Ciara Rock has been been teaching Spanish in Salesian Secondary College, Limerick since 2013. For more than ten years Ciara has used eTwinning to work in partnership with IES Cuatro Caminos school in Spain - but plans have suddenly changed due to the Coronavirus pandemic. Ciara explores how technology helped teachers and students to adapt their project and ways of learning.
Our project '4 Ways to Change' with our partner school IES Cuatro Caminos in Extremadura has run into a couple of difficulties following school closures.
Poster preparation to create awareness
Initially, our project began after a visit to the school by our eTwinning partners. The students brainstormed ideas and the result was ‘4 ways to Change’. The premise was to get our school communities thinking about the little things we can all do to make a difference to the environment, and the impact we have through the choices we make in our daily lives. Areas like the 3 Rs (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle), planting, combatting Fast Fashion through clothes swaps, and the use of music to build awareness were all on the agenda.
To date, we have managed to complete most of the tasks. The school closures mean we have both been delayed completing one task each, and may not be able to do so until we return to our buildings. There is an even greater element of mystery as students complete video clips and research on their own, without knowing or being able to discuss what the end product will look like!
Our fantastic Spanish and Irish participants
However, we adapted to help us complete the project - take our planting task, for example! Instead of planting in our school, the Irish students started planting at home: flowers in pots, using part of a basil plant to grow more basil plants, growing avocado plants from seed, sowing potatoes, constructing raised vegetable beds and even promoting bio-diverse sections in gardens to allow natural plants and insects (especially bees) to thrive.
All the different planting projects
Fingers crossed we do get to complete the final task when schools are open again. Technology has allowed us to finish everything else!
¡Manten la distancia y salva el planeta!
We welcome contributions to ‘Insights’ at comms@leargas.ie.
