Monday 29 April 2013

Partners across Europe: emagazine n.6 "eTwinning e la realtà"

I built myself a house of glass:
It took my years to make it:
And I was proud. But now, alas!
Would God someone would break it.
...
Edward Thomas

Sometimes I wonder how many teachers, especially at secondary level, still live in their personal “house of glass”, still feeling proud of it.

Maybe in the past you could call them “good teachers”: after all, they do care about their students, they spend much of their out-of-school time to prepare tests, correct them, make up new exercises, they make polite conversation with their colleagues and… they are desperately isolated.

But in a time of global crisis, with more and more unemployed families, with growing social tensions all around Europe, with schools lacking money for ICT equipment/ substitute teachers/ books/ paper / younameit, with misinformation often running through the web, at easy reach of our students… isolated teachers cannot be “good” enough anymore. They have to collaborate and share. They have to teach themselves how to become good partners.

I think eTwinning is the ideal starting point for this. Projects, Teachers’ Rooms, Learning Events, Workshops and seminars are the European meeting point for individuals who are willing to share in their profession and in their life, and become members of a community.

I thank all of those teachers who lured me in eTwinning - and in Europe - and let me try to be a good partner for them as they were for me. I’m proud of giving up my house for a condo!

I thank all of the eTwinners who contributed to this ebook, thus giving evidence of what being “partners across Europe” really means.

And I thank Mrs Fiora Imberciadori, who was the first to make me understand - and care about - what being an European citizen and teacher could mean to me.