Your Name and Title: Luiza Gervescu

School or Organization Name: The “Ion Barbu” Theoretical High School

 Co-Presenter Name(s):

 Area of the World from Which You Will Present: Romania

 Language in Which You Will Present: English

 Target Audience(s): Teachers involved in international exchanges

 Short Session Description (one line): A memory game of past projects with a projection of future endeavours

Full Session Description (as long as you would like):

 It is not every day that we decide to gather a few years into one single memory… Time has come for me to do that, in revealing the extraordinary life experiences that joining www.epals.com has offered me.

Paradoxically, it was during a teachers’ strike in Romania that I decided to join this site. I had been looking for a gateway towards rendering my teaching a universal game of mirrors for years then and that was the best choice I could have made.

Nowadays, not only children and teenagers, but also adult learners feel the legitimate need to share and rejoice the benefits of global platforms of communication. Teachers of English have both a great responsibility and a huge advantage in this respect. They can monitor and guide international communication, in the hope that their teaching endeavours will thus come to life.

In my very case, setting up a profile on epals.com, searching for compatible classrooms and e-mailing teachers worldwide or simply responding to messages received in my Inbox has helped considerably to having my students visit their colleagues in France (twice), Spain, Bulgaria, Turkey (twice) and correspond via e-mail or actual letters and surprise parcels on traditional holidays with peers from all over the world, from The Europe to the United States, Canada, Japan, Chile, Australia and so on.

I have gathered all my experiences of the kind under the title and topic of “Multiculturalism” and all has worked for the best in gathering families – students, parents, fellow teachers – under the same flag of friendship. And I am proud to say our students have always made us proud. As I am proud to say that these over eight years of experience have made me feel more confident and more hopeful in the fact that teaching can come alive and create unforgettable memories.