Cross-cultural encounters: connecting teachers across the Baltic Sea

 

Connecting teachers and starting partnerships across the Baltic Sea

Networking webinar for BSP teachers in secondary education (students aged 13 – 18)

Time: Tuesday October 27th 14– 17:00 and 
                Wednesday October 28th 14 – 17:00 (CET) 

Place: Online on Teams

Organised by: UNESCO BSP

Registration (at latest October 23rd): https://forms.gle/FtsA8jYuam6jZfq86 

What is Baltic Sea Project?

The Baltic Sea Project (BSP) is an international network of schools belonging to UNESCO Associated Schools Network (ASPnet).

"As partners in UNESCO ASPnet School Network we belong to a global community of like-minded schools and connect, share knowledge and experiences and develop joint projects with tens of thousands of principals, teachers and students around the world." (UNESCO Associated Schools Network (ASPnet): Guide for Members, 2019)

Goal of the webinar 

As the General Coordinator (2018 - 2021) of BSP, Finland took the initiative to organize this webinar to support teachers’ cross-cultural collaboration. Following the BSP and ASPnet guidelines, the goal of this two-day webinar is to help BSP teachers from different countries in the Baltic Sea area (Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Russia and Finland) to connect and share ideas, in order to start learning projects dealing with issues close at heart of UNESCO values and BSP objectives. One important goal of the learning projects is to engage students in international collaboration and building of sustainable future. 

Focus on three thematic action areas

In the webinar and in the future projects we focus on ASPnet’s three thematic action areas: 

1. Global citizenship and a culture of peace and non-violence e.g. social and economic sustainability, shared history, social structures and democracy in countries surrounding Baltic Sea
2. Sustainable development and sustainable lifestyles e.g. protection of Baltic Sea, nature observations and climate change in the area surrounding Baltic Sea 
3. Intercultural learning and the appreciation of cultural diversity and heritage e.g. diversity of languages spoken and learned, literature, arts and crafts, living cultural heritage and sites

Webinar program (tbc) 

Tuesday, October 27th 

13:45                     Checking connections, instructions, housekeeping activities

14 – 14:30             Welcome and introduction to BSP 

14:30 – 15:45       Short presentations of successful learning projects implementing participatory
                             collaborative learning methods

• Global Citizenship Education
• Sustainable Development and Climate change 
• Circular economy
• Literature and reading
• Arts across Baltic Sea
• Living cultural heritage
• History and civics through larping

15:45 – 16:15      Break 

16:15 – 16:45      Short introductions to hands-on tools

• eTwinning
• iNaturalist (Gedy)
• Padlet as collaborative project tool
• Teams as collaborative project tool
• Google Drive

16:45 – 17           Questions and discussion

 

Wednesday, October 28th 

14 – 14:15          Welcome & instructions for the partner finding activities

14:15 – 14:30     Tips for using European platforms and applying for grants   

14:30 – 15           Partner finding (padlet)

15 – 15:45           Working on project ideas (groups in Teams)

15:45 – 16:15     Break

16:15 – 16:45     Presentation of project ideas 

16:45 – 17:00     Closing session

 

Paula Mattila                                 Tiina Sarisalmi

Unesco ASPnet National Coordinator Head of Project / Coordination of Finnish ASPnet
Finnish National Agency for Education         Schools
paula.mattila@oph.fi                            tiina.sarisalmi@orivesi.fi