2.4 Finding collaboration partners outside the classroom by Teacher Academy

Margherita

2017-10-23 14:30:18 UTC

In my School there are many activities with Local organizations, for example Church, Policy, public authority, social assistants, politic men ... it is very useful for the students. We also organize exchange with foreign school trought politic auctority.

carolinapaglia — 2017-10-23 14:34:30 UTC

Carolina
In your community there are many religious ,social and sport organizations.
I' m thinking about involving one of them

Alina Buduleanu, Romania

alinabuduleanu — 2017-10-23 15:03:33 UTC

This year, my students and I will collaborate with a local cultural organisation where children will learn to make of clay traditional objects: plates, cups, vases. Students will sell their products and use money to go on a trip.

Ana Adriana Conea, Romania

2017-10-23 15:34:04 UTC

Last year, our students painted the wall (2nd floor). It was a good opportunity to colaborate (different classes) and to create something new and beautiful.

Antonella Miccio, Italy

antonellamiccio — 2017-10-23 15:34:47 UTC

The most successful organizations that can collaborate with the students in my area are sports organizations. Nearly all of my male students practice football while female ones prefer dancing or rhythmic gymnastic. I think it is a good idea to practice sport at least twice a week and in our school there are projects about football, volleyball, roller skating. The last one supported by our school is a project for girls about cheerleaders. It goes without saying that it is a success!!!!

Valbona ,Albania

valbona_mata2 — 2017-10-23 16:01:44 UTC

a support for the school in my country are the parents.

nobody else

Enrique Rodríguez, Spain

ecastro3 — 2017-10-23 16:06:56 UTC

I teach ESL, so if I could bring a footballer who is an English native speaker, it would be great. I have also brought a musician to sing and play guitar in English, and it was great.On another occasion I invited a student´s dad to give us a talk about 3D printing. At my school we are in touch with organizations around the school, but the fact that I teach ESL makes it a little bit more difficult.

Maria Rosaria Tafuro, Italy

tafymar — 2017-10-23 16:07:37 UTC

Since my school is specialized in music, in my school there are several music organizations to help students make musical entertainment and different concerts.

Aurora,Italy

2017-10-23 16:13:43 UTC

In my community there are many sports organizations. I think I would like to try to involve them

Cristina Consonni, Ital

2017-10-23 16:13:52 UTC

In our classes each year comes a small group of high school boys with their teacher to get us financial math lessons

Finding collaboration . Athina Paroussi , Greece

mara_lina23 — 2017-10-23 17:52:56 UTC

The most easy for the age of my pupils , are the parents , luckily for my classroom the parents are volunteers for any project we wish to make at school

Thomas Boulieris

thomasboulieris — 2017-10-23 18:33:30 UTC

Teaching english is basically a process of teaching culture, so language applies on numerous cross-thematic activities! As such there are some teacher nets and platforms that can really help towards this! In my teaching I usually collaborate with teachrs of the Teachers for Europe net here in Greece (T4E) as well as the online eTwinning projects.

Laura Buján, Spain

lmbujan_scac — 2017-10-23 19:01:29 UTC

I teach EFL and any project we develop should be English, which limits our audience resources regarding the Spanish context. I got American and British friends but they're not involved in any particular activity on which students could do a project. There're plenty sports organisations, choirs and local singers/bands but they couldn't help with English. Because of this, I think our best choice would be to work with another school but kids wouldn't be really motivated to use English so I don't think it'll be successful. Maybe finding a way for my friends to help with the class is the best option.

Ritva Metso, Finland

5citizen16 — 2017-10-23 19:13:09 UTC

In my pupils' eTwinning project called 100 Good Deeds

we can work together with a near by old people's home and morning nursery and the younger pupils in our school. The is also a very interesting Start Up company which deals with the same kind of questions as my pupils in their project. We could find ways to collaborate. Actually, I have already talked to the founder of this company.

Cristian Carotenuto Rome Italy

cristian_cris — 2017-10-23 19:15:32 UTC

I have always heard of eTwinning projects but never joined any. In Italy we have something called "Alternanza Scuola Lavoro" (School-Work Experience) which necessarily involves some bodies outside the school but the problem is English as there may not be bodies enough specializing in English though we search often for universities or colleges we may rely upon. Voluntary associations are a resource too but not for English. For technical and vocational education this works out more easily. I think I'll explore a bit more in depth what eTwinning is and how students can benefit from it

ANNA CANTACESSI, ITALY

anna_cantacessi73 — 2017-10-23 20:11:50 UTC

I have a personal account on eTwinning. Once I got in touch with a French teacher and we got our students to get to know by writing cards. The topic was 'Christmas'. Last year I also met a Turkish teacher in a facebook group run by an Australian teacher, and we got our students in touch and they started to send letters. Some of them also started to text on social networking sites. They were very excited and wanted me to correct their letters because they didn't want mistakes in their letters. They also were more motivated in checking new words on the dictionary because they started to gain awareness of the importance of the English language as a means of communication. Unfortunately it's not possible for my middle school to engage students with professionals speaking English. There are some organizations whose members are English teachers that go to schools and spend some days with students by doing CLIL activities or drama and lots of other things but you have to pay for that and our students' families can't afford extra expenses.

Carla Diogo, Portugal

carladiogo31 — 2017-10-23 20:38:33 UTC

PARTNERS OUTSIDE SCHOOL
In my school the partners we have are the companies where our students do their trainings. As I am teaching professional courses sometimes we have companies that ask students to develop projects to them which is great, but that usually involves the technical subjects and not mine that is English. I take part on it but most of the times is for the translation. But what I really want to do is a PBL in my subject involving my contents, my skills, my grammar...

Stefania Altieri/Italy

stefaniaaltieri73 — 2017-10-23 21:44:32 UTC

Eva Toth, Hungary

2017-10-24 05:06:00 UTC

eTwinning is a real treasure for teachers. I have been a ember for 5 years, have done more than 6 projects. I tend to turn back to the same colleagues with whom we have been partners and we know we can rely on each other. It is much more than just being international colleagues, it is friendship already!

Elizabeth Brugger Pagès, France

elizabethpages — 2017-10-24 08:11:14 UTC

Architects could be beneficial in my classroom. They could share how they use things like measurement, angles, shapes, etc. in their profession and also help students improve their own designs. I have students working on a scale house drawing currently and having students present their ongoing work could get them motivated and help them gain tips to improve.

Silvia Davolio Marani, Italy

silvia_davoliomarani — 2017-10-24 09:07:33 UTC

My school has contacts with the local sports organizations: they collaborate on a regular basis and do special activities that students like a lot (archery, rugby, orienteering...).

My science colleagues usually collaborate with the local blood donor organization: every year students go to their premises to find out what they do there and how important their work is.

As an English teacher I sometimes call some alumni into my classroom to speak about relevant experiences they have made, such as cultural and linguistic exchanges. A couple of years ago came a student who had been in Australia for a semester and it was really interesting.

Isabel, Portugal

isabelhumanities — 2017-10-24 09:11:36 UTC

My school has deep connections with the City Hall, with Educational Non-Profitable Institutions and over the years and over the year there are projects going on which establish communication with Universities, local shops, health care professionals, food banks, theatres, cinema facilities,etc. It's a school opened to the community and the satff are very active.

Vanesa

2017-10-24 09:35:32 UTC

My school is the only primary school in town so we have a great connection with our town's leaders and we collaborate a lot. We also have a close relationship with sports organizations in our town. We participate in lot of projects.

Nataša, Berlin

NatasaHerweg — 2017-10-24 09:41:48 UTC

In our local community there is a cultural society, a sports club, a church in which there is a choir. I think that their engagement strengthens the ties between individuals. The school is always viewed as a place for children, and children are not thought of as future members of all these organizations. It is rarely thought that anyone can be part of the learning process.

Maria

m_velcheva — 2017-10-24 11:23:05 UTC

Mariya Velcheva, Bulgaria

m_velcheva — 2017-10-24 11:25:05 UTC

In our school we invite different people teach the students. For example in June older students had meeting with a famous bulgarian journalist and lawyer. Younger students had a meeting with the local motocycle club

Ana Cotovio, Portugal

lc_anapaula — 2017-10-24 11:33:03 UTC

My school has connection with the City Hall, municipal library, health center, writers, actors and parents.

Melanie Laroche, France

2017-10-24 13:07:40 UTC

In our school, we sometimes invite different people (art or business presentation),and we also have a career day. The students love the presentation from experts but we never had them properly teach our students. I do think it is an excellent idea. As a biology teacher, I could invite a doctor to explain Human physiology for example. Around us ,there are a lot of researchers ( in pharmacy, medicine, marine biology...) I really like the idea of "using" expects as judges!

Claudia, Itlay

2017-10-24 14:18:47 UTC

In our school we have mothertongue teachers for languages. One hour a week per class they tell students lots of information about the culture of their country (geography, politics, music, films and so on).
To find partners for German outside the classroom in town is not so easy but we also organize one or two student exchanges per class in which students have to use the language they study.
I didn't try eTwinning yet, but I think it's very interesting.

