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Here is the online form if you want to become a speaker at the 23rd TESOL Macedonia-Thrace Northern Greece Annual International Convention!

A Word version is also available if you prefer one. Just email it to tesolmth@gmail.com.

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Welcome Back Event 2015 - Report

A very big number of attendees from diverse teaching backgrounds honored the Welcome Back Event with their presence this year at the Amphitheatre of the Central Library of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki on Sunday 27th September.

The event was scheduled with a view to welcoming the new school year, to giving teachers the chance to meet, bond and exchange inspiring and useful ideas and, additionally, to electing the new TESOL Macedonia-Thrace board.

Dr Panayiotis Constantinides from the University of the Aegean was the featured speaker who made an interesting presentation on “Dyslexia and Learning Difficulties in the 21rst century English class”. Dr Constantinides shared the joy he feels when he meets the needs of his students after going the extra mile to discover what their real difficulties are. It was great to hear about the common pitfalls of the field of learning difficulties. Most of the attendees admitted feeling much more confident about avoiding errors in their future classes thanks to the advice given by an experienced and specialized educator.

The Annual General Meeting (AGM) was convened, held and conducted as per the provisions of the TESOL MTH constitution and the rules made there under. A statement of accounts and financial report was presented by the acting chair and treasurer for members to approve, nominations for the elections were considered, speeches were received by the nominees, and the new board was elected in an atmosphere of agreement and acceptance.

All in all, with the motivation from successful colleagues, i.e. school advisors, ELT authors, publishers, a chance to interact with board members, and a bright sunshiny day enjoyed from the gardens of the Central Library of the Aristotle University, it was truly a day to remember.


By Avgi Vafeidou

Photo credits: Margarita Kosior

Welcome Back Event 2015 - Snapshots

Panayiotis Constantinides

 

George Topalis

Welcome Back Event 2015

"Dyslexia and Learning Difficulties in the 21st century English class"

Meet our presenter

Panayiotis Constantinides

Bio:

Panayiotis Constantinides is an English teacher, certified oral examiner and licensed dyslexia evaluator. He holds a Certificate in English Methodology from the British Council, a Diploma in IT from the Open University, U.K. and a Postgraduate Diploma in Inclusive Education, Research, Policy and Practice, University of Glasgow. He has been teaching English for 20 years and assesses students with LD since 2012. He has been a member of the IT team at the University of the Aegean, department of Product and System Design since 2000 and an oral examiner of levels B2-C2 since 2005. You can contact him at pkon@aegean.gr 

Summary:

A professional presentation on the signs of Dyslexia and Learning Difficulties in the English class of the 21st century. What teachers and parents should be looking for? How are Dyslexia and LD assessed? What do EL Testing bodies accept and what are the main points of the legal framework in Greece? Dos and don'ts English teachers should follow, so as to create a "class for everyone".



The Welcome Back Event programme:

10am-11am - first part of the talk
11am-12 - AGM/coffee break
12-1pm - second part of the talk

Summer Event 2015 - Report on Anastasia Metallinou's Talk

Short Bio: 

Anastasia Metallinou is a highly motivated, enthusiastic and experienced English language teacher who specialises in Specific Learning Differences (dyslexia). She studied English and History at Oxford Brookes University (BA Honours). She has also received a master’s degree in Special Education (MEd) from University of Bristol. She teamed up with Dr Anne Margaret Smith and wrote ‘English Sounds Fun’. ESF is an innovative, highly structured intervention programme designed specifically for dyslexic students of English as a foreign language.

Report:

Anastasia Metallinou is a highly motivated, enthusiastic and experienced English language teacher who specializes in Specific Learning Differences (dyslexia) and gave her presentation ‘Teaching Dyslexic Learners – Practical Ways of Building Self-Esteem’ at the joint TESOL Macedonia-Thrace and TESOL Greece Summer Event 2015 in Portaria, Pelion (21 June 2015) with a compelling title: ‘Sharing Inspiration’.

