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Dear Readers, 
 
As this
is a Christmas issue, I thought it would be very
appropriate to start with information about a website
which will give you all a chance to donate something to
those in need. This link was sent to us by one of our
tutors, Sunny A Angeles, with the warning that it can be
seriously addictive!
"For each
word you get right, we donate 20 grains of rice to the
United Nations World Food
Program" the site claims,
and each time you get it right, you get a harder word.
If you
have a love for words, as many of us in this profession
do, you will get hooked,
increase
your vocabulary
and in
the process, help to alleviate world hunger!
I wish
you all a very happy Christmas Season with lots of
opportunities to give and receive.
Marisa Constantinides
CELT Athens
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Certificate in TEFL
or CELTA?
Many
teachers and directors of studies have been asking us the
same question for the past year, ever since we launched
our CELTA courses in February 2006. To date, we have run
seven courses and our gratuate trainess, now proud CELTA
holders, are now teaching in various locations around the
globe - some of them in Greece, too!
To help
prospective trainees make this important decision, I have
put up a special page on our website whivh, hopefully,
answers all the questions we have been asked at various
times.
Don't
miss out on the special discount offers to candidates who
pay well in advance and to groups of teachers from the
same institution or association. Please click
here
to go to that page.
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Google goes
energy saving
- Blackle "You may already
have heard, but apparently someone worked out that if the
Google home page had a black screen, 750 megawatts/hour
per year would be saved.
I'm not sure what that means, but apparently it's a lot
of power.
In response Google have created a black version of its
search engine, called Blackle, with the exact same
functions as the white version, but obviously with lower
energy consumption:
http://www.blackle.com"
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Forthcoming Course Dates at CELT Athens
This is a special announcement to inform you of the
dates for some short refresher courses.
January 2008:
Course 1:
Focus: Teaching Examination Preparation
Classes (24 hours)
Dates: January 7 - 23
Days: Mondays-Wednesdays-
Fridays
Times: 11:00-14:00
Course Tutors:
Marisa
Constantinides &
Rose
Aravanis
Course 2:
Focus: Teaching English to Young
Learners (24 hours)
Dates: February 17, 18 & 23 & 24 (over
two intensive weekends)
Days: Mondays-Wednesdays-
Fridays
Times: 11:00-14:00
Courese Tutors:
Marisa Constantinides &
Olha Madylus
For more information on these two short courses as well as
all our other regularly scheduled programmes, please
click
here.
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Modern Greek
Courses for English Teachers in Greece
Be taught in the
way you have been trained to teach!
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It has been
said that foreign language teachers should occasionally go through a
language learning experience themselves.
This is
seen as a opportunity to understand the difficultiies of their learners
and to make them more sympathetic, patient and tolerant.
What About the Law affecting Foreign Language Educators?
A lot of
palaver has been going on about whether it is necessary for an English
teacher to have a knowledge of Greek in order to be able to teach English
in Greece. I do not believe this is a fair law. There is a great number of
native speakers who stay for an academic year and then move on.
And yet, I do
agree that some knowledge of the native language of one's students helps
rather than hinders.
Modern Greek Courses at CELT Athens
Whatever the reason may be for a TEFL teacher to take a course in Modern
Greek, one thing is for sure:
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At CELT Athens, you will have the opportunity to be taught
following the methodology that we teach our trainees to use.
The materials
are
innovativ e
and, of course, if you are a teacher of English and would like to follow a
Modern Greek course - it is a great opportunity to take it now as a
language learning experience.
To find out more about our courses or to
apply, please visit our
Modern Greek Language & Culture Page.
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Employment Prospects - Teacher Recruitment
Employers seeking well qualified teachers from
amongst our student teacher records, do please visit
this page on the web. We have created an enquiry
form which you can complete and send to CELT Athens
whenever you are looking for trained teachers.
Teachers looking for jobs in Greece or
overseas, can check the same page as we often advertise
jobs there when we receive such a request from a school.
You can also ask us to post your name, qualifications
and contact details on this job board.
