Reaching the end of the pre-unit of Magic Book 2, revising the letters is going to be pursued in a different way this year! In an attempt to combine learning with playing at the same time, we are going to introduce the Alphabet Puzzle Cards that have been designed to be used in different ways: as a puzzle that can be completed individually at school or at home, as a game to be played in pairs or groups with a time challenge – if applicable, or as a competition among individual learners, pairs or groups!
Having designed the alphabet puzzle cards on a document, the steps to be followed are very easy! First, we print the cards on plain paper or cardboard:
Then, we place each card on the transparent sticker sheet that is usually used for book cover protection and we cut:
After that, we cut each card on the lines:
Time to play, learn, revise and assess through a brain-teasing activity and, as each third-grader is meant to get his/her own set in a small box or bag this week, there’s more cutting ahead!
Santa’s workshop – Primary School of Efxeinoupoli, Greece
Not having an English classroom does not necessarily mean that you miss the chance to enjoy Christmas decorations at school! Find a tree and Christmas decorations that nobody uses at school or the ones you do not use anymore but haven’t thrown away (like I have done), get Santa’s clothes from friends/relatives or even the school itself, find toys from home or the kids at school, choose a part of the entrance or the corridors that is suitable for the task and …. ta daaaaa: Santa’s workshop is now at the entrance of the Primary School of Efxeinoupoli, Greece!
Apart from the joy and excitement it generates, Santa’s workshop can be exploited as the setting of a role play, or the presentation/consolidation of Christmas vocabulary! Looking forward to enjoying it in any way possible!
Food Posters – Primary School of Efxeinoupoli, Greece
I don’t know about your teaching context, but posters seem to be our favourite project in my school, especially if learners are urged to work collaboratively on them! Every time we get to the 2nd unit of our 5th grade Pupil’s Book, my learners are very excited to create food posters! They use magazines, leaflets, markers and crayons, they add a lot of imagination and give it all they’ve got with colourful cardboard backgrounds, stickers and glitter! The moment their posters are on the school noticeboard they attract everybody’s attention and positive comments and our corridors gain a more personal and familiar touch! I am so proud of their work and contribution to this beautiful, educational and inspiring result!
This week in our school continues to move in the rhythm of Halloween that is celebrated every year on October 31. We are interested in familiarizing ourselves with this experience that is a cultural element of the English Language that we learn in our school! Last week, the youngest children of the school watched a presentation of the Halloween tradition, sang, danced, while the fourth grade students played a Halloween Escape Room game in groups, using a video projector, in their classroom!
Today, welcoming the children at school included an introduction to the corner with the witch’s workshop! Magic filters and strange ingredients caught the attention of our learners who had fun stirring with the ladle and checking out the ingredients for the witch’s strange and secret recipes! Happy Halloween, everyone!
Asynchronous learning platforms have given teachers the opportunity to upload and exploit a great deal of interactive tasks they have either created themselves or found on the internet. Greek public school teachers have been encouraged to use either E-class or E-me, in order to provide asynchronous education to their learners. Although all of us, ESL teachers, upload a number of tasks almost on a daily basis for all of the learners of one or even two schools, we actually fail to have easy access to significant statistics of each task, such as how many learners have seen it and who has actually completed it – especially in E-class.
Although there is a variety of web tools at our disposal, only few of them can actually help to this end in their free of charge versions. We have the opportunity to create quizzes and online horse-riding games, memory cards and hangman tasks, crossword puzzles and wheels of fortune, but how do we know how many and which learners have actually dealt with anything we have uploaded in E-class? The two web tools I have been using because they are free, allow me to check homework providing instant feedback and are highly appealing to my learners for their ease to use and variety of activities are LiveWorksheets and LearningApps. If you are looking for fun ways to integrate and check spelling and vocabulary development in asynchronous learning, these are the tools that you will probably select once you familiarize yourselves with them!
Liveworksheets is an exquisite web tool that allows us to transform any pdf file into an interactive worksheet. Once we upload the pdf file, there are very short and clear instructions on how to create a number of activities here and all we have to do is share the link with our learners. If you use E-class, like me, you can upload the links there, give clear instructions to your learners on what to do after they click on “Finish” and receive the corrected version of their worksheet in your app inbox. What is more, your learners get the graded version of their work as soon as they send it to you, so you do not need extra time for feedback, unless you feel you need to further guide your learner!
