New seminar, new teachers
For the first time since eTwinning history the national support organizations of the Netherlands and Austria combined forces to develop a seminar specifically for teachers in both countries. The goal? To foster collaborations and to prepare for long-term school partnerships. The theme of the seminar was therefore also ‘eTwinning connects teachers from Austria and the Netherlands’. In total 16 teachers, most who weren’t that familiar with eTwinning, traveled to Vienna for this once-in-a-lifetime experience. When the teachers arrived, we asked them to write down their expectations on the wall, one teacher wrote “I hope to meet great and passionate teachers who are also looking for other ways to learn than from books”. And that is what is eTwinning is all about: finding new and innovative ways to learn and to grow, in a community of European teachers.
Four international eTwinning projects
In 2.5 days, the teachers did not only follow interesting workshops on the European School Education Platform, Erasmus+ School Education and project planning, but also took part in creative networking activities. Such as ‘drawing portraits’ and a real-life project partner finding fair. Through these activities they become step-by-step closer to finding a suitable project partner. After the first day it was a match! The creativity was flowing and within no-time all groups designed the first parts of their project. One group decided to focus on ‘sustainability’, whereas another group focused more on ‘wellbeing’, all teachers planned to integrate their project into their curriculum for 2024-2025. During the course of the seminar, they presented their ideas and they even registered four projects within eTwinning. They are now ready to start their international collaboration once the new school year begins!
After the seminar we asked the participants again to write on the wall, but this time we asked them to look back on the seminar and provide feedback. One teacher wrote: “It’s been an amazing experience to meet you lovely, open-minded people and I can’t wait to start our project!” We hope this seminar indeed contributed to strong collaborations between the two countries and we look forward to seeing the fruits of the international school cooperations!
Watch videos of the seminar on the Facebook pages of eTwinning-Österreich and eTwinning Nederland:
Video "Day 1"
Video "eTwinning seminar in Wenen"
Video "Best of seminar"
