TESOL MACEDONIA THRACE NORTHERN GREECE. e-bulletin. June-July-August 2017 Issue 62. Associate IATEFL member

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1 TESOL MACEDONIA THRACE NORTHERN GREECE e-bulletin June-July-August 2017 Issue 62 Associate IATEFL member

2 EDITORIAL TEAM Great to have you here! Editor-in-chief: Maria Theologidou E t Assistant Editor: Linda Manney Columnists: Dimitris Tzouris Proofreading/Editing: Maria Theologidou, Linda Manney Design and layout: Vasilis Nakos Eκδότης/ Ιδιοκτήτης: Maria-Araxi Sachpazian, ΠΡΟΕΔΡΟΣ ΤΗΣ ΈΝΩΣΗΣ ΓΙΑ ΤΗ ΔΙΔΑΣΚΑΛΊΑ ΤΗΣ ΑΓΓΛΙΚΉΣ ΓΛΏΣΣΑΣ ΣΤΗ ΜΑΚΕΔΟΝΊΑ ΚΑΙ ΘΡΆΚΗ TES macedonia-thrace northern greece L Contact Details tesolmth@gmail.com

3 A VIEW FROM THE CHAIR Editorial from Maria- Araxi Sachpazian 4 25 TH JUBILEE international conference CALL FOR PARTICIPATION 6 index SUMMER EVENT SNAPSHOTS & report MEMBERS ARTICLES & STUDENT CORNER 7-8 Linda Manney 9 WELCOME BACK event 12 REPORTS IATEFL ELT BELTA Express Publishing seminar Maria Theologidou 26 When EdTech meets ELT Dimitris Tzouris s Column 27 Burlington Books Summer event Maria-Araxi Sachpazian 29 Thinking outside the (EFL) box Dimitris Primalis Creative Ways To Teach English Aphrodite Gkiouris 35 QLS - Gold Award for Innovation in Teaching 39 One Step beyond and they lived happily ever after! Angeliki Voreopoulou 42 Student Engagement within the Wider Community Athanassia Iosifidou 44 Building a community of online storytellers in the 21st century EFL classroom through microblogging Zoi Tsiviltidou 46 Learners educating Teachers: Students shaping the Future of Schools Maria-Araxi Sachpazian 49 School Of The Future School For Everyone dates to remember Karolina Wieczorek 51 Maria Jeleń

4 A view from the chair Dear Friends, It s summer at last! I hope you have all had a successful academic year and you have shared great learning experiences with your learners. At TESOL Macedonia-Thrace, Northern Greece, we have been busy planning and organizing things, but we feel based on your feedback that 2017 has been a good year for us so far. Editorial, July 2017 By Maria-Araxi Sachpazian Chairperson If nothing else, 2017 will stand out in our memory as the year when TESOL Macedonia-Thrace Northern Greece had a lot of firsts. It was the first year after many when we had a pre-conference event and a round table discussion. It has been the year when we had our first ever webinar with Microsoft Fellow Mr. Dimitris Primalis and it s been the year when we tried our first Yoga event. In this issue you will be able to read the article Dimitris has written on this webinar, while our Vice-Chair Linda Manney has written an overview of our summer event which was devoted to our own well-being. For me, this first yoga experience was very esoteric and I am very happy I shared it with my favourite TA in the world. Yoga Teachers like KRI Certified Yoga Instructor Madalena Kounini are gifted people who have the ability to make others actualize their potential. We were really lucky to have Madalena with us and we do hope that she will be able to join us for a pre-conference Yoga session in February as well. Many thanks also to Vayia Chanou, founder of Armonia Yoga and Meditation Centre. In this issue you will also read about the work of our associates. ELTA Serbia and BETA Bulgaria organized their annual conferences and TESOL Macedonia- Thrace was there. As members of TAs we need to realize the significance of networking between associations and the strategic importance of creating strong bonds and alliances with stakeholders at various levels. The time of little closed boxes and small-minded thinking has come and gone. In the words of Sylvia Velikova, editor of publications for BETA Bulgaria, Networks of TAs communicate, share, support each other thus creating networks of professionals. We are proud to be able to highlight this brilliant quote by including samples of work done by all our affiliates. From ELTA Serbia, read Vasiliki Mandalou s conference report. From BETA Bulgaria, read my report and from IATEFL Poland, read two inspiring articles written by Polish Students in English. These students took part and won in the public speaking competition, the last leg of which was held during the IATEFL POLAND conference in It was an honour to meet these students and their teacher personally and to get a glimpse of what they think the future of school is. Finally, don t miss out on our coverage of the 51st IATEFL Conference and Exhibition in Glasgow which took place in April. In our calendar, coming up in August there are three exhibitions in Thessaloniki 4

5 A view from the chair Our 25th Jubilee International Conference entitled Overcoming Obstacles, Shaping the future will be held on 23rd-25th February 2018 in Thessaloniki. Since this is an anniversary conference and an election year lots of events will be planned. and TESOL Macedonia-Thrace has been invited to participate in all three. The members of the executive committee will do everything possible to be there and this is not an easy task since most of these exhibitions last for two whole days. To help more teachers join our association, we will have special membership offers and some surprises. At the PALSO and at the IP Exhibition we will also have TESOL MTH presentations, which we hope you will attend and suggest to your friends. On September 24th we will be holding our Welcome Back Day Conference with Ms Chrissie Taylor, Dr. Paschalia Patsala and Dr. Eirini Gamvrou. Later in autumn and more specifically on October 15th, we will be holding a TESOL Macedonia-Thrace, Northern Greece 10X10 EFL Talks Event, co-organised with Rob Howard and 10 speakers who are members of our organization. This is going to be yet another first as this online event will be open to all our associates and their members as well as to the people who are fans of 10X10 EFL talks. If you want to know more about this format of presentation visit We believe that this is a great opportunity for our TA to put Thessaloniki on the International Map of ELT and attract even more and even better speakers to our conference. For this reason, many thanks go to Rob Howard for suggesting this idea and for supporting our TA and to all of the speakers who will participate. Our 25th Jubilee International Conference entitled Overcoming Obstacles, Shaping the future will be held on 23rd- 25th February 2018 in Thessaloniki. Since this is an anniversary conference and an election year lots of events will be planned. If you are willing to volunteer your help or if you have an anniversary idea you would like to share with us, please TESOL Macedonia-Thrace, Northern Greece. In the pages following, you will see the preview of our poster without the plenary speakers and the call for participation. Remember that as members of TESOL Macedonia-Thrace, Northern Greece you need to participate actively in your TA and by participate I don t mean just to attend an event but to be the one doing the speaking. If you feel you want to do it but need some mentoring, don t hesitate to us. I d like to close this article by asking you to use this summer to benefit yourselves as people. Start by writing a bucket list of just five items and see which ones you can actually accomplish during summer. Become more mindful of the moment, of the sounds, of the smells of summer and let the warmth of the sea breeze touch your soul and transform your dreams into actual realities, because YOU deserve it. Wishes for a mindful summer 5

6 TES macedonia-thrace northern greece L 25 TH JUBILEE INTERNATIONAL CONFERNCE Overcoming Obstacles Shaping the Future CALL FOR PARTICIPATION until 1st December tesolmth@gmail.com ACT THESSALONIKI GREECE February 23-25, 2018

7 Members Articles TESOL Macedonia Thrace Northern Greece Members are invited to submit articles for publication in the e-bulletin. Contact our editor, Maria Theologidou at submit articles for publication TESOL Macedonia-Thrace members are invited to submit articles for publication in the e-bulletin. Many people have expressed an interest in reading articles which present practical tips or deal with classroom problems-rather than those which are overlytheoretical. Contributors should refer explicitly to sources of ideas and these should be accurately cited and correctly referenced. Otherwise, they could be less academic and more creative and experience-based. Also, if you have the ability to create comic strips, you may wish to contribute to the e-bulletin. The editors reserve the right to negotiate with contributors on recommended changes to articles, but undertake not to publish unless the writer is satisfied with the final version. It is the responsibility of the authors of the article to ensure that copyright, plagiarism, and libel laws have been respected. The views expressed in the articles do not necessarily reflect the views of the Executive Board of TESOL Macedonia Thrace, Northern Greece. 7

8 Student Corner Just send in your articles to and let TESOL s publishing team do the rest! Are you a student of methodology? Then, this is for you! TESOL Macedonia-Thrace is all about English teaching, practical ideas for the classroom, new ideas, innovative ideas and why not those old but trusted ones. Are you studying methodology as part of your course at University? Are you doing your Celta or Delta? Why not send those reports/projects/articles you ve been writing and have them published in our e-bulletin? What s in it for you? Well, first of all, it s a way to make use of what you ve been writing throughout your course instead of filing them away never to see the light of day again! Other teachersexperienced or not-can benefit from what you write. Take your first steps in being published. All the big names in EFL started with writing for their local TAs and still do. Use it in your C.V. Employers are always on the lookout for those who are willing to walk the extra mile. It doesn t have to be 2000 words on Krashen s Input Hypothesis or Chomsky s Transformational Grammar or your word dissertation. That little task you wrote on vocab games will do just fine! 8

9 SNAPSHOTS FRoM OUR SUMMER EVENT!

10 Teacher s Well-Being and Self Discovery Report by Linda Manney On Saturday, June 17, the TESOL Macedonia-Thrace Summer Event took place on the premises of City College / University of Sheffield, in downtown Thessaloniki, and featured two invited presenters, Ms Madalena Kounini and Ms Natasa Manitsa. Our program of Well-Being and Self Discovery started with a yoga session conducted by Ms. Madalena Kounini, who introduced us to some basic techniques of Kundalini Yoga. Kundalini is a type of yoga in which the practitioner connects with her center of energy and then completes a series of exercises designed to awaken and align one or more of the body s seven points of energy, or chakras. Our yoga lesson began as we entered a cool and shaded room and sat on the floor in a basic easy pose, guided by the teacher s clear and calming voice. We then listened to a mantra, a series of rhythmic musical sounds organized to regulate the mind and focus one s thinking inwardly. The purpose of the mantra is to tune out external noise and eliminate distractions or unpleasant thoughts as we each tune into our internal voice of intelligence. After listening to the opening mantra, we worked through a series of kriyas, or exercise sets, each of which included basic breathing techniques and specific bodily movements. We practiced long deep regular breathing, by slowing inhaling from the abdomen to the ribcage and finally to the chest, as well as segmented breathing, in which the inhalation and exhalation was divided into sections. We also completed several bodily exercises in which we moved our fingers, hands, arms and legs rhythmically, sometimes to the sound of music, both slow and fast-paced. As we worked through each of the exercise routines, Madalena skillfully utilized a variety of inspiring musical pieces, both instrumental and vocal, to help us experience more fully the quality of energy associated with a particular kriya. After finishing all of the kriyas, we relaxed deeply as we lay down with eyes closed, listening to slow, soothing music. For the second session, we moved to the auditorium for another type of energizing experience as Ms. Natasa Manitsa delivered a highly engaging presentation, entitled Bad or Just Sad? Beat that Imposter Syndrome in your classroom. Natasa began by summarizing a current strand of psychological research as she described a common emotional pattern, known as the Imposter Syndrome, which causes people to underestimate their abilities. The Imposter Syndrome is defined as the difference between a higher level of skill or expertise, where we actually are, and a lower level, where we imagine ourselves to be. The Imposter Syndrome is likely to develop when people incorrectly use their past experience to assess their current levels of skill. Such misjudgment has serious outcomes, causing people to underestimate their true level of skill or expertise, and leads people to avoid challenge and miss out on possibilities for advancement. Natasa then helped us to distinguish between accomplishments, skills, and values. She observed that our values are often geared to our working environment, and do not always reflect broader aspects of our lives which reflect who we are as people. She encouraged people to accept praise, to avoid comparing ourselves negatively to others, to identify our triggers or experiences that cause us to experience negative thoughts. She also stressed the importance of cultivating a growth mindset, which is a belief that our intelligence is not a fixed quantity, but rather develops with sustained effort. Those of us who were present felt truly inspired after doing a yoga routine to open our minds, and then listening to an insightful talk on overcoming self-doubt. We greatly appreciated the outstanding presentations made by both Madalena Kounini and Ms. Natasa Manitsa, and we look forward to practicing what they taught us. We are also very grateful to City College, once again, for generously allowing us to use their premises for a TESOL Macedonia-Thrace event. Until we meet again, we wish you all Kalo Kalokairi!

