Being selected to go to any eTwinning seminar, conference or onsite course is a blessing, no matter where it takes place, no matter how long it is. I have lost count of the multiple training sessions that I was lucky enough to have, thanks to eTwinning since my journey started 10 years ago. This course topic was of particular interest to me because I wear many hats in my school , being both responsible for CPD as well as for leading the Student Councils, and bringing innovation to both target groups and making them more future-ready is one of my responsibilities, too.
The journey led me to Vienna, my favourite European capital how could one not love Vienna?! I spent the evening before the event roaming the streets of the Slovak capital, together with Daniela Bunea, of course. Daniela visited Moldova and delivered speeches at Moldovan eTwinning events not only once, and we had eTwinning projects together, so surely we had many things to talk about.
Among others, teacher wellbeing, communication with parents and setting healthy boundaries was one of them. I think the relationship teacher-student, or more correctly, teacher โ parent, is very similar in many countries, regardless of the culture, habits etc. Parents are parents everywhere. My message to Daniela, and to the other educators out there, is that we are the ones building this relationship with parents, and setting clear rules makes no harm, especially when both sides want what is best for the children.
In this respect, Heritage International School has lots of good practices to share. I think that organising a global webinar on the topic would be very beneficial and successful. Why not? The first day of the conference was totally mind blowing! The keynote speakers were so inspirational, that we felt pity when the opening part was over! We had the representative of the EC in Bratislava, Vladimir Sucha, speak, and we also had a representative of the Ministry of Education in Slovakia as speaker, giving insights of Slovak schools in eTwinning and prospects for the future.
What impressed me enormously was Olivia Hurbanova, Chief Thought Provoker from HighBrows, who spoke about intellectual humility and positive skepticism and how important this is for developing future skills in our learners. On the second day, we were presented with examples of European Prize winning projects. Having evaluated European Prizes for many years, I can only say that Tatiana and her partner presented outstanding work, worthy of all praise and prizes!
