Project 

Look at My  World

Information technology opens the classroom to actual information and the big world of contancts.

The object of teaching is the essence of education, the aim is developing student's personality and directing the student to the culture of society. This was the concept we proceeded from.

Why are we twinning?

·        To improve students' and teachers' skills of English;

·        to provide students interesting activities with their mates in Ireland ;

·        use ICT in teaching-learning process;

·        broaden the students' horizons;

·        find new friends.

The aims of the project ”Look at my world”

Students:

·        introduce with the schoollife in Ireland (Bayside Junior);

·        improve their English;

·        practise their language through drawing and writing short stories;

·        activate the computer-using skills integrated with academic schoolwork;

·        integrate different subjects (drawing, foreign language, social studies);

·        develop their skills to process information.

Teachers:

·        motivate students to learn;

·        use innovative methods in their everyday work;

·        teach different cultures;

·        learn and compare the education systems in Estonia and Ireland ;

·        share the experiences;

·        compare the teachers' working methods and techniques;

·        improve language skills.

What does the project give?

·        The skills of team-work and co-operation;

·        change for everyday routine;

·        improves communication skills;

·        develops the ICT skills;

·        broadens horizons;

·        introduces different cultures;

·        enables to integrate different subjects; 

·        enables to use the methods of active learning, team-work, project learning and other innovative teaching-learning methods;

·        unexpected and interesting situations and experiences.

videoconference

  As a preliminary activity we carried out a discussion in the class to find out what we should speak about to our friends. 

Our partners in Ireland proposed the following program:

Introduction from Principal of Irish school - a greeting and their name
Introduction from Principal of Estonian School - same as above
Introduce Irish teacher - Eileen Ward - teacher in the school - eTwinning co-ordinator in the school
Introduce Estonian teacher - Is it Tiiu - eTwinning co-ordinator
2 students from Ireland say a few words - they have learnt some Estonian words
2 students from Estonia say a few words  - their names, ages, what they know of Ireland (maybe 1-2 lines)
A song from the Irish school
A song from the Estonian school
Say goodbye

The students prepared their text – a brief overview of themselves and their interests. That was followed bu the brainstorm which ended in picking out four students who got the chance to represent themselves at the videoconference. The competition was intense as everyone wanted to show themselves and speak about themselves.  

Students were also active when choosing the national costumes and a folk song – we were still representing our country. The song was accompanied by the keyboards played by Olga and the flute by Lisann. 

The project was also supported by the ICT coordinator of our school Vello Uustalu and  an English teacher Katrin Saks, a lot of help came from the parents. So, twinning was a team-work that assumed co-operation (school – student – parent).

The videoconference was a fantastic experience to hear authentic English, see our friends and  communicate with them. The first-grade students were even trying to touch their friends on the screen. Everyone was really excited. The contact via tele-bridge is immediate, it was more like a real encounter.  The students overcame their first abashment faster than teachers and communicating could start. 

The students of Bayside spoke about themselves and our students introduced themselves. We listened to the Irish' song and sang ourselves.

We think that the contact through multimedia is a great chance to practise English (our students start learning it at the age of 7) and get to know our friends in Europe .

The opinion of Eileen Ward, the teacher of Bayside school about our event:

I would like to sincerely thank you for participating in the videoconference yesterday. The launch went very well. We had a few heart stopping moments when the connection went down, but all went well in the end.
I would like to thank your students for their wonderful contribution and hopefully the partnership between the two schools will continue to strengthen

Many thanks for the conference today. We were delighted with it. I was very
worried that the link wouldn't work but it was great. The picture and sound
were not as good as the morning but it was fine. Your children looked really
lovely. I loved the twins. All came across very clearly. Our children were
so excited to see yours. I think it is a very good idea to draw pictures and
describe themselves. We will start on that tomorrow and will send to you
over the next week or so. Many thanks again. It was really great to "meet"
you all.

Many thanks for the conference today. We were delighted with it. I was very
worried that the link wouldn't work but it was great. The picture and sound
were not as good as the morning but it was fine. Your children looked really
lovely. I loved the twins. All came across very clearly. Our children were
so excited to see yours. I think it is a very good idea to draw pictures and
describe themselves . We will start on that tomorrow and will send to you
over the next week.

The opinion of Kay O'Reagan, the ICT expert in Ireland :

I will forward on photographs of the launch when I receive them. The National broadcasting station came to film the launch so we are hoping it will be on TV today!

By now we have exchanged computer drawings and stories about our schoolday, home and family. We are going to continue our co-operation in future as well. We are using a lot of figurative elements in our communication forms because the students' foreign language skills do not enable to express all ideas yet.

eTwinning gives us an excellent chance to broaden the horizons, develop the language skills, creativity and get to know different cultures and traditions.

Within the present project we have compiled a webpage about the students' works. 

Students' opinions about the videoconference:

  Lisann (10 years old): I liked it because I could play the flute!

  Keiti (9 years old): I think it was great. I liked to listen the Irish children introducing themselves. We sang to them and they talked to us.

  Olga (9 years old): I liked it a lot. I liked it because we communicated and sang. I liked the teachers and children, too. I'd like to have more encounters like that. 

  Petra (9 years old): I liked it very much. I liked to see and hear the Irish children and teachers. Our teacher told us that there was the Irish Minister of Education behind the screen. I could understand what the Irish children said. I'd like to meet them in fresh. 

  Annely (9 years old): I liked it a lot. It was a new and interesting experience for me. Everything was great. I would like to see them from eye to eye.

  Moonika (9 years old): I liked it and I wasn't nervous at all. I would have liked to speak about myself too but I wasn't picked out this time. I think I know English best in my class