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13 IATEFL ELTA BETA REPORTS by Maria-Araxi Sachpazian Vassiliki Mandalou

14 IATEFL The 51 st IATEFL Conference 2017 Glasgow GLASGOW 4th to 7th April 2017 SEC Glasgow Report by Maria-Araxi Sachpazian A unique conference experience The magic of an IATEFL conference starts a long time before one sets foot in the venue. I would say that for most of us, it starts right at the moment when the previous conference ends. Association. Despite feeling at home in the SEC which was the IATEFL conference venue back in 2012 as well, and in IATEFL as well, I tried to see it through the eyes of a first-comer. IATEFL can feel daunting if one does not take the time to own it and shape the conference s/he wants to attend. The Association itself has taken steps to ease this. One of these ways is the existence of SIGs which are much smaller groups of professionals who share the same professional interests. Joining one (or more) of these should be a first priority as this smaller group will give one a much-needed support network and a familiar group of faces to smile at and share a cup of coffee. SIGs organize Pre-conference events on the day before the official opening of the conference. This year, there were 13 Pre-conference events, which lasted the whole day. On the same day, Associates Coordinator Dr. Lou McLaughlin and the representatives of the TAs which are affiliates of IATEFL had a chance to discuss ways of promoting our cause during the Associates Days. Associates Day is a great way for TA representatives to learn more from professionals about how to run their Association and it also allows people to engage in some This was my 12th IATEFL conference and the first (and only one) in which I was a Scholarship winner. It was also my first one as a Chairperson of an affiliate Teachers 14

15 by Maria-Araxi Sachpazian THE 51ST IATEFL CONFERENCE 2017 GLASGOW useful networking that results in joint events between IATEFL Affiliate TAs. Greece was represented by both TESOL Greece and its Chairperson George Chatzis as well as by TESOL Macedonia-Thrace. The posters of the two associations hang side by side to show the close ties between them. Associates Coordinator, Dr Lou McLaughlin held a focus group later in the week, during which we had a chance to discuss how local TAs can explain to their members the advantages of joining IATEFL and how we can make IATEFL more alive for our members. Plenary Sessions It never fails to surprise me how different plenary speakers manage to put forward the same core messages. In my opinion, this year s core messages were two: people matter and creating relationships between people and amongst things which might on the surface seem unconnected is key. Meaning can only be derived from unity. A truly multicultural and diverse event, the 51st IATEFL Conference managed to give food for thought to the participants but also to inspire further research through these plenary sessions. The plenary of the first day was presented by Gabriel Diaz Maggioli, professor of TESOL Methods at the National Teacher Education College. Gabriel is perhaps the only IATEFL plenary speaker that I had met personally before, from his years as editor of the IATEFL Teacher Training and Education SIG newsletter and I was overjoyed to see him as a plenary speaker. His session entitled Empowering teachers through continued professional development: Frameworks, Practices and promises looked at CPD as it is now in contrast to what it was seen to be in In 2002 Dennis Sparks characterized it as unfocused, insufficient, and irrelevant to the day-to-day problems faced by front line educators. I am sure this feels familiar to many of us. Professor Maggioli examined the reasons why this phenomenon occurs and went on to suggest a more realistic, cost and time-effective plan for in-service teacher education which teachers can own and manage themselves. As mentioned before the core idea was how people experience training and its usefulness not on how useful training is considered by a faceless and nameless group of people. The second plenary on Wednesday morning was presented by Sarah Mercer, Professor of Foreign Language Teaching at the University of Graz, and it was entitled Connecting minds: Language Learner and Teacher psychologies. In this, Prof. Mercer mentioned that teaching is all about people and that psychologically-wise teachers believe and invest in positive relationships, focus on growth and growth-mentality and are interested in their own wellbeing. It is noteworthy that prof. Mercer is currently researching the issue of teachers well-being as it affects learners. Prof. Mercer concluded that psychology matters because people matter therefore we should invest and prioritize the relationships we form as part of the learning we provide. One of the things that I kept from this session is Prof. Mercer s emphasis on a growth-mentality as opposed to a fixed one, because how can teachers help 15

16 by Maria-Araxi Sachpazian THE 51ST IATEFL CONFERENCE 2017 GLASGOW others grow if they do not believe in growth themselves. The plenary of the third day, Thursday, was delivered by JJ Wilson, and it was rich in content and in delivery as JJ Wilson is a gifted presenter. JJ Wilson is an ELT professional who has taught in many countries, he has written materials for teaching and blogs fervently. His session entitled ELT and Social Justice: Opportunities in a time of Chaos showed how thought-provoking and inherently interesting a Global Issues topic can be. In his plenary JJ Wilson discussed his own personal biography as an example of how a person who comes from a place of privilege might also have to struggle as well. He looked at the work of Paulo Freire, The education of the oppressed and discussed its significance at the time it was written as well as its present weight. He also suggested ways in which teachers can include social justice issues in their lessons by using drama, poetry, images and community projects. On the final day of the conference there were two plenary sessions as is the IATEFL time-honored tradition. The first plenary, presented by Jane Setter, professor of Phonetics at the University of Reading who started her very spirited presentation by commenting on the fact that she is the first ever plenary speaker on the topic of Phonology as her session was entitled Where angels fear to tread: Intonation in English Language Teaching. Professor Setter discussed intonation, how it works in English and why teachers think it is hard to teach. The speaker went on to examine the difficulties the intonation of the English Language can present to native speakers of different languages and also commented on the fact that speaking a foreign language is by itself very stressful and learners may feel intimidated if they get a negative reaction both of which can hinder the production of accurate intonation patterns. The last plenary of the 51st IATEFL Conference as is the custom was not TEFL-related and was presented by poet & documentary-maker Imitiaz Dharker who read from her collection Over Moon and her new Glasgow poems. Imitiaz thanked the audience for being there for poetry and noted how important it is that in a forum like that provided by IATEFL poetry has been invited in. The poet went on to mention that all children have a gift for poetry as they play with sounds and experiment with language. Unfortunately, children forget this adventure as they grow older. It is important, said the poet, for students to know that poetry is not an inaccessible mystery but something that speaks about their world. The full-length videos of the plenary sessions can be found at iatefl.britishcouncil.org and they are truly worth watching as no summary can fully capture their spirit. The Greek delegates. It is always heart-warming to see how many Greek professionals make it to IATEFL. Most of these hardworking professionals are self-funded, which makes their presence there even more worthwhile as they accomplish two things: they network for themselves while putting Greece on the Global ELT map. The presentations of the Greek delegates were powerful and impressive and were carried out in full rooms. Eftychis Kantarakis, presented a talk entitled Will it blend? Does blended learning work? How and why?. During this talk Eftychis encouraged participants to review blended learning and appreciate it for what it is. Georgios Chatzis, Chairperson of TESOL Greece, presented a talk entitled Process Writing in the Exam Classroom: Can technology help?. George reviewed some of the key problems in teaching writing and giving feedback and went on to explore how teachers can use technology to give feedback to learners online. Dora Koutoukis, presented a workshop under the title Teaching very young learners: but do we really teach?. Dora presented evidence of her work in her own school and discussed some of the educational and emotional problems of teaching young learners. I am very 16

17 by Maria-Araxi Sachpazian THE 51ST IATEFL CONFERENCE 2017 GLASGOW happy that Dora has agreed to repeat her presentation in February at our conference. Natassa Manitsa s spirited presentation entitled Five steps to prepare your students for the 21st Century, focused on how teachers can adopt classroom practices which encourage learners to develop their critical thinking, creativity, communication, collaboration, global awareness and social responsibility. Joan Mcphail and Angeliki Apostolidou presented a workshop on Using tablets in class. In this workshop, they explored the advantages and disadvantages of using tablets as a teaching tool and offered solutions to relevant practical problems. The workshop revolved around the Easing into English an App developed by Tartan Epsilon which the two speakers co-own. Marisa Constantinides, who needs no introduction, presented a talk on Developing Critical Thinking Skills in teachers in training in which the speaker noticed the incongruity between the education of learners and that of teachers: we are overly concerned to develop critical thinking skills in learners but do teacher training courses include the element of creativity and critical thinking skills to the same extent? It was a really thought-provoking topic with practical applications which Marisa developed in her usual animated way in a room full of participants. Angelos Bollas presented a session on the Teacher Development SIG Day track, entitled De-idealising the heteronormative self in the ELT classroom. The talk revolved around the issue of the absence of reference to LGBTQ sexual orientations in EFL materials. This was a truly original topic and one that requires boldness on the part of the presenter. Finally, my presentation was part of the Leadership and Management Special Day track and it was a talk entitled Cognitive distortions and the LTO Manager which discussed the issue of how the loneliness of managers, and their lack of well-developed leadership skills across the grid, may lead to them engaging in cognitive distortions which filter reality negatively, thus causing them to use negative rhetoric which ends up demotivating the staff. It is more than rewarding to see that Greek delegates, have so much to say and such a lot of original input to present. I feel proud to have been part of this group. The end is never welcome. On Friday morning, rain fell on Glasgow and the SEC looked a bit greyer than on the previous days. Delegates made their way into the venue laden with suitcases and heavy bags, ready to leave right after the last plenary. I must confess that I did not go to the closing plenary as I did not want to see the closing ceremony. As a person, I am much better with beginnings rather than with endings and conferences are no exception. In my heart, I am fully aware that I have gained a lot. To paraphrase Marjorie Rosenberg s Welcome, my suitcases and my heart are filled with mementos, resources, memories, friendships and experiences to take back home with me. As I was taking some final photos, I realised that every conference is a universe of its own and that can never be repeated. My steps were heavy and so was my heart as I was leaving the venue but a tiny bit of hope loomed ahead as I realized that Brighton 2018 is just 12 short months away. Shaping has already started..conference 2018 loading. 17