Carmela, Italo

carmelacastronovo1 — 2017-10-24 15:26:37 UTC

Every year some classes of our school take parte in a Christmas market, we sell children's work out of school, the money earned will be used for beneficial purposes. Children build various objects at school with the help of the teachers. It's always a mise esperienze.

Adriana Popa Romania

adriana_popa72 — 2017-10-24 15:37:28 UTC

Hi, I'm Adriana in Romania. Our school has a very good collaboration with the city hall, the police and the medical offices in the locality. We still have partnerships with 2 theater troupes for children, troupes that perform in school on different occasions. We have a partnership with the ASTRA Sibiu Museum. The school is involved in 2 ERASMUS + projects, one for primary ARS LONGA that aims to integrate the arts into teaching knowledge and one on the CLEVER prescoplar level that aims to use English in educational activity in kindergarten.

Alfredo, Porto, Portugal

2017-10-24 15:51:13 UTC

Every year, at Christmas or Easter, almost every classes organizes a market for charitable purposes. The community participates and it's always a success. In addition, once a year, in the classes of students between 6 and 15 years old, some parents go to school and explain to the class their job and their professional functions.

Maria Branco, Portugal

mcb51 — 2017-10-24 16:00:09 UTC

I've never used e-twinning but it's a good idea to explore. Another way to find partners is to invite alumni who are studying at the Universities the subjects that we are teaching. Asking them to come to their old school to share experiences and talk about a topic in order to motivate younger colleagues seems to be interesting. It will also be interesting to invite parents or family members who practice professions related to the subjects we are teaching. It will be more difficult to get people who are experts in the areas of study ... but it never hurts to try!

Patricia (Spain)

lopezescuriola — 2017-10-24 17:34:11 UTC

Hello, I' ve never used e-twinning with my students but I think it is a good idea to work with real project while students meet people from other countries.
Besides, I find really interesting that people of the community go to school to participate in the different projects, to advise the students and give them their points of view an ideas.
At my school parents and different organizations could participate in order to provide the students with real experiences.

Azize Ozcan(Turkey)

shiningforthelife — 2017-10-24 17:47:03 UTC

My school is the high school of a university ,which is a plus for us.Because we always collaborate with the teachers and students there.Also,we have social responsibility activities that the students need to fulfill.We have a friend-school that we collaborate.We sometimes help this school,too.Last year our students painted the walls of this school.We also come together with the parents and organize some events for our students.We also have a career day.Plus, we sometimes invite famous people who are experts in their jobs and hold conversation events with them.I have never used e-twinning before.I have been member of it.But I have not found any appropriate project till now.I hope I can find in the following weeks.

Rosa Risueño, Spain

2017-10-24 19:58:55 UTC

I have never participated in a etwinning project, but I think it’s an enriching experience for both students and teacher. Inviting an external professional can be very interesting to show the students the connection between the teachings and the real world.

VENERA CAMPISI ITALY

campisialessia — 2017-10-24 20:06:28 UTC

About e-twinning I have never used this method of work. In my opinion This strategy of learning is cheering and stimulant for students and teachers. I hope to use this approach soon.This course has got me curious.

MARIA, TOLEDO, SPAIN

mariadelcasar — 2017-10-24 20:14:30 UTC

Normally, there are many organisations which can be engaged with our school community, for instance, the local or regional governments, police officers or doctors from the same town. In other cases, some parents are owners or different businesses or companies which can be engaged with our school or help us to do different projects together. If we are interested in finding some community partners, children could look for them within their environments: family, friends, neighbours...

Sanja, Spain

2017-10-24 21:08:46 UTC

At Sant Mateu Secundary School the police, the town council and some NGOs are engaged with the school. But these collaboration is more of a general propose. They do not participate in more focused projects.

In my subject I like linking the product with a real need in the school.

For example, the last school year 16 year old students implemented a part of the application to manage students book borrowing.

Sadly, I have not gone out yet. This year, I want to give computer mock-ups that will be made by 12- 13 years old students to primary schools of the zone. In addition to this, I want my students of 17 years old build a webpage for some SMEs (Small and Medium Enterprises) of surroundings.

Sant Mateu is a little town in a low population area, so it is difficult to bring in specialized professionals in ICT.

Snežana, Serbia

zanahajlovic — 2017-10-24 22:06:08 UTC

My students and I work on 6 projects at eTwinning and I can say that is excellent and my students like it.

Manolo García, Spain

2017-10-24 23:50:14 UTC

My secondary school is in a small-medium village. There is some ICT companies we can contact to have some type of collaboration to talk about networks, social media, video edition, graphical design or programming.

Benilde, Portugal

benildesilva — 2017-10-25 00:52:41 UTC

ETwinning seams a really interesting way to find collaboration partners and use PBL. I intend to participate in a project soon. I’ve already registered.

In my school, parents engage very often in various activities during the school year. And we can also invite professionals of health centers, sports organizations, cultural organizations, etc. to collaborate with us.

Effectively, getting professionals from the "real-world" to come and work with the students creates an entirely new meaning for their work.

Vesna Stankovic, Serbia

2017-10-25 06:01:19 UTC

There are neighbours, institutions and organizations that can be reached for help as well as other people from school and outside of it.

Diana Oliveira, Portugal

2017-10-25 09:08:42 UTC

To develop Collaborative Future Classroom Scenarios, we have to thinking about how education will change in the coming years, and what teachers and education as a whole will need to adapt to. We do this by involving a number of experts who we call stakeholders. These include a varied collection of individuals who have very different perspectives on the challenges and opportunities ahead.

The stakeholders include teachers and school leaders, and experts in ICT such as ICT technicians and technology providers. Together these people form a Core Group of stakeholders. Each member of this core group should also consult with other individuals who have different ideas about what changes are likely to happen in the near future. These Wider Community Stakeholders include other teachers, students, members of the ICT industry and possibly governors or parents, and local or national policy-makers.

The ideas these stakeholders provide are called trends. These trends are changes in society and technology that learning and teaching can take advantage of or adapt to. Good examples of this are the increase in student owned personal devices such as smart phones or tablets, but may also include social changes such as national policy initiatives.

http://fcl.eun.org/toolset1

Laura R., spain

2017-10-25 10:12:03 UTC

Working In pre-primary education, our main collaboration outside the classroom are the families and some expert in the subject that can help us

Esther (France)

2017-10-25 10:43:19 UTC

My classroom has in the past invited artist parents to speak and/or demonstrate their trade. Being an art teacher, the type of art and art skills you can expose your students to are limitless. Bringing in other artist not only exposes the students to different styles, but can help them see how art can be used as a real life career!

Alyssia Vendas, Portugal

2017-10-25 11:33:17 UTC

What we usually do in kindergarten is have some parents or family members come in and share their experiences with the rest of the group. In this year’s precise case since our theme is “The Museum” we had a museoligist who works at “Museus dos Coches”, come into the classroom and explain to us what a museum was, and what were collectable items.

This helped the children have a new idea of how many museums might exist and what we can find in museums.

Also, there are quite a few museums close to our school, so we could always try to make contact to visit different museums and learn new things.

Stanley,Nigeria

2017-10-25 11:58:03 UTC

For certain aspect of our class project we work with atrtisans and parents who specialize in those areas.Incraft for instance an expert from the locality is engaged to direct the students on certain skills to produce a hand made shopping bag.

Lena, Germany

2017-10-25 12:56:35 UTC

As I work in a vocational school, all classes already have subjects that focus on special out of class and professional areas such as engeneering or business. A lot of our teachers have worked outside of school in another job before. Hence, I consider them as experts and specialists. Furthermore, our students have to do practical trainings (for example there are classes that are in school for two days a week and work in different companies three days a week). However, as I teach in the area of general education, my subjects being math, English and German, my lessons most of the time lack expertise. For me it would be best if I could cooperate more with my collegues in the sense of interdisciplinary teaching maybe. But as to now, our time schedule and curriculum leaves no room for this.

Anne-Laure, France

almhwalker — 2017-10-25 15:24:53 UTC

In our school, we have established contacts with several parents who have taken part in our career day. We have a wide panel of professionals who are ready to interact with our students. Furthermore, our school is located in a technopole, hence we have a huge variety of companies on our doorstep: architects, lawyers, advertising, information technology, medical sciences, research, restaurants and many more. We would have to contact them in order to see which ones could engage with the school using English as a language of communication (we are an international school situated in France)..

Magdalena Pérez, Spain

mariamagdalen_perez — 2017-10-25 16:34:21 UTC

My school usually counts on different organizations that come to visit us like the police, firefighters, people working in the city council. Sometimes their talk is related with the contents we are working at that moment but some other times they are not. They usually come when they have availability.

Parents get engaged on a regular basis giving students talks about some topics but it is hard sometimes volunteers to do it.

As an English teacher and teaching young students, I think that it could be a good idea to keep in contact with native people in order to come to our school and tell children about their customs and traditions.

