My name is Vicky Loras and I am an English Teacher, born in Toronto, Canada. For ten years, my sisters (Eugenia and Christine) and I owned an English School in Greece, The Loras English Academy, but I have now moved with my eldest sister to Switzerland, where I continue to work as an English teacher.
I believe in teaching as an ongoing learning process, both for the benefit of the students and the teacher. For that reason I love attending workshops and conferences! I feel so motivated and inspired by them.
I have started giving talks at conferences again. You will find the transcript of my first talk in Switzerland at the ETAS AGM and Convention 2011 as a blog post here.
One of my primary educational interests is celebrating diversity and multiculturalism in the classroom. I love what Barry Tomalin has said about it being the fifth skill in the classroom!
Two of my most favourite people in the world!
I am the proud aunt and godmother to my sister Eugenia’s children, Maggie (6) and Nicholas (2)! I am very happy that they love books as much as I do. I love spending time with them whenever possible – Maggie and I love reading books together and I cannot wait to do it with Nicholas as well! Watching them grow has helped me truly understand how important everything we say and do every day influences children and plays a great role in their lives. My niece, nephew and the children I teach help me become a better person and educator.
My absolute favourite book by Orhan Pamuk (and perhaps of all time!)
When I have some time on my hands, I love reading – my favourite writers are Orhan Pamuk and Amos Oz. My love of literature also spreads to my classroom. I love introducing my students to literature and try to do it as often as possible – their response to this is great and we have interesting lessons and discussions! Both prose and poetry have a special place in our lessons.(And as you can guess, one of my favourite places is the Zug Kantonsbibliothek – the cantonal library of my new home, Zug!)
I also love reading about the English profession – about new methods, approaches, theory and practice. One of the books I loved reading was Proust and the Squid by Maryanne Wolf, which is a history of the reading brain.
Audrey Tautou as "Amelie" (Image from http://buckle22.blogspot.com)
My favourite movie (I have lost count of how many times I have seen it) is Amelie (Le Fabuleux Destin d’Amelie Poulain), a French film by Jean-Pierre Jeunet. The soundtrack of the movie is one of those CDs I play when I like to relax. (I love the French language! I would like to improve it and have more chances of practicing it though.)
I generally love watching films whose languages I do not understand! European cinema is my favourite.
I also like visiting museums, art galleries and I am currently making short trips around Switzerland, to try to get to know the country, the people and the languages more – I love Switzerland and Swiss people! They are such warm and friendly people.
Please feel free to contact me:
By e-mail: vickyloras@yahoo.ca
On Twitter: @vickyloras
On Skype: vicky.loras
Thanks for the follow. Looking forward to reading your blogs.
Hi Nancy and thank you very much!
Hope you enjoy it!
Kindest regards,
Vicky
Thanks for linking to my site. I’ve just set up Google Webmaster tools and saw your blog. I’m about to take a look now. Cheers!
Hi Mark!
Thank you and hope you like it!
Kindest regards,
Vicky
Hey miss!
Your blog is very interesting! I only read some of the articles and find them very useful and full with information!
Warm wishes from GREECE!
Hi Panos and thank you so much!
I was very moved to see your comment on my blog – it was the best surprise in the world!
You and your sister Helen, as well as all the students I have taught in Greece are always in my heart!
I am so glad you like the posts.
I send you and your wonderful family all my love!
Thank you so much Panos!
I miss both you and Helen tremendously,
Vicky
Hi Vicky!
I can’t believe it! I left you teaching in Ioannina and now I discover your excellent (and very interesting!) blog from Switzerland! I really enjoyed your posts and I’m looking forward to the future ones!
Kisses,
Maria!
Maria, I can’t believe it either!
Wow – you found me and my blog! I am so glad you liked it. I was thinking about you the other day as it was your birthday – Happy Birthday and many happy returns!
I am going to contact you as soon as possible. Thank you for your kind words about my posts. I must get back to writing soon!
I send you a lot of hugs from Switzerland and thank you once again!
Filakia, Vicky
Hi Vicky,
Happy new year 2011 to you! I’m from Nepal. I’ve been preparing to take the CELTA course, may be in late January here in Belfast, Northern Ireland. I worked as a paramedic for a decade in civil service and jumped into teaching after doing MA in English literature for my home country. I’m not quite sure whether the CELTA course and TEFL career is for me but I cannot not do it as I have no alternative. I still feel lack of confidence in using English which will probably hamper grade. I want to be in touch with experienced teachers and I hope to get suggestions about TEFL job and teaching tips from you. I look forward to hearing from you.
Regards,
Hom
Hello Hom and Happy New Year to you too!
Thank you for leaving a message on my blog. It is wonderful that you have decided to do a CELTA (I would like to do it as well some day!). If you would like my advice, you can learn a great deal from other teachers around the world. If you take a look at my blogroll, I have there all the blogs I like and learn and have learned a lot from.
What has completely changed me as an educator and person, though is joining Twitter. If you join Twitter, you will marvel at the number of fantastic educators from all over the world and the many discussions you can join in. This year I was very fortunate to meet some of these educators in person at a conference in France and we were all ecstatic – plus we have become friends and will keep in touch.
If you need absolutely anything concerning education, please do not hesitate to ask either myself or other educators. It is the best way to learn! And your English is marvellous!
Thank you again and kindest regards,
Vicky
Hi Vicky,
Happy New Year to you and your sister, Helen, and all the people who are your loved ones. Firstly, thank you kindly for your generous comments you left behind on my blog. I usually respond to people who take the effort to leave a comment, but your words were so beautiful I knew I had to let them stand alone, unblemished, by any clumsy efforts on my part to say, “Thank you”. I will stop by from time to time to read your blog posts. I find them fascinating, brilliantly written, and very practical.
