1. e
BULLETIN
Tesol Macedonia-Thrace
Northern Greece
Issue 47
Dec 2013 /
Jan-Feb 2014
Tel: 6976845202
tesolmth@gmail.com
www.tesolmacthrace.org
an associate member
In this issue:
Meet the New Board (p. 3) My Best Tips for Raising
Welcome Back Event Report
(p. 5)
10 Secrets to a Successful
Lesson (p. 5)
When EdTech Meets ELT
(p.12)
Bilingual Children (p. 13)
SEETA News (p. 17)
Xmas Blog? Why not?
(p. 23)
Vasilopita Event Details
(p. 26)
Disabled Access Friendly
Competition (p. 27)
Ocial Recognition for
Disabled Access Friendly (p. 28)
Do your Students have a Bottle
of Water with them in Class? (p. 29)
Dates for your Calendar (p. 30)
What is it that Men Excel at?
(p. 9)
Xmas Event Details (p.18)
Xmas, Kids and ELT (p.19)
Meet the Plenary Speakers (p. 32)

2. Welcome back everyone.
And welcome, too, to the new board. The elections
were held at the AGM, which took place during our
welcome back event. The new members are an inter-esting
mix of old hands and new and you can find
out more about them elsewhere in this bulletin.
The Welcome Back Event proved to be highly ab-sorbing
with an excellent presentation by Raymond
Kerr on special educational needs. Raymond was
sponsored by the British Council Global Teacher De-velopment
Team, a very useful contact that we shall
be making further use of in the future.
Talking about the future, we have our Christmas
event coming up on the 15th December and I’m look-ing
forward to seeing you there. We have what looks
to be a very interesting presentation by Sophia Ma-vridi
, lined up along with our usual festive cheer
and the grand raffle so get away from the exam fever
and join us for the evening.
Preparation for the Annual Convention is coming
along apace. There are details in this bulletin of our
four main plenary speakers and also a Speaker Ap-plication
form so that you too can make a contribu-tion.
Last year we received many comments on how
good the talks were so I’m hoping we can keep it go-ing
this year.
That’s all from me for the time being. I’d just like to
wish everyone all the best for the New Year.
Roger House
a view
from
the
chair

3. Editorial Team
Editor-in-chief: Margarita Kosior
Assistant Editors: Elsa Tsiakiri and Anastasia Loukeri
Columnists: Dimitris Tzouris and Adam Beck
Writers: Margarita Kosior, Anastasia Loukeri, Nick Michelioudakis,
Theodora Papapanagiotou, K atie Quartano, Danny Singh, Efi Tzouri
Proofreading: George Raptopoulos
Design and Layout: Konstantina Kyratzidou
ΕΚΔΟΤΗΣ / ΙΔΙΟΚ ΤΗΤΗΣ-ΕΚΔΟΤΗΣ: Roger House
(ΠΡΟΕΔΡΟΣ ΤΗΣ ΕΝΩΣΗΣ ΓΙΑ ΤΗ ΔΙΔΑΣΚΑΛΙΑ ΤΗΣ ΑΓΓΛΙΚΗΣ ΓΛΩΣΣΑΣ ΣΤΗΝ ΜΑΚΕΔΟΝΙΑ ΚΑΙ ΘΡΑΚΗ)
TESOL MACEDONIA-THRACE NORTHERN GREECE tel.: (0030)6976845202, e -mail: tesolmth@gmail.com

4. 3
General Elections
Apart from the interesting presentations from Raymond Kerr and Camilla Ralls, this year’s Welcome
Back event also had the additional interest of holding the General Elections. The old board said
goodbye and a new one has taken over. Well, not entirely new since some members of the old
board have stayed on to continue their work! A big THANK YOU to those who have stepped down,
for giving their time and putting so much effort into making TESOL Macedonia /Thrace, Northern
Greece what it is.
MEET THE NEW BOARD
Roger House – Chair
Roger House has been involved in English language teaching for almost 25 years. He began
as a state secondary school teacher in the UK and has since taught English in Sudan, Hun-gary,
Spain and Germany before coming here to Greece. He has been a tutor on the British
Council/International House Distance DELTA programme and for the last seven years has
been a course director on in-service teacher development programmes at Edinburgh Uni-versity.
He is currently co-director at ‘Access’.
George Topalis - Vice Chair/Treasurer
George Topalis is a Cambridge Delta holder and has been working as a front line teacher for
the last 14 years. He has worked as an oral examiner for various examination bodies and has
been involved in the areas of educational consultancy and publishing. He has also been an
active TESOL member and has served on the board.
Anastasia Loukeri - General Secretary
Anastasia Loukeri is a graduate of the University of Portsmouth Literary Studies depart-ment
and holds the DTEFLA qualification since 2000. Anastasia has been working as an
English teacher and an oral examiner for almost 20 years. She has been a member of TE-SOL
for a number of years and is also a volunteer on the SEETA platform.
Nathan Pratt - Membership Secretary
Nathan Pratt trained in the United Kingdom as a Nursery Nurse (NNEB) with a specialisation
in Learning Difficulties. He has been teaching English to young learners for the past 5 years.
He moved to Thessaloniki in 2009 and became a member of TESOL. He is also a freelance
photographer and provides TESOL with photographic services.
Margarita Kosior - Ebulletin Editor
Margarita was born in Poland, but has been living in Thessaloniki for the last twelve years.
Particularly interested in ELT at the pre-K level, but also an examiner and an experienced
tertiary educator teaching practical language and personal development skills at the un-dergraduate
level. A strong supporter of bilingual and multilingual education. Outside the
classroom – an amateur photographer.

5. 4
Fani Dafnopatidou - Convention Secretary
Fani is BA holder in Tourism Administration and Management as well as an ELT certified
Cambridge teacher. She has been a teacher since 1998 and has so far worked for various
English schools and institutes teaching all ages and levels. She has been working as an
English examiner for 2 years. In addition to that she has been involved in local NGOs and
other charity causes.
George Raptopoulos - Member-at-large
After 33 years of teaching at home and abroad ,George is still very much in love with the
classroom. Currently a participant in a long-due DELTA course and working on literature,
he is interested in promoting TESOL M-Th goals within Greece and South Eastern Europe
and vows to cooperate with the board to have this unique organisation ,of which he is
proud to be a founding member, where its members want it to be, at the top.
Emmanuel Kontovas - Member-at-large
Emmanuel is a graduate of the English Language and Literature Department of Aristotle
University of Thessaloniki. After the completion of his studies he has done several teach-er
training seminars and for the past nine years he has been teaching English to various
age groups and for different needs. He is a member of TESOL Macedonia-Thrace, Norhtern
Greece for several years and a fervent supporter of the organisation.
Efi Tzouri - Member-at-large
Efi is a graduate of the English Language and Literature Department of Aristotle University
of Thessaloniki. Having done studies both in Liverpool John Moores University and Royal
Holloway University of London she became specialised in Theatre Education and Theatre
Production. Efi loves acting and directing and she is really keen on working with young-sters’
theatre groups. She has been teaching English for almost 13 years. Currently, she is
teaching English to young learners, Efi is a radio show co-presenter and she collaborates
with the Public Cetral Library of Serres on a digital storytelling project called “Storieschest”
sponsored by Future Library and Niarchos Foundation.
Elsa Tsiakiri - Member-at-large
Elsa Tsiakiri has been teaching English for twenty-three years. She has worked in English
language schools, teaching all ages and levels. She is a TKT holder. She has also been
trained as a translator at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens and she is
currently subtitling a documentary film on art. She first became a member of Tesol-mth in
1997 but she decided to become more actively involved this term.
Aspa Georgopoulou - Member-at-large
Aspa holds a BA in Early Childhood Education from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki.
She has been teaching English to young learners for the past eight years at a private lan-guage
school and has also been working as an Academic Manager’s Assistant over the last
six years. She has always been involved in organizing and participating in various extracur-ricular
activities teaching English to young learners (art and drama clubs, school events and
intercultural summer camps).

