Susanna's Erasmus+ Experience in Malta

Can't believe it is already over😲! These two weeks have been amazing! I learnt so much, had such great and unforgettable experiences and got to know so many nice people.  In the afternoon we managed to get to the Blue Grotto. Such a unique place, with deep blue and turquoise water. I could've spent hours swimming there. In the evening I had a great farewell dinner in an authentic Maltese restaurant - a proper goodbye.  

Kinemaster is a fun way to produce a video. It offers many possibilities to include texts, emojis, audience-gabbing transitions and so much more! Nevertheless, it takes a bit of effort as you can see on my rather concerned face while working on it 😂! I made a video of my Valetta trips. In the afternoon it was pouring quite heavily for hours 💦😵! It looked literally like small rivers running through the town. In the evening I grabbed a Maltese pizza, that consisted mainly of cheese. After that I went to Point Beach  and watched the beautiful moon over the sea.

 Today we went to Valetta with Alpha School. The Malta 5D Experience was a highlight. It is like a 3D cinema, but with moving chairs, air flowing and shooting at you, light spectacles and so much more, on top of the 3D movie. The movie was about Malta's eventful history.   In the afternoon I finally managed to get into St. John's cathedral. That much much splendor I haven't seen outside of Versailles and the St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. Everything is golden and magnificent, one doesn't know where to look first. I learned that Caravaggio, whose paintings I already admired in Italy, has lived in Malta and contributed to the beauty of St. John's. 

 This week, in school we focus on videos. I get to know many useful applications. EdPuzzle I like especially, because it "forces" students to pay attention and offers lots of possibilities to moderate  video watching activities. Also we took a shoot a stop-motion-videos, which was so much fun, since we used Play-Doh and could be creative in our story-telling. Adobe Express is a great website to produce visually very pleasing presentations.

Today I made the rather long trip to the "Three Cities" of Malta.  Senglea and Birgu are both peninsulas offering long walks at the sea around their harbours. Since it was a Sunday, streets were very quiet, which was such an unusual experience after the busy streets of the other places I visited before that. St. Angelo fortress    harbor between Senglea and Birgu     center of Birgu, decorated for the Feast of St. Lawrence

On Saturday I went back to Valetta and used the free day to stroll around the capital. 

Today I put all my new learned skills to the test and planned a lesson at the interactive whiteboard. I challenged myself to plan some activities that go without any written words for them to be suitable for first-graders. In the evening we celebrated our successful presentation with a night out and hab much fun, obviously 😁😁!!  

Class was especially fun today, since we worked with different kind of quizzes. A little competition can motivate quite a lot. I intend to integrate quizzes much more into my lessons, as it is such a useful and engaging tool.     Quizlet live is very nice, since it offers the possibility of group work and students have to discuss their answers within the group.  Plickers I like a lot, because apart from the teacher, no one needs to have a gadget, it works with individual QR-Codes and you can just hand each student a piece of paper, that can be used again and again. In the afternoon I went to Sliema. It is a really lively, noisy town with lots of shops and malls, but there are some streets with older buildings and beautiful squares when you look for it. St. Julian

Today we did an off-site day in Mdina and Rabat. Mdina is the former capital of Malta and feels like a really sacred, special place. No car traffic is allowed in the narrow streets. In Rabat we visited St. Paul's Grotto, which was used as a bomb shelter in WW II. After the class trip we went to Mosta to visit the impressive Rotunda. In WW II a bomb was dropped in the church but did not go off, which was considered to be a miracle naturally.

Today's class was especially interesting to me, since lots of the presented activities are suitable for primary school students. We learned many useful tools in the Active Inspire Classflow software. Moving around pictures, connecting items and so on, children don't even have to know how to read in order to complete the tasks.  In today's afternoon I decided to take a trip to Valetta. The bus ride took about 50 minutes, but the busses all have air conditioning, so it wasn't that unpleasant.  I still struggle with the constant and humid heat😵, hopefully I'll get used to it in the next days. The bus ride was totally worth it: Valetta has swept my off my feet😍😍! Valetta is such a beautiful city with lots of old buildings, colourful streets, international cuisine and lively bars. Spectacular views wherever you go!!