Congratulations on the great work you are doing with your blog, and again, “Ich wuensche dich ein freues neues Jahr!
Best regards,
Thomas
Hello Thomas!
Thank you very much for your comment. It is very kind of you to write these nice words about my blog!
I apologise as I have had to edit this reply, which for some uknown reason had remained in my Draft file.
I wish you all the best!
KIndest regards,
Vicky
[...] About [...]
Hi Vicky,
Thank you very much for the invaluable information and marvellous remark. This is one way of my interacting with the experts and professionals. Few paragraphs in Anita’s blog where she’s mentioned the difficulties of power cut and pain of being disconnected from the apparent global village remind me of eleven hours’ power cut which is popularly known as loadshading in my home town.
I wonder if you could suggest me anyting specific to tap into from the vast databases and hundreds of books as I have only two weeks before I do intensive CELTA to be able to use English language as a trainee teacher. I didn’t find resourses to learn classroom English, I mean the language a teacher needs to know to properly handle the class.
Regards,
Hom, Belfast
Hey Vicky
I’ve just started diving into this webhead world and your name keeps popping up all over. Your tweets have great energy and the blog looks great too.
Thanks for all you’re putting out there.
Best in 2011
cheers,
brad
Hi Brad!
Thank you very much for your kind words. It is a great world, this webhead world! The past year I have learned so much.
I wish you a great academic year and many thanks again!
Best wishes,
Vicky
Hi Vicky, I really like your blog and your commitment to engaging with your students, which comes through in all that you write. Keep up the good work! I noticed that we are both in Switzerland – I am in Basel at the inlingua school, but about to change careers as I have now embarked upon a career of fiction writing. As a former teacher I thought my book “Doing Max Vinyl” might be fun to use as learning material in EFL course, whether group or individual lessons, and I therefore wrote about 40 exercises sorted by CEFR levels B1, B2 and C1. These are available on my website, http://www.frederickleebrooke.com free of charge for teachers to print or download and try out on their students. I don’t know if this sort of thing is done very much — I just had this instinct that it would be “just right” for some teachers in some situations. There is an ad for my book and the exercises on the summer ETAS journal. My book is available as an e-book on the Kindle platform of Amazon – downloadable on any device. Since we are both fans of Orhan Pamuk (my favorites are Snow and My Name is Red) I thought you might just like my book. If you would like to have a look at my book and the exercises, just to know your opinion, I would be happy to gift the book to you. You can reply privately or right on Twitter, I don’t mind. Take care, Fred
Hi Fred!
Many thanks for your comment, your kind words and for reading my blog!
First of all, I would like to wish you all the best in the new turn in your career – it sounds very exciting and good luck with your book! I would love to read it (and I never say no to books – I am sure yours will be very interesting!). What a great idea to write exercises to accompany the book. I would love to look at those as well.
I sometimes write reviews for the ETAS journal so you might see some of my writing there as well.
Thank you very much again!
Kindest regards,
Vicky
I got it: benefit is the key word in learning and teaching English.
Best wishes,
FAVargasA
Hello Felix,
Many thanks for visiting my blog and leaving a comment!
Kindest regards,
Vicky
Hi Vicky,
Now that we’ve met through Twitter it’s time for me to get to know your blog as well
Firstly – great to see that the most recent post was an interview with a neighbour (I’m Estonian living and teaching in Switzerland)
Secondly – not so great to find out that you were at AGM last year and even gave a talk…and I couldn’t make it! Hope to make amends this year, or more precisely in January 2012 (hope to meet you then!)
BTW, whereabouts in Switzerland do you teach. I’m in Valais (Wallis), right in the middle of the Alps.
Till new tweets and comments
Hi Sirja!
Thanks so much for reading and commenting! I am very happy we have found each other – a pity we didn’t meet at the ETAS AGM, but I will definitely be at the next one in Yverdon. Will you come to Zug (Which is where I live) for the SIG Day, this Saturday? If so, I hope to meet you here!
Wow, I have heard a lot of great things about Wallis, haven’t visited yet! One of my students is from there. He is trying to teach me Walliser Tuutsch : ) I also hope to visit Estonia one day, so many places I’d love to go to!
So really hope to see you soon, Sirja!
Kindest regards,
Vicky
Hello Miss Vicky!!
I’m so glad that I found out about your wonderful blog! Although I miss you and Mrs Gina like crazy I’m very happy for your amazing work, there in Switzerland. Please let her know that Ada and me succeed in passing the Proficiency Exam. I’d love to hear from you every now and then. You, Mrs Eugenia, her husband, Maggie and Nicholas have ALL my love <3 :')
Hello Mara mou!!!
So nice to hear news from you and Ada, super news!!! Congratulations from Eugenia and me, we are so proud of both of you! We also miss you very much and we talk about all of you all the time. We love you very much and thank you so much for your wonderful words.
Para polla filakia!!
Vicky
[...] vickyloras @vickyloras Switzerland I am a Canadian-born Greek and I teach English to adults & children. My main interest is multiculturalism and Business English. I love good books! Source: vickyloras.wordpress.com [...]
Hello there Vicky !
I just had the chance to check your blog and I wanted to share that I really like it..
And we have a common.. Orhan Pamuk
Cheers!
Nihal
Hi Nihal!
Thanks for visiting the blog and commenting : ) I am happy you like it! And happy you also like Pamuk : )
Best regards,
Vicky