OUR SCHOOL SHOW ON FAIRY TALES

MORE iPAD SURPRISES!

A photo of a page taken from an ebook full of games
 and teaching ideas by the British Council. This now
serves as a board and springboard to add some fun to
rather traditional activities, such as spelling tests.

Playing iPad games, like Bad Piggies, can be a pleasant break for
young learners, who are then more likely to continue participating
in the lesson, just for the time for the next game to arrive!
Games are a valuable teacher's tool as far as introduction
or consolidation of target vocabulary is concerned, allowing
students to have fun and produce the language at the same time.

Little George has visited Venice recently and decided to
create a drawing of its favourite place on his iPad, while
explaining all about his experience in English.

Two amazing twins drew an apron using the DrawSomething
application and picked up related new words with no effort at all! 

Argyro did not simply visit a webpage on the iPad, but actually drew it!
Find more spy projects on the Top Secret website.

EASTER ADVENTURE IN THESSALONIKI

On the folding bike and off to a new adventure! 

Destination: Thessaloniki, a truly beautiful city in the north of Greece. 

Missions: 

• Explore by bike (done)
• Meet certain online friends in person (done)
• Drink the traditional tsipouro and savour the local specialties in seaside tavernas and picturesque squares (overdone!)

With two superb teacher-bloggers:
 Maria Theologidou (on the left) and
Theodora Papapanayiotou (on the right).

The Internet can bring us closer, after all!

 Georgia Psarra and George Raptopoulos:
highly-experienced teachers I was happy to spend time with.

With Stefany Veldemiri, a talented painter who has contributed to
the creation of an ebook you will soon read a lot about!

Stefany and I used the magic 'fairy-tale cards' to finish the story entitled
The adventures of little Helen and George in the digital blocks,
a story written by Greek bloggers featuring blogging protagonists!

Her children read the stories of Dr Seuss on the iPad,
touching the screen to listen to the sound of words.

More cycling photos on my Google+ account.

THE JOURNEY IN THE WORLD OF CREATIVITY

Marina's mystery island. Also published on
markaki-topsecret.blogspot.gr/2013/04/islands-and-gadgets-full-of-mystery.html 

Argyro's mystery island. Also published on
markaki-topsecret.blogspot.gr/2013/04/islands-and-gadgets-full-of-mystery.html

Marinos' secret agent gadgets. Also published on
markaki-topsecret.blogspot.gr/2013/04/islands-and-gadgets-full-of-mystery.html

Nicolas' project on environment. Also published on
friends-eng.blogspot.gr/2013/04/nicolas-project-on-environment.html 

D' Class magazine cover from Maria Markaki School of Foreign Languages

Also published on: bitsandpieces-english.blogspot.gr/2013/04/well-done-katerina.html 

TESOL GREECE PRESENTATION ON BLOGGING: SLIDES, HANDOUT, PHOTOS AND VIDEO

Right before the presentation. More convention photos here. 

Here I am, having returned from Athens, where the 34th TESOL Greece convention took place, with a sincere grin! What an experience, I keep saying to myself. Having to get back to work immediately, my mind hasn't yet processed the event in all its glory: adept presenters from all around the world, enlightening presentations and plenaries, dinner and roof garden party with the best company one could ever ask for.

I have also been fortunate enough to have coffee with bloggers widely known in the greek blogosphere and invite them to participate in the end-of-year school event I am currently organising. I am not going to disclose more information; you will have to stay tuned to see what is coming next in the frenzy of the interconnected world of blogging!

On top of all those wonderful encounters, the chance to join thousands of bikes cycling around all Athens at the so called FreeDay event has been invaluable. The creation of an unprecedented Tern Greece folding bike club with my friends is to be included in the highlights of the weekend.

Folding bikes go everywhere! More cycling photos here.

More news: in a few days, I am going to upload an iBook including all the articles I have written about teacher and student blogging. You will be able to download it freely and possibly add your own ideas to it. Related updates will be posted on this blog.

Last but not least, here is all the material from my presentation. I hope you find some of the advice useful and I welcome all comments under this post.

Blog wars 2 from Maria Markaki School of Foreign Languages

B-logging in the EFL Classroom from Maria Markaki School of Foreign Languages

What an enchanting learning adventure! Thank you TESOL Greece for the hospitality. My dream is to meet all these exceptional educators in one of the upcoming TESOL conventions. This will once again give me the opportunity to return on 1st April and announce to the incredulous young students, 'I have been at a global convention, met interesting people of different nationalities, showed them your work and they loved it!', only to receive 'Happy April Fool's Day!' as an answer. Too good and true, I will think quietly. 

PRESENTATION ON TEACHER AND STUDENT BLOGGING FOR TESOL GREECE

To blog or not to blog? That is the question!

If you are a teacher of English interested in exploring and taking advantage of the potential blogging has to offer to you and your students alike, do not hesitate to participate in the TESOL Greece convention, taking place in Athens this very weekend.

You will be surprised at the number of intriguing talks in the programme, which include learning difficulties and ways to deal with them, web 2.0 tools, copyrights and copy wrongs, motivation strategies, research in psychology and (surprise!) rock'n'roll.

Besides, as my new motto goes... the more you know, the more you know! 

• Convention programme
• Conference preview
• My talk on teacher and student blogging

CPE LINKS

• Certificate of Proficiency in English (CPE): Information for candidates
• How to prepare for CPE
• Examiners' comments on a CPE speaking test (Watch the video first)
• Download sample papers for Cambridge English: Proficiency
  
  
  Find more exam links on our wiki: eflinks.wikispaces.com/Certificates 

EDUCATION VOCABULARY

CELEBRATING THE CARNIVAL AND EBOOK WEEK

From Carnival 2013

From Reading ebooks

We celebrated the Carnival by dancing, singing and wearing costumes, but this did not stop us from reading to participate in the 'Read an ebook' week. If you click on the album link under the second photograph, Dr. Seuss's 'Cat in the Hat' and Sam-I-am with his 'Green Eggs and Ham' will help you feel like children again. The students were definitely excited after reading these fairy tales (Toy Story included) and having the chance to further explore the characters and the words on the iPad screen. 

STUDENTS' NEWEST PROJECTS

From Secret Agent Gadgets: Student Projects

From Giving Tree: Description of scenes

Click on the links to view more scanned projects.