Why do I Blog?

I am a teacher educator from Athens, Greece. I train English language teachers and help them become better teachers in the classroom. I started blogging in late 2009 my first blog,  Marisa Constantinides – TEFL Matters (in English), was followed by this blog which was originally intended to include topic areas more focused on the Greek teaching and […]

Vocabulary and Grammar – An Elementary lesson for CELTA trainees at CELT Athens

Olha Madylus teaching vocabulary necessary for her revision of the past simple with our elementary students 1st collector for An Elementary class at CELT Athens – Part 1 Follow my videos on vodpod These are the first fifteen minutes or so of a 60 minute lesson observed by our CELTA trainees early on during their […]

Using Wikis in ELT – #ELTchat Summary 09/11/2011

This is the summary of a very lively discussion held on Twitter. By Alexandra Koukoumialou (@AlexandraKouk) and Dina Dobrou (@DinaDobrou) #ELTchatters gathered on 9th November to discuss wikis. As usual a wealth of ideas and links were shared. But let’s just start by defining what a wiki is: A wiki ( /ˈwɪki/) is a website that […]

Going to Conferences, Connecting with Fellow Teachers – #TESOL France

My online life has become a source of continuous Professional Development and constant contact with my Personal Learning Network (PLN), which includes inspired and inspiring educators from all over the world. I talk to them on Twitter and Facebook every day. We hold organised discussions on Twitter every Wednesday. But meeting with them in person […]

How to Build a Personal Learning Network

Educators who are passionate about learning recognize the value of sharing their knowledge and experience with others. They seek out the work of experts in their field and get to know other professionals with whom they can exchange information. They become part of a learning community of like-minded people. The concept of a Personal Learning […]

A week away…A week together…

Our guest post this month was written by Dina Dobrou, a teacher who followed our CELTA  course in July 2010 and who was one of  our first trainees who took to Twitter like a duck to water! Dina’s post is an account of a week of free Professional Development which Berni Wall offers to a […]

The SEETA Reading Course – A free online course – 27 February – 5 March, 2011

Since Sunday the 27th of February, I have been ‘teaching’ this online course focusing on reading skills development on the SEETA Moodle platform. I was extremely happy to have been asked to run this course for SEETA (South Eastern Europe Teachers’ Associations) as this is the first time I am running an asynchronous course on […]

#ELTchat – 31,226 Tweets and counting!

The original posting appeared on my TEFL Matters blog but I though it was worth reposting here as well! This is not the image a heartbeat. It’s the burst of energy of hundreds of tweets which are sent by the many ELT professionals participating in an online discussion called #ELTchat every Wednesday at two different […]

Large School Chains in Greece

The world moves on and the situation of many foreign language centres in Greece (as well as in many other countries) has changed dramatically. In the last couple of decades or so, a new generation of foreign language school owners has emerged in Greece, and I suspect the same has happened in other countries as […]

How I ended up teaching CLIL without realising it!

I am delighted to be introducing Alexandra Koukoumialou’s first blog post on our school blog. Alexandra’s  first contribution tells the story of a foreign language course which, unexpectedly, turned into a CLIL course ! Marisa Constantinides It all began as a Modern Greek as a Foreign Language Course! This is a story of what started […]