriched with elements "imported" from other continents. The objective of the "e-cultural Kaleidoscope" project is to familiarize students with the richness of European cultures and to improve mutual understanding between students from different ethnic, while improving their communication skills in foreign language and the use of ICT as a means of communication and expression. Collaboration and common cultural encounters will expand the horizons of students and the cross-curricular nature of the project will help develop basic skills.
PARTICIPANTS CEIP La Jurada, San Isidro-Granadilla de Abona, Spain - CANARY ISLANDS Ecole élémentaire mixte 1 de Grand-Camp, LES ABYMES, France GUADELOUPE ΔΗΜΟΤΙΚΟ ΣΧΟΛΕΙΟ ΧΡΥΣΟΧΩΡΙΟΥ, Χρυσούπολη, Greece Scoala Gimnaziala "Nicolae Titulescu", Bucuresti, Romania Durmusali Toksoy İlkogretimokulu, Mersin, Turkey ZŠ Komenského 6,Spišské Vlachy, Spišské Vlachy, Slovakia Eglaines pamatskola, Ilūkstes novads, Latvia Szkoła Podstawowa nr 32, Bielsko-Biała, Poland Klaipėdos Gedminų pagrindinė mokykla, Klaipėda, Lithuania Nu"Otets Paisij", Simeonovgrad, Bulgaria Mid Calder Primary, West Lothian, United Kingdom
SPAIN - CANARY ISLANDS - TENERIFE CAPITAL CITY: Madrid THE HIGHEST MOUNTAIN:Teide THE LONGEST RIVER:Ebro THE MOST FAMOUS PLACES:Barcelona, Valencia, Sevilla, Pamplona, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Ibiza. THE MOST FAMOUS BUILDINGS: La Sagrada Familia, La Zarzuela Palace, Royal Palace. THE MOST FAMOUS PEOPLE:Dalí, Picasso, Rafa Nadal, Iker Casillas, Andrés Iniesta, Pau Gasol, Fernando Alonso, Pastora Soler. LAKES: Alcázar de San Juan, Albufera de Valencia. SEAS: Atlantic Ocean, Mediterranean Ocean, Cantabric Ocean.
FRANCE - FRENCH ANTILLES - GUADELOUPE CAPITAL CITY: France: Paris, Guadeloupe: Basse Terre THE HIGHEST MOUNTAIN: La Soufrière (it's also a volcano), Caribbean moutains, 1467 meters THE LONGEST RIVER: The salt river,Gran River THE MOST FAMOUS PLACES: In Paris : Les Champs Elysées, in Guadeloupe: Victory place Pointe à Pitre, Waterfalls of "Le Carbet", Volcano "La Soufrière" THE MOST FAMOUS BUILDINGS: Eiffel tow in Paris , in Guadeloupe :The gate of "la gabarre", old sugar cane factories THE MOST FAMOUS PEOPLE: Maryse Condé (writer),Aimé CESAIRE writer, Edouard GLISSANT writer, Patrick ST ELOI, singer, KASSAV famous band LAKE: the big lake in Basse Terre SEA: Caribbean Sea, Atlantic Ocean
POLANAD CAPITAL CITY: Warsaw
THE HIGHEST MOUNTAIN: Tatra mountains - Rysy
THE LONGEST RIVER: Vistula= Wisła
THE MOST FAMOUS PLACES: Kraków, Zakopane, Wrocław, Szczecin, Poznań, Oswięcim = Auschwitz, Wadowice
THE MOST FAMOUS BUILDINGS: Palace of Culture and Science, Royal castles, Wawel
THE MOST FAMOUS PEOPLE: Copernicus, Pope John Paul II, Maria Sklodowska Curie, Chopin
LAKES: Mazurian Lakes, Śniardwy, Mamry
SEA: Baltic Sea
TURKEY
CAPITAL CITY: ANKARA
THE HIGHEST MOUNTAIN: MOUNT AĞRI
THE LONGEST RIVER: KIZILIRMAK
THE MOST FAMOUS PLACES: İSTANBUL, ANTALYA, İZMİR, CAPPADOCIA
THE MOST FAMOUS BUILDINGS: ANITKABİR (ATATÜRK'S MAUSOLEUM)
