Click on the picture to read the story.
TASK STEPS
Word selection
Initially, the partners suggested their favourite words and phrases connected with Christmas and exchanged ideas or wishes using the interactive wall padlet. Next, they selected the following most popular words:
Christmas, Silent night, carols, New year’s Day, present, snow, Christmas tree Santa Claus, snowman, gingerbread cookies, star of Bethlehem, Midnight Mass
Searching the Internet
The school partners searched the internet for the definition of the words in English as well as their translation and phonetic transcription in Polish and Greek. They used the Web sources: Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, Google Translator, Wikislownic.
Publication e-book
Next, the material was transformed to an e-book and the dictionary was published on the web using the digital publishing platform Calameo.
Prezi Presentation
An interactive presentation of the final dictionary was also created with the use of the web-based presentation software Prezi in order to share it with the school community.
eTwinning 2016-17
Zespol Szkol w Tarnawie, Poland collaborated with 5th Junior High School of Chania, Greece for the realization of the eTwinning project called Christmas Charm. The aim of the project was to celebrate Christmas through collaborative activities and share cultural elements from their traditions. The two schools worked together and realized the following tasks:
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Christmas card exchange
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Collaborative writing of a Christmas story
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Creating a digital English-Greek-Polish Christmas dictionary
The project was coordinated by the teachers Aggeliki Galanaki (Greece) and Agnieszka Wegrzyn (Poland).
The first task of the project was exchanging hand-made Christmas cards. We agreed with our partners that the cards should include not only our warm wishes but also information about our hometown and Christmas traditions expressed in English. The cards were sent to the partner schools via traditional post. When they reached their destination, we wished to display the cards together with the information we gathered to all the school community.
COLLABORATIVE WRITING OF A CHRISTMAS STORY
For the second task, the students co-wrote and illustrated a story entitled Christmas Miracle. For the realization of this task, a number of Web 2.0 tools was used promoting interactivity and cooperation among the students. The story is set in the middle of the forest at night on Christmas Eve (the night before Christmas). The main character is a little boy who lives in an orphanage and desperately dreams about having his own family.
Word selection
By using the tool Answergarden which allows online brainstorming, the partners chose to include the following keywords:
Christmas Eve, Christmas carols, presents, happy, Christmas tree, snow, snowman
Collaborative writing
The students from Greece and Poland wrote the story inspired by the Christmas spirit using a collaborative writing tool called Meetingwords which allows group writing at the same time.
Title voting
By using the tool Tricider which allows online voting, the students voted for the best title of their story.
Illustrating the story
Next, the students illustrated their Christmas story with drawings either made by hand or digitally using the online software Storyboardthat.
Publication
At the end, the story was transformed to an e-book and was published on the web using the digital publishing platform Calameo.
TASK STEPS
CREATING THE DIGITAL ENGLISH-GREEK-POLISH CHRISTMAS DICTIONARY
The third task involved the school partners in making a digital dictionary of the most popular words and phrases connected with Christmas in the three languages.
PROJECT EVALUATION
At the end of the eTwinning project Christmas Charm, we wished to evaluate all the activities in which we participated. To this end, partners used the sharing tool Stickymoose to express their opinion of the tasks and share ideas.
Finally, school partners created their speaking avatars using the web application Voki to talk about their eTwinning experience as well as say goodbye to their friends.
DESCRIPTION
CHRISTMAS CARD EXCHANGE
Click on the pictures to listen to the students.
Click on the pictures to read the dictionary.