6. report
by Anastasia Loukeri
and Efi Tzouri
The event ,which took place at the beautiful venue of the
Byzantine museum, kicked off with Raymond Kerr- com-ing
all the way from Turkey and just before taking up his
new post in Uruguay. Raymond’s presentation, which was
sponsored by the British Council, focused on Creating an
inclusive environment for English learners with specific
needs.
What is an average child? This was one of the questions that
Raymond set the attendees and one which proved difficult
for us to answer. Raymond then provided us with some
startling statistics, raising awareness for the necessity to
take into consideration the English language learner with
specific needs. It seems that up to 10% of the population
has dyslexia and up to 1 in 20 children have ADHD. Even
more startling were Raymond’s findings that, in any class-room,
up to 10% of the children may have some form of
learning difficulty that has been undetected or unidenti-fied!
From these, Raymond moved on to focus on how the
teacher can create an inclusive environment in the class-room
that caters for all ,starting from a child centred ap-proach
which realizes the individual’s strengths and cel-ebrates
diversity and variety rather than exclusion, to one
that encourages positive classroom dynamics and which
benefits both the individual and all the learners.
Raymond also gave us tips and simple ideas on how this
can be accomplished in the classroom. For example, the
learner with hearing difficulties can be moved to the front
of the class or to clear the floor from clutter for those learn-
5

7. ers with eyesight impairment- and this can be an attitude
which is shared and expected from all in the classroom.
Checking regularly that learners have understood was
another tip which could assist those learners with ADHD,
or asking the question “what was the point of today’s les-son?”
But most of all, the teacher needs to develop a lead-ership
style based on trust.
All in all, Raymond’s presentation was thought provok-ing
and gave insight into how the different or the difficult
can be included in the English language classroom.
Camilla Ralls took over from Raymond, and got us on
our feet with a few simple yoga exercises which we
could do with our students in the classroom to attract
their attention and relax them before getting down to
work.
Camilla gave plenty of ideas on how to spice up the
coursebook with quick and easy activities , which need
little or no preparation. One of these was writing a
story word by word on the board in order to practice
syntax and grammar. The one we created turned out
to be quite funny. Another one, which can also get
students out of their seats, is the dramatization of a
dialogue with poses, gestures and facial expressions.
Camilla also gave us an idea on how to have fun with
the companion by saying the words in silent mode
and having learners figure out the word. These were
just a few of the many, many ideas in her pocket.
Our final speaker of the day was Katie Quartano,
giving a report on the IATEFL conference which she
attended with Paul Shaw in Liverpool as the winners
of the Julia Tanner memorial scholarship sponsored
by TESOL Macedonia-Thrace, Northern Greece.
Katie took us through the preparations needed
prior to the conference as well as her personal ex-perience
of attending such a huge event as a rep-resentative
of TESOL Macedonia-Thrace, Northern
Greece.
All in all, this was an event that had a little bit of
everything, and catered for all interests. And with
the aura of the Byzantine Museum surrounding us,
this was an event to remember.
6

8. 10secrets
to a successful lesson
By Danny Singh
This activity is a great way for your students to get to know you
very well, in a short space of time. I came up with this idea in the
latter part of 2009, if I remember correctly.
The objective here is to make a list of some amazing, strange, fun-ny,
unusual facts about yourself. Only choose things that you are
willing to discuss openly with your students, so bear in mind, when
preparing your list, that you will have to explain how certain things
happened. Write them down and see how they look! Having done
that, think of a couple of untrue facts about yourself, which might
seem equally unusual or strange.
Here is my list of secrets that I present to the students:
1. I have taught English to one of Emanuela Orlandi’s sisters.
2. I have acted/performed in a short film directed by Bernardo
Bertolucci.
3. A woman that I once had a relationship with committed suicide.
4. I have driven a boat, but never driven a car.
5. I have always been an outgoing, extrovert person.
6. I have been to Finland, but never been to India.
7. I have been to an important International film festival in Europe.
8. I have had relationships with two women in the same family.
9. I have been to the Wimbledon tennis tournament.
10. I have met Prince Charles and the lovely Camilla.
Two of the above sentences are false.
Eight are true! Which ones are false?
I divide the students into groups of two
or three and they discuss the ten sen-tences
together, trying to come to some
sort of agreement and a decision. This
can take anything from ten to twenty
minutes. Once they have reached some
kind of decision, we enter into the dis-cussion.
Naturally, not every group does come
to a clear decision and sometimes there
is much bickering within groups about
what is and isn’t possible.
I begin by going through each point,
one at a time. The order that I follow de-pends
on their answers, so I start with
the ones that they generally agree upon
and leave the more controversial ones
for later. That makes the build up to the
conclusion, tense and exciting. For those
Preparing your List
Ten secrets in the life of Danny Singh
Coming to a decision
The tension builds up
7

9. of you who are not based in Italy, you may be wondering who
the girl mentioned in number 1 is! She is in fact, a girl who
disappeared in mysterious circumstances in the early 1980’s
when she was about 16 and has never been found. The Pope
at the time, that’s the one that people liked, even made refer-ence
to her in his Sunday mass, which is highly unusual. The
perpetrators of this hideous crime have, like many crimes in
Italy, not yet been revealed, but it is widely accepted that there
is some Vatican involvement in the case!
Justifying your answer
The most interesting thing about the activity is the reasons
that students use to justify their opinions. One student who
insisted that number 4 must be false said that she had never
met a man who didn’t drive a car! Number 10 always leaves a
few students bewildered over my use of the word “lovely” to
describe Camilla. The exercise also gives you an indication of
how students consider you. Some believe that there is no pos-sible
way that either number 3 or 8 could be true. Danny is a
gentleman, they exclaim! Little do they know! Other students
might claim that I look like the kind of person for whom num-bers
3 and 8 could be true. And so, the debate goes on and on,
until little by little, step by step, we get through each point and
the truth is finally revealed. Which two sentences are false?
And the winner is...
Even readers who know me, or think they know me, would
find this exercise difficult, let alone a student who has only
recently come into contact with me. At the point of writing,
not one single student has ever managed to identify both false
answers. A few have managed to identify one of the two, but
never both, until the answers have been revealed. So what do
you think? Why not have a try and send me your answers. I’ll let
you know if you’re right or wrong of course, but remember, I’m
most interested in the reasons behind your answers and your
thoughts. When you’ve finished that, why not try your own list
with your students or get your students to make their own list?
Republished from Humanising Language Teaching
(www.hltmag.co.uk) with the consent of the author
and the editor
Danny Singh,
UK
Danny Singh, born and raised
in London, but now based in
Rome, gives creative English
language lessons and teacher
training courses all over Italy
and abroad. He also offers
stimulating monthly presen-tations
on language related
issues at Rome’s biggest in-ternational
bookshop and
is visible on web TV www.
inmagicartwebtv.eu with a
series of interactive English
video lessons. He regularly
attends Pilgrims TT summer
courses as a Guest Speaker.
Website: www.laughnlearn.
net E-mail: singh_danny@
hotmail.com
8

