Thursday 22 March 2012

eTwinning e la realtà

This post is meant to celebrate the little word that works magic: together.

At the beginning of December 2011, I had this idea of creating a special place in eTwinning where I could meet like-minded colleagues and friends, exchange ideas and support each other. I created a teachers' room (never tried before, I just thought I could give it a try: I was curious and wanted to take advantage of all of the opportunities offered by eTwinning).
I named it "eTwinning e la realtà" because I didn't want another place for talking about an ideal world, where eTwinning is always the answer, where everything is simply perfect and all we have to do is congratulate each other on our success stories. Of course there are success stories, and of course we do congratulate, but real school life is not an exhibition: that's what it is, real life - not always perfect, not always successful. And I wanted to talk about reality, about our everyday practice in European projects, about the ups and downs of our schooldays, about our needs. Who knows teachers' needs better than teachers? So, let's have a place where to state what we need and ask for it. Who knows? Someone may listen.

I called some Twin-friends, told them about my idea, asked if they were willing to join in. And that's how the teachers' room was born.

Few days after creating "eTwinning e la realtà" I was involved in a car accident. Everything was forgotten for a couple of months. But that's when the little world, together, did its magic.
When I went back to the teachers' room, I found it was full of ideas, messages, stories, jokes and projects. It was full of people with my same passion and hopes.

And we came up with this idea of creating an emagazine out of our experiences, a collection of "stories" we could use in order to compare our different journeys in European projects, to encourage new eTwinners to get more involved and to disseminate the spirit of eTwinning.

A couple of months later, here we are with our e-magazine. It was born thank to all of us, not only those who wrote the articles, but all of the others, who helped me with their suggestion, support, knowledge and, again, experience. It's so nice to feel you're doing something thank to someone else's experiences. This means that our success stories are important, but our mistakes have a value as well: they can prevent others from making the same mistake. We can provide others with the solutions we already have.

So, thanks everybody. And... here are our stories!

Rita Napoli, Rossana Falsetti, Mónika Kiss, Elena Pezzi, Maria Rosaria Fasanelli, Paola Arduini, Sandra Branconi, Barbara Furiesi,
 Maria Grazia di Iasio, Laura Maffei

6 comments:

  1. Brave! una bellissima raccolta di esperienze!

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  2. Dear Laura,
    Thank you for involving me into the e-magazine. That's an excellent example of the sense of togetherness cooperation may foster. I really like the kind of approach you've suggested: being realistic without lacking passion.
    Mariella
    (my official name is Maria Rosaria, but everybody calls me Mariella)

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    Replies
    1. Dear Laura,
      first I would like to thank you for creating eTwinning e la realtá teachers'room. It's nice to talk about real eTwinning experiences, and to know, there are colleagues who have similar problems and like to support each other and share experiences.
      And, of course, I would like to thank you for all your work what you did for e-magazine.
      I like to read articles from other colleagues, it's great to know their ideas, experiences and their eTwinning realtá.
      It's true, we have so much common, and, everything is better if we do it Together. :)

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  3. Good job ladies!
    I enjoyed the ebook and I felt close to most of the teachers: we definitely have similar stories and it's nice to feel we are not alone. I also liked the "no fairy tale" approach. As Laura says, that's real life, and I believe eTwinning can work in it, but it needs much committment and effort by all of us.
    I'm looking forward to reading n.2!
    Teresa

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  4. Thank you everybody! Working with you was both inspiring and great fun!
    Laura

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  5. Bel lavoro! Brave tutte!
    Enzo

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