ETwinning is another interesting tool to keep in contact with people all around Europe. I am starting to use it and I am trying to find partners to work with in some projects since I think this would engage my students a lot and would see the usefulness of learning foreign languages.

Ana Marques, Portugal

anabmarkes — 2017-10-25 17:10:05 UTC

At my school we have several partnerships with the community: firefighters,
City Hall, natural reserve, etc.
Despite that, as a philosophy teacher, I don’t know how to link community to the aims of the subject’s programme.

Antonio, Spain

acoloma2 — 2017-10-25 17:27:01 UTC

Regarding collaboration partners, my school has several environment partnerships that come to the school with some exhibition about flora and fauna around the province we live.

I am also thinking about a drone project and maybe I could talk to someone expert in cuadcopters that could hook the students (but the topic is really hooking for them :)

Marina Duarte, Spain

marinad_english — 2017-10-25 18:17:32 UTC

Schools where I have worked usually collaborate with firefighters and nurses who give talks on certain topics. Students also attend talks and activities outside the school, which are always welcomed.
As a teacher of ESL, I try to look for activities to do outside the school (going to the cinema or the theater, visiting the airport or relevant places in the city with a British background....). I have also thought about contacting native people to visit the groups and have some kind of exchange but it is not always as easy as it may seem. We need special permissions from the authorities and a project must be done, so that those people come with a purpose.
I collaborated with a British school once on an exchange programme. Students loved it. They loved meeting their peers and living with them for a few days.

Ana, Zaragoza, Spain

deptecinfo — 2017-10-25 18:58:39 UTC

Precisely, tomorrow I am going to have in my class a friend of mine that works as an engineer in a big company.
We have been studying about technology, projects, and technological process, and I want my students to contrast this information with real life. Moreover, he is going to listen and talk to them in English because they are part of a CLIL project in English, and I think it can motivate them to use and improve their English.

Dragana, Croatia

dpavicicst — 2017-10-25 19:33:40 UTC

We use a lot of partners outside the classroom. Whether it's a vsit to museum, art galery to visit from a scientist to school who give leactures or organize a workshop. we also collaborate with non- profit organizations.

Aneela junaid

nilujunaid — 2017-10-26 06:33:15 UTC

We organise career talk every month we contact professionals from different fields to visit and share their journey to become that particular professional. For example we call geo physict ,doctors, engineers, teachers and many others.They discuss their journey that how they achieve their goals and what to learn and which qualification they needed to beome particular professional. For example if a geo physict do career talk he will clear to the students that how and what to learn to become geo physict.

Fátima , Portugal

fatimasilva1407 — 2017-10-26 10:09:58 UTC

In my school finding colllaboration from partners of the local community is an usual practice. In many occasions people are invited to come to school and enrich activities: parents, organizations, professionals, and lately we organize a meeting with old students who are still at the job market to come to school to share their memories and motivate students to work hard and be successful. It is also common to take our students out of school and share their projects with the community. The local library is often used to show students works to the population. Students develop a project with the local senior residence to promote links with the older generations.

Francesca, Italy

francesca_borghi — 2017-10-26 10:32:23 UTC

In my school there are not many occasions to collaborate with partners outside schools (parents, professionals, organisations and so on). I found the second video interesting and full of ideas I would like to share with my collegues to improve and start a real collaboration with the local community.

Emma Abbate from Italy

emmaabb — 2017-10-26 12:14:18 UTC

A good project for students to work in a colaborative way for PBL searching for partners outside the school , could be the initiative "Adopt a monument in your city": students have to plan a campaign to save a monument, art masterpiece that is decaying. They can organize an exhibition on this monument in the school to collect funds to save it. They can ask newspaper to participate and also asking for economic support to art mentorship clubs (mecenati)

Patrícia from Portugal - Visual Education

patriciatame — 2017-10-26 14:49:19 UTC

In the Visual Education subject, kids of 5th grade are supposed to be learning about different materials to use (surfaces and graphic materials), as well as concepts on geometry (point, line, surface...)

It would be very interesting to bring a professional from the field of conservation and restoration.

Bringing them to class and engaging with the kids, inserting the explaination on how there are gaps in the paintings that are points, others that are surfaces, this will help them understand the concepts based on a dynamic and interesting subject - conservation and restoration of paintings.

Snjezana Kovacevic, Croatia

knjiznica_zlata — 2017-10-26 16:18:51 UTC

Local community, parents, associations, other schools, colleagues teachers, companies, simmilar institutions...

Ana Cristina, Spain, I usually visit with my students the MUSAC (Contemporany Art of Catilla Y león Museum) and some times, painters, sculpters or diferent artists visit us in the school

2017-10-26 16:53:10 UTC

ONG, police, firefighter and different people colaborate with explaining in the school their work or even we go to visit them in their work

Angelica Pavone, Italy

angy_prof2012 — 2017-10-26 16:54:58 UTC

In my school the collaboration from partners of the local community is an usual practice. In many occasions people are invited to come to school and join in different activities: parents, cultural or social organizations, professionals.

Often we organize meetings with professionals from different fields to share their experiences and explain how to became very important professionals . For example we called doctors, engineers, university teachers to discuss about the studies, the qualifications and the opportunity the students need in order to achieve their goals. The activities I like the most are the meetings with very important authors such as poets or novelists or journalists who talk with students about their books: in these occasions the students read the books, organize exhibition create presentation and do interviews.

Since some years we join in a theatre festival with an local organization: students from all Italy come to our town to show their exhibition: it is very exciting.

In addition in the high schools in Italy there is an activity called "Alternanza Scuola Lavoro" (School-Work Experience) which necessarily involves some organizations outside the school . These organizations gives to the students the opportunity to work for several hours and know directly the work world.

Alicia Delgado, Spain

aldebri — 2017-10-26 17:04:12 UTC

We are in touch with Philip Morrant School from Colchester and we are planning to share some video activities about British Sign Language and Spanish Sign Language, something basic such as the dactile alphabet.

Anna Maria Nardo, Italy

2017-10-26 17:23:02 UTC

I teach in a vocational secondary school and my students study Cooking, Hospitality, Service and Pastry. My school has a lot of opportunities to organize some events, such as caterers with networks of local professionals. These events occur every year and represent the possibility to make visible students' skills. They have to plan their activities and organize, with the supervision of teachers, all the phases of the event. One of these is at Sant Valentine's Day in a village where my school partecipate with a stand. Teachers and students plan, organize, prepare and serve some typical recipes of the territory. During these events each student has a role and is part of a project where interaction and collaboration are fundamental for the good performance of the event.

Gabriella Italy

gabriellaricci — 2017-10-26 18:33:37 UTC

I teach in Naples, and very often we collaborate with CITTA' DELLA SCIENZA (an amazing science center

Nikoleta, Cyprus

2017-10-26 20:31:16 UTC

I work in a primary school where we often invite community members to talk to our students and share their expertise or experience: policemen, firemen, telecommunications authority experts, internet safety experts, psychologists and many more. Due to the fact that we live in a small town, it's easier to find the right people. However, this people visit our school once or twice a year for a specific reason and not in the framework of a PBL approach. So, here is the challenge: how can we engage these community members in a more constant, reasonable and interactive way?

Patricia, Spain

patriciadiazcidoncha — 2017-10-26 21:08:04 UTC

This course in my school there isn´t any international projects such as e-Twinning or Erasmus +, but we usually work with other extrernal partners such as firefighters, police and other stuff from the Community of Madrid. We are also in contact with a group of pedagogues that are working in a project about high ability students. They are doing tests and give us courses and activities to work with these students.
But I would ask you a question... What do you think about parents as a collaborative partners?
In some schools, there are some activities that are organized by parents. Once a week they have a period of time to come to the class ( 5-6 parents), make small groups and work with them in a more parctical way.

Beatriz, Spain

beita_014 — 2017-10-26 21:17:43 UTC

In my opinion it's really important link our school to the community we have around. That's why I really like for example use the topic "professions" to work with the relatives of my students. It's a good oportunity to invite people close to my students to come in our classroom. It's really fun. I find it very interesting because who are experts about the topic coud explain better. Last year, we went to the firestation because the uncle of one of my students work there. We also learnt about the different tools doctors use, etc.

Francisco Durán, Spain

2017-10-26 21:58:00 UTC

These could be ideas for my subject, Maths, at the leveI l teach (13 years old):

-Scientific notation and astronomers.
-Percentages and shop assistants, specially in sales period.
-Ratio and proportion and photographers.
-Directly proportional distributions and politicians (when assigning seats after an election).
-Tables and charts and journalists.
-Statistics and psychologists or doctors.
-Measurements and estimations and artisans.
But I have to admit that I never invited any of them to my classroom

Gisella, Italy

gisellaroner — 2017-10-27 07:12:05 UTC

Inviting "professionals" and local organizations or enterprise to take an active part in school activities is really a good thing to do. We have different options in my school:
- regular meetings and contacts with a local nonprofit humanitarian organization that operates in Africa and Brazil: by selling cakes for Christmas we support some 30 school in rural areas of Guinea Bissau and we participate to an annual non competitive race to raise funds;
- local young entrepreneurs are invited to speak to 3rd year students who have to choose their upper secondary school;
- we have annual projects with the local libraries to enhance reading;
- since we Iive near a lake there are sport projects in collaboration with local sports organizations (sailing and swimming above all).
There are far more examples of collaboration with experts and external partners in my school.