THE MOST FAMOUS PEOPLE: ATATÜRK, TARKAN, ORHAN PAMUK, MEHMET THE CONQUEROR, SULEYMAN THE MAGNIFICENT, ARDA TURAN, HİDAYET TÜRKOĞLU, SEMİH SAYGINER
LAKE: VAN LAKE, SALT LAKE
SEA: MARMARA SEA, BLACK SEA, AEGEAN SEA, MEDITTERRANEAN SEA
GREECE CAPITAL CITY: ATHENS THE HIGHEST MOUNTAIN:OLYMPOS THE LONGEST RIVER:ΑLIAKMONAS THE MOST FAMOUS PLACES:ATHENS,THESSALONIKI ,PATRA,MANI VERGINA,MONEMVASIA,MYKONOS,SANTORINI,CRETE CORFOU THE MOST FAMOUS BUILDINGS: AKROPOLIS,WHITE TOWER,MYKINES DELFI ,theater of Herod Atticus,THE CASTLE OF KNIGHTS THE MOST FAMOUS PEOPLE:LEONIDAS.ALEXANDER THE GREAT,ARISTOTELIS,KAPODISTRIAS,KOLOKOT-RONIS ELYTIS SEFERIS THEODORAKIS FASIANOS PAPANIKOLAOU LAKE:TΡΙHONIDA SEA: AIGAIO SEA, IONIO SEA
SLOVAKIA CAPITAL CITY: BRATISLAVA
THE HIGHEST MOUNTAIN : High Tatras, Gerlach Peak THE LONGEST RIVER: Váh THE MOST FAMOUS PLACES:Bratislava, Košice, Banska Bystrica, Poprad THE MOST FAMOUS BUILDINGS: Bratislava Castle, Spiš Castle, St. Martin´s Church, Mr.Pavol Church in Levoča THE MOST FAMOUS PEOPLE: Jánošík, M. Beňovský (history), M.Martikán, D. Hantuchová, M.Šatan, M.Hamšík (sport), J.Jakubisko(film director),J.Kukura(actor), A.Varhol(art), ELÁN, P.Dvorský(music), J.Ciker (composer),
LAKE: Štrbské Tarn
SEA: NO SEA
ROMANIA CAPITAL CITY: Bucharest
THE HIGHEST MOUNTAIN: Făgăraş
THE LONGEST RIVER: Mureş
THE MOST FAMOUS PLACES: Sinaia, Danube Delta, Braşov, Timişoara, Sibiu, Sighişoara
THE MOST FAMOUS BUILDINGS: Parliament Palace, Bran Castle
THE MOST FAMOUS PEOPLE: Ctin Brâncuşi (sculptor), Nicolae Grigorescu (painter), Mihai Eminescu (poet), Henri Coanda (aeronautical engineer), Nadia Comaneci (gymnast), Ilie Năstase (tennis player)
LAKES: Bâlea Lake, Saint Ana
SEA: Black Sea (Marea Neagră)
UK - GREAT BRITAIN - SCOTLAND CAPITAL CITY:Edinburgh
THE HIGHEST MOUNTAIN: Ben Nevis
THE LONGEST RIVER: Tay
LAKE: Loch Ness
SEA: North Sea, Atlantic Ocean, Irish Sea
LITHUANIA CAPITAL CITY: VILNIUS THE HIGHEST MOUNTAIN: AUKŠTOJAS (293,84) THE LONGEST RIVER: NEMUNAS THE MOST FAMOUS PLACES: VILNIUS, KLAIPĖDA, NERINGA, PALANGA THE MOST FAMOUS BUILDINGS: GEDIMINAS CASTLE, VILNIUS CATHEDRAL, KLAIPĖDA CASTLE. THE MOST FAMOUS PEOPLE: V. KUDIRKA, M. K. ČIURLIONIS, J. MEKAS, S. DAUKANTAS, M. MAŽVYDAS, A. SABONIS, J. NEKROŠIUS, I. DAPKŪNAITĖ, D. GRYBAUSKAITĖ LAKE: DRŪKŠIAI
SEA: BALTIC SEA
BULGARIA
CAPITAL CITY: Sofia
THE LONGEST RIVER: Danube, Iskar
THE HIGHEST MOUNTAIN: Rila – pik Musala in the Balkans
SEA: Black Sea
LAKE: Burgas
ITALY CAPITAL CITY: Rome
THE HIGHEST MOUNTAIN: Mont Blanc
THE LONGEST RIVER: River Padus
THE MOST FAMOUS PLACES:Rome, Florence, Venice,
THE MOST FAMOUS BUILDINGS:
LAKE:Garda
SEA: Adriatic, Ionian, Tyrrhenian
CULTURAL KALEIDOSCOPE EXPLAINED
Each country of Europe has it's own culture, however cultures influence one another, and changes within one culture continualy take place.When different cultures come into contact, they exchange conceps and we can speak about cultural transfer. The kaleidoscope is a toy through which one can look through to view beautiful, multicolored, shifting images and patterns.So in our project called e-cultural Kaleidoscope we present culture of Europe and beyond Europe as beautiful, changing and interconnected. Looking through the kaleidoscope usual things become extraordinary, so we will look at our cultures through the eye of kaleidoscope to see Europe's changing colous, sights and impressions. We will also bring countries and cultures together.
