Thoughts

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9 things I learnt from being a ‘failure’.

This post is a reblogging from blog number 2. I have already written about my adventure as a language school owner, but since I always am more of a borderline ‘personal’ blogger, I will share with you some more thoughts.

Original post

Everyone shares success stories. How to make money, how to be a super-duper business woman/man, how to succeed here, there, and further. Well, this post is about failing. Being a failed business woman. THIS is not a success story….. or is it? It’s more about me, finding myself, and learning from my trial and error. I will use the word failure but more for dramatic purposes. In my view, my story is a story of an unsuccessful business venture, but it is also a story of redefining myself, looking back and learning.

My story

I am an English teacher. In 2007 I opened my own language school in Crete, Greece. I had been teaching English for quite a while. I had also spent many years developing professionally. I had an MA and I was working on getting more teacher qualifications. I had worked for other English langauge schools and my previous employers were happy with my performance. My students loved me. Taking the next step (opening a business to teach English as a foreign language) seemed natural, expected even. So, I did, with my sister. In 2014 when bills and tax just kept piling up and the number of students remained the same and too low, we closed the business.

I was so sad. While people did not say it to me, I could feel it. They felt sorry for me. I had failed as a business owner. Why me though? Wasn’t I good at teaching? Was I not a good teacher? A person? What did I not have? I spent months thinking about the things I could have changed. What would have happened if I had chosen X approach as opposed to Y? 7 years went down the drain…. or did they?

Guess what? Two years later, the sad days are over. Today, I am doing a job I love and I have learnt so much because of this experience.

I am strong(-er)

I put my heart, soul, and hours into something that did not work out. I went through mourning stages for a professional loss. There were days when I was doubting my capabilities, but today I am fine. My world did not end. The world ends only when you die. You can handle everything else.

I cannot control everything

Yes, you can control things that are tangible, in your surroundings, but you cannot control everything. How was I supposed to know that in 2008, Greece was going to be struck by the biggest financial crisis it has ever faced? The control freak in me was shattered.

Better sorry than safe

I took a personal, professional, and financial risk that failed, but if I hadn’t, I would always be wondering,” What if…” Now it’s not a ” what if” any more, it’s a been there, done that.

I am a fighter

I stuck to my guns for 7 years until it was time to let go.

I don’t like letting go

I am a workaholic. I love my work. My language school was my “baby”.I was hoping for better days. They did not come. Letting go is hard.

I take risks

There was a fifty-fifty chance of success. I didn’t succeed, but I did take a risk. I tried and then came error.

I am a dreamer

I wanted to start my own business. I really wanted to. My emotions got in the way of my critical thinking. Our wants are not always our needs. What we want may not always go the way we want it to. Just because I wanted something to succeed so badly, doesn’t mean it was going to.

I am not a girl boss

If you want to be a business woman, you got to take action when people/customers are not honoring your agreement. When someone does not pay, the service should be cut (In Greece you have to issue a receipt for a service even if you do not get paid that month. The government assumes that at some point you will get paid and that’s why you get taxed).

I am not a failure

Just because I failed, doesn’t mean I am a failure, and anyway, what is a failure? This could have been my “when one door closes, another one opens”. I learnt something about myself, my life, my priorities. So, instead of a failure, let’s call me a learner. At this point, I am more like, ” So your closed your language school? Eh! Big woop!”

My story pin.jpg

Thanks for stopping by. Don’t forget to subscribe somehow cause if you don’t, you will miss out on all my fabulous posts :D!

❤ ❤ ❤

xx

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A freakin awesome day!!!

You know that I usually write a (thoughts) post when something upsetting has happened or I need advice or I want to ask your opinion or…. ( too many ors…. I know). Well, today isn’t one of those days. Today was freakin awesome! I had a great teaching day which just reminded me of why I ❤ my job. So, here is my ode to the ‘awesomeness’ of teaching!!