Cristina Martinez, Spain

cestudis_secundaria — 2017-10-27 07:39:51 UTC

Inviting grandparents and parents to talk about their jobs, games they played or tales they read when they were kids.
Regular meetings with other professionals to give them motivational talks...

Dora, Greece

ntanouth — 2017-10-27 07:58:47 UTC

I think that the best partnerships come from existing connections in the teacher's life and extended community. Furthermore, a good partner teacher, classroom, and even sister school community will help to achieve our purpose.

Peppe - Sicily

2017-10-27 09:07:21 UTC

This year I also teach art and image. I would like to invite an artist to school to explain to the pupils a particular painting technique to use then in a group work.

Ilze Krastina, Latvia

ilze_krastina — 2017-10-27 09:16:31 UTC

With every year the collaboration with partners outside school is increasing. We are constantly organizing meeting in career education by inviting students’ parents when they represent their profession, alumni – they share their experience.

We regularly organize visits to the companies in our community and other parts of Latvia where students can see the real everyday work.

We invite famous people from various fields to give inspirational talks to students and raise their motivation to study.

We have good cooperation with U.S. Embassy when English speaking people – diplomats, teachers, and professional sportsmen come to school and give students lessons and sports trainings.

We have had several Comenius and Erasmus + project when students were possible to meet people from other European countries.

Andreja Jertec, Croatia

j_andreja22 — 2017-10-27 10:00:36 UTC

In past few years me and my students are active on eTwinning community. We produce several projects through school year. For each of project we usually collaborate with European teachers, local community, parents, associations, teachers from school...

Marianna Penna, Greece

mariannapenna — 2017-10-27 11:23:59 UTC

Sara, Spain

2017-10-27 11:39:09 UTC

I am active on eTwinning, which is one of the best community ever. Teachers and students around Europe have the possibility of working together

Tânia Serrão, Portugal

taniaserraogomes — 2017-10-27 15:12:07 UTC

My school is located right in the center of a social neighborhood. Here we can find some neighbors to collaborate with us. We have the parish council, the people's house, associations, gymnasiums, ... We work hard in partnership with the parish council that supports our initiatives, and we have partnerships with sports clubs that promotes the practice of physical exercise. Already thinking about my learning design that is related to the space theme, I already did a research in Google and discovered the Association of Amateur Astronomers of Madeira and I have already contacted them to see if they are available to collaborate with us in this project.

Marinella, Italy

2017-10-27 15:20:57 UTC

Despite the fact that our school is located in a disadvantaged area with little access to lots of ‘occasions’, our school enjoys the support and collaboration of the whole territory, such as public entities (municipalities, health centres), private business, cultural associations. Sometimes we also participate in larger projects with the universities of our region or national associations. Today, for instance, we have met a nation-known writer who attended our 'reading' exhibition.

Antonella p. , Italy

avenusitita — 2017-10-27 16:22:30 UTC

As I teach in a professional school, my students have to train for two weeks in local industries so they are really involved in the labour market and they get in contact with professionals and experts.

Once in a year students are involved in a charity market: they produce garments and accessories they sell and they collect money for no profit organization or for the school. They are involved in the production of the items and than in selling them to the local community.

I think these two activities are really useful however only the second activity is a group work.

Cristina Marques, Portugal

crismarques17 — 2017-10-27 16:53:21 UTC

There are some partners in the school's community that i can think of. There are banks, restaurants, small businesses, a public library, a sports center, a health clinic and an hospital, a police station, etc. The city hall is nearby and the she mayor is an important alumni. The local public health center and the local swimming pool are already engaged with the school. I was also thinking about the parents association and the community representatives at the school council. Furthermore, my school is part of a group of 5 schools that have a common administration and common projects, which means a lot of contacts and the possibilty of a big network.
The library:

Patrizia, Italy

2017-10-27 17:39:02 UTC

Last year I started working on eTwinning projects. It was an interesting and educational experience for students as well as for me

Alejandro Zamorano, Spain

2017-10-27 19:25:35 UTC

My school has taken part in European projects for a lot of years. One nice experience was developed last year when we did an activity called ·Selfie collage". In this activity we invited to several famous people, relatived to arts (painters, writers, singers, music conducters, ...), of our village. The artists spoke to our students so as to explain how they jobs were, and some students interviewed them. After that, students took some pictures to create a collage with our invited.
The result was showed in Twinspace in another project with our partners of Erasmus+ project.

A little collaboration

rucolaemma — 2017-10-27 19:37:37 UTC

Hello colleagues, what good things you do! I have involved some parents who have specific skills for simple workshops and a small project, which I hope can be carried forward this year too. It is a veterinarian, then a person capable of making origami and introducing ourselves to Japanese culture and a farmer who has vineyards. There are three areas that directly involve the interests of children in the classes and the proposal is to prepare with these adults the activities to be presented to their companions. Unfortunately, these small steps are complicated to implement for bureaucratic reasons and habits. The children are from Primary School but from the first experience I have observed that they are proud to be able to do things with the big ones and also to propose their activities from their interests.
Emma

Aleksandra, Croatia

abrmbota — 2017-10-27 21:02:02 UTC

I teach in vocational school for catering and management.
So it's a good idea to collaborate with caterers. Sometimes we engage our former students to show their progress and success in their job.

Antónia Brandão, PT

dolores_brandao — 2017-10-27 21:12:28 UTC

I have lots of contacts and knowledge of networks of local professionals. I’m a eTwinner since 2008, i did already 9 eTwinning projects and the two that i applied for Quality Label win that badge.

I was also involved on a Erasmus project and now i’m engaged on a Eramus K1 that provides some time on foreign countries to students of professional courses.

Today i’m in Brussels participating in Europeana DSI3 and making contacts with teachers of all around Europe.

On a regular basis many organisations or people are engaged with the school since sports organizations to, IT companies. Our school's neighbours, like local authorities, health authorities and so on, are easily approached and they collaborate with us .School alumni also participate if we need Stakeholders are engaged.

Tiago - Porto

tiago_vilaverde_gomes — 2017-10-27 21:48:27 UTC

I work in a professional school, so we have a lot of contacts with companies and entrepreneurs. We also develop some projects with police and local medical services.
we have some dificults to involve parents in the learning process, so i think parents could be one asset and a excelent collaboration partner

Maria Stafilakou ,Greece

stafilakou67 — 2017-10-28 08:42:45 UTC

I am a very lucky teacher because my school has excellent contacts not only with professionals in the neighbourhood ,some of them are our students' parents, but also with organizations such as Action Aid ,Unicef ,WWF or with professional Volleyball players whose representatives or associates come on our request and talk to the students.

Jesús Vázquez, Spain

2017-10-28 09:30:43 UTC

In the last three years we have worked hard in the eTwinning community. We produce between two and three projects during the school year with several Quality European Labels. In each project, we collaborate with other european teachers, the local community, parents, associations, teachers of our school ... and the police.

Serena S, Italy

iw3hip — 2017-10-28 10:40:14 UTC

I work in a primary School where we have some yearly projects in which the school world meets the community world. For example the "Progetto Orto": all the classes cultivate some vegetables or flowers in the school garden and at the end of the year during on "open day" there is an exhibition of all the products for the pupils' families. During the project some farmers come to help the pupils in their activites.
Unfortunately we have not worked in the eTwinning comunity so far.

Vincenzo, ITALY

studioferrenti — 2017-10-28 13:08:48 UTC

Even though I am a member of the eTwinning community I have never participated in projects.

Ibrahim S, Turkey

2017-10-28 13:47:00 UTC

There are lots of interesting businesses in the city I teach. From time to time I sent my students to the outside people for projects, but up until now, I've never considered making partners with them and inviting them into my classrooms. This part of the course really opened up my vision.

Grazia,Italy

2017-10-28 14:49:45 UTC

In our school we invite professional and local organizations in order to take an active part in children' activities.
We have collaborations with local sport organizations and projects with local libraries .

Crisorca, Spain

crisorca — 2017-10-28 15:02:42 UTC

I belong to the eTwinning community where I have participated in different projects with my students. In fact, we are currently working in a eTwinning project. Depending on the topic, or work we are doing, I try to look for different resources outside school. The local administration provides assisstance in any topic and there are many private corporations who could help if you ask for.
When we have a project in mind, we communicate it to the students family, so that way they give us advice about where to find information, who is interesting in help us or what does our city offers in relation to our project. Communication with families is always useful. Parents who are experts in a topic offers their help to come to school as well as to receive us at their wprk places..

