On the 18th March a delegation of 31 teachers from Czech Republic, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia and Slovenia joined 11 Maltese teachers for a 2 day seminar in Malta.
The seminar kicked off with an ice-breaking activity at the Excelsior Hotel, Floriana. The participants were divided into 8 subgroups and had some time to get to know each other and then we all presented our group to the others.
At 6pm we had the official opening cermony presided by Mr. Raymond J. Camilleri who gave an interesting speech about The Early Years in Education. The Assistant Directors for the Curriculum Management and eLearning Department, Education Officers directly linked with Early Years and most of the staff of the eLearning Centre were present for the cermony.
During the cermony Dr. Philip Bonano, from the University of Malta, was invited to deliver his talk: “eTwinning Initiatives – Authentic Learning Contexts for Promoting 21st Century Skills“. A reception followed.
On Saturday 19th March, we had a full agenda of workshops. We started at 9am at the eLearning Centre labs. Before entering the first workshop, all the teachers were advised to make use of a flipchart to share their project ideas with the rest and to sign their name next to ones which they would be interested to work upon. The first workshop was about the eTwinning Desktop and TwinSpace. The delegation was split into three and the workshops were led by Ms. Jeannette Cardona, Ms. Amanda Debattista and Ms. Miriam Schembri.
The next session was Sharing of Good Practice. Teachers with eTwinning project from Malta and a representation per country showed their work to the rest of the groups. The Malta National Support Service would like to thank the following Maltese teachers who accepted to share their good work:
- Ms. Miriam Schembri, St. Thomas More College, Fgura Primary A
- Ms. Maria Antoinette Magro, St. Gorg Preca College, Hamrun GP Primary
- Ms. Michelle Cauchi, St. Clare College, Gzira Primary
- Ms. Patricia Bondin, Ms. Janet Mifsud, Ms. Bryndis Ellul and Ms. Romina Bianco, St. Thomas More College, Marsaskala Primary
- Ms. Catherine Bezzina, St. Ignatius College, Siggiewi Primary
After lunch, we organized a treasure hunt in Mdina. All the teachers formed 8 groups and they had to shoot a number of photos and videos of things according to their treasure hunt card. All the teachers, both foreign and Maltese enjoyed this experience.
On getting back to the eLearning centre, the photos and videos taken were used in the three parallel workshops which took place. The teachers had signed up previously to the workshop they would like to follow. The workshops were:
- Mixbook – led by Ms. Christine Cachia Enriquez
- Glogster – led by Mr. Raymond Bonnici
- Smilebox – led by Ms. Miriam Schembri
In the evening all the participants had a good dinner at the Bella Vista Hotel in Qawra where we had more time to socialize and get to know each other.
On Sunday 20th March we had the last workshop – Planning a good project. But since unfortunately the Czech group had to leave us after only an hour we did the presentation of certificates of participation before we started the workshop. Then the teachers were divided into two main groups according to the project ideas they had previously said they’d be interested in. After a brief introduction about the steps to take to plan a good collaborative project, all the teachers had time to sit with their prospective partners and plan their project. Most of the groups also managed to register their project on the spot.
Michael Purves and Oleflemming Nielsen, two experienced eTwinners, are launching their project ‘A Snapshot of Europe’, for Primary school teachers and students. This project will be on a large scale and the aim is to have one teacher from every country participating.
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