Teacher's Newsletter No. 118
 
Dear Colleagues,
Welcome to the new edition of our teacher's newsletter. It has a new look, a new concept and a new editor, but the idea and the aim stay the same. It is written from a teacher for teachers to give you help and support to identify good ideas and projects to brighten up your daily pedagogical life at school. We hope you will like it!
  • eTwinning Conference 2007
  • Xplora launches portal usability survey
  • Hands-on & Brains-on
  • Educnet publishes ICT in school videos
  • Why do teachers use a learning resources portal?
  • Safer Internet Day (SID)
  • Energy is our Future - School Competition
  • Celebrating Europe
  • Amadou and Mathias - Vote for their looks
  • The E-Learning For Kids Foundation
  • Virtual Tourism
  • Welcome Bulgaria and Romania!
  • German Presidency
  • Aktion Europa
  • This is European Schoolnet
  •  Subscriber services
  • eTwinning Science Education

    eTwinning Conference 2007

    From 23-25 February 2007, participants from across Europe will come together in Brussels to award this year’s European prize winners and discuss the future of eTwinning.

    From nearly 350 submissions for the eTwinning Prizes 2007, six project winners (three winners and three runners-up) will receive their awards during the prize-giving ceremony. Winning projects will be awarded with a four-day ICT camp at the end of April (venue to be confirmed) for teachers and students to meet their project partners face to face, learn more about online collaborative projects and spend time with other students from across Europe. Runners-up will be invited to participate in one of the European networking and development workshops taking place until June 2007.

    The 2007 prize finalists will be announced on the eTwinning Portal on 7 February 2007.


    Read more

    Xplora launches portal usability survey

    Following the revamping of the Xplora portal in September 2006, the number of visitors to the Xplora portal has been increasing. To continue improving the website, the Xplora team is launching a survey to give a chance to the portal visitors to give feedback and comment on the new layout and features of Xplora.

    Read more and complete the survey:

     Hands-on & Brains-on

    The multidisciplinary contents of modern science centre exhibitions are large and unique forming a reliable learning source. In the Hands-On & Brains-On project, a network of eight institutions (science centres and museums) is now developing educational programmes for primary schools in co-operation with school authorities, teacher education institutes and schools.
    Science teachers of primary schools are invited to participate in the project and contribute to its validation.

    Read more 
     

    Innovation International Projects and Collaboration

    Educnet publishes ICT in school videos

    Educnet, the education portal of the French Ministry of Education, has released 17 videos (in French), available for direct streaming, showcasing how ICT can be effectively used in classroom environments.

    Read more

    WHY do teachers use a learning resources portal?

    Many national and regional portals offer resources for teachers (see the report).

    In order to better serve the needs that teachers have, the developers of these portals need to know more about the reason why teachers go to those portals and what kind of resources they are looking for!

    If you are a primary or secondary teacher (only!), please answer to this one question "Digital learning resources: what do I mostly look for?" and  help us to make better services to teachers and learners in Europe.

    Link: "Digital learning resources: what do I mostly look for?"

     

    Safer Internet Day (SID)

    The fourth edition of Safer Internet Day (SID) will be celebrated on 6 February 2007. More than 200 schools and 150 organisations are taking part in the event via a global ‘blogathon’ and competition for creating digital materials on ePrivacy, Netiquette, Innovation and the Power of Images. Schools can win valuable prizes for their work

    Read more 

    Energy is our Future: School competition

    European Schoolnet invites students ages 11-18 to take part in the “Energy is our Future” poster and slogan competition. Competition entries should represent individual student’s views on energy saving and renewable energy solutions.

    Read more

     

     Celebrating Europe            

    50 years together - this is a  ong time and the EU has many reasons to celebrate it. The Treaties of Rome that iwere signed  half a century ago nitiated the EU.  Since then Europe has changed a lot  If you want to know more about the history of the EU or tosee what is going on in Europe please go here:

    Read more 

    Amadou and Mathias - Vote for their looks

    In order to raise awareness of major environmental and health issues in Africa, European Commission’s DG Development is building an Internet game for children aged from 12 to 15 : the two characters, Amadou and Mathias, will be taken in a virtual journey across the continent. Do you want to have your say on their looks? Vote for your preferred style between three different propositions.

    Go to www.mathiasandamadou-thegame.eu

    The e-Learning For Kids Foundation

    The Foundation provides free online learning for children between 5-12 in math, science, language arts, computer skills and health & life skills. They also provide courseware on CD-ROM, free, to schools/Orphanages without access to the Internet.

    They launched 85+ courses and have established  partnerships/sponsors with 35+ organizations including: IBM, Convergys, General Motors, Deloitte, Harvard Business School Publishing, and Skillsoft, among others.

    Read more

    Virtual Tourism

    Polina Koleskina is a teacher in Moscow, Russia and invites secondary pupils at the age of 12-16 to exchange various information about their countries. in English and/or Russian.  The results shall be presented in different ways. The overall outcome after one year shall be a virtual museum of countries in Europe - created by the participants of the project: 

    Contact: pkoleskina@mesi.ru 
    poli-koleskina@yandex.ru

    Country focus

    Welcome Bulgaria and Romania!

            

    On 1 January 2007 Bulgaria and Romania joined the European family. The event is an important step towards peace, democracy, stability and prosperity in Europe. With Irish, Bulgarian and Romanian the EU language family will grow from 20 to 23.

    Discover the new EU languages by visiting our learning objects repository:

    A Blue Ribbon Connecting East and West
    English
    German

    Bulgaria in a cross-click
    Discover Romania through Eminescu

    German Presidency                   

    From 1 January 2007 the Council of the European Union is under German chairmanship for half a year. Many activities have been prepared and you find a lot of information about the country, its national and international policy together with more interesting information on the official website of the German presidency.

    Read more (available in English, French and German)

    "Aktion Europa"               

     In cooperation with the Representation of the "European Commission in Germany" and of the "German Information Office of the European Parliament" the Federal Government has created the initiative "aktion europa". The aim is an extensive dialogue on European political issues with citizens, associations and political parties.

    Read more (available in English, French and German)

    European Schoolnet

    This is European Schoolnet

    European Schoolnet (EUN) is a unique not-for-profit consortium of 28 ministries of education in Europe created in 1997. EUN provides major European education portals for teaching, learning and collaboration and leads the way in bringing about change in schooling through the use of new technology. 

    Newsletter services

    Contribute to the EUN teachers newsletter and send a mail to the editor Sylvia Binger: sylvia.binger@eun.org

    Subscribe/unsubscribe: write to
    mailto:Teachers-letter-en-request@listserv.eun.org with "subscribe" or "unsubscribe" in the subject
    .

    European Schoolnet News archive can be accessed here:
    » Archive link