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