About Me

Who am I? This is admittedly a tricky question to tackle.

A dreamer
If “dreams are manifestations of identities,” (Kathy Acker,  Pussy, King of the Pirates)  I could call myself a dreamer. Not any dreamer, however. I have always believed in the power of education to bring people together, and each educator can potentially contribute towards establishing understanding between people where there is dissent.
Knowledge, to my mind, is not compartmentalized. It is a living organism which grows larger and more robust with the slightest addition – whether this originates from sciences, humanities or social sciences.
Often decisions about what to study and which career to pursue may be arbitrary and a result of chance circumstances. But this makes the process of learning and discovery none the less fascinating. It was like that for me.



Learning in the years of meagre means
Learning English in my childhood and teenage years, in the absence of today’s technology and with only the press and the radio to rely on for information, was equal to discovering a brand new world travelling in a small vessel. It was a painstaking journey but well worth the effort and work put into it.

Poetry and growing up
In those times of little distraction and ample spare time I took refuge in poetry both as a reader and as a writer. It is a habit which has stood me in good stead till the present moment. Poetry is an experience of a different order from those of "real life" and yet of the kind that can make "real life" less insufferable by way of distancing us from it but, more significantly, by encapsulating many lifetimes and attitudes to life in a few melodious lines. Poetry provides us with the pleasure of encountering and identifying with our soul mates unfettered by the limitations of time or space. In other words, poetry is MAGIC.

Studying in Britain: an opportunity in life
To cut a long story short, I took further my study of English to Higher Education level and graduated from the English Department of Athens University, Greece. I was intent on furthering my education in Britain and achieved this ambition by receiving a scholarship from Glasgow University, where I completed a postgraduate degree by research into Laurence Sterne’s Tristram Shandy and the influence of drama on the writer and his novel.
I lived in Britain for about five and a half years, at the end of which I came back home and opened my own school of English. I have worked hard to apply theory to practice and have kept up to date with developments in learning psychology and methodology. Forgive the personal touch but having children of my own significantly enriched my teaching experience. 

Polyglots are the future of the planet
In the course of time I had the opportunity to study some more languages, among which French, German and Spanish. My level of knowledge is different in each of those with French being the one I feel more confident speaking and writing (after my mother tongue and English, of course). Naturally I adore discovering the origin of words and establishing similarities and differences in ways of expressing oneself in different cultures.
Times have changed since I was a student and I have introduced technology to my classes in order to make my teaching more effective and stimulating.

However, I hold on fast to some basic principles:
  •  Everyone has the potential to learn though we follow different paths to knowledge.
  • Motivation is not internal. It is up to the teacher to provide a stimulating learning environment which enables the learner to feel confident and eager to learn.
  • Learning is the result of exposure to the language.
  • Learning takes place even when we feel there is hardly any progress at all.
  • Teachers are eternal learners and as such they should know humility.
  • Teachers should always act in the interests of their students.
  • Teachers should observe their learners as much as they should talk to them. Observing and mentally making notes of each and every learner offers insights into the way individuals learn and the difficulties they face in the process.
  • Using poetry and literature in teaching can make classes more challenging but also more fun.


Intentions of a blogger
This blog was created so that I can share my ideas and experience as a teacher and as an individual with other people regardless of profession as well as posting some of the poems I have written all these years.
I do not claim expertise in anything and I welcome any response from people who can see something of themselves in me.

Being short poetically
That was a lengthy introduction indeed. So I will borrow a poem I read online and fit into its form a much shorter version of a long introduction. Mind you, all the things we think we are are negated in the poem, but I will pass over the negations for the sake of convenience here.


“who are you
really?

you are not a name                                                       Maria
or a height, or a weight                                                1.70 cms        59 kilos 
or a gender                                                                      Female
you are not an age                                                         58
and you are not where you are from                         Greece

you are your favorite books                                         
Possession, Λούσιας
and the songs stuck in your head                               Zombie, Συννεφούλα
you are your thoughts                                                   ……………………………
and what you eat for breakfast                                   Greek coffee
on Saturday mornings

you are a thousand things
but everyone chooses
to see the million things
you are not

you are not 
where you are from
you are
where you are going                                                      
Sailing for dreamland
and i'd like
to go there
too” 
 
m.k

4 comments:

  1. Hello Maria! I just discovered your blog this morning. It has some great stuff! I'll be back!

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  2. I have read quite a bit of geophysics to try to understand how our planet works, the earth is very vulnerable. The way our atmosphere is held in place is miraculous but we take it for granted. It is clear that the planet has a limited life span and at some point it will become uninhabitable, which brings me back to what i think i would like to be doing with my life. I think the single most important thing the human race can do is to find a way to travel to new planets. This requires things like warp drives or maybe a powerful optical resonator; i am unlikely to invent these things as i am bogged down with what I do. As a Professor in Engineering I can influence engineering students, which i do in the hope that some of them pursue this agenda. So what am I? I am a lifeform that has managed to understand how vulnerable our future is, we cannot rely on God; i think there is a small possibility that the human race will survive but most probably it will not. I do believe that via our inventiveness and technological advances we have the possibility to survive. I believe in the power of truth and intelligence. Despite all the hype, there is currently no artificial intelligence; i do understand machine learning and deep learning; it is not intelligence, it is algorithms. True artificial intelligence or our own intelligence may save the human race. I do not believe we are able to stop destroying the planet ourselves as this destruction process is part of nature, its driven by the law of the survival of the fittest, which applies to us and is driven by our evolutionary vector.

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  3. THE “THEY”

    Our brains collage, Other’s views dictate,
    From whence these came, controlled by fate.
    The interests served, may well be yours,
    Or traditions laid, by powers vendors.

    Suppressed through youth, and young adult,
    Crushed in their ether, of prolonged insult.
    Their forces hidden, that group called “They”,
    That shackles minds, making life’s days grey.

    Free thinkers rare, provide a lead,
    Tho’ violence threatens, some pay no heed.
    Past history tells, how Free are killed,
    The peoples Martyr’s, with kindness filled.

    With minds so malleable, as “They” do know,
    How do we fight? to let freedom grow.
    They assault our souls, by moulding thought,
    Their true ambition, on us power wrought.

    Each struggling soul, with dogma break,
    Discover what’s you, destroy what’s fake.
    Your freedom grows, as you unearth,
    Free sprits wild, given with your birth.

    Crushed Scum rebel, the “They” do tell,
    How mindless classes, stink and smell.
    “Its not our fault, they lack respect,
    Our ether works, for our fine sect.”

    “Why don’t you change, its you that stink,
    Your brains are rotting and cannot think.
    Infernal rage, is what you cause,
    When manifest, please give applause?”

    The price we pay to “They’s” chief Hood,
    Deep social chaos, never understood.
    Of broken lives, and shattered mind,
    No plan for cure, their outlook blind.

    by Chris Chatwin

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