In order to monitor the progress of the project, teachers reflected on their eTwinning activity and heard their pupils about what their feelings about the project and the activities were. Here are the reports in which teachers drew their conclusions.
INTERMEDIATE PROGRESS EVALUATION OF THE PROJECT (Maria Silva, Agrupamento de Escolas de Såtão, Portugal) A- Pupils involvement in the project: 1. What working methods did you use with your pupils during the project? I adopted a project work based approach centred in pupils interests so as to motivate them to actively engage in all the project phases from planning to disseminating project results. As I had the three 9th grade classes, I involved all three in the project. Each class was organised into cooperative groups and pupils were assigned different roles in the group according to their skills and preferences. However the roles were changed so as to give a chance for them to develop other competencies. Pupils collaborated with each other and with groups from the other classes by giving suggestions to their plans and helping them to carry out their actions. The activities were also planned so as to foster transnational collaboration which was an extra motivation for the pupils and an essential condition to the completion of the products and the achievement of the project objectives. 2. Did your pupils contribute with their ideas to project activities’ planning? How? Yes they did. They were responsible for planning their Actions for Good by not only by choosing the issue they care about but also by setting the agenda of the action they will take. Deadlines for activities were in accordance to their schedule. 3. Have they been involved in the process of making decisions? How? Yes they were. They had to make their own choices to what regards the community problem they wanted to tackle and to decide on the strategies to address the issue and set their action plan into practice. Pupils were empowered to become agents of positive change in their local and global communities, and they feel like they can also have a role to play in shaping a more inclusive, peaceful and sustainable world. I may say that the project and the way it was designed is creating opportunities for authentic learning and practical application of the knowledge and skills taught in the classroom to make real-world impacts. 4. Are pupils actively involved in the project activities? How? Yes, I may say they are actively engaged and connected in responding to global and community challenges that matter to them. They have adopted the role of project members and collaborators with the responsibility to effectively and creatively contribute to the achievement of the project objectives. As topics or issues are proposed to them, they take the lead in deciding what and how to work on them. They are creators and co-authors producing useful applications and creating solutions for their communities. Not only are they learning together how to design, plan and implement solutions to social or environmental problems, but they are also growing together as active citizens engaged to improve the quality of life in their communities. Pupils were protagonists of their actions who identified, researched for information; involved other people (parents, friends and locals) got connected to their project partners and local authorities
to exchange ideas and gain support, planned and implement their actions, monitor their progress, evaluate the impact and disseminate the outcomes. 5. What Pedagogical methods did you implement in class? We engaged students through pedagogical activities aligned with academic standard and with project based principle. We have adopted the TakingITGlobal’s Guide for Action model (REFLECT & GET INSPIRED, IDENTIFY & GET INFORMED, LEAD & GET OTHERS INVOLVED, GET CONNECTED, PLAN & GET MOVING, HAVE A LASTING IMPACT by monitoring and evaluating impact and disseminating results.) so as to build 21st Century career and workforce readiness skills (the 4 Cs). B- Curricular Integration: 1. Are some of the activities developed in regular classes? Yes. 2. Which activities did you develop in regular classes and in which subjects? All activities were developed in class. The topics covered were aligned to the core curriculum of English. 3.1 Have you managed to involve other subjects/ teachers in the project? Yes I did. Although only the Science teacher joined the project and collaborated in the Twinspace, introduced environmental issues and gave support to pupils of class 9thB to the creation of their apps, other teachers collaborated in some of the activities, namely: - Civic Education and Religious Education in introducing the Paris Agreement and the Global Goals for Sustainable Development to the pupils, involving pupils in ‘Charity food colleting’ and visiting elderly home; National Campaign to raise the community’s awareness towards Syrian refugees’ crisis; The Blue Ribbon Campaign… - Physical Education: in organising a conference with Mário Trindade a paralympics’ athlete and inviting the pupils and the community to raise money …. - Visual Education: drawings of parts of school which were used to make the video presentation of the school - History and Geography: refugees 3.2 If you said yes, Did you invite them as a member of the project? Only the Science teacher who was already registered though no eTwinning activity the year before. As for the other teachers, they contributed with the classes involved only. 3.3 If you replied NO in any of the previous questions, do you intend to do it? 4.1 Have you involved your director/ direction board in the project? Yes I have. She is monitoring the project development and she has given us a lot of support by introducing the project to other teachers and by disseminating the project in conferences where
she participates. She has been of great help to get the Mayor’s support. She accompanied our team to the Town Hall for the interview with the Mayor and disseminated our eTwinning projects. 4.2 If you said yes, Did you invite them as a member of the project? Our director was already registered after having taken part in an eTwinning regional conference. So I invited her after I presented the project to her and the pedagogical school board. 4.3 If you replied NO in any of the previous questions, do you intend to do it?