DIY KALEIDOSCOPE In 1816, Scotsman Dr. David Brewster was the first to arrange mirrors and objects in a tube and call it a kaleidoscope. Not just a toy, the device also was intended for use by designers and artists, who might be inspired by the beautiful patterns they could create. Brewster patented his invention in 1817.
A kaleidoscope is a cylinder with mirrors containing loose, colored objects such as beads or pebbles and bits of glass. As the viewer looks into one end, light entering the other creates a colorful pattern, due to the reflection off of the mirrors. Coined in 1817 by Scottish inventor Sir David Brewster, "kaleidoscope" is derived from the Ancient Greek καλός (kalos), "beautiful, beauty",εἶδος (eidos), "that which is seen: form, shape" and σκοπέω (skopeō), "to look to, to examine",hence "observer of beautiful forms."
Our project has allowed for the education of intercultural understanding which involves knowledge and awareness about other cultures, comparing and contrasting diverse ways of thinking, and developing a deep understanding. Participants of the projects had a chance to get familiar with the diversity of many different cultures. and. each partner developed positive values and attitudes, including the courage and commitment to live by universal values and treating others with respect. Our project resembles Pestalozzi’s “head, heart, hand” approach. The “head” refers to intellectual and cognitive processes of knowing; the “heart” to the effective processes of being, feeling and valuing; and the “hand” relates to manual, functional or skills development for doing, creating, implementing or taking action. TASC approach was also implemented (Thinking Actively in a Social Approach) The project taught students respect for differences in class, including gender, disability, and racism.
Cross cultural learning, involved investigating, comparing and contrasting one component or issue across a range of cultures. Students were strengthening cultural identity, by activities, events and festivals, which celebrate all aspects of individual cultures, These include music, dance, food, art, literature, poetry and the making of artefacts. Our project was integrated into the school curriculum and was not a stand alone or discrete topic. It was designed as a cross-curricular topic with a child-centred approach. Having the child at the centre enabled teaching practitioners to tailor the project to the needs and wants to all partners. It has involved many school subjects. This includes native languages to discuss ideas of what should be presented on the Twin Space regarding folklore, music, art and food; geography and to research information about students’ own countries and partner countries and to display these in an interesting way.