  

After defining self esteem and highlighting its importance, Ms Metallinou mentioned the implications of low self-esteem for students and their families in general and in particular (in the language classroom) and highlighted five ways teachers can help to build self-awareness in their students and encourage self-evaluation and self-correction as important strategies in language learning.

Starting off, Ms Metallinou acknowledged the fact that 10-12% of student population in Greece has officially been assessed with dyslexia so far which affects many areas of language learning: writing, reading, memory skills, spelling etc. The most important implication, however, is that it affects students’ self-esteem which can be more debilitating than a learning difficulty and can also affect students’ families.

Ms Metallinou defined self-esteem as the way we feel about ourselves and evaluate our capabilities depending on the degree our feelings are accepted and valued by others and she highlighted the importance of some questions every educator should ask him/herself about her students:

-         How can we recognize students with low self-esteem?

-         How can we help students with low self-esteem?

-         What kind of solutions can we recommend to help them adapt in the language classroom?

Educators should be aware of clever avoidance strategies students might use in order to avoid failure through taking risks and watch for lonely, withdrawn students with little or no participation or engagement in class. Other implications of low self-esteem can be broken relationships, over-compensation and unsustainable student burn-out.  Unrealistic expectations from parents/self, previous negative experience, misinterpreted comments/feedback from teachers or peers and superficial comparison of self to others were among the causes of student low self-confidence which were also mentioned by Ms Metallinou.

It is very important for teachers and students to realize that mistakes are very important to happen because they can take you further through constructive feedback, they promote professional and emotional growth and reinforce perseverance until goal accomplishment. Ms Metallinou recommended a few activities which can help educators create a positive environment for students, depict their special qualities, show understanding of persuasive techniques, increase student responsibility and make them work in teams and have fun (e.g. drawing a self portrait, creating a ‘me’ commercial, complete sentences about yourself, write a journal story, do a class project which includes a wall display) and highlighted the importance of extracurricular activities parents should familiarize their children with in order to raise their self esteem.

Five ways in which teachers can help their students with dyslexia are:

1.     understand how dyslexia affects students (e.g. literacy/academic performance, self image, school – family relations and behavior)

2.     understand how students learn best (e.g. through motivation, fun, experience, success, inspiration, group work, praise)

3.     understand language difficulties and use multi sensory/media activities, lots of practice and repetition, a highly structured intervention program and small steps in language teaching

4.     take advantage of students’ strengths (e.g. identify individual strengths and skills and be creative with those skills and help students with their weak points)

5.     work in cooperation with parents to maximize positive effects

Teachers could also introduce students to famous dyslexic people, find characteristics they have in common and increase determination in their students. Students should be encouraged to reflect on their own work and educators should help students raise their self awareness (how I best learn) through self correction. As a result, students will believe in their abilities, understand, think and eventually reflect.

In her conclusion, Ms Metallinou explained the importance of self-belief and self-esteem in the language learning process. Students should be encouraged to succeed in learning by teachers and parents through promotion of diversity in learning styles and creativity. Memory strategies and organizational skills should be developed and perseverance should be encouraged in a positive way to foster students’ self confidence.

Report by

Βασιλική Παπαϊωάννου

ΠΕ06, Αγγλικής Φιλολογίας (Ed.D, MA, BA)
Σχολική Σύμβουλος Β/θμιας Εκπαίδευσης Μαγνησίας (έδρα Βόλος)
Συγκρότημα Μουρτζούκου, Χείρωνος & Επτά Πλατανίων Τ.Κ. 38333, Βόλος
24210 47396 εσωτερικό 304 (3ος όροφος)
Κινητό: 6934860473

Summer Event 2015 in retrospect; Presentation by Dr Luke Prodromou - Report

Dr Luke Prodromou is an experienced ELT trainer, author and actor and his presentation titled: ‘From Socrates to Bill Gates: a Dialogue with Digital Natives’ at the TESOL Macedonia-Thrace and TESOL Greece joint summer event in Portaria, Pelion (21 June 2015) was about digital technology in a radically changing world, including our classrooms, and about whether multimedia deepens comprehension and enhances learning. This talk, drawing on recent research, took a critical look at the impact of the Internet on our classrooms, our brains and our lives. It asked questions and raised issues that all teachers, parents and friends should be asking, so that we understand what is gained and what is lost as we become more and more connected. Among the objectives in Luke’s presentation were to mention the changes it is bringing to teachers and language classrooms, to raise awareness about what we gain from IT and what we risk losing and suggest a new way forward (old + new).