10. 9
MEN AND WOMEN IN ELT - AN EVOLUTIONARY VIEW
What is it
that
Men
excel at? (republished from
[A light-hearted view at the serious issue of the under-representation
of women at the top levels of ELT]
Have you ever seen a girl do a wheelie? If you do, please
let me know… Although this question may seem un-related
to this article, this is far from being the case. The
connection first struck me while I was looking at the list
of speakers at the TESOL Greece 2009 Convention – it oc-curred
to me that in a female-dominated field, the male
speakers were rather numerous – in fact the ratio was al-most
50 – 50%. And when it came to the Plenary Speak-ers,
the ratio was 3:2 – 3 men to 2 women that is!! So
here is the answer to the original question: Men are far
better than women at showing off! And chances are, they
always will be!
What do the figures show? As everyone knows, in the
field of ELT men (M) are an endangered species and TE-SOL
Greece membership reflects this. Apparently 85%
of our members are women (W) while only 15% are M.
When it comes to speakers however, things are not like
that at all; over the past few years the speaker ratio at
TESOL Greece Conventions was roughly 50 – 50% while
for the plenary speakers the figures were 52% M to 48%
W. Information I got from TESOL Macedonia – Thrace
paints a slightly different picture: during the past 15 years
there have been 35 W Plenary Speakers compared to 69
M! Whatever the case, it is obvious that there is a huge
discrepancy between the ratio of members and speakers.
And the question is – ‘Why’?
Why does this happen? [1]: Ask anyone who has been
inculcated with the central belief of the Standard Social
Sciences Model (Crawford Krebs 2008) that any observ-able
difference between M and W is attributable to the
environment, and they will come up with an impressive
array of plausible-sounding answers: W are held back by
the demands of their second ‘career’ at home / there is a
‘glass ceiling’ even in ELT / W are socialised to be less ambi-tious
than M etc. No doubt there is an element of truth in
all of these – particularly the first one. However I believe
this is only a small part of the answer (for a brilliant and
most informative book on the subject see Browne 2002).
Why does this happen? [2]: So let us now turn to the
real reason: M are programmed by evolution to show off.
In the vast majority of higher life forms (e.g. reptiles, birds
and mammals), the female is the investing sex when it
comes to reproduction and W are no exception. Because
of this, it is the males who display (e.g. peacocks, bower
birds etc.) and the females who choose (Forsyth 2001).
So, the males need to stand out. What is more, in very
many species the few successful males mate with most of
the females (ibid.) while the fate of the others is genetic
oblivion – hence the need to stand out becomes even
more imperative! 1
The animal world: Do males display in the animal
world? Of course they do! And I am not just talking
IATEFL Poland NL)
By Nick Michelioudakis

11. 10
Nick Michelioudakis (B. Econ., Dip. RSA, MSc [TEFL]) is an Academic Consultant with LEH (the representatives of the
Pearson PTE G Exams in Greece). In his years of active involvement in the field of ELT he has worked as a teacher,
examiner and trainer for both teachers and Oral Examiners. His love of comedy led him to start the ‘Comedy for ELT’
project on YouTube. He has written numerous articles on Methodology, while others from the ‘Psychology and ELT’
series have appeared in many countries. He likes to think of himself as a ‘front-line teacher’ and is interested in one-to-
one teaching and student motivation as well as Social and Evolutionary Psychology. When he is not struggling
with students, he likes to spend his time in a swimming pool or playing chess. For articles or handouts of his, you
can visit his site at www.michelioudakis.org.

12. about mating displays aimed directly at females like the
spectacular ones by some birds of paradise; male animals
display in more subtle ways too. Male chimpanzees hunt
monkeys, but they tend to do so even more when fertile
females are present! (Miller 2001) Zahavi (1997) has dis-covered
that among Arabian babblers (a species of bird)
males actually fight each other for the right to do guard
duty for the community! This task is highly ‘altruistic’ since
it means both that they cannot feed and that they are
more at risk from predators – but of course it also results
in higher status and therefore more ‘girls’! M too are far
more likely to perform ‘heroic deeds’ for others and not
because they are great altruists! (Winston 2002)
Men, Women and ELT [1]: Let us go back to the ‘Why?’
in our initial ‘mini-research’. Is it that M in ELT and better
than W? Of course not 2 – if anything it is the other way
round! (Pinker 2002) But the motivation is different. When
a W decides to give a talk, it may be because she thinks it
will promote her career, or because she is excited about
something and wants to share her ideas and enthusiasm
with other colleagues. With M it is all this plus something
much more important; every female in the audience is a
potential mate! The M may be unaware of this factor, but
it is there all the same. And this is reflected in their de-livery
too. Think of the speakers you know. Who are the
ones with the most flamboyant style? I bet you anything
they are male!
Men, Women and ELT [2]: Nor is this male desire to
stand out manifest only in the relative number of speak-ers.
Men constantly seek positions of high status in all
fields (Vugt Ahuja 2010) and ELT is no exception 3: Con-sider
this: in Greece, out of 41 State School Advisors 10
are M! And what about the private sector? 15 out of the
41 local School Owners’ Associations are headed by M!
The ratios are 25% and 36% respectively. You want fur-ther
proof? Go to your bookcase. Take out any Teacher’s
Handbook you want. Now look at the ‘Other Titles’ list and
count the names of the authors. I did this for two books
published in 2009. Here are the results: Oxford U P: 24 M
vs 20 W – Cambridge U P: 34 M vs 12 W. I rest my case...
Other examples: Everyday instances of M showing off
abound. Take language for instance: Who tells the most
jokes in groups? – M do! Who were the greater orators in
the past – and who are the greatest rappers of today? – M
naturally! (Miller 2001). It is no accident that verbal ability
is the feature most strongly predictive of leadership po-tential
(Vugt Ahuja 2010). And what do M talk about?
– why, themselves of course! (65% of the time while for
W the figure is 42% - Dunbar 2004). Interestingly, M also
tend to talk about more intellectual topics – when W are
present! (ibid. – any resemblance to chimps is purely co-incidental!
) As Douglas Kenrick puts it ‘showing off is
like homicide’ – true, the maid might be the culprit, but
any Sherlock Holmes worth his salt would consider the
butler first! (Kenrick 2011) Well said Professor Kenrick!
In conclusion...: By now you must have figured out why it
is boys who do wheelies and not girls... Here is the rea-son
in a nutshell: M show off to W because evolution has
designed the former to be aggressive sexual advertisers,
while the latter comparison shoppers! (Barash 2001). This
is also the reason why M talk and talk and talk – preferably
in public! And if some of them do not even know what it
is they are talking about, this only goes to show that ‘the
reach of their display often exceeds their grasp’! (Miller
2001) [ Hmmm... I’m not quite sure I like this last bit... I
think I’d better stop here.... ]
1 The fact that the nature of M is unlikely to
change within, say, the next 10,000 years does
not mean of course that we have to accept the
current – unacceptable – underrepresentation
of W at higher levels as inevitable. One solu-tion
may well be affirmative action (Wright
1994).
2 But we think we are – and not just in lan-guage
either! 73% of American M but only
57% of W think they are better than average in
terms of intelligence (Chabris Simons 2010).
3 For an amazing debate as to why M are over-represented
at the highest levels in academia
(and other fields) you simply must watch Pink-er
vs Spelke (http://www.edge.org/3rd_cul-ture/
debate05/debate05_index.html).
References
Barash, D. Lipton, J.E. “The Myth of Monoga-my”
Freeman 2001
Browne, K. “Biology at Work” Rutgers University
Press 2002
Chabris, C. Simons, D. “The Invisible Gorilla”
Harper Collins 2010
Crawford, C. Krebs, D. [eds.] “Foundations of
Evolutionary Psychology” Lawrence Erlbaum
Associates 2008
Dunbar, R. “Grooming, Gossip and the Evolu-tion
of Language” Faber Faber 2004
Forsyth, A. “A Natural History of Sex” Firefly
2001
Kenrick, D. “Sex, Murder and the Meaning of
Life” Basic Books 2011
Miller, G. “The Mating Mind” Vintage 2001
Pinker vs Spelke 2005 [www.edge.org]
Pinker, S. “The Blank Slate” Penguin 2002
Wright, R. “The Moral Animal” Abacus 1994
Vugt, M. Ahuja, A. “Selected” Profile Books
2010
Winston, R. “Human Instinct” Bantam Books
2002
Zahavi, A. Zahavi, A. “The Handicap Principle”
Oxford 1997
11

