January 2012

Best wishes for a very creative 2012!

We hope that you had a relaxing and inspiring winter break. To inaugurate the New Year, eTwinning is getting ready with plenty of new initiatives and activities. Make sure to follow them online:

  • A new range of eLearning events will be organised from January onwards. The list is already available on the portal, don’t miss them and register online!
  • The eTwinning Mentoring campaign is over and has shown great cooperation among eTwinners. An evaluation will be carried out on the Desktop and results will soon be available both on the desktop and on the portal.
  • More than 330 project submissions are now under evaluation for the eTwinning Prizes. The winners of this year’s competition will be announced around the end of January. So don’t forget to follow this online!
  • The eTwinning Cook Book will soon be released for you to taste all the ingredients that make eTwinning so successful. So get your taste buds ready!

Happy New Year!

What’s going on in schools?

Project of the Month
Learn more about projects Learn more about projects
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Water is life

Every country has different culture ideas about water and it would be interesting to gather stories, myths, songs and paintings about it. This project aims to bring attention to the importance of water in daily life since ancient times to today. Pupils collect information about the water cycle, water and religion, songs and literature about water, water as life-giving substance, water pollution etc.

Quality Label of the Month
What is the Quality Label? What is the Quality Label?
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Nature my pl@yground

Since pupils tend to spend more and more time on their computer, game console, mobile phone or other technological gadgets, they seem to lose contact with nature and its beauties. Instead of facing the challenges of technology we would like to challenge them to (re)discover and explore nature again.

From the eTwinning Portal

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Happy New Year
Welcome to eTwinning 2012! This year looks to be an exciting one with many activities planned including European Professional Development workshops, the annual conference in Berlin in March, a set of new Learning events and some online partner finding fairs.
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The European Chain Reaction: an eTwinning project receives an award!

We are happy to announce that the winners of the special Award for European Collaboration in the creation of Educational Media 2011 are the creators of an eTwinning project! The eTwinning project was awarded during the Media & Learning conference Harnessing the power of Media to support Learning, hold in Brussels from 24-25 November 2011.

What’s going on across Europe?

HR Belgium (Flanders): Safer Internet Day 2012

Are you looking for a way to take part in Safer Internet Day 2012? Secondary school students (14-19) can take part in the first edition of Studentsmeet.org, a global, online presentation event and eTwinning project.


HR Belgium: Multilateral contact seminar
eTwinning invites secondary school teachers to participate in the multilateral contact seminar from 9 - 11 March in Aachen. During this seminar participants will get to know eTwinning and its added value for teachers through good practice examples presented by teachers themselves and will have the chance to practice eTwinning tools during hands-on sessions.
HR Bulgaria: Annual eTwinning conference
On 9 December the annual Valorisation Conference “Lifelong Learning Programme” took place in Sofia, Bulgaria. The event was organized by the National LLP Agency and the Bulgarian NSS in order to review activities implemented during the year and the role of education within the strategy "Europe 2020". The conference was attended by nearly 200 representatives and eTwinning Ambassadors presented the achievements of eTwinning in Bulgaria.
HR Croatia: National eTwinning conference
On 14 December the Croatian NSS organized the first national eTwinning conference with best practice examples and the COMET award for the best projects in 2010/2011 school year. At the prize ceremony the winner of the amateur photo contest “eTwinning in our school“ was also anounced and awarded.
HR Czech Republic: eTwinning seminars
eTwinning seminars for teachers will be organized from January to June in all regions of Czech Republic. The participants can be both newcomers and advanced eTwinners. Seminars will be organized also during spring and Easter Holiday and in weekends too.
HR Denmark: Nordic project in kindergarten
A Danish nursery teacher shares her experiences about involving the youngest children in eTwinning. Kindergartens from Norway, Finland and Sweden also take part, and gain from the projects initiated during a multilateral workshop on the Gotland Island.
HR Denmark: With other eyes
The Danish EMU portal has free online materials produced by Global Stories on diversity and multiculturalism. It includes film clips and offers good tools, to be used also in eTwinning projects. It is mainly for Nordic audiences.
HR Denmark: Danish teachers meet and share on Facebook
The Facebook page “eTwinning DK” attracts teachers who enjoy the easy way of getting news on projects, share experiences and combine the informality of social networking with the serious project stuff. We think that you also will “like” it.
HR France: National eTwinning prize ceremony 2011
The prize ceremony of the national eTwinning competition took place at the Ministry of Education on December 14. Nine classes were rewarded for the quality of their eTwinning projects. The pupils and their teachers received their diplomas and presented their projects to the audience.
HR Germany: The best eTwinning experience in 2011
Great experiences are valuable to be shared with others: eTwinners reports on their most memorable eTwinning moments of last year. The entries submitted are collected on the German NSS website.
HR Greece: Contact seminar: “Biodiversity in eTwinning projects”
From 24-27 November the contact seminar about biodiversity in eTwinning projects took place with great success in the Centre of Environmental Education in Kleitoria-Akrata, Greece. 58 teachers from Greece, Poland, France, Lithuania, Latvia, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Belgium (FL) and Hungary took part and started new eTwinning projects with relevant topics.
HR Greece: National eTwinning Prizes

