Using Twitter – PD in Focus 6

The Twitter logo (Image: http://www.twitter.com)

I will start with a short story…

It was around four years ago when I first moved here to Switzerland and I was full of dreams for my new life. I had found a job before I came – or so I thought. The crisis arrived in Europe and then Swiss employers decided to stop employing people for a period of time. So I was suddenly without a job.

One day, when I was feeling sorry for myself, I decided to Google ELT materials and look at things I like to feel better. Ken Wilson’s blog came up and I started to read it. I then  got in touch with him and he told me not only to start my own blog, but to make a Twitter account to connect to more teachers. Up until then, I didn’t have any contact with technology apart from emailing and googling. Twitter? I thought. A social media platform where people share details of their lives…to connect with teachers? I did it, not without hesitation though. I wasn’t sure how it would help me – not at all doubting Ken, but I wasn’t sure if I’d have anything  to say. I started connecting to other teachers and seeing what they posted: useful links, their blog posts and posts of others too, new tools in technology to use in class…I loved it so much!  And I haven’t looked back.

If you are an educator and are not on Twitter, I strongly suggest you do it. It will help you in more ways than can be mentioned. How to do it?

- Look at Barbara Hoskins-Sakamoto‘s Starter PLN List. A PLN is your Personal Learning Network – all those lovely educators in any country in the world you can imagine.

- Read Sue-Lyon Jones‘ blog post on Twitter for Teachers with a useful video and links.

- Join the weekly miracle of a chat called ELTChat. It is a weekly double chat which started in September 2010, when a group of educators began to use Twitter to discuss various topics related to ELT. It is one of the greatest tools for professional development. Every Wednesday at 12pm and 21.00pm, ELT teachers from everywhere in the world join in on Twitter to discuss topics that have been voted for.

- Here is a video made by a super educator in Australia, Selena Woodward, called Getting Started with Twitter – For Educators. Many thanks to Tina Photakis, another super teacher in Australia, who posted it on Twitter and to Selena for creating it!

We are all there to help you out! Make an account and join literally thousands of educators out there.

I would never have met all these lovely people mentioned and many more, if it weren’t for Twitter.

Blogging as Reflection, Teaching and Learning – Presentation for TESOL Greece 2013

I was very honoured to present for the first time at this year’s TESOL Greece Convention. Here is my presentation, as well as the notes the participants received at the end. Many thanks to those who were there and everyone for their support!

TESOL Greece Presentation 2013 – Useful Notes

Hasret – A Poem

Where

are you?

Around me

in books

on screens

a picture, an image.

Has – ret. A small word

Emotions

so many

in the waters

over the bridge.

A bridge? From here to there

-         binding,

bringing together.

Nostalgia

longing

to me it is hasret. Mine.

Note:

• Hasret means nostalgia, longing. I saw it in a title of a song and I loved how it sounded. I have to thank Merve Oflaz who introduced me to this composer and Dincer Demir who gave me the exact definition of the word.

Here is the music and its title that inspired the poem:

Mentoring – PD in Focus 3

(Image taken from http://www.juangreatleap.com)

In Greek mythology, Mentor (Greek: Μέντωρ, Méntōr; gen.: Μέντορος)^[1] was the son of Alcimus or Anchialus or Heracles and Asopis. In his old age Mentor was a friend of Odysseus who placed Mentor and Odysseus’ foster-brother Eumaeus in charge of his son Telemachus, and of Odysseus’ palace, when Odysseus left for the Trojan War (Retrieved from Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mentor).

The role of mentors is so important, regardless of the profession one is in. Especially for us educators, having a mentor and mentoring other teachers can evolve into an amazing and creative relationship.

It is as simple as talking to someone about their worries, concerns, interests and guiding them into new paths. New kinds of teaching, new studies even. Be open and help out someone who needs it!

● A new colleague: All of us remember how we felt when we first started teaching. We either felt scared of trying anything new out, or nervous before we started teaching a new level or student or class. Letting them know what you would do in those cases can feel reassuring, Perhaps they feel disappointed after a bad teaching moment – you can help them reflect on it and move on. With someone there to guide them, things are easier and can be solved.

● A colleague with a problem. Again, as with new teachers a colleague might come up to you with a problem they have. A mentoring moment! Help them first of all understand that whatever it is, it has a solution. That if they have done something that didn’t work, it is not the end of the world (a lot of us tend to be self-flagellating) – they can reflect on it, see what they can do the next time it happens and not dwell on it too much. It can drain them of any motivation they have – this is another good aspect of having a mentor: getting all the motivation you need.

● A fellow educator in need of new ideas. Either new or experienced, all of us have been in need of new ideas. We feel at some point that we have completely dried up and cannot come up with anything new. That is another form of mentoring! We can help that colleague get out of that predicament. Some new ideas and guidance and they’re good to go!

After their lessons, have feedback sessions with them, for you both to reflect on – set up discussion groups and/or feedback sessions, as I described in my previous post, PD in Focus 2.