FUN factor

As teachers, we often make lessons that  are learner-centered and that aim to help the learners of course, learn something. We also try to please or even entertain them. But what about the teacher? How often do you make/have lessons that you the teacher will enjoy? One minute… one minute… before you start rolling your eyes, jumping up and saying, “I always make lessons that interest me too!I cannot teach something if I find it boring!” I know that. I agree on that. I am talking about lessons YOU enjoy, not because your learners are having fun, but because YOU are having fun! In the learner-centered classroom, how often does the teacher pull the short straw? Today, I had a very interesting lesson with my learner and we were both having real fun. We were both laughing, he was asking questions, I was answering. I was asking questions, he was answering. He got the target language, he used the target language. It was a great lesson. It was AWESOME.candy

Teacher praise

I then had a different lesson. One with an A2 learner who struggles, but was able to make a complex sentence with a few errors in it.He got out of his comfort zone and tried it instead of lots of little sentences, he made a complex one. When I got feedback from the learner, he said, ” I feel more comfortable Joanna, and I am making longer sentences and I want to thank you for that”. Awwwwwww. I mean, I don’t know how often your students say, ” Thank you”, some of mine do, usually when they go off into the real world, but during a course, during a lesson, they don’t really say any thanks. But today one did, and that was AWESOME too!!!

So, yeah…. today was awesome, and I am sharing it with you, cause you guys are awesome too, cause you do the same thing as me. We are awesome teachers!!! What makes a teacher happy doesn’t necessariyly have to do with money. We get good vibes, praises and that makes us happy.

Toot- toot- toot ( Joanna praising herself and using the third person).

Whoever counts how many times I used the word awesome gets a cookie!!!!! Oh!!! Please, please, if you have time, leave a comment below about an awesome teaching moment for you. Let’s spread the…. awesomeness!!!! ❤ ❤

Till next time…….

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Looking at 2015 & from me to you

Hi everyone!

Just wanted to wish everyone a Happy New Year and think/talk about 2015 and reflect on the good (professional moments). As teachers, we often tend to focus on the bad and forget about the good. So today ( and please don’t take this as a toot toot/boasting post), I wanna mention some good things. Things that put a smile on my face.

First though I will start with 2014. That’s when I shut down my language school. I had put so much effort into something that did not work out. It was a failure. I spent the end of 2014 thinking about all the things I could have done/changed.I was so sad (professionally).

Then 2015….

I got my Delta (finally).

eecc3-delta2bbooks

You guys wrote many #youngerteacherself posts which was amazing. It even became conference topics which is mindblowing. Something that started in Greece ended up being talked about in Korea!

I went to conferences and I got to meet people from my PLN in person!That is what I love about conferences.

I got the IATEFL BESIG Maria Keller 1st time speaker scholarship which meant that I went to my first Besig conference in Barcelona and it was great.

Chris, Marjorie.jpg

Lovely PLN at BESIG conference

 

I had a lovely summer in the UK teaching EAP at Sheffield University/ I got to travel a lot around the UK and went to Camridge (which is really beautiful and you have to go if you haven’t).

me river

Cambridge

 

And now….

I’d like to thank you guys for reading my wacky posts. I am not a mega giga blogger, but you guys stick by me, and I really appreciate it.

For 2016 I have a few things on my mind. So, here goes:

Have a Happy New Year everyone!I wish you all the best. I hope you have good times. Better times. Lots of love, joy and healthy moments.Remember when you’ve tried and it’s not working, let it go. BUT shoot for the stars. Even if you don’t think you can do it, but you wanna try, go for it! Take risks and don’t worry about flops! I have had my share of flops and am still standing! Stay safe everyone.

candy

xxx ❤  ❤

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I don’t have any goals miss…..