E-CULTURAL KALEIDOSCOPE MURAL
E-CULTURAL KALEIDOSCOPE MURAL
LANGUAGES
CUSTOMS AND TRADITIONS
POSTCARDS AND LETTERS
MEETINGS IN THE TWINSPACE
N O I T A N R E E INT M I T T A H C AL
The project was successful because of the super team. Collaboration between partners started with a planning and discussion activity. Collaboration and common cultural encounters expanded the horizons of students and the crosscurricular nature of the project helped to develop basic skills and key competences. Frequent and regular contacts, sending messages, commenting, chatting or videoconferencing were all unforgettable experiences for our students. The project created valuable opportunities to make learning memorable, motivating and exciting. It encouraged curiosity and creativity, provoked thinking, critical reflection, questioning, discussion, dialogue and collaborative action.
ICT ICT
Participants of the project tried to use many different ICT tools. Each activity was presented on Twin Space to display and to enable it to be more motivating and more attractive to foster children's creativity. Online meetings were very significant, students realised that common language makes communication with peers from another countries possible. They learned different ways of communicating. They learned together both in formal and informal settings. By using ICT in such a creative way children developed new technological skills and have been innovative in providing a vast variety of useful tools. By suggesting new ICT tools by partner schools the project has gone from strength to strength. On the suggestion of our partners we have tried out a huge variety of new and interesting 2.0 tools. The TwinSpace of e-Cultural project stores different kinds of works completed by using ICT tools.
FOOD
The e-cultural Kaleidoscope project can be easily adapted by any other school as it is based on ideas drawn directly from the National Curriculum of many European countries. The idea is that our project is sustainable and can be extended to other schools as the theme of the project is close to the experiences and thinking of children. It is interesting and does not require any special training or aptitude. The whole project can be easily adapted to suit all education establishments. The work is highlighted on Twin Space and has been undertaken with building capacity in mind. The theme of enjoyment is in all its aspects of the project and includes the use of many new technologies. All children in school can learn about culture and traditions because they can show different ways of life and experience in what people from different countries believe and value.
PRO CO JECT RN E RS
PROUD OF OUR WORK
ETWINNING QUALITY LABELS
‘e-Cultural Kaleidoscope’ promotes awareness of the positive value of cultural diversity, making it more culturally sensitive, believing that inter-cultural dialogue is the best guarantee of peace. Europe is a mosaic of multiple cultures, not just those that are part of the old continent, but others from countries that have influenced our culture. Culture is a broad concept, however, in our project as we focus on three main themes: music, art and cuisine of different countries. Europe has a wide and varied range of materials incorporated by tradition, but also enriched with elements "imported" from other continents. The objective of the "e-Cultural Kaleidoscope" project is to familiarise students with the richness of European cultures and to improve mutual understanding between students from different ethnic backgrounds, while improving their communication skills in foreign language and the use of ICT as a means of communication and expression.
ETWINNING IS FUN!
AWES COLLA OME BORA TION
PUBLICATION
AWARDS National and European Quality Label - Poland National and European Quality Label - Spain National and European Quality Label - Slovakia National and European Quality Label - Turkey National and European Quality Label - Greece National and European Quality Label - United Kingdom National and European Quality Label - France National and European Quality Label - Lithuania National and European Quality Label - Romania Teacher of the month - October 2013 - Slovakia (for this project) Quality Label of the month - March 2013 Nationala e-Twinning Prize – December 2013 - Greece
!! ! B O J GREAT
Kemal HODUL comments: This project motivated my students to learn English. During the project activities and tasks, they interacted with their peers from other countries and realized the importance of foreign language learning. They had chance to learn a lot of information about different cultures, gained selfconfidence, had lots of fun with while learning. We integrated some activities to the school curriculum such as music, art, social sciences, ICT, English. They presented different subjects, they danced, painted, sang, cooked, spoke English, etc. All of the activities are related with different classes. We had good collaboration among partners. We used mostly ICT like twinspace, e-mails, skype, chat, etc. We planned all the activities together. Our coordinators have important roles in collaboration. We also send letters and postcards to each others. ICT had an important part in our project. We used some Web 2 tools. We discovered new websites and tools during the project and had chance to use them. Nearly all the materials published in twinspace were prepared with different ICT tools. Our partners have already started a new project named "E-cultural Kaleidoscope 2.0" this year. This project has had a lot of positive impacts on all partner schools. Our students gained cultural awareness, self confidence, lots of friends from other countries. Their motivation has increased. They learned lots of new things about other cultures. They had chance to practice their foreign language. Through the project, school subjects became more enjoyable. It was a very educative experience for our students.
