Teaching at home due to Covid-19? This is how teachers in Georgia are coping with the situation
Teachers and students are excited and engaged whilst they are learning, and they are also able to share a lot of their experiences with their partners from all over Europe and beyond. The current situation has certainly not dampened their enthusiasm and with the help of eTwinning, teachers remain dedicated and continue with their work so that they can keep keeping their students connected and motivated.
Rusudan Karkadze is an enthusiastic Georgian teacher with 15 years of experience.
In 2013, I was the first teacher to register on eTwinning from my school and since then, I have supported and encouraged lots of colleagues from my school and also other schools to become eTwinning members. I am currently involved in a project which we begun as a result of the current situation. The name of the project is “I’m S.A.F.E”.Our project focuses on ways to help us protect ourselves from Covid-19 and this project went on throughout March. Project activities included:
- Project preparation work. Creating posters, logos, promotional material and webinars
- Gathering / Collecting information from a specialist doctor
- Drawing pictures and creating posters and brochures about Covid-19
- Carrying out a street interview and producing a video about Covid-19
- Making soap
- Project evaluation
During these difficult times, I feel that it is important to remain inspired and motivated. eTwinning helps me to educate my students to a high standard, to keep them motivated and engaged and I can also support and encourage my other colleagues by sharing this experience.Nowadays, eTwinning projects and digital tools are incomparable. I regularly use the digital tools and resources that I gain from the projects, workshops and seminars. We mainly use as a teaching platform, for group work activities, as a great way to carry out different types of tasks, and as it is easy to stay anonymous and answer questions freely without hesitating. We also use some other digital tools for students’ involvement and motivation: , , , , and a lot more Web 2.0 tools. eTwinning has greatly influenced my life. It has had a positive impact not only on my professional and personal development but also on my teaching methods and the classroom environment for my students.
Nino Tamarashvili is a secondary teacher from Georgia with 9 years of teaching experience.
My school is called Opiza and is in the suburbs of the capital city of Georgia. The school has three floors and more than 500 students. School starts at 9 am and ends at about 2pm and each lesson lasts for 45 minutes.
This year’s project is called “Easy Zero Waste”. The aim is to increase pupils’ awareness of environmental problems such as plastic pollution, water shortages and global warming. We also want the students to understand how important it is for all of us to take daily actions so that together, we can help save our planet. For example, by reducing our waste and consumption, and by educating ourselves and others in surrounding areas on how to live a zero waste life.
The last activity was dedicated to earth day and for this, they have planned a video conference with the partner schools to share their experiences. Due to the current situation, online learning has highlighted more than ever before the need for digital skills and my students and I are lucky to have had such a huge experience. We actively use IT tools both in classes and as part of the students’ homework.
Ideas for students:
- Watching inspirational movies and writing reports
- Story telling classes (we read short stories, discuss them and change the endings)
- Reading authentic newspaper articles (good activity for studying new vocabulary and speaking about different topics)
- Playing and creating quizzes by Kahoot
- Writing diaries/blogs
- Discussing photos representing a particular issue and then writing photo captions on Padlet or Linoit
- Designing posters using different IT tools such as or
I am immensely grateful to the programme because my teaching career has completely changed and as a result, my classroom has become a better place. The students are genuinely fascinated and engaged when they observe and connect with their peers from different countries and see what activities they are doing.
According to Rusudan and Nino, eTwinning is a great way to go beyond the classroom walls, share your work and thoughts, develop 21st century skills and have lots of fun.