Cheerful peer tutorial about Lego control

 Students from vocational school " Branko Radicevic" from Ruma- Anja and Teodora , show us in a very easy way how you can use Lego parts and make funny tools which you can be controled by phone or how you can go one more step forward and make program to control Lego parts. 

Dear Teachers,this  movie is also addressed to you!You can can try the usefull tools suggested and give fun in your classes.That can be your first steep in programing process. 

Let's make good things with new ideas!

E-safety has been part of our project so ,

You cannot download or save this video because it involves students

Video from Mobility to Serbia

 

Greece: Working in the class on 3D printing

 

Inspired by our visit to Brakel, Belgium, we bought a 3D printer for our school (Evening Vocational School of Giannitsa) and integrated it into the teaching of 1^st and 2^nd  grade IT subjects. Students were first introduced to the Tinkercad environment and learned how to use the available tools. Then they worked in pairs to create their own original labels. Students and teachers voted for their favourite designs and the best artworks were printed. We have also planned a training for our colleagues in December, so that they will be able to implement 3d printing into their subjects as well.

Serbian Project Meeting - Video

 

On line meeting between english teachers of partner schools

 

In November 17th,02:30 pm an online meeting took place among Belgian and Portuguese english teachers  to prepare students' video conference meeting about environmental issues. Date among students was planned on March 2023.

Shots from LTTA workshops in RUMA

 

                          For more  photos click here 

Publicity of LTTA activity in Serbia

During our workshops in Branco Radicevic host school,Ruma, Serbia two interviews were given to regional media by the project coordinator and the local coordinator about the content and the aims of the our project.

Students of GO! Atheneum Brakel collaborate with senior advisory council of municipality of Brakel : DIGIPUNT

 

Digitization is increasing. The senior advisory council notices that people often have minor technical questions and internet problems and they often do not know where to look for help. Therefore In addition to classes and computer clinic in the library, the senior advisory council is now also taking the initiative to set up Digipunts in the school and in the library in collaboration with the GO! Atheneum Brakel.

Students of Accountancy -IT provide immediate practical help with, for example how can I use the internet safely, folder structure, paying bills, how do I recognize internet phising , ..

These Digipunts has started on Wednesday the 5^th of October 2022. This help from the IT students is free and people of all ages are welcome from 10.15  AM to 12.00 AM in the library of Brakel.

Official start of the campaign Digipunt with key figures headmaster Katrien De Schepper and IT coordinator Tom Demortier.

 

Some of the students of Accountancy IT of GO! Atheneum Brakel that are going to solve internet and computer issues for the residents of municipality Brakel.

Erasmus Meeting to prepare Serbia's mobility

On July 19th, teachers from ENSINUS - Estudos Técnicos e Profissionais met to discuss forthcoming mobilities, namely to Serbia. They also discussed the project of implementing a 3D printer centre in the school library to boost students' skills in modelling and creating their project prototypes, which will be a new step forward towards a more meaningful learning context.

Dissemination in ENSINUS

On July 14th, teachers from ENSINUS - Estudos Técnicos e Profissionais had a presentation of best practices and their participation on the Erasmus mobilities they were engaged in so far.

Patrícia Lopes, one of the participants in DIGI.RE.DI.L, showed their colleagues the wonders of Virtual reality and its use in so different classes as History, Sciences, Vocational Areas as Optics, Cultural diversity, and many others.

Teachers were delighted and sought all the information to understand how it could be brought to their teaching practice, starting in September with the new school year.

 

Meeting about activities definition and project dissemination

On April, 18th the Portuguese team met and dicussed about the Project Dissemination and established the next activities to develop regarding the project.

Some classes will join those activities and students connected to the project will participate in cultural and group activities regarding Sustainable Development. 

