Learning by Heart - a Plea for Poetry
A strange expression that. A very guilty one as well. The “by heart” approach has carried all the negative effects of Behaviourism in Education so the demonization of the term is inevitable in teachers’ minds.
What it usually means is memorization - sticking things in your head and keeping them there, ready to...
Learning a foreign language is an emotional roller coaster mixed with amazing highs and frustrating plateaus. Many a times you feel like you’re not making any progress at all. It’s so easy to become discouraged and want to throw in the towel.
Sayings, quotes and aphorisms are great tools we can use to generate interest in the language classroom and start...
In New York
Concrete jungle where dreams are made of
There’s nothin’ you can’t do
Now you’re in New York
These streets will make you feel brand new
Big lights will inspire you
Let’s hear it for New York
As I have always been in love with words, senses, and true meanings, the above lyrics really inspired me. This symbolic connection of an empire state of...
Research shows that the more students read in English, the more proficient they become. Reading can significantly improve students’ level in all four skills: reading, writing, listening, and speaking. It can also result in big improvements in the use of grammar and vocabulary. An effective way of engaging your students with reading is by using graded...
Infusing lessons with their personal interests can help teachers model the benefits of perseverance and curiosity.
When you’re a teacher, a big part of your job is battling student misconceptions. Often students come to the classroom assuming that learning can’t be fun and that what they learn isn’t relevant to the real world -much less to their personal...
Throughout my professional life, I try to be flexible! Flexible to the lesson plans I create, to the materials, to the way I manage and lead my classes. This is sometimes difficult as we have to take several factors into account; time, parents, student’s needs, general aims and learning outcomes. I am not sure whether this is called flexibility or it is my...
“One day I will find the right words, and they will be simple.”
― Jack Kerouac
If I need a series of complicated crafts, 5 different books, 15 photocopies and 3 different classroom setups to teach the letter (or the sound- depending on your approach) ‘m’, something is very wrong!
Text by: Maria Davou
Arts and crafts are beautiful; they enrich our...
Living in the 21st century world can be complicated and stressful. A lot of the interpersonal and interactive skills that we need in our everyday lives – things such as digital literacies, intercultural competence, and emotional self-regulation – are still far from being merely introduced in the Greek educational system. The trend of incorporating Global...
STEAM (Science, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics) has become a broadly recognized method of teaching all over the globe. There are many schools and organizations that are involved with it and they adopt it into their teaching. TEFL community in Greece has become more and more creative over the last years and tries to perform new, innovative methods in...
