We are two teachers, a preschool class teacher and a sixth grade class teacher from Orivesi, who participated in an eTwinning project last school year. Now we are applying for a national eTwinning quality label, and in the application form we were asked to explain what kind of impact this project had on our pupils and on our work as a teacher. 

We see that our eTwinning collaboration was a wonderful learning experience, and we think all school classes should participate in an eTwinning project! 

In our eTwinning project Finnish-Italian digital recipe book pupils, parents and our school staff members learnt about the food culture of our partner country, Italy. We participated in the project with our preschool class and our 6th grade class. Our partner school is located in a small village Challand Saint Victor in Aosta valley in Italy.

Our pupils shared recipes, pictures, and cooking videos with the Italian project partners. During the project period, our pupils got to know each other online. Pupils taught each other about their own country and its food culture. In this project, our pupils have two kinds of collaborations: They collaborated with the Italian partner school pupils, but in addition, the preschool class and the older pupils at our schools collaborated, and they participated in the project together. 

We created a project schedule together with our pupils and brainstormed all the project activities together with them. We took into account the holidays of our the project period (both Finland and Italy), and all food traditions associated with these holidays. 

Our eTwinning project got an extra flavour from Italy when at the end of our eTwinning project period, we visited our eTwinning partner school in Italy with our Erasmus+ accreditation funding. The Finnish pupils from Orivesi had the possibility to visit Italy to get acquainted with the Italian food and food culture firsthand!

Pupils' thoughts on our project: 

• The project topic was fun! 
• 6th graders: It was nice to collaborate with our preschool class.
• It was cool to bake together during school hours.
• The 6th graders' favourite part was editing videos
• This collaborative project work helped to strengthen our class's sense of community.
• We didn't like that the partner school's pupils were of a different age. We would have preferred to communicate with peers of our own age.

Teachers' thoughts on our project: 

• This was our class's first eTwinning project. We learnt how to collaborate online. 
• We participating teachers, the pupils, parents, and our entire school learnt about Italian food culture and how to cook Italian food.
• The next project should be with same aged pupils.
• This project contributed to the development of pupils' transversal competencies.
• Working in English contributed to the achievement of English language learning objectives.
• Pupils gained valuable experience in positive interaction, where the most important thing is the conveyance of the message.
• Pupils learnt that they can manage in English and that their own language skills are sufficient. The project increased pupils' confidence significantly in communicating in English!
• The Finnish pupils learnt how Italians talk with their hands and how excited and loud they get! The Italian pupils learnt how the Finnish pupils were shy at the beginning, but once they got to know each other, they made good friends.
• The pupils also learnt about personal space and how it's different in Italy and in Finland. 
• The project helped our pupils to understand how culture affects communication and made them better at talking with people from other countries.
• In the next project, we need to remember to document all the project phases with photos, videos or screenshots.

Tanja & Vera
Rovastinkankaan koulu