13. 12
EdTech
By Dimitris Tzouris
Learning agent, passionate with technology, education and lifelong learning. Web enthusiast and social media evange-list.
BSc in Computer Management Information Systems.
Instructional Technologist at Anatolia Elementary, Anatolia High School and the American College of Thessaloniki. Has
taught Computer Science at Anatolia Elementary. Member of the leadership team of the Global Education Conference
and the coordination team of the Anatolia College Science and Technology Annual Conference. Reviewer for EDUCAUSE
and Advisor on Social Media and Learning Technologies for the American International Consortium of Academic Librar-ies.
Social Media Officer at TEDxThessaloniki.
Visual CV: cv.dimitristzouris.org
LinkedIn: linkedin.tzouris.gr
Profile: me.tzouris.gr
Wondering what this is? A new column? OK, but what
for? Why EdTech? Well, the topic is education technol-ogy
but we shouldn’t be talking about technology at all.
We should be using it to do amazing things and enable
our students to do amazing things too! Right? Through
this column, I will try to share ideas and tips, based on my
experience with EdTech for learning and helping other
people learn as well. I hope you find these ideas and tips
useful. You can tell me what you think by adding a com-ment
to my blog, where I’ll be posting these articles too.
You can find more stuff to read there. You might become
the reason I start blogging more. Who knows? Let’s begin!
HOW TO ORGANIZE INFORMATION:
SOCIAL BOOKMARKING WITH Diigo
www.diigo.com
Raise your hand if at least once you couldn’t find a web-site
that you had previously visited. OK, you can put your
hands down now. It happens to everyone. It has hap-pened
to me too. Really. The bits and bytes of information
that we come across daily has grown exponentially from
a stream to a river to a waterfall and we’re floating in it,
trying not to get carried away by its force.
We simply can’t keep up with everything that’s out there.
That’s something we have to live with.
NEW REGULAR COLUMN!
But for the things that we’re really interested in, personally
or professionally, there are ways to save and organize so
we can find them easily in 2 weeks, 2 months or 2 years.
Diigo is one of the free tools out there for this. It’s book-marking,
but bookmarks aren’t saved on your local com-puter
disk, but somewhere else, on a server, where you
can access them again, from a different computer or
another portable device. They are stored in the cloud.
Each time you save a public bookmark, you help others
discover it too. That’s why this is called social bookmark-ing.
Diigo has browser extensions so you can simply click
once to bookmark a website. Always use tags to describe
what you’re saving so you can retrieve it later. Diigo is
also used for research (it supports highlighting and sticky
notes) and group collaboration. Two very popular groups
are Diigo in Education and Classroom 2.0. Finally, you
can apply for a teacher account that gives you access to
a teacher dashboard, where you can create accounts for
your classes without individual students having to sign
up by giving their email or other personal information.
Tags: social bookmarking, information manage-ment,
organization, collaboration

14. 13
NEW REGULAR COLUMN!
MY BEST TIPS FOR RAISING
BILINGUAL KIDS by Adam Beck
1. Start early
If you’re proactive from the start, you’ll stand a much better chance of nurturing a good balance
in the child’s bilingual ability. From birth to age 6 or 7 is a critical time for two reasons: 1) this is
the period young brains are most primed for language, and 2) if the child attends elementary
school in the majority language, it grows more difficult to “rebalance” the two languages after
that. In other words, the investment of time and energy up front will make it easier to foster the
balance you seek, and then maintain that balance throughout childhood. Playing “catch up”
with the minority language is much harder!
2. Prioritize it
Making this a priority goes hand in hand with being proactive. If the development of
your child’s minority language isn’t one of your family’s highest priorities, chances are
the majority language will quickly come to be dominant and the minority language will
be relegated to a more passive role. Don’t underestimate how quickly this can happen
once the child enters the world and spends the bulk of his hours bathed in the lan-guage
of the wider community. Make the minority language a priority from the get-go
and you’ll strengthen the odds of achieving long-term success.
3. Start early
Don’t let the whims of circumstance determine the outcome. You have to actively shape the situ-ation,
on an ongoing basis, so your child will receive sufficient input in the minority language to
counterbalance the weight of exposure coming from the language of your community. Some
take a more laissez-faire approach, saying that the minority language can be picked up later,
when the child is older. That may be true, to some extent, but it disregards the natural desire of
many parents to interact with their children in their mother tongue throughout the childhood
years.
Set a goal
Set a clear goal for your child’s ability in the minority language. Will you be content with oral flu-ency,
and less concerned with reading and writing? Or is literacy important to you, too, and you’d
like to see her read and write at the level of a monolingual child? Whatever your goal is, articulate
it, and make sure that your efforts match the goal you seek. Good reading and writing ability are
attainable, but this goal will require a diligent commitment from both you and your child.
4.

15. 14
Get informed
By informing yourself on the subject of children and bilingualism, you’ll be better able to pro-mote
the development of your child’s language proficiency. Turn to helpful books, online re-sources,
and other parents to broaden your knowledge and ideas. Seek out associations on
bilingualism or parenting in your region for further support and comradery.
5.
Ignore the naysayers
Some people, even those who are otherwise well-educated, may warn that your child
will become “confused” or suffer other hardships when learning two languages at once.
Don’t let such comments deter you. At the same time, take people’s prescriptions with
a grain of salt. There is no “one size fits all” when it comes to families raising bilingual
children. In my case, I’m eager to hear about others’ successful experiences—because
maybe I can adopt or adapt those strategies for my own family—but only I can really
decide what’s appropriate for my particular situation.
6.
Adopt a strategy
How will you use the two languages within your family? Two common strategies are the “one
person-one language” approach (where each parent speaks his or her mother tongue) and the
“minority language at home” approach (where both parents use the minority language at home
and the majority language is acquired from the community). Whatever strategy you choose, the
important thing is making sure that the child has a natural need to use the minority language
and receives sufficient daily input in that language. The family should then stick consistently to
its strategy, unless a change in circumstance warrants a change in approach.
7.
Decide on schooling
The language strategy you choose to adopt may also depend on the schooling decisions you pursue.
Will your child attend school in the majority language? The minority language? Some combination of
the two? Maybe homeschooling? Whatever you decide, look broadly at your child’s language exposure
and seek to maintain an effective balance between the two languages. For the minority language,
a good target would be 25 hours of exposure per week. (That’s roughly 30% of the child’s waking
hours, depending on routine. Anything less than 20 hours a week could be a cause for concern.) Con-versely,
if your child attends school in the minority language, you may need to shore up certain aspects
of the majority language—particularly reading and writing—with additional support.
8.
Seize each day
A child’s bilingual development is a long-term process, but it’s a process that can only
be advanced bit by bit, day by day, through regular habits and routines. Thus, the idea
of “seizing each day”—taking action day in and day out—is at the very heart of this chal-lenge.
Strive to be mindful of your long-range goal and commit to doing your honest
best, each day, to move forward another few small steps. Remember that the majority
language will continue its relentless development, so you must be as consistent as you
can, as persistent as possible, when it comes to providing minority language support.
9.
Make it fun
There’s no getting around the fact that raising a bilingual child is a lot of hard work for everyone
involved, so it’s vital to make the experience enjoyable, too—to whatever degree you can. It’s
an odd balance, but I think it’s important to be both very serious and very playful at the same
time: serious about the process and yet playful when it comes to carrying that process out. Half
of this is simply attitude, but the other half involves implementing activities (books, stories, rid-dles,
games, etc.) that can nurture language development in a lighthearted way.
10.
Talk, talk, talk to your child
Research has shown a correlation between the volume of speech spoken by parents to
their children in the earliest years and the child’s language ability at a later age. In other
words, the sheer quantity of speech directed at the child by the parents and caregivers
from birth to age 3 has a tremendous impact on language development. Although I
don’t recommend talking a poor baby’s ears off—infants need quiet time, too, for their
brains to consolidate each day’s new discoveries—I do advise parents of the minority
language to be proactive in interacting with their children.
11.