C- Involvement of the community 1. Are members of your community involved in the project? How? The Mayor promised us financial support for the creation of the apps and he offered transportation of the class who is making the apps for Apps For Good project conference.
2. Are parents involved? How? Yes, the project was presented to the parents in a meeting with the principal teacher and they signed an agreement to allow their children to participate and the use of photos to disseminate the project. Not only Parents but also siblings, other relatives and friends have shown a lot of interest in what the pupils were doing. They have help pupils achieve their goals by providing them with resources, materials, driving them to where they needed and joining their actions. D- Communication and exchange between partner schools 1. How often did you and your pupils use the Twinspace? Although we have only one computer per classroom and very restricted access to 2. Which other means did you and your pupils use to communicate? Email, Facbook, etwinning Live, skype
D- Collaboration between partner schools: We have been using different online tools to sustain and foster collaboration between our school. 1. How would you grade the level of collaboration between our schools? (1- poor to 5very good). 1
2
3
4
5
Please justify: All partners involved their pupils in the activities planned together and contributed to the outcomes according to their interests and the conditions they have. I was
responsible for the management of the Twinspace (organising pages and the discussion forums) while my colleagues were responsible to contribute editing the pages and taking part in the forum discussions. All schools managed their own materials’ folders. 2. What helped sustain collaboration between partners? Besides a constant communication with the partners (via email, Twinspace and Facebook) to keep them updated as well as the use of the project journal, I think that most important is the fact that all of us are committed to make the project successful and worth spending time with the students developing the activities planned together. Another important point is the fact that since day one, we are all involved in all the phases of the project and in the decision-making. As trustworthy professional, we have shown respect towards each other by contributing to the achievement of the project’s goals. 3. How do you as a partner ensure the successful achievement of a shared outcome? I have accepted every challenge as another step towards improving the quality of the project. I have taken part in all activities, shared the outcomes, managed the Twinspace so as to foster communication and collaboration between partners and respected the deadlines.
E- International Collaboration: Collaboration is much more than exchange of information and it is way more than parallel work. 1. How can we now foster and make international collaboration more effective? Can you suggest a final activity for international teams (a small group from one class + a small group from another class)? Something that teams together would co-produce? Here are some suggestions for International team work: A final song: Teens Actions for Good: music/ video/ lyrics in different languages A newsletter. Each section for one United Nations Global Sustainable development Goals addressed by the actions (model to be provided) A Blog to disseminate the actions carried out with different sections for each one United Nations Global Sustainable development Goals addressed by the actions. Each country would contribute by adding an entry in the appropriate GOAL section.(You would have to copy paste info from the Twinspace page you created) or a or Facebook page. This would foster pupils interaction. VĂdeo (Max. 3 minutes) for dissemination the project activities, actions carried out by different school, impact of results A poster- (Model to be provided same as eTwinning NSS) Final evaluation form for pupils and report of results
TAG project E-portfolio- (I will do that)
F- Pupils opinion on the project Pupils enjoyed having read their partners profiles and getting to know about their schools and towns. Students have been showing greater motivation in learning English and they are more engaged in classroom work. They are becoming more autonomous in using ICT and learning to work collaboratively to make their own choices and take decisions to what problems to tackle and what actions to plan and implement in their communities. Pupils have been reacting very positively to the activities suggested and they show a lot of enthusiasm when they arrive to class and share their experiences and outcomes. They are getting more critical and more receptive to others’ perspectives on different issues. The major difficulty in the beginning to develop project activities in class was the lack of computers. The solution was to use mobile phones, although they are not allowed in class in our school regulation. According to the law mobiles are not allowed except for school work if teachers authorize their use. That has been a great help! As for interaction among pupils from different schools, it has been very difficult for technical reasons and also because of the different school schedules. We have use asynchronous method of interaction among pupils: comments on the Twinspace, collaboration on the wikispace and emailing. We have also used Facebook and created Facebook groups to foster interaction and dissemination of our project activities.
