OUR LAST EVENING TOGETHER

We finished the course at about 3pm and we had lunch with Slava and Gery at the restaurant they had recommended us. Our friends from Córdoba came later too. So probably the destiny wanted all of us to be together again. Lovely meal and lovely talk.

Then we had a little rest in Faros 1 hotel. After that we tried to buy souvenirs in the area of the big port and Sotiros street and finally we went to the old port, which was the first place we had been to when we arrived a week before. We enjoyed the nightlife of Pireus having dinner on an open-air restaurant seeing the quiet port full of lights and the luxurious boats. We ended our Greek adventure having a drink at a bar facing the Mediterranean Sea and with our bagpack full of memories.

Thanks, Dani for sharing this dream with me, for guiding me in the messy streets and for making me laugh and sing!

Old port of Pireus

There are quotes to learn from even at bars far away from home because we are like M&Ms: different outside, equal inside.

CLOSING CEREMONY 12th JULY

Our beloved Betty made us think until the last moment. At the end of the last session, she asked us to make a list of the 5 things we had learnt this week that we would implement in our school.
This is what I wrote:

1. Structured debates (not only discussions)
2. Brain gym (I loved it!)
3. Do some games and activities we have done in these classes.
4. Make students create improvisation games.
5. Work with ethical dilemmas with my students.
6. Ask my students to do mind maps at the end of each unit.
7. Show our workmates what we have learnt with a blog and a presentation.

I realized I had written 7 instead of 5. Now that I am about to finish this blog and after revising all the photocopies we were given and the notes I took, I think I will implement more than 7 things with my students and I realized once again that in order to be a good teacher, you must be a good learner because the more you learn, the less you know.

The human knot

Finally Betty reminded us the question she had asked us on the first session (What are your expectations for this course?) and she asked us: Did you cover your expectations? My answer was: Absolutely! 

This is a lovely gift Betty gave all of us

After that Irene, one of the memebers of the staff in IDEC, came to the classroom with the certificates, small bags with typical gifts from Greece and shots of Mastiha to say goodbye in the Greek way.

And finally the group photo, hugs, kisses and good luck wishes!

Thanks mates for all the enriching moments we have lived together! : )

MIND MAP 12th JULY

Trainer. Betty Aggeletaki
A MIND MAP is a tool that excites and unleashes the potential of the brain. It is a highly effective way of letting your brain release and absorb information. Mind maps have a simple structure that radiate from the centre and use lines, symbols, words, color and images according to simple brain-friendly concepts. Mind maps improve long term memory!
A MIND MAP converts a long list of information into a colorful memorable and highly organized "picture" that reflects your brain's natural way of doing things. We should show our students to make  MIND MAPS with the contents of the units as a creative activity to stimulate their memory. I will do it for sure!

This are the 7 steps to make a MIND MAP

This is an example of a MIND MAP

Betty told us to make our MIND MAPS of what we thought we had learnt in this course and through this experience and this is mine:

INQUIRY-BASED LEARNING 12th JULY

Trainer: Betty Aggeletaki
INQUIRY-BASED LEARNING (IBL)
This means seeking information by questioning. Individuals inquiry from the day they are born until they die. Questions generate answers! We should make students ask questions. The power of IBL is that students develop ideas by questioning. And subjects should interrelate. We shold try to go beyond our syllabus and teach EMOTIONAL EDUCATION in a cross curricular way.
You will understand it better if you watch this video and read the slides below:

Betty made us work in pairs looking for the answer to these question: What does respect mean to you? What does it mean to you to show respect and to be respected? We stopped to think and express what respect means to us and then we shared our opinions and took part in a discussion. We learnt IBL from practice. And it really worked.