18 ELTA 15th ELTA Serbia Conference Awaken your Curiosity of May 2017 Singidunum University, Belgrade SERBIA Report by Vassiliki Mandalou Curiosity is the spice that makes our life enjoyable; in our endless quest to satisfy it, we become lifelong learners who always try to find answers to different questions. We, teachers, know this better than anyone else since our professional life revolves around curiosity and lifelong learning. This drive to explore the unknown was the message this year s ELTA Serbia Conference wanted to spread - how and why educators should awaken their own curiosity and spark the curiosity of their learners as well. With seven plenaries and more than seventy workshops, presentations and talks we had the chance to broaden our horizons and explore new ways we can approach teaching and learning: through curiosity, experiments and innovation. Getting Unstuck- Stretch out of our Comfort Zones was the opening plenary by Marjorie Rosenberg. As the speaker rightly pointed out we all tend to stick to certain routines and sometimes fail to take advantage of possibilities to stretch ourselves or take on challenges in other areas. The speaker then explored the implications of this tendency regarding our teaching styles and methods, the types of classes we usually teach as well as the technology we are comfortable with and demonstrated a wide variety of choices available to us as professionals both inside and outside the classroom. Mike Mayor was the next speaker to follow whose plenary speech entitled How long does it take to learn English? (and other tricky questions) focused on the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR). In order to answer the presentation s question effectively we must first see what the realistic targets for our students are. Are we setting ourselves and our learners up to fail? We looked at the Global Scale of English (GSE) project which takes the original CEFR research and Can Do statements. We saw how we can extend the set of learning objectives to better understand the skills needed to master English and any other language by different groups of learners. Tim Bowen s pre-plenary session was a delight as he draw our attention on Not forgetting the Pronunciation as pronunciation is vital in a changing world. In order to understand its significance, we looked at the question of what actually makes good pronunciation and examined ways of promoting awareness of different aspects of sounds, word stress, prominence and intonation as well as pronunciation of contracted words. The session also offered tips and short activities for the classroom that 18

19 by Vassiliki Mandalou 15TH ELTA SERBIA CONFERENCE AWAKEN YOUR CURIOSITY can enable learners to practice the different aspects of English pronunciation in an innovative way. Teachers or Educators? was the plenary given by Julie Wallis. According to the speaker, project work can give teachers and learners the opportunity to develop on many different levels. The speaker used practical examples from successful projects developed with teenagers of different ages and levels and we realized how these projects focus on 21st Century skills for lifelong learning. Engaging learners and facilitating the process towards autonomy through self-managed projects is not easy though. It implies empowering learners by handing over control of the learning process to them and taking a step back. Understanding our role as teachers and learning to trust can bring unexpected and, dare I say it, awesome results. But we, teachers, do love a good sense of humour. And that was what Tim Bowen s speech You re having a laugh, mate. proved once again. The speaker reviewed the key elements of British humour with examples and activities to use in the classroom. We had the chance to look at the typical British use of understatement and how this is used as a strategy in everyday communication Although it was another plenary session, it was highly interactive as participants were asked to perform tasks relating to some of the ideas presented. I could not leave out the plenary of Mojca Belak Teachers have a choice who inspired and moved us beyond words. Having at least some basic knowledge of what makes people tick or explode is useful not only in private life but also at work, where teachers manage relationships on a daily basis. This interactive talk touched upon one of the basic chapters of Choice Theory, which states that every human being has five universal needs. Apart from the very basic need to survive there are four psychological needs which are driven by genes: love, power, freedom, fun. According to Dr.William Glasser, the founder of Theory of Choice, everybody has their unique combination of needs, which they try to satisfy as best they can. After exploring each need separately in real-life situations, we were encouraged to put them together in a rounded picture of the fundamentals of human behavior. Belak s deeply meaningful talk helped us all become better aware of what is really going on in the teaching environment as well as the cosmos of our and our students soul. Once again the participation of Greek speakers at the conference was evidence of the strong bonds the Greek community shares with our friends at ELTA. Kyriaki Koukouraki, board member of TESOL Macedonia Thrace, talked about Pragmatic competence in EFL: expressing politeness. Pragmatic competence is one of the key elements which has to be introduced when learning a second language in order to maximize cross-cultural understanding. At the same time politeness is one of these universal values which is closely bound to its culturespecific verbal and non verbal manifestation. In order to raise awareness of it characteristics, all distinctive ways of expressing politeness should be analysed and taught extensively, including phonology. Fani Miniadou and Stefania Mandraveli s workshop entitled Paperless lessons focused on three different lesson plans presented based on the Common European 19

20 by Vassiliki Mandalou 15TH ELTA SERBIA CONFERENCE AWAKEN YOUR CURIOSITY Framework and demonstrated how grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation can be taught creatively through the four skills. Dimitra Papatsaroucha talked about Handling and enabling different kinds of students to develop and shared not only stimulating ideas, but also authentic examples along with educational practices she follows to manage different types of learners in class. Ioanna Ntaidou introduced us to the fascinating world of NLP with her talk Language Patterns to Influence Learners Based on NLP and Christina Nicole Giannikas discussed the significance of game in language learning with her session entitled Feeding the YL s Curiosity: L2 development through games. Closing my short report I can t but mention the fact that I had the honour to represent Tesol Macedonia Thrace, Northern Greece with my presentation Teachers and Parents as allies and stakeholders for learning. My session aimed at explaining the reasons and the ways parents and teachers oppose each other and focused on finding the deeper root of this problem. By engaging participants in creative activities focusing on different learning styles, I offered tips and solutions that can make parents and teachers allies. I loved the rapport with my audience as well their feedback, that made me see that my talk was so very well accepted and attended. I hope that the tips and suggestions I offered - drawn from the fields of psychology, pedagogy and mindfulness- will allow the teachers in my audience to work closely with parents for the benefit of children and knowledge. All in all, this year s ELTA conference has managed to inspire, move us and teach us ways to challenge our limits in order to become better versions of our teaching selves. Thank you ELTA Serbia for the warm hospitality and for sparking our curiosity! 20

21 BETA 1st FIPLV East European Regional Congress 26th BETA-IATEFL Annual International Conference Learning and teaching languages: Creating bridges to the future Konstantin Preslavsky University of Shumen, Department for Information, Qualification and Lifelong Learning 22nd 25th June 2017, Varna IATEFL Report by Maria-Araxi Sachpazian The BETA Bulgaria Conference this year was held in Varna, a city that puts to shame coastal cities in the South of France with its hotels, restaurants and natural beauty. The conference lasted for three days as there were two joint events that took place under the auspice of BETA Bulgaria. In conjunction with the Fédération Internationale des Professeurs de Langues Vivantes (www. fiplv.com) the BETA Bulgaria executive board, under the guidance of president Dr. Zhivka Ilieva and the executive committee of BETA-IATEFL Bulgaria, organised the 1st FIPLV East European Regional Congress on Thursday 22nd June at the hotel Cherno More and the 26th BETA- IATEFL Annual International Conference on the 23rd and 24th June. The conference ended with a trip on Sunday 25th June. Another impressive trait of these two joint conferences was that they featured sessions in languages other than English. The main venue of the conference was the Konstantin Preslavsky University of Shumen, Department for Information, Qualification and Lifelong Learning. The plenary speakers included Dr. Diane Larsen-Freeman, Dr Terry Lamb, a speaker who came to Thessaloniki as an invited Plenary Speaker in 2014, world-renowned and much loved trainer and writer Penny Ur, IATEFL Teacher Development SIG Coordinator Pror. Dr Birsen Tutunis and many others. Plenary Sessions On Thursday Dr. Diane Larsen-Freeman, from the University of Michigan, presented her plenary entitled Bridging to the future: the dynamic quality of language, in which she characterised language in use as fluid, dynamic and changing by nature. This fluidity also makes language a moving target for students, therefore teachers need to find ways to help learners manage their learning. Later on the same day, Dr Terry Lamb, secretary of FIPLV, presented his plenary entitled Building bridges for language 21

22 by Maria-Araxi Sachpazian LEARNING AND TEACHING LANGUAGES: CREATING BRIDGES TO THE FUTURE enter the profession. Prof. Dr. Tutunis mentioned that the majority of student-teachers, no matter how well they have been prepared or the quality of teaching they have been exposed to, tend to revert to their own initial learning experiences and imitate those models. learning and teaching. This plenary session explored the many metaphors of the bridge to aspects of teaching and learning. Dr Lamp did not fail to use this opportunity to stress the importance for the continual building of international and intercultural bridges. Penny Ur s plenary on Friday morning, entitled Two sources of knowledge in language teaching compared the significance studying of empirical research holds for EFL teachers in contrast to the significance of their own handson experience. Most teachers, claimed Penny Ur, do not have time to study research, especially as they need to study research from various scientific fields. Added to that, most teachers have little access to research and may find it impractical. Penny Ur concluded that both research and experience have a lot to contribute to teachers CPD, which must be part of their written job description if we want it to actually take place. Concurrent Sessions The programme of all days was rich in content so participants were spoilt for choice. The concurrent sessions were well-attended and catered for the needs of a diverse audience. Many talks focused on Bulgarian teachers, their education and CPD, while others focused on how TAs can help teachers orientate themselves and get a better understanding of their ever-changing profession. Sylvia Velikova, senior lecturer at the University of Veliko Turnovo and Editor of Publications for BETA Bulgaria, presented an inspiring session entitled Teacher Associations (TA) and the Continuing Professional Later on Friday, Prof. Dr. Birsen Tütünis, who currently works for Istanbul Kültür University as the head of Department of Foreign Languages and is the coordinator of the Teacher Development SIG, presented a plenary session entitled Student Teachers Journey in Professionalism. During this plenary Prof. Dr. Tütünis presented her smallscale research which she has conducted at the University where she teaches. This research set out to study the way student teachers are prepared to enter this professional field in contrast to what they actually do when they 22

23 by Maria-Araxi Sachpazian LEARNING AND TEACHING LANGUAGES: CREATING BRIDGES TO THE FUTURE Development of Language Educators. Sylvia referred to TAs as communities of professionals who aim to advance their quality of language teaching through their own professional development. Ms. Velikova showed different ways teachers can monitor their own career development via Teachers Portfolios and did not fail to mention the important connections which TAs develop amongst each other and how these networks of TAs manage to support their members more effectively by offering them access to even more comprehensive CPD. All the way from Serbia, Aleksandra Jevtović presented an impressive talk on how to turn Pictures into Words. Aleksandra used in a very imaginative way the illustrations of children s books to teach and practice advanced level vocabulary. Participants were asked to actually do the tasks and also offered ideas on alternative uses of the pictures. The president of BETA-IATEFL Bulgaria Dr Zhivka Ilieva from the Dobrich College of Shumen University found time not only to organize the conference, but also to put together and present a session entitled End of year celebrations with very young learners, during which she shared many tricks on how to set up a celebration, organize games which have a strong linguistic gain and how to stage a play with very young learners. Rob Howard, founder of 10X10 EFL Talks, presented this useful web tool and the many ways in which it can assist language teachers in their CPD. Galiva Velichkova, from the New Bulgaria University in Sofia, presented a talk entitled. Ms. Velichkova explained the theoretical framework behind peer assessment, discussed the need for a solid framework and showed how she works with her students to establish this framework. Tesol Macedonia-Thrace long-standing member and school owner Dimitra Papatsaroucha presented a session entitled Handling and enabling different kinds of students to develop, during which she gave practical ideas on how to help and motivate students of different personalities. The executive board of TESOL Macedonia- Thrace Northern Greece was represented by Chairperson Maria-Araxi Sachpazian who presented a talk entitled The riddle of reading and tips for comprehension. The aim of this session was to examine the challenges reading poses to learners, the many different teaching forms it acquires in the learning career of our students and how the mentality of teachers and their own attitude towards the processing of reading texts (top-down or bottom-up) defines the way learners see reading and deal with it in practice. Many other concurrent sessions featured many exceptional presenters such as Grzegorz Śpiewak, Head ELT Consultant for Macmillan Education Poland who presented two sessions, Zarina Markova who presented 23

