eTwinning Camp 2010

eTwinning Groups

Four teams involved, students, teachers and organisers running up and down for 2 hours: here is the treasure hunt around the streets of Torremolinos. Don't be shy and ask one of the inhabitants to sing a Sevillana for you: it's the only way to get the second hint to reach the treasure. What's next? Ask a tourist to wear a beautiful flamenco dress in the middle of the street, find 16 pieces hidden in the sand and discover the secret of the puzzle, learn what flags symbols are hidden in Plaza de l'Union Europea. Don't forget to collect at least 3 hotels flyers and run back to Principe Sol. It was a real challenge and...WE ARE THE WINNERS!!!!!

Workshops, touring and finally - dancing! Although the real dancing didn't start till late in the evening, when it did start - it was hopping!

The videos with some of the points of interest marked by the students in the Workshops on the eTwinning Camp 2010.

Project Green Team (Germany and Hungary) - Day 1

Project Red Team (Slovakia) - Day 2 

Project Yellow Team (Spain and Germany) - Day 3 

Yesterday the teachers had an opportunity to use Scratch and discover the learning potential the software offers. I am a firm believer in the contstuctivist learning theory of education and Scratch is based on this pedagogy - learning through creativity and collaboration. You can view the projects at the Scratch website

 Scratch is free to download and there are many support resources for both users and educators.

Some videos.....

Thursday....

And Friday...

Pilar our guide made strolling in Mijas a real experience. It truly is the white village with a lot of magnificent views of mountains and coastlines.

The weather couldn't have been any more perfect for an afternoon stroll in Mijas. We started off with a guided bus tour, then a guided walking tour and then a few hours to discover the "pueblo blanco" (white village) on our own. We're now back at the hotel and relaxing before dinner and the evening programme: the disco!

 After another round of workshops, we're going to take a break and head on an afternoon excursion to the town of Mijas, not far from here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mijas.

Looking forward to it!

For the evening programme of the first day, all participants got together to learn about each other's countries, traditions and schools. Each group got up to present themselves through videos, drawings, PowerPoint presentations and even live singing! It was a really nice evening and great to learn about everyone and where they come from. Well done to everyone for all the preparations - they were excellent!

Let the show begin!

Our group from Spain presented their city and school in Catalonia. Between the coast and the yummy-looking oranges, it looks like an absolutely gorgeous region! 

Our group from Slovakia presented us with a beautiful presentation on their country, region and city through pictures and music. What a gorgeous country! 

One of our teachers from Malta shows us her school and kindergarten pupils. The children were too young to come to the camp so it was really great to be able to see them on the big screen in pictures and videos. And it was cool to learn that Popeye was filmed in Malta!

Our teacher from Hungary gives us a presentation using images and drawings on the history of Hungary as well as some insight into their school which focuses on wood working.

Our second teacher from Hungary tells us all about Budapest in terms of its history and especially its architecture. What an amazing city! And to end, we even got to hear two traditional songs - thanks!

Learning about Berlin and German stereotypes from our participants from our group from the Marcel Breuer school. What were the nicknames for Germans from the north and Germans from the south again? :-)

On behalf of the partners from the project "50 easy things you can do to save the earth" and all the participants at the eTwinning Camp 2010, this presentation is dedicated to the participants from Bulgaria who, unfortunately, were not able to join us in Malaga due to the general strike yesterday. We are all thinking of you and miss having you here!

The  teachers´ day started with a worshop exploring questions of culture and communication, run by Anne Gilleran.

There was a lot of non verbal communication, body language and laughter as they worked at being anthropologists exploring a new culture with some very uncooperative subjects! But all agreed that understanding culture is central to successful eTwinning work.

After a full morning of workshops and hard work (although it was all a lot of fun!) we all headed to the beach for some sports in the sand. It was also a lot of work - but well worth it! The sun was shining and it was a great time!

Potato sack race. Okay, one at a time is fine but try 3-4 in the same one! 

Dig faster!

Desperately trying to fill the bucket with sea water. If only the scoop wasn't full of holes!

Water balloon toss - not as easy at is looks!

After-sports dancing!

Lets take a group picture before starting the sports activities!!! Quite a nice group, isn't it?

It will be a sunny afternoon full of games, friends and a lot of fun!

The first episode of the camp podcast is online. You can find this and all the other upcoming episodes on our podcast website.

The Slovakian students were the first to send multilingual warm greetings to everybody out there - do you recognize the jingle they used? ;-) More episodes by all the other students from the winner projects will follow in the next few days. Stay tuned for more!

