The 5th Project Meeting of ETWINET, Erasmus+ project was an event that brought together representative participants from all partner institutions involved in this strategic partnership, from 23 to 27 April 2018.

Preparations for the learning/teaching acitivities held in Lithuania, part of the Erasmus+ project ETWINET, took place from September, 2017 to April, 2018. Lithuanian school made all the arrangements for this meeting, such as booking the hotel, finding host families for students, providing information on how to arrive to the school and the meeting agenda. Participant institutions made travel arrangements: booking the flights, buying the insurance, and preparing all the necessary information for the meeting, delivering the preparatory tasks/ready-made materials necessary for workshops.

The main objectives of this learning/teaching mobility of the ETWINET project was all partners’ meetingthat would  give another chance to work together,  learn from each other, share our experiences by a face to face conversation, use English in a real environment ,  gain a European dimension,   handle the technological challenges and bring previous study experiences of 21st centrury digital competences with 2.0 tools.

Each partner school has done the preparation for the workshops – made the questionnaires, studied about ecological problems and found out the environmental solutions .

Day 1: Monday

The first day was organised in the form of getting acquainted and working session combined with team building activities.

The meeting started with the official opening concert prepared by school students and the headmistress, the representative of the member of Lithuanian Parliament Virginija Steponavičienė, the member of the Anti-Corruption Committee of Mažeikiai Lina Rimkienė, the Vice Mayor of Mažeikiai council Irena Macijauskienė, the Head of Educational Departure of Mažeikiai Apolinaras Stonkus, the senior inspector of Educational Department od Mažeikiai Daiva Radzienė, the Priest at St. Pranciškus Asyžiečius church Klemensas Jaraminas gave a welcome speech.

At the end of the concert there was a coffee break with traditional treats from each country.

Then all partners presented their schools and countries for the school community and all visitors. They also exchanged presents.

The ceremony was finished by the workshop “English-Lithuanian basic vocabulary” led my students. After that all partners were divided into smaller groups and had a guided by students tour around school which was accomplished by watching videos about our school and town in the school auditorium.

In the afternoon, students had the rehearsal of the play „Hope for Europe“ and the beginning, linking and ending parts of the play were filmed. After that there was a guided by English teachers tour around Mažeikiai.

Day 2: Tuesday

In the morning session students participated in the workshop: “Coding. Code.org”. In the Coding workshop students were taught how to use Code.org, they got acquainted with the structure of the programming and did 20 coding steps to make the object move and every participant received the Certificate.

At the same time the project coordinators had a work meeting to discuss the planned activities, sign documentations and make necessary decisions. The scenes of the play filmed in each partner country before the meeting and the beginning, linking and ending scenes filmed in Lithuania on the first day of the meeting were introduced  and we discussed how to mount them in one video-play. The final version was to be made in Italy and sent to all partners using wetransfer.com. All partners stated the dates and agreed about the completion of project websites, eTwinning-TwinSpace with all detail, photos and other material about project activities and about the last transnational meeting in Turkey that was set for the beginning of June, from the 4th to 5th – two working days.

All other participants had a scratching workshop/or a making fractals workshop that were led by our school students. Teachers could choose which of two to participate in.  Both workshops presented the modern art methods that are becoming popular in Lithuania as a type of relaxation activities developing creativity.

Another workshop was “Making a short Scratch story” led by the Italian partner. Students learnt the basic steps in SCRATCH programming. The first knowledge about this program participants gained in Italy. In Lithuania, we continued learning how to choose or create and resize the Sprite, change the background, how to use motion blocks, control and presentation mode. To finalize this activity ready-made by partners SCRATCH stories that were uploaded on EDMODO platform were presented to all participants.

After workshops, there was a trip to Šiauliai to give the partners a sample of culture and history by visiting the Hill of Crosses as a unique place revealing the spirit of Lithuanian people, and historical, most modern and beautiful places in Šiauliai. We visited the library of university of Šiauliai and saw the only book in Lithuania „Aukuras Salduvei“ that contains the articles in three Baltic languages: Lithuanian, Latvian and Prussian, in Šiauliai partners could also visit the Iron Fox, see the Golden Angel and know interesting cultural and architectural facts about those objects.

