We are all in the first year of our CPE preparation course. Most of us are university students studying here in Thessaloniki.

Tuesday, October 31, 2006

A Typical Day

A day in the life......

I thought I'd just give you taste of a typical day. I started my working day at 10 am when I went to my first lesson in Euosmos, a suburb in the west of Thessaloniki, with Maria and Marianna, two very enthusiastic eight year - olds. They are a joy to teach as they bring so much energy and joy to everything they do. We're doing the Chatterbox book which they adore as it has lots of music, songs and games. Although they don't have a PC I usually take my ibook and digital camera and record them singing songs or acting out the dialogues from the book. Unlike most of my students they love seeing themselves on the computer screen.



After that it is a quick 10 minute ride over to Stavroupoli, the neighbouring suburb in order to do a lesson with Antonis (Antony),a fifteen year old who loves basketball and had no great love of English, or at least that was the case in the beginning. Now we've reached some kind of agreement in which I try to find stuff in English that interests him and he does the more pedestrian exercise that the Headway Intermediate book offers. This includes lots of action movies on dvds (English subtitles only), music and sports related articles.

Today one of the highlights of the lesson was sending his entry, which he took using his mobile phone to the BBC's young photographer's competition.

Also, whenever we have a short listening exercise in the book I ask him to record it using his mobile phone. As a result his accent in English has improved enormously.

After that I pop by the supermarket to get my shopping for the next couple of days then later it's back home to grab something to eat and prepare for the evening's lessons. This means recording cds, ripping listening exercises, putting them onto a memory stick, collecting dvds that I'll give out and getting photocopies done.

At 3.20pm I go to my lesson with Aristidis, a ten year-old boy who lives in Ano Poli and has just started lessons with me. We've been a lot of activities on the internet and together we've set up a blog and have been doing a lot of interesting writing exercises from the British Council site. He's off to Berlin and I've asked him to take lots of photos so that we can put them on the blog.


Next I whizz off to the centre in order to do my next lesson at 4.45pm in the language school with my FCE class. They're a bunch of boisterous teenagers who get bored quickly. In order to get way from just doing the atrocious exam practice books that we've been given I decided to do a listening exercise with a song and lyrics chosen by one of the students. We end up listening to one by System of a Down and discussing the meaning of the lyrics to Dreaming.


They've also set up a blog but they haven't really got the hang of using it yet. Their homework is to find the lyrics to a song and say why they like it. However, they shouldn't write their name as the other have to guess who chose what.

Finally, I'm off out of the centre to Retziki a new suburb to the north of the city to do a lesson at 7pm with Angeliki, who has just passed the FCE and wants to take the CPE exams. She is a long-time blogger, having started hers last year. I asked her to write about the school sit-ins that are sweeping the country from her own perspective. Check out her latest post here.


Finally at 9.30pm I get home exhausted. Thankfully, tomorrow is a public holiday here in Thessaloniki.

Now tell the rest of us about a typical day for you.

Pollution Dilemma

What do you think should be done ?

Tuesday, October 24, 2006

Ten things I've done that you probably haven't.

1 I'm the first member of my family to be educated beyond fifteen years old.

2 Went by car from Thesssaloniki (Greece) to London and back.

3 Once shared a lift with a murderer and his future victim (unbeknown to me I must add).

4 Once travelled to a greek island having it chosen at random from a list of 100.

5 Got off another ferry where the only other passengers to disembark were a shepherd and 20 goats.

6 My father's side of my family have lived in the same neighbourhood for at least 180 years.

7 Spent my summers on a farm in southern Ireland when I was a kid.

8 Dyed my hair black, then red and afterwards blond over the space of eight months (black was definitely a mistake, thankfully no photos exist).

