eTwinning Teachers Generation: born to run!
Italian testimonials from the 2015 annual eTwinning Conference in Brusselles
43 European countries represented by 500 teachers : these are the extraordinary numbers of the eTwinning European Conference in Brussels defining us like “eTwinning Teachers Generation”, the generation born to run, as Bruce Springsteen says, the generation born to run and meet, to convey the citizenship skills which let students to be aware European citizens . And so, from Tunisia to Sweden, from Turkey to Latvia, in the ballroom conference of the Crown Plaza in Brussels we all felt to be partners of a global project and responsible for its effectiveness.
Anne Gilleran, European pedagogical manager for eTwinning, in her opening speech, welcomed us with her communicative smile; she reminded us that the “human challenges”, the challenges of change pass through us, it’s a pedagogical adventure full of values such as tolerance, integration, interculture, a great peace pedagogy.
The highest political authorities in Europe greeted the meeting celebrating the 10 years of eTwinning: Joelle Milquet, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Education, Culture and Childhood and Martine Reicherts, General Director for Education and Culture of European Commission. “Education is the future and the European Commission intends to continue to invest massively on it” they said, “kids need their teachers’ optimism and enthusiasm, and the eTwinning platform is useful because it allows students and teachers to meet each other and diffuse an optimistic view of life. ” From such experiences you come back changed, in debt. The energy received, the motivation to act, the gratification of listening, the warm welcome and the joyfull atmosphere need a reward in the name of the mutual exchange of know-how belonging to all of us who consider eTwinning as our own professional challenge.
So, from the tech tools of Arjana and Burt’s workshop to Tommaso’s learning by coding, passing through the urban gaming with tablets and Tina Crawley’s DataViz infographics , really everything helped animate my enthusiasm to measure, as soon as possible on the field, the effects of this extraordinary bath of humanity that was the 10th Annual Conference eTwinnig in Brussels
MARIA NICA- Italian Ambassador- Campania
Friendship, enthusiasm, interest, happiness, a fusion and confusion of feelings all gathered in one event: the etwinning yearly conference framed in the enchanted Bruxelles! What a great experience to meet personally many etwinners and share and compare ideas to realize new practices. Teachers from all over Europe, all together stimulated by the same interests and goals.
A full immersion into three creative long days marked by original and creative workshops and activities, but also a starting point to give rise to new projects. From the i-pad activities to the etwinning feedback, from Erasmus+ projects to twinspace ideas, here it is the new cultural “suitcase” I filled in and the new brainstorming start up for my school classes.
One better than the other, ‘The House of European History – A new Resource for Teachers’ workshop has given all the participants news and original tools to be used both for etwinning projects and E+ making all reflecting about modern topics such as migrations.
Well, what else? I was there and very proud of it!
Tags: conference, italy, testimonies