Sugata Mitra shows how kids teach themselves

Thank you Elena :)

eTwinning and professional development

“Make it as free as you can.”
This sentence was one of the turning points in my growth as a teacher. With these words Professor Sugata Mitra ended his speech at the eTwinning Conference 2008 in Bucharest. After this speech I actually was a different teacher – I had a different perception of myself in my job, of what I was supposed to do, and how.

Through Professor Mitra’s words, I realized the link between social inclusion, education, and remoteness. He was talking about Indian slums, and his famous “Hole in the wall” experiments, proving that children in groups could self-instruct themselves via the internet. Soon I realized he could as well be talking about students anywhere in the world. A child doesn’t have to be born in a slum to experience remoteness.

In the exciting environment of the Conference, with enthusiastic teachers, awards, experts, futuristic ICT projects, Professor Mitra suddenly shifted the light from “teacher” to “pupil”. He introduced us to a situation where a teacher was barely needed: children, left alone with a computer, could learn by themselves, via a self organizing learning environment. I have a vivid memory of the audience being shocked. Is the internet a “better” teacher? Is the teacher useless? Or do we have to think of a different role for the teacher?

When I say I’m different since then, it doesn’t mean I do anything new. I just try to do it better.
I’m striving to change the pupils’ perception of who I am as a teacher – I’m accompanying them in their learning, not leading them. My eTwinning projects are flexible, no musts, no set pathways: our goals are fixed, but students are free to proceed at their pace and explore alternative ways. An already arranged project, where students are actors in a predetermined script, may give you a sense of success, but it’s fake, and above all boring. You don’t need an award to prove you succeeded in your job: sometimes the smallest steps, that won’t earn your project any prize, will be the most rewarding for your students. Now I run the risk of meeting the new and unexpected in my job. I work with my students, not have them work. And I just make it as free as I can.


Laura Maffei
Voices of eTwinning

School Beyond Borders

School Beyond Borders
Colle Val d'Elsa, May the 3rd, 2011

Conference Proceedings

The seminar "School Beyond Borders" was held in Colle Val d'Elsa on May the 3rd 2011, in the context of initiatives for the Comenius Week 2011.

With this event, our aim was to collect and enhance the experience of the Valdelsa region referring to school partnerships in Europe.
Our area has, in fact, a strong tradition of involvement in Community programmes - mainly with Socrates first and LLP and later.

The seminar was born out of many years of involvement by the school "Arnolfo di Cambio" in LLP, especially Comenius in its various actions: multilateral partnerships, in-service training, eTwinning projects.

Our involvement culminated in March 2011, when Mrs. Laura Maffei with her Class III L of Casole d'Elsa won the eTwinning Prizes 2011 for the age group 12-14: the resulting participation in eTwinning Conference & Camp in Budapest, with the resonance given to it by the media, has helped to spread on the territory knowledge of the action and involvement of families and entire community.

At the same time, the Institute has expanded the participation of classes in the running Comenius, achieving excellent results in terms of sharing among colleagues and professional growth.

It was therefore felt the need to cooperate with schools in the area, at all levels of education, in order to share strategies and solutions in the area of European projects, while stimulating the involvement of territory, stakeholders and Authorities to a higher level.

Therefore, the work was aimed at an audience of "experts", in particular managers and teachers coordinators of European projects. Our goal was to share good practices, recognize common problems and develop possible solutions together.

We wanted to adapt each other's success stories and paths to the different learners' needs and to create a local "network", a vehicle for training and information.

A new LLP action was introduced as well: individual pupil mobility, which could be a new opportunity for the students in Valdelsa.

The seminar resulted in a new commitment: the commitment to meet in the future on a regular basis, the commitment to keep up the exchange and sharing at the local level and beyond. And finally, the commitment to share the moments of dissemination.

We thus hope that this event will be just the first in a series, because by confrontation and cooperation from local to global, the school could really go beyond borders: not only geographical borders, but ideological and social borders as well.

We thank all the participating schools:
- Primo Circolo di Poggibonsi
- Secondo Circolo di Poggibonsi
- Istituto Comprensivo Folgore da San Gimignano
- Scuola Secondaria di 1° Grado “Arnolfo di Cambio” di Colle Val d’Elsa – Casole d’Elsa - Radicondoli,
- Liceo Statale “A. Volta” di Colle Val d’Elsa.

We thank the teachers and Headteachers who shared their ideas and innovations.