Although LearningApps is the second tool I am going to present, it comes first in my heart and preference, as it is very easy to use and it can be embedded in eclass in a way that allows us to check our learners’ progress within the eclass, without switching platforms! I am very grateful to the colleagues I met in B2 level ICT training in spring 2020, as they shared with us their justifiable enthusiasm for the potentials of this tool, and Ms. Despoina Mavrovounioti, Education Coordinator for English Language Teachers in Sterea Ellada, for giving me the opportunity to present how I have been using it to my colleagues in December 2020.
The actual presentation of this day can also be accessed here, but there is also a video I have recently made to help anyone interested in embedding LearningApps activities in eclass in a way that allows us to check our learners’ participation! The video is in Greek and it includes step-by-step instructions. Should you need further assistance, please do not hesitate to contact me for more details!
Here is a small sample of activities that I have created in either LiveWorksheets or LearningApps and embedded in eclass for spelling and vocabulary development:
EfxeiNewsPoli, Issue 1, Primary School of Efxeinoupoli, Greece
“We’ve got news for you” is the title of the eTwinning project we are involved in this year with the 4th, 5th and 6th learners of the Primary School of Efxeinoupoli, Greece. This project aspires to involve many European learners in the exchange of English school newspapers and the creation of a common newspaper as the end-product of this creative collaboration! Participant learners are invited to write and read English with a real-life purpose and they also have the opportunity to interact via Twinspace, improving thus their communication and ICT along with their writing and reading skills! Practising skills simulates real-life communication in a fun-filled project that helps everyone realize the emergence of English as an international language and expand their horizons. Learners also have the opportunity to feel like citizens of the world, members of a vast community, outside the barriers of their local surroundings. Using English as the vehicle, this project has been designed to provide useful insight on their peers’ daily routine, interests, customs and mentality, allowing everyone thus to become more tolerant with diversity.
The first issue of our newspaper has been completed and posted on the school blog and we are currently in the process of completing the second issue! For each issue we have tried to exploit the written assignments suggested by our coursebooks, in an attempt to make writing more meaningful and address our readers with topics of their interest. Greek learners have submitted their articles asynchronously, via eclass, and the teacher has corrected and edited the issue. Here is our first issue:
Learners participating in this project have done an exceptional job in their first issues and Greek learners are very excited to be involved in this exchange! Please, take some time to read their articles and feel free to share them with your learners! Here are their impressive issues in random order:
Our second issues are on the way and they’re full of surprises! If you liked our first attempt, do not miss the following post with the upcoming European English school newspapers!
Here we are again, dear colleagues, in front of our computer screens for hours, trying to do our best to cope with technology issues, as well as provide the optimum learning benefits in 30-minute synchronous online sessions with our learners. Although most of us have been through the same procedure last spring and are familiar with a variety of webtools and lots of theories regarding distance teaching and learning, most of us seem to feel drained after having racked our brains on how to be creative, present engaging tasks and accomplish our teaching goals in different classes for 15-24 sessions per week.
Networking with colleagues that experience the same situation has been uplifting and encouraging last spring and it proves to be valuable this time, too! Thanks to some online groups, sharing work and experiences has been led to levels that have been unfamiliar to our department – or at least how I experienced it back then! Being a warm supporter of sharing, here is part of a teaching scenario for the 1st and/or 2nd graders that has been applied and supported with positive feedback from learners, parents and myself who actually enjoyed it very much!
Subject:
English as a Second Language with a cross-curricular approach by means of ICT.
Connection with the curriculum:
Topic C4/C5 for the 1st grade / Topic B1 for the 2nd grade
Teaching context:
This scenario has been designed for synchronous online teaching to a class of 24 learners (1st grade) and a class of 24 learners (2nd grade) who are 6-7 years old and attend a rural Greek Primary School that has been shut down due to COVID-19 restrictions. Most of the learners are of Greek origin, come from mixed socio-economic backgrounds and there are no learners with diagnosed learning difficulties. None of the learners has any previous experience with online learning and parents have been advised to assist.
30 minutes of online learning and extra practice through asynchronous learning via e-class.
