PROJECT PROFILE

From October 2014 through February 2015 a group of 20 English as a foreign language teachers from various
regions of Moldova were trained on how to create and manage a classroom or school blog in English and how to
involve students in various digital projects. The participants were engaged in face to face trainings, weekly
Google Hangouts video sessions and online mentoring following the flipped classroom model. At the end of the
project, the teachers shared their newly acquired digital skills with their regional colleagues and school or
university administration and organized regional workshops around Moldova involving over 380 indirect
beneficiaries. The project culminated with a national conference which gathered over 150 educators, students
and English language teachers eager to learn the art of blogging from project participants.

PROJECT QUICK FACTS

25 participants from 13 districts

15 weeks of online instruction

12 online mentors (Peace Corps

volunteers and Fulbright scholars)
28 new blogs created during the
project
12 Skype link-up sessions
organized in collaboration with
online mentors
15 online Google Hangout live
sessions saved on YouTube
20 regional workshops organized
by project participants
380 teachers attended regional
workshops
150 teachers and students
attended the final event in
Chisinau
Over 1000 blog comments posted
by project participants

PROJECT MAP

PROJECT
PARTICIPANTS

Rodica ACULOV
"Mihai Eminescu" Lyceum
Cimilia

Nicoleta VORONIUC
"Valeriu Topala" Lyceum,
Zabriceni village, Edinet

Natalia BORTA
"Olimp" Lyceum
Costesti, Ialoveni

Aliona BRAGARU
"Mihai Eminescu" Lyceum
Cahul

Ecaterina CAMENSCHI
M. Eminescu Lyceum
Cahul

Veronica CAZACU
Chetri, Fleti

Oxana CAZACU
Mihai Eminescu Theoretical
Lyceum
Cimislia

Olga CHIRONDA
Teacher of English and French
Music Pedagogic College
Balti

Victoria CRACIUN
"Gh. V. Madan" Gymnasium
Truseni village, Chisinau

Tatiana DRAGAN
"Mihai Eminescu" Lyceum
Floresti

Viorica GAIDAR
"Mihai Eminescu" Lyceum
Cahul

Dumitru GRUSCA
"Vasile Alecsandri" Lyceum
Falesti

Victoria MASCALIUC
"Alecu Russo" Balti State
University
Balti

Emma MATRENIUC
SAP Edinet, Inclusive Education
Program,
Edinet

Viorica POPESCU
Industrial-Pedagogical College
Cahul

Irina PUSNEI
B.P. Hasdeu State Unversity
Cahul

Ludmila RACIULA
"Alecu Russo" Balti State
University, Balti

Natalia RATA
"B.P. Hasdeu" Lyceum
Drochia

Eduard RUDENCO
Gymnasium, village Berlinti,
Briceni

Natalia SCHNEIDER
"Alexei Mateevici" Lyceum
Causeni

PROJECT PARTNERS:

PROJECT TRAINERS

Olga Morozan
Access Program Coordinator,
iEARN Moldova Country
Coordinator

Svetlana Lungu
EFL Teacher, Mihai
Eminescu Lyceum,
Access Micro
scholarship Instructor

Corina Ceban
EFL Teacher,
V.Alecsandri Lyceum,
Balti,
Expert in integrating blogs
in teaching English

Dr Daniela
Munca-Aftenev

American Councils Moldova

Expert in integrating Web 2.0
tools in education

PROJECT MENTORS

Dr Sheryl G. Feinstein
Professor at Augustana
College, South Dakota, USA

Tatiana Shevchenko
Ad Astra Career
Development Center
Founder and Project
Coordinator

Nicholas Cicchinelli
Fulbright English
teaching assistant

Amy Samuelson
J. William Fulbright
Student Research Program
grantee

Trish Ostroski
Peace Corps volunteer in
Durlesti, Moldova
Community and
Organizational
Development

Anne C. Campbell
Comparative and
International Development
Education Program

Nicholas Huzieff
English Language Fellow at
U.S. Department of State,
Business English
Teacher, ELKO Group

Justin Grotelueschen
Co-founder and Vice
President at Project Casa
Mare, a Moldovan NGO
working to professionalize
social workers in Moldovap

PROJECT BLOG

Page views average: 164 clicks per day

Post comments average: 100 comments per week

PROJECT RESULTS AND SUSTAINABILITY

Assessment of implementation of project activities

As a result of participating in the EFL Blogging School Project, 20 out of 25 teachers created class or
school blogs and actively involved their students in various online projects. Several participants even
transitioned from traditional, paper based teaching and learning to 100% digital instruction. Natalia
Schneider from Causeni, for example, only accepts homework published on the blog she created in
October, when she started participating in the project:

The challenge I faced was how to incorporate new technology into my classroom that strengthens classroom learning
by capitalizing on learners' media literacies. The blog which was created by my students can be used for engaging
students in individual or collaborative activities and projects, as an amazing and friendly community for sharing
ideas. Here students can find reference dictionaries, links, practice their writing skills (like summary writing for
example). I have implemented this project in 3 grades: 10th and 11th.This is the first group of students. Next year I
think to enlarge this group. My students use the class blog every week, it is like a formative evaluation or a part of
summative evaluation for them. I started to notice an increase in the development of their critical thinking, their
creativity and associational thinking, a combination of solitary and social interaction in my students. They love this
new fresh method - blogging.