We want to quote Betty one more time: "Accept that teaching is a learning experience"

We want to finish this post with words in music. One of the most touching songs by Aretha Frankin: RESPECT

THE ETHICAL DILEMMA 12th JULY

Trainer: Betty Aggeletaki
THE ETHICAL DILEMMA is a moral situation in which a choice has to be made between two equally undesirable options. There is an inner confrontation. Ethical dilemmas have to do with values. Using them in class make students get involved in the topic, the situation and try to defent their point of view. They are moving!
Our beloved trainer Betty gave us another lesson of good teaching practices and unforgettable quotes: People may not believe what you say but they will always believe what you do".
She made us participate in some ethical dilemma situations which were very enriching.

Betty explained Aristotle's virtue ethics for whom virtue is an intermediate state between the opposed vices of excess and deficiency. Too much and too little are always wrong. We have to find a balance and this is the key of ethical dilemma.
And after discussing and thinking...We playd a game! It was a brain exercise: THE HUMAN KNOT. We made a circle, hold each hand with another person in the circle and tried to undo the knot, which was impossible.
Apart from teaching our subjects, we  MUST TEACH VALUES, RESPECT AND TOLERANCE!
IDEC was piloting a course about TOLERANCE with us for some time that comes from the need to integrate the immigrants that come to Greece from Africa and to live together in a multicultural society. We will never forget how Betty told us to explain  TOLERANCE to our students:

HUMANS ARE LIKE M&Ms

We have differnt colours outside

But we have the same chocolate inside

WE ARE ALL EQUAL

SPACED LEARNING 12th JULY

Trainer: Betty Aggeletaki
SPACED LEARNING is a methodology useful to seize information in long term memory (Fields 2005). It consists of providing information in short busts, spaced over time. The structure of the class time is the following:

1. Teacher presents the information
2. 10 to 5 minutes break
3. Students recall information
4. 10 to 5 minute break
5. Students application of the information

This methodology comes from the need of attracting the students' attention and making them remember. It is proved that our brain cannot concentrate for long periods of time and the results of this method are amazing. It is true that it can be difficult to get the students back to the lesson after the breaks but we will only know if we try!

FAREWELL DINNER 11th JULY

We couldn't believe this was coming to an end! We had our last cultural meeting together at Athens. We did some shopping and went for a walk in the beautiful city and the we met at an open air live music restaurant called Kotili at Monastiraki.

This time we ate  grilled meat as well as Greek salad, grilled vegetables with yummy yogurt sauce and chocolate ice-cream. We drank white and red wine and mastiha.

There were three musicians and two dancers. We danced a lot and we learned the expression: Opa!!!!!!

THE FIELD STUDY & COMMUNITY MAPPING 11th JULY

Trainer: Giorgos Velegrakis
 Innovation has to do with methodology, not only with technology. Take students out of the classroom to see the connections with the community around the school. We take the students out of the classroom to make observation, to get the data we need to prove that our hypothesis is right. The students connect the learning process with the real world. They learn in context through the practice. They show interest and motivation because they can understand what they can see through the experiment. The students' role is more active and long term memory is developed. It is a challenging experience because the students are taken out of their comfort zone. Some challenges the teachers face are: involvement, preparation, organization and management of the activity.
RESEARCH DESIGN is based on the scientific method, which steps are shown here:

METHODS FOR QUALITATIVE RESEARCH:

• Interviewing
• Observation
• Participant observation/Ethnographic research
• Archival research
• Secondary data collection and analysis

COMMUNITY MAPPING

School cannot be isolated from the wider community within which it operates. Cooperation between schools and the community should be fostered to try to solve common problems. At the same time, this constitutes a pedagogical activity. 

A community mapping is a process of participation and identification of common issues. It is a collective design process focusing on how to live shown in a unique picture.

The first step is to identify our COMMUNITY ASSETS (places, things or people that represent the community). We played a game in groups where we had to explain the ASSETS of our city to another pair from another city and then they explained them to the whole class. We learnt about other cities in Europe through this activity.