Fran Román, Spain

2017-10-28 15:11:45 UTC

We are in touch with the main venues in our city and our students show their work in front of an audience. What they learn in their Music lessons and in Drama doesn’t remain in the school, everything is aimed at being shown in front of an audience. Sometimes we work with different schools in our city or, like this year, we’ll perform our play of theatre in Italy. We have another project with Hungary where our students will go to play a concert for their Hungarian peers. Theses activities, based on real world, give our students a boost and keep them motivated to learn.

https://youtu.be/mxj9kz1HLY8

Antonietta. Italy

2017-10-28 15:25:14 UTC

I have engaged local experts on regular basis in many projects realized in so many years of teaching. These experiences have been always considered very important for the breath of the reality and the vital bond with the local context. In my etwinning projects, students' parents and local professional are involved and give their qualified support with enthusiasm

Iryna Kharchenko, Ukraine

pcv2002irisha — 2017-10-28 15:27:48 UTC

Our school is pretty active in eTwinning projects as well as PenPals project in which we have the possibility to collaborate with international partners. Besides, we sometimes invite some experts from our local community to talk to students about STEM professions. Also there are some NGOs that can conduct trainings on social issues with the students.

Isabel Nunes, Azores, Portugal

isabelmiguel — 2017-10-28 16:18:20 UTC

In my school collaboration with institutions outside the school is very common. Most of the projects developed in school are organized with the support of the parents, but also with the support of enterprises and associations of different areas. Also School and city hall work together for the success of the kids. That is one of the caractheristics of my school that i love the best.

Gine, Spain

gine_tomas — 2017-10-28 17:36:27 UTC

As a literature teacher I have worked some content through small projects. In this project I have tried to relate the literary content with different aspects and themes of life. In this sense I have counted different supports such as environmental groups, theater companies and music groups.

Helena Reis, Portugal

helena_reis — 2017-10-28 18:22:49 UTC

As we are involved in two Erasmus + projects in our school on account of our CLIL project (GoClLIL), we’ve been having people outside borders (Italy, Finland, Greece, England) who have shared their experiences with us (teacher formation, job shadowing and sharing of good practices). We have collaborators such as Eco schools, the townhall, the parish council, the parents association, the music academy in Vilar do Paraíso, and we have been engaged in eTwinning Projects.

Dimitrina, Bulgaria

dimi_arnaudova — 2017-10-28 18:52:41 UTC

My students are currently involved in an Erasmus + project titled "Healthy Minds for happy Lives" and they find it really rewarnding communicating with their peers from the partnering countries. On the other hand my students work and collaborate closely with the local authorities and whenever they have a chance they participate in different initiative. we are also involved in a programme, introduced by the European parliament about schools ambassadors of the EP. My students have shown a dramatic raise of their awareness about the functions of the EU and its role in our everyday life. Since then , they have been building their confidence and self-estime while communicatinhg with different institutions and representatives of the European institutions.

Mar Ocaña, Spain Two years ago, my students worked on a eTwinning project. It was very interested for them, because the had the possibility to be in contact with many European students.

2017-10-28 19:26:44 UTC

Victoria Carceller (Spain)

VITORITA — 2017-10-28 19:36:50 UTC

I‘ve been involved in 5 etwining projects, two of them with the european quality label, the experience of collaborating with young people from other school has been absolutely positive for the students involved, and for me as a teacher , has broadened my educational horizon.

I would say that eTwinning is a little bit addictive, because once you’ve finished the first project you are thinking in the next one.

Thinking now about involving people from the community in students' work, here there is a list of possible people:

Students from higher levels

Education and environmental departments of the city council

Members of NGO’s

Health department of the regional government

Sonila

2017-10-28 21:17:25 UTC

Sonila Drini

2017-10-28 21:28:26 UTC

Albania
I have had some successful experience with eTwinning partnership but the idea of local professionals and community envolvement sounds great

Cátia Santos (Portugal)

badkat187 — 2017-10-29 01:33:17 UTC

After watching the video and thinking about it, I thought it was logical and very interesting. But this is a very difficult point for me. The school is right in the center of Lisbon and has only one church, many buildings where people live, the office of a political party and some cafes and restaurants. All very impersonal and not at all accessible. The school has one company for food and another for cleaning. The cleaning company leaves before the students arrive. I can only pick up a few parents. But I'm going to sound better.

Laura T, Italy

laura_tosi75 — 2017-10-29 06:31:41 UTC

In Italy students aged between 16 and 18 have to accomplish the so called "Alternanza Scuola-Lavoro" that litterally means "alternation school-work". It includes a lot of activities that students have to run outside the schools spending 400 hours in 3 years.

That's why schools have to find many partners: hotels, restaurants, museums, libraries, companies, organisations, associations, institutions... where students will be able to practise and train.

Unfortunately these experiences are on an individual basis for students and it would be a great opportunity and an extremely enriching experience if they could work on cooperative projects instead.

Miriam, Italy

miriamscafatihpg23 — 2017-10-29 07:28:05 UTC

In the last year with my pupils I have partecipate to five european projects in Etwinning. It w a great opportunity for my school

Natassa,Greece

kasnatasou — 2017-10-29 07:58:30 UTC

Every year, the partnership that we work on is that one with parents. Parents are involved to many school activities and they help with their knowledge to promote better learning. For example, a dentist parent came to explain us more about mouth hygiene, a comic writer how to write a good comic, a geologist how to recognise stones etc. All these appear to be very helpful.

Iuliana, Romania

moise_alin79 — 2017-10-29 08:37:08 UTC

In my school, collaboration with other institutions, is verry common.The project developed in school involve parents, asociations of different areas, city halls.

Adela Gabriela Muresan, Romania

muresan_gabriela_adela — 2017-10-29 09:21:57 UTC

I am involved in a project about PBL. Here you have some pictures about my activity.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=owbW5A_790Y

Theodora Tsagari, Greece

dorene — 2017-10-29 09:53:06 UTC

The highlight of an etwinning project is the live communication. My pupils always ask me when we will talk with our friends on skype. Once we also had an animal lover association come to talk to pupils about stray animal care on an etwinning project.

Sarah Mallia, Malta

sarahborg85 — 2017-10-29 10:26:39 UTC

I tried to take part in a mini project within eTwinning but the other partner did not finish her part. On the other hand I am still interested in taking part in the near future. In the past I invited several professionals such as dentists and musicians to educate the students. This year we have a project about Maltese stories and legends so I will invite Maltese authors and involve these professionals with the students in workshops.

Lola N , Spain

lola_nsimon — 2017-10-29 10:51:44 UTC

I was involved in a etwinning project last year. My intention is to start a new one very soon.
The local community is always ready to collaborate with the school. Here I write down people who have visited and helped us in our collaborative activities: grandparents, a vet, farmers, president of the agriculture local cooperative, the mayor, actors, nurses, top sport men old students...
We also have collaboration from teachers from different countries for our Language FEstival. Partners from ouside are always welcome in my class.

Isabel R., Portugal

isabelfarinharu — 2017-10-29 11:52:25 UTC

My school engages with health professionnals on a regular basis; it also happens that former students come back into classrooms for engaging with the kids; sometimes, parents also come in the classroom to adress the students or to show them how-to (kindergarden, mainly); one teacher have been paricipating in a eTwinning project (k6-k10). In our community, we could engage with actors (amateurs), multimedia professionnals, typography workers, handcraft makers, emigrants, firemen, alumni, health caretakers, social services, landscapers, engineers, forest and farm workers, politicians, courts, lawyers, ... In social media and educational sites, I have seen some examples of using Twitter and Skype in the classroom to engage with experts and other classrooms worldwide.

Christos, GREECE

christos_chachoudis — 2017-10-29 12:44:04 UTC

Last year, I made a project in my class and the project was to teach my students percentages. I gave them the following task: to find and present in classroom the way bank are billing credit cards and loans. In order to understand the way banks are thinking and acting, we got to the NBG bank of our neighborhood and the students asked whatever they wanted the employees and the bank manager. This was something that helped my students very much and they enjoyed very much.

Argiro Spyrogianni, Greece

Argiro — 2017-10-29 14:16:21 UTC

Our school has strong ties with the local community and every time an opportunity arises, we engage individuals or groups of our community into school activities. For example, during career day, professionals from our village visit our school and present their jobs to students. Another successful collaboration with the local community took place during our participation in an ETwinning project referring to the story of the euro coin and the way it made stronger the relations of the Eurozone members. One of the activities that involved the locals was the interview taking and the presentation of our video at the end of our project.

Katia, Italy

katifets1 — 2017-10-29 14:25:00 UTC

Our school ist only recently beginning to engage with local companies or professionals, most of all because of the work placement experience, which has become compulsive for our students of the third, fourth and fifth class (age 16-19). So they work for one week in the local hospital, in schools, libraries, in the town hall etc.
We were practically forced to create a network of contacts to work with.
As what regards my teaching situation, I think it would be not easy for me to find partners because I teach German, and I should find someone who understands the language.
Maybe we could work together with alumni of the school who have studied German, or with parents or other relatives who have been living in Germany or Switzerland, I know there are some.
Another idea coul be that of organizing a project in which our students build a lesson plan to teach German to pupils of the local middle or primary school.

