Claire Dagoula's Blog

My day started with good news! I was accepted in the MIEE program again this year! I’m so happy and wanted to share the news with you. Soon, I will post an article about it.

Enjoy your day!

Hello everybody and welcome to my blog!

The month of the school year start is finally here. I would like to thank you all for the lovely comments that you have been writing to me throughout summer I have tried to answer them all except for those which were written in Arabic and Russian and for that I have a request. Please when you write a comment, write it in English otherwise I will not be able to answer it.

I wish a nice and creative school year to you all!

At the end of every school year I always assay and reappraise my educational targets and my teaching strategy.

Questions like

• “Did I achieve my educational goal in relation to the curriculum?”
• “Was a specific project successful as to its original purpose?”
• “Were all language skills covered equally?”
• “Did this or that work for my students?”
• “Did this or that work for me?”

keep turning in my mind and I feel like a farmer who is harvesting her crops. And if there aren’t adequate answers to the above questions I am searching for new “fertilizers” or “seeding” techniques. How? Trying to rethink and reorganize my projects and their target, getting trained in new apps, strategize a more effective connection between the curriculum and the syllabus.

In the field, there are a lot of elements I need to handle and some factors work against me: time, boredom, lack of technological resources, unexpected factors.

First and foremost, because I’m interested in the social emotional development of my students, I contemplate if my students felt accepted, secure and comfortable enough to express themselves in my classes. What skills do I need to improve to foster their expressiveness? Had I created the fertile conditions for a rapport to bloom? Am I emotionally available and approachable? What kind of assessment could measure the rapport I’m building with my students?

Given the hugs, the drawings, the little gifts, the parent-teacher conferences, the looks and the delight tone they pronounced my name I could easily answer yes. But I know that I missed some. Not every student comes ready to be taught a foreign language. Different social backgrounds, lack of stimuli. Not every student comes open to be taught. Private foreign language schools have robbed us of the thrill and the purpose of foreign language learning. And to this battle, I’m all alone. I need to fight an obsolete mindset which relates foreign language teaching only to certificates.

But learning a foreign language means a lot more. A foreign language offers you a different point of view in life and therefore a different perspective. It broadens the spectrum and the horizon of our thought, makes us realize that difference is all that we come to this world for and learning communication codes is the only way to bridge the gaps.

As a teacher I am the cultural focal point and the representative of the foreign language I teach. I need to feel that my mission has got the time, the space and the respect of the state, of students, of parents, of society to be flourished and accomplished. But I will keep fighting my battles until something shifts.

So this school year, numerically speaking, I have managed to complete 5-7 units out of the 10 suggested ones for the four grades I teach. I created the related revision material and tests for all of them.  8 projects have been developed and only celebrations crafts have been confected. I am not satisfied with what my recap looks like. I need to be more inventive and resourceful. I need to be more supported in my educational work. Then my recap would look like a cup of joy!

And from that cup cheers for a nice summer!

What does YOUR recap-cup look like?

 

 

 

https://read.bookcreator.com/tBpCXAdrwG10_Ivny_y1Ihsa91AQaFWLy1X1WurLKDY/_Z9rY5W6Tu6GMrmM4-Exhw

1. Choose a personality from your History book and say what makes them unique.
   1. Use other sources to find out more about them.
   2. Work in groups and present the information on a cardboard using pictures and short texts giving an outline of his/her life and deeds.
   3. You may use the above text for guidance.

Music works its magic whenever we let ourselves embrace the moment and stop what we’re doing and give some time to melody and/or lyrics to unwind our soul and thought. Here’s the feelings and thoughts of 6th Graders as they were hearing three songs I played for them in class.

Μετάβαση στο sway.office.com.

Μετάβαση στο sway.office.com.

Based on a project of Unit 4, Coursebook of 6th Grade Primary Schoolbook, my two classes of 6th Graders created poems and paintings inspired by the story of Icarus. Following, you can find the sways presenting their amazing work.

CLASS 1

Μετάβαση στο sway.office.com.

CLASS 2

Μετάβαση στο sway.office.com.

This week my 4th Graders and I decided to create Easter bunny cups to fill with love and candies for an Easter gift to welcome spring and enjoy the spring break. We used an idea from the internet, yet we added our personal element on the creation. It’s always better to enrich, improve, adjust an idea to your personal tastes.

Enjoy!

This is a project based on the task of Unit 4, 4th Grade Coursebook. It was about writing a poem and/or creating a picture inspired by seasons which was the topic and its related vocabulary we covered in Unit 4.

Following, you can find the sway in which their work is presented:

Μετάβαση στο sway.office.com.

6^TH GRADE

PROJECT

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE’S A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM

EDUCATIONAL SCENARIO AND PURPOSE:

Students familiarize themselves with the play of the most well known English play writer William Shakespeare (1564-1616) and have the chance to read a literature text. With the help of the FLIPGRID app, they will also practise their speaking and presentation skills by recording their roles on FLIPGRID TOPIC designed exclusively for their class on FLIPGRID APPLICATION.

Before you start, make sure you have your parents’ consent!

Parent Consent signature

_______________________________________________

STEP 1:

Read the text so that get familiar with the text.

STEP 2:

Decide on the roles each one is going to perform.

