Keep Calm and Teach English

Welcome back and Happy New Year Holidays are (unfortunately) over, and we are all looking forward to new and creative lesson ideas to spice up our classes.  Below is part of a story created with the help of  Plot Generator , a helpful little site, which promises to give you "inspiration for your next novel, film or short story".   Students can have fun and learn how to build narratives by

In the course of this year's eTwinning project "A Tale of Two Cities", we had a Skype meeting with our Polish partners on 16th December. We faced some connection problems but we had real fun!

An animated storybook of Dr Seuss' popular bedtime story: "How the Grinch Stole Christmas". Great for children of all ages!

This Advent Calendar is based on a lesson plan by Arjana Blazic, made for the Collaborative Teaching and Learning MOOC in the European Schoolnet Academy. The specific calendar is made purely for fun. There is something new behind each door, so make sure you come back everyday! You can make your own in Tuerchen.com , free and without registration. It can be easily embedded in eTwinning projects as well.

Last year's eTwinning project: "Most Wanted: A detective tour over Europe" was awarded with the European Quality Label, which is a second mark of success (after the National Label) meaning that it was proposed by at least one National Support Service after screening. A very big thank you to Kristell Lansonneur, Anna Eisler, Vanda Ramalho, Zuzana Korineková and Loredana Popa for our excellent collaboration. Special credits must go to Kristell in particular for coming up with this original idea of having mascots travelling from country to country looking for stolen artifacts, and for designing the whole project. My students and I had a wonderful time and learned a lot about our partner countries.

Another interesting MOOC was organised by the European Schoolnet Academy . The course focused on Collaborative teaching and learning. Being able to collaborate effectively is a valuable 21st-century skill, yet teaching about or through collaboration remains rare in schools because of a lack of understanding of what real collaboration in an educational setting means, and because existing policy conditions do not always enable it to flourish. This introductory course provided insights into: What is collaborative learning? How can I carry it out effectively in my classroom? What tools can I use to assess collaborative learning? How can I collaborate with fellow teachers to facilitate collaborative learning? The diary includes some inspiring diaries from fellow teachers attending the course as well as a collection of ideas for collaborative activities, digital tools that can be used in collaborative teaching and lesson plans. Collaborative teaching and learning Cour...