Wednesday, May 30, 2007

Juna and her play!



I was invited to a school play today. My student Juna was in it.

The German school of Thessaloniki has really made it again.
The English theater group presented Oscar Wilde's Lady Windermere's fan.
The students were really great - what I loved the most is that although sometimes they made some mistakes, they didn't give up! They didn't lose it!! It is very difficult to act in a foreign language anyway!

A big bravo to Juna, her friends and their teacher!

Tuesday, May 29, 2007

Movie time! Christina suggests!

Top 3 Horror films

Saw I
In the film "Saw", the main character named Jigsaw wants to make people repect their lives. He brings these people into dangerous situations at the same time these people have only a slim chance of surviving. In the end of the film only one girl survives and becomes the successor of Jigsaw




Stay Alive

Stay Alive is a film about two kids, who play a computer game and they die in the same way they die in the game. You can only save yourlife with roses, because the roses can kill the spirit before the spirit kills you. At the same time you cannot stop playing the game because you play it to DEATH and only if you get the roses you can survive.



Final Destination I
On the way to a class trip to Paris, Alex has a dream that the airplane exploded. After he had woken up he runs out of the plane and a teacher and some kids get kicked out of the plane as well.
Only a few moments later the plane exploded in the air. While the students and their teacher survived, death comes and gets them one by one. Everyone dies in a different way. Only one woman avoids death but she ends up in a mental hospital


Sunday, May 27, 2007

Students’ project


As you may have noticed I have been posting my students’ work since the beginning of May. In case anybody was wondering, I just wanted to explain why I did this and what the results were.
Every end of the school year, I make a booklet with my students’ work, pictures, projects, things that have been “creating” all year long and some new work, depending on their level and ability. This booklet was given to the students, like a “yearbook”
This year I just didn’t do it! I used the Internet instead!
Why?
First of all, I used the net, because I wanted to motivate everybody to take part. Once the first person posted something everybody wanted to do it!!
And every single one did!
I gave them specific subjects: in German we were mostly inspired by Goethe Institute’s project, the jung:de exhibition, which we visited in the middle of the school year, pupils wrote about their favorite thing and about their rooms.
In English it was mostly descriptions of places, people and movie reviews.
Using the Internet made it very easy for them to find information, pictures, videos and combine them, something they couldn’t easily do on paper.
It worked with everybody; even the laziest students took part.
I was really amazed with the enthusiasm. They brought things in the classroom (dolls, teddies, toys); they took pictures on their own, and made their own suggestions. They were really proud of themselves producing language and are still showing their “work” to their friends and family!!!
I posted everybody’s work in one page, mainly because I wanted to have everything together.
I did try to make an individual blog with one of my classes in the beginning of the year, which did not go very well, mostly because we didn’t have Internet access at the language school I work and I ended up doing all the work for them!!! Better luck next time!!!
I will hopefully continue with more projects from September on.
The blog will have a ‘summer look” from now on!

I WISH EVERYBODY A GREAT SUMMER HOLIDAY!

Friday, May 25, 2007

Movie time! Sofia suggests:


"The Hitcher"
If you like horror films, this is the film for you!
When a young couple decides to travel and take a hitchhiker with them in their car, they get into a lot of trouble.
The man is a psyco-killer. They try to avoid both the man and the police, because the police thinks that the couple are the killers... Will they survive?

Umfrage: Freizeit (von Vaso)

Ich habe eine Umfrage über Freizeit zwischen meinen Mitschülern, Freunden und Lehrern gemacht.
Die Ergebnisse der Umfrage zeigen wie die Leute in Griechenland ihre Freizeit verbringen. Die Mehrheit der jungen Leute haben zehn Stunden pro Woche Freizeit, aber die Mehrheit der berufstätigen Leute haben zwanzig Stunden pro Woche. Die Jugendlichen hören am liebsten in ihrer Freizeit Musik. Das heißt dreißig Prozent . An der letzten Stelle kommt Lesen mit nur zehn Prozent
Die Erwachsenen gehen am meisten aus wenn sie Freizeit haben und an der zweiten Stelle kommt Schlafen mit zwanzig Prozent.Ungefähr die Hälfte der Jugendlichen verwenden drei Stunden pro Woche auf ihr Lieblingshobby. Ein Drittel der Erwachsenen verwenden zehn Stunden pro Woche auf ihr Lieblingshobby



Von den befragten Jugendlichen würden dreißig Prozent ausgehen und zwanzig Prozent Fußball spielen wenn sie mehr Freizeit hätten.
Vierzig Prozent der Erwachsenen würden lesen und nur zehn Prozent würden reisen und Sehenswürdigkeiten besichtigen wenn sie mehr Freizeit hätten.
Ihre Freizeit verbringen die junge Leute am liebsten mit ihren Freunden und die Erwachsenen mit ihren Kindern.
(Die Idee ist vom Peter Moorkamps Seminar Über jung:de Ausstellung)
(Fotos von Lieblingswort Ausstellung - Goethe Institut Thessaloniki)

Monday, May 21, 2007

Mein Lieblingsding (Simon)


Das ist mein Teddy. Sein Name ist Lakis. Ich habe ihn seit 1995. Er hat kleine Augen und große Nase. Er war ein Geschenk von meinem Onkel. Für mich hat er viel Wert und ich liebe ihn.