16. 15
Clone yourself
When your children are small, and
are especially in need of exposure
in the minority language, it can be
frustrating when you serve as the
main source of that exposure yet
are unable to spend as much time
with them as you’d like, due to work
or other factors. One way to address
this lack of input—and, again, have
fun in the process—is to create
videos of yourself reading picture
books, telling stories, singing songs,
and talking to your children. I did
this when my kids were younger
and asked my wife to play these vid-eos
every day for about 30 minutes.
The videos captivated them (and
amazed them when I happened to
be in the same room!), while adding
many hours of targeted language
exposure over those years.
12.
Read aloud everyday
Reading aloud to your child in the minority language, for at least 15 minutes each day,
is a vital practice when it comes to nurturing good bilingual ability. It may seem too
simple, but reading aloud regularly has an enormous impact on a child’s language de-velopment
as well as his interest in books and literacy. If you don’t read aloud—prefer-ably
from day one and continuing for as long as you possibly can—it will be far more
difficult for your child to develop strong proficiency in the minority language.
13.
Turn to chapter books
As soon as your children reach a suitable age and language level, I highly recommend
reading aloud chapter books that come in a series to help get them hooked on books.
Do this daily and chapter books will quickly cast a spell and whet their appetite for lit-eracy.
And if reading regularly in person is difficult, try “cloning yourself” on video and
have your spouse play a chapter or two each day.
14.
Build a home library
You can’t read aloud to your child regularly if you don’t have suitable books in the mi-nority
language, including chapter books that come in series of 5 or 15 or even 25+
books. The costs can add up quickly, I know, but in the long run, books are a small
investment, really, when the eventual payoff in good language ability is so great. Cut
back in other areas of your budget, if you must, but don’t scrimp when it comes to put-ting
children’s books in your home.
15.
Give books as gifts
By making a practice of giving books in the minority language as gifts for birthdays, Christ-mas,
and other special occasions—and encouraging family and friends to do the same for your
kids—you achieve three important things: 1) You help foster their love of books and literacy;
2) You convey the idea that books are special and valued by their loved ones (including Santa);
and 3) You continue growing your home library, which should be an ongoing effort.
16.

17. 16
Subscribe to magazines
Children’s magazines are another useful resource that should not be overlooked. Subscrip-tions
to colorful, kid-friendly magazines are generally quite reasonably-priced, even with the
additional fee for international mailing. We’ve had subscriptions to a number of children’s
magazines over the years, and my kids are always excited when a new issue arrives. To help
boost exposure and interest in the minority language, I highly recommend a steady stream
of magazines.
More at http://bilingualmonkeys.com/my-best-tips-for-raising-bilingual-kids/
Adam Beck is the blogger of Bilin-gual
Monkeys, the home of “ideas
and inspiration for raising bilingual
kids (without going bananas).”
Based in Hiroshima, Japan, he is a
former teacher at Hiroshima Inter-national
School and now a writer
for the Hiroshima Peace Media
Center. Adam is the father of two
children who are bilingual in Eng-lish
and Japanese. For more of his
work, please see...
http://bilingualmonkeys.com
https://www.facebook.com/bilin-gualmonkeys
https://twitter.com/BeckMonkeys
18.
Employ “captive reading”
To encourage literacy development and reading practice in the target language, you can
take advantage of the phenomenon I call “captive reading”: the natural tendency to read any
words that fall under our gaze. Put posters of the writing system and common words on the
wall; label things in the house; include notes in your child’s lunchbox; put up a small white-board
in the bathroom and write little messages and riddles on it; later on, post short stories
in the bathroom, too, like fairy tales and fables.
19.
Write “serial stories”
Another version of “captive reading” makes use of “serial stories.” These are particularly fun
and motivating for children who already have some reading ability in the minority language.
In my case, I write one page every other day or so (with a cliffhanger ending) for a running
storyline that features my own children as the main characters. I then post them, page by
page, on the inside of the bathroom door. (The older pages are transferred to the wall.)
The roughly ten-part stories are very silly—I’m basically just typing out what pops into my
head—but my kids find them funny and are continually pestering me to produce the next
installment.
20.
Visit the public library
This will naturally depend on your location and target language, but perhaps the public
library in your area has a selection of picture books that you can access for free—it can’t
hurt to investigate. Here in Hiroshima, the children’s library has a fairly large collection
of books in such languages as English, Chinese, Korean, French, German, and Russian.
Maybe your local library has books in minority languages, too, or would be willing to
acquire some.
17.

18. 17
SEETA Collaborative Project 2013-2014
NEWS
SEETA SEETA Collaborative Project 2013-2014
Coming Your Way … Jamie Keddie
Teaching Young Learners: Tips and Tricks
and much more at http://www.seeta.eu South Eastern Europe
Teachers’ Association
Are you a blogger? Would you like to help wannabe bloggers?
Join us in the SEETA Teachers’ Lounge and join our project: a booklet
for new bloggers.
Chapters 1 and 2 are ready and you can read them here:
1. Why Educators Should Blog
2. Your First Blog Post
Make a posting online or get in touch with Natasa Bozic Grojic
at lunas994@gmail.com if you’d like to contribute.
Welcome
New Teachers!
What matters and what doesn’t in this profession?
What advice would you give to new teachers ?
Post your article to the forum and be included in the
SEETA Booklet for new teachers ! Join Here!
In this new SEETA feature, Philip Kerr will be interviewing colleagues from
across the ELT spectrum. Join the interview with Jamie Keddie.
Amazing systems for Teaching English to Young Learners!
Steliyana Dulkova presents various systems, methods, methodolo-gies
that deal with young learners and have a different approach
from the traditional approaches.
And cool ways to practise the present continuous with your young
learners!
Join Steliyana!

19. 18
Sofia Mavridi at the Christmas Event!
Sophia Mavridi is an EFL teacher and a Teacher Trainer. She has worked at primary
and secondary school level in Athens, Greece but also as a senior teacher in Cam-bridge,
UK.
She is currently completing her Master’s degree in Educational Technology TE-SOL
with the University of Manchester and researching the pedagogical applica-tion
of Digital Citizenship, Literacies and Ethics in regard to technology integra-tion
in educational contexts.
She is the IATEFL Learning Technologies SIG Treasurer and a regular presenter at
international conferences.
Title: Evaluating and Choosing Educational Digital Tools and Apps
Type: Workshop
Abstract:
Technology can revolutionise teaching and learning but with the growing
number of options available, it is easy to get over whelmed. How can we
best assess the educational potential of a web tool or application? How
can we look past the bells and whistles and figure out what is appropriate
for our students? In this interac tive workshop, we will explore effective
and practical ways to help you evaluate digital tools and make informed
decisions about whether - or not - to integrate them into your classroom.