24 by Maria-Araxi Sachpazian LEARNING AND TEACHING LANGUAGES: CREATING BRIDGES TO THE FUTURE a session entitled I am laughter: Lessons from a dance with creativity, Express Publishing consultant Terry Lemanis who presented two interesting sessions, Gamification: Practical applications and Platforms, Digi-Books and Dogproof Homework in which he explored the possibilities of the digital versions of course materials. Closing fun! On Saturday evening, the executive board of BETA- IATEFL Bulgaria invited all the participants, the speakers and the exhibitors to a reception that took place at Godzilla Beach restaurant. Mouth-watering delicacies, cool wine and loud Latin music set the backdrop for a fun-filled beach party. I must admit this was the first time I went to a conference in summer, during which I could eat fish on the beach with my friends, enjoy walking barefoot on the beach and dance at a beach restaurant at the end of the session. All of these coupled with the warm hospitality and friendliness of the BETA-IATEFL executive committee made this a unique conference experience that I will always treasure. Congratulations, BETA-IATEFL! We are already looking forward to your next Conference and we thank you for your hospitality. 24

25 IELTS with the British Council global expertise quality innovation support British Council is a proud co-owner of the IELTS exam and has been administering the test in Greece and globally for almost 30 years. British Council exams are administered with the highest quality standards of English language assessment globally. Our commitment to high quality customer service can be seen through the range of services that we o er our candidates and teachers. These include: - Suitable, weekly IELTS exam sessions. Many dates to choose from in Athens, Thessaloniki and other cities throughout Greece - Easy online registration - Real time information on availability of test places - Fast online results, only 13 calendar days after the day of your test - Provision of upon request - Free access to an exclusive IELTS preparation materials created by experienced professionals, including online lessons, mobile apps, videos and other online resources - Free access to Road to IELTS, the British Council s exclusive popular online preparation course - Free weekly IELTS information sessions - Arrangements for candidates with special needs - Availability of student support services, including the - Exclusive support on the teaching of IELTS through the provision of lesson plans, practical classrooms activities, and guidance for teaching professionals. Find out more: Register your students now! 25 British Council is a proud co-owner of IELTS.

26 Express Publishing seminar - The Dawn of A New Era: Creating the School of the Future! Report by Maria Theologidou It was a boiling hot morning on the first day of summer that teachers, language school owners and language enthusiasts gathered at the recently renovated Makedonia Palace Hotel to attend Express Publishing s promising seminar The Dawn of A New Era: Creating the School of the Future!. The publishing house that has always been by teachers side and has fervently supported TESOL MTH doesn t need any introductions - it is marked by innovation and its dynamic president Ms Jenny Dooley along with their hardworking team proved once again they are worthy of their well-deserved reputation. The first session of the day entitled Principles & Evidence in the EFL given by Professor Alessandro Benati reminded us of the significance of meaningful tasks in language learning which enable learners to actively engage with the language they learn so that language production is natural and comes effortlessly. Jenny Dooley followed with her inspiring presentation on Gamification and Practical Application for EFL Learners. Although seemingly unknown to many, the speaker explained that in fact we are all familiar with the term gamification and went on to demonstrate how gamification practices are widely used in our everyday life. She then presented ways gamified activities can be incorporated in EFL before offering us a glimpse of the most recent Express Publishing s LMS platform which combines all the benefits of gamification with language learning. Continuing in this spirit of innovation, Mrs Dooley moved on to present us ways to promote learning through creativity and boost students critical thinking skills so that we can shape our classroom in a stimulating, learner-centered way and stop wondering What makes one classroom more effective than another?. After a refreshing coffee break, the series of thought-provoking talks concluded with a presentation of some of the publishing house s new titles which promise to meet the needs of all learners and teachers. Packed with new ideas and filled with inspiration for the months to come, we left the room driven by the energy of innovation. Thank you, Express Publishing, for another excellent event!

27 by Dimitris Tzouris When EdTech meets ELT About me dimitrios.me Learning agent. Part-time teacher, full-time learner. Instructional Technologist at Anatolia High School and the American College of Thessaloniki. Computer Science teacher at Anatolia Elementary School. Advisor on Social Media and Learning Technologies at the American International Consortium of Academic Libraries (AMICAL). Member of the Global Education Conference leadership team. Reviews for EDUCAUSE. Founder of Global Game Jam Thessaloniki. Social Media Manager at TEDxThessaloniki. The LMS (Learning Management System) or VLE (Virtual Learning Environment) has been a core part of teaching for more than a decade, providing structure and organization to the educator and 24/7 material access to the learner. Since their introduction, these systems kept getting additional features, enabling synchronous and asynchronous discussion, face-toface meetings, as well as supporting granular grading and advanced overall assessment. Students in private schools - even in primary schools - got the gist of checking homework online, while parents demanded access to monitor their children s progress. The first of these systems to appear were quite expensive and usually came with annual support contracts. Then came free or open source alternatives that required a web server and therefore a domain and a hosting plan. Totally free or freemium options are there too, but they are usually very limited and can only be used by individuals offering private classes or teaching small groups. When Google decided to enter the LMS market back in 2014, they only made their product available to G Suite for Education customers - their free suite of applications for schools. They called it Google Classroom and it became quite popular in an instant. Three years later, Google decided to open Google Classroom to anyone, since learners aren t always sitting in a classroom, and educators aren t always lecturing at a chalkboard. (Google Classroom outside the classroom Google, education/google-classroom-outside-classroom/ (last visited Jun 12, 2017)) Today, you can start planning your next classes 27

28 by Dimitris Tzouris WHEN EDTECH MEETS ELT using this very user-friendly and simple, but powerful tool. Start by logging into classroom.google.com with your personal Google account, the one you use for Gmail. There, you can create a new class and add material to the stream, organized in topics. You can add announcements or quizzes and since this is a Google product, it works seamlessly with YouTube (to add videos), Google Drive (to add documents stored there) and Google Forms (online questionnaires and quizzes). You can easily share homework or project documents and have each of your students receive a personalized copy which they can annotate or fill in. You can practise differentiated teaching and create groups of students, based on their abilities and then have each group receive a slightly different version of an assignment. All these documents are stored in Google Drive, making it easy to read and edit anywhere, while monitoring students progress. No more back and forth and no more attachments. Image by Kevin Jarrett via N00/ CC BY 2.0 Came across an interesting article or video? You can easily add it to your class while browsing the web, using the Chrome extension. There are, of course, apps for ios and Android available too, so you can manage your class, add content and communicate with your students, while notifications can help them stay up-to-date and be on-track. You can add students either by inviting them via or write the class code on the board. All they need is a connected device and a Google account to be able to join. Chances are, they probably already both. So, what are you waiting for? Why don t you try something new next year? 28

29 Burlington Books Summer event for School Owners and Teachers in Thessaloniki Report by Maria-Araxi Sachpazian Burlington Books, one of the most influential publishers in Greece and a loyal supporter of TESOL Macedonia- Thrace, Northern Greece, celebrated the end of the academic year and the beginning of summer with an educational event of incomparable elegance and educational quality. In the morning of Sunday 11th June, Natassa Polysaki, Marketing Manager Northern Greece and her team invited school owners, directors of studies and teachers to the newly-renovated Macedonia Palace Hotel on the seafront of Thessaloniki. This hotel alone, which forms such a great part of the history of our city, with its minimal décor, its newly acquired environmental-friendly touches and the innovative layout made for a great surprise and a generous treat. The training sessions added the academic touch and highlighted the importance of providing CPD even when the school year is expiring. The generosity of Burlington books was evident both from the warm opulence of the event as well as from the fact that no mention was made of the books published by Burlington. The speaker was as is the custom with Burlington Books, the reputable and much loved psychologist Dr Eleni Livaniou. Participants were treated to a thought-provoking session on what motivation is and how motives are created through the relationships developed between school and family. In her session, Ms Livaniou referred to the theoretical background without neglecting to use practical examples from her extensive practice, thus providing great balance. Ms Livaniou started her session by asking the participants to consider certain questions which were related with their own motives and went to say that motives are generated from the wish of the individuals to claim something for themselves and/or to fight for something better; therefore they are very closely related with the individuals idea of selfworth and their self-image. These ideas, what we are worth and what others see in us, are shaped by educators and parents, whose wrong handling of the child may result in serious problems related with the child s self-realisation. Ms Livaniou stressed that the choice of school reflects what the family wants the child to accomplish through this school, as every school has a certain set of beliefs and certain ideas regarding the profile of the educator. Therefore, the relationship between the family and the school is one that defines the development of the child. Also of utmost importance is the quality of communication between the parents, how they have shared their responsibilities, if they share a common attitude to parenting and whether they have a common language to communicate in. Children grow up in this environment which is shaped by the relationship, loving or not, between the parents. Their ego is shaped by heredity, this environment and their experiences which shows how important it is for parents and educators to be aware of their power and their influence. Equally important for the development of the child is the willingness of the parents to let the child try out on his/her own. The challenges that the child takes on and the decision each child makes to face or shy away from challenges reflects his/her idea of his own worth. Ms Livaniou insisted on participants analysing their own motives. Where do each of us attribute our success? Do we attribute it to the same factors as others attribute our success or failure?