Julie ELBOURG comments: The project activities allowed all partners to deliver the required school curriculum in an innovative and creative way making teaching more exciting and learning more relevant. Looking at the world through the eyes of the children and learning together with them, finding out their interests and matching them to the required curriculum, shaping the topics around compulsory tasks made many practitioners, involved in the project, to change their approach to teaching. The planning was turned upside down by taking into account children’s ideas first and matching them to the required curriculum modules. Little by little we observed the changes in our children – developing more responsible views and attitudes towards the world, the school and their learning. The children, especially those who were difficult to engage in learning, started taking responsibility for their own progress and achievements. pupils learn about culturalheritage of all the countries involved in the project and share with them their knowledges. Planning using TASC approach (Thinking Actively in a Social Context) helped to focus on active pupil involvement from the initial stage: pupils shared the knowledge they already have about cultural heritage and what they would like to learn. Partner schools analysed the curriculum of their own country picking the modules that apply to the topic of culture and tradition. Pupils’ interests and needs initiated the activities to cover the required modules of the curriculum. To ensure the success of our project and meet the needs of each school all project activities were integrated into the regular school curriculum so the activities could be done during regular school hours. This also allowed a maximum number of pupils to get involved in the Partnership. After each activity pupils revisited their ideas noting their progress and taking full ownership of their knowledge and learning. The project work plan was constantly adjusted to follow childen’s needs and interests. Children set on a quest to find element of their caribbean culture,learn to cherish, valueand share them, acquiring lifelong learning skills about the natural environment, focusing on the necessity of knowledge about the origin of people in the caribbean islands and what was their lifetime in the past. What did they eat, what music they like.. The creative way of setting our TwinSpace in the desired format provided more clarity for parents and other visitors. The short descriptions of all activities helped to navigate our TwinSpace easier. As the project progressed we were discovering more new tools to use for collaboration between partners •VoiceThread enabled us to recieve personal feedback from our partners, . •Animoto became one of children’s favourite tools while developing their ICT skills. All partners used ICT tools extensively for collaboration through eTwinning. Teachers took more interest in learning how to use tools like Voki, VoiceThread, Photo Story 3, and many others, helping children to communicate with partners in a fun and innovative way as well as improving their own digital competences. Many activities, developed during the project, became an integral part of a regular school curriculum and would continue beyond the project. All project activities were integrated into the regular school curriculum ensuring the whole school involvement in the project. . The extensive planning and analysis of each participating country's national curriculum made the project activities relevant to European context while the clear project structure made it easy to be used by any European school. eTwinning and the twinspace helped to disseminate the project. The project had a great impact on all partner schools. Not only as it increased pupils’ motivation but also developed early awareness of other cultures. Children experienced more varied learning materials and methods, mostly through exploring different cultures,different songs,different foods, artwork and language. The knowledge of cultural heritage led to respecting cultural elements in the caribbean area and allowed pupils to appreciate the possibilities of action for its conservation. Children used an appropriate language style creating reports ,videos and fact sheets. They developed their habits of communication , acquiring communicative competences such as expressing themselves and understanding messages. Children found the learning meaningful and evocative, which drastically changing their attitute to learning and empowered them with the lifelong learning skills.