The participants will continue using the blog as an addition to paper textbooks by the end of the
academic year and, hopefully, for years to come.

Several teachers involved their students as class blog administrators:

When my teacher asked me to become the administrator of our class blog, I accepted immediately, as I have previous
experience in keep a blog. It usually takes about 10 minutes to post my colleagues homework on the blog and just a few
minutes to post other materials sent by our teacher. Most of the time my colleagues post their written homework
independently (essays, comments, summaries, etc) but they need my help when they need to create more complex
assignments, such as Animoto or Voicethread videos. It is very easy to post our assignments on the class blog, as we
dont need to carry around our USBs. I would recommend all Moldovan teachers to integrate blogs in their school
curricula, as this increases student motivation and interest, plus it helps to improve their vocabulary.
Cristi Gritcan, Alexei Mateevici High School, Causeni, 11th grade
It is not easy to administer a class blog, but when my classmates asked me to be responsible for managing online
platform, I accepted, as I have previous experience in working with Wordpress. The most difficult and time
consuming is the process of creating the final product in our case our class blog (creating separate pages, photo
galleries, adding videos to various posts). Afterwards, its administration is rather easy. We post all our homework on
the blog you can find all our essays, summaries, Power Point presentations, video projects using Animoto,
questionnaires, interviews and many more. I would advise all English language teachers to create a class blog, as this
is a very simple method for students and teachers alike to store, evaluate and present homework. Class blogs can be
personalized by students and let them be as creative as they want.
Calin Rusu, Alexei Mateevici High School, Causeni, 10th grade

Once they mastered the art of blogging as part of teaching English as a foreign language process,
several participants created additional blogs with different purposes: personal teacher blogs or English
Department blogs which will be used by their school or university colleagues as well.

One of the project goals was disseminating the information regarding the power of web tools in
teaching English throughout various academic institutions around Moldova. 22 out of 25 participants
organized workshops in their home schools or universities in order to share the newly acquired skills
with colleagues and school administration. Over 380 indirect beneficiaries attended those workshops in
more than 15 districts around the country.

Even after the project was over, the project alumni continued to share their expertise with other
educators from various regions of Moldova. For example, Natalia Borta organized her second regional
workshop for 31 teachers from Ialoveni on February, 26, Veronica Cazacu and Dumitru Grusca will
organize an additional district level seminar on the 18 of March.

Partners and other co-operation

The EFL Blogging School initiated partnerships
with American online mentors over 20 online
Skype and Google Hangout sessions have been
organized with the involvement of about 200
students from all around Moldova. The project
participants will continue organizing video
conferences with their online mentors after the
project finishes. The next step is involving online
mentors in direct contact with students. Now that
class blogs have been created and the project
participants have learned how to engage students
in online activities, the online mentors will be
invited to leave audio, video and text comments to
various student projects posted online throughout
the academic year.
One of the project online mentors, Tamara Sine, is
not only keeping in touch with her mentee,
Veronica Cazacu, after the project was over, but
also found time to travel to Falesti at the end of
February and meet Veronica's students in person.
"This week, I was blessed to have the opportunity to
travel to the northern part of Moldova to visit with the
class of a Moldovan EFL teacher that I mentor
online. I learned a lot about the students' lives in the village of Chetris (near Falesti). Their small school was
originally constructed in 1904, and has a population of 160 students. This overcrowding means that half of the
students attend day school and the other half arrive in the evening for their lessons. Despite humble means, I received
the warmest of welcomes and had a wonderful time providing answers to American cultural queries the students had.
We played a lively game of USA Jeopardy, and the students also had the chance to learn about the diverse states of the
U.S., and the even more varied people who live in them through a presentation I gave based on their expressed
interests. It was a beautiful experience that I can add to my journey as a Fulbrighter in Moldova, and one that I will
not soon forget!"