The last day of classes and since I am really into planning and micro-goal setting, I thought I’d ask my B2 level students (teenagers) to write an essay about their goals for 2016 and what they are going to do to make them happen. I thought it was a great idea. “Think of something you want to achieve and say how you are going to make it happen”. Ummmm. Nope. My students hated the idea, and me being a stubborn/bad teacher, I insisted. I said, ” You must want to achieve something! Even if it’s going to a higher level of LOL (League of Legends=video game). I want you to tell me how you will become better at playing your game!”. Their response, ” But that’s not a goal miss” Yay! There is hope. So I said, ” Write about anything! Have a little/big goal and tell me how you will make it happen”. Total distress!! Again ” but we don’t have any goals…..”

So, this made me wonder about my teaching and my kids. I mean, OK, maybe I shouldn’t have set this as homework. Maybe I could have done a bit more brainstorming. We did talk about my goals and various things someone may want to achieve in a year. Big goals vs. little goals, but maybe they neeeded more help. Maybe even, worst case scenario,my kids are not mature enough to have, say, big goals. But they must have some!! What kind of world is this where teenagers say, ” I don’t have any goals miss!”? It’s sad and scary. Actually, and this has occurred to me after publishing the post, the worst scenario is this one: It’s because they are Greek kids living in the days of recession where money is tight, there is a lot of depression, and the news are just bombarding us with everything that is not working. Do my kids have no hope, hence no goals? That’s even sadder and scarier.

Anyways, I set this as an Xmas essay. I will tell you what they came up with once I have their answers!!

Lousakies

Till next time…

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#GirliesideofELT: Digital paper for scrapbooking

Hi guys!!

You know me. I love me some pretty planning/scrapbooking and journaling. I just popped in to say that I have a coupon code for digital paper (you can only use it for personal use not commercial purposes). If you need it for material you are making for your kids, scrap booking, journaling or anything else, you may wanna press the link and check out this website for some really nice designs. I actually made my first printable!!

Spread (2).jpg

My planner

 

My first printable

I bought my digital paper from an Etsy store called aestheticaddiction link can be found here . You can find lots of pretty designs to use in your planner (shout out to pretty paper designs for mentioning this website). The owner also gave coupon codes for you guys (I am making no money off this).
 20DISC – this is good for 20% off a purchase.
50DISC – 50% of any order over $10.00

You can find my printable here. Full boxes Vintage pink and beige (height 2.4 inches/width 1.5).

OK! I am off.

Talk soon!!!

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Help me! Help me!

So, you know what? Sometimes there are days where after teaching I wanna sit down and cry!! Like crying out of frustration. Not out of sorrow!!! Today was one of those days. Why? I have one word for you fellow teacher: Students!!

I am in desperate need of help with a student in particular. This learner is an Alpha type personality who does the unthinkable. S/he asks questions, answers them, and then moves on to follow up questions. So, you may ask, ” Does s/he answer them correctly?” Ummm. Nope! Me? I stay silent waiting for my cue to speak which never comes because questions come flying one after the other and I never, ever get to speak!!! I know that teacher talk time should be as minimum as possible, but in this case teacher talk is becoming non-existent.

What do I do? I end up speaking over the learner who doesn’t listen anyway. Keep in mind, I am not a quiet/introvert/shy etc. etc. teacher. You know. The one who sits patiently.  Noooooooo. I am the chatty teacher, the one who commands the floor (toot -toot). I am sometimes kinda rude even, but with this one… I dunnoooooooooooo. Help me!! Gimme your wisdom ………… or a holy intervention……

20150830_193536

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E-books: An Interview with Phil Wade

Hi Phil,

First of all, thank you for agreeing to this interview. As a teacher and a blogger, I am really interested in e-books, so I thought it was time to pick your brain a bit, and ask you a few questions about e-books. So, here are my questions.

What is an e-book (what are its properties) and how can it be read?

That is a good question. I think the simplest ebooks are PDFs. You can read them on any device. The most popular version is the ePub format that most online ebook distributors use. There are various other formats too but for me, I just think about the original Word Doc on my computer and then select ‘all formats’ when I upload them. Doing this helps anyone with any device read them from iPads to Kindles to phones to maybe even watches I guess.