THE METHOD TO MAKE A COMMUNITY MAPPING

1. Collectively decide the goals of mapping: design
2. Active involvemet of locals
3. Information collection (data, material, evidence)
4. Map creation and presentation

When we make a community map, we have to take into account the SWOT analysis. This acronym stands for: Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. After this reflection, we can understand our community better and try to improve it.

This is something that we should explore more to establish the connection between the school and the community through the school council, where teachers, parents and students are represented and it could be extended to the whole school.

EXAMPLES OF COMMUNITY MAPS:

EJAtlas

Global Landscape Forum

THE GREEK ISLAND 10th JULY

Yes, it is true. Whenever I thought about a Greek island the film Mamma Mia and Abba songs were on my mind. All the comments I had heard or read about the Greek islands were absolutely positive and going to an island was a MUST in our Greek experience.
It was not easy since there were lots of tourists making trips to the islands as it was high season and also because we were in the course from 9:00 to 14:00 therefore it was impossible to buy tickets to the ferry for us. But life is good sometimes, so our course mates' husbands from Pozoblanco (Córdoba) were so kind to buy the tickets for the 6 of us and we all could go to EGINA, the closest island to Pireus. And it was worthwhile! The beach was nice and the sea water was transparent and warm. We had a great swim, a delicious Greek salad, we bought pistachios (which are typical from Egina) and we enjoyed a great evening coming back to Pireus on a big ferry between the sun and the storm and accompanied by seagulls.
Thanks Cristina, Ilu, Rafa, Pedro and Dani for making my dream come true and make it yours as well. Thanks for all the laughter together these days!  ; )

THEATRE & ROLE PLAY GAMES IN EDUCATION 10th JULY

Trainer.Vasileia Vaxevani
THEATRE IN EDUCATION (TiE)
We introduced ourselves by saying our names and a flavour we identify with. Chocolate, coffee and strawberry were repeated. Don't ask me why! Europeans must have more things in common than it seems...
Why should we use theatre in our classes? There are lots of reasons: It is interactive, students use their imagination and creativity, they become open minded, develop empathy. We will list other reasons here:

• It is fun!
• It is engaging, exciting and it creates awareness
• It boots self-esteem and empathy
• It cultivates communication skills
• It strengthens the bonds in the classroom
• It cultivates aesthetics: Art

Vasileia knew a lot about th history of theatre and theatre techniques and we planned improvisation activities in pairs, which we played together and evaluated them.

ROLE-PLAYING GAMES (RPG) IN EDUCATION
What is a RPG?In  RPGs the players assume the role of a character and act out their actions in certain settings using a set of rules and regulations.

There are two basic types of RPGs:

• Tabletop RPG: It takes place around a table through discussions.
• Live action RPG: The players act out their characters' actions and usually dress up as them too.

Why shoul we use RPG in the classroom?

• It develops communication and social skills
• Students research competence and creativity
• It develops reading, writing and storytelling skills
• It is a therapeutical process
• It develops mathematical skills (when using the dice and when distributing roles, etc)

Basic steps you need to create a RPG: Story, rules and characters. You can ask us for further information and examples at school.

Did you know the Pixar 22 rules of story telling?

 Click here to have more information about the 22 rules of story telling according to Pixar.

We learnt so much with Vasileia and we had a such a great time! We were students and we realized how much students learn and enjoy when they play games or act : )

ATHENS AND ACROPOLIS HILL 9th JULY

The second cultural activity organized by IDEC was a guided tour in Athens  to Acropolis hill, the Archeological museum and Parthenon. Our guide, Elena was another example of the Greek hospitality and pasion for her country. Her knowlegde of the History and Art of her country wasdeep and her explanations were clear and interesting.
It was great to be at Acropolis Hill during the sunset. I can't find the words to describe one of the most ancient monuments of the European civilization. Sometimes an image is better than one thousand words:

Did you know the owl is the symbol of Athens?

And we had  moussaka for dinner at a cosy restaurant in Plaka, the old town of Athens, which is full of life.