Impact of the learning and teaching activities – Belgium mobility

 As a teacher of social studies, many times technology and its use may be seen as a threat. Not being in our area of expertise, its application can be scary sometimes, mainly because we also know our students are probably more savvy than us in handling technology. We know that, if our mobile phones are now an extension of our arms, in their age this phenomenon is a lot more real. 

It's not possible to say, though, that we should exclude technology as a teaching tool. On the contrary, I believe the situation we are in and the way the world is evolving, make it urgent to use more and more different kinds of technology, not only as a teaching tool but as a motivation factor. 

The several workshops performed in the Brakel meeting were quite enlightening in this aspect. Firstly we learned that it’s not really about the specific technological tools, it's about the ability to adapt them to several teaching learning processes and use them in a way that captures student’s attention. It can be more motivating to use a simpler tool used in key moments of a class, a tool that the teacher is absolutely comfortable managing and using, than a complex tool that the teacher cannot control or feels insecure about. 

Adapting the objectives of the class, online or not, to the tools used is essential. We already know this and realize it’s not different when it comes to technological tools. It is also essential to adapt tools to the characteristics of students. To different audiences, varying in age, motivation, capacities, learning disabilities or even the awareness of the subject in question, we can adjust and insert digital tools with different purposes. 

We also learned about several concrete digital tools and applications that are transversal to all subjects, such as Thinkercad, 3D printing and virtual reality games. Here we also focused on the importance of interdisciplinarity. As a VET school, our students are more oriented to practical activities, and the use of software such as Thinkercad and all the possibilities of application works in itself as a big factor of motivation. 

As a final thought about all the things we learned, I believe that the key is to use technology in a confident though secure way. If we manage to use technology in our favor and make it work to accomplish our goals, instead of working in favor of technology, we’ll be able to close up the generation gap between teachers and students.

Patricia Lopes and Marta Lopes 

Teachers of Social Studies – INETE

February mobility on Belgium

On the second week of February a group of teachers from Portugal, Island and Greece went to Brakel, Belgium, to participate in the ERASMUS PROJECT DIGI.R.E.DI.L, at GO Atheneum Brakel school, where several ways to use alternative learning techniques and methods to motivate the students were discussed.

On the first day, 7th of February, we made a school tour to understand how some classes are taught in the school. We learned some techniques used by some teachers and how they use the kids interests to motivate them in class, especially during the pandemic home stay.

On day two, 8th of February, it was utilized 3D printing program, TinkerCad, where we worked and learned some techniques and printed objects that ourselves had created.

On day tree, 9th of February, we visited Bruges, a mediaeval city. We made a tour, with a guide, that explained us the story and the landmarks of the city, especially Flemish and Maximiliano history. We made a tour by The Beguinage (Begijnhof), where the nuns and some widows live, and had a glimpse of the European movement of the Beguines in the Middle Ages. We also visited the Huisbrouwerij De Halve Maan museum, where it was explained how the beer is produced, packed and delivered.

On the 10th of February we returned to the school to learn how to use technology produced by other entities, as video games, in classes. The use of games has been shown as a good complement to add to books, especially in some areas that are very exploited and studied by game producers, like history, civilization and languages. With that in mind, we produced and played some games that could be used in class, with virtual reality glasses.

On February 11th, we learned some techniques of transformation from 3D to 2D, using TinkerCad, to produce our own VR-Glasses, with Laser-Cutting techniques, that could be assembled in 3D forms. We took a virtual tour of the school, a tactic that the school applied to introduce it to new kids and families. We also use a virtual App and posters (Curiscope t-shirt and curiscope multiverse posters) visualizing the 3D forms of planets and human organs and we talked about the several applications and matters of these techniques.

Catarina Correia

Our experience with different technologies at Brakel

 

As teachers of social studies, many times technology and its use is seen as a threat. Not being in our area of expertise its application can be scary sometimes, mainly because we also know our students are probably more savvy then us in handling technology. We know that, if our mobile phones are now an extension of our arms, in their age this phenomenon is a lot more real.

