EQL 2019

A total of 1288 projects received the European Quality Label on 30 October for their outstanding work. I am proud to say that six projects I started and/or collaborated on with my students are among them:

• Professor Balthazar travels around Europe / Profesor Baltazar putuje Europom;
• A Funny School Year;
• Famous people in Europe;
• Hello, I am Charlie from London;
• A Bridge across the World;
• European Day of Languages Celebration.

The European Quality Label is awarded by the Central Support Service (CSS) to teachers in a project which:
- has been proposed for the European Quality Label by at least one National Support Service, after a screening process.
- includes at least two partners that have received the National Quality Label.

All about me

This autumn I asked my Class 8 students to create their own Padlets and post everything that interests them there. Here is the result.

eSafety

 Being safe online is very important. It's one of the topics we cover in our lessons as well.

My Class 4 students checked how much they know about eSafety in quizzes prepared by our eTwinning friends and later created their avatars. We used the Lino online board to post the avatars and write the introduction.

The Flex Programme

Branislav Nolin, a Grammar School student who spent 10 months in the USA as an exchange FLEX student organised an interesting presentation for Class 8 students on 3 October. 

First, he introduced the FLEX programme funded by the US Department of State, explained the criteria and methods of appying and testing. He also shared a few tips on how to complete the application.

Then, he talked about his host family and friends he met in the USA, his school, the town he lived in, voluntary work and his trip around the USA. 

A classroom full of students showed interest in the American laws, school subjects, and after school activities.

This was an excellent opportunity for Class 8 students to find out more about the American way of life and education system from a person who has recently experienced it. Several of them expressed their willingness to apply for the Scholarship in the next round.

European Day of Languages 2019

Most of this year's European Day of Languages activities were connected to language challenges and an eTwinning project Language Mission: Possible! founded by an Italian teacher and me. 

My younger students and I recorded video messages and learned how to count to 10 in different languages.

My older students decided on more than 30 language challenges.

We also organised language quizzes for our older students. They listened to and tried to guess the language spoken in the Which language is it? game or to match English and Serbian idioms. A few students also said poems in Greek, Spanish and Chinese. Judging by their comments, they all had a lot of fun. 

The activity is part of this year's Council of Europe Event Calendar and Intelligence Day events.

European Language Label 2019

For the first time this year, teachers from our country were given a chance to participate in the competition for innovative and creative initiatives in the field of teaching and learning languages.

I decided to send three applications to the competition and am proud that all three of the projects my students and I took part in were recognised as good examples and were awarded Certificates of Honour:

• Green Kids,
• Famous People in Europe and
• It is only with the heart that one can see rightly.

What's more, they're in the online collection of the examples of good practice.

NQL 2019

This July/August, our National eTwinning Support Service awarded 309 projects with Quality Labels. Nine projects I started and/or collaborated on with my students are among them:

- Family Matters: A wide-ranging project

- My Place: Project activities are presented and visible with the involvement of students through planning, evaluations, materials. All participants worked on common topics, that are presented in a transparent way.
- Professor Balthazar travels around Europe: 3rd grade elementary school learners were active participants in the project. They exchanged drawings, videos, postcards with their peers from Europe.
- Green Kids: A well-planned and well-executed project. Visible results and good dissemination.
- A Bridge Across the World: This is a fairly structured project, with a high level of pupil’s involvement and products, many of which by using ICT tools.
- Famous People in Europe: Huge project (84 teachers, 492 pupils), plenty of materials. Serious division of duties. A large number of results.
- European Day of Languages Celebration: The project shows good organization and planning, as well as dedication and involvement of the founder of the project. Strong points are collaboration and use of various ICT tools.
- A Funny School Year: It seems that the participants have enjoyed very much having chance to see how other schools organize similar events. That is the main benefit of this project.
- Hello, I am Charlie from London: A simple and well-designed project.