Your place, your class!

Sunday, September 20, 2020

Let's Get to Know Each Other with A Project!

This year is going to be a challenging one, especially when we are asked to get into a classroom to teach kids we've never seen before, and all we can see is pairs of eyes looking at us as with uncertainty... Cassie Stephens came up with a great idea to help us get to know with each other and feel a bit more comfortable. Plus the kids can revise on vocabulary around character traits! The project is called "Behind my Mask: A Super Kid Self-Portrait" and you can see what it is about in the video below:

I hope you enjoy it! Let me know if you used it and how it worked 😊

Friday, September 18, 2020

My Teaching Journey in the Greek Public Primary School

It's been a while since the last time I have posted anything on this blog... A lot of changes took place in my life all this time, and one of the most important has been the fact that this year I was hired by the Greek Ministry of Education and Religious Affairs to work as a substitute teacher in primary schools around the area I live in.

I've been teaching English for 15 years now, but teaching at the Greek Public Primary School is quite a challenge, especially during a pandemic... Having seen the work of some amazing colleagues of mine, I was inspired to keep track of my work, through this blog. Here, I will be posting activities I do with my students, links to pages of educational interest and I'll be sharing my experiences with you. I hope this blog will become a point of reference either for teachers who will be taking this journey for the first time or for experienced ones.

Happy new school year to everyone!

Sunday, January 22, 2012

Jamie Oliver against Obesity in the UK and the USA

https://www.jamieoliver.com/features/jamies-plan-to-tackle-childhood-obesity/

I'm sure that most of you must have heard -at least once- the name of Jamie Oliver, a very talented young chef who has had a dream: to make a better world through changing our eating habits.

Greece is a country which is famous for its Mediterranean cuisine, but never before had I realised that this was actually a blessing given to me. The realisation came after I came across an episode of Jamie Oliver's "ministry of food". I coudn't believe my eyes when I saw that most of the British kids' diet consisted of burgers, chicken nuggets, pizzas, chips and other junk food stuff. They were exposed to this kind of food on a daily basis and when offered fresh food by Jamie they rejected it with expressions of revulsion on their faces.

After Jamie's hard effort to persuade parents and teachers that kids were in need of fresh food, a number of them agreed to be taught how to cook healthy food using some simple steps. They in turn, would have to teach several other people who would in turn teach others and so on and so forth.

Not all people embraced the idea with eagerness. However, those ones who tried it reported that the behaviour of their children together with their school performance were very much improved and that was due to the change of their eating habits.

After his very successful “ministry of food” in the UK, Jamie Oliver was determined to go further and decided to change the Americans’ bad nutritional habits by organising a “food revolution”. As a starting point he chose a school in Huntington, Virginia. The picture there was daunting. There were kids who didn't even know what a potato or a tomato looked like.

The obstacles Jamie had to overcome were greater than the ones in the UK. However, once again, he managed to get his message across and make people realise that "we are what we eat". A healthy diet is the key to a healthy life.

I just hope there were more people out there like Jamie. He was a true inspiration and we as educators should make sure that Jamie's voice be heard. After all, education is not only teaching grammar and vocabulary...

Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Christmas Spirit!

It's been sooo long since my last post... I see other teachers posting at their blogs all the time, tweeting, searching for innovative teaching techniques and I keep wondering: "where do they find the time to do all these"? Probably I'm doing something wrong... However,Christmas is here and the festive atmosphere always cheers me up!

via http://jokesprank.com/blog/funny-jokes/50-christmas-jokes.html

via http://www.christmaswow.com/merry-christmas/

Friday, November 18, 2011

Thanksgiving

History and Traditions
Have a look here: http://esl.about.com/library/weekly/aa110800a.htm

Thanksgiving by numbers
A really nice graph from Credit Donkey: http://www.creditdonkey.com/thanksgiving.html

Some Worksheets and Colouring pages: http://abcteach.com/directory/seasonalholidays/thanksgiving/

Educational Pages That Make Our Lives Easier

Since I have decided to join in the blogging community, I thought it's time I started posting anything I find interesting and you might want to have a look at. Let the posting begin!

Easy Notecards is a place where students and teachers can create, study, print and share their own cards.

snapps4kids is an excellent site, aiming to introduce us to ways of using the iPad, iPod, iPhone and other Android devices with children who have special needs.

Thursday, November 17, 2011

Invitation to ECCE exam-prep presentation

16/11/2011

The Hellenic American Union invites you to attend a presentation on how ECCE-prep teachers can increase their students’ chances for success in all sections of the test.
Language School Owners and EFL teachers will learn how to help their students develop effective test-taking strategies in the final days before the examination. The presentation will look at different types of test-taking strategies and their application to different tasks in each section of the ECCE.
The presentation will be offered in Athens and Thessaloniki on a variety of dates from 11:00 to 13:00.
Presentation schedule
For more information or reservations:

2103680000, 2103680900 (Athens)
2310557600 (Thessaloniki)
http://www.hau.gr/?i=examinations.en.news.2093