An overview of European solutions and experiences.
Supporting the continuation of teaching and learning during lockdown due to pandemic crisis has been a theme deeply discussed and investigated in all Countries facing the alert.Schools, more than political institutions, reacted to the emergency by using all they had in power. European schools have been closed since the early days of pandemic so to limit contacts between people and to slow down the spread of the virus. Italy was the first Country to officialize the closure of schools due to pandemic, followed by Albania, Greece, Czechia and Romania, as reported by Eurydice.All Europe reacted to the situation in different ways: books and materials taken from schools, e-learning plaftorms, TV programmes, lessons on social media.
The scenario of prolonged distance learning due to school closure shows different situations:
- the pressure on parents (both if key workers leaving home daily and if teleworkers - not to mention unemployed workers or parents who lost their job due to the pandemic crisis)
- the emotional reaction of childern, ripped away from a social context as the primary school environment
- the prolonged exposure of teachers to pc (not to talk about the extra costs they have to afford for connection and data)
- But, above all, the need to reconsider the role of teaching and learning.
Distance learning, especially in primary school, cannot be a mere transposition of the traditional teaching via remote learning.You need to reconsider the way you teach. You need to engage and involve students more than ever, therefore investing a lot in creativity.An interesting help is given by G-Suite, offering schools a wide range of tools for distance learning. Classrrom, Sites, Modules (e.g. to create Escape Room, why not?), while tools as Genially, TedEd, LearningApps, Twinkl and more are specifically designed to catch students’ attention and make them active parts in distance learning experience. All European schools are comparing their results in different ways (by sharing experience via eTwinning, or through reports to the Council of Europe) and Italy is playing an important role, both because it is the first Country to have closed its schools, and due to the relevant work of Indire and Avanguardie Educative, who are sponsoring and collecting best practices and shared material thanks to the cooperation of different teachers.
More than ever, schools and teachers are playing a decisive role, despite what politicians may or may not do. We are watching the inability of many politicians to face the situation, especially related to the educational system (and the Italian case is maybe the most impressive one) but the reaction of teachers is amazing.Both expert and less expert teachers have jumped into the fire of technology and tried to create interactive resources so to engage all students. The critical point is represented by the percentage of students who couldn’t be reached due to low connection or lack of devices. Most schools helped by giving devices to the families in need, yet further critical situations would arise when families could not help children in attending online classes (due to different reasons).Neverthless, each education system tried to to all possible effort to engage students not to lose them.In such a critical time School and teachers proved to be really cohesively determined to go on without running the risk of stopping the educational system.All over the world teachers gathered online to share experiences and best practices because School is for everyone .
Angela Panzarella (02/08/1978), laureata in lingue e letterature straniere moderne (inglese e serbocroato) con indirizzo filologico letterario, un’ulteriore laurea in lettere (storia delle tradizioni popolari) presso La Sapienza di Roma, master in traduzione, abilitazione SSIS (A345/A346), master CeCLIL (Ca’ Foscari) e Metodologie CLIL nel XXI secolo (IUL Firenze), benemerenza in Filologia (Philology Sila Trophy, per il saggio “As You Like Her…”), expertise in bilingual education since primary years, dopo anni di docenza nella scuola secondaria di secondo grado, insegna inglese nella scuola primaria per la sperimentazione e il proseguimento dell’esperienza bilingue (IBI-BEI, istruzione bilingue, bilingual education, CLIL & technoCLIL) nella provincia di Milano. E’ formatrice riconosciuta dall’USR Lombardia (per corsi linguistici e metodologici CLIL, technoCLIL e webtools per la didattica) e certificatrice Cambridge Young Learners (International House) ed ESOL (Cambridge, International House, English Speaking Board). Referente per l’Internazionalizzazione, è anche esperta eTwinning, Erasmus+ ed Europrogettazione, con partecipazione a seminari multilaterali in Italia, Europa e Paesi del Mediterraneo. Attiva con pubblicazioni anche su Scientix e per Stem Discovery Week. Ha scritto per i suoi “gnomi” (come si diverte a chiamarli, e per i quali è Miss Angela), la collana completa di testi per la didattica bilingue 100% CLIL e technoCLIL per la scuola primaria. Last but not least, è una bassista con esperienze musicali in ambito nazionale e internazionale.