Transition:
This part of a teaching scenario has been designed for synchronous online learning by means of the webex platform. The particular learners have been taught in class the words “mummy” and “daddy” during the previous lesson and the activities of this part of the scenario have been designed for their first online session. All learners have no previous experience with webex online meetings; however, they have had sessions with their teacher the previous day. All learners have signed in the e-class of the Panhellenic School Network and have been using it since the beginning of the school year. They are not familiar with the web tools employed for this scenario (Thinglink, LearningApps, Video.link), but they are going to be guided into learning how to use them. Learners are supposed to own the necessary technological equipment for the session (internet connection, device, camera, microphone, speakers) and are invited to work as a group in order to complete the tasks.
To answer simple questions in the foreign language (or more complex questions in Greek) concerning the content of a short speech, such as e.g. questions and answers (“Who’s this?” “Mummy”, etc.). (A1/22)
To be able to understand very basic and standard expressions used in everyday interpersonal communication (eg greetings, such as “Hello, mummy!”, etc.). (A1/23)
To be able to understand specific information (personal data of the speaker or information related to their immediate family environment), formulated with simple vocabulary and standard sentence structures. (A1/24)
Speaking skills:
To be able to follow written or oral instructions in Greek to answer simple questions in the foreign language using standard expressions and simple vocabulary. (A1/39)
B) Regarding the use of technology
To develop information and digital literacy through the process of locating, analyzing and, finally, utilizing information found in digital environments.
To become familiar with the use of modules within the Electronic Classroom (e-class).
To become familiar with new digital environments.
To develop a responsible digital behavior through online collaboration with their peers (waiting for their turn, turning on and off their microphone when necessary, etc.).
C) Regarding the learning process and knowledge about the world
To achieve linguistic literacy while receiving and producing in the target language.
To develop visual literacy through digital visual stimuli.
To encourage digital literacy through the navigation in the modules of the Electronic Classroom (e-class) and further familiarization with the use of particular web tools.
Detailed description:
1st activity: Introduction to the topic
Type of activity: Listening comprehension, speaking by means of singing and moving
Duration: 5’
Classroom organization: Working online as a group through webex platform.
Teachers’ role: Supportive, encouraging and coordinating.
Learners’ role (according to the Four Resources Model that was originally developed in 1990 by Peter Freebody and Allan Luke): The learner is invited to work as a text decoder, deciphering the code in written and visual stimuli, and as a text participant, in the sense that s/he attempts to comprehend the input and relate it to his/her previous knowledge.
Teacher’s actions: The teacher welcomes the learners to the new digital environment and introduces a picture in Thinglink, saying that it is going to help them revise what they had done during the previous lesson. The teacher clicks on the first red button at the bottom and starts with a video, in an attempt to link what has been taught with everything that is going to be introduced throughout the session. The learners watch part of a video with the heroes of Disney that refers to “mummy” and “daddy”. Learners are encouraged to sing along and move their hands and body in the way that has been introduced in class (they dance, wave hello at “hello” and shape a heart with their fingers at “I love you”).
Learners’ actions: Learners are welcomed in the new digital environment, watch the video, revise the words “Mummy”, “Daddy”, “I love you” and sing along, while moving their hands and body to the rhythm.
Digital educational content, web tools, resources:
Classroom organization: Working online as a group through webex platform.
Teachers’ role: Supportive, encouraging and coordinating.
Learners’ role (according to the Four Resources Model that was originally developed in 1990 by Peter Freebody and Allan Luke): The learner is invited to work as a text decoder, deciphering the code in audio and visual stimuli, and as a text participant, in the sense that s/he attempts to comprehend the input and relate it to his/her previous knowledge.
Teacher’s actions: The teacher introduces the main picture of Thinglink and explains the use of the plus buttons (they have to click on the plus buttons and listen to how we say in English the members of the family). The teacher clicks on the plus buttons and encourages learners to listen and repeat.
Learners’ actions: Learners watch the picture and understand the content. They are introduced to a new web tool and they try to comprehend how it works. In the meantime, they listen and repeat, developing thus their vocabulary.
Digital educational content, web tools, resources:
Type of activity: Listening and choosing the correct word
Duration: 6’
Classroom organization: Working online as a group through webex platform.