Galya, Bulgaria

gbaeva — 2017-10-29 15:38:39 UTC

The students in our school make projects to support orphan children and they contact business organisations. There are also some banks and ICT organisations which offer projects about financial awarenes or programing. Schools in the region collaborate with social care providers and participate projects for elderly people. Most of the colleagues support them when help needed.
In order to improve Philosophy teaching and learning I collaborate with professionals from the regional court and we work together in the field of human rights. Students love to participate the simulation of a trial.

Dafinka Nikolova, Bulgaria

dafinka_bg_sm — 2017-10-29 16:31:31 UTC

My school successfully cooperates with local institutions – City Hall, Regional Library, State Archives, Local Organizations. People from different professions Involved in the cooperative work in the lessons. Parents also participate in many activities.We have a partnership with University. I am a mentor of university students and we have joint activities. Students work in groups include people from outside the classroom, students in other classes and students from other European countries. I hope my students can have the chance to share their culture with the students from all over Europe.

Lucía, Spain

agustinoslucia — 2017-10-29 17:13:21 UTC

Inviting community members is something we usually do in our schoolour. When our smallest are only 5, their parents are invited to talk them about their Jobs and the involvement is total in both sides.
When they grow up different professionals from different institutions come to make them take part in their daily routines.

Rita Correia, Portugal

rita_correia — 2017-10-29 17:26:29 UTC

Our school is surrounded by a few organisations that we could try to engage with. The hospital, the local swimming pool, the restaurants and coffee shops, the gas station, the supermarkets, etc. These are the school’s neighbours and they are definitely sources of a wide range of information and knowledge.

The school has a parents association that is always available to help facilitate and identify the right people to approach for each project.

My school is also part of a group of several schools that have a common administration and work on similar projects. This allows information to be shared easily and facilitates the work that is done with the community.

But, for me, the best sources of knowledge in our community are the families. A grandmother that shares a recipe, a mum that comes to school to talk about her job, a dad that helps us plan a visit to a specific organisation.

Maria Diana Iannelli, Italy

mariadianaiannelli1 — 2017-10-29 17:38:57 UTC

Last year I engaged my students in an eTwinning project: it was great. My students learned a lot about coding using Scratch. this year my students and I are engaged in three eTwinning projects about math, science and STEM. But i'm thinking to our neighbor...there are a lot of small industries, most o which are run by our parent's students. I have to find out a way to engage them in our projects. we work each two years with the local associations in participating actively in a Revival about old customs and traditions. It's really interesting, as well.

JAVIER MORENO, SPAIN

2017-10-29 18:04:53 UTC

THE BACKGROUND OF MY TOWN IS ALMOST ENTERILY OF AGRICULTURE INDUSTRY IN WHICH IT IS DEMANDED FOR AUTOMATIZED DEVICES IN ORDER TO CONTROL BETTER THE CROPS OF FARMERS. IT IS BECAUSE WE ARE VERY ENCLOSED TO UNDERSTAND HOW MACHINE WORKS AND IMPROVE IT WITH NEW TECHNOLOGIES. NOWADAY STUDENT ARE INMERSE IN ROBOTIC DEVELOPING NEW IDEAS TO THE REAL WORLD PROBLEMS OF FARMERS. A FEEDBACK WITH COMPANIES COULD BE THE BEST TO DEVELOP NEW INVENTS.

Marsília, Madeira My school is situated in the centre of a village and our nearest city is not far, which is an advan. We already take advantage of this situation and it's very common in our school because we have some courses with many training hours and our students do this part of their course outside the school: in the city hall, hotels, parish council, IT companies, libraries, .... We also have partnerships with sports associations, church, police, health care centre, social assistants, bank,....

marsiliafaria — 2017-10-29 18:19:32 UTC

ISABEL MORENO

antoniaisabelmoreno — 2017-10-29 18:30:51 UTC

My vocational studies students on management are doing a project with the management teacher on fair trade and I want to relate my English lessons to that project. Right now we are studying food. I have planned to ask them prepare recipes from different countries (it is a multicultural class) and actually prepare them with fair trade ingredients. As for relating the project to the community I have thought of inviting a couple of local restaurant owners to taste and grade the dishes.

Begoña Toro, Spain

btoro66 — 2017-10-29 19:14:18 UTC

A couple of years ago I worked on an eTwinning project with a Greek school and it was great. This year we are going to start another one with 6 more countries "EMBRACE Art for Humanity" and I hope it will also work well and get students engaged.
We always try to contact and invite someone to talk to our students on PBL projects. This year, for a project related to music, we invited an inmigrant who played traditional African music and made the whole community dance to his music together. He also shared his personal story with the students. It was a really positive and motivating experience for the kids. It's essential to get people from our local communities involved: families, business owners, and so on.

Gema Padilla, Spain

2017-10-29 19:29:50 UTC

In my school, secondary students work with different countries, they have relationships with different schools in order to practise and improve their language, French and English., thanks of ITC. Also, we work in an erasmus project and we have different groups of students who work together to share their bealifs and they work to help poor people. Also, we have different projects of sports.

Sandra, from Spain

s_t_cernuda — 2017-10-29 19:40:13 UTC

My school is located in the city of Valencia and my students are primary. It is rare to make some kind of exchange with students of this age. What I do is take advantage of foreign students that I have in class. With them we learn their cultures and even invite the families to share with us the curiosities of their country.

Our

lilydmitrenk — 2017-10-29 19:40:27 UTC

Liliia Dmytrnko

lilydmitrenk — 2017-10-29 19:40:45 UTC

Our school takes part in eTwinnig. So we have partners' school from Europe, make projects with them, try to develop students' knowledge of English, IT, their creativity.

Helena Paz dos Reis, Portugal

paz_dos_reis1 — 2017-10-29 19:58:24 UTC

In the libray of my school (a secondary one), last year, we developped an activity with an outside organisation. Pupils, in the class of philosophy, came to the school library to debate 4 delicate and controversial themes. The class was divides in 4 groups, and each group talked, freely, with people engaged on the organisation about thes themes: people impaired (invisual), a muslim religion, gender diversity. The response of pupils was so great that we are establishing a partnership with this organisation.

Paula Louçã, Portugal

amadorpaula2 — 2017-10-29 20:41:55 UTC

I believe that the simplest and safest platform to share information among teachers is E-twinning. However, my school has made partnerships with Comenius and Erasmus + (key 1 and key 2) that have allowed us to build a network of contacts that is, at the very least, valuable. The possibility of forming transnational mobilities with students and teachers has been an essential tool for the evolution of the school and its stakeholders.

Cristo Rey Monge Rodriguez, Spain

2017-10-29 20:45:04 UTC

My School is located in Sanlúcar de Barrameda ,we used to work in proyects with local partners schools Also we have partners in other countries specially our school partners in Liverpool and Romeand in Lisbon Also I think etwening is a great tool to KEEP the partnership alive

Cristina, Portugal

2017-10-29 21:14:54 UTC

In my school, for many years ago, we are invoved in different eTwinnig projects. Myself, I ´ll participet in The Bilateral seminary between Portugal and Spain next week and I´ll start a project after that. Also, I´ll start an another Erasmus Ka2 project, if it wiil aproved, with 8 countries, next year. Thats the way we get to find collaboration partners outside the classroom.

Ercília Costa, Portugal

erciliacosta — 2017-10-29 21:42:00 UTC

Our school works with many partners, from entities linked to the Romanesque route, to cinema, to music, ... I would like to highlight the partnership with the youth hostel that allows the arrival of other young foreigners and who participate in our projects ( theater,…)

Cristina Martins, Portugal

cristina_martins — 2017-10-29 21:48:07 UTC

My school has many technical and practical High school courses. In those students always have to do a final project that many times is connected with our community. Some times even are mentored by experts from our community that come in the presentation day to see the outcome and help teachers to assess the work.
Also many of our art projects are connected to the community, like doing the scenarios for the town theatre or design logos and marketing posters for community activities and projects.
This is a very motivating environment for students to work.
I also think projects with experts outside the community or with another school students and teachers can be very Challenging.

Pilar Rodríguez, Spain

prodriguez_dpou — 2017-10-29 21:57:14 UTC

In my school we work with some partners that come to give mini-conferences to the students but not to have a class with them. We collaborate with nature defender ONGs and make some projects with them. I find fascinating that people arround the school can teach something to our students. I will try to incorporate some project with partners. My student's are going to love that!

Maria Rizza / Sicily

rowri — 2017-10-29 22:00:17 UTC

I am very fond of E-twinning. I have been running e-twinning project for several years now. I agree with te fact that this safe site and community gives students a strong motivation for language improvement but also in self-evaluation and cooperation, They work in groups which is useful to let everyone feel having a role and a goal to achieve according to their natural inclinantions. Moreover the fact that they interact with real students makes their work meaningful . Also, they want to do well, they ask me to correct their own texts, they put lots of energy and efforts to produce nice interesting and attractive outputs, which indeed they do. Their creativity can be easily expressed by working in E-twinning. In conclusion the students have lots of benefits, they improve social , linguistic digital and literacy competences as well as enterpreuneurship one. As for networks of local professionals there are some which regularly work with our students, they are generrally sport clubs or art clubs but I think that No PBL approach is used in this kind of experience , so it is not always so attractive for students to follow and to learn.