PARTICIPANTS BLOGS

REGIONAL WORKSHOPS

Cahul Workshop: Aliona Bragaru, Camenschi

Ecaterina and Gaidar Viorica

Drochia Workshop: Raa Natalia

Costeti, Ialoveni Workshop: Borta Natalia

Briceni Workshop: Eduard Rudenco

Edine Workshop: Emma Matreniuc

Fleti workshop: Veronica Cazacu

Bli Workshop: Mascaliuc Victoria

Fleti Workshop: Dumitru Gruca

Bli Workshop: Raciula Ludmila

Edine Workshop: Nicoleta Voroniuc

Trueni Workshop: Crciun Victoria

Cahul Workshop: Irina Punei

Cimislia Workshop: Rodica ACULOV

WORKING WITH ONLINE MENTORS

Natalia's USA: advantages and disadvantages
Skype Linkup with Nicholas Cicchinelli

Oxana's "Similarities between the educational systems

in Moldova and USA" linkup session with
Nicholas Huzieff

Natalia's video session with Trish Ostroski

Natalia's students learning about Thanksgiving from

Amy Samuelson

Viorica Gaidar's Skype session with Nicholas Huzieff

"How to Bridge Generation Gap"

Dumitru's Generation Gap session with

Justin Grotelueschen

Ecaterina Camenschi's
5th grade Skype linkup with Trish Ostroski

Emma Matreniuc's Skype session with Tatiana

Shevchenko "Analysis of Educational Systems in
Moldova and the USA. Differences and Similarities"

PARTICIPANTS QUOTES

The EFL Blogging School Project gave me the possibility to look at things
differently, to detach from the course book and bring more exciting things into
the classroom. I think it is a very useful project, as it allows teachers to be
updated with everything new that happens in the world of methodology. It
teaches us how to reach out to our students and interest them. At the same time,
it offers us the possibility to learn continuously and to feel students again. I love
this feeling of being a student!
Ludmila RACIULA

The EFL Blogging School was a really useful and interesting project, as
I learned to work in team. I understood that what was doing till then as a
teacher was just a small part of what I could do. I understood that it is
never too late to learn and to begin to be more active as an educator,
which is why I started participating in other projects related to teaching
English. To make students speak or read their thoughts online was very
interesting. At the beginning they were scared and didn't want to post
their digital essays, but then they liked it and some of them improved
their communication skills while using these online tools.
Natalia RATA

This project inspired me for more achievements. I have

learned that teaching is not making students learn, but
sharing with them what you want them to know. This
project opened new horizons for me as a teacher. My
students liked the idea of using a class blog and even
enjoyed every online assignment.
Viorica GAIDAR

It is a wonderful and useful project. It improved my

teaching and learning skills. When asking students
for feedback, they mentioned that with class blogs the
material could be covered more intensively and that
blogs encouraged them to learn the topic before the
lecture and build their own opinion first.
Nicoleta VORONIUC

For me the EFL Blogging School was a very profound learning experience. The
flow of the entire course was very intense and rigorous, with everyday
challenges and attractive activities. In addition to the online tools and methods
we learned, another very important and memorable aspect was my personal
admiration for the atmosphere of study created by the instructors, their
tremendous professionalism and depth of knowledge, vivid and bright minds
with such a high level of nobility, respect and intelligence every single moment
was filled with. These factors actually made participants feel both needed and
important, comfortable, eager to learn and continue this extremely difficult path
of studying. The teaching methods used in the EFL Blogging School were
extremely creative and involved a wide range of approaches, giving teachers the
possibility to experiment with new things along with using the traditional ones.
Students were generally happy, because of the novelty of proposed activities and
the way of presenting the new material; they finally started to feel they worked
in a team with their teacher. The introduced online tasks helped them to advance
and be challenged every time they started to interact with English language.
Emma MATRENIUC

Being one of the EFL Blogging School participants was a a great

experience, I liked it very much! I've learned how to turn from a
traditional, boring, old fashioned teacher into a modern, active and
flexible one. I learned about new methods of teaching, new ways to
communicate, assess, evaluate, involve and motivate students to learn
English interactively. My students were very curious when I introduced
them to our class blog, though also a little frustrated about being
appreciated by other visitors of the blog who could also see their online
assignments. Despite this, they quickly got accustomed to using the class
blog and started liking it.
Oxana CAZACU

Participating in the EFL Blogging School was time consuming but

super!!! Everything included in the course syllabus was new for me.
Each assignment was interesting and challenging. I learned a lot
about online tools and how to use them at my lessons and the most
important thing - I learned practical, hands on things. It motivated me
more to continue teaching English. Some tasks seemed to be difficult to
accomplish, but once you accomplished them, even after many
attempts, it was so interesting and useful! My students were very
happy to see something non traditional. They were waiting for me to
post something new, and they were curious.
Natalia BORTA

I enjoyed working in this project as I have acquired a lot of useful

information to enhance my way of teaching. I have learned how to
motivate my students, how to be an up to date teacher and how to use
online tools to develop student speaking, writing and reading skills in
English. This project had a huge impact on my way of teaching. Now I
can post something on my blog and then discuss it in my class. The
blogging experience helped me see the results of flipped instruction,
which was a new concept for me.
Rodica ACULOV

