Day 5, 11/10 job shadowing

Our final day has been a very productive and rewarding one. We had three kinds of meetings today with Eva: 1. on school curriculum, project practices in Slovakia explained (Erasmus+, Norway grants to name a few) some of which are on display on classes and school corridors' walls. Interesting to hear about their sustainable fashion and furniture project with Austria but also their paper and plastic recycling practice, where 5 students(ambassadors) check the class recycling bins afew times per month. Also, projects in the economics class QR coded. 2.Sharing good ICT practices: integration into the teaching and learning process. 3. Meeting with the Headmistress and receiving our participation certificates and a gift bag with beautiful presents inlcuding a USB with valuable educational material and teaching ideas. I must admit I have been amazed at the wide variety of projects that have been taking place at the school and the upcoming ones. So much dedication and hard work! I'm grateful for Eva sharing her project experiences with us and the final project outcomes including board games, all of which I consider excellent practices: https://gymrv.edupage.org/a/integrated-literacy-in-action?eqa=dGV4dD10ZXh0L3RleHQ0MiZzdWJwYWdlPTIwJnNrZ2R5ZWFyPTIwMjQ%3D https://gymrv.edupage.org/a/pamati-europy-historicke https://gymrv.edupage.org/a/ekologicky-sa-zelenit-je-casom-overeny-hit https://handbook4rspreaders.org/index.php The discussion led to digital technologies(specifically apps) that produce teaching material, games and other which enrich the teaching and learning process: Prezi AI (https://prezi.com/features/ai/), Questionwell (https://questionwell.org/), Genially app (https://genially.com/), wakelet- like a wallet for all your work (https://wakelet.com/). All put in one word: amazing! The final meeting with the Headmistress has been an opportunity to express my gratitude and many thanks for their initiative to hold a job shadowing mobility and provide such a productive and effective event which gave me the opportunity to learn from them, exchange ideas, meet with their staff but also teachers from other countries attending the job mobility, and making plans for future collaboration.

Day 4: Job shadowing

We set off with a group meeting to discuss aspects of the curriculum: materials used, student evaluation, CLIL, bilingual programme to name a few. It was an interesting discussion that revealed similarities and differences between the Slovakian curriculum with Cyprus' curriculum and the other participants' curriculum (Spanish, Lithuanian). Also, there were lesson observations of English and French. Both included cooperative learning strategies and formative assessment via digital tools/apps. The english language topic was holidays/celebrations and focused on the countries that we (job shadowing participants) come from; thus, a game-based and fun cultural lesson. The main activities were: -a card game where students had to guess the holidya/celebration based on clues given -matching celebrations with the countries The French lesson was about clothes. The clothes were initially displayed on the projector screen, the students worked in small groups, and lastly they illustrated their learning with an activity using Plickers https://get.plickers.com/. The day program finished with visits to the museum, the Mausoleum and the water mill. All of them are significant cultural and historical monument of Slovakia.

Day 3:Job Shadowing

The learning experience continues with 4 more lesson observations in Physics, Biology, Economics and Civics. Interesting to observe lessons of other disciplines besides English language which provided examples of authentic learning,collaborative work and critical thinking. They all provided answers or solutions to real life questions/scenarios. Physics also illustrated how to take pictures of objects in motion and calculate size/distance. The Biology lesson has been highly interactive and hands-on (various types of equipment including tablets and mobile phones have been used in the tasks). All students were engaged in all tasks(completed tasks in turns) and received a small reward for their completing their work on time. The presence of the white snake named "Ghost" in the Biology room has also been a surpise to the teacher participants.A second surprise to me was to see the Headmistress teach whereas in Cyprus, principals do not teach. This has been the first time I observed an Economics lesson: a very useful lesson and one that develops enterpreneurshop skills (use of memimeter to identify what students learned from previous lesson, introduction of new topic, scenario for problem solving in groups, presentation of group work. The Civics lesson (a subject in the bi-lingual course)on mental health indicated the importance of students' mental health and need to deal with stress they might have. Apparently, this is a subject which is not included in the Cyprus' curriculum. It's importance stands out!!! The day's programme continued with afternoon visits to nature and cultural monuments: Gombasek cave, Betliar manor house.

Day 2

Another learning experience via lesson observation of Maths/It, History and CLIL and cultural visits. I've had an interesting lesson observation experience of lessons in the bi-lingual course and a CLIL one on planets with English being the language of instruction. Apparently, there has been good use of the interactive board and tablets, an interactive formative assessment activity at the end of a lesson with the use of Quizziz,use of app (https://www.baamboozle.com/) for game-based learning, co-operative learning strategies used, scenarios for problem solving, use of cards for discussion, critical thinking questions, student presentations of group work. For younger students,CLIL(topic:planets), has been creative and fun with the use of drawing,presenting and game-based learning. Apparently, CLIL works! The afternoon visit to Košice has been a cultural learning experience. A friendly and picturesque city with its dancing waters,St. Elizabeth's cathedral, St. Michal's chapel, St. Urban Tower, The state Theatre are some of the historical and cultural monuments of the city. The photos and videos I've taken of the monumements will serve as material for teaching in various disciplines i.e English, History, Geography etc.