If you want to subscribe to the podcast with iTunes, open iTunes and go to "Advanced -> Subscribe to podcast". Enter this URL: http://bit.ly/podcastworkshop and all the upcoming episodes will automatically be downloaded into your iTunes library.

We hope that you enjoy listening to our podcast episodes as much as we enjoyed recording them!

The eTwinning Camp 2010 has officially begun!

In an opening plenary session, Anne Gilleran welcomed all participants on behalf of the eTwinning team. Participants for this year's camp come from the winner projects of this year's eTwinning Prizes 2010 competition (see full list below). Congratulations again to all our winners for their excellent achievements. We hope that you will enjoy the camp here in Spain!

Unfortunately, due to the general strike in Spain yesterday, the teachers and pupils from Bulgaria will not be able to attend the Camp as their flights were cancelled. We are very sorry to hear this and will be thinking about them throughout the event.

WINNER - Age category 4-11

Colours of Life - common story written by children

• Ewa Kurzak, Przedszkole Publiczne nr 5 w Głogowie (PL)
• Miriam Schembri, St. Thomas More College, Fgura Primary A (MT)

WINNER - Age category 12-15

50 easy things you can do to save the Earth

• Florenci Sales Vilalta, IES Sòl-de-Riu (ES)
• Nelly Vicheva, Secondary School of Economics "Georgy S. Rakovsky" (BG)
• Remei Ibáñez Alcocer, IES Sòl-de-Riu (ES)
• Monica Koch, Albert-Einstein-Gymnasium Berlin (DE)
   

WINNER - Age category 16-19

LED - Learning and Teaching Furniture Design in Europe

• Gabriela Bodiková, Stredná odborná škola drevárska (SK)
• Rahel Böhlke, Marcel-Breuer-schule berlin (DE) 

With most of the participants now arrived, we're just getting a few more details sorted so that all is set for tomorrow morning's camp opening!

Anne Gilleran, eTwinning's Pedagogical Manager at the Central Support Service, and Clifford Brown, an ICT in education expert from Ireland, are looking over some online tools after dinner at the Sol Principe Hotel where all the workshops and activities for the camp will take place.

Julian Coultras, an expert in animation from the UK, hard at work getting all his laptops and cameras set up before the Spanish pupils come to learn about and create their own animation projects.

The teachers and students from Slovakia have now arrived. Also, speakers Clifford Brown from Ireland and Sebastian Dorok from Germany are also here.

Welcome everyone!

The Slovakian group our our winners from 16-19 age group category for their project "LED - Learning and Teaching Furniture Design in Europe". They come from Stredná odborná škola drevárska in Liptovský Hrádok, Slovakia.

Clifford Brown will be running workshops on animation using a software called Scratch. Sebastian Dorok will be running workshops on podcasting.

For more information on the workshops, stay tuned!

The eTwinning Camp is now here! The eTwinning team from the Central Support Service is now in Malaga, Spain, and participants are scheduled to arrive very soon! 

After a bumpy road and rescheduling of the eTwinning Camp due to the ash cloud in Europe in April, we are now ready to welcome teachers and pupils from across Europe for 4 days of activities and fun.

Participants will be coming from all over! Pupils and teachers from Malta, Poland, Germany, Spain, Hungary and Slovakia will be greeted by the local staff as well as organisers and speakers from the UK, Ireland, Germany, Malta, Italy, Portugal and Belgium.

Stay tuned for more news coming soon!

Following the unfortunate cancellation of the eTwinning Camp in April due to the volcanic ash cloud, we are very pleased to announce that the eTwinning Camp has been reschedule for 29 September - 3 October.

Same place, same programme - just different time of the year!

We look forward to meeting all participants in September!

The eTwinning Team

We regret to announce that, due to the continued problems resulting from the Volcanic ash, the eTwinning Camp has been cancelled.

The winning teachers and pupils of the eTwinning Prizes 2010 are soon heading to the south of Spain for this year’s eTwinning Camp.

From 21-25 April, over 100 lucky winning teachers and pupils will soon be in Malaga, Spain, for the eTwinning Camp 2010. Bringing together the winners of the three main age category winning projects (4-11 years, 12-15 years and 16-19 years), pupils and teachers will get a chance to meet their partners face-to-face, make new friends and participate in a number of great activities over four days.

Follow them and get all the details on the full programme on this website!

What’s on the menu?

Both teachers and pupils will participate in a number of exciting workshops and cultural events throughout the camp. Activities include workshops, cultural tours, treasure hunts, talent shows and much more! Have a look at the camp’s website to stay up to day as the event unfolds.

Congratulations again to our eTwinning Prizes 2010 winners for the three main age categories! We look forward to welcoming you in Malaga!