INTERMEDIATE EVALUATION OF THE PROJECT (Stefania Nino, "Istituto Statale d'Istruzione Superiore ""Bonaldo Stringher"", Italy) A- Pupils involvement in the project: 1. What working methods did you use with your pupils during the project? Brainstorming, collaboration and cooperation in pairs and in groups, individual activities. I encouraged them to use different digital tools to produce and share their work; while working for the project students practised listening, speaking, writing skills in English. 2. Did your pupils contribute with their ideas to project activities’ planning? How? Within the weekly hour dedicated to the project, they discussed and organized the different activities assigned, in order to comply with the deadlines according to each student’s language level and digital skills. Further, they discussed and planned the actions we are carrying out in April. 3. Have they been involved in the process of making decisions? How? Through constant presentation of the activities by the teacher, inquiry and brainstorming. They were also encouraged to compare and get inspiration from other projects with similar themes that they were doing (they are taking part in a peace forum in Assisi from 14 to 16 April together with students from all over Italy). 4. Are pupils actively involved in the project activities? How? They are actively involved in the planning and decision-making phases, as well as in the production of recorded, written, drawn messages. They also post their own files and comments. 5. What Pedagogical methods did you implement in class? Collaboration and cooperation in pairs and groups, as well as peer assessment, aimed at building a problem solving mindset. As for ESL skills, the communicative approach is being implemented. B- Curricular Integration: 1. Are some of the activities developed in regular classes? Some of the activities more closely related to the ESL skills have been developed in regular classes. 2. Which activities did you develop in regular classes and in which subjects? English language: What is the love? Worksheet, oral presentations, factual text writing. 3.1 Have you managed to involve other subjects/ teachers in the project? Yes, Italian, History, Religious Education, Special Needs colleagues have been involved. 3.2 If you said yes, did you invite them as a member of the project?
Not yet! 3.3 If you replied NO in any of the previous questions, do you intend to do it? Yes, definitely. 4.1 Have you involved your director/ direction board in the project? The Director has been informed. 4.2 If you said yes, Did you invite them as a member of the project? No. 4.3 If you replied NO in any of the previous questions, do you intend to do it? No. C- Involvement of the community 1. Are members of your community involved in the project? How? A member of the Civil Protection board will hold a conference in our school about volunteering for the Civil Protection. All the students, teachers, caretakers will be involved in the activity concerning the improvement of recycling at school. Representatives of the local community will take part in the LILT race to raise awareness on the importance of cancer prevention. 2. Are parents involved? How? Parents have been informed about the eTwinning project as well as on the project activities.
D- Communication and exchange between partner schools 1. How often did you and your pupils use the Twinspace? Once a week, in the school laboratory. 2. Which other means did you and your pupils use to communicate? E-mail, Google Drive, Edmodo.
D- Collaboration between partner schools: We have been using different online tools to sustain and foster collaboration between our school. 1. How would you grade the level of collaboration between our schools? (1- poor to 5very good). 1 2 3 4 5 Please justify: “Four� represents the average between 3 (communication among students) and 5 (communication among teachers) 2. What helped sustain collaboration between partners? Communication and feedback with partners has been constant. The activities and the aim of the project impact our pupils not only as students, but also as members of a broader community.
3. How do you as a partner ensure the successful achievement of a shared outcome? I can ensure the successful achievement of a shared outcome by constant collaboration with partners, by contributing to the discussion, by giving feedback, and involving pupils in every stage of the project. E- International Collaboration: Collaboration is much more than exchange of information and it is way more than parallel work. 1. How can we now foster and make international collaboration more effective? Can you suggest a final activity for international teams (a small group from one class + a small group from another class)? Something that teams together would co-produce? Our classes are now engaged in their actions for good. Teams, classes or groups could be cross-linked for a mutual commentary on each other’s actions. Connecting one group to another group could foster interest (because students would know better who their “audience” are). Groups may co-produce a collaborative presentation, using videos/images from their activities, and sharing texts and comments, for example using Office Sway. They may ask shared questions (What was the action? When did it take place?...) and finally adding a general commentary on the other team’s achievement. F- Pupils opinion about the project so far. Here you can write about your pupils perspective on the project (what they have learnt so far, what they liked best, their opinion about their partners…). Feel free to add anything. My students have shown a constant interest in the project and its activities, sharing their enthusiasm also with other teachers who have later reported to me their comments! At first they reacted a bit slowly when asked to try something new – for example digital tools – that required active involvement in looking for solutions that were not “ready-made”. Little by little this initial passivity has been replaced by a more open mindset. So far I can say that they especially enjoyed the What is the love? activity and writing their millennium messages on the padlet. They also eagerly discussed various forms of volunteer action that can be done by teens. They are interested in looking at their partners’ messages and posts, though they are not actively using the mail or forums to share comments.