Wilma Gordon comments:
This project motivated the pupils is my class to have innovative and creative ideas. They had the desire to promote their own country and all that they hold dear. They also have a fantastic opportunity to see, first-hand what their European peer are experiencing. eCulture Kaleidoscope has many strands, but all were easily incorporated into the every day life of my school. Not only did the pupils learn a great deal they were able to share their learning with the rest of the school during assemblies and presentations. Thanks to the two co-ordinators the collaboration has been immense. We were able to e-mail and blog to plan the project and pupils were able to chat. Once again, with so many talented partners there was no shortage of free IT tools to be tried out and with which to experiment. More importantly, the pupils were able to experience a wealth of IT tools to be used both at school and at home This project has proven sustainability as it is now continuing for a second super year. It can, so easily, be transferred to other year groups and other schools. This project so deserves to win as it has really motived pupils and impacted on their learning and teaching. The children want to write about their lives and their country, their customs and traditions. They look forward to hearing from the partners. This project helps make child responsible international citizens.
Aurelia Beruşcă comments: Through this project we have brought a creative curricular and extracurricular activities. The children loved this project and they came up with creative ideas and proposals, have expressed interest in English lessons. Some activities of this project have been integrated into the school curriculum. Within hours of music I learned songs in different languages of the partner countries, I realized kaleidoscope in times of technology or fine arts, danced in physical education classes. Collaboration between partner schools was also achieved by regular post. I sent cards, decorative objects made by students, letters. During this project I discovered many new ICT tools that I have used in other occasions, other activities with students, other projects. It's a big win for our students that they can use a virtual space safe and easy to use. Transferability of the project has resulted in a Comenius Multilateral Project named "European Kaleidoscope Little Journalists in Europe", approved in February 2013 "For Romania is one of the best eTwinning projects. Romania is the European coordinator for a team of 7 countries.We will share with our partners all what we learned in this project. Partner school from Romania organized in March 2013 an international symposium "Popular culture defines us as people." At this symposium attended eTwinning partners who sent items for the book with the same title, ppt designs and traditions of their country. In the symposium was diseminated the eTwinning project "e-culture Kaleidoscope" in the presence of representatives of the National Agency .
SAULIUS RUDELIS comments: E-cultural kaleidoscope project allowed us to deliver the school curriculum in an innovative way of teaching the required modules through an eTwinning project. Cross curricular approach enhanced creativity and pupil motivation. The project activities made the curriculum more exciting and relevant, motivating children,especially those who are hard to engage. The topic provided a practical and lively context for learning,making it fun and rewarding. Through the project activities,children have started recognizing different cultures,way of life and languages. Our project has been integrated into the school curriculum. It has involved many school subjects. This includes native languages to discuss ideas of what should be presented in the twinspace regarding folklore, music, art and food; geography to research information about students’ own countries and partner countries (traditions, landmarks, culture, curiosities etc), art to draw the project’s logos and scenes of the story, music - to present songs and dances, craft - to prepare a real kaleidoskope and science to understand how it works, English and ICTto communicate and present materials in the Twinspace. Students had an opportunity to present their work for international audiences, which gave them a lot of satisfaction. Through continuous collaboration, teachers have shared ideas, and pupils have collaborated. Students exchanged cards and letters, wrote comments in the pupils’ corner and the blog, voted for the project logos, and prepared materials for publication. Each team prepared questions and quizzes, collaborative posters and presentations. Students used chat as well. We are planning to paint a common, collaborative mural, and the picture will present symbols of all participating countries and elements of their culture. Teachers have written essays on the topic of culture, traditions and customs in European countries for the Symposium in Bucharest included in the calendar of Ministry of National Education in Romania and the articles will be published in a book issued in Romania. Collaboration between participating schools involved using a wide range of ICT tools. Pupils searched for information about their own country on the Internet, using browsers to find pictures and information. Online maps, including Google Earth, were used to find out where their partners came from. Students drawings drawings were scanned, digital photographs were taken, videos were created and edited using Movie Maker. Some