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Classic Rock Nights in
the City
Because teaching is not
all there is to life!
 "The
Idols " band with Vassilis Constantinides, (vocals &
drums), Perry Palamiotis (vocals & lead guitar),
Greg Dessypris (vocals & rhythm guitar) and Vassilis
Smeonides (vocals & bass), are here to light up the night
with their powerful playing of some of the best known
rock tunes we have loved so well.For those of you who are music lovers, particularly of
good, old, classic rock, we hope to see you at the following
classic rock venue:
- Thursday, January 10, at "RODEO", 24
Heyden St., near Victoria Square (210 8814702 for
reservations)
Information on which songs they are playing, in case
you wish to go with your older students, can be obtained
via e-mail.
Entrance is 10 Euros (including one drink)
NOTE:
To all of you who saw the original date (December 20th
2007), apologies but the venue was
changed by RODEO club AFTER we had sent out this
newsletter.
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Lesson Plan of the
Month
All About Christmas
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Many of you who have
attended courses at CELT Athens have met the writer of this month's lesson plan,
Georgia
Georgogiannis. Georgia completed her Certificate in TEFL course in early 2006 and then
worked for CELT Athens for almost a year, until she decided to return to her
hometown in Ioannina to rejoin her family and friends and to work for a local
foreign language centre. |
Georgia's lesson plan was
selected:
- For
its Christmas theme - it tells students about Christmas
customs and traditions and you may be able to use it
with your elementary (or even slightly higher level)
students.
- For
the very nice way in which Georgia approached the
teaching of the Passive Voice avoiding the trite
solution of using mechanical transformation exercises
but focusing on its meaning in a connected text
- For
the nice handouts and good staging which leads to
students to producing their own descriptions of
Christmas season customs around Greece or other
countries.
Georgia did actually teach this lesson to a
multicultural group at CELT and we all learnt a lot
about religious festivals around the world.
Please click
here to download
lesson plan and handouts.
Happy Christmas, Georgia! We
all miss you lots!
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Profile of the Month
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Georgina Grammatikou,
a Greek-Australian colleague,
attended the CELTA course at CELT Athens in July 2007
and got a job as a teacher of English in a private
school in the Northern suburbs. She sent us this e-mail
after her first day and I thought it was a good read, an
alternative to our usual profile of the month write-up.
She continues to teach privileged children and doing
some Business English lessons for CELT Athens. Gina is
an accomplished musician, performer and song-writer and
if you click
here, you can see her work - songs, lyrics and
paintings. |
My First Day at School
Today
was my first day at school! I was really nervous as I
did not know what my students would be like. Would they
be kind and gentle and sprinkled with humor, or would
they be stern and demanding, always assessing my
performance?
First
days always scare me, no matter how many first days I’ve
had and no matter how many students in the past turned
out to be wonderful people who grew to like me, even
care for me.
But I
did learn something even on this first day at school.
First,
my students began to elicit things about me. Where I was
from, how many brothers and sisters I have, the usual
things they want to know about you from the start.
Something like an ice-breaker.
Then
slowly we got into some revision. They wanted to check
how much I remembered from last year’s Grammar Book, in
particular they wanted to test me on the Simple Present
and the Present Continuous. They mentioned a couple of
verbs just to get me started. I still looked a bit
puzzled –after all an entire summer had elapsed with
sand buckets, swimming, yelling at the top of my voice-
so they were kind enough to give me some examples.
Simple Present: I live in a big house. I have a
swimming pool. I love horse-riding. I play tennis
Present Continuous (for my future arrangements)
I’m visiting my cousins in their countryhouse tomorrow.
I’m skiing next weekend. I’m buying a laptop on Monday.
Last
year at my other school, I remember my first day being a
bit different. I remember saying:
I have a bicycle. I like soccer. I’m working with my
father tomorrow.
So, on
this first day at school, I learnt that kids in the
Northern suburbs have a less simple Present to those in
the Western ones, and that life has given them a big
present Continuous to play with..
by
Georgina Grammatikou
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Editors Christmas Message