Why e-books? I mean why did you decide to make an e-book as opposed to sharing everything on your personal blog for example?

Well, I went through an article writing phase where I felt that articles were a good way to share ideas and help people learn things. Then I went into blogging and learned about how I can interact with people quicker and become part of a blogging community. After that, I realized that I wanted to write longer blog posts but in the same kind of direct style. So, I started writing short ebooks as I loved the idea of having a collection on my iPad and reading short books on the bus, at break time or at home. I really liked having complete books i.e. introductions, main parts and samples. Each could deal with one subject and looked professional, I hoped.

What are the advantages of an e-book?

For me, I can read them on my phone. I use my phone all day for everything almost. Being able to open an ebook and read a page when I have some time between lessons or on my commute is very helpful. I can also quickly move through the book and change books.  Every week, I am able to select my weekly reading list and put them on my phone or iPad too. If I come across something new, I can download it on the bus and read it there and then. As I also teach with a phone and tablet, having books handy to open and use is very convenient and not as heavy as carrying around textbooks.

Are there any disadvantages?

I wouldn’t sit and read for hours on my phone, iPad or even computer. I prefer to read a short book or just a part in one go. Long ebooks can take time to download too. Some people use black and white or grey Kindles which I am not keen on. I much prefer a colour iPad Retina for reading.

Can teachers make an income from e-books?

Hmmmm. The golden question. I would say NO. I don’t know anyone who does but I guess some must do as there are lots of ebook writers. Probably novels make better money but only if the writers are known and they do marketing, lots of it. Most of the comments I have had from teachers/writers is related to this. Some are not happy about free ebooks or ebooks in general. Actually, I approached several publishers and none were interested. You can’t blame them though. I like writing and sharing them. If you think it is going to make you millions, you will be very surprised.

The majority of new ebook writers seem to be either bloggers eager to make a book or writers at publishers who want to make better money. I advise both to research costs and potential profits. The new VAT rule devastated the industry so you will make a lot less money now than before. When you end up with less than 50 or 40% of a book and then have to pay taxes in your own country, you do have to question if it’s worth the hassle.

I’d like you to now give us a step to step guide on how to go about making and uploading/sharing an e-book. Let’s call this the e-book starter kit.

Go the easy way and use an online platform. Write your book on it, select a cover and click ‘publish’. Done. I spent weeks of pulling out my hair doing formatting and I almost quit. I saw http://www.fastpencil.com/ the other day and it seemed good. I find writing on these platforms to be much easier than writing a Word Doc. Here is a much better explanation of the full process than I could give:

http://www.wikihow.com/Write-Your-First-eBook

 

Can you tell us a bit about your e-books? What do you write about? How do you get inspired? How has writing e-books affected/benefited you, your career?

I wrote 10 ebooks for Business English teachers. They are based on years of teaching and aimed at helping teachers become better at BE. My aim was to focus on developing teachers so they can help themselves rather than just be dependent on using books and worksheets all the time, even though they are good. I also crowdsourced a TEFL Teacher Tips ebook with some newish friends and co-wrote an IELTS Tips ebook.

The first 6 books were almost fully formed in my head as I had been thinking about them for years and I had already written articles on them so the books were a natural extension. The other 4 in the series I had to come up with from scratch as I decided to do a series. I had always been jealous of series and series editor and I thought “why can’t I have one?”. No publisher would ever let me write a BE book let alone a series. So the other books took some time to come up with. I just kept teaching and writing down possible topic ideas that colleagues would like.

The Teacher Tips one had ideas from all of us so I can’t take any credit for that one and the IELTS one I only helped with as my colleague, Jenny Bedwell, is an IELTS genius.

I have about 6 more ebooks in various stages on my computer. I am great with the ideas but writing 10+ pages is hard. I can easily write 5-10.