Teachers’ role: Supportive, encouraging and coordinating.
Learners’ role (according to the Four Resources Model that was originally developed in 1990 by Peter Freebody and Allan Luke): The learner is invited to work as a text decoder, deciphering the code in audio and visual stimuli, as a text participant, in the sense that s/he attempts to comprehend the input and relate it to his/her previous knowledge and as a text user, as s/he uses it to complete the task.
Teacher’s actions: The teacher introduces the main picture of Thinglink again and explains the use of the red buttons at the bottom. Clicking on the second button, the teacher explains that, in order to complete the activity, learners have to listen to the words and choose the correct one for each pin on the family members’ faces. Learners are informed that they are going to do the task in turns and are encouraged to repeat the words as they listen.
Learners’ actions: Learners watch the picture with the pins and understand the procedure and target of the activity. They are introduced to a new web tool and they try to understand how it works. In the meantime, they listen and repeat, developing thus their vocabulary.
Digital educational content, web tools, resources:
Type of activity: Matching the sound with the correct picture
Duration: 6’
Classroom organization: Working online as a group through webex platform.
Teachers’ role: Supportive, encouraging and coordinating.
Learners’ role (according to the Four Resources Model that was originally developed in 1990 by Peter Freebody and Allan Luke): The learner is invited to work as a text decoder, deciphering the code in audio and visual stimuli, as a text participant, in the sense that s/he attempts to comprehend the input and relate it to his/her previous knowledge and as a text user, as s/he uses it to complete the task.
Teacher’s actions: The teacher introduces the main picture of Thinglink again and explains the use of the red buttons at the bottom. Clicking on the third button, the teacher explains that, in order to complete the activity, learners have to match the sounds with the correct picture (memory card game). Learners are informed that they are going to do the task in turns and are encouraged to repeat the words as they listen. The teacher uses the annotation in order to number the cards and make it easier for the learners to choose a card (numbers can be introduced in English).
Learners’ actions: Learners watch the game with the memory cards and comprehend the procedure and the aim of the activity. They are introduced to a new web tool and they try to understand how it works. In the meantime, they have fun while trying to remember the images, the sounds and while listening and repeating, developing thus their vocabulary.
Digital educational content, web tools, resources:
Classroom organization: Working online as a group through webex platform.
Teachers’ role: Supportive, encouraging and coordinating.
Learners’ role (according to the Four Resources Model that was originally developed in 1990 by Peter Freebody and Allan Luke): The learner is invited to work as a text decoder, deciphering the code in audio and visual stimuli, as a text participant, in the sense that s/he attempts to comprehend the input and relate it to his/her previous knowledge and as a text user, as s/he uses it to complete the task.
Teacher’s actions: The teacher introduces the main picture of Thinglink again and reminds the use of the red buttons at the bottom. Clicking on the fourth button, the teacher explains that it is time to sing and dance. The teacher introduces the shark family and the movements they do with their mouth. Learners are invited to watch the video, sing and imitate the movements. The teacher plays the video at least twice and reminds the learners that everything they have worked with will be uploaded to their e-class for further practice.
Learners’ actions: Learners learn about the shark family and rehearse the movements sharks do with their mouth. They eventually watch the video, sing and imitate the movements presented. Throughout this activity they have fun while trying to remember the sounds and moving their hands and body.
Digital educational content, web tools, resources:
Normally, scenarios are described in a way that presents all anticipated outcomes of each activity and the presentation of the activities is followed by the evaluation of the scenario and its impact. However, at this point, I wouldn’t like to tire you with the norm and would prefer to share with you my thoughts and feelings, as a teacher!
Prior to evaluating my role throughout the activities, I wish I could share with you the enthusiasm of everyone involved throughout the lesson, the level of participation and the excitement, especially with the song that was presented in the end! We had our lesson on Friday (16:50-17:20) with A class and we actually said our goodbyes and wishes for the weekend at 17:35, as we played the song again and again! As for me, the teacher, all I had to do during the session was to sound encouraging, pay attention to the way I deliver instructions and make sure that microphones were on and off at the right times! It was a lesson I tried with both A and B classes and enjoyed very much and receiving emails and messages through social media from content and satisfied parents was the unexpected feedback that literally made my day!