pupils used software to translate their sentences into English. To prepare documents, pupils used MS Word, Paint, Tux Paint, PowerPoint, Slide, and Photo shop. The materials were published in TwinSpace and shared with partner schools. Staff and students communicated by email, and via Twinspace. Students communicated via Twinspace: they used blogs, chats, forum, they created posts and commented on each othes messages, published photos, talked about their hobbies, interests, etc. practicing their English skills, using useful, everyday expressions. Apart from this informal learning they prepared many posters, texts articles in English to present them to partner schools. Students also tried the traditional way off communicating saending each other letters or postcards by mail. The project has been very successful for all the schools involved. The partner schools are going to sum up what they have learnt from the project, evaluate it and create a mural in each school presenting the most important elements of all countries and cultures. They are in the process of researching, communicating, preparing, planning the murals which will be artistic version presenting the kaleidoscope of European cultures. This will indeed develop all students’ geographical and research skills in addition to their native language, speaking and listening, English, art, and technology. This project could easily be implemented into another school and/or extended throughout each partner school. It’s Changing children’s attitude towards their customs,habits,culture is the most outstanding result of the project.Through the project activities,children will start recognizing different languages,cultures ,eating habits,music, dance... As a school, we benefit from improving pupil’s motivation for learning.The project activities make the curriculum more exciting and relevant to the children. important benefits of this project is that it brought to all the teachers and students got better to know each other and made us feel to be the real part of Europe
Katarína Kočišová comments:
All activities of our project e-Cultural Kaleidoscope enabled teachers to innovate their teaching methods and for students it brought new, interesting forms of educational process. The project was integrated into several curriculum subjects - Slovak, English, Music, Art, Craft, Geography, ICT which also brought the possibility of mutual cooperation between subject teachers of our schools. Our students got the opportunity to cooperate and communicate in English language in Twinspace (comments, chatting, presenting themselves, their works). They exchanged cards, worked on collaborative presentations https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/19wiogjz_3NaJxS8bT6vG9qtVNz15gYky6ZD5i0ddCs4/edit?usp=sharing Students voted for their most favorite things. For International Dance Day we prepared together videocollaborative dancing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lx-ZVj6UQYU Teachers communicated on blog, by emails – they shared ideas and coordinated the procedure of project tasks. Each country got inspired by others to learn and use new ICT tools. The topic and the tasks of our project can be easily implemented into any European school curriculum or can be developed into Comenius project – as it was proposed by Bulgarian school board. One of the most important benefits of this project is that it brought to all the teachers and students got better to know each other and made us feel to be the real part of Europe.
AGGELIKI KATSANI comments: The project helped pupils to use ICT meaningfully, not only for entertainment, but also for the process of learning and collaboration. Children become familiar in the use of English language and they understand the usability of a foreign language as a medium of communication. Students develop their creativity, imagination, and all the language skills. The project had connection on many subjects, Greek, English, art ,music ,dance, physical, geography,ICT.It helped my pupils to work together in groups and it encouraged them to expose their talents. There was a close and equal partnership in each stage of the project . We worked in all aspects of the project together with our students to the maximum extent in all levels . Pupils exchanged cards , they communicate through the "pupils" in twinspace,they vote in online polls for the logo,their favorite activities , they designed a collaborative mural. We created a common video for World Dance Day . In the program we used creative tools of web2.0. We use presentation tools (prezi, glogster, slideboom). The production and sharing of video (movie maker, youtube) for editing and slideshow (picture trail, animoto, photobucket, photopeach, slidely) we wrote electronic books (storybird) the students used internet sites to find information and programs from Microsoft, such as power Point. We used Google Earth, on line maps. Students communicate through twinspace, and organized vinteoconference via skype. Children made quiz about their country using "xat" and they were preparing their own presentations in glogster or powerpoint. . The program may be achieved by any school of Europe.It could be a very good project for cooperation Comenius. The partners started a new kaleidoscope project. The Kaleidoscope of culture helped students to accept and respect the diference. This acceptance gave self-esteem and respect to all children and it helped classes with special composition in the student population to get mental coherence.