As the first 10 are free, I have made no money from them but I really enjoy seeing the downloads and hearing nice comments from people who find them useful. Most of these have been from poor areas where they can’t afford or even get traditional books. I also love writing and the whole process. I found a wonderful editor, Noreen Lam, who is very positive like me and really helps me come up with good ebooks. At the beginning, I was 100% against having an editor because some previous ones I had worked with had been a bit too tough, I needed more of a thinking partner than a member of the grammar police 😉 And someone who understood ebooks and edevices. They aren’t just books on phones.

I benefit from increasing my PLN too and I have been lucky enough to get to know other writers and people in the industry. We all support each other. As I see it, the main problem is always advertising. It is very very hard to promote indie ebooks as not every journal or TEFL association wants to review them. Perhaps though this is a good thing as it makes a very distinct line between traditional publishing and digital. This does mean that we need to develop the alternative publishing industry though which is why I created a marketing campaign for me and 3 other authors (Adam Simpson, Jorge Sette and Tyson Seburn) . I started with some images showing our ebooks and added the ‘by teachers for teachers’ and ‘for teachers by teachers’ slogans and #ELTebooks. As I see it, if each author advertises all the books, we each get more coverage and hopefully, the amount of writers will grow. This really is ELT writers making ebooks for other ELT teachers. Some critics have said the quality isn’t as good as real books and that we may be lowering coursebook writers incomes or pay etc but I don’t agree. From what I know, all publishers are having a tough time and really should be moving more into technology. These ebooks are a new niche as they are very specific, short and accessible. Published books tend to be longer, more formal and more general. They need mass markets and to be based on market research and forecasts. Our ebooks can be about anything and made much faster. This is a completely different market, as I see it.

Another point is that I actually haven’t worked anywhere in years that has used traditional coursebooks as nobody can afford them and they aren’t convenient. Every place I work uses digital materials and the odd handout. I even make ebooks for my courses now at the end to revise everything. I’m not bashing publishers or coursebook writers at all. I think they are great and I wish I could work on them but I’m not that good, famous or lucky. I believe in diversity and empowering teachers. I hope my books appeal to teachers and help them develop.

Oh, I entered the BE books for the David Riley award too and they were mentioned. That was incredible. My ELTons application wasn’t quite as succesful.

Where can someone find your e-books?

On Smashwords and iTunes. I don’t use Amazon which nobody seems to understand why. I don’t think you can give free books on there and I heard there is a set minimum price. I like the culture of Smashwords as it is for indie writers and iTunes is all about quality.

Business English Teacher Development series:

https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/philwade

https://itunes.apple.com/nz/artist/phil-wade/id215455871?mt=11

Top IELTS Speaking Tips:

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/510591

https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/top-ielts-speaking-tips/id958690384?mt=11

TEFL Teacher Tips

Epub:

https://app.box.com/s/oslx186nukb070pu4rs8

PDF:

https://app.box.com/s/x4g8e7g8giup5a6w4xzf

Thank you so much for this interview!

My pleasure. It was very nice to be asked. I love your blog and your FB posts    🙂

Follow #ELTebooks on FB

ELTebooks blog

Bio

 

Phil has worked in ELT for 15 years. His current teaching interests are Business English, speaking skills and Blended Learning. He is a qualified Coach and Mentor and does ELT Marketing work.

phil

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#firsttimeteaching

Theodora Papapanagiotou started a blog challenge called  #firsttimeteaching. When I saw it I thought that was a great idea for a challenge. I was gonna do it. Then I realized I did not remember the first time I walked into a classroom!! Quite worrying, eh? Anyhow, I am going to move from the firsttime I taught in a classroom, to the first time I logged onto my online classroom. Yeap!! I remember that one. The first time I taught online!!

Let me start by saying that I am not the most tech savvy gal in the world, I am actually far from that. My computer skills at that point were more about how to download something, watch a YouTube video and probably blog. I did not know how to make Pdf files, how to make folders that would save Mp3 recordings etc. etc. That was too much for my pretty little brain. So,  boy oh boy was I pushing the envelope (or should I say pushing the email since people don’t send letters anymore?). Teaching online was going to be a tough cookie for me… and it kinda was.