We thank Mrs Alexandra Tosi and Mrs. Maria Lacovara, who brought the experience and support of the National Agency, illustrating the opportunities offered to schools, pupils, and teachers.

Finally, we thank the Municipality of Colle Val d'Elsa, for the organization of the event: because we believe that in order to create successful European project, we need to have strong roots in our own area.

June, the 2nd

On June the 2nd we celebrate the Italian Republic, which was born in 1946.
This year we're having a very special day, as we're celebrating 150 years of Italian independence as well. So, we're now celebrating our homeland, our freedom and our independence.

Happy birthday Italy!

BoW meeting in Hungary

Dear LLT Friends,
last week (from 17th May to 22nd May) we organised a Comenius meeting in Szeged. We had more than 50 guests (teaches and pupils) from Italy, Slovakia, Turkey and Spain. I was very happy, I met Laura too.)
In the focus of our project is the importance of water, and discovering the treasures of our towns.
We talked about it together, a very innovative part of our project, Bridges of Water is, if teachers from other countries take lessons for our pupils. At the same time pupils from other countries were attending lessons of my colleagues. It's great possibility to feel importance of learning foreign languagues, and have new/different experience in classes.
Our pupils enjoyed a lot the lessons. For example my class (children are 7 years old) met Aysegül Erdur from Turkey, who teached them a very kind song about Teddy bears. At the same time they studied the numbers in English. It was great!!)
And, as we are working together with Laura, her colleagues and pupils on BE TWIN!-Twinning up the everyday lesson eTwinning project, it was really nice an Italian lesson together, in twin with my pupils. My pupils met Laura and Twins in Budapest at the eTwinning conference, so a lesson together and being together had a personal, friendly atmosphere.
Children practiced expressions of everyday life, and of course, we talked a lot about our Twins, friends.
We had a lot of programmes: we visited a water tower, zoo, our National Park of History. We had a project afternoon with performances of Slovakian, Turkish and Hungarian pupils.
And, what I really enjoyed to see: children drawed with chalk about our project, played and danced together, and at the end of the meeting they had new friends.
I would like to show you some photos about programmes..hope, you like them)
Hugs,Mónika

Twins in Budapest - impressions and memories

Here's the ppt the Twins created after the 2011 Conference and Camp. And we are so proud of them !!!
Thank you Chiara Carraretto for this great job!
Sharing this experience with our pupils was the best prize ever :)

Twins in budapest

View more presentations from Laura Maffei.

NEW OPPORTUNITIES FOR YOUNG PEOPLE WITH YOUTH ON THE MOVE

Festival d'Europa - Florence, 6-9 May 2011

Everyone knows Florence for its art and culture. It is less well known for a minor but nevertheless significant aspect: Florence continuously reflects on the future of Europe.

The Tuscan capital is host to the European University Institute, the only academic institution founded by the members of the European Union, which provides an intellectual contribution to the process of European integration.

The EUI wishes to enhance this aspect by organising the “Festival of the Europe”, a biennial event which is structured along various lines:

1. A Conference on the State of the Union to discuss the main areas of competence of the European Union. For the 2011 edition it was decided to organise a conference of 2 days, the first of which will focus on institutional matters: Europe after Lisbon and its role in a globalised world. The second day will deal with economical issues; the Euro and Economic Global Governance in the morning session, and Growth, Employment and International Financial Stability in the afternoon.

The international conference will see the participation of the foremost European decision makers (commissioners, ministers of various European countries, journalists, academics). At this moment, the presence of José Manuel Barroso, President of the European Commission, Jerzy Buzel, President of the European Parliament, Franco Frattini, Italian minister of Foreign Affairs, Antonio Tajani, Vice President of the European Commission, Catherine Ashton, High Commissioner for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Lorenzo Bini Smaghi of the European Central Bank has been confirmed.

2. Collateral events to promote the EU: exhibitions, stands and seminars on European matters Cultural and educational activities in the main squares of the city of Florence (Awards for students who excel in their commitment to European themes) The presence of students from both the University of Florence and EUI in debates on the European Union Exhibitions, shows, concerts and theatre plays which are inspired by the Festival dell’Europa Film exhibitions as “Notte Blu”, dedicated to the European Union, the launch in Italy of the EU programme “Youth on the move”.

...And guess who was invited as well? me with the Twins :)

they actually spoke after the EU commissioner (then talk about being VIPs....)