Luke started off with an ice breaking activity which aimed at energizing present teacher audience and encouraged thinking and discussion about issues related to teaching and ICT use (digital natives and digital immigrants). All teachers felt welcome as all ideas and opinions were accommodated. Some of the questions which were discussed were whether teaching is like bowling, whether we think of ourselves as digital natives or digital immigrants, whether digital revolution has given teachers more ways to respond to students’ individual needs, whether teachers should recognize the need for integrating technology in their teaching and whether, according to experience, the Net is, by design, an interruption system meant to distract students’ attention.

Luke highlighted some of the benefits of digital technology and multimedia in the EFL classroom and explained how they deepen comprehension, strengthen learning and respond to students’ needs as long as teachers recognize the need for integrating technology in their teaching and the need for becoming empowering educators.

However, Luke mentioned that teachers should be very careful when taking advice about using technology in classrooms from IT experts/non-educators because advisors might not always be completely impartial and governments might have subsided teachers with technology due to deep cuts to education, lack of premises or teachers. For example because of the aforementioned reasons, in India children pool their resources and knowledge in the absence of teacher supervision.

Luke asked the audience to read carefully and discuss Carr’s (2010) definition of deep reading:

The ability to know in depth a subject for ourselves, to construct within our own minds the rich and idiosyncratic set of connections that give rise to a singular intelligence.

He added that teachers who engage in deep reading may want to start assimilating with digital native students’ culture and blend traditional learning with new (Bish 2013).

Luke also mentioned the similarity in the dilemma between digital natives – digital immigrants (Bill Gates era) with the oral and written culture dilemma in Socrates era. Socrates seemed to have an argument against written culture related to memory damage writing could bring to people very similar to arguments digital natives might have nowadays against the use of technology in the EFL classroom. Socrates was in favor of critical thinking and the teaching model of question asking which included shared goals, questions and problems, information, interpretations and concepts.

Moving on, Luke explained that, according to research, the effective teacher is the one who improvises, interacts with learners when the unexpected happens (has interactive decision making skills), has a clear language focus, is technically skillful and emotionally intelligent. So, effective teachers should involve technology in language learning only when students learn from each other, learn from their mistakes and not only when students merely write for exams or for the teacher. Classroom management skills are also very important in the EFL classroom, despite the tools or materials used and the effective teacher should be able to stand in the classroom, care for group dynamics, benefit from space and use everything in its best way while marrying the ‘old’ way with the ‘new’ way. Some other features/skills effective teachers should be aware of are voice, audibility, getting attention, group feelings, enthusiasm and rapport.

Luke summarized saying that teachers should have in mind that equipment is not content and that technology might betray them. They need to draw on, extend and build on learners’ experience as motivation will not come from novelty. Technology is one part of the big picture in the map/field of ELT and since we cannot cancel digital technology we can at least regulate it and fit it in the big picture of education. Blended learning is very welcome in 21st century EFL teaching due to its benefits, existing techniques and opportunities it creates as long as teachers combine what’s important from the past with what’s new in the future.

Report by

Βασιλική Παπαϊωάννου

ΠΕ06, Αγγλικής Φιλολογίας (Ed.D, MA, BA)
Σχολική Σύμβουλος Β/θμιας Εκπαίδευσης Μαγνησίας (έδρα Βόλος)
Συγκρότημα Μουρτζούκου, Χείρωνος & Επτά Πλατανίων Τ.Κ. 38333, Βόλος
24210 47396 εσωτερικό 304 (3ος όροφος)
Κινητό: 6934860473
vpapaioannou06@gmail.com