Diana Szasz, Romania

dianaszasz — 2017-10-29 22:36:20 UTC

I collaborate with former students and some parents of my students.

Valentina Marinova, Bulgaria

ster_valentina — 2017-10-30 03:32:39 UTC

Our school is Comprehensive School. We, in the primary level, take a part in eTwinnig projects and our partners are all over the world. A projects are connected to English, IT, 21 century skills, promoting reading, non formal activities and ect. At gymnasium there is Erasmus+ project connected to robotics.

Roberto Medrano, Spain

2017-10-30 08:51:00 UTC

Finding a professional expert that could come to our classes to help the students with a project would be a wonderful way to engage them in their work.

The external collaboration will help the students to connect with real world and that what they are doing has a meaning and could be used in real life. On the other hand, a person who is working continuously in a topic and knows the actual problems that could appear in the process of developing a project will be able to make the students go deeper in the knowledge of this topic.

I think that it is possible to find collaboration inside and outside the school. Could it be partners experts in one topic (app development for ITC, competition organization for Physical Education, economics in general for a project administration, etc.). From outside the school it would be nice to count with help of some parents that are working in a field related with the topic of one project (business people, restaurant owners, lawyers, architects, (graphic) designers, pharmaceuticals, nutritionists, etc.). I’m quite sure that there are a lot of them with a lot of to explain in our classes and willing to do it. We can also think about collaboration from people from the business around the school (besides, most of them bring their children here) or from some colleagues from other schools that have experience with a determinate kind of project or field of work. It would be a good idea, as well, to find researchers in the topic related with our project, but I find it more difficult.

Nadia, France

nadia_rouibah — 2017-10-30 09:12:45 UTC

Here are the partners my school had the opportunity to work with : a writer came in some literature classes, the art teacher worked with local artists, and as I teach in a vocational school, we have quite a lot of companies who work with us, taking kids in their firms for internship, so we can get some of them to come to the school and help us. I guess I could try to establish closer links.....

Cristina Urtiaga, Spain

2017-10-30 09:41:00 UTC

Unfortunately, we don’t collaborate a lot with external partners; neither with our collegues in our own school. Most of my students are adults and teachers too and we are focused in learning the language. I tried last year to do a linguistic exchange between my teenagers learners and those from a secondary school in Germany, but it was not very successfull. I think teenagers were too busy with their secondary subjects and, as our education is not mandatory (even though official), I felt them not very involved in the Project.

By colleagues in our school is the same: we are very busy because of the rigid curricula and we have no time enough to prepare a real multidisciplinary Project. We do collaborate in organising a common party at the end of the course, but each language section is focused in preparing its part, so I think it is not really the collaboration we are looking for our students.

Nazaret Martínez, Spain.

nmartinez19 — 2017-10-30 12:11:14 UTC

Fortunately, in my school there are many collaboration outside the classroom. In tutorial session, we invite the police, nurses to practise first aid... We are doing some exchange of students (Norway, Holland...), it is an Erasmus ka2. I will participate ina Erasmus K101 in Norway (Job Shadowing), we are doing a project where students from Secondary go to Primary couses to tell stories in English and perform drama for kids.

Peppe Previtera -Sicil

2017-10-30 15:34:35 UTC

In my school, unfortunately, there are 4 little plesses that are distant from each other and often we teachers are forced to go out and make supplements in non-membership plesses. Last year, in the plexus where I often taught, the municipality organized projects to create collaboration between students. A truly commendable initiative. This year, unfortunately, is not so.

Stoyan Faldjiyski, Bulgaria

stoyan1 — 2017-10-30 16:23:39 UTC

Within my organization we are currently developing an online platform (younesses.org) to allow for cooperation between the schools and the (local) businesses and the community as a whole.
We are still to research the outside partners but it will mostly depend on the support students and teachers need in their PBL work. So, the mechanics is that the platform collects students project ideas and then memebers of the (business/professional) community offer support.

In our school I have been working as an educational counselor and coordinator of programs and projects since 2013. We have been involved in all kinds of projects, from charity, to volunteer, etwinning, etc.We have parteners from other schools in the county and not only; for charity projects - local authorities and businesses, various non-governmental organizationsNicoleta Sarbu,Romania

nicosarbu — 2017-10-30 16:50:34 UTC

Pinelopi, Greece

2017-10-30 18:52:54 UTC

Making contacts with professionals is not usual in Greek schools. However, it depends on how well known or distinguished a person is. At the school where I work we have invited athletes from the local sports centre as well as athletes distinguished in Paraolympic games. An ex rally driver who owns a school for safe driving was another guest who has shared his experience and knowledge with our students. Contacts with organisations is quite ordinary. From the Advocate for children to representatives of charity organisations. We haven't cultivated a relationship with local authorities though, which is something we should promote in our pbl programmes as it is well stressed on this course.

Maria Antonietta, Italy

mardinoia2 — 2017-10-30 19:06:17 UTC

My students and I could engage with local businesses operating in ICT field. Actually we already have contacts to them on a regular basis because of “Alternanza Scuola-Lavoro” that is on-the-job training while guys are still at school. Undoubtedly professionals can help students make learning easier and more concrete and may let them create and develop new tools and technologies...thus fostering their entrepreneurship competence.

sofia venetopoulou greece

svenetopoulou — 2017-10-30 19:55:33 UTC

Well, we could invite non-governmentals organisations, Red Cross, the neighbourhood's doctor,students' parents, local businessmen.

Alessandra G., Italy

scrocchia67 — 2017-10-30 20:29:51 UTC

In my school we have a mentoring project with local businessmen and businesswomen coming to witness their working experience now and their education experience as former students of the institute I work in. In the past years we experienced a project to teach what was meant by the word: legality ; members of Parliament and citizens associations came to work with the students.
Regarding other contacts with other experts from outside it is possible to do but we always have to ask permission to our school manager for it.

Alicia M. from Spain

2017-10-30 22:05:37 UTC

In my school, sometimes pupils are part etwinning projects and Erasmus+ projects seven years ago. Also, the local community collaborates with us, such as firemen, police officers, parents, doctors who participate in different activities organized by the school.

Tiziana I., Italy

ioptiziana — 2017-10-31 08:27:42 UTC

My school cooperates with a lot of local professionals, as our students are involved in the "Alternanza scuola lavoro" project, meaning that they spend 400 hours during their last three years of school working at bars, hotels and restaurants in order to be trained for their future jobs as chefs, bartenders and hotel receptionists. Some of our classes also take part in eTwinning projects, often rewarded by European quality labels. Moreover, last year our school hosted an English university student, who acted like a lecturer in some of our classes, sharing her views on English culture and being helped in her Italian studies by her experience with us.

Marta Beré Spain

mbere — 2017-10-31 12:19:36 UTC

At my school, high school students have been carrying out an e-Twinning project for some years with schools in other countries. They write letters, present videos and make themselves known as a country and culture. Also during the school year, teachers from different countries come to visit us and spend a few days with us. They know our way of working and our customs. On the other hand the teachers we have been in the Erasmus + project where we had the opportunity to travel to Holland, Ireland and Finland (where I was a week) we were doing Job-shadowing and the experience was very positive in all aspects.
During the year we have some projects with companies from abroad such as the Red Cross to collect clothes, toys and food. The children of 5th grade of primary school created a small company to collect money for children with cancer from Valle Hebrón Hospital.
I think it is very important to be able to work with external companies, we can contribute a lot and they can contribute to us.

Foteini, Greece

2017-10-31 12:45:58 UTC

In my school we have been involving parents in our Erasmus KA1 project as partners

Andrea

2017-10-31 14:15:59 UTC

We are trying to get more and more involved with local professionals and istitutions (University, other schools) but also using online resources (etwinning, erasmus+)

Ana Barbosa, Portugal

ana_tormes — 2017-10-31 15:16:13 UTC

In previous projects we've established partnerships with the City Hall, the local Red Cross and local companies. That gave kids a real sense of recognition and relevance to the projects that they were developing. The fact that they had to first reach out and pitch their ideas, establish the partnerships and finally present outcomes to what had been agreed upon with partners gave them a true sense of purpose and accomplishment.
But there are far greater resources in our community that could be used in smaller projects as direct tutors or judges, no doubt.

Cristina Cruz, Spain

cristina_cruz — 2017-10-31 16:19:36 UTC

We could engage with local companies, local services such as police officers or firefighters, charity organisations and the town hall. We've got an IT company working with our school on a regular basis and they would be happy to collaborate. Our neighbours are supermarkets and small shops, so we could also engage with them for PBL.