INTERMEDIATE EVALUATION OF THE PROJECT (Lucyna Bejm, Gimnazjum im ks Wacława Rabczyńskiego w Wasilkowie) A-
Pupils involvement in the project:
1. What working methods did you use with your pupils during the project? Students worked in small groups and discussed the topics that in their opinion is very important in our school and local community. Then, they shared their ideas with the whole group and together agreed on the chosen subject 2. Did your pupils contribute with their ideas to project activities’ planning? How? Yes, they did. They decided to work in small groups and each group suggested the activity to be done. 3. Have they been involved in the process of making decisions? How? Yes, they have. During one – hour meetings dedicated to the project they discussed the problems existing among youngsters. Since they are first grade students, they were encouraged to get inspirations from other project groups working at school. 4. Are pupils actively involved in the project activities? How? They made a plan, chose the activities and make decisions about how to present the products of their work. 5. What Pedagogical methods did you implement in class? We have used 4Cs of Education, we concentrated on the following skills: “Creativity, Communication, Critical thinking, Collaboration” B- Curricular Integration: 1. Are some of the activities developed in regular classes? Yes, they are. Since we have only one lesson devoted to the eTwinning meetings ( a few lessons have been cancelled recently due to Easter holiday, the teacher absence at school) to catch up with the project work we discuss and monitor students engagement in the project during the lessons. 2. Which activities did you develop in regular classes and in which subjects? Project planning, group work, using the ICT techniques. 3.1 Have you managed to involve other subjects/ teachers in the project? No, I haven’t. 3.2 If you said yes, Did you invite them as a member of the project? 3.3 If you replied NO in any of the previous questions, do you intend to do it? Students’ school council is involved in the action. 4.1. Have you involved your director/ direction board in the project? We haven’t involved our director, however the school community has been informed about the project and the activities eTwinning students are doing.
4.2. If you said yes, did you invite them as a member of the project? No, we haven’t. They have only been informed about it. 4.3. If you replied NO in any of the previous questions, do you intend to do it? No, we aren’t C- Involvement of the community 1. Are members of your community involved in the project? How? The school community is involved in the project. eTwinning group had a meeting with students’ council and the headteacher and together they discussed the problem of breaking the law by young people in our school. They were asked to analyse the school rules, they took part in the meetings with the eTwinning groups and were asked to share any materials connected with smoking on Facebook. 2. Are parents involved? How? No, they are not D- Communication and exchange between partner schools 1.
How often did you and your pupils use the Twinspace? At least once a week – one hour.
2. Which other means did you and your pupils use to communicate? E-mail, Facebook . D- Collaboration between partner schools: We have been using different online tools to sustain and foster collaboration between our school. 1. How would you grade the level of collaboration between our schools? (1- poor to 5very good). 1
2
3
4
5
X
Please justify: We have been working according to the plan stated at the beginning of the project. We also feel free to make any changes in the timetable. 2. What helped sustain collaboration between partners? Definitely, constant contact with the coordinator of the project from Portugal. The other thing is, that all the partner schools recognise the need and the value of working together on eTwinning project. 3.
How do you as a partner ensure the successful achievement of a shared outcomes
Collaboration with partners, contribution to the discussion, and involving pupils in every stage of the project, respecting the deadlines, motivation from the coordinator from Portugal.
E- International Collaboration: Collaboration is much more than exchange of information and it is way more than parallel work. How can we now foster and make international collaboration more effective? Can you suggest a final activity for international teams (a small group from one class + a small group from another class)? Something that teams together would co-produce? Presenting our products on Facebook or creating one Facebook link to our all outcomes. F- Pupils opinion about the project so far. Here you can write about your pupils perspective on the project (what they have learnt so far, what they liked best, their opinion about their partners‌). Feel free to add anything. For my students it is something new to work on eTwinning. For them the greatest motivation is seeing outcomes from other countries. They are the first year students and the activities they have chosen to do are not very sophisticated, but they feel that they are making a contribution to the school life.