 JOB SHADOWING Slovakia 7-11 October 2024

Day 1

"Erasmus+ connects us". This is No1 impact of Erasmus. Connections lead to collaboration and partnerships. Job shadowing means sharing practices, deprivatizing teaching and learning from each other. The ultimate goal to make a contribution to student learning and providing our students with opportunities to learning and making connections.Travelling a whole day on Sunday 6th was worth it.  There was a very warm welcome by the school; the school headmistress, the coordinator, and  three students dressed in local costumes were waiting for us at the school doorstep. It was interesting meeting the rest of the jobshadowers from  Finland, Spain (Huelva and Tenerife) and Lithuania. It didn't take long to feel at ease. The headmistress' presentation about the school gave a picture of the school and its involvement in various programmes. The singing and dancing by students  provided a cultural experience. Walking in the school corridors and classes, I saw similarities and differences, including good practices i.e. the bell sound is music, there is time allocated to switching classses, lockers for students, recycling bins for paper, plastic in all rooms, interactive white board in the classes. It's been nice meeting in person the Principal, Vice-principal, other administrative staff and teaching staff.

It's been great observing three lessons: English, Italian and Russian. Interesting use of tools:interactive/gamified experience via  https://genially.com/,  teaching games via https://www.baamboozle.com/, word clouds via  mentimeter https://www.mentimeter.com/. Video on the importance of travelling at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MyqhDKNig88

 The school day ended with a tour in the city of Rožňava, where students were our tour guides.  It was nice to have a chance to chat with them. Learning and making connections via lesson observations, informal conversations during coffee breaks, lunch and dinner, cultural visits  make the Erasmus experience a dynamic and pleasant experience.

Lesson: Technology, Social Media_B class lyceum

It was interesting for  me, the teacher, to get students to reflect on the data analysis of surveys they have taken part in.  One was on the students' use of Messenger for the European Parliament School Programme (EPAS) and the other was a chart from our SELFIE school report on students' use of technology outside school.

  To be exact, I created a questionnaire on SurveyMonkey so as to see the impact of the use of Facebook Messenger  on two classes involved in the EPAS programme.  I find it interesting for me to start using Messenger after discussing with students ways to learn more about the EU Parliament and EU issues that affect them and all of us for that matter. 

  Some of the learning outcomes in the English language curriculum at B1+ B2 level is students to be able to interprete graphs, charts, draw conclusions and evaluate findings, make an argument and support it.  In light of this, the lesson was designed to serve this purpose.  

The following experiences and thoughts came out from this lesson:

-students provided reasons for claims they made

-they interpreted charts well using appropriate words and expressions for charts ( such expressions were taught in a previous lesson on unemployment in Cyprus and the EU, and they were brought up again)

-they evaluated the data and drew conclusions on them

-they discussed the use of Messenger for educational purposes

-the use of messenger (sharing material mainly in the form of videos and putting no restraints on students - it is up to them if they will watch them or not - overall, had a positive effect on student learning

-it was a motivation and challenge for students to post their comments on the European Youth Event website.  Some interesting and well-thought claims were made by the students

-f2fdiscussion in class extends to online via wiki discussion forums and other websites/blogs.  I must confess that there has been a good reason to increase  discussions for my classes; that is the results of the questionnaire entitled  Language awareness and Learning that was administered in our school in they year 2016-17.  Discussions was one of the top 3 activities that help students learn a language best. 

-it makes a lot of sense to get students watch videos for school work/programmes as indicated in the results of the questionnaire Language awareness and Learning.  Students prefer  to do  speaking, viewing and listening in class than reading and writing. (see Questionnaire results at:http://edleventslykeiokykkosb.wikispaces.com/Questionnaire

-I am glad that I have learned to be make instruction data driven

Overall, I think the lesson provided opportunities for students to develop 21st century skills. 

Informal interview via skype_1/2/2018

 

This lesson was an opportunity for the students to connect with a person living in another country, learn about life/studies/work in the UK which is an authentic, real life situation. It links to the thematic units of lifestyle, work, unemployment, education, culture. It has been students’ request to connect with people in other countries so this served as a motivation for students to learn.  What’s more, our school involvement in the “European Parliament Ambassador School Programme" (EPAS) inspired and urged me and my students to connect with people in other countries and learn about lifestyle and EU issues.

This lesson exemplified what I consider as one of the greatest uses of technology – that of connecting people from anywhere in the world.  In this case, skype was used for educational purposes where students applied their knowledge and skills to make an informal interview.

Specifically, the lesson offered students:

-a real audience

-an authentic task (real interview in real time)

-the experience of practising their listening and speaking skills in an interview

-developing cultural awareness by learning about culture in another country, the impact it has on people and comparing that culture with their own

-the chance to use social media (skype application) for educational purposes

I consider important to receive students’ feedback on lessons in general, especially when trying something new, for lesson evaluation and instruction planning.  This is why I got my students' feedback using voice recording. 

Lesson preparation: Frankly, the technical preparation for the skype session was little as it was limited to a laptop with a camera, speakers and internet access. That was what I had available for the day the skype session was arranged (1/2/2018), but we did it. Of course, this was adequate for the small group of students I had but for larger groups, a larger screen and headphones would be required. 


Overall, it was interesting to see my students' participating in the interview and being engaged throughout the lesson.  Interestingly, they adapted the questions when the interviewee gave information relating to questions they were planning to ask. They could retell the interviewee's answers and pinpointed key elements.  

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The draft of  questions the students' prepared were shared via messenger for quick access but also posted on the class wiki (only seen by users).