Jenny (Evgenia) Karoumpali, Greece.

jennykaroumpali — 2017-10-31 17:10:53 UTC

In the school's area (Aitolikon, Aitolia & Akarnania, Grecce) there are professionals such as fishermen, agriculturists, farmers etc, who could cooperate with the school. Nevertheless there are difficultioes in such cooperations. In case that a non-state professional or business cooperate with the school, a substantial amount of colleagues and parents would disapprove it and would protest against it. It is noteworthy that such cooperations with the school (non-state ones) are currently registrated in Greece, therefore there are still prejudices with regard to such cooperations.
On the other hand there are state institutions which cooperate with the school (the local hospital, the local forestry authority and the Technological Institute of Education, which is at 15 km far from the school). This cooperation could be a better one.
Bringing an expert to the classroom is a procedure which requires a lot of buraucracy in Greece, therefore it is more simple to visit the expert in the context of an excursion.
Parents are not very willing to cooperate with the school in such issues.

Paola, Italy

paola_tona — 2017-10-31 17:30:34 UTC

In my school there are external collaborations with institutions that design for the school, but that do not concern my subject. For the sciences I come to think of outdoor activities such as the swimming course. Instead you might expect to invite people who have practiced a sport like a former footballer or a former athlete to make a pbl

Rositsa Chausheva, Bulgaria

rosichausheva21 — 2017-10-31 22:53:22 UTC

In my school

we don’t collaborate a lot with external partners. We are take a part in eTwinning projects only and our partners are all over the world. I was trying to make Erasmus + project, but I couldn’t found partners, which I sad.

Svetlana, Serbia

svetlanamed5 — 2017-10-31 22:59:59 UTC

My school cooperate with Red cros, Social service, Youth organizations, Police, organization of students parents, other schools, ..

Marta, Portugal

martaisabelconstantino — 2017-10-31 23:09:31 UTC

This year, I am trying to develop a project in collaboration with a colleague who teaches the same year at a school in the same district.

Paula, Spain

paulacrespom — 2017-11-01 07:38:53 UTC

My high school has the Erasmus + programme for vocational training. Besides, we often have police officers coming to school to give students advice of internet security, drugs and so on. We often collaborate with social services too.

Mª Ángeles, Spain

2017-11-01 09:23:43 UTC

This year is the first we are in an e twinning Project with a school here in Spain and we are also trying to contact with schools in others countries.
We also colaborate with social services and with external projects. Others organizations like Pólice, private enterprises and people in the town hall collaborate with us and show students how they work.

Ana, Portugal

ana_biscoito — 2017-11-01 09:28:04 UTC

Last year, through a facebook post in one of the many groups of teachers I'm involved in, there was a chance to do a penpals and conference project via skipe with students from a school in Indiana, USA. The students defined the topics they would like to discuss and how they would do it, and for two weeks would prepare their presentations. This project was very important in the development of communicative skills and in the development of linguistic fluency in English. The students have done some videos about our school and the community we are involved in and learned many things about the way American students live. It was a great way to work collaboratively with the outside world and all students did their best to accomplish this project.

Anna Taru, Romania

dumitrascu_anna — 2017-11-01 10:00:32 UTC

We usually invite representatives from different institutions, such police officers, NGO members or doctors to talk to students about social threats, but now that I'm thinking about it, this almost never happens within project based lessons. Watching this video made me realize that only a frontal speech is not enough for pupils to fully understand the issues presented unless they are part of it.

Anita, Croatia

anita_simac — 2017-11-01 14:05:44 UTC

Through eTwinning, facebook and seminars I try and find interesting projects with creative partners. The children love projects and so far we have collaborated with children from Italy, Turkey, Romania and Poland.

Isabel Gama, Portugal

igama — 2017-11-01 14:23:53 UTC

I would like to share a project that took place in our Kindergarten last year. It engaged the firefighters in our community. Our project was about fire. Children started talking about fireman and we went on a fieldtrip to the firefighters headquarters. We got to listen to what they do to help all people in need. We also saw how they put on their uniform using all the safety rules and got inside a firetruck and an ambulance. Above all, we learned how to prevent fires and were amazed about all the different tasks firefighters have and how crucial they are in our community. Back at school we built a three dimensional firetruck that we could actually pretend to ride! We also received a very special gift from two firefighters. They wrote us a letter thanking us for our visit and sent us three firefighter uniforms that we could get all dressed up in during playtime. At home and at school, we asked many questions and tried to find all the answers in books and all the internet. We also asked our family, friends and colleagues what they knew about firefightes. At the end of our project, we invited our classrooom friends to our class so that we could share all the amazing discoveries about firefighters and also tell them what we can all do to prevent fires. Unfortunatley, there was a big fire here in Portugal soon after our Project and we brought in food and clothes to help people in need that suffered great damage due to this terrible fact. We really learned to respect and admire all the firefighters!

Maria Jacinto, Portugal

luisad741 — 2017-11-01 17:07:38 UTC

This year I am going to make a project about a portuguese playwriter and that will lead to a presentation of a play. So I am thinking of getting the help of another teacher from the secondary school that teaches theatre - he and his older students will be our audience (as well as the all school).

Magda, Spain

mventur7 — 2017-11-01 20:23:26 UTC

Through Erasmus kA2219 it has been really easy to do and succesful. Itseems tthat all the teachers that run a project like this have the same idea of working with partners outside the classroom. Real job interviews in Poland, researhing local sin the community in barcelona ...I also tried to apply this in one project with no connection with Erasmus and it also worked really well. Kids interviewed citizens about a topic they were reserching. They learnt a lot. Bringing alumni to the school is also a good resource., Also eTwinning is fantastic.

Cristina Ligeiro, Portugal

cristinaligeiro — 2017-11-01 21:02:29 UTC

My school has many local partners covering many areas.
The main partner is the town hall, which collaborates closely with the school and supports many initiatives.
As we have many professional courses running at school we have protocols with many local companies and industries, where our students usually do the internship.
Health agencies, especially at the level of health education actions, the police, in the context of security and risk behaviors, as well as other local organizations also collaborate frequently with the school.
The school also has some initiatives of projects of “Erasmus+” for directors, teachers and for students.

Karol Barriuso,

karolbarriuso — 2017-11-01 21:38:00 UTC

In my school we try to collaborate with partners from outside the "classroom" in different ways. For instance, kindergarten kids receive the visit of firefighters as a part of their project of means of transport, as they come to show kids how they work, how the truck works, etc. But not only this but also students invite their parents to school to talk about their jobs. kids repare small conferences with their father/mother/relative and they bring to school their work stuff or in some cases, students go out to see these with their own eyes.
Even though our school is in a village, we try to collaborate with as many organizations as possible. This year, we are to start collaborating with local organizations that help refugees and other newly Arrived Migrants as a part of our Erasmus+ Ka219. We want to start a collaboration that will be continued in time even after the project ends.

Nicolina Graziano, Italy

nicolina_graziano — 2017-11-02 08:59:33 UTC

Through eTwinning projects students have the oppotunity to express easily their creativity. They have lots of benefits: they improve social, linguistic, digital and literacy competences as well as enterpreneurship one. This year my students of 12 years old are engaged in an eTwinning project about the history of our cities. I will engage local institutions and local associations in our project. In addition it will be necessary to engage also students' parents. The students will make slides or a movie to present the historical places of their town . Our goals will be : prove to the children that what they learn in class can be reused in their everyday lives; develop their curiosity and enthusiasm in other cultures; develop curiosity and enthusiasm in writing in another language than theirs.

Imen Tekaya, Tunisia

imen_tekaya — 2017-11-02 09:39:53 UTC

I'm always bringing people to my classroom, this makes my course more relevant, more interesting , they look up to the people I invite. I work with NGOs, Microsoft Student Partners, sometimes we go to the offices directly to investigate and to make our inquiries

Zulmira, Portugal

zulmiramag — 2017-11-02 10:49:08 UTC

I'm an eTwinner only since last year. I founded a project named "Maths with Art", for my 8th grade class of Maths, and I had two italian partners (one was co-founder). This project got eTwinning Quality Label, and I'm very proud because it was my first project. I also was partner in another project, with a 9th grade class, and that project got also the EQL. Students loved this kind of work because it was the first time they did something like that, and with foreign schools! It was a great experience. Usually my school doesn't have contacts with local professionals or other organisations, except with students that attend "Professional Courses" and they are very few. For example, there is a project at my school, called "Educate for Health", where health workers such as nurses, ... come to school to talk and talk with students about health issues. Sometimes visits are made to museums, to the planetarium, to a dam, ... and then, the students get in touch with different areas of work and dialogue with these professionals.

Ignac

nachodeva1a — 2017-11-02 16:09:45 UTC

Ignacio,

nachodeva1a — 2017-11-02 16:09:45 UTC

Ignacio S,

nachodeva1a — 2017-11-02 16:09:45 UTC

Ignacio ,

nachodeva1a — 2017-11-02 16:09:45 UTC

Ignacio Sanchez,