9 Spent a month camping on a beach.

10 Went to wedding where the happy couple and all their guests went to the beach and spent the whole day swimming. We then went off to get ready for the ceremony, which took place in the local village square, at five o'clock in the afternoon,

Craig

Tuesday, October 17, 2006

Hello again! This is Fedora with my meme list of the ten things that I have done that most people haven't

1. I did a parapente sky dive
2. I stayed five months in Portugal as an exchange university student
3. I have close friends who work and live permanently in all continets, - exept Australia
4. Eventhough I m not French I love eating snails
5. I graduated first in my university class
6. I received first prize in a chess competition during summer camp
7. When I was little I used to make puppets and organise puppet shows
8.I was a member of a planners and architects group working for an English housing association in London
9. Received the first prize in an architectural competition for designing a Natural History Museum
10. I'm married happily
proficiency 1e 2006

Hello, my name is Fedora. I am an architect and live in Thessaloniki. I am currently involved amongst other things in a EU funded program, concerning energy efficiency in public buildings. I joined this course in order to enhance my oral and writting skills to facilitate my participation in this program.


proficiency 1e 2006

Hello again,i am Liana and this is my meme of the 10 things that i have done that most people haven't:
1.I have done diving receintly.
2.I deliver a child in an ambulance.
3.I once ate snails cooked with onions.
4.I slept 7 hours in 7 days during an exsursion in Rhodes.
5.I went on a cruise in Bosporos.
6.When i was in universty ,i did an experiment on a dead cat and a frog.
7.I held in my arms a monkey.
8.I saved a woman's life,when her heart stopped.
9.I did an autopsy on a dead man's body.
10.Something i haven't done but i want to do-join the rescue team.I hope this way my next meme will be full of new experiences.

Hello,my name is Liana.I live in Thessaloniki.Iam a doctor.I have receintly finished my practice in medicine in a beautiful village called Polixnitos in the island of Lesvos.I am thinking joining rescue team volunteerly.At the moment i started this course to improve my English fluency.

Monday, October 16, 2006

Hi all i am George and this is my list(meme)of 10 things that i have done in my life,that most people haven't:
1)I have shoot with a 9mm bereta(hopfully i didn't kill anyone)
2)I have done sky diving,when i was 16 and i was in Norway
3)I have gone to Finland by car(using ship in order to go from Dennmark to Sweden)
4)I ate a worm,when i was young
5)I have been on my computer chatting with a friend of mine that studies in U.S.A. for 13 hours
6)I have helped my father transpher my grandmother to the hospital,when she had a heart-attack
7)I once hide in a stable,when i was 5 years old and returned home after 1 day(my parents called the police until then,because they thought i had been kidnaped)
8)This Sunday(15/10)i helped my dog bear 3 puppies
9)I practise on shooting with bow every summer
10)I have written a composision of 4000 words in 8 hours

Wednesday, October 11, 2006

Ok, we did page 4 and page 7 of the LSE Speaking and Listening book.

Homework

1 Post a short autobiography on this blog, if you haven't done so already.
2 Post your answers to the meme on the blog.
3 Record yourself doing the ex. on page 6 of the LSE book.


MEME


10 THINGS THAT YOU HAVE DONE THAT OTHERS HAVE NOT.


1: Taught myself to read and write modern Greek

2: Once helped fight a forest fire.

3: Drove from Athens to Rome on a Vespa.

4: Hitch-hiked 8000 km in five weeks.

5: Lived out of a one suitcase for a year.

6: Saw inside my own heart, live.

7: Was interviewed on Italian TV.

8: Was once held by Czech soldiers in Vaclav Havel's back garden.

9: Spent my first term away from home as a university student on crutches (as I had had a motorbike accident one week before term started).

10: Took my driving test in a foreign language.

Feel free to pick this up … It's amazing to read what wierd and wonderful things people have done in their lives.

Craig

Tuesday, October 10, 2006

Hello my name is Luisa I'm 23 years old and I live in Thessaloniki.
I have passed the examination of the first certificate in English ( Cambridge sce)
additionally my academic studies in law school University of Komotini were successfully completed In October 2006.

Thursday, October 05, 2006

Hi, my name is George(another one) and I am 25. I have graduated Aristotle University and I have a bachelor degree in Economics. I also speak English and I have the Cambridge FCE and Michigan ECCE. This is definately not the level I wish to have in the future so I started this course to improve my English fluency.Also I am familiar with computers and I have the European Computer Driving Licence.At this time I am in the MIlitary Service.I serve as a probational reserve officer and I will be given the rank of Second Lieutenant in two months. Then I will quit and try to start a carreer in Bussiness.

Tuesday, October 03, 2006



Hi! My name is George, I just entered university of Thessaloniki (actually I am from Thessaloniki,but I also used to live in Crete). I have only one certificate in English and that is...the Cambridge Lower.I tried to pass the Michigan Proficiency exams too, but I failed and this is how I ended up in this class!