We, teachers, spend a lot of time designing, creating and delivering in front of a computer screen these days and having a great session with our learners makes it all so worth it! Sharing this part of my teaching scenario with you, I want to contribute to this energetic community of admirable colleagues out there that burn the midnight oil with me these days and express my gratitude for all the support I get from groups of people that share the same experiences with me! I hope this teaching suggestion will be as useful as your contributions and sharing have been to me! Keep it up, dear colleagues and friends, and remember that teaching is our superpower and sharing is our secret weapon!
Physical distancing and long distance teaching have brought forward the best of Greek teachers who seem to have become Web Tool experts in just a few days and struggle to do their best for their learners! In an attempt to create presentable, interactive, educational and entertaining Easter collections for all my classes this year, Thinglink was the web tool that came first to my mind, as it gives teachers the opportunity to integrate links of useful videos and tasks, as well as interactive activities they have probably created themselves using other Web Tools (like LearningApps in my case)! In this post you will find all my Easter Fun collections in one place and you are free to use them in you feel that they meet your learners’ needs!
Easter games, activities, information, quizzes, cooking and crafting, all in one place! If this is what you’ve been looking for for your learners, feel free to use it!
Another Thinglink interactive image, for my 5th Graders this time! If your 5th Graders are anything like mine, I think they will love it! Feel free to use it!
My 4th Graders are a bouquet of many different beautiful flowers! This Thinglink collection is quite rich in activities and it has been created for them, but it can be used by any colleague who feels that his/her learners will appreciate it!
Physical distancing and long distance teaching have brought forward the best of Greek teachers who seem to have become Web Tool experts in just a few days and struggle to do their best for their learners! Here is my Easter Fun collection for my Second Graders! Feel free to use it if you think it meets your learners’ needs!
Most public-school English Language teachers in Greece come from the private sector prior to being substitute or appointed teachers, just like me. When I go back to these first days of change, the inevitable comparison between where I had been and where I eventually found myself in is still so vivid in my mind! By the first week, the mental list of pros and cons between the two sectors had been formed just to help me realize the restrictions to be considered and the adaptations to be employed in my new teaching context. Would you like to know about the drawback that was on top of the list of negative aspects, the one that kept flashing in my head like an old-fashioned neon sign? Well, you’ve probably guessed right: it was the sad fact that I did not have my own classroom anymore!
What does it really mean not to have your own English classroom in a Greek public primary school? That’s a question with a long answer actually, an answer sadly familiar to most of my Greek colleagues to a question that is normally never (even thought of being) asked to a European or American one.
First of all, if you work for a school that does not have a separate English classroom, carrying stuff becomes your … trademark! For an ordinary lesson that does not require a lot of teaching aids, you normally carry a CD player and a CD or a laptop with speakers for the necessary audio files (as this equipment is not always present in every classroom in most schools), the learners’ notebooks and/or worksheets, as well as your course book and activity book copies that you never leave in any classroom, because you need them to prepare the lesson and you do not want to tempt your learners with materials that contain all the answers to all the tasks, conveniently ‘served’ on a bookcase shelf! If you are the kind of teacher that uses a variety of instructional materials, however, you may find yourself needing extra hands (and extra strength!) for the flashcards, the projector, the class mascot, a ball, a big cardboard dice and the photocopied worksheets that you intend to use during the lesson. Your extra hands are normally very willing to help, are more than the ones you need and actually belong to your learners who are not supposed to be spending their break helping you carry the necessary materials for the lesson and are kindly asked to help as soon as the bell rings – which usually occurs right after you have devoted your break to collect everything in one place at the teachers’ office! And that is, of course, only if you, the teacher, are not busy treating a wound, mediating a conflict, going to the bathroom, having something to eat, arranging a cross-curricular approach with a colleague, photocopying handouts or supervising the learners during the break! Because, if you are busy with any of these or other tasks, you inevitably limit your teaching to the main aids mentioned earlier, wrongfully feeling inadequate and guilty for not being able to offer your learners the best you can or would like to have offered.
Aside from being the teacher who always carries stuff, you often find yourself in a classroom where the learners’ seating arrangement is by no means convenient to the collaborative, communicative approach you mean to employ and exploit in your lessons. Most all-subject teachers in Greek public schools are usually fond of the Π-shaped seating arrangement, or the more traditional one, with the learners sitting in pairs in two or three rows of desks. So, what do you do in this case?
