Forever young

Saying Goodbye can be the hardest thing ,no matter the age or the time it happens. The lesson they have never taught us in school, nor in those 7 years spent in our childhood universe is that one day we will say Goodbye to our loved ones. And we will never see them again.It sounds so abrupt and heartless, because it is so. And it's sad, really sad, because although we know this day will come, we can't forsee it. The only thing we can do is at least keep this in mind and try to share good moments. But still, the loss will be there and there will be no turning back.
What I know for sure is that after the first goodbye we change, our heart is no longer innocent. Losing a parent, a grandparent or a good friends destroys our balance and we turn into a different creature: the one who saw the abyss and treasures even more every dawn and dusk, the one who understood the intensity of ultimate pain, the one who laughs back at those highschool break-ups or at the tragedy impling an unsuccessful party or a stained expensive dress.
There is a nice lesson though, the one I could learn from my grandfather: how to stay forever young, how to keep yourself lighthearted and worthy of respect, how to cherish your family and the love of your children, grandchildren, even neighbours.He has taught me the power of a smile, the beauty of helping the ones who can't help themselves, the strenght in front of the last step, the strenght to never complain, nor show the pain.
He has always been the childish type, but he has been loved mainly by children; they must have felt the goodness in him...

So I will thank him now for everything, I will thank him for those moments when he pretended he hadn't noticed my mistakes, I will apologize for not calling him enough when I had the chance, for missing his birthdays, for not spending more time with him. I will tell him now what I couldn't say then, I will say my goodbye to him and thank him billion times for being himself, for never losing his ground and for loving life so much... for loving me so much...

On birthdays

I don't know about you, but I love hearing the cell in the morning and after reaching for it, never finding at first, dropping it 3 times I can hear at the other side, through small buzzing " Happy birthday!" . Once a year we get to hear that instead of annoying songs or sounds especially designed  to  make us leave that comfortable nest and throw ourselves into the mists of modern life... honking cars, traffic, steaming fast-food coffee, lots of papers to carry, never enough space in your bag... a woman's life
But I still don't understand the people who don't like celebrating their birthdays. I don't mean feasts necessarily, but their own way of sharing one single time a year some good moments with their loved ones.
That's precious, it's even magic, if you want, because living nowadays is more than a struggle, it's daily chore not to lose yourself, to find balance and love. And for me, celebrating a birthday is like a continuous proof that we can still believe in someone or something, we can be loved and we can find strength in moments of despair.
We should thank God for being alive and mostly for every little thing that reminds us of being humans, of having more than a heart, for being more than a body, being a soul...that's our strength, our treasure, our legacy. And I guess we should protect that and enjoy this gift our own way ... 
So enjoy your birthdays and as Cehov said
" Any idiot can face a crisis- it's day to day living that wears you out" ...

While...

 
Landscapes... beautiful ones can be a good teaching material. They can help you recreate an entire universe and make your students actively use English without even noticing. First, select at least four or five landscapes and stick them around the classroom : e.g. desert, beach, forest, meadow, waterfall, etc
Ask your students to choose their favorite destination and have them stand near the selected landscape. Then tell them to close their eyes and imagine 2 or 3 activities they are doing in that very moment ("I am searching for water in the desert"; " I am picking flowers on the meadow"; " I am listening to the birds in the forest"). Taking turns four or five of your students should tell an activity they're doing and also pay attention to the others' stories. Then the teacher asks : "What are you doing while Mary is picking flowers?" and they answer using as many activities as they can remember.
Thus you can teach Present or Past Continuous making use of your students imagination. Further more you can even ask your students to "create" their universe giving a name to their land and have them imagine their routine in this realm. Then they should confront their worlds, compare them by saying "while I was riding my unicorn in Catatonia, John was flying his space shuttle in Neurobia". After they have already created their realm you can practice as many grammar and vocabulary topics as you want, such as type of houses, people description, their daily chores, rules(using modals) in their worlds...
Try and let me know if it works :)

September is full of surprises.

"Have you got a trainer diploma"? this is how it all started...
I haven't imagined I could possibly need this kind of diploma after having finished the University and after almost 5 years of teaching/training children and adults. But it seemed I needed one... So I "called a friend" (in the person of my friend-colleague and "theonewhofindssolutionswhenIlackideas") and there we were, calling the company providing this kind of training of trainers and the adjacent diploma.
The same day I found out my trainer was a former student in our school :) -"this should be interesting" I thought.
So, I went to the course. That evening while rewinding the first training day, I realized how ignorant I had been and how important is to never come to a training meeting with some sort of stereotype expectations. Our trainer was indeed a well-prepared trainer and I could learn new ways of improving the relation with my students and also to be aware of my non-verbal behavior that can so much influence the teaching process.
So, dear teachers, here are some tips I learned and I am gladly sharing:

- it's highly important to stand  when you present the information, sit down and keep the same level with your students when you discuss the information and keep yourselves "away from the scene" when your students work on tasks (they should feel free to work and not pay attention to you)

-if you use a flip-chart never position the flip-chart between you and your students (always keep it somewhere behind you) and try to write on the flip-chart without covering it entirely.   

- always focus on the practical part rather than offering too much information (structure your training so that you have a longer period of time set for exercises)

-keep an eye-contact with the people in front of you and pay attention to the non-verbal message you are sending while teaching/presenting.

-discuss with the trainees the applied activities (refer not only to the message- if it was clear enough and useful, but to the feelings related to that activity- if it was difficult, frustrating, thrilling, enlightening)

-each training session must have an opening and a closure (never stop imagining creative ways to lead your trainees into the subject-don't just "hit" them with the theme, or find funny ways of assuring the correct feed-back at the end of the session; don't just say "goodbye, see you tomorrow")

-last, but not the least, make sure you work with a group not with individuals (have them enjoy being there, accept each other, respect each other, maybe even make friends)

 P.S. I really enjoyed interacting with the people I met at this course and I finally understood how important is to create a nice working environment for my students, a relaxing one, because if you are happy with the people surrounding you the learning part goes smoothly.

Beginning...

September 1st:
Another month, another year... I enjoy the "firsts" of the months, they give me a nice feeling of freshness.I am a fan of sun and waves and blue-green trees, but I have to admit Autumn has its own perfume.I sometimes think September should be January, we should start the year in September and skip January and February :) then go on living under a nice warm sun and smell perfumed air. We should then rest for Christmas, the magical moments of the year, share presents and tell stories close to the fireplace. Yes, stories...most important...reading stories. It's funny but I always feel the need of reading in September more than any other time of the year. And as I cannot think of any other suitable writer I should again choose Paul Auster. His style is just perfect, his world is amazingly vivid and tempting, his technical "shifts" make you literally jump from one place to another, from one felling to another, his works make you rethink your own position among your people, your friends, your family... If you haven't read "The book of illusions" then it's a must, and, as I can't remember which chapter, you should "swallow" the whole book to witness the best moonlight description I can think of. I even downloaded the movie "The Inner Life of Martin Frost", but I couldn't find the same "soul tickling" as I did while reading the book.
By the way, I haven't thought about it until now, but I will try and use Paul Auster's books into my classes. When I find an entertaining and active way of using them I will definitely write it down here.
Enjoy the sunny days of Autumn...