20. Xmas in the Classroom
By Margarita Kosior and Theodora Papapanagiotou
Xmas, Kids,
and ELT
By Margarita Kosior
It’s old news that children learn through songs and chants, stories, games, and interactive activities. Generally, the more
actively we involve them in their own learning process, the more they gain from it. They demonstrate enthusiasm about
learning if what they learn is set in a context they are excited about. But even more so, if that context is… Christmas!
The Christmas period creates enthusiasm in the classroom and it is always a good idea to make the most of it to enhance
learning.
1. Songs
YouTube has become a gold mine for almost every teacher. However, playing out a song and jumping around to the tune
should not be enough for an inspired educator. Here are a couple of songs recommended for young learners.
a. Santa’s stuck up in the chimney – creating role play
based on the story in the song (resources: chimney, Santa
and reindeer hats)
http://www.youtube.com/watch
b. S-A-N-T-A – In a festive mood, children reproduce
what they see on the screen.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mGAYzlqj-aE
c. “Santa, Santa, Where are you?” – Children can retell the
story told in the song with the use of flashcards. They can
also play the game “Where is Santa?”, hiding a small card
with the image of Santa behind one of the bigger cards of
a Christmas tree, a sleigh, or a roof. Repeating the words
of the song, the children have to guess whether Santa is
“under the tree”, “in his sleigh”, or “on the rooftop”.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=CXaOaz3a8Cg
19

21. 2. Stories
Reading Christmas stories is always a good idea. Here is a short list of books recommended for the Xmas period.
a. “Merry Christmas, Splat” by Rob Scotton b. “Russell’s Christmas Magic” by Rob Scotton
c. “The Night Before the Night Before Christmas” by Natasha Wing and Mike Lester
3. Games
Handmade games have this unique feel to them, don’t you think?
a. Christmas Countdown: Santa’s
beard grows as we approach Xmas.
Use can use blue tack to stick cotton
wool balls as you count down to-wards
Christmas.
b. Domino: a classic game, always
so much fun
http://www.dltk-cards.com/domi-nos/
dominos4.asp
c. Muffin tin Christmas game:
there is a Christmas image hid-den
under each number.
20

22. 4. Online Resources
Who does not love SmartBoard? During the Christmas period, children can build their own snowman, or decorate a
Christmas tree with just a few touches. Here are a couple of ideas which your young learners will love:
a. Bunbun’s Christmas: an online counting book. This on-line
book does not only allow your students to practice
Xmas vocabulary, but also provides an opportunity to
practice counting to ten http://www.ziggityzoom.com/
stories/bunbuns-christmas-counting-book
b. Dancing Santa – with one click change the background,
change the tune, and have Santa change his moves
c. Last but not least, a goldmine of resources at www.
northpole.com
5. Arts and crafts
With just a few inexpensive art supplies you will give your students an opportunity to create, to design, to use their
imagination. They can make anything from Christmas cards to Christmas tree ornaments.
a. christmas cards b. Cork Xmas trees
c. Christmas decorations
21

23. 6. Worksheets
So… Who is this Santa guy? Answer the question on this Xmas quiz and find out: “What do you know about Santa?”
http://www.eslprintables.com/vocabulary_worksheets/holidays_and_traditions/christmas_/santa_claus/SANTA_CLAUS_
QUIZ_481847/#thetop (by mariaolimpia; reprinted from ESLprintables.com)
7. Big Thnigs
Your young learners are small, and they easily get impressed by BIG things. How about a few supersized teaching aids?
a. Decorating my big Xmas tree – here is a Xmas tree which you
can decorate over and over again, with many different groups of
students, year after year
b. Rescue Santa Board Game: starting from the bottom all the way
to the top, kids roll a dice, move up and answer questions on their
way. Whoever gets first to the top of the chimney, gets to save
Santa
8. Other Activities
An all time classic: write a letter to Santa. Very young learners, who cannot write yet, can use images to ask Santa for their
presents.
Kids love Christmas more than any other time of the year. The sound of Christmas songs makes their faces glow with excite-ment.
It is this twinkle in the eyes of my youngest students that motivates me to stay up till early morning hours and cut,
paint, glue, stick and to create, so that I can add a little bit of magic to the Christmas period for them.
22

24. 23
Xmas in the Classroom
By Margarita Kosior and Theodora Papapanagiotou
Xmas blog?
Why not?
By Theodora Papapanagiotou
Christmas is around the corner and I am sure that we all try to find theme-based activities for our students.
Christmas parties are always in, but they last only for a day.
Wouldn’t it be a good idea to do something new every day?
When I think of Christmas, the first thing that comes to my mind is the “Adventskalender”. It is a traditional
German kind of a calendar for kids. It starts in the beginning of December and consists of little boxes. Chil-dren
are supposed to open one little box every day to get the little surprise that is inside (a small toy or a
candy).
An Adventsblog? For students? By students?
With a new post every day?
All levels could contribute:
Christmas songs, traditional and contemporary as well. Lyrics posted under the song, may-be
even an activity that has to do with the song. (Gap fills for beginners or more advanced
students can find the origin and the story of the song)
Christmas customs around the world written by students.
Christmas quizzes and crosswords.

25. 24
Top 10 best Christmas movie-reviews (You can even have a movie evening at your school.
Prepare a questionnaire on the film – the answers of the students can be posted as well as
pictures of the whole event)
Recipes – Students can try baking on their own (or with help of their parents) and post the
“results” on the Xmas blog.
Christmas stories; Advanced students can write a composition, which begins with: “I could
never believe what happened Last Christmas…”
Another subject for lower levels could be “The best present I got on Christmas”
Have a pre-Christmas party where the students get to decorate their classrooms and post
pictures and comments on the event. It’s much more fun when children participate.
Christmas Face-painting is also a great idea for young and old.
The students can search for patterns on the Internet and write
instructions on their own. Once again, pictures are manda-tory!
Last but not least! Make videos of your students and their parents wishing Merry Christmas
to the World!
Most of all, if you want them to get in the mood, get in the
mood yourself first!!!
Merry Christmas everybody!

26. 25

27. At the Vasilopita Event
Despina Karamitsou holds a BA in English Language from
Aristotle University and an MA in English Language, Literature
and Culture from Oxford Brookes University and is a founding
member of Tesol Macedonia Thrace NG. She has been teaching
English since 1990. For the past seven years she has been work-ing
as a state school teacher. Her main interest is finding ways to
inspire her learners to learn through developing their creativity
and critical thinking.
The Talk-Workshop “Lapbooks Dioramas” introduces and displays two cre-ative,
hands-on educational ways to promote, consolidate and enhance for-eign
language learning at any age and level. “Lapbooks” are inexpensive port-folios
or collections of mini-books, pictures, graphs and/or “foldables” which
are multi-dimensional graphic organizers gathered, designed, glued, and
creatively displayed in a file folder that fits in your lap. “Dioramas” are three-dimensional
models of a landscape, event, space, scene or room. Their educa-tional
value is not only the remarkably high retention that learners have of the
subject matter but also the internal motivation that is developed. Their visual,
kinaesthetic nature help learners with learning difficulties (dyslexia-ADD) to
be involved and to learn. Children love the process of making them. Writing in
mini-books and cards is less intimidating and much more interesting for new
and reluctant writers. They may be simple or elaborate and may be used with
any subject, topic, theme, or book. They may be used as an evaluation tool
instead of a test. Lapbooks and dioramas are great vehicles to teach CONTENT
(from topics that interest the learners) and PROCESS which will help the chil-dren
through life – research, planning, creativity, presentation, evaluation.
26
Weather Lapbook