Jaime RuymĂĄn RodrĂguez Mederos comments: This project has developed different way to show the culture to children through various ICT. Students created their own information through various tools that previously had not used. The topics of the projects helped to attract the interest of students in the cultures of the participating countries. The project was integrated into different subjects such as language, math, science, art, music and of course English. All this together with the use of ICT helped make this project work linearly curriculum. Students were able to communicate with each other through Twinspace using forums and chats. Also postcards exchanged where they met a little more. They created tutorials for building a kaleidoscope for their partners, recorded a video together, voted for the project logo, etc.. Teachers communicated via blogs, via email and through TwinSpace. Many ICT tools were used to make the programmed activities. From simple texts such as word processors, video editors to (Windows movie maker), communication platforms (youtube, skype), presentation tools (Google Docs, Prezi, Glogster). Other programs were used Google Earth to discover the beautiful places where European friends lived. A great example of the continuity and portability of this project is that this year has created "ecultural kaleidoscope and 2.0" where many colleagues have repeated the experience and others have joined. "e-culture kaleidoscope" was a project in which all partners have shared experiences and cultures, making all of them participate. All of us have felt each country as our own thanks to the students forwarded. Students also use the English language and ICT as a means of communication, learned respect and tolerance among different countries.
Renata Wojtaś comments: e-cultural kaleidoscope project created opportunities for children to interact and make friends with people who are different from them, and children learn best from concrete experiences, practical activities, including discussion sessions, cooking, singing, dancing, drawing, short videomaking, creating presentations with the use of ICT and sharing it with other schools. Learning by doing is motivating and brings positive effects. Quoting Confucius: “I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand”. Art, Music, Languages, Geography, ICT, Languages. In our project students learnt to appreciate the diversity of cultures that makes the project as “colourful” as real kaleidoscope. Having partner school from many different countries created opportunity to see a great variety of national costumes, traditional dances presented by students, traditional food in some cases cooked by students at school. Students were fascinated and impressed by the richness of cultures presented in the project. Teaching about the world is included in each school’s curriculum. Collaboration among partners was fantastic. Teachers and students contacted regularly, writing new messages every day, meeting in the TwinSpace, Teachers’ room or Pupils’ Corner. With a spirit of open-mindedness and acceptance, students presented local traditions religious celebrations which differed among the partner countries. Together partners created a video to celebrate International Dance Day, which was a great challenge. Together decided about all activities, learned and have fun toogether. The variety of ICT tools used by participants was very inspiring and we had a chance to try out many tools that were new to students. They used these tools for communication, creating and presenting materials and presentations for the project. For all students international video conferences and chats was a great experience. Coluorful slideshows and videos were created to present the culture of participating in the project countries. The project can easily be expanded. In the e-cultural kaleidoscope the main topics were art, music and food. The culture permeates every aspect of human existence, so next topics can be presented as a continuation. Through our e-cultural kaleidoscope project we built mutual understanding, broadened horizons and shared cultures among partner schools. Participants of the project could experience cultural encounters via TwinSpace. There is no better way of learning about other countries than directly from people who live in those countries. Each school, each region, each country has a lot to present as it comes to presenting culture. Student learnt how important is to live respectfully together and benefit from one another's wisdom and experiences. The project taught children to respect and value people regardless of the colour of their skin, their physical abilities, the language they speak, religion. Richness of cultures presented in the Twinspace that created together such a beautiful mosaic of, made students proud of being a part of this project, proud of their own country and its culture, but also they realised that they are citizens of the world .
OUR PUBLIC TWINSPACE http://new-twinspace.etwinning.net/web/p82157
TO BE CONTINUED.. 2013/2014 E-Twinning kaleidoscope 2.0 http://new-twinspace.etwinning.net/web/p97415