Day 3. Wednesday  

This day contained three IT-related workshops: “Making an application “I do my first ETWINET App”; “The use of different web 2.0 tools, such as Canva, Calameo or Joomag etc.” that may be helpful for designing the ETWINET ebook; the workshop led by Turkish partners “Robotics”, which logically continued the Latvian workshop about robotics , and the workshops related to Lithuanian traditions and art “Making a traditional Lithuanian wooden doll” workshop and a craft workshop “The Tree of Life.

“Making an application “I do my first ETWINET App”. During this workshop, students created their first application about healthy/unhealthy life styles using the material that was previously stored on computers and tablets and their own ideas because they have already been prepared for this task at their schools: https://studio.code.org/projects/applab/kPLXagEuvGlxdGx7wvEgwF9pCZIkl5VHyEJsxtIY4eA

“The use of different web 2.0 tools, such as Canva, Calameo or Joomag etc.” During the second workshop partners were taught to use different 2.0 web tools such as Canva, Calameo and Joormag. Those tools can be used for creating certificates, leaflets, brochures, books etc. Partners started learning the use of some of these tools at their schools while making posters, leaflets about project activities, students used Calameo and Joormag to present their projects about endangered animals or ecology. In Lithuania, Canva as a great tool for making different types of digital documents was presented and Joormag and Calameo were also introduced.

“Robotics”. Turkish partners brought their robots to Lithuania and all partners could do some robotics – programmed some steps for making robots move and do some practise with them.

“Making a traditional Lithuanian wooden doll”. “The Tree of Life.

 These two workshops were arranged for partners to take a breath of Lithuanian history, art  and culture. Partners with the help of Lithuanian students made a wooden doll that was a traditional Lithuanian toy in the past. They also painted the frames with Lithuanian patterns and the teacher told about the metaphor and symbols of the Tree of Life in Lithuanian art and culture. Partners were introduced the examples of the Tree of Life in teachers’ paper cutting artworks.  The dolls and frames made by partners they could take home as souvenirs.  

After working part of the day all participants including students and teachers from Lithuania had a trip to the Cold War Museum in Plateliai to touch the Lithuanian history of those times when it was the part of the Soviet Union.

Day 4. Thursday  

This day was free of workshops and activities at school because in the morning there was the meeting with authorities of Mažeikiai. All partners visited the Hall of Town and met with the town and educational department authorities. Our town was presented in a video about Mažeikiai . The Vice Mayer  told about economy, about partnerships that are developed with many countries and about Erasmus projects implemented in most schools of  Mažeikiai. The head of educational department told about schools functioning in Mažeikiai district and the great rates achieved by local institutions according to the standard exam results.

After this meeting, all participants went on excursion to Klaipeda and visited the Dolphinarium  with the exciting dolphin show and the newly-renovated Sea Museum where the marine life is on display. This trip added some nuisance to the taste of Lithuanian culture and specific marine atmosphere at one of the Baltic regions broadening the Baltic cultural experience gained in Latvia.

Day 5. Friday

The last day of the meeting started with the workshop “EntrepreneursTWINET”. Students were divided into national groups. They could discuss the information presented in ETWINET digital book about economy, unemployment and employment levels in their countries and used in the book and leaflets with some statistics collected by students at their home country. Then each team presented these facts and leaflets, made the conclusion about the economy in their countries. While students were preparing for this visit at their home, they made projects and also learnt specific economy terms, such as economy, employment, unemployment, a joint-stock company, a closed corporation, the bond market, etc. in their native languages. To measure the impact of project activities, students were offered to do the quiz about economy terms in English that required both knowledge of English and understanding some basic economy: https://quizizz.com/admin/quiz/5ad1e10300e91d001930d1d0. The results  showed good level of students preparation and proved the effectiveness of previous project activities.

After debate about economy, partners had the workshop “Creation of the "ETWINET" book” that supposed the discussion about the layout and design of the book „ETWINET“ , edition of the digital version, making a conclusion about European crisis.

To finalize the meeting,  all partners were invited to a closing ceremony.  All representatives gave a speech of evaluation of all activities during the week, we made the agreement with Italian and Latvian partners about continuing further fruitful partnerships beyond the project.

 After that all participants have received the Europasses and/or certificates of attendance.  Students arranged the farewell event with games and dances.

 

Next meeting:

 

Transnational meeting in Turkey in June 2018.

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