I started working for my company. I had received a lot of training and even had test lessons. Everything trainingwise had gone well. On the day of my first ‘official’   lesson, I turned on the pc, logged onto the internet, then my email, and I sent my student an email with information and links to our ‘virtual classroom’: the platform we were going to use for the lesson. I then called my learner. It was the first time I was using the phone and Adobe to have a lesson. I had never taught using a webcam before either. Both felt strange, especially since I had my webcam on, but my learner was only using a phone. That meant that I couldn’t actually see the student. I could only hear a voice. The lesson started as all lessons do. The only different thing was that I had to ask TRCs. That is what I call technology related checks like, ” Can you see me? Can you hear me? Do you see the slides” etc.

Not using paper and writing/correcting stuff was odd. I did go around that though, and when I wrote on the virtual whiteboard, I told the learner to take screen shots.

I also found myself having difficulty with turn taking, cause I did not know when the learner was going to talk. I could not see the learner! Not being face to face was actually quite stressful in the beginning.

Everything did go smoothly. I think the hardest part of the lesson was the things I had to do after the lesson!! The administrative stuff!!Downloading and uploading files/recordings. The first few online lessons took me hours to prepare and complete. Now, it is a piece of cake! I have gone a far way since my #firsttimeteaching online!

EAP resources

Till next time………

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Walk in my red (?) pumps, will ya?

 A day in my life

As I have mentioned before, I am partially colour blind. I have talked about how this affects my life as a teacher as well as a learner ( I am currently taking painting lessons). I have never posted anything about how this affects my life in general, though. I know that if you read my blog, you are probably used to posts that are about teaching and other ELT-ish topics. Today, I want to write about being colour blind and try to give a glimpse of what this is like. I would also like to raise awareness.

According to the colourblindawareness.org 1 out of 12 males and 1 out of 200 females are colour blind. They also believe that there is probably one colour blind student in every classroom (#1ineveryclassroom).  Being colour blind does not mean you cannot see colours (seeing black and white is really rare), it just means you may not be able to see some colours and shades. I am not going to go into medical details though because

a. I am not a doctor and

b. that’s not what this post is about.

Two paragraphs later, I am going to dig into the purpose of today’s post. Is it a big deal not to be able to see colours? Let’s see.

Walk in my red (?) pumps , will ya?

Girlie Stuff

As a 39 year old gal, this is something that really bothers me. I am unable to shop 90% of the time!!

I have no idea what colour the clothes I buy are. I always ask a sales assistant for help or I choose to shop from stores that have the colour written on the tag (for example, M&S and Next- even their websites have accurate descriptions of colours). Worst case scenario though is me buying something that turns out to be a random colour and then going back to the store and return it.

Makeup is an ordeal. I luv makeup, but I have no idea why cosmetics companies choose to give weird names to their eye shadows, nail varnish and lip sticks. Why does a pink lip stick need to be called “A day in the park” or “love me do” (names chosen randomly) and not just say: Pink/ light pink/ dark pink/ fuschia etc. ? You may ask, ” Yes, but you do not see it’s pink, so what you going on about woman?” Well, yeah, I don’t see it’s pink but I know what pink goes with!! The same goes for nail varnish. Once again, I ask for help, or buy egg yellow eye shadows and end up returning them.

Food Shopping

It is very difficult to go grocery shopping cause I cannot distinguish if the fruit or vegetable is too ripe. I have bought loads of green bananas. I never know if potatoes have turned poisonous or not (you are not supposed to eat them when they are green. It’s actually a miracle I haven’t had potato… poisoning yet).

Reading Magazines

Loads of magazines, newspapers and even books choose to write a text on a background that clashes, making it extremely or almost impossible for me to read. Black on red is the worst!