28. 27
COMPETITION!
The Disabled Access Friendly Campaign has teamed up
with ELT Teacher 2 Writer and Burlington Books to bring
you this opportunity to use your worksheet writing skills to
inform students about issues affecting people with mobil-ity
disability.
All suitable entries will be published online on Disabled
Access Friendly’s site, which is visited by ELT colleagues
from over 120 countries.
There will be three prizes:
1. 200 Euros towards the cost of professional develop-ment,
such as an online writing course or participation at
an ELT event (kindly sponsored by Burlington Books)
2. 100 Euros towards the cost of professional develop-ment,
such as an online writing course or participation at
an ELT event (kindly sponsored by Burlington Books)
3. A set of six ELT Teacher 2 Writer modules:
• How To Write Vocabulary Presentations And Practice
• How To Write Reading And Listening Activities
• How To Write Critical Thinking Activities
• How To Write ESP Materials
• How To Write Graded Readers
• How ELT Publishing Works
What is the Disabled Access Friendly
campaign?
Disabled Access Friendly is a voluntary campaign that pro-vides
ELT teachers with online material that raises aware-ness
about mobility disability. All this material is complete-ly
free. The site has lesson plans, reading texts and video
clips at all levels that can be used as supplementary ma-terial,
for projects and examination practice. The material
allows teachers to provide insight and information about
life as a person with a mobility disability, thus building
pathways for caring and action. By stepping into someone
else’s shoes, the students explore their own and other peo-ple’s
attitudes and become aware while learning English.
What is ELT Teacher 2 Writer?
ELT Teacher 2 Writer is a database of ELT teachers who want
to write. Publishers search this database when they’re
looking for writers. It is also a series of training modules
designed to help teachers write better ELT materials, either
for publication or to improve the quality of their self-pro-duced
classroom materials.
What are the competition guidelines?
1. You choose the mobility related topic, language area
and level. For ideas we suggest you look at Disabled Ac-cess
Friendly’s site. Check out the reading texts, video
clips and lesson plans. You could also read disability blogs
and published articles.
2. Find the full writing guidelines on Disabled Access
Friendly’s website (Get Involved – Authors’ Guidelines).
Who are the judges?
• Adir Ferreira, teacher, teacher trainer and content
writer
• Disabled Access Friendly campaign
• ELT Teacher 2 Writer
How to submit your entry
Entries should be submitted electronically as a word doc.
attachment to:
disabledaccessfriendlycampaign@gmail.com
Please save your file as follows:
Your surname, Your first name. Title of worksheet e.g.
Smith, Susan. My wheelchair friend
Deadline
Entries to reach us by the closing date of 16th December
2013

29. 28
Official recognition
for Disabled Access Friendly
By Katie Quartano
What good would it be to provide teachers with free,
downloadable, autonomous lesson plans and graded
reading texts at all levels raising awareness about mobility
disability issues, if teachers lacked the confidence to use
them? After all, disability is one of those sensitive subjects
that course books and examination boards prefer not to
include in their material. That is why the Disabled Access
Friendly campaign welcomes opportunities to hold educa-tional
seminars. In this way we can give teachers of English
as a foreign/second language practical tips and advice and
show them how they can use the specially created mate-rial
in their classroom or for their private lessons. We also
welcome the opportunity to discuss and share the experi-ence
of colleagues already using the material with others.
At the invitation of three different school advisors work-ing
in the Greek state school system, several such seminars
were held in 2012 and 2013, for example in Mihaniona,
Moudania, Veria, and Eastern and Western Thessaloniki.
Practical workshops were also held at the annual conven-tions
of TESOL Greece and TESOL Macedonia-Thrace, N.
Greece and for the Association of State School Teachers
of Northern Greece It is always good to see familiar faces
at these events and to get feedback from teachers who
have attended previous presentations we have given and
tried using our material. When we heard from one state
school teacher that she had planned to use our material
in her class, but was prevented from doing so by her head-mistress,
as the material was not on the list of material
approved by the Hellenic Ministry of Education and Reli-gion,
we were disappointed. But not for long. A strong
supporter of our campaign since its inception, and TESOL
Macedonia-Thrace, N. Greece member, Mr. Theodore Ma-niakas,
offered to help us. Mr. Maniakas works as a school
advisor, and he made a formal written application to the
Hellenic Ministry of Education and Religion for Disabled
Access Friendly’s teaching material to be approved as suit-able
for use in Greek primary and secondary schools.
We are both pleased and proud to announce that this
was granted by the Institute of Educational Policy, deci-sion
number: 36/21.10.2013. You can see this document
in its full glory on our site. (http://www.disabled-access-friendly.
com/pdf_daf/Institute%20for%20Education%20
Policy,%20Hellenic%20Ministry%20of%20Education%20
and%20Religion.pdf)
This is a great honour and a reflection of the quality of
our work and the confidence and faith that esteemed col-leagues,
such as Mr. Maniakas, have in our campaign. Our
campaign would not be where it is today if it were not for
the support we receive from people who believe in us,
including TESOL Macedonia-Thrace, N. Greece. We would
like to publicly thank Mr. Maniakas for facilitating this im-portant
recognition of our work.
We would also like to mention that we average over 10,000
page hits a month on our site from about 100 different
countries. Let’s hope that this move by the Hellenic Minis-try
of Education and Religion will set a precedent, and that
other governments will formally recognize that our mate-rial
is well worth using in the ELT classroom.
Have you tried it yet?
www.disabled-accessfriendly.com
Facebook Disabled Access Friendly
disabledaccessfriendlycampaign@
gmail.com

30. 29
Do your students have a bottle of
water with them in class?
By Katie Quartano
The Disabled Access Friendly campaign has joined forces with PALSO B.E. in support of an
initiative coordinated by the Association of People with Paraplegia, Prefecture of Pella. This
involves collecting plastic tops from bottle and containers, which are then recycled. The
proceeds go towards buying mobility aids for people who need them.
PALSO B.E. member schools taking part in this effort provide containers on their premises
where anyone can drop off the plastic tops. The tops can be from any type of container
e.g. water bottles, milk, juice, cleaning products, and it doesn’t matter what size or colour
they are, nor need they be in perfect condition. For more information you can contact
PALSO tel: 2310 270 449, palsothes@otenet.gr.
Activities such as this encourage a team spirit within a small community like a foreign
language school. Students will feel proud that their contribution, however small, will help
someone in need, and they will be stimulated to give thought to mobility disability issues.
Teachers can reinforce and expand on their students’ level of social awareness of these is-sues
by using the free teaching material available on Disabled Access Friendly’s site. These
resources are unique because besides focusing on linguistic aims, thematically, they focus
exclusively on raising awareness about mobility disability. Teachers, as true educators, can
supplement any syllabus and thereby disseminate insight and information about mobility
disability, thus building pathways for caring and action. This innovative approach of em-bracing
social improvement through ELT addresses a difficult reality and develops learners’
critical thinking while stimulating exploration of their own and others’ attitudes towards
disability.

31. TESOL Macedonia-Thrace
dates for your calendar
15 December, 2013:
TESOL Mac-Thrace Xmas event:
“Evaluating and Choosing Educational
Digital Tools and Apps”,
venue City College, Thessaloniki
26 January, 2014:
Pie Cutting Event, 6 p.m.
venue City College, Thessaloniki
7-8 February, 2014:
Empowering English Language Classroom-
Regional ELTA Conference
Elbasan, Albania
20-22 February, 2014:
APAC ELT Convention 2014, Barcelona,
“English in Action 24/7”
7-9 March, 2014:
TESOL Spain, 37th Annual National Convention,
“21st Century Teaching Always on the Move”,
Universidad Complutense, Madrid
15-16 March, 2014:
35th Annual International Convention, TESOL Greece, Athens
(“Learning in the 21st century”, Plenary: Charles Alderson, David Bradshaw,
Eleni Livaniou, Bob Oboe, Herbert Puchta)
29-30 March, 2014:
TESOL Macedonia-Thrace, Northern Greece 21st Annual International
Convention “Teach and See”.
Plenary: Carol Griffiths, Dr Terry Lamb, Vicky Loras and Keiron Donachy
venue ACT
2-5 April, 2014:
IATEFL Annual Conference, Harrogate, U.K.
30

32. 21st Annual
International
Convention
29th-30th March 2014
{ {
TEACH
SEEK
Plenary Speakers:
Kieran Donaghy
Dr Terry Lamb
Carol Griffiths
Vicky Loras
American
College
of Thessaloniki
(ACT)
Professional talks
Workshops
Plenary talks
Pecha Kucha Event
SSEEEETTAA South Eastern Europe Teachers Associations
tel: 6976845202 / tesolmth@gmail.com / www.tesolmacthrace.org

