job shadowing
Start date: Jun 1, 2015,
End date: May 31, 2017
PROJECT
FINISHED
Sophianum is the lead school of the ELpartnership (running the EuroLink virtual international school), which has been cooperating since 2009. Thanks to the European funding granted by the Comenius Programme, the organization has been able to develop its European dimension, establishing fruitful, long-lasting relationships with its partners.
The participation of the school in European projects has posed new challenges to its teachers, who now need to have an opportunity to get in contact with their partners in order to enhance their teaching strategies through direct observation of the methods used abroad, analysis of teaching materials, reflection and debate with their foreign colleagues. Another area of improvement is pedagogical innovation to be achieved by using digital technologies in a creative way, so as to support both international cooperation and independent learning.
Therefore this project aims to prepare teachers for an international dimension of education and adjust their didactic approach to the needs of the digital generations.
To achieve these aims we have planned two types of activities:
1. Job shadowing in two schools belonging to the "EuroLink virtual international school": L.S.S. Cosinmo De Giorgi (IT) and Pedro Cerrada (ES). We have planned thirteen mobilities in two years: eight to the Italian school (havo and vwo team members) and five to the Spanish school (vmbo and mavoXL team members). The participants in these mobilities will be able to gain experience of the different education systems in Europe and of the different learning/teaching approaches and will be able to establish professional relationships with colleagues of the same subjects who work abroad. These relationships should lead to projects run between the two schools over the eTwinning platform.
Participants will be selected from teachers of any subject, but will be spread evenly over the 5 teams involved (vmbo, mavoXL, havo onderbouw havo bovenbouw, vwo onderbouw en vwo bovenbouw) These teachers will need to be able to 'survive', linguistically speaking, in the foreign country. They also need to be able and willing to organise and carry out a project together with their foreign colleague and be willing to take part in the planned dissemination.
2. EBooks and mobile technologies training course offered by the University of Hull: It will be attended by four teachers interested in using innovative technologies inside and outside their classroom and in adopting a student-centred didactic approach, based on independent learning. Because the training course will be based in the UK, participants will be able to visit an English school, meet with teachers, observe lessons and talk to pupils. The course will be addressed to teachers of any subject having a basic digital competence, a sufficient knowledge of English, and willing to use the competencies they will acquire in their everyday teaching and in the creation of resources to be shared and disseminated.
Job shadowing will enrich the European dimension of the teachers involved. Through this experience, they will get in contact with education systems and pedagogical approaches different from the ones used in Italy and will draw from this contact elements of innovation that will be introduced in their teaching. Job shadowing will strengthen the existing cooperation between partners and will lay the foundations to carry out common projects.
After the eBooks and mobile technologies training course, teachers will acquire the competencies which are needed to develop an eBook autonomously. The training activity will enhance the participants' computer skills and will direct them to a teaching approach which meets the needs of the new digital generations. As a result, teachers will be able to use an interactive approach which enhances the learner's role.
All participants will share the experience they gained abroad so as to involve their team and in effect the whole school community in their achievements. Meetings with students and teachers will be organized to present the cultures and education systems of the countries where the jobshadowing took place; Team and Department meetings for teachers will be used to discuss the teaching strategies adopted abroad and projects devised and run. The teachers who attended the eBooks and mobile technologies training course will organize and support working groups for the creation of eBooks so as to share their newly acquired competencies with colleagues and students. The projects/courses made on eTwinning and eBooks will be used on a long-term basis, thus innovating our education.