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