It's not possible to say, although, that we should exclude technology as a teaching tool. On the contrary, I believe the situation we are in and the way the world is evolving, make it urgent to use more and more different kinds of technology, not only as a teaching tool but as a motivation factor.

The several workshops performed in the Brakel meeting were quite enlightening in this aspect. First we learned that its not really about the specific technological tools, its about the ability to adapt them to several teaching learning processes and using them in way that captures students attention. It can be more motivating a simpler tool used in key moments of a class, a tool that the teacher is absolutely comfortable managing and using, than a complex tool that the teacher cannot control or feels insecure about.

Adapting the objectives of the class, online or not, to the tools used is essential. We already know this and realize its not different when it comes to technological tools. It is also essential to adapt tools to the characteristics of students. To different publics, varying in age, motivation, capacities, learning disabilities or even the awareness to the subject in question, we can adjust and insert digital tools with different purposes.

We also learned about several concrete digital tools and applications that are transversal to all subjects, such as Thinkercad, 3D printing and virtual reality games. 

Here we also focused the importance of interdisciplinarity. As a VET school, our students are more oriented to practical activities, and the  use of software as Thinkercad and all the possibilities of application works in itself as a big factor of motivation.

As a final thought about all the things we learned, I believe that the key is to use technology in a confident though secure way. If we manage to use technology in our favor and make it work to accomplish our goals, instead of working in favor of technology, we’ll be able to close up the generation gap between teachers and students.

 

Patricia Lopes and Marta Lopes

Teachers of Social Studies – INETE

Our e-book

One of our major project result is going to be an e-book with tutorials,presentations, lesson plans and their implementation.We're glad it started being created by our Belgian partner who's responsible for that and the content contribution of all.Link will provided when it's fully ready at the end of our Project.

Distance and in class workshops combined.

 Publication about the virtual mobility that Serbian colleagues experienced while our recent LTT activity in Belgium was made on Municipality of Ruma webpage 

Virtual mobility

2nd Newsletter of the partnership

 Content of our second LTTA was included in a Newsletter which is about to be sent to several mailing lists of all partner schools.Feel free to share!

2nd Newsletter

 Addiction behavior lesson plan was implemented in Greek school (14/3/2022) with A2 class students at one of the ICT labs.Students found the  lesson interesting and enjoyed the activities planned. Instructors: Ms Karypi Maria,Mr Kalaitzidis Christos

New 3D printer for the Greek school

 Inspired by the Belgian workshops we had participated in the Belgian partner school during our stay there due to our LTTA, we bought our first 3D printer and workshops by our ICT teachers and their students have already started to learn more through practice.Our special thanks to our Belgian instructors!

Coordination meeting before the Progress report

 On Friday the 11th the contact persons of all partner schools met online to discuss about the Progress Report that has to be submitted till the 31st of March.The Greek coordinator reminded all necessary contribution of each partner and clarifications were provided about crucial points of our report.Among other things,dates for next meetings have been also discussed

The "If statement" implementation

 A  lesson plan implementation on March the 12th , for the “IF statement”  from the ICT class .Lesson started with a test in a kahoot and went on following the lesson plan as designed in Iceland.Instructors: Ms Grammouseni, Mr.Karapatsas.

eTwinning and the project- ENSINUS

 eTwinning and the project

On the 11th of March 2022, participant teachers of the ENSINUS ETP, the Portuguese school, learned how to use eTwinning in order to be able to work with their students in the platform. Some teachers have already enrolled themselves and are initiating the process with their students.

Mid term assessment

 Our partnership has organised many ways of evaluating the project process and quality of outcomes.This is our mid term assessment for the results of which we all feel satisfied.Things we noticed need reinforcement to be more effective ,are taken seriously into consideration for improving in th near future.

