The idea of such a project came to me after visiting Your Excellency, Admiral Almeida d’Eça in Parede, where he lives. His daughter, Teresa Almeida d’Eça, also an English teacher, has been an inspiration to me especially where language teaching with ICT is concerned. We have become good friends, along with other Portuguese and foreign teachers that belong to the wonderful international Community of Practice - Webheads in Action. To celebrate friendship and good practices we often get together. It was during one of our get-togethers that I met her father. Although our meeting was very brief, I immediately developed an interest about the career path of a man with whom I have something in common : the Navy. To involve my students in this adventure was the following, natural step, as they too belong to the institution.
Being able to implement this task in class was very rewarding in many, different ways. Above all, I feel that it influenced the students in a positive way. It not only motivated the learning of the language, but it also had some impact on how they regarded and valued the institution. We reflected about it while they were working on it. I also believe that the involvement in the project gave the students the idea that hard work and dedication can result in a very successful career. The Naval officer they were studying is the living proof of that.
It was also a great opportunity to learn in a Naval context about Naval issues and people. This is something that is always more appealing to students, especially to those who have just joined the Navy, as the learning process becomes more meaningful and personal to them. Learning should not be separated from its context and neither should teaching and learning be only restricted to a course book. As an educator, I strongly believe that teaching and learning are better achieved when we combine the knowledge of books with new experiences as that reflects our "real" world.
We all felt honored to work on a project about such an amazing officer and to be able to remind people about his great deeds. Recognition of one's work should be acknowledged and be known to others as well as to the person in question. That was what we tried to do.
We also decided to invite another class to join us in this tribute. The guest students were my colleague’s, Ramona Dietrich, students, who recorded messages and described characteristics of an aviator in the Photostory.
Besides the Podcast and the Photostory, the students also prepared a Biography that is to be found in this site as well as in the Wikipedia.
This site is dedicated to Your Excellency, Admiral Almeida d'Eça for all his deeds and examples that he set during his career.
In this day and age what we need is people that we can look up to! Thank you, Admiral Sir, for setting such a shining example.
May, 2006
Ensign Cristina Costa