Do you move everything wasting some valuable teaching and learning time, making a lot of noise and arousing conflicts as to who is going to be with whom in the same group?
Yes, you do (at least I do), you rarely do, with a lot of preparation during the break, in cases you want to rock the boat, or when you really have to exploit the benefits of group work!
Do you settle for the pre-determined seating arrangement and adjust your teaching accordingly?
Yes, you do (at least I do), on an almost daily basis, in most of the classrooms you teach in, trying to compromise with pre-determined and sometimes inconvenient level-wise pairs of learners.
Having discussed this issue with many colleagues, the pre-determined by the all-subjects teacher seating arrangement is a considerable challenge for all of the foreign language teachers who subscribe to the benefits of group work, as group-seating arrangement appears to be the least preferred one in most schools. Based on these discussions, rearranging the furniture and moving it all back at the end of the lesson seems to rarely occur mainly in the ground-floor classrooms of Greek public schools.
One of the most daunting drawbacks of moving around the school rooms every teaching hour is the fact that, most of the times, language teachers appear to feel more like a guest, rather than a classroom-mate in each room. Being allowed to use supplies (the stapler, paper clips, whiteboard markers, etc.), a part of the notice board or the wall, a part of a bookcase shelf or even the teacher’s desk (!) are unfortunately not taken for granted in all teaching contexts! We have all heard of (or even experienced) instances where the teacher’s desk is uninvitingly full of coursebooks, students’ notebooks and photocopies, the drawers are occupied and so are the classroom notice boards and the sharing of supplies that are actually bought by the school triggers arguments and ice-cold smiles between colleagues. Although fortunately this is not always the case in the majority of the classrooms, public-school English-Language teachers in Greece normally carry the most sizeable, yet elegant (!) handbags or backpacks in an attempt to be prepared for any case! For years, my colleagues and I have carried or been carrying a pencil case full of pens, pencils, erasers and sharpeners, a pencil case full of whiteboard markers, a stapler, a double-hole puncher, paper and scotch tape, paper tissues, wet wipes and stickers – among other non-school related items!
Bearing all these and maybe some extra, more trivial challenges in mind, not having your own classroom is quite demanding, especially if you are required to do this in more than one schools, as is normally the case with most Greek EFL teachers in public schools. This year I am one of the lucky ones to be able to use an English classroom, but, after many years of personal experience and exchanges of opinions with colleagues, it seems that working conditions can improve considerably with good communication with the colleagues, willingness from all sides to compromise and lots of planning! Challenges help us grow, make us strong and trigger creativity and motivation, therefore, not having our own classroom is just another hard challenge out there that keeps us on our toes!
MAGIC BOOK 2 – 1ST TERM REVISION TEST – UNIT 1 – LESSONS 1,2
It has been a long while since I’ve posted anything on my blog or facebook page, but I’ve been busy sharing my time among family, work and my personal needs (not sharing it equally, unfortunately, but still doing my best in all areas!). To be honest, I have really missed this communicative, social and creative aspect of my job!
So, have you finished with the 1st term tests at school, or are you taking advantage of the last days of the term, like I am? Last night I finished working on the 1st term test for my 3rd graders and, as it took me a while to organise and edit, I thought it would be nice to share it with all of you that are also burning the midnight oil preparing and correcting handouts and tests these days! We have currently finished Lessons 1 and 2 from Unit 1 in Magic Book 2, so, if you want to save this document and use it either as a test, or as a revision handout, please, leave a comment with your email address under the following blog post and I’ll send it to you as soon as possible!
Apart from the revision test, I have also prepared a task for early-finishers, as I have always had learners who complete the tests almost as soon as they get their copy! Therefore, you will aslo get a copy of that worksheet which can also be attached to the main test as an extra/bonus task – it is up to you, your learners’ competence level and the time you wish to spend on test writing!
I really hope you will find this useful and time-saving!