Celebratory Comeback

These days have been full of happiness and lots of positive emotions – we have finally made our dream come true, or perhaps continue, or both! On February 1st, 2013 we celebrated the launch of The Loras English Network, the new venture my sister Eugenia and I have made.

We are extremely happy, as expected, for many reasons:

- It is a continuation of The Loras English Academy, the school we had in Greece, but there are some very pleasant additions to our project, apart from English lessons: a new logo and website, a Facebook page, teacher training and children’s events!

- Eugenia is very happy to be teaching again, after a pause of three years since her son was born. She was doing (and still is) a great job helping her daughter adjust to all the changes after moving to Switzerland and raising her baby son.

- We have called it a Network, because that is exactly what it is – as we are connected to all of you amazing educators around the globe!

A million thanks to you all, with all our heart, for all the support you have shown us the past week and all the lovely comments and wishes!

Istanbul – A Poem

The Bosphorus (Photo taken by Vicky Loras)

Istanbul

Written by Vicky Loras

New air, new sky.

Colours. Lights.

Grey and rain.

Hüzün¹? No, bliss.

When eyes are lost in the waters

of the Bosphorus

in the smiles

of the simit² seller,

the old woman in the street

the crowds

in busy Taksim.

A star,

a half moon.

There’s one over ğ;

dağ³

and ağaç⁴

and göğü gördüm⁵.

A million thanks to Ece Sevgi who read it so beautifully! Listen to it here:

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Notes:

1. hüzün = melancholy, longing. It is a word which is mentioned very often in Orhan Pamuk‘s book Istanbul - it is also heard in songs and poems. It is a sad word, but I love how it sounds.

2. simit = a bagel usually covered in sesame seeds and which you can buy practically everywhere.

3. dağ [dah] = mountain

4. ağaç [ah - ach] = tree

5. göğü gördüm [gyoo-ooh gyoor-dim] = I saw the sky

I tried to find three words that included that special letter ğ and that were also related to what I saw during my trip to Istanbul. That was a hard feat. I hope I managed to convey the images.

Somehow, the little half moon over the letter ğ reminded me of the crescent on the Turkish flag.

Many many thanks to Ece Sevgi, for helping me find a phrase that made sense and included the word sky.

2012 in review – Thank you all!!!

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2012 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

4,329 films were submitted to the 2012 Cannes Film Festival. This blog had 51,000 views in 2012. If each view were a film, this blog would power 12 Film Festivals

Click here to see the complete report.

My Learning in 2012 – A Post for @iTDipro #iTDi

(image from http://www.flero.net)

The great educators at iTDi, The International Teachers’ Development Institute, have been writing post on the website about what they have learnt in 2012.

This year has been a great year in learning for me, not only for my profession but for myself in general.

• Once again, I have attended amazing conferences and workshops, where I have learnt a great deal and networked with amazing educators.

• A very important thing I learned – pretty late, but better late than never! Facebook rocks for teachers! I absolutely love it. I had only been on Twitter for three years and my great friend James Taylor and Ania Musielak managed to get me to take the plunge – I really wonder why I hadn’t done it earlier. It is much more visual for me and I can learn a lot from various groups I have joined. It is truly a buzzing community of educators. Plus when I joined, I really felt like I opened a door to a house full of friends!

• I am really trying to improve my German – both for myself and out of respect to this wonderful country. I am trying to learn it the way I can best, the way I learn other things as well  – by looking and listening. Not through traditional methods and I completely refuse to follow them. For me they just don’t work, as I feel I am running into a wall. For that reason, I observe and try to speak with people and friends around me as much as possible. I also listen to lots of podcasts and that has improved it quite a lot.

• I have started learning Turkish for the past three weeks, ever since I returned from lovely Istanbul. I have been learning on an online programme and will start lessons very soon! I love how it sounds. I would love to be able to communicate next time I go there again!

• I have learned to make time for myself, for things I like – be it a simple thing that makes me feel good. It can be reading a book, having a nice cup of coffee or eating cake. If I feel okay, I am healthy and then I am feeling fine for my students as well!

• Most importantly, after fifteen years of teaching, I have learned (and I am actually applying it much better than I thought) not to self-flagellate when something goes wrong, either in my teaching or in life in general. I see every mistake, every mishap as just one more thing ahead and that I will try no matter what to correct it or not repeat it.

I hope 2013 is full of health, happiness and even more learning for all of us! I wish everybody a Happy New Year!

My Favourite Posts for 2012 – A Response to @yearinthelifeof’s Challenge

Best of 2012 (Photo from http://blog.photoshelter.com)

Adam Simpson, aka @yearinthelifeof on Twitter, teaches English at Sabancı University, on the outskirts of beautiful Istanbul. He has a great blog called Teach Them English. He has recently invited all blogging educators to pick out twelve of their favourite posts for 2012 and share them.