STEP 3:

Practise lines.

STEP 4:

Decide on the material to use. For example, costumes ,wigs and masks.

STEP 5:

Visit FLIPGRID

and enter the join code ( I will give you in class) on the upper right corner.

Then you have three options to log in:

1. by using a GOOGLE ACCOUNT by entering your CREDENTIALS
2. by using a MICROSOFT ACCOUNT by entering your CREDENTIALS
3. by using an APPLE ACCOUNT by using your CREDENTIALS

STEP 6:

Once you GET IN the topic you can go to ADD TO TOPIC and click on it to record your video or audio.

Then you click on ADD TO TOPIC BUTTON the following will appear and you will have the option of recording by choosing either the video button (number 1 on the following picture) or the audio button (number 2). Then you click on the central button (number 3) to record. AFTER your recording you click on button number 4 to go to the next page.

Here you can listen to or watch your recording and check it or you can even add to that if you click the + symbol. If you feel that you have finished then click on the NEXT  button to move on.

On the next page you add a title (which is optional) for your recording (number 1) and then you click POST TO TOPIC (number 2).

Then the above message appears. You have successfully added your recording to topic and you can click the GO TO TOPIC BUTTON to visit it.

On the page of the topic your response appears!

It is a great application to practise your speaking skills and a wonderful opportunity for your teacher to comment on your responses!

Enjoy!

Your English Teacher

Claire Dagoula                                                                                                             

 

1. Narrator: In Ancient Greece there is a girl named Hermia who loves a young man Lysander. However, her father says she must marry Demetrius but she does not want to. She and Lysander escape to a forest. Helena is Hermia’s friend and loves Demetrius. Helena and Demetrius also run away to the forest. Soon, they get tired and they fall asleep under the trees. In the forest, there is Nick Bottom, an actor and his group, who are putting on a play. Farther through the forest the queen of fairies Titania is arguing with her husband, Oberon who is very angry with her. So, he sends Puck, the playful sprite, to bring the juice from the love flower to make her love him again. 2. Puck: Ha, ha! I’ll play a trick on all these people! I’ll turn this man to a donkey. Abracadabra! You, Nick Bottom, are a donkey! (Nick becomes a donkey) 3. Oberon: (angrily) Give me the magic juice. I’ll put some of it in Titania’s eyes myself. When she wakes up, she will fall in love with the first one she sees. This will be me. 4. Titania: Where am I? (Looking at Nick Bottom) Oh, my love! Who are you? You are so handsome! 5. Nick: (running away) Help! Help!

4. Titania: Where are you going my love! Come back to me! 2. Puck: Ha, ha, ha! Let me put some flower juice in Lysander’s eyes now. Lysander: (wakes up and sees Helena) Oh, I am desperately in love with you! How beautiful you are! 6. Helena: What’s wrong with you? Don’t you love Hermia any longer? 7. Lysander: Hermia? Who is she? You are my love! 2. Puck: Ha, ha, ha! Let me put some flower juice in Demetrius’ eyes now. 8. Demetrius: (wakes up and sees Hermia) Oh, my darling Hermia! You are the prettiest girl in the world. I love you deeply and truly! 9. Hermia: (sadly) Oh, where is Lysander? Why isn’t he with me? He is my true love! (She is crying) 3. Oberon: (angrily) Come here Puck! Put everything back to normal. 2. Puck: All the play is just a dream! Everything that happens on a midsummer night in a magic forest is a dream.

Midsummer Night’s Dream

Adapted text from the original play of William Shakespeare.

Resource: http://ebooks.edu.gr/ebooks/v/html/8547/2270/Agglika_ST-Dimotikou_html-empl/index3_3.html

 

This is the form you can use in order to conduct your class survey and practise ADVERBS OF FREQUENCY. Following you can create a piechart to depict in a more colourful and schematic way the results of the class.

Student’s book

Unit 2

Lesson 1

 E1

Class Survey

 Student’s Name:____________________________________

 Do you enjoy school? Find out if you have good or bad habits and see what you can do to become better at school. Put a tick next to the answer that is appropriate for you.

 

1. How often are you late for school?
a.  often	b.  never		c.  sometimes
2. How often do you forget to do your homework?
a.  always	b.  usually		c.  sometimes
3. Do you do your projects?
a.  always		b.  sometimes		c.  never
4. Do you follow your teacher’s advice?
a.  usually		b.  seldom		c.  sometimes
5. Do you ask your teacher to help you understand difficult things?
a.  sometimes		b.  seldom		c.  never
6. How often do you look up things in dictionaries , encyclopedias, the internet , biographies, etc.
a.  seldom		b.  sometimes		c.  usually
7. How often do you let your parents/sisters and brothers/friends do your homework for you?
a.  never		b.  often		c.  sometimes
8. Do you watch TV late at night instead of going to bed?
a.  often		b.  always		c.  never

WRITING & SPEAKING

You will prepare a class survey. On a separate piece of paper

1. Write down how many pupils in your classroom answered often / usually / never / seldom / sometimes / always.
2. Then in pairs, for each question, draw and colour a pie chart, like the one on the right. The pie represents the whole class.
3. What conclusions can you cometo about the “personality”/profile of your class?
4. Discuss with your teacher about other charts you can use.