The Experts’ Talks
Three experts delivered lectures that captured the audience’s attention:
1. Victoria Prekate, Educator and Psychologist (Athens)
2. Themis Sarantaenas, Consultant for small and medium-sized enterprises (Athens)
3. Dimitris Sarris, IT Specialist (Thessaloniki)
Victoria Prekate: How Teenagers Experience Financial Stress in the Family
A steadily growing number of young children and teenagers in Greece are increasingly faced with depression and other issues due to the ongoing crisis, Ms Prekate said.
Anxiety about their parents’ unemployment and difficult everyday conditions plagues children with insomnia, stress, persistent headaches, abdominal pain, nail biting, melancholy etc.
Losing a job is stressful
Our jobs are much more than just the way we make a living. They influence how we see ourselves, as well as the way others see us. Our jobs give us structure, purpose, and meaning. That’s why job loss and unemployment is one of the most stressful things adults can experience.
Beyond the loss of income, losing a job also comes with other major losses, some of which may be even more difficult to face:
• Loss of our professional identity
• Loss of self-esteem and self-confidence
• Loss of our daily routine
• Loss of purposeful activity
• Loss of our work-based social network
• Loss of our sense of security
Helping Children Cope with a Parent’s Unemployment
Children may be deeply affected by a parent’s unemployment. It is important for them to know what has happened and how it will affect the family. However, try not to overburden them with the responsibility of too many of the emotional or financial details.
• Keep an open dialogue with your children. Letting them know what is really going on is vital. Children have a way of imagining the worst when they write their own “scripts”, so the facts can actually be far less devastating than what they envision.
• Make sure your children know it’s not anybody’s fault. Children may not understand about job loss and immediately think that we did something wrong to cause it. Or, they may feel that somehow they are responsible or financially burdensome. They need reassurance in these matters, regardless of their age.
• Children need to feel they are helping. When a student’s family is experiencing financial stress, he or she may be motivated to help more around the house with family chores, watch siblings, or simply show their parent(s) how much they love them. In some cases, s/he may also decide to find a job after school or on the weekends to help support the family’s needs.
However, for other students, stress may manifest itself in more negative ways, including a drop in grades, substance use and/or abuse, internalizing behaviours (i.e., anxiety, depression, self-blame), and/or externalizing behaviours (i.e., physical aggression, verbal aggression, bullying).
Protecting our children against all of life’s unexpected painful events is not possible. Giving them a sense of competency and the skills to face adverse circumstances can be a valuable legacy of all parents. Resiliency can be built by understanding these important foundations.
Themis Sarantaenas: Basic Marketing Strategies for FLS
Themis Sarantaenas emphasized the importance of defining the role of the school in the area it operates, the quality of services on offer, the designing public relations programmes around the needs of the local community in order to keep parents informed and get their support.
Sarantaenas used the findings of a survey carried out by the Research Institute of the University of Macedonia in September 2013. According to the results 53% of the parents said that they choose the FL school for their children and 39% said that the decision is taken jointly.
So parents are called upon to fulfill certain duties and responsibilities when choosing a FL school for their child. They make use of a variety of information on schools in their area. Such ‘mapping’ is evident in school brochures and websites where choice is assembled on the basis of visual iconography and narratives.
So a carefully designed programme for approaching and attracting parents should one of the first priorities of a FL school. Another important priority is developing the act of persuasion –absolutely necessary to engage in constructive dialogues with customers.
Dimitris Sarris: Hybrid Courses
Hybrid courses are defined as classes in which instruction takes place in a traditional classroom setting augmented by computer-based or online activities which can replace classroom seat time. These types of courses are becoming more and more popular in many countries. Sarris said that adopting a hybrid model could bring more students to a school who are used to functioning in an electronic environment.
Conclusion
Teachers and FL School Owners learnt a lot during the 2nd Foreign Languages Spring Forums. What was more important though was the sharing of ideas, opinions and expertise; this sharing makes the teaching profession unique. We all learn from each other and become better persons and teachers.
