I had the privilege to attend the annual eTwinning conference which this year was in Malta. I had never been to Malta until the conference and it was nice to be away for some Autumnal sun and meet up with some old friends met through eTwinning.
The conference was held at the Intercontinental Hotel in Paceville and would gather around 650 teachers and leaders from
all over Europe under one roof. The theme of the conference was INCLUSION.
The conference started with a few welcome speeches from Malta and eTwinning officials before a keynote by Mark Penfold about how he sees Inclusion. He was passionate, enthusiastic and sometimes provocative but I was hooked after only two minutes of listening to him. The sentence I remember the most is: Access to the classroom IS NOT inclusion…
The next day, I attended two workshops. The first one was about BBC Micro:Bit. Though I knew what Micro:Bit is, I never had a chance to use one. I have a few Raspberry Pi devices at home and I have used Scratch before. Here is what it says about Micro:Bit on the website: Micro:Bit is a tiny programmable computer, designed to make learning and teaching easy and fun! After a few connections and a long download (The hotel wifi did not cope really well with the sheer volume of people using the network), I was able to programme my Micro:Bit to say hello and to display different smileys. There is quite a lot of potential with Micro:Bit there are a few sensors available on the device: light, sound, temperature, movement… Here is my creation on YouTube.
In between workshops, after some coffee, I had a chance to try out the VR glasses provided in our welcome pack. This is something I want to explore further and in particular how to use Google Expeditions in the MFL classroom and with EAL students. I will have to write another post about this… 
My second workshop was a TeachMeet led by Bart Verswijvel from Belgium. You can find all the presentations on this link. I particularly liked the Students conference idea and Interacteen, a magazine created and curated by students from all over Europe. You can read the latest issue here.
On Saturday, I attended the workshop by Anne Gilleran, who introduced the new eTwinning school. I really like this idea and it replicates what the ISA does for schools in the UK but for every school around Europe. I hope to see many UK schools apply for the new award. The application seems less complicated than for the International School Award as well.
Here is what I found on the website about eligibility and application:
“eTwinning is broadening its scope from teachers to schools: become the first European eTwinning schools!
One of the main recommendations of the 2015 eTwinning monitoring report[1], which aimed for schools to be involved in a wider sense, is “to target the involvement of school heads and senior school management (also in order to) heighten the chances that eTwinning practices will influence school policy and be mainstreamed.”
From October 2017, your school will have the opportunity to gain the official title “eTwinning school”!
Why should you apply?
- To give your school a European presence and greater visibility at local, regional and national level;
- To receive recognition for the work done in your school by all staff involved in eTwinning related activities;
- To influence policies: your school will become a model for other schools, and for regional and national authorities
Are you ready?
- Has your school been registered on eTwinning for 2 years?
- Is your Head teacher or someone from school management registered on eTwinning?
- Are at least two teachers registered on eTwinning in your school?
- Have you taken part in at least one European project this year, which has been awarded a National Quality Label?
If you answered yes to all of these questions, you are eligible! If not, you still have a few months to take action, such as applying for a National Quality Label. In October 2017 all schools who meet the above-mentioned criteria will be invited to apply for the title of “eTwinning school”!”
Attending workshops and keynote is one aspect of eTwinning conferences, the other aspects are the many friendships that you build with teachers from the UK and from Europe. I only see some these people once a year and maybe less but yet, when we find each other, we have a lot to talk about. I met some of my eTwinning friends 10 years ago or more
when I started with eTwinning and we are still friends now, chatting on Facebook every day, messaging in the Whatsapp group, exchanging ideas on Twitter or meeting up for a drink or two at eTwinning conferences. I do feel privileged to have met some amazing people during these events and this year again, it was a pleasure to get to know new eTwinners: Naz, Markella, Derek, Nicola, Ruth, Nat, Trish, Faye, Bea, Tracy, Anne Marie, Maria to name only a few, to meet up again with the UK NSS, Karen, Isabelle, Alan, Hugh and Susan as well sharing great moments with other UK eTwinning ambassadors, Drew, George and Balazs.
Thank you eTwinning!
Aurelie Charles 