The 6th Greek national eTwinning contest awards ceremony took place at the Ministry of Education, Lifelong Learning and Religious Affairs premises on 9 December 2011.


HR Greece: On line asynchronous lessons
On 19 December two on-line asynchronous eTwinning lessons for Greek teachers were launched by the Greek NSS.
HR Latvia: Latvian NSS organizes eTwinning workshops
During winter holidays Latvian NSS organised several eTwining workshops in Jelgava, Balvi and Alūksne, where eTwinning ambassadors gave practical workshops about eTwinning tools, informed about upcoming events and involved teachers in other eTwinning activities.
HR Latvia: Latvian eTwinning ambassadors discuss about eTwinning plans for 2012
From 9-10 December, Latvian eTwinning Ambassadors gathered in Riga and discussed plans for Latvia eTwinning workshops in 2012. According to previous experience and also taking into account eTwinning priorities, there will be different workshops for different target audiences planned.
HR Poland: Festive workshop in Warsaw
60 teachers participated in Festive eTwinning workshop which took place in Warsaw on 19 December. During hands-on activities teachers learnt how to use eTwinning tools.
HR Poland: Two regional workshops
Nearly 80 teachers were registered in the programme and trained with eTwinning tools during two regional workshops conducted in Kołobrzeg and Koszalin from 15-16 December.
HR Poland: Regional conference in Kraków
In cooperation with regional school inspectorate and local educational authority, the Polish NSS is preparing a regional conference for 150 teachers. The event will take place in Kraków on 17 January and teachers will be trained with eTwinning tools and portals.
HR Portugal: Comenius open day
On 13 December the Portuguese NSS was present at the Comenius open day with an eTwinning stand. More than 100 teachers participated in the event, organised by the National Agency.
HR Portugal: eTwinning sessions in Alentejo
On 4 January (Sousel), 11 January (Elvas) and 25 January (Évora) the Portuguese NSS will hold eTwinning sessions for teachers interested in discussing project work at a European level. Teachers are asked to present a project draft. These sessions are integrated in the initiative ComTIC.
HR Slovakia: Final report on cooperation in eTwinning now available!

The Slovak NSS together with the marketing specialists of the University of Zilina accomplished the Research on the Level of information concerning eTwinning by teachers and important aspects of cooperation in the eTwinning program.


HR Slovenia: eTwinning tour 2011 is concluded
The Slovenian NSS and eTwinning Ambassadors successfully concluded the eTwinning tour 2011. More than 90 eTwinners and newcomers in eTwinning had a possibility to attended 11 workshops in different Slovenian regions through all the year.
HR Spain: Winners of the National Award eTwinning 2012
Following the link is the list of the winning projects at the eTwinning 2012 National Award Competition. The selection criteria are related to pedagogical and curricular innovation, creative use of ICT, curricular integration, continuity and transferability and collaboration among the European partners involved in the same project. Congratulations to both students and teachers!
HR Spain: eTwinning 2.0 training course registration
Online registration for the eTwinning 2.0 training course will be open from Monday 16 January 2012, at 12.00 to 23 January 2012 at 14.00.
HR Switzerland: Welcome to our new eTwinning Website!
The Swiss NSS proudly present the new eTwinning website! General information as well as news about eTwinning in Switzerland can now be found in German, French, Italian and English.
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