30 Report by Maria-Araxi Sachpazian BURLINGTON BOOKS SUMMER EVENT FOR SCHOOL OWNERS AND TEACHERS IN THESSALONIKI The psychologist made mention of two types of motives: positive ones which are related with the individual fighting to succeed because he wants something very much and negative ones, according to which the child wants to succeed either to gain something or to avoid punishment. Teachers once again play a great part in this. If teachers praise the intelligence, the ability and the talent of the child they praise the fixed traits or what nature has bestowed to that child, which are unchangeable. If, on the other hand, the educator praises the commitment, the effort, the consistency s/he places more emphasis on what is flexible and therefore can be affected by the action the child takes. Northern Greece was represented by chairperson Maria- Araxi Sachpazian and by Social Media Officer Manolis Kontovas both of whom enjoyed chatting with teachers who are members of TESOL MTH. Undoubtedly, this event was a great end to what must have been a great academic year for Burlington Books. During the break participants were treated to coffee and had a chance to network while at the end of the event they were treated to a luxurious round-table lunch party, featuring the delicacies and the mouth-watering desserts created by the chefs of the Macedonia Palace Hotel. This event will certainly stand out in the memory of the teachers and school owners of Thessaloniki both for its culinary sophistication and the fact that it gave a lot of food for thought to teachers. TESOL Macedonia-Thrace,

31 Thinking outside the (EFL) box by Dimitris Primalis According to C. McGuiness (1999), focusing on thinking skills in the classroom is important because it supports active cognitive processing which makes for better learning. But what exactly do we mean by critical and creative thinking skills? How important are they for EFL/ESL learners? How can we incorporate them seamlessly without burdening our usually jam-packed syllabus? How can they be exploited to boost language skills such as speaking, writing, reading and listening? This article is based on TESOL Macedonia- Thrace s first webinar. How to facilitate critical and creative thinking skills development in your EFL class You must be crazy!!! I ve got to teach them grammar, check their homework, do the texts and writing and in between squeeze a bit of listening When on Earth am I gonna find time to help them develop critical and creative thinking? I am sure that this is your reaction as you are reading this article. Yet, even though they are included into what is called 21st century skills, critical thinking was developed in Greece about 25 centuries ago and creative thinking skills have always been there despite the concerted efforts of many systems to suppress them for the sake of uniformity. Therefore, they are not alien to the local culture. About me Dimitris Primalis is an EFL teacher, author and oral examiner. He has been teaching for more than 20 years and applies his knowledge and experience to introducing innovation and change into the daily teaching practice. He believes that motivation, creativity, critical thinking, collaboration and communication can be the driving forces in TEFL. His views and work are shared in his columns in the ELT News, the BELTA Bulletin and his blog, A different side of EFL. He has presented his work in many conferences in Greece and abroad. Dimitris was awarded the 2013 IATEFL Learning Technologies SIG scholarship and was selected twice as Expert Innovative Educator and this year as Fellow by Microsoft in Education. He also served as assistant editor for the IATEFL Learning Technologies SIG e-bulletin ( ). He is working at Doukas, a private primary school in Athens, Greece. What do we mean by creative and critical thinking skills? 31

32 by Dimitris Primalis THINKING OUTSIDE THE (EFL) BOX The pie chart below gives an overview of the subskills for each category. The ones in the green area fall into both categories. Therefore, an activity may accommodate the development of more than one skills or subskills. Why incorporate them into the EFL syllabus? I would start with the obvious reason: they are necessary for most EFL certificate examinations. Most questions in the speaking part of examinations require candidates to justify their answers. For example: Would the world be better without mobile phones? Why? /Why not?. Candidates are required to write essays, reports, proposals, to summarize or use their creativity in stories. Another equally important reason is that these are skills which are highly esteemed on the job market and can make a difference when all the candidates have - more or less - the same qualifications. Last, but not least, it motivates learners to discover and create, using the language as medium to learn, in sharp contrast with lifeless classes that do endless drills without context. How can they be integrated seamlessly into the syllabus? The main problem seems to be the fact that these skills are perceived as extras imposed on the syllabus, therefore requiring extra activities and time. From my experience, they can easily be incorporated into the syllabus in three ways: 1. Modifying activities A. The Why factor We often ask our students to give their opinion or make suggestions but we tend to neglect asking them to justify them. Adding the simple Why? question can easily urge learners to reason their answers. Below you can see the classic Write rules activity with the addition of the why. The photo shows a project by a 3rd grade pupil. B. Pros and Cons posters Invite your learners to create posters with their views on a topic. Encourage them to record their views in bullet form on the poster and include diagrams or any other visuals they want. Then, invite them to present in class. Apart from 21st century skills, this involves speaking and writing skills as well. Below you can see a sample from a poster created by 5th grade pupils. C. Create mindmaps 32

33 by Dimitris Primalis THINKING OUTSIDE THE (EFL) BOX Encourage them to take notes in the form of mindmaps when they read a text or listen to a radio programme. The learners can draw them or use one of the many free web 2.0 tools. This will help them grasp a better understanding of the causes and effects of an issue. The one shown below was created with Simple Minds (an app for ipads). Create a questionnaire and carry out a survey to find out which one is the most popular. Present the survey data in class and explain why these devices are the most popular based on your research. The questionnaire can be in electronic form or on paper. You may also use interviews. From my experience, for project A, students are highly likely to copy-paste information from the internet without analyzing information. With project B, they will have to decide on the type of questions they will include in the questionnaire, categorize them and assess the data from their survey. D. Fact or opinion? Ask learners to read a text and make two lists: one with the facts and another with the opinions expressed by the author. All the above activities do not require any extra time. They can be adapted to any coursebook and can help learners practise not only language but also use their creativity and critical thinking skills. 2. Through projects Projects give learners the opportunity to express their creativity and through inquiry-based learning students can develop critical thinking skills such as evaluation and assessment, categorization and classification, reasoning through logic, interpretation and analysis. Yet, you should not take it for granted that all projects can help learners achieve those goals. Below you can read two examples of projects. Which one is likely to help learners develop their critical thinking skills? Project A Find information about a popular electronic device and present it in class. Project B Electronic devices are very popular among young people. 3. By using extra activities that supplement the syllabus Rewriting a book Ask students to borrow a book from the school library most language schools have well stocked libraries with graded readers that are gathering dust and read the book over Christmas or Easter holidays. Invite learners to come up with their own version of the story. They can change the plot, the setting or characters. Younger learners can create their own paperback books and illustrate them with their drawings and older students can use apps to create e-books. Even though this may not be done by all the students, the ones who do, usually enjoy it and feel very proud of the outcome. Of course, they have to give credit to the author adding on the cover that their story is based on the book they have read. Paperback books can be displayed on a board at the school and e-books can be shared on the school s blog or website. Below, you can find some follow up activities for classes that have read a book: Create a poster to promote the book Create a trailer or a commercial (video) Invite your classmates to read the new version and have a discussion/debate on which version they would adopt if they were to make it a film. What would you share on the social media if you wrote about the book? 33

34 by Dimitris Primalis THINKING OUTSIDE THE (EFL) BOX Tips and hints If you are thinking of trying, here are some tips and hints that you may find useful: Avoid spoon feeding your students. The lesson gets boring and you are not helping them to build skills and confidence to deal with any language challenges that may arise. Encourage learners and reward their efforts even if they do not do as well as expected. Remember that developing skills takes time. It cannot be done overnight and repetition is necessary. Explain to the parents the benefits that their children will reap from the activities you introduce in class. Once they understand, they will be very supportive. Share your learners work, either on the school blog or exhibit it at the lobby. The recognition they receive will act as the best stimulus for motivation. REFERENCES Some useful websites and books to refer to: differentefl.blogspot.gr uploads/4/5/3/0/ /mede_creativity_in_english_ language_teaching.pdf Dalmaris P., 2017, Maker Education Revolution: Learning in a high tech society McGuinness, C., From thinking skills to thinking classrooms. Pink D. Drive, 2010, Cannongate Final thoughts Even though 21st century skills development sounds an unnecessary luxury, it can be easily incorporated into the daily teaching without imposing strain on the syllabus. What is more, the activities can be challenging and motivate learners to discover more about the language. More activities can be found on the recording of the TESOL Macedonia Thrace first webinar: Click here 34

35 10 Creative Ways To Teach English Part 1 by Aphrodite Gkiouris About me I have been teaching English, for a large number of years and have attended numerous ELT professional development events. I believe that, it is crucial to conform teacher education to the latest educational standards of a rapidly changing world. I am an English teacher in a Greek State Primary School.My current interests, lie in blogging about ELT and sharing educational experiences with other colleagues. aphrogranger.wordpress.com Creativity is a natural ability that is found in every young learner. Unfortunately, traditional classrooms don t always value creativity, and sometimes even hold it back. Our role as teachers is to nurture creativity at every opportunity. Here are 10 few teacher-tested ideas to promote creativity in our classrooms. (Part 1) Creativity with PROJECTS 1. I have come to the conclusion that, one way to get children doing what they like while still learning is through projects. Children enjoy using their imagination and being creative making up characters or stories, making things, drawing, colouring, cutting and gluing. Apart from the traditional paper projects we normally have in mind though, projects also enable our students to use multimedia, find out about interesting stuff but also learn the values of sharing and working together by talking about themselves, their friends, family and interests. Finally, projects help them assume responsibility for their learning by making choices, deciding for themselves, trying new things out and showing off! I love it when my students become creative through project work! Their talents and interests are revealed! Creativity with ART 2. Why do I use arts and crafts in my English class? Because I can get students to work on projects in groups with a mixture of levels. For example, if students are creating a poster, then lower-level students work on designing a tag while higher-level pupils write an accompanying text about the topic. Arts and crafts can be a great way to include cross-curricular activities in the English language classroom. Students can incorporate drama skills using masks they have made for role plays, for example. I find that teamwork, class cohesion and sharing are promoted if students have to work together to complete an art project. Creativity with GRAMMAR 3. Can we actually be creative with grammar and if so, how can we go about it? a) By using interactive grammar notebooks This notebook is built throughout the year by gradually adding each grammar skill or concept as an insert every time students are introduced 35

36 by Aphrodite Gkiouris 10 CREATIVE WAYS TO TEACH ENGLISH to new material. By the end of the year, they have a complete notebook they can use as a reference and I can use as an assessment tool or portfolio piece. Creating such notebooks is simple and can be done with any grammar curriculum we are using. b) By playing grammar games Games have the advantage of allowing the students to practice and internalize vocabulary, grammar and structures extensively. This happens because students are often more motivated to play games than they are to do desk work. Plus, during the game, students are focused on the activity and end up absorbing the language subconsciously. One can also add that fun learning games usually contain repetition, which allows the language to stick. Just one example of such a game is the MYSTERY BOX GAME. This is an awesome guessing activity! The Mystery Box a type of prediction game that you can create with simple items that you have in class. Find a box, such as a shoe box, or any other kind of container which kids can t see through, such as a cookie tin. Introduce the empty box or tin and discuss how the mystery box game will be played. Outside of the children s view, place an item inside the box or tin. Ask the children to predict what is inside. If you want, you can let the children hold the box, to see how heavy it is or if it makes any noise bouncing around the box or tin. Give the children one clue as to what is inside the box. They have to guess by using different modals such as it must be.., it can t be.., it may be.. etc Creativity with VOCABULARY 4. a) Playing hopscotch I can assure you that students remember and correctly spell about the same number of new vocabulary words after learning with hopscotch as they do after a teachercentered lesson. Importantly however, they enjoy playing this game and they report better attitudes towards studying English after learning vocabulary with hopscotch and games in general, compared to traditional teaching. There are several ways you can use hopscotch as a vocabulary tool in your class. a. You can play with letters to help aid recognition or practice letter sounds. b. Use numbers or colors to aid number and color recognition respectively. c. Play with spelling words. Have a student read the word, then ask them to look away and practice spelling the word orally. d. Play with vocabulary words - each child tells you the definition of the word they land on. e. Play with English words and students mother tongue. For example, write color words like red and ask your student to tell you the meaning of the word in their mother tongue (eg. Greek). f. A variation of some of the ideas mentioned above is to give each student a word to spell as she jumps through the boxes. If she spells the word wrong, she must repeat that word on her next turn. The first person to get through the entire board wins a point for her team. Apart from hopscotch, I sometimes use my custommade class vocabulary dice, too. To use the dice I split my students in teams. I then give individual students a word and I assign each number a task with the given word. e.g. 1= Spell it, 2 = Write it down, 3 = Use it in a sentence, 4 = Draw it, 5 = Act it out, 6 = Translate it. Each time they succeed they get a point for their team. Another game I use the dice for is the following: In groups one student at a time rolls the dice or spins the spinner. When it lands on a number that student has to say a word which has that number of syllables in it e.g. 4 = photographer. If they are correct they win a point. At the end of the game, points are counted up and a winner is declared. This game is great for recalling vocabulary and hearing it inside our head. My variation: Instead of words, my students are asked to say a sentence which has that number of words in it as for e.g. 6= My favourite toy is my bike. b) Asking questions Allocate each number to a question word (for e.g. 1=who, 2=why, 3=where, 4=when, 5=what, 6=how etc). Decide on a topic this is usually one studied recently. Students work in pairs or small groups. One at a time students roll or spin and as they land they have to make a question 36