Going to the bank

You know the electronic display that shows priority in banks? I cannot read that. I take a ticket, wait in a line and then ask a person to help me and tell me what number is next. Do you know how many times I missed my turn back in the days when I felt embarrassed to ask for help?

Driving

I don’t drive. I think I will have a problem with road signs more than actual traffic lights. I have never tried to learn to drive. Never will ( I don’t think this is cause I am colour blind. I think this one is more cause I am too scared cause of general eye sight problems).

Instructions

Following any type of instructions that is based on colours is hard. Take out the lilac book, follow the green line, open the pink door (which is the ladies room). And then there’s the tube. I never travel on the London tube alone. So many colours mixed up on a little map. OMG.

Pie charts/ graphs

Yeah…. um… nope.

People’s reactions

Now this is very interesting. There are different types of reactions.

  • They ask, “Really?” Nah, not really, I am just pulling your leg cause being colour blind is haha funny (sorry for the sarcasm but arghhhh). There are actually some people who when I tell them I cannot tell the difference between colours, their first response is, ” Really? So you can’t see this is red? What do you think it is?” Then they start showing you stuff saying, “And this? What colour do you see? What about this?” : (
  • Yellers. I don’t know why, but I have come across people who start speaking louder to me when I say that I can’t see colours. I was buying eye shadow the other day and when I told the makeup artist I needed help with the colours she immediately raised her voice. I think that she thought I could not hear well, as well. This has happened many times. It’s weird. Dunno why it happens. : O
  • The helpers. These people are my favourite. What would I do without the? These are the people who take the time to give details about colours, if they suit me, if it’s a nice colour or not. Sometimes this can become a bit overwhelming cause they go into details about whether it’s a navy or royal blue (that is never an issue for me. If it’s blue, it’s blue).  I am really thankful to all the people who throughout the years have given me help!! : D

For 39 years I have lived without ‘seeing’ colours. I manage fine. Does it make my life difficult? Yes. Impossible? No. I ask people for help and they help. If no one can help me, I admit, I give up. I just don’t care. I don’t see any harm in knowing your limits and being OK with that. Being colour blind does not hold me back. I would like it if people/companies/organisations  were a bit more considerate though. I have purchased goods that had the colour printed on it, just for the sake of it, as a way to show my support to their support!

As far as teaching is concerned, I have found ways around it. I will be back with a post that will focus on education and colours.

Isihara test. Picture taken from here

Ishihara test. Picture taken from here. You should be able to see numbers. I don’t.

 

Feel free to comment in the section below. If you, too, are colour blind, please share your story with me.  All comments are welcome : D Thanks for reading!!

Till next time…..

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The girlie side of ELT post 6

Books

So, today’s post is going to be about my reading habits. As an ELT professional, I have spent a fair amount of time reading books on methodology, grammar, linguistics etc.. The book I have read the most times is Rod Ellis’s “Second Language Acquisition” (four times) I read that one, not so much cause I loved it (although it does have an abundance of interesting information, and everyone should read it) but because it was quite hard to understand. A big book packed with info.

The 2nd  book I have read many times is “Developments in English for specific purposes” by Dudley Evans & St. John. I really liked this one cause, well, I did get it, and because it was very closely linked to the things I teach (Business English and English for academic purposes).

books

Now, having mentioned the books I have read the most times, let me move on to the real topic of today’s post. After spending so many hours (and years) reading work -related books, I find that in my free time, I really like reading books that do not problematize me at all. Books that are so lighthearted, it’s like having a mojito on a sun bed on some nice beach in Crete. I am guilty of choosing what many people may call ‘girlie books/literature’ in my free time, and I am not ashamed to say it :p.

 Let me also confess that I think I have book disorder.related book I read, I must read it from cover to cover. Even if it is the most boring book in the world, I must finish it. This means that I may spend months reading a very boring book and a night reading something that I enjoy.

Beach Kolumpari

That’s me. The book kinda worm.

So, that’s all folks.

xx