INTERMEDIATE EVALUATION OF THE PROJECT (Graziella Turatti, IPSAA "BELLINI", Italy) A- Pupils involvement in the project: 1. What working methods did you use with your pupils during the project? Brainstorming of ideas through spider grams, group work and individual work. 2. Did your pupils contribute with their ideas to project activities’ planning? How? What they mainly planned were their "GOOD ACTIONS". They first decided that it was better to do something in groups and then they also planned how, when, where, who with to achieve their "endeavours". 3. Have they been involved in the process of making decisions? How? When I assigned them some group activities they were completely free to decide how to produce their final output (video, PPT, oral presentation...). 4. Are pupils actively involved in the project activities? How? They are now more aware of their duty as citizens. In order to plan and eventually realize their actions for good they had to contact associations and involve other people in the community. They have now an idea of what is meant by active citizenship. 5. What Pedagogical methods did you implement in class? Debating, problem solving, peer education, role-playing, use of technology and instructional resources. B- Curricular Integration: 1. Are some of the activities developed in regular classes? Yes 2. Which activities did you develop in regular classes and in which subjects? The project was the core of the English yearly plan. I dedicated 2 out of 3 hours a week to the activities proposed. 3.1 Have you managed to involve other subjects/ teachers in the project? Yes. The Law teacher contributed with a PPT presentation about Human Rights extended to all the students of the 2nd year on the occasion of the Human Rights Day on 10th December. 3.2 If you said yes, did you invite them as a member of the project? No. 3.3 If you replied NO in any of the previous questions, do you intend to do it?
I would like to but her knowledge of English is very poor. This is the reason why she didn't feel like joining the project more actively. 4.1 Have you involved your director/ direction board in the project? No. 4.2 If you said yes, did you invite them as a member of the project? 4.3 If you replied NO in any of the previous questions, do you intend to do it? No. She can't speak any foreign language, moreover she is not concerned with didactics, although she knows and appreciates that I am working with Etwinning. C- Involvement of the community 1. Are members of your community involved in the project? How? Yes. we have organised 3 conferences inviting some Charities and associations involved in various "social actions" in order to stimulate the students' involvement in volunteering and doing something good for the community. The organisations which intervened are: CSV, Smile Africa, Le.Viss. for leukaemia, WWF, CTG and others. The students were very touched by the declarations of the volunteers and some of them actually decided to take action. 2. Are parents involved? How? The parents of the class involved in the project are informed about what their children are doing, mainly because they have to search for info in the internet and take contacts with people and associations in order to achieve their "actions for good". D- Communication and exchange between partner schools 1. How often did you and your pupils use the Twinspace? Usually once a week. 2. Which other means did you and your pupils use to communicate? E-mails; Google Drive; Facebook
D- Collaboration between partner schools: We have been using different online tools to sustain and foster collaboration between our school. 1. How would you grade the level of collaboration between our schools? (1- poor to 5very good). 1
2
3
4x
5
Please justify: If on one hand the communication with the Portuguese leading school has been very regular and effective and the support by the "leading teacher" has been precious, on the other hand we haven't had many direct contacts with the other teachers and students except for 2 live events, which were a great idea if we hadn't had technical problems, unfortunately!
2. What helped sustain collaboration between partners? I believe the key role of the leading Portuguese teacher, her constant advice, her clear information, her immediate feedback in case of problems, provided a sort of glue among partners, who have always promptly fulfilled the assigned tasks. 3. How do you as a partner ensure the successful achievement of a shared outcome? Even if it has not always been easy for me to keep in step with the many interesting activities proposed, I have tried to comply with the scheduled tasks. I am aware of the fact that respecting the deadlines is crucial for the success of the project. E- International Collaboration: Collaboration is much more than exchange of information and it is way more than parallel work. 1. How can we now foster and make international collaboration more effective? Can you suggest a final activity for international teams (a small group from one class + a small group from another class)? Something that teams together would co-produce? It would be a great idea to make up a joint activity made by small groups of different nationalities, for example a presentation of their final outcomes/considerations using Powtoon or Prezi. Moreover, in order to foster the use of e-twinning as a means of communication among students, I suggest a chat session reserved to students (monitored by teachers), where a group of no more than 15-16 pupils (2 for each partner school) meet, share their opinions about the project, talk about the "actions for good" they have taken part in, suggest others.