37 by Aphrodite Gkiouris 10 CREATIVE WAYS TO TEACH ENGLISH for their partner(s) on that topic using that question word. For example, if they land on 4 and their topic is sport a question could be When do you usually watch sport on TV? Making questions in English is tricky and it s great to practice as well as to review language from earlier lessons. My variation: It s fun when I combine this activity with the Bananas wh- questions game! One student comes to the board, rolls the dice and has to answer all his classmates questions which should start with the question word he has landed on! For example, if they land on 5, their classmates have to ask them questions starting with What for e.g. What does your nose look like?, What s your brother s name etc. There s one rule though - they can t smile or laugh throughout the game. If they smile, they are out and the person who has made them smile takes their place! Hilarious!! Creativity with ATTENTION GETTERS 5. As teachers, we know the value of having good attention getters to calm a noisy classroom. My most favourite attention getter is by far the following: The teacher says Class, Class, Class and students respond with Yes, Yes, Yes. They need to do so in the exact same way the teacher spoke, whether she spoke in a high, low or silly voice. I say Class they say Yes. I say Classity Class Class, they say Yesity, Yes, Yes. All students love it. I change the tone of my voice and they change the tone of theirs. If you are in need of some great attention getters to quiet your classroom, this additional list below is just for you! You can save it for when you need them on the fly! And the old-time-classic : YAKETY YAK > DON T TALK BACK! 37

38 by Aphrodite Gkiouris 10 CREATIVE WAYS TO TEACH ENGLISH 38

39 QLS - Gold Award for Innovation in Teaching by Asimenia Featham QLS (Quality Language Services), the leading network of language schools in Greece, which in 2017 completes 15 very productive years in the field of foreign language education, has been honoured with the Gold Award of Education Business Awards 2017 for Innovation in Teaching with the Differentiated Teaching it applies based on the QLP, which is the test that determines the Learning Profile of its learners. The awards were organized by Boussias Communications for the second consecutive year, and aim to highlight and reward outstanding practices in entrepreneurship and innovation in the field of Education. The prize is the result of successful research carried out by the people who make up the QLS Language Centres, while monitoring the various needs of learners today. QLS, always keeping abreast of the times, proceeded to cooperate with the Ariston Computer Academy scientific team, which has developed a series of state-of-the-art, psychometric tests which are the result of university research in Greece and Europe and have been created with the support of the European Union. QLP (QLS Learning Profile), is a test certified by the University of Nicosia and is internationally recognized as a valuable tool designed to identify a person s individual learning profile in accordance with H. Gardner s eight intelligences (Verbal/Linguistic, Visual, Acoustic, Logical-Mathematical, Intrapersonal, Interpersonal, Kinesthetic, Naturalist). Gardner s work on intelligence can profoundly affect the way we view our pupils. (Berman M. 2002:199) Thus, based on H. Gardner s Theory of Multiple Intelligences, we differentiate our instruction in the following ways: We identify the learner s learning profile with the QLP Test. We train the learner and his family to recognise and use his strong learning attributes. We adapt our teaching to cover all learning styles with our trained teachers, our seminars and our exclusive material According to Armstrong T. (2009), children begin to show proclivities towards specific intelligences from a very early age and by the time they start school they have established ways of learning. Ideally, we should know which intelligences are more developed so that most of their learning takes place through their dominant intelligences. This is where QLP proves its worth! It shows us how our learners learn. QLP is not an IQ test so it does not show how smart our learners are but how they are smart. Over 4000 language learners in QLS schools have taken the QLP test. The results have proved particularly revealing and invaluable to parents, learners and teachers alike. Moreover the sample of 4000 learners from different parts of Greece provides very revealing statistics as to the learning profile of the Greek Learner according to age, sex, area, information extremely useful to course designers, educational material writers and generally everybody involved in education. 39

40 QLS QLS - GOLD AWARD FOR INNOVATION IN TEACHING Educational systems (the Greek system included) are often competitive-oriented and exam-oriented with traditional linguistic and logical-mathematical learning valued so much that it is often difficult to change people s, especially parents, attitudes to learning. The essence of uniform schooling as Gardner (1999) puts it, is the belief that every individual should be treated in the same way: study the same subjects in the same way and be assessed in the same way. At first, this seems fair as no one has special advantages. However, we all look different from each other, we have different personalities and above all we have different kinds of minds with no two people having the same combinations of the eight intelligences. Moreover, it is important to know that there are no superior or inferior intelligences but different combinations of intelligences and that some of them are more developed than others, these being our dominant ones which promote optimum learning. Parents, like teachers, can influence learners in a negative way if they impose their own learning style (especially if it differs from that of their child) and thus interfere in the whole learning process. It is important that teachers themselves take the QLP test to identify their own learning profile, as this knowledge will enable them to focus on the learners needs without interference. teachers first need to identify what intelligences the tasks of a particular lesson cater for and then adapt some to cater for the profile of the particular group. Since course material is written for the wider market and never with a particular group of learners in mind, it is the teachers who, if necessary, need to adapt the material and shift their intelligences emphasis from time to time during the lesson so as to ensure that each learner s dominant intelligences are catered for through active involvement in learning at some point during the lesson. As Puchta H. and Rinvolucri M. (2005 p.16) state, Your students motivation depends partly on how addressed they feel in your class and on how meaningful they think the activities in your class are to them. If your teaching focus is on the linguistic domain only, you will get excellent results with a minority of students who are strong in this area. QLP reveals the positive qualities of learners and how they learn while differentiated instruction provides practical ways for a learner to experience success in the classroom. Mapping of Learning Profiles of Groups and differentiated instruction. After collecting the learning profiles of individual learners, the collective profile of each group is mapped in order to see the dominant intelligences of the group. No two groups are the same and there is no single way to teach all the groups of a class. We need to recognize the varied intelligences, their many combinations unique in each individual and respect the multiple variations in the ways people learn. No one teaching method will work best for all learners at all times, so what may be very successful with one group of learners may be less so with another group. Trained 40

41 QLS QLS - GOLD AWARD FOR INNOVATION IN TEACHING If some of our learners do not learn the way we teach them, it is only fair that we try to teach them the way they learn. Asimenia Featham, Dip. Trans. Institute of Linguists, MSc TE Aston University UK, Language school owner, Director of Studies and teacher-trainer, Chair of QLS. BIBLIOGRAPHY Armstrong Thomas (2009) Multiple Intelligences in the Classroom. ASCD Alexandria Virginia USA Berman M., (2002) A Multiple Intelligences Road to an ELT Classroom Crown House Publishing Ltd Gardner, Howard (1999), Intelligence Reframed, Basic Books. McKenzie. W (1999a) It s not how smart you are It s how you are smart intelligences,pdf Puchta H., Rinvolucri M., (2005) Multiple Intelligences in EFL, Helbling Languages The Gold Award was our ultimate reward! Stay tuned to QLS Website : Facebook : QLS Quality in Language Services LinkedIn : QLS-Quality in Language Services 41

42 One Step beyond and they lived happily ever after! by Angeliki Voreopoulou About me Angeliki Voreopoulou holds a BA in English and English Language from University of Kent and an Med in TEFL from University of Bristol. She has been teaching English since She has taken part as a speaker in many teacher education seminars. She is interested in creative teaching and meaningful learning. avoreopoulou@hotmail.com Storytelling is undoubtedly one of the key elements of English language teaching but what happens when the story finishes? Would that be the end of the lesson or can we take one step beyond this all time classic phrase and they lived happily ever after? Since we are all 21st century English language teachers we should not limit ourselves to simple comprehension questions, summary writing and description of the main heroes. Most stories provide a wealth of opportunities to develop activities that can spark students imagination while using creative arts like poetry, story writing, performance, design and children s play. The story of the Rainbow Fish by Marcus Pfister is a typical example of an award winning book which could be easily employed as a gateway to creativity and give students the opportunity to develop both their English language performance as well as their emotional intelligence. The story is about the adventures of a beautiful fish that finds friendship and happiness when it learns to share. Indeed, the concept of sharing is very difficult to be dealt with young learners. Therefore, the creation of a fish-shaped poster could act as a starting point for an in-depth discussion. First, students brainstorm things which they would be willing to share with other people and when everybody is convinced about the importance of sharing, they can write their ideas on colorful half circles that will act as scales and put them on the fish poster. The result will be an impressive collaborative work of art which will include everyone s ideas! (Picture1) Children love puppets and there are many reasons why we should introduce them in our lessons. They stimulate children s imagination and encourage creative play to name but a few. Putting up a puppet show inspired by the story we have just read takes no time or much of a preparation, especially if students make their own puppets. It is worth the effort because it will be a memorable learning experience and a valuable lesson since students will practice both speaking and listening skills. These skills can also be enhanced by asking our students to 42