This school year 6th graders at the Primary School of Efxeinoupoli have been working on an eTwinning project that focuses on sharing their national and local superstitions with their European peers and learning all about theirs. The teachers involved in this project have the opportunity to raise their learners’ awareness of their own and others’ customs and traditions by means of superstitions, to develop their global understanding as citizens of the world, to help them realize the emergence of English as an international language, and to assist them to learn how to work cooperatively while improving their ICT skills. The secondary objectives of the project aim at developring the learners’ reading and writing skills in English, promoting collaborative learning in the classroom as well as through WEB tools, introducing the use of technology in learning (video, email, search engine, word processor, PowerPoint presentation, etc) and providing room for the learners’ artistic expression.
Prior to working on the actual project, our learners have worked on a collaborative presentation in an attempt to present to their European peers their school and their classroom! Here is the completed schools presentation so far:
We have separated the superstitions into categories so as to be able to present them and compare and contrast them! The first category is related to animal superstitions. All European learners have been invited to present this category on a padlet wall, using text, drawings, pictures and/or videos. You can access their completed work here!
The next category invited learners to present the New Year Eve and Day superstitions in the form of a video. The learners have prepared their scripts in English and are the shining starts in the following video:
The following category presents the superstitions related to weddings and funerals. In order to be able to gather the necessary information to present the topic to their European peers, our 6th grade learners have invited father George Giannios from the local church to help them. Father George was kind enough to present the superstitions, explain the role that superstitions should have in our lives and discuss what the Greek Orthodox church believes about superstitions.
After that, our learners went to school computer lab and worked in groups in order to present the superstitions in English. All European learners have typed their national and local superstitions in a collaborative word processing document in order to create a book! This is what their book looks like so far!
So many teachers and so many pupils working on the eTwinning project that is related to “Superstitions Around Europe”! We have met each other through our Twinspace, but what do our schools look like? Learners have worked collaboratively on an online PowerPoint presentation with an eye to showing everyone their second home, their school! Here is the presentation they have created in the form of a video!
As part of the English lessons, the 5th grade learners of the Primary School of Efxeinoupoli are taking part in the European eTwinning project which is called “Green Magicians with Superpowers”. The schools we are currently working with are from Croatia, Spain, Romania and Turkey.
Prior to proceeding with our project which is related to the flora of our area, our 5th grade learners have worked in our school computer lab in order to co-edit with their European partners a cooperative online presentation that includes information regarding their school! This way they have managed to familiarize themselves with the cooperative webtool that allows them to create presentations, they have had the opportunity to present their school to a real audience practicing their English productive skills and they have acquired information regarding the partner schools while reading English with a real-life purpose.
The end-product of this collaborative effort is demonstrated in the following video:
Η Αγγελική Λαδά είναι εκπαιδευτικός Αγγλικής στην πρωτοβάθμια εκπαίδευση και μεταπτυχιακή φοιτήτρια στο ΠΜΣ Γλωσσολογίας του ΤΑΓΦ, ΕΚΠΑ. Η διατριβή της εστιάζει στην χρήση του Ψηφιακού Εκπαιδευτικού Περιεχομένου για τα Αγγλικά της Πρωτοβάθμιας και Δευτεροβάθμιας Εκπαίδευσης, διαθέσιμο στη διεύθυνση http://dschool.edu.gr και συγκεκριμένα στις υπηρεσίες Ανοικτών Εκπαιδευτικών Πόρων (Open Educational Resources-OERs) στο «Φωτόδεντρο» http://photodentro.edu.gr.
Το παρόν ερωτηματολόγιο απευθύνεται σε εκπαιδευτικούς Αγγλικής με σκοπό η ανταπόκρισή σας στην έρευνα να βοηθήσει σημαντικά τον ευρύτερο σχεδιασμό του παιδαγωγικού πλαισίου αξιοποίησης του Ψηφιακού Εκπαιδευτικού Περιεχομένου και των υπηρεσιών OERs για την ξενόγλωσση εκπαίδευση. Η συμμετοχή σας είναι ανώνυμη και εθελοντική και τα δεδομένα που θα συλλεγούν θα χρησιμοποιηθούν μόνο για τους σκοπούς της συγκεκριμένης έρευνας.