I will choose three I like – for my three years of blogging : )

1. Using Advertising in the Business English Classroom I wrote this after a great class we had with one of my groups. My students made it into one of the best ever! They really took ownership of their learning and showed the whole class commercials they liked and made the best mini-presentations ever! Next year I will incorporate it with other groups as well, not only Business English ones.

2. Back to … the Future I have mentioned many times how much we loved The Loras English Academy, the school we had in Greece and how connected we were and still are with a lot of our students – we see them when we go back to Greece, we talk on Skype, via messages, I have connected to most of them via Facebook and Twitter…I wrote this post after I went to Greece in July and saw lots of our kids. How much they have grown, how many dreams they have…we love each and every one of you!

3. IATEFL BESIG Summer Symposium 2012 – Word of the Week and Other Ideas for Business English (Updated) This is a write-up of a presentation I did in June. It includes ideas I use in my Business English classes. Allow me to be very proud of a card my students wrote and is super – and of a particular photo in this post, with a person I have admired tremendously since university

Interviews with Three New Bloggers for My Three Years of Blogging – Number Three: Carol Goodey

Carol Goodey

My third guest for this special celebration is Carol Goodey, an educator from Scotland who was one of the first people I connected to on Twitter. I admire her work immensely and there were times when I wished she would start blogging – and she did! You can read her great blog at http://cgoodey.wordpress.com/

Vicky: Carol, welcome to my blog with this interview for the celebration of three new bloggers and the third birthday of my blog! I am so happy as you have been one of the first people I ever connected to online three years ago, and we have been in close connection ever since.

Carol: Thank you for asking me to be part of this celebration, Vicky. It’s a real honour to be featured on your blog. Congratulations on your blog’s third birthday!

Vicky: For those of our readers who meet you for the first time, can you introduce yourself and tell us about your work in education as well?

Carol: I live in Scotland and work with the local authority in community learning and development as an adult literacies and ESOL worker. I get to work with a range of people who want to improve their literacies, numeracy and English language for use in the different contexts of their lives. I work with people who have moved to the area from around the world and people who have lived here for much longer, including people with learning disabilities. I really enjoy the variety.

Vicky: How did you decide to become involved in education?

Carol:  I first started as a volunteer literacies tutor and, working with ESOL learners, decided I wanted to find out more about language learning. I had already done studies in the English language and was happy to have an excuse to do more! While I was pursuing further studies, a paid literacies post became available. I applied and got it. I worked there for a few years before moving on to work with university students but quickly realized that I missed the community learning and development approach and was fortunate to be able to get my job back.

Vicky: You have chosen social media to connect with many teachers around the world. How did you start out? What are the benefits and challenges, if any?

Carol:  I was following an English Language Teaching discussion group. Some of the contributors mentioned Twitter and so, out of curiosity, I investigated. It took me three tries to finally get the hang of it. I’m glad I did because, through it, I’ve got to know some really interesting practitioners and learned a huge amount. More recently, I’ve been using Facebook to connect with other educators but I’m still getting used to that.

Vicky: There are several educators who are not connected to others on social media. What would you like to tell them?

Carol: Give it a go! It can be overwhelming at times, particularly when you first start but if you build up the people you follow slowly, get to know them, add the people they are chatting to, and don’t try to read everything, it can be a very worthwhile and enjoyable experience.

Vicky: Can you share one of the best moments in your teaching so far?

Carol: I’m really excited about a project I’ve been working on with a Community Learning and Development colleague which aims to bring people from different parts of the community together to learn about, with and from each other. We wanted to promote social inclusion and increase awareness of different people’s abilities, backgrounds and beliefs. We started with big engagement events – a ceilidh, food night, singing workshop and beetle drive – and are hoping to continue with similar events alongside more regular and sustainable activities such as sporting groups, international coffee mornings, etc. It’s been really enjoyable and we’ve had a lot of really positive feedback.  While not teaching exactly, there have been lots of valuable learning opportunities. ESOL learners have had the opportunities to use English and get to know more local people. Other community members have learned more about people from other countries and have developed their own skills in communicating with speakers of other languages, making integration and inclusion that wee bit easier.

Vicky: You have recently started a blog. How did you decide to set up your own?

Carol:  It’s taken me a while to set up my own, but I’ve been enjoying and learning from others for so long I felt I should make a contribution too. I had put it off because, with so many great blogs out there, I didn’t see what I would have to add. I was also a bit nervous about the time commitment, or spam, or other unforeseen hassles. But now that I’ve started, I’ve found that I really enjoy the process of writing. I find it absorbing and relaxing. It’s good to have a space whenever I feel I have something to share.

Vicky: Can you close with a wish to all educators, with the holidays getting closer?

Carol: If you do have holidays over the next few weeks, I hope you get the chance to have some space for yourself and take time to enjoy the small pleasures in life – whatever they might be for you.

Vicky: A huge thank you, Carol! I hope to meet you in person sometime next year!

Carol: It’s been a real pleasure, Vicky. Thank you for having me and I look forward to meeting you soon!