43 by Angeliki Voreopoulou ONE STEP BEYOND AND THEY LIVED HAPPILY EVER AFTER! organize an interview with one of the heroes of the story. The questions should concern the main characters feelings at various stages of the story, their daily life and/ or their future plans. As a follow up, students can act out the interview. Another activity that students love because they are allowed to move around is The Story Treasure Hunt. For this activity, the teacher needs to prepare in advance two sets of cards representing the key scenes of the story and clues as to where the cards are hidden. The procedure is similar to any other treasure hunt game. Students are divided into two teams and look for the cards. The team that finds first all the cards, puts them in the correct order and narrates the story successfully is the winner. All stories have an immense wealth of interesting vocabulary but instead of handing out long lists with words to be learnt by heart, we can ask our students to play with them and become more creative. They can easily use the story s target vocabulary to make acrostic self-portrait poems that depict their disposition to friendship and the act of sharing. Alternatively, if there is access to a computer room students can use an online word cloud generator to create word clouds using as many adjectives as possible that apply to their personalities. (Picture2), (Picture3) An activity that would promote students writing skills as well as their empathy would be the one of keeping a diary. Teacher asks students to pretend being the Rainbow fish which writes about its days at the bottom of the sea. Alternatively, students can imagine being another hero like the little blue fish or the wise octopus and write diaries narrating the same story from different points of view. Students will soon realize that there are always more than one versions of the same story. We can also ask students to write letters to the Rainbow Fish giving it advice on what to do in order not to feel lonely anymore and how to make new friends. Similarly, we can encourage students to give advice or write instructions on how to take care of a pet (in our case a Rainbow Fish) to people who consider adopting one. There are so many other activities that a teacher can use after reading a story like making story e-books, comics, fact files, organizing wall displays with pictures and collages inspired by the story, initiating e-twinning projects. the sky is the limit. It is at the hands of a creative and innovative teacher to exploit all his/her students talents while helping them to learn a foreign language. (Picture4), (Picture5), (Picture6) 43

44 Student Engagement within the Wider Community by Athanassia Iosifidou About me Athanassia is teaching English as a Second Language in Australia and has worked in a variety of settings in Australia and France, including public and private schools, a university and various ESL colleges. She has recently completed a Master of Education creating a programme for Student Engagement Outside the Classroom. Educators are not only concerned with the academic progress of students but also other facets of their learning journey such as wellbeing and social acceptance, as teachers play a major role in students lives. One of the main concerns of leaders, as children begin formal education at a young age, is to engage with children and their families from the beginning to respond to growing evidence that early engagement with children and their families deliver strong outcomes for society as a whole (Gestwicki, 2015, Couchenour, & Chrisman, 2013). However, the importance of engaging members of society within communities does not stop at the end of schooling. Even after becoming adults, the engagement of students regardless of their age is vital to the smooth running of communities. In the current climate of globalisation, there is a large number of adults studying English as a Second Language (ESL) and the adult ESL student represents the largest and fastest-growing segment of the adult education population (Crandall, & Sheppard, 2004, p.7). As a result, there has been a dramatic increase in international students enrolling in intensive English language programs around the world, especially in English-speaking countries (Hatoss, 2006). Due to this, there has been an increase in ESL schools, some with excellent teaching methods, focused on results limited to within the classroom. As the importance of community involvement throughout education becomes more evident, the engagement of ESL students within their new communities in their language learning journey must be incorporated into the experiences provided by the schools, in order to provide a more complete student experience. As schools are often the first, and sometimes the only, point of contact for ESL students, they can be a significant stepping stone on creating settings for belonging. Activities which provide social settings to link members with broader social structures, and providing contexts for developing skills and negotiating social identities could be provided by the school (Pretty, Bishop, Fisher, & Sonn, 2006). However, instead, it is often assumed that students will participate in events and make the most of their time in their new surroundings, while in reality this does not happen. This highlights the importance for schools of ESL to provide opportunities for students to become engaged within the wider community, as teaching them English is simply not enough. Some schools provide opportunities to their students to be socially active while they are studying English in another country. They do this through creating a social activities calendar and hosting many events ranging from sports competitions to dance nights. However, one issue has been the disconnection between what the schools think the students want and what the students actually want. In one school in Perth, Australia, this was realised due to low numbers signing up for the activities and students voicing their frustrations to the teachers. A survey conducted 44

45 by Athanassia Iosifidou STUDENT ENGAGEMENT WITHIN THE WIDER COMMUNITY within the school revealed that the majority of students ranked it very important to become part of the wider community and suggested ways in which they would like to be engaged within the wider community. However, the same students may have very limited English proficiency skills resulting in difficulty in finding opportunities to engage and interact with their new communities by themselves. This is further supported by survey results on individual settlement experiences in Australia over 20 years which found that only 38% participated in community events conducted in English due to their English language proficiency, while 63% did not participate at all (Burnett, 1998). It is therefore very important for the schools to provide opportunities for them to engage within the community from the moment of arrival. There are various benefits in ensuring that students become part of the community within which they live. These include finding a job, meeting locals, contributing to the community and enjoying the same quality of life. However, if they are left struggling in their new environment, this will no doubt affect the others around them. This is directly linked to research which shows that engagement within communities is very important as when families isolated and struggling are left on their own to do what they can without the support of the larger community, the community bears the brunt of the family s failure (Gestwicki, 2015, p. 348). This means that leaving the students to struggle by themselves would put pressure on the wider community too, resulting in the inverse outcome. Therefore, supporting the students means supporting the wider community too. Schools of ESL around the world will greatly benefit from providing a fuller experience for their students rather than just a teaching service. The improved wellbeing outside the classroom will have a direct effect on the results inside the classroom and vice versa. Education is not only teaching; it is growth, inclusion, understanding, wellbeing, development and much more for every individual. Education services can contribute directly to the wellbeing and inclusion of their students outside the classroom and implementing a social activities program in their school is one way to start, now. REFERENCES Burnett, L. (1997). Issues in immigrant settlement in Australia (Vol. 10). National Centre for English Language Teaching and Research. Couchenour, D., & Chrisman, K. (2013). Families, schools, and communities: Together for young children (5th ed.). CA, United States: Cengage Learning. Crandall, J., & Sheppard, K. (2004). Adult ESL and the community college. Council for Advancement of Adult Literacy. Available from [9 February 2017] English Australia (2015). Global Language Travel [Fact Sheet]. Available from au/visageimages/about_us/our_industry/understanding_ our_industry/01_fs_global_elt_2013.pdf [11 November 2016] Gestwicki, C. (2015). Home, school, and community relations: A holistic approach (9th ed.). Mason, OH: Cengage Learning. Hatoss, A. (2006). Globalisation, interculturality and culture teaching: International students cultural learning needs. Prospect, 21(2), Available from volume_21_no_2/21_2_3_hatoss.pdf [13 December 2016] Pretty, G., Bishop, B., Fisher, A., & Sonn, C. (2006). Psychological sense of community and its relevance to wellbeing and everyday life in Australia (Doctoral dissertation). Available from The Australian Psychological Society Ltd, Melbourne. 45

46 Building a community of online storytellers in the 21st century EFL classroom through micro-blogging by Zoi Tsiviltidou About me Zoi Tsiviltidou is a full-time English language teacher and a part-time PhD student in Museum Education (UK). She holds an MA in Arts Management (France) and a BA in English Language and Literature (GR). She can be reached at: tsivizoi@yahoo.com or at: With the advent of advanced learning technologies including mobile devices, social media and micro-blogging platforms, digital literacy was bridged to EFL teaching to meet the demands of the 21st century young learner across levels and contexts. More specifically, micro-blogging and online storytelling platforms provided novel and effective opportunities for teachers to coach avid readers and writers and personally engage the language learners in creative writing. Online storytelling through microblogging refers to the crafting of brief stories in platforms which can combine text with illustrations, photographs, videos, music and more. Such tools provide an alternative choice to writing assignments with the intention to hone authoring and editing skills. Being a teacher, who is keen on receiving feedback every time I introduce a new approach, I had conversations with teachers to understand better what they believe works well and what does not. Online storytelling blends the wit and wisdom of traditional storytelling with the innovation and fun of using advanced learning technologies in the EFL classroom. However, before implementing such a program, teachers need to understand the requirements, the benefits and the limitations of digital storytelling technology. Suggested platforms which have been used in elementary and secondary education are Twitter, MyStoryBook and Storybird. These function as a source of input and provide space for students to write their stories combining text with audiovisual media. With accounts whose privacy settings have been customised, teachers can set up reading and writing assignments, prompt peer discussions and monitor progress. Ideally, first the 46

47 by Zoi Tsiviltidou BUILDING A COMMUNITY OF ONLINE STORYTELLERS IN THE 21ST CENTURY EFL CLASSROOM THROUGH MICRO-BLOGGING students read and analyse stories written and distributed online and decide on what content they will use in their stories with what purpose, form and function. A storyboard facilitates the planning and gives structure to the development of the story idea. Next, the students produce their stories in the platforms writing multiple drafts and synthesising words with or without audiovisual media. What should follow is feedback exchange with peers and the teacher to revisit, polish and clarify the cohesion and effectiveness of the story based on language use, characters and events. The requirements Classroom computers (desktop or portable) with access to the Internet would be the ideal option, but the BYOD (bring your own device) approach is a suitable alternative. Asking the students to bring their own mobile devices, smart phones or tablets, for educational use into the classroom is easy and cost-effective. It is advisable to check compatibility issues, password and Wi-Fi signal access as well as account privacy settings when logging into the platforms. The benefits The benefits of engaging language learners in microblogging activities go beyond having fun reading and writing in English. Students have opportunities to: access authentic input and expand screen reading attention spans strengthen information literacy and decision-making skills learn new vocabulary in English and do word analysis write new sentences focusing on economy through verbs/chunks that denote action build character development techniques over sequences of posts, which means create personas whose personalities are brought to light in every post learn to interpret illustrations, photographs and other audio-visual content get ownership and control over creative writing improve digital literacy skills and become aware of Copyright, Fair Use and IPR develop an archive and revisit posted material for selfreflection. Speaking from experience, students get enthused with the idea of using advanced learning technologies. The majority of the students get inspired by stories and visuals they find in the platforms and they are motivated to produce their own creative work. Building an online community of storytellers is not an I tried it once initiative. It requires time and commitment because the benefits are not always immediate. This is the reason why teachers are advised to evaluate the whole process with the intent to reflect on the strengths or opportunities missed in order to be able to run the program again. The limitations Teachers lack of familiarity and confidence with the Internet and micro-blogging platforms is a challenge, which can be overcome by asking assistance from colleagues and by investing time in exploring the platforms. Speaking with teachers, I found out that time constraints and the fear of losing control navigating the online space constitute teachers reluctant to use a technology-integrated approach. However, there are ways to gain confidence and be able to pull such a program through effectively without compromising fun. The most important thing to take into consideration is safeguarding students from any kind of abuse in the digital milieu. The risk of over-sharing or exposing personal data of sensitive nature which would reveal the identity of the student is high and needs to be assessed beforehand. One solution is to ask for an IT professional to install filters in the devices and platforms and ensure that the students know that the anonymity built into the internet can be easily compromised. Another responsibility of the teacher is to promote integrity and ethical use of technology and creative ideas. As with paper writing assignments, in online 47