F- Pupils opinion about the project so far. Here you can write about your pupils perspective on the project (what they have learnt so far, what they liked best, their opinion about their partners‌). Feel free to add anything. At the beginning of the project I explained that we would work on multiple levels, in order to improve language skills, communication skills, technological skills within the framework of TAG, which would make them better people. I must admit they were a bit confused and did not really understand what I really meant. In December, just before the Christmas holidays, I dedicated one lesson to receiving their feedback about what they had learnt so far. Some of them were still a bit confused, but the majority said they had learnt new ICT tools, they had started to collaborate with each other (since many of the tasks assigned were group activities) and they had started to appreciate English more because they were using it for a real purpose: the TAG project. Some of them said they were happy to be part a real "international group" that's why they were excited when the live event was organised, since they really wanted to know their European partners! Unfortunately, due to some technical problems, it flopped and they were very disappointed. I'd really like to try again with a chat session, I'm sure we would be luckier! Now they are all busy with planning their good actions! On 9th May in front of the general meeting of all the students of the second year, they will tell about their plans and about the whole project. Meanwhile they communication skills in English have improved!
INTERMEDIATE EVALUATION OF THE PROJECT (Daniela Mainelli, IISS BOJANO, Italy ) A- Pupils involvement in the project: 1. What working methods did you use with your pupils during the project? Brainstorming, select ideas to work on, division in small groups each one with a specific task. 2. Did your pupils contribute with their ideas to project activities’ planning? How? Yes they discussed and organized the different activities assigned, and suggested material or change it
to add
3. Have they been involved in the process of making decisions? How? Yes they decided to share an activity instead of another giving a reason 4. Are pupils actively involved in the project activities? How? Yes of course, organizing the activities and producing material. 5. What Pedagogical methods did you implement in class? We are experimenting Coding: understand what the problem is, think a plan on how to solve the problem, write down a flowchart with the possible solution, debugging and documentation
B- Curricular Integration: 1. Are some of the activities developed in regular classes? Yes sometimes 2. Which activities did you develop in regular classes and in which subjects? Some of my colleagues (Italian and religious study) worked on the project and they used to develop activities in the regular classes, in particular the discussion and planning activities. 3.1 Have you managed to involve other subjects/ teachers in the project? Yes, Italian, History, Religious Education, 3.2 If you said yes, Did you invite them as a member of the project? Not yet 3.3 If you replied NO in any of the previous questions, do you intend to do it? Yes, definitely. 4.1 Have you involved your director/ direction board in the project
He knows about our eTwinning activities. 4.2 If you said yes, Did you invite them as a member of the project? No. 4.3 If you replied NO in any of the previous questions, do you intend to do it? Yes in the future C- Involvement of the community
1. Are members of your community involved in the project? How? No 2. Are parents involved? How? No D- Communication and exchange between partner schools 1. How often did you and your pupils use the Twinspace? Once a week, in the school laboratory. 2. Which other means did you and your pupils use to communicate? E-mail, mobile, electronic register, facebook D- Collaboration between partner schools: We have been using different online tools to sustain and foster collaboration between our school. 1. How would you grade the level of collaboration between our schools? (1- poor to 5very good). 1.
2.
3. X
4.
5.
The communication among students is poor, but the communication among teachers is very good. The reason is due to the fact that the internet connection is very slow and once a week is not enough to create a good communication among students. 2. What helped sustain collaboration between partners? The constant contact with our coordinator, the content of the project is a daily issue. 3. How do you as a partner ensure the successful achievement of a shared outcome? Constant collaboration with partners, contribution to the discussions and activities, involvement of the students
E- International Collaboration: Collaboration is much more than exchange of information and it is way more than parallel work. 1. How can we now foster and make international collaboration more effective? Can you suggest a final activity for international teams? Something that teams together would coproduce? An ebook which collects all the activities. F- Pupils opinion about the project so far. Thanks to the help of other teachers, religious studies and Italian, the students have been involved in the project and in many activities very often,they have become aware of the many problems we have to face with and are curious to see how the students of other countries live and solve problems . The weakness of the project They say is how to share all the activities and opinions on the forum with the partners if internet connection at school is so slow.
