How it all began...
March 23rd, 2020
The whole world has unprecedently been locked up inside, feeling numb, scared, filled with uncertainty, fighting a common enemy with no face and unknown resistances. In early March, Greek students and teachers were abruptly removed from their "second homes" without even having the chance to exchange a few words of encouragement, often leaving some of their personal belongings behind. It may all sound a bit dramatic now, but this is how it all started. To cut a long story short, COVID was here to stay so, sooner or later, we all developed our new routines, we more or less adapted to the new reality, we learned to approach things in a different way. For us teachers, being confined entailed that we had to resort to distance teaching - whatever that meant.
Like most teachers, for myself too, it meant establing networks of communication with colleagues, parents and of course my students. It meant trying to provide technical support and practical solutions to those in need of help. It meant spending countless hours on my computer familiarising myself with virtual classrooms, experimenting with new tools, looking for appealing resources, always being a busy bee in my e-me hives. It meant dealing with the incredible frustration when technology (very often) failed me. It struggling to keep my spirit and my motivation high.
It was way past midnight, hubby and children fast asleep. That would be another sleepless night since that apparently 2-5 a.m. was the only time the platform seemed to be running - kind of - smoothly. Listening to my favourite music, I took a short break to unwind on Facebook and noticed that my dear colleague, Penelope, was online. We chatted for a while and for the first time in a while, I let a sigh of relief. I was not the only one feeling overwhelmed. And it suddenly struck me! We were all in the same boat! Well, not really. Some had lifejackets, some had oars, some were even on bigger or faster boats but the sea was rough even for the mightiest of captains! As Penelope and I comforted and consoled each other, why not start a support group for fellow suffering English Teachers? And so I did. The group was created and the rest of the story you all know. It grew and grew, beyond any expectation, whoever would have thought of it?
Today, a year later, we are in lockdown again, working remotely once more, synchronously and asynchronously but we stand together, we are stronger and more confident. Undoubtedly, over this year, we have all grown professionally, we have developed our expertise, we have designed numerous lesson plans, plenty of sophisticated activities and so on. Most importantly, in my opinion, we have communicated in new ways, we have shared our work and ideas, we have assisted others, we have asked for help, we have received and given support, we have collaborated, we have felt accepted and understood, we have made new friends, we have become an active and fully-functional learning community.
I feel truly honoured to be in this group and proud to be an English teacher in the Greek Primary State Schools!
This repository is but a small sample of our work but I think it is a beacon of light in adverse conditions. I hope you will find it useful and somewhat inspiring...
Stay safe, stay optimistic, stay creative!
Maria Partheniadi
Weebly Administrator
EFL Teacher
1st Primary School of Malia, Crete
[email protected]
The whole world has unprecedently been locked up inside, feeling numb, scared, filled with uncertainty, fighting a common enemy with no face and unknown resistances. In early March, Greek students and teachers were abruptly removed from their "second homes" without even having the chance to exchange a few words of encouragement, often leaving some of their personal belongings behind. It may all sound a bit dramatic now, but this is how it all started. To cut a long story short, COVID was here to stay so, sooner or later, we all developed our new routines, we more or less adapted to the new reality, we learned to approach things in a different way. For us teachers, being confined entailed that we had to resort to distance teaching - whatever that meant.
Like most teachers, for myself too, it meant establing networks of communication with colleagues, parents and of course my students. It meant trying to provide technical support and practical solutions to those in need of help. It meant spending countless hours on my computer familiarising myself with virtual classrooms, experimenting with new tools, looking for appealing resources, always being a busy bee in my e-me hives. It meant dealing with the incredible frustration when technology (very often) failed me. It struggling to keep my spirit and my motivation high.
It was way past midnight, hubby and children fast asleep. That would be another sleepless night since that apparently 2-5 a.m. was the only time the platform seemed to be running - kind of - smoothly. Listening to my favourite music, I took a short break to unwind on Facebook and noticed that my dear colleague, Penelope, was online. We chatted for a while and for the first time in a while, I let a sigh of relief. I was not the only one feeling overwhelmed. And it suddenly struck me! We were all in the same boat! Well, not really. Some had lifejackets, some had oars, some were even on bigger or faster boats but the sea was rough even for the mightiest of captains! As Penelope and I comforted and consoled each other, why not start a support group for fellow suffering English Teachers? And so I did. The group was created and the rest of the story you all know. It grew and grew, beyond any expectation, whoever would have thought of it?
Today, a year later, we are in lockdown again, working remotely once more, synchronously and asynchronously but we stand together, we are stronger and more confident. Undoubtedly, over this year, we have all grown professionally, we have developed our expertise, we have designed numerous lesson plans, plenty of sophisticated activities and so on. Most importantly, in my opinion, we have communicated in new ways, we have shared our work and ideas, we have assisted others, we have asked for help, we have received and given support, we have collaborated, we have felt accepted and understood, we have made new friends, we have become an active and fully-functional learning community.
I feel truly honoured to be in this group and proud to be an English teacher in the Greek Primary State Schools!
This repository is but a small sample of our work but I think it is a beacon of light in adverse conditions. I hope you will find it useful and somewhat inspiring...
Stay safe, stay optimistic, stay creative!
Maria Partheniadi
Weebly Administrator
EFL Teacher
1st Primary School of Malia, Crete
[email protected]