48 by Zoi Tsiviltidou BUILDING A COMMUNITY OF ONLINE STORYTELLERS IN THE 21ST CENTURY EFL CLASSROOM THROUGH MICRO-BLOGGING writing, students must be taught to recognise and avoid plagiarism and intellectual property theft, and they must be made aware of copyright over photographs, videos and music, are concepts students need to be aware of and alert when micro-blogging. Partos and Tsiviltidou (2015) offer these suggestions for building a community of online storytellers: familiarise yourself with the platforms, e.g. review stories in Storybird created by both students and teachers as instructional material, and decide on learning objectives which fit the students age, competency level and interests divide long assignments in tasks which are easier to manage and complete, and decide in advance how these will be assessed, either on product or process basis allocate enough time to encourage peer-feedback and self-reflection keep track of updated copies of stories to save regularly either online or offline. It goes without saying that nothing replaces experience itself. Self-authoring using micro-blogging is a creative, hands-on and compelling learning approach, but it should be adopted with caution. The involved risks need to be addressed beforehand but I do believe that in the future implementing such a program will be more and more easier as advanced learning technologies enter the classroom reality, as EFL learning becomes self-directed, experiential and distributed outside the classroom. In such a future, online storytelling platforms and personalised web-based tools will play a significant role both as resources and as prompts to envision a more holistic education. References and suggested reading Alexander, 2011, The new digital storytelling: creative narratives with new media, Praeger: ABC-CLIO. Essig, 2005, Storytelling: Effects of planning, repetition and context, Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan. Hadaway, Vardell and Young, 2002, Literature-based instruction with English language learners, Boston: Allyn and Bacon. Kress, 1997, Before writing: Rethinking the paths to literacy, London: Routledge. Kress, 2003, Literacy in the new media age, London: Routledge. Page and Thomas, 2011, New narratives: Stories and storytelling in the digital age, Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press. Palloff and Pratt, 1999, Building learning communities in cyberspace: Effective strategies for the online classroom, California: Jossey-Bass Publishers. Partos and Tsiviltidou, 2015, Online storytelling in today s EFL classroom: What, how, why?, Online: TESOL Greece Newsletter, No 126: Van Waes, 2006, Writing and digital media, Oxford: Elsevier. 48

49 Learners educating Teachers: Students shaping the Future of Schools An introduction by Maria-Araxi Sachpazian to the articles written by Polish students winners of the National Public Speaking Competition. I have often joked about my tendency to lose my way when I am in Poland, which is a rather big country therefore, unless I do so, I will never tour in its entirety. To be honest, although sometimes it s been scary, most of the time it has been rewarding and opened my eyes to unique experiences. Last September, for example, some other TA representatives and I thought that the conference venue was close and we decided to walk. The venue was definitely not close and the map was absolutely deceptive, but when we met what we thought was a group of other (younger) teachers, we were relieved that we were not the only ones to lose our way to the venue. Very soon we found out that the girls were not teachers but students who were talking part in the finals of the National Public Speaking Competition. I had noticed the public speaking competition as part of the first day of the conference but, to be honest, I was not planning on attending. What a great loss that would have been had I not lost my way! What made me attend the public speaking competition was the professionalism of the students I had met. They seemed focused and committed to what they had taken on and they certainly did not see it like an easy day without school. Talking to them was inspiring and their English was so fluent that I wanted to see them develop an abstract topic. Nothing, though, had prepared me for the level of professionalism and the content I was to hear. During the conference we get to see only the Grand Final of the public speaking competition which is an on-going championship and the brain-child of Ms. Anna Rogalewicz-Gałucka, who is a full time teacher at Gimnazjum nr. 1 in Zgorzelec and the IATEFL Poland Chief administrative secretary. The regional winners of the National Competition are invited to present and the topic this year was Schools of the future. The students had to include aspects such as multiculturalism, global culture, pop culture, students rights, technology, transport and the environment and show how these will cause schools to change in the future. The judges had to take into consideration an array of characteristics to decide on a winner. Some of these were content and its relevance to the general guidelines, development of argument, contact with the audience and the style of presentation and last but not least the fluency and accuracy of the presenters. Once the first student was on stage, I knew I had struck gold and I was quick to make a note of the students whose articles I wanted to secure. As an educator, I cannot think of anything more enlightening, rather than listen to learners describing the future of schools and giving us grown-ups some useful food for thought. While listening to these students, in what seemed very much like a Junior TEDx Event, I kept thinking of what it must be for the teachers who coach these learners and what a great exercise in actual speaking and writing this must be. Talking to the students and their teacher during the break, I found out that the students go through various stages of drafting, starting with brainstorming and spending many hours correcting and perfecting the aesthetic details of their speech to make their arguments more potent. This is a great point to make: assigning presentations is only the first step, not the last nor the whole thing. As a firm believer in the educational power of presentations by learners, I feel that just assigning presentations and letting learners figure them out themselves, is just paying lip service to the power of this tool. Presentations require a lot of one on one time between teacher and learner, so that the latter can realize which changes need to be made and why. Projects such as these are empowering learning experiences only when the learners are left to create their own work and in the process they discover their own strengths, weaknesses and abilities. What impressed me the most, apart from the content was the ease of delivery the students could exhibit. Undoubtedly, this is yet another sign of the work both students and teachers have put in this public speaking competition. Coaching the students to perform the speech, which borders on staging a play, is an aspect to 49

50 by Maria-Araxi Sachpazian LEARNERS EDUCATING TEACHERS: STUDENTS SHAPING THE FUTURE OF SCHOOLS which the teacher is instrumental as the learners need help finding ways to remember how to connect the parts and mnemonic devices to help them join the thread of the text in their mind. I believe this is the point where the true value of public speaking lies. Learners do not just learn to view writing as a process but also find ways of creating mental representations of their text in their heads which are meaningful enough for them to present a cohesive unit. It s important to stress here that the learners had some notes, which they consulted but did not read and they did not use power point. Furthermore, the learners need to realize the importance of their own posture, body language and their tone and intonation in making their point. Personally, I feel that many professional presenters need to take a leaf out of these students book. Although it was easy to see the signs of stage fright and their realization of the importance of the task, most of them were able to overcome the awe and perform their speech. What about it then, teachers of TESOL Macedonia- Thrace, Northern Greece? How about organizing our own public speaking competition? How about making our learners a part of our conference and our teaching more visible? I would love your ideas and your input. If you are interested we can start small and I am sure our colleagues from Poland will help us with suggestions and ideas. Read the articles that Maria Jelen and Karolina Wieczorek have written and then after we have been inspired about the schools of the future we can think about our own Public Speaking Competition. I am looking forward to your comments and s! 50

51 School Of The Future by Karolina Wieczorek About me Name: Karolina Wieczorek School Complex no.5 in Wroclaw Class: 1 IB-MYP Age: 16 When we think about futuristic schools it is hard to picture the standard image of a school building full of students, crowded corridors and shouting voices. It all depends how far into the future we want to go but my design and idea might seem like a view from a science fiction story and that is how schools might look sooner than You think! What shape the school of the future will take is amorphous, but most educators and observers agree that the future school will go electronic with a capital E. The school is not only a building, but also students and teachers, so creating a new, modern version is not only about advanced technology, but also conveying the knowledge and new attitude to people. Sir Peter Blake once said New technology is common, new thinking is rare.. That is why the first thing, in my opinion will be bigger focus on practical abilities, not theory and textbook knowledge. Technology will enable us to do that (for example: biology classes with plants that are identified with a simple photographs and we could get all information about it or chemistry classes with devices that analyze substances and reactions). Those are just mere examples of how advanced schools might be in the future. I also think students will be able to choose their own subjects, most of them new, interesting and connected with technology. Studying is not everything! What about students? How could they get to school? I think future transportation could include flying vehicles or even over ground hoover boards that will make it enjoyable for most kids to get to school. What I found interesting is the idea of mobile, portable translators that would enable children speaking different languages to learn it by livetranslations. Imagine working on a topic about another country and being able to send a droid to check for example some natural environments and transmit the image to the classroom live! Who would not want that? Virtual field trips are also possible. Physics teacher, Andrew Vanden Heuvel, taught from inside the Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland, streaming what he sees through a beta Google Glass to his students thousands of miles away. They see him, and he sees them; it s as if they are in the same classroom! Every day more and more inventions become popular, nowadays 3D printers are irreplaceable devices. Students can produce working minimodels to test out their engineering design prototypes, before making an actual product. Technology will also change our lives on a daily basis. Have you ever, as a student, forgotten your homework, had to go the teacher to explain why you did not prepare and you just went with Sorry, my dog ate it!. This is not going to be possible anymore after introduction of Cloud Computing. It will enable teachers to access homework from students computers and check whether they have completed their work or 51

52 by Karolina Wieczorek SCHOOL OF THE FUTURE not. Schools will also work more fluently the common use of fingerprinting could be used to borrow books from the library or so that each student signs in when coming to the school in the morning. As amazing as it sounds, those futuristic school can be in fact a great danger. Academic standard will be much lower if we decide to abandon all books and theoretical knowledge. Technology is extremely consuming, we would have to face addiction and isolation among young students. Many parents choose home schooling and after the development of technology even more of them will continue to do so, whereas the time spent among peers is as important as studying. We also have to remember that the situation around the world is not equal. What I am talking about is already happening in Japan and at the same time children in Africa cannot afford to read and write. As long as there is no equality, we cannot talk about true development. Nevertheless making plans and creating new opportunities is always helpful for the future generations. Even though the future I am talking about seems very distant, it is impossible not to get excited by how much things are yet to be discovered. Many people clam that there will be no schools in the future, only virtual ones with online education but who knows! I agree with Bill Gates who once said that: Technology is just a tool. In terms of getting the kids working together and motivating them, the teacher is most important. 52

53 School For Everyone by Maria Jeleń About me My vision of future education may sound overly idealistic, but I strongly believe in progress for the better. Students and their interests will undeniably continue to change, but how will the system evolve to suit their new needs? The hope lies in future educators, who will have to adjust to the growing, changing population to create future generations of caring, cooperative and creative people. My idea can be explained through two seemingly countering, but actually complimentary concepts individuality and diversity. Name: Maria Jeleń Class: 1 IB-MYP School: Highschool number V in Wrocław (V Liceum Ogólnokształcące im. gen. Jakuba Jasińskiego we Wrocławiu) The evident trend of the future is personalization. We would like all items made to suit us the clothes we wear; the buildings we inhabit. Designs are getting bolder and more unique, and modern production methods are expanding to provide innovative, personalized projects on a large scale. It is all a part of a new business philosophy which substitutes the consumer with the prosumer a client who is involved in the process of creating the product he desires to buy. This way, his satisfaction is maximized, while the producer does not waste any resources on creating a wide array of products which the consumer will not appreciate anyway. Following this trail, why not personalize the education to a student? From the earliest years, the pupil should be involved in planning such a path, that allows full development and is ideally suited to certain traits and talents. Thanks to modern technology, like laptops and tablets, students within the same class may be able to have different levels of the same subjects. For example, the same topic could be described on the board, but the tasks the student must complete could vary the more talented students would be given more challenging exercises, while children needing aid it this particular subject could be given more time and more straightforward questions. Each individual would develop at their own pace, with all their focus on their development instead of on trying to adjust on the level of the class. This could be classified using the development of psychoanalysis. Because of the immediate affiliation to psychotherapy, this concept may face negative reactions primarily from parents who do not want their children treated. However, what I propose is not therapy, but mere diagnostics to personalize education to specific attributes, we must find out what they are. The child may give us insight as to their interests, but these do not always correlate to the full array of their talents. I believe cooperation with a qualified psychologist and tests as early as pre-school would be 53