Teacher exchange: From Netherlands to Lithuania

From 25 to 29 November 2023 Ellis from the Netherlands visited Snieguolè in Vilnius. This is their report:

We are working together on a sustainable microbit STEAM project for 12-year-old students. Snieguole and her students shared their experiences on the subject. I shared my experiences with Snieguole and the students and also showed videos of my students and gave guest lessons on Monday and Tuesday. We exchanged a lot of knowledge and experiences with each other. We are now continuing the project at our school and Snieguole will apply for a teacher exchange in 2024 to also visit my school in Eindhoven to further develop the joint project. We share not only this project but also didactics and online possibilities about giving computer science/STEAM lessons.

On Tuesday, Snieguole and I gave a presentation to the new batch of interested teachers from Lithuania to give them an idea of how interesting it is to participate in SoS.

Do you intend to incorporate ideas you gained at the teacher exchange into your lessons? If yes, which ones? Yes for sure we intend to incorporate ideas we gained at the teacher exchange into our lessons, for example, Tinkercad, Scratch, and other applications

Do you plan to stay in contact and continue the exchange? If yes, what did you agree on? Yes, we want to stay in contact and we are planning a guest-teacher exchange in NL and working on a STEAM project together. And see each other also in Turku again.  

Do you intend to apply for the next Science on Stage festival with a joint project? Yes, we are signing a school agreement with our schools and hope the students will cooperate in the future.

Your colleague teaches in another country. Was this aspect something special for you in your exchange? If yes, why? Certainly, in the context of global citizenship, this was a unique experience. I was received very hospitably and immersed in the Lithuanian culture. I felt very welcome and also the Lithuanian teacher colleagues gave me a very warm welcome.

Looking back, what are your impressions of the exchange?  At school, I work in a working group on the global UN Goals. I will use this experience in the development of a project related to the subject of global citizenship.

I would like to thank SOS for this unique opportunity to experience and learn from education in a different culture!     

Ellis van Kemenade

Snieguolè added that there was also a second teacher from Czechia who contacted her after the European Science on Stage festival 2022 in Prague. Václav was curious about the laser machine that Snieguolè used in her classroom. And so, he did an internship at her school for a whole week.