**Revision to post Joe Dale's FlashMeeting session will start at 8.00GMT to allow more people to take part **

E-Twinning seems to be quite in vogue at the moment and we at Cefn Fforest Primary are flying the flag for Wales in Europe with the 2 projects with which we are involved.
Joe Dale a blogging and skype buddy of ours had the opportunity to visit the recent E-Twinning Conference in Brussels - along with people such as Ewan McIntosh, Jeff Howson (follow the link to projects and e-twinning) and Stephen Heppell amongst of course many others from around Europe. As Joe said ' it really brings home to you what E-Twinning is all about when you visit these events and see the networking of teachers from across the Community.
Joe managed to get an interview with Jeff and his colleague John Warwick on FlashMeeting
which is an excellent means of videoconferencing between schools in Europe ( I particularly recommend it for my partners around Europe to try it out). Unlike Skype which is well known to me, FlashMeeting does not require any software to be downloaded you simply make sure that you have your webcam and microphone set up and log on to the system and join your discussion area ( the administrator pre-books the time and likely number of participants). All schools who have joined the e-twinning webzone from the UK has automatically be allocated a FlashMeeting account, a fact not widely appreciated as far as I am aware.
In order to promote the use of FlashMeeting specifically amongst the MFL community Joe has organised a FlashMeeting get together online on March 8th at 7.00 GMT with the Theme 'Blogging and Podcasting: Creative and personalised ways of engaging and extending your pupils in the Modern Foreign Languages classroom' he has given a link to visit just prior to the start of the hour long session. It will be an excellent way for some of us novices to check out the potential of FlashMeeting in our European Projects... see you there on Thursday!!!!
Why not take a look at Joe's other thought s by following the links on the sidebar to Joe's blog site.

** Skype contact made with Italy**

It was great at lunchtime today I made skype contact with Daniela in Rome (Lazio). Daniela is the co-ordinator for an e-twinning project about the way in which our children play and the toys, that they play with. Daniela had been having a skype conversation with another partner in the project Kylli in Estonia. It is still amazing to me that sitting in my own classroom my pupils and I can talk to people around the globe.

Before speaking to Daniela I had a chat with Allanah King in New Zealand and Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach in Virginia Beach, USA - and all without moving from my chair.
Daniela and I went on to try a skype phone call - unfortunately the link to Italy or our IT equipment was not good today and we had a great deal of echo on the line, we plan to try again on Tuesday of this week.

A podcast of my discussion with Daniela on Tuesday evening.

We had a brilliant afternoon on Thursday when we drew pictures of ourselves as part of our new link with schools in Europe.

Global Links

Our links around the world and at home here in the UK are really gathering pace now. We have exchanged e-mail addresses and skype details with Kenmore Park First School, and one of their Year 3 teacher Pam Williams. We hope to develop our project along the lines of giving each other instructions for making design technology 'Moving Monsters', we also hope to create for each other a 'mural' made up of individual jigsaw images showing the views and customs of our own areas.( found in British Council booklet 'Learning World' issue 14 January 2007)

Our link with Allanah King and Moturoa Class Appleby School New Zealand is ticking over even though the they are currently still on their summer break - back soon...

We have dipped our toes into the E-Twinning Project - this is a site which puts together schools all around the European Union- allowing them to develop links between classes and pupils.
We are moving towards links with 2 schools in Italy ( one in Lazio and one in Lombardy)who are working with Lower Primary aged pupils, The school in Lazio has been working with schools all across Europe looking at customs and the toys and games that the pupils in each country play with. The other school uses a traveling toy to discover how people live in other countries.

** Comenius Links within EU **

I have been considering for a while dipping my/our toes into this scheme, run by the European Community as a means of enabling schools within Europe to link or twin in order to help pupils and teachers learn more about the way in which another EU country/school operates.
To do this we need to find a partner school within the European Union with the same general idea - so this is by means of a plea to anyone viewing this blog within the EU to let me know that they would be interested in developing a link ( deadline for applications is March 2007, hence time is of the essence).
I also look forward to comments from anyone who has been involved in a Comenius Project in the recent past...