Mid term assessment

Implementation of Biology lesson plan

 Addiction behavior lesson plan was implemented in Greek school (2/3/2022) with A class students at one of the ICT labs.Students enjoyed the lessons and were very interested in the activities planned.Instructor:Ms Anna Moschou

Lesson plans for Assassins Creed Discovery Tour

 Throughout our stay at GO! Athenaum Brakel we had the chance to experience the "Discovery Tour series" which  is made of dedicated games that let visitors freely roam Ancient Greece, Ancient Egypt and the Viking Age to learn more about their history and daily life. Students, teachers, non-gamers, and players can discover these eras at their own pace, or embark on guided tours and stories curated by historians and experts.

Lesson plans made for taking advantage of the above potentials make learning thrilling and exciting!Explore here some examples about Ancient Greek History!

Manual of TinkerCad

 We share here a manual about a software we've been practicing while in our LTT activity at Belgian School.It's for designing objects and then print them by 3D printers

 Manual in English

VRKuub and Computer Games in teaching

February, 3rd's program was very interesting. Michaël De Borre presented the eduprogram VR-Kuub as well as the use of commercial computer games in the classroom.

VR-Kuub allows teachers to create simple games and quizzes in a VR-format. We especially enjoyed the co-operative nature of the game (one student wears the goggles and describes what he sees to one or two classmates whose task it is to solve the task). Each national group then made VR-Kuub games that relate to their own subjects and we then had a lot of fun trying to complete the assignments together.

Michaël then told us how he has used commercial computer games like Plague Inc., Among Us and Assassin’s Creed both in classroom and distance learning contexts. He explained how he used the game Plague Inc. early on in the Corona epidemic to help students understand how epidemics work. He also showed us the potential of a big commercial game like Assassin’s Creed to transport students to different historical periods, which we all agreed was a wonderful way to ignite students’ interest.

Michaël’s workshop was a lot of fun and inspiring in a number of ways. We fully intend to present these ideas to our colleagues in Iceland.

 

Kv. Siggi Palli

Teaching in Iceland due to Covid 19

 

In the beginning of year 2022 the situation in Iceland due to Covid 19 have never been so bad from the start of the pandemic.  The Icelandic government decided not to let that affect the schools.  

All schools opened on 5. January.  Many students and teachers where in isolation or quarantine.  Our teachers in Menntaskólinn í Reykjavík decided to have as normal classes as can be.  Now we have Teams on so students at home can participate in the class.  Usually we have 10 – 30% of our students at home, but they attend classes.  Everyone agrees that this helps a lot. It is easier for teachers if the student can keep up with the study material and it is a lot easier to come back after week or two away.

Some schools have had to close for few days if to many students and teachers are in isolation/quarantine, but we hope that we will not have to.

National Dissemination by Greek NA

 Hellenic Agency of Erasmus+ published in its FB page the summary of our first mobility experience to Iceland with a link to our Newsletter .

https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=292766426215064&set=a.290767179748322

Portuguese team - Reykjavik Mobility

Our time in Reykjavík was amazing. The people, the city, the atmosphere, everything was so welcoming.  

We loved to get to know Menntaskólinn, the oldest school in Reykjavík. We were so well received by everyone in there and would really like to thank Jóhanna for being a great host. We learned a lot about several digital tools (INNA, Microsoft Teams, Padlet) and how we can use it in our classes. The highlight was when we grouped up with teachers from different countries to create lesson plans: the diversity of knowledge, procedures and methodologies made the process of making it really interesting and fulfilling, plus we managed to do it using the tools we were taught.  

The cultural activities left us amazed: the Golden Circle, the Gullfoss Cascate, the Geysers, the Fagradalsfjall Volcano and that tomato soup at Fridheimar! Everything was beautiful and gave us a sense of peace and cosiness. The organization of everything  was also pretty good and made it possible to enjoy every single moment of it.  

Our experience at Iceland was a 10 out of 10 and we hope to get the chance to visit this wonderful country again! 

Please access here our presentation about the iceland mobility