Successfully Piloting eTwinning into Finnish Teacher Training

Our eTwinning project Wellbeing, Joy and Happiness was all about being creative, learning new languages and having fun during the pandemic situation. We wanted our 4th graders from UEF Teacher Training School in Joensuu, Finland, to share joyful moments with peer pupils in Poland and Spain. Unfortunately, because of the exceptional situation only the Finnish pupils working in their home environments could participate the actual workshops. The Polish and Spanish partners will each produce their part mutually when the schools will be opened again.

The Finnish pupils participated in five various workshops full of joyful activities we student teachers held during one school day in May 2020. The whole process − the mentoring of student teachers as well as implementing of project activities − was carried out completely virtually using multiple devices and applications. All the pupils used their tablets provided by the school to join Google Meet and share their files in Google Drive. Furthermore, during some of the workshops described below, we used applications such as Voice Memo, Windows Movie Maker and Clips. Finally, to build a virtual output of all the pupils’ joyful work, we made an e-book by using BookCreator.

Workshops full of joy and happiness

Based on their own interests and passions, the participating pupils had a choice between five different workshops. By giving the pupils multiple options, we could encourage every participant to join the fun eagerly and to complete the creative tasks with enthusiasm. This worked perfectly, as the pictures, video clips and podcasts showed joy and positive attitude. Next, we will briefly describe each of our workshops held by student teachers. If you wish, you can also look at the descriptions in Finnish by clicking this link to our Pop Up School.

 1 Let’s draw happy faces! − Iloa kasvokuvista

The pupils who attended this workshop were invited to draw happy portraits. First, the student teacher gave some general instructions and guidance about drawing faces, but the main thing was to create personal drawings. The pupils drew their own artwork and took pictures of them which then were uploaded on a shared Google Drive folder.

2 Good News! Podcast from Finland - Hyviä uutisia! Radiolähetys Suomesta

In this workshop, the pupils set out to produce some podcasts. Our overall theme was wellbeing, joy and happiness, so we decided to talk about things that brought us joy and made us happy. For one of the groups this meant talking about May Day and the traditional treats and activities people in Finland do to celebrate the occasion. The other group decided to talk about the Saimaa ringed seal and how the growing amount of these cute, round mammals has made us happy.

The pupils first either collaborated or worked individually to write small excerpts on their chosen topic. Then, they recorded themselves reading their own little pieces using a recording app on their school iPads. They sent their finished recordings to Google Drive, and the student teacher then engaged in some Movie Maker magic to edit the multiple recordings into a cohesive podcast, one podcast for each group.

3 Create a Character! -  Keksi hauska, iloinen hahmo ja pukeudu!

Each pupil of the workshop created a character and described it by giving it a name, age, and something the character liked. The pupils had the opportunity to go through all the wardrobes at home and dress up. After everyone had dressed up as their character, they took a picture with hidden faces and uploaded the photos into Google Drive. Additionally, we wanted to share to our international peers what ordinary Finnish names are like, hence the majority of our brilliant characters were named in a very typical Finnish way.

4 Inspiring photos - Hyvän mielen valokuvia

This workshop was about taking pictures about things that bring joy and happiness to the pupils. Each pupil took a picture about something that makes them happy and the results are joyful: lots of animals, important items and pictures showing hobbies. The pictures were uploaded on Google Drive and shared with Spanish and Polish peers to bring joy and happiness.

5 Let's move! - Kaikki liikkumaan!

The pupils who attended this workshop created sporty video clips that they designed and shot themselves. The main idea was to create video clips that express the joy of doing sports and inspire the viewer to try out the moves themselves. The finished clips were cheerful: the pupils showed gymnastics, stretching, tennis and dance moves and many more. Using the Clips App, the pupils were able to add fun emojis, instructions and greetings to the video clips to greet viewers. Clearly, the pupils found it fun to edit the videos and so to personalize them.

Rewarding learning experience for future teachers

The overall experience was impressive mainly from two perspectives. On one hand, we had fun producing these workshops and creating the e-book Wellbeing, Joy and Happiness which we have recently published on our eTwinning project TwinSpace. By making a collaborative e-book, which includes all the material from the five workshops, we got an opportunity to share our production with pupils from Spain and Poland as well. On the other hand, the whole project was a great learning experience for all of us participating this project − the student teachers, and the pupils and even their parents, since the pupils were studying at home. In the following section, we will discuss the learning experiences we, the future teachers, got during this project.

There was a lot of preparation before the workshops: with the great help of our more experienced teacher educators, we thoroughly brainstormed and planned different activities for child motivating and activating workshops. We wanted the workshops to be versatile and enjoyable. Additionally, because the workshops were organized completely virtually, we had to be creative to develop tasks that could be carried out at home with all the material usually found there. Thus, a lot of paper, pens, clothes and everyday objects were used successfully by the pupils.

The most rewarding experience we student teachers had was the joy to interact with pupils we maybe had never met before and to see all the creative and fun ideas they came up with. This was exactly the ultimate goal: to have fun, be creative, and communicate with the pupils through different languages. It would have been more fun if it had been possible to have the workshops together with the Polish and Spanish peers.

UEF student teachers 

University Teacher Training School piloting eTwinning − Towards global classrooms

University of Eastern Finland UEF has made an agreement to incorporate eTwinning as part of the teacher training programme. This was the very first time to include a partnership project into a training period. Two projects “Animal rescue trip”, and the one discussed above, “Wellbeing, joy and happiness”, were carried out as a selection of workshops during one week in April. The complete number of participants was 14 student teachers, 64 4th graders, and 4 teacher educators from the UEF Teacher Training School.

At the time of the projects we all were working online so educational technology was in a significant role. We all took a huge leap in this kind of an educational setting. It was a challenge to guide the pupils online to swap between various platforms and applications. Partly, while working, the feeling was ‘chaotic’ but we succeeded in supporting each other in finding practical solutions before, during, and after the workshops.

During the project we had a learning community, consisting of 10-year-old pupils, novice teachers and more experienced teachers. We learned from each other as we went along. There was versatile support from adults to children, from children to adults, and all kinds of peer support among the participants. We were facing new situations side by side. The project showed us how important sharing, encouragement, positive attitude and situational creativity are for a successful project like this.

In future, we wish to launch more multicultural and multilingual collaborative projects. We invite teacher educators with their student teachers and pupils to participate in projects like this. With the available technology and creative, talented pupils the sky is the only limit. Wouldn’t it beneficial for Finnish teacher educators to make more use of the eTwinning network to enhance pupils’ and student teachers’ global skills and pedagogy needed in that?

Written by University of Eastern Finland UEF student teachers Mika Aromaa, Mia Korhonen, Renja Lindroos, Emilia Nisula and Viljami Viskari, and the closing part by the teacher educators from UEF Teacher Training School PhD Hilkka Koivistoinen and MA Hanna Yletyinen. &