The EFL Blogging School Project was a chance to improve my teaching

abilities. I feel confident about integrating online tools into our
curriculum. I learned so many important things. First of all I learned how
to create a blog and how to make it friendly to my pupils. I know how to
embed videos or other things that will motivate my students to study
English. I came across such interesting facts like Project Based Learning
or Flipped Classroom. I have the feeling that I can change the world now.
My students were so proud to be the first in our school to work on a class
blog.
Veronica CAZACU

I think this project was very useful and it offered us the possibility to
learn continuously and improve as language teachers. I have learnt
how to use blogs and many interesting online tools in the process of
teaching English and I consider that this project improved my teaching
skills. Each week had something special to learn. I really liked to work
with Voicethread, Movenote, Glogster, Padlet, Vocaroo, Voki. My
pupils generally liked the idea, they were very curious and interested to
work with blog and complete online assignments.
Ecaterina CAMENSCHI

When I joined the EFL Blogging School Project, everything was new
for me and I've learned all the online tools with the greatest interest
and pleasure. Now I feel more empowered as a teacher as I can use a
lot of web sources and resources in creating lesson plans and
evaluating my pupils. Each tool we learned had something special. To
me, the most important is that I was able to integrate all the new online
platforms in my teaching practice. My students were very curious and
interested at the beginning of our blogging adventure. They enjoyed
working with online dictionaries, word clouds, and online platforms
for creating video-presentations.
Victoria CRACIUN

FINAL EVENT
On February 21st over 150 teachers and students from various regions of Moldova attended the EFL
Blogging School Project Conference in Chisinau organized by a group of American Councils staff, Access
Program trainers and FLEX volunteers. This innovative project was funded by a grant from the United States
Department of State, and over the period of six months trained 25 Moldovan language teachers from all
regions of the country to bring blogging as an effective teaching tool into their classrooms. English language
school teachers and university professors from around the country joined the project beneficiaries to learn
about the art of blogging and its benefits to teaching a foreign language. Hosted by "B.P. Hadeu" Municipal
Library, the event was a wonderful opportunity for Moldovan educators and students to become acquainted
with various online tools used in teaching English as a foreign language. Kate Bartlett, US Embassy Assistant
Public Affairs Officer, opened the event with a welcome message for all Moldovan educators interested to bring
innovation in their teaching practice and stated that US Embassy was very happy to be part of this wonderful
initiative.
The first part of the event was moderated by project trainers and mentors. Olga Morozan, Access
Program Coordinator, led the "EFL blogs as platforms for alternative assessment" session. Svetlana Lungu,
"Mihai Eminescu" High School Teacher from Chisinau moderated the "Blogs as platforms for flipped instruction"
session and Corina Ceban, English language teacher at "Vasile Alecsandri" High School from Balti, talked
about "Digital posters for EFL instruction: Glogster and Thinglink". A special moment was delivered by Access
Microscholarship students from vulnerable families who put together their own script for a live performance
aiming to share their view of the importance of technology into the classroom. A real teacher was replaced by a
robot who was unable to connect emotionally to students, so at the end of the play, the students asked their
teacher to come back.
The second part of the conference was broken down into three parallel workshops moderated by project
participants, English language teachers from various regions of Moldova.
Eduard Rudenco, Online teaching as part or as an alternative to traditional education
Grusca Dumitru, Blogs as an alternative to traditional teacher portfolio
Pusnei Irina, Web 2.0 tools for video-based student projects
Viorica Gaidar, Online teaching tools for creating and editing technology-enhanced tasks
Camenschi Ecaterina, Blogs and e-portfolios as platforms for summative and formative assessment
Raa Natalia, Enhancing student speaking skills through Voicethread, Utellstory and Voki
Borta Natalia, Enhancing students' vocabulary and creativity by using online web 2.0 tools
Aculov Rodica, Creative ideas for using Padlet,Wordle and Tagxedo
Cazacu Oxana, Online tools to develop students writing, speaking and reading skills
Veronica Cazacu, Online platforms to develop student vocabulary
Ludmila Raciula, Advantages of using Voicethread in developing student speaking skills
Emma Matreniuc, Blended learning -- a new way in teaching a foreign language
Victoria Mascaliuc, Online tools to facilitate the process of teaching grammar
A very special presentation was put together by two students from "Alexei Mateevic" High School
from Causeni, who actively participated in the project as administrators of their class blogs: Rusu Calin from
grade 10 and Gritcan Cristi from grade 11 demonstrated how they manage their class bogs and how they help
their teacher move from paper homework to digitalized instruction. The students loved being part of the EFL
Blogging School and insisted that blogging is easy and should be part of each and every Moldovan classroom!