INTERMEDIATE EVALUATION OF THE PROJECT (Marie Švehlova, Střední odborná škola Blatná, Czech Republic) A- Pupils involvement in the project: 1. What working methods did you use with your pupils during the project? We used group work, individual tasks solving and homework. 2. Did your pupils contribute with their ideas to project activities’ planning? How? Yes, but limitedly, as they are beginners in English and attend the first grade of school. They cooperated with planning the on-line session and cooperated with planning the visit in home for disabled. 3. Have they been involved in the process of making decisions? How? Pupils voted for the logo and evaluated the work of their colleagues. 4. Are pupils actively involved in the project activities? How? They were involved in common chosen activities during classes. As our project classroom has only one computer, pupils worked also at home when developing some activities in details. 5. What Pedagogical methods did you implement in class? Using some new IT tools and applications, like voicethread etc., expressing students ideas with use of the Forum, class discussions. Solving problems, creative work, presenting the ideas in English language to the class. Searching information in English on the Internet, work with the dictionaries and on-line dictionaries. B- Curricular Integration: 1. Are some of the activities developed in regular classes? Yes, in classes of English language and English conversation. 2. Which activities did you develop in regular classes and in which subjects? All chosen activities in English language and English conversation – 1st and 3rd grade. 3.1 Have you managed to involve other subjects/ teachers in the project? Yes, in the activity Topics that we are concerned – we organised a visit and excursion to the Home for disabled with my colleague Hana (Economics, Geography, Marketing). 3.2 If you said yes, Did you invite them as a member of the project? No, I didn´t. She just cooperates. 3.3 If you replied NO in any of the previous questions, do you intend to do it? 4.1 Have you involved your director/ direction board in the project? No, they never accepted the invitation. They are regularly informed. 4.2 If you said yes, Did you invite them as a member of the project? -
4.3 If you replied NO in any of the previous questions, do you intend to do it? No. C- Involvement of the community 1. Are members of your community involved in the project? How? No. 2. Are parents involved? How? No. D- Communication and exchange between partner schools 1. How often did you and your pupils use the Twinspace? Me as a teacher every week several time, my pupils usually 1-2 times a month, as we do have special lessons for the project work. 2. Which other means did you and your pupils use to communicate? Facebook, e-mails. D- Collaboration between partner schools: We have been using different online tools to sustain and foster collaboration between our school. 1. How would you grade the level of collaboration between our schools? (1- poor to 5very good). 1 2 3 4 x 5 Please justify: We would appreciate more on-line sessions. It would be nice if all partners knew the main planned and intended outcome at the very beginning of the project. 2. What helped sustain collaboration between partners? Good motivation, long cooperation with Portuguese coordinator. 3. How do you as a partner ensure the successful achievement of a shared outcome? The outcomes help us to motivate pupils to learn foreign languages, to be interested in other cultures and some essential global topics. I am trying to involve all pupils I teach, each group is developing chosen topics. All teams are informed about other teams´ work and results. We present the outcomes in the project classroom and on the noticeboard in the school corridor. The other pupils and teachers are informed orally. E- International Collaboration: Collaboration is much more than exchange of information and it is way more than parallel work. How can we now foster and make international collaboration more effective? Can you suggest a final activity for international teams (a small group from one class + a small group from another class)? Something that teams together would co-produce? I would recommend to give some more on-line sessions (among 2 countries to avoid technical problems) with specific topic (hobbies, school life, help for pupils with special needs, etc.) Pupils are keen on direct communication and they learn to break barriers in communication.
F- Pupils opinion about the project so far. Here you can write about your pupils perspective on the project (what they have learnt so far, what they liked best, their opinion about their partners…). Feel free to add anything. Team Twobees: Pupils think that it is good to concentrate to something else during normal lessons. It was nice to see how other schools are working, we enjoyed best the activity Who is the hero? especially the recording of our voices through Voicethread. Team Scorpions: We pretty much agree with the opinions from the other students from our school. We believe that it is an absolute necessity to cooperate with other students from other schools and different countries. We would like to help more in the future. Our favourite activity was the movie “Pay it forward”, when we realised, how we can help others.