Teachers' Corner
Big part of our projects is related to teachers' trainings activities. They are cooperating on the production of the manual of good teaching practices that will be published on TwinSpace by the end of the project, but and also in newsletters, in order to disseminate out findings and handouts tor rest of the project stuff and other teachers of our schools, counties, and the rest of the Europe. After the meeting the participating teachers are using the acquired methods and skills in their everyday teaching practice and are also having demonstration lessons for their colleagues from inside and outside their institutions.
The main purpose of this training event is to equip teachers with methods and practices they can exploit during the implementation of project activities.
Since mass media has a huge impact on the attitudes and world-view of children, Hungarian partner has prepared a set of lectures and workshops based on the topic of Media Literacy (meaning, importance, critical thinking, dangers, reliability of information, exchanging our experience on the topic; how teachers in different countries can deal with the problem; whether we can teach critical understanding of mass media to our students or not; what credible and reliable sources of information we can offer to them).
Teachers were involved in a workshop session based on the lecture - sharing information among the colleagues (how to protect our privacy; phishing scams; companies tracking us; security tips; etc.). We visited the famous Ervin Szabó Central Library in Budapest.
Another training that this meeting provided us is Language Learning Literacy:
• A lecture on the special characteristics of Hungarian language, interesting facts about it and its unique sounding.
• A workshop session on phonetics and loanwords.
Take a look on the materials we have been working at on the Hungarian mobility.
The second joint teacher training event took place in the Polish partner school. The main purpose of this training event is to equip teachers with methods and practices they can exploit during the implementation of project activities.
Teachers visited school departments and facilities and got an insight into the Polish educational system and the different teaching methods, and activities that their Polish partners are taking part in. Bearing in mind that reading is an important cognitive process which means being involved in cultural life, during project meeting in Poland the teachers participated in various workshops and meetings during which they will be able to learn about and discuss the following topics:
Various types of intelligence and their importance in learning process. The methodology of Multiple Intelligences is important because it allows educators to identify strengths and weaknesses in their students. Polish teachers presented classroom activities that have to activate and utilize more than one of the multiple intelligences, in other to improve student's knowledge and skills in maths, science and literacy.
Lessons which are student-centered versus teacher-centered lessons. Teachers will observe their Polish colleagues’ lessons, take part in discussions and micro teaching session, and demonstrate useful techniques and methods to each other.
Cultural and Multicultural Literacy - we found this topic very important because "shared culture requires transmission of specific information to children" (E.D. Hirsch "Cultural Literacy") and acculturation is a necessity.
Polish partner also prepared a short training of Polish language for their foreigner colleagues, with cultural hints.
All the materials are gathered here.
During our third meeting, that happened in May 2018 on Cyprus, we had an opportunity to learn about The Literature Curriculum in Cyprus, that is running the last 5 years. The program is based on the theory that any text develops a conversation with other texts. The method gives the tools to approach a general topic (such as “peace and war in literature”, “literature and ecology”, “love in literature” etc.) by reading more than one text coming from different authors, epochs, countries and compering the forms, the context and the manner that the authors choose to talk about a similar subject.
Our Cypriot partners prepared the training by teachers of literature who have a wide experience on the Literature Curriculum. We were analyzing texts and topics using specific tools in order to indicate the intertextuality and highlight the dialogue between texts (targeted questions, searching for similarities and differences on the way of talking on a subject, compering the forms that an author choose to approach a topic etc.). Some of the workshops were prepared by professors of the University of Cyprus and by specialized trainers who are working at the Pedagogical Institution in Cyprus related to the method of reading and approaching more than one literary text.
Cyprus presented the cyber tools which can be used in the program, in order to improve the possibility of reading, teaching and writing literature. Teachers were involved in exchange of opinions about hyperliterature, hypertext or cybertext and their particularities comparing to the printed Literature (intratextuality, intertextuality, discontinuity, textual fluidity, structural flexibility, interactivity).
Cyprus organized a number of visits to important places and people and lectures about important Cypriot writers. After all this experience, partners talked about the dialogue in general: inter-culture, inter-Literature, inter-people etc.
Detailed working minutes on Cyrus mobility you can find on their web site.
The 4th training took place in Croatia in October 2017. During the event host school prepared a training based on methodology of Visible Thinking and Thinking Routines. They also prepared set of training session based on improving Visual literacy, presenting web2tools such is Canva and Printing Press, but also craft works and illustration workshops.
Teachers presented creative competitions involving host schools, which support development od cultural, multicultural, media, social, technology, visual an language learning literacy (LiDraNo, English in Action, Croatian Minute Movie Cup).
One of workshops was related to quizz making, in cooperation with the local library, whose librarians are regularly cooperating with teachers of Croatian partner school in similar workshops, opened for wide public.
Croats organized a number of visits to places of cultural and heritage matters, such is the visit to Croatian National and University Library in Zagreb, as well as short training of Croatian language with some cultural hints.
Materials used on Croatian mobility are presented in this file.
The 5th mobility took place in Escola Básica e Secundária Muralhas do Minho in Valenca.
Teachers were presented to various new webtools and methodologies which can help them improve their teaching practise. Portuguese chool librarian presented and conducted a scavenger hunt with guest teachers, with the help of Portuguese students. The activities has finished with the ICT worshop of making videos of materials gathered in scavenger hunt. Teams coordinated different skills and strengths in pursuit of a common goal. The game gave the participants a new experience at working on a task, and improved confidence in their ability to succeed.
The next tool that was presented is the Plickers, application that is excellent for multiple answers examination and checking reading activities. Teachers were also introduced to quizes and puzzles tools created by our host with the help of the web tool Discovery Education Puzzlemaker.
A lot of activities took place in school and town library, organized by very progressice librarians who provided project teams with ideas how to improve the work of their schools libraries.
Materials used on Portuguese mobility can be found on links bellow.
Documents: Programme | Mobility plan | Newsletter
Resources: Famous authors | Book challenge | Short story & quiz | Activity kits | Book recommender
Survival kit: Booklet | Pocket translator | Writers’ cards | Battleship game
Posters: Brubaker – Children’s Book Week, 1926 | Affirm and Lift Up | Abridged classics
The 6th and final teachers training event took place in Burhan Felek Andalu Lisesi in Istanbul, Turkey.
Part of involved teachers gathered for final transnational meeting. Several meetings were held to discuss the activities carried out, activities that are still to be carried out before the project is officially concluded and about dissemination plans and commitments.
The others were involved in numerous workshops related to drama technics, pre-reading, while-reading and post-reading activities, and ICT workshops.
The teachers were hosted on several lessons and held classes for Turkish students. They shared an example of good practices, to make the teaching of literature and English more interesting and productive. Our main topic was Aesop's fable Andronicles and the Lion.
Lesson plans can be found in this file.
Turkish host presented some interesting web tools (Edmodo and Tes Teach).
Drama workshops were organized by the host school and the local art center.
Host prepared visits to museums, and libraries which conected participants to the topic of BookPals project. They presented us Turkish literature, it's roots, history, development and nowadays topics .