Γι’ αυτό το λόγο, παρακαλείστε θερμά να αφιερώσετε 10 λεπτά από τον πολύτιμο χρόνο σας για να απαντήσετε τις ερωτήσεις που ακολουθούν στον ακόλουθο σύνδεσμο:
This is a blog for English teachers around the world, yet there is something I have been meaning to talk to the world about for so long … Something non-related to teaching, learning, classroom decorating or managing, although I am sure this is what you (and I) have all been busy with as we approach the beginning of the school year! Please, allow me this time to share with you my enthusiasm and excitement about a place so few people know about, have realized its significance and have ever visited and appreciated it so far! Ladies and gentlemen, you are kindly requested to sit comfortably, with eyes wide open, and travel with me to Mavromati Dam, an amazing place situated on Othrys Mountain, in Thessaly, Greece.
Mavromati Dam, Magnesia, Greece
I know … If you do not live or are not from Magnesia, Greece, you cannot find it on any map (I sure cannot!), but you can get an idea of its location by clicking here! It seems to be in the middle of nowhere and, if you have tried the previous link, there is unfortunately not much to see from the satellite pictures on Google Maps! Visiting this place though, will give you a whole new perspective of this mountainous area in the centre, the heart of Greece!
Mavromati DamMavromati DamMavromati Dam
Mavromati Dam is a 48m high earth-fill dam that has been created to meet the water supply needs of the municipal units of Pteleos and Sourpi of the Municipality of Almyros, Magnesia, Greece. It is an EU funded project that cost a bit more than15 million euros and it is meant to ensure and provide quality water to about 9 settlements in the area! This means that, for at least the next 40 years, 8.000 residents and more than 10.000 tourists that visit the area all around the year will benefit from quality water supply.
Mavromati DamMavromati Dam
Aside from the impressive technical characteristics and the background of its construction, this blog post here is mainly meant to communicate to the world the unparalleled natural beauty that wonderfully surprises the visitors, the calmness and peacefulness that governs their mind and soul and the realization that inevitably strikes them that some human interventions are meant to bring good to the world and have been made in perfect harmony with their surroundings! Visiting this place many times with family and friends, it is hard to resist silent viewing of the attractive landscape, inhaling the flora of the area and paying attention to the bizarre-for-the-urban-eye fauna! The aforementioned reactions are unavoidable for any visitor, however, on a more personal viewpoint, this destination is ideal for picnic and hiking fans of any age! My family and I love walking around the dam, spotting weird plants and bugs that fly around us and enjoying our meals among the trees, right next to a fount of cold drinking water!
Mavromati Dam
In parallel with these religions which support that the road to heaven is difficult, the actual road to this natural heaven is unfortunately dusty, rocky and a bit scary after heavy rains! This, of course, is not uncommon in many magnificent Greek destinations and it is not necessarily a disadvantage, as children (if they are anything like mine) may find some unreasonable-for-the-adult-mind pleasure just by watching the clouds of dust behind their car, by trying to spot their friends’ vehicles in the ‘fog’ and by feeling the inevitable shaking of their bodies and heads throughout the ascent! Children, of course, have no idea that their mother who is also the car driver and not a local, may have no idea where she is going (as there are no road signs to help and lead her to Mavromati Dam) and may be unable to use her mobile phone as it is out of range! However, being adventurous by nature, this has never worked as a deterrent in deciding to visit this place and, being optimists on principle, this is probably something that will soon be taken care of by the local authorities and associations. Thus, once easy and safe access is ensured, that is maybe when Mavromati Dam will take the place it deserves on all kinds of digital and paper maps, and that is maybe when we, teachers, will organize educational school trips there and help our learners realize our connection with nature and develop their respect towards the surrounding environment, their actual home.
Mavromati Dam
All in all, words, pictures and videos are unable to capture the beauty, the smells and the sense of the breeze on your face while standing on the dam, but they can definitely work as an attractive display of an EU funded project that not only meets the water supply needs of a small central Greek area, but also serves as a perfect occasion to come closer to nature and enjoy it in many ways. Mavromati Dam has undoubtedly not enjoyed the national or even local promotion it deserves as a hiking, climbing, or even family trip destination mainly for practical reasons that are hopefully soon to be taken care of. Till then, it is up to us, plain local citizens, to love it, respect it, suggest and promote it, not only because it is a worth-visiting attraction of our area, but also because it seems selfish to keep this hidden paradise on earth a secret from the world!
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