33. Meet the Plenary Speakers:
Kieran Donaghy
Using Film to Teach English in a World of Screens
The advent of the digital revolution and the Internet, the proliferation of mo-bile
devices; the introduction of user-friendly editing tools; and the emer-gence
of video distribution sites, have changed the way moving images re-late
to society, education and language learning. This session examines and
offers guidance on using film critically and creatively in language teaching in
a world of screens.
Biodata
Kieran Donaghy is a teacher, trainer and award-winning writer. He teaches at
UAB Idiomes, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. He has a special interest
in the use of film and writes extensively about film and education. He is the
co-author of Films in Health Sciences Education and he is currently writing a
methodology book on film in ELT.
His website on the use of film http://film-english.com/ has won numerous
awards including a British Council ELTons Award for Innovation in Teacher Re-sources
in 2013. Kieran is the founder of The Image Conference: Film, Video,
Images and Gaming in English Language Teaching.
Meet the Plenary Speakers:
Dr Terry Lamb
Perspectives on 21st Century Language Learners
This talk will explore ideas from research and practice in different sectors of
education. It will touch on concepts such as learner autonomy, assessment
for learning, metacognitive knowledge, motivation, and lifelong learning, all
within the field of language learning. It will also argue that policy and prac-tice
need to consider such issues whilst learners are at a young age, if they
are to make the most of the chances available to them throughout their lives.
Biodata
Terry is Director of Learning and Teaching in the School of Education, University of Sheffield, England. He has au-thored
and edited numerous publications in the areas of learner autonomy, multilingualism and teacher devel-opment,
is founder editor of the International Journal of Innovation in Language Learning and Teaching, and a
member of many other editorial boards of academic journals and book series. He has carried out consultancies
and presented keynote papers in many countries around the world, and has been involved in numerous national
and international research projects, including several through his close relationships with the European Centre for
Modern Languages in Graz, Austria.
Terry plays a major role in the development of language policy nationally and internationally. He is former President
of the UK Association for Language Learning and current President of FIPLV (Fédération Internationale des Profes-seurs
de Langues Vivantes), the world federation of language teacher associations. He has worked closely with the
UK and other Governments. In 2010 he became a Chevalier des Palmes Académiques, an honour awarded by the
French Government. Most recently he has also been awarded the prestigious Senate Award for Sustained Excel-lence
in Teaching by the University of Sheffield.
32

34. Meet the Plenary Speakers:
Carol Griffiths
Using narrative as a strategy to teach language
Stories are universal and enjoyed across all ages and cultures. For this reason,
narrative is invaluable in the language classroom because of its intrinsic mo-tivational
potential and its power to engage attention across a range of learn-ing
styles. With careful planning, narrative can be used to develop both re-ceptive
skills (listening and reading) to utilize the input, and productive skills
(speaking and writing), thereby providing output opportunities. In addition,
narratives can be used to develop underlying linguistic knowledge (vocabu-lary,
grammar, pronunciation). Following a brief discussion of related theo-retical
issues (such as motivation, attention, learning style, input, output),
this plenary will illustrate how this development can be achieved by using an
original story and suggesting an instructional sequence for using the story.
The plenary will conclude by considering issues of authenticity and identity
which may arise in the course of using narrative in the language classroom.
Meet the Plenary Speakers:
Vicky Loras
The Human Touch
There are various types of classrooms all over the world – their variety lies not only
in the environment, but the classes, the educators and students. We know this ei-ther
from seeing them, or hearing and reading about them.
Some have state-of-the-art equipment and everything an educator and students
would dream of. Several have a few things that could assist the class in their learn-ing,
colourful walls and children’s work displayed on them. Some, however, have
nothing at all, apart from dirt floors and bare walls.
Why does this occur? How does this affect learning, if it does at all? What is the
most important entity in the classroom?
Join me in a journey around the world, where we will be on a quest to search for
where the importance lies.
33
Biodata
Carol Griffiths has been a teacher, manager and teacher trainer of ELT for many years. She completed a PhD on the subject
of learning strategies at the University of Auckland. She has taught in New Zealand, Indonesia, Japan, China, North Korea,
UK, and is currently Associate Professor at Faith University in Istanbul, Turkey. She has published widely, including her
books ‘Lessons from Good Language Learners’, and ‘The Strategy Factor in Successful Language Learning’ and presented
at many conferences around the world. In addition to learning strategies, her current research interests include the use of
narrative/literature in language teaching and learning, individual differences and teacher issues.
Biodata
She has been teaching English as a Foreign Language and Literature to students of all ages, for a total of al-most
seventeen years. She now lives in Switzerland and she is the co-founder and owner of The Loras English
Network, a school she opened with her sister Eugenia. They teach English, train teachers and also hold chil-dren’s
educational events.

35. education
bulletin
members
seminars
learning
experts
events
network
conventions
teaching
ideas
community
fun
Be a member of all that!
contact
TESOL Macedonia-Thrace
Northern Greece
(0030)6976845202
tesolmth@gmail.com
http://www.facebook.com/group.
php?gid=11101494043
or join us at a future event!

36. TESOL Macedonia-Thrace, Northern Greece
21st Annual International Convention
TESOL Macedonia-Thrace, Northern Greece
‘Teach and Seek’
20th Annual International Convention
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
March 29th -30th 2014
“ELT – The What and the How”!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
American College of Thessaloniki
9th 10th March 2013
The American College of Thessaloniki (ACT)
Speaker Application Form DEADLINE: 31st January 2013
Speaker Application Form DEADLINE: 23rd February 2014
This form must be emailed with the subject Speaker Application 2013 to tesolmth@gmail.com and cop-ied
This form must be emailed with the subject Speaker Application 2013 to tesolmth@gmail.com Phone enquiries: (0030) 6976 845 202
to aviationenglishteacher@gmail.com Phone enquiries: (0030) 6976 845 202
1. Personal details
Title: Dr / Mrs / Ms / Mr
First name: ……………………………………Surname:…………………………………
Address……………………………………………………………………………………...
Postal code: …………………………………City/Town……………….………
Province: ……………………………………… Country:……………………...
Mobile Phone:……………………………………… Landline: ……….………
Email (only ONE): ………………………………………………….……………
Place of work:…………………………………………………………………………........
I wish / do not wish my email address to appear in the Index of Presenters in the Convention Program
2. Type of presentation: Talk / Workshop / Commercial
3. Length of presentation: 30’ / 45’ (All presenters must stick strictly to the time allowed, so
think carefully about this.)
4. Biographical details (not more than 65 words)
…………………………………………………………………………………
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5. Equipment: TESOL can provide you with a CD player if requested when returning this form.
Computer and projection equipment will be available for all speakers. Tell us what you need.
PAYMENT INFORMATION
Conference fee: 45 euros ( for non-members )
(Includes Tesol Macedonia-Thrace Northern Greece membership for 12 months)
5. Equipment: Please contact TESOL in advance if you have any special requirements.
( Desk top computer and projectors are available in each presentation room )

37. Please ensure that the following information is NOT on the same page as the previous details.
Title of presentation
MAXIMUM OF 10 WORDS
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Abstract for the program
Your abstract must accurately reflect the content of your presentation as this is how convention
participants decide which sessions to attend.
MINIMUM OF 50 WORDS AND MAXIMUM OF 60 WORDS
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Summary
Your summary must outline exactly what you are going to talk about in the session and how the
session will be structured. The summary will be read by the Proposals Committee as a basis for
selection. It will not appear in the Conference Program.
MINIMUM OF 180 WORDS AND MAXIMUM OF 250 WORDS
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