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Kielenopettajan täydennyskoulutus ja verkottuminen koko koulun etuna
Start date: Jul 1, 2014, End date: Jun 30, 2015 PROJECT  FINISHED 

Kirkonkylä Primary school in Mäntsälä hasn't had many international projects in the past. In addition, new and more effective learning and teaching methods should be developed especially when it comes to foreign languages or cultural competences. These two aspects play a key role in international projects. Pupils should be encouraged to use foreign languages (in our case: English) more spontaneously and with less fear, with the result that they become more confident when acting in various projects like eTwinning. Also the language skills and crosscultural skills of the teachers should be improved since they are the most important persons to deliver these skills and attitudes to the pupils. Especially it is important for the teachers of foreign languages (in our case: for the English teacher) to be able to go abroad to maintain and develop his/her language and professional skills. To be exact: this is the only effective way to do that. The school should have contacts and projects with other schools and teachers abroad. The projects and communication with them should be an essential part of school's everyday life. In our project an English teacher of our school is aiming to take part in a course in Great Britain at Horizon Language Training in Totnes. The objective of the course is to provide English teachers with new methods to improve their teaching especially when it comes to teaching speaking skills to the pupils. Especially for the Finns speaking and social skills are often the most difficult part of foreign language learning and therefore new methods to encourage and motivate the pupils are needed. Horizon Language Training has given us information and advice in selecting the best possible course which would satisfy our needs. The school will be responsible for the instruction according to the contents and schedule (which have been approved by us) and it will also find a host family for our teacher. In addition to new learning methods in teaching English, the aim of the project is to find new contacts for our school to develop new eTwinning- and Erasmus+-projects. It is also vital to disseminate the results in our school so that other English teachers can integrate the new teaching and learning methods to their way of teaching. Most teachers will hopefully start eTwinning- and other projects after getting contacts abroad provided by the English teacher, who will be an initiator in this process. A basis for assessment of the results are the improved learning outcomes of the pupils in English (tests, teachers' observation). The parental feedback is also a way to assess the results (e.g. increased motivation of the pupils). An increasing number of international projects like eTwinning also indicate a positive outcome of the project. After all, the school will integrate new strategies in its development plan considering international projects like eTwinning or Erasmus+. A special team will be built for this purpose. More teachers will be encouraged and obliged to integrate eTwinning or other international projects in their teaching as well as to participate in the Erasmus+ in the near future. Outside the school the results will be disseminated e.g. in parental meetings. Several events which aim at the professional development of the teachers in the whole commune (training courses) are also appropriate places to spread the results of the project. The new curricular for all the schools in the commune is being worked on at the moment and the project experiences could be used to develop and improve it. Longer term benefits of the project could be e.g. the increase of the number of EU-projects in the area, better language skills and better awareness ond openmindedness towards international affairs in general.

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