In early January in Katowice, Poland, eTwinning Ambassadors spent three days with new eTwinners, introducing them to the new platform and giving them input on how to organise their eTwinning projects. Put on by the National Support Organisations (NSOs) of Poland, the Czech Republic and Germany, participants got an intro to eTwinning, TwinSpaces, and spent time learning how to plan and organise their projects. 

‘Most of beginners making their first steps in the eTwinning world only have a general idea of what exactly the eTwinning project is’, said Polish NSO representative, Monika Regulska. According to Regulska, that’s why the NSOs felt the need to ‘show beginners (step by step) how to plan, organise, start and run projects, as well as how to evaluate their work to achieve their educational goals and get the most out of this format’. 

Being new to eTwinning, many participants naturally had questions about what the community entails: How will it work once they start taking action in schools, with students? Is it right for them? How will they manage the extra tasks? Will it be too much? What will happen if they fail some of the tasks? Participants came to the webinar with some project ideas ready, and Ambassadors helped them map out the individual project phases and individual contributions of each project partner. 
Several project ideas were worked on during the webinar, such as human inventions, ‘Green Heroes’ and a project aiming at increasing reading skills, reported Czech NSO representative, Jakub Šerák. 

The seminar has been running since the beginning of the pandemic, and has received very positive feedback from participants. ‘It helped them feel safe in this very new adventure’, added Regulska. With Ambassadors showing new eTwinners all that is possible when starting an eTwinning project, NSOs have seen ‘more confident teachers who are now excited about eTwinning and its possibilities’. 

If you would like to know more about the webinar agenda, click here.