About

MY LIFE AND WORK

My name is Vicky Loras and I am an English teacher, born in the beautiful city of Toronto, Canada – my parents are of Greek origin and emigrated to Canada when they were very young.

I have been teaching English (as a foreign language and literature) to students of all ages, since 1997. 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. We founded The Loras English Network in 2012 – our school, where we teach English, train teachers and hold children’s events.

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 also present at conferences. You will find the transcripts and slideshows of my talks in Switzerland and abroad on my Presentations page.

One of my primary educational interests is celebrating diversity and culture in the classroom. I love what Barry Tomalin has said about culture being the fifth skill in the classroom!

MY INSPIRATION

I am the proud aunt and godmother to my sister Eugenia’s children, Maggie (12) and Nicholas (8)! Maggie loves animals and drawing, and wants to be a movie animator when she grows up. Nicholas is fascinated by trains (we have lots of those in Switzerland!) and any kind of vehicle – and also plays hockey. My little sister Christine also has a child, James (2) – I cannot wait to see what he likes as he grows! So far, he enjoys being read to, and loves farm animals and any kind of musical instrument : ) Christine also had another baby in June 2017, little Mary!

I am very happy that they love books as much as I do. I love spending time with them whenever possible – Maggie, Nicholas, James and I love reading books together! As all children do, they love listening to stories and learning about the world.

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 nieces, nephews and the children I teach help me become a better person and educator.

FREE 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, where I moved to in August 2009.)

I also love reading about the English profession and education in general – 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. Another favourite is Motivational Strategies in the Language Classroom by  Zoltán Dörnyei.

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 the playlists I play when I like to relax.  (I love the French language! I would like to improve it and have more chances of practising it though.) I love watching films in languages I do not understand!  European films are 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 and dialects even more – I love Switzerland and Swiss people! They are so warm and friendly.

My favourite music comes from the 80s – and Duran Duran are my top band of all time!

CONTACT

Please feel free to contact me:

By e-mail: vickyloras@yahoo.ca

On Twitter: @vickyloras

On Skype: vicky.loras