eTwinning teams laura maffei

Introducing eTwinning Teams

“Coming together is a beginning,

staying together is progress, and working together

is success”

H. Ford

Laura Maffei – eTwinning Conference 2011, Budapest

Building eTwinning teams is possible

( and you will )

Despite – or thanks to – individual teachers’ differences

We think white!

I think black…

Now let’s think TWIN

!

Laura Maffei – eTwinning Conference 2011, Budapest

All that you need:

Patience

Trust

Committment

shared goals

communication

Time

A reliable partner!

Why do teachers feel isolated ?

…and why eTwinners ?

• eTwinners often say they don’t feel appreciated in their working situation

• They have little or no support from their colleagues/ principals

• Their ideas and goals are misunderstood or even hindered

• Lots of teachers are grateful to eTwinning for having found like-minded colleagues…

…in a different country !

• It looks like it’s easier for teachers to work together when they’re some thousands of kms away

Laura Maffei – eTwinning Conference 2011, Budapest

• We are usually alone in the classroom

• We have different ideas about what can/cannot work for our students

• We have different experiences

• We have different teaching styles

maybe becausebeing teachers…

We are not

trained to work in a

team !

and what’s more…

Laura Maffei – eTwinning Conference 2011, Budapest

and being eTwinning teachers…

• We introduce innovation

• Innovation means change

• any structured group at the beginning resists to change

• Innovation is felt as a threat to the status-quo

• or worse as criticism (you change something when it was not good enough)

• We believe ICT – if properly exploited – can be learning tools

• but some teachers are scared of ICT

• scared of change, scared of having to learn as well as teach

• scared of someone questioning their role (something the eTwinning teacher never meant)

Teacher

professionalflexible

authoritative

dynamic

accurate

multi-tasked

ICT literate

enthusiasticwell-organized

qualified supp

ortiv

e

Team Player ?

motivated

Cooperative learning• Team Learning:

“success for all”

• Learners work together in groups

• They share a common goal

• Individual diversities enrich the group

• Different individuals complement one another

if it works with students, it must

work with teachers as well (lifelong

learners)

Cooperative teaching

Teaching teams… and us !• Our project was born

naturally as an answer to our needs

• We’ve been working on teachers communities (LLT, teachers’ blogs, groups…) for a while

• Many of our colleagues already knew of our past projects and were curious about them

• …so the real thing came before we knew of any theories !

• We eventually found out team working had been studied for the last 60 years

• companies are interested in the development of profitable team-work

• employees are selected to fit in a team

• But teaching is a very special kind of job…

The “good” teacher ?• In our project Lifelong Learning Teachers we

asked the members to define the “good teacher”

• We had a variety of answers, all of them focusing on the single teacher – again, the problem of feeling isolated was underlined

• Now, research-based evidence (and our personal experience) shows that the most successful learning environments are those fostering collaborative team teaching, as opposed to simply identifying individual “good” or “bad” teachers

Laura Maffei – eTwinning Conference 2011, Budapest

Our magic word:• A team of teachers

includes different teaching styles, which is perfect to meet the different students’ needs

• Fragmentation among subjects is overcome (disciplinary contents are interrelated)

• When teachers collaborate, they actually become lifelong learners

• The quality of teaching is improved, as various experts approach the same topic from different perspectives

• Assessment is more reliable

• By interacting, teachers learn new strategies, insights, tecniques

• In a team teachers feel safe enough to experiment with innovation

• There’s immediate professional feedback

TOGETHER

eTwinning teamsbenefits of any teaching team

+ the eTwinning factor

• European dimension

• Use of ICT

• Use of language in a real context

• Cooperative learning

• Professional development

• Learning to learn

Quality of education

Build your team !

• Talk about your project idea to all the people you are planning to involve

• Ask for suggestions (and take them into consideration)

• Ask for support from your Principal (you’re introducing an innovation)

• Introduce your eTwinning partner(s)

• Allow adequate planning time

• Introduce eTwinning to newbies (why eTwinning)

...and make it clear it is not meant for ICT-addicts and nerds

• Ask for help from colleagues

• Keep things simple

• Use humour !

…but don’t spoil the fun

• Don’t try to involve all your colleagues: choose the people you want to work with

• Don’t involve too many people (a large team is difficult to manage)

• Don’t throw cold water over the others’ ideas just because you’re more experienced

• Don’t scare the others: you’re not suggesting they change their teaching but they widen it

• Don’t try to force them into working in the TwinSpace if they aren’t familiar with ICT: suggest the students do this

• Don’t cheat… eTwinning is time-consuming (still, at the very beginning, there’s no need to mention your countless extra hours at the pc!)

• Don’t keep you eTwinning partner for yourself:the more your colleagues work with him/her, the more they will feel part of the project

Real- life mistakes (yes, we made them!)

TwinZillas

The greedy

eTwinners you don’t want to be

The one and only pioneer

The ICT-possessed

Push your colleagues into

ICT and they will hate you (and eTwinning as

well)

Being in a team, you’re supposed to

go from “my treaSSSure” to

“ours” (please, share the spotlight)

Give the other members of the

team the opportunity to

explore (you can’t always be first)

• In our experience we found that teachers are often eager to try new approaches

• but the stressing day-to-day routine often make them give up

• When you feel overwhelmed, the task of taking new initiative seems more than you can deal with

Many problems (and some solutions, too)

Problem n.1:

dysfunctional settingEven the best

teams cannot be successful within a

dysfunctional school

Problems in the management of the school will turn the team into an outlet

for all individual frustrations

Possible solution

Create a small, closely-knit team, two/three colleagues that really trust and respect

each other: that will be a beginning

Possible solution

Rely more on the students. Let them feel responsible.

Let them market your project with parents and

colleagues.

Problem n.2:

lack of ICT and language competences

• Let the teachers self-select according to interest in a topic or in a methodology

• Then allow time to choose individual roles and responsability

• Once the project is running, members of the team will complement each other

• …and the students will do the rest!

the teachers interested in joining in can hardly hold a

mouse…

they cannot speak the

language of partnership

or

• The “there’s only a way, and I already know it ” excuse

• The “I’m the first lady / leading man”

• The “no money – no play” philosophy of life

• The loner: “There will be only one”

Problem n.3:

conflict between teachers

No way out

( no shared goal = no

goal at all )

Problem n.4:

teachers’ insecurity

• but I’ve got no time

• but I’ve got too many deadlines to meet

• but only if it’s MY idea

• but I need more time to think about it

• but I’ve got such a difficult class this year

• but…

the BUTs collection: I’d like to try…

We all feel insecure when

starting something new.

If your colleagues’ interest is

genuine, ask them to join:

time, and pupils, will do the trick

for you

…so that’s our story

we just needed a partner to start flying

others will follow !Laura Maffei – eTwinning Conference 2011, Budapest