Saturday, May 19, 2007

Mein Lieblingsding (Georg und Fotini)

Ich kann nicht ohne meine Handy leben! Jeden Tag telefoniere ich mit meinen Freundinnen, schicke ich SMS ind fotografiere ich. Ich liebe meine Handy!!
Fotini
Mein Lieblingsdins ist mein Basketball. Ich mag Basketball und speile jeden Tag mit meinen Freunden.
Georg

Thessaloniki (by Juna)


Thessalonica, Salonica ,Selanique: Thessaloniki is the second-largest city of Greece and ‘consequently’ a very busy industrial commercial and cultural centre in southern Europe.
This cultural city isn’t just well known of its Byzantine monuments, of its archaeological sites, but also of its beautiful ,’natural’ sites (Paralia etc.).But really, are these sites really ‘natural’?
We often listen to older inhabitants of Thessaloniki talking about this so called ‘imitation’ Thessalonica’s of metropolitans figure .But what are they talking about? Are they stating the obvious ,are they claiming that Thessaloniki has now lost its natural formerly beauty and is trying to gain Athens reputation of the biggest industrial commercial overcrowded and mainly polluted city of Greece?
Yes. After being compared to the metropolitan, the port and the panoramic waterfront of the car dominated Emerald city (Seattle),Thessaloniki is giving its best to build even more tightly-packed buildings, letting its last ‘natural corners’ vanish from ‘Salonica‘s’ face. Of course all these ‘compliments’ should make Thessaloniki a more famous healthy place to reside in, but at any rate, they re not warning or blaming Thessalonikians: they can keep on littering Paralia , its panoramic waterfront and driving every day even their last car so that its traffic congestion can be fairly compared to those of the biggest metropolitan cities of the world!
Thessaloniki, you’ve made it! You’re on the right way. Soon, you’ll even lose your name and will be considered as one common metropolitan dirty city of the world!

Movie time! Marianthi suggests!


The name of the movie is "Step Up" and it is kind of a love story.
Let me tell you something about the plot:
One day a dance school was destroyed by three young men. The police arrested only one of them and he has to make up for the damage. He gets there every day and cleans the school, where he meets a young dancer and falls in love with her.
He helps her practice for her dance performance and they fall in love...
It is a great movie, especially for people who love dance and love stories.
I believe that you will enjoy the film very much!

Wednesday, May 16, 2007

Mein Lieblingsding (von Eva)


Mein Lieblingsding ist ein kleines Männchen. Sein Name ist Efchoulis (=Wunschpuppe).
Er hat blaue Augen und blaue Haare. Ich habe ihn für 10 Jahre und ich mag ihn, weil er mir Glück bringt.
EVA

Mein Lieblingsding (Makis und Michael)

Das ist mein Lieblings-T-Shirt, denn mein Name steht am hinten. Chelsea ist meine Lieblingsmannschaft.
Makis

Ich liebe meine Sprays weil ich mich mit Graffiti beschäftige.
Michael

Tuesday, May 15, 2007

My trip to Athens (by Giannis)

By Giannis G. (11)


A few weeks ago I went with my school to Athens. We began our trip on Friday morning. We arrived to Athens at 2 o clock First we visited the Foundation of the Hellenic world, where we saw an interesting film about the ancient Greece.







On Saturday we went to the Greek Parliament and the Archeological museum, where we learned a lot about the Greek culture and history.



Afterwards we had a delicious lunch at Plaka and then we went shopping at Monastiraki. You can find many souvenir shops in this area.






On Sunday we visited the Acropolis and the small museum near it. The Acropolis was a temple of the ancient Greeks.



I had a great time in Athens and I want to go there again.

Mein Lieblingsding (von Apostolos)

Mein Lieblingsding ist ein T-shirt von Ronaldinho. Er ist mein Lieblings-fußballspieler. Ich finde ihn toll und möchte so got wie er werden!


von Apostolos

Friday, May 11, 2007

Mein Lieblingsding (von Giannis)

von Giannis G (11)
Mein Lieblingsding ist ein Playstation 2. Ich spiele eine Stunde jeden Tag und es ist super! Ich spiele FIFA 2007, NBA Street V3 und Call of duty. Ich habe es im Frühling eingekauft.


This time we tried a different thing, based on Goethe Institut's photo exhibition jung:de.
More favourite things coming up both in German and English!!!

Aggeliki's Zimmer

Mein Zimmer war gestern sehr unordentlich!
Auf dem Schreibtisch waren viele Bücher.

Auf dem Bett waren Klamotten und Teddys.

Auf der Kommode waren viele Bilder und Kisten und ein Spiegel.


Jetzt habe ich aufgeräumt. Meine Klamotten sind im Schrank. Meine Teddys sind im Regal. Meine Bücher sind in meiner Schultasche und die Kisten sind neben der Kommode.



This idea with the rooms has really caught on!! this time we used a variation of the first idea. It is supposed to teach German prepositions and room objects. I got the idea from Ping Pong neu2, but I think that getting the students personally involved brings more results. Aggeliki has taken the pictures herself and of course wrote the text!








Sunday, May 6, 2007

Deutsch durch die Lupe Seminar

Sonntag, 6. Mai, heute und es war der Tag der ersten Veranstaltung des Verlages Deutsch durch die Lupe hier in Thessaloniki.
Die Buchaustellung war sehr interessant. Alle Kollegen konnten die neuen Bücher sehen und über die neuen Prüfungen des Goethe Instituts informieren.
Herr Vlachos hat einen sehr interessanten Vortrag über den Europäischen Referenzrahmen und die Sprachprüfungen gehalten.





It was nice to see familiar faces again during the event and also get informed about the new books.

Saturday, May 5, 2007

Artemis' project

This time I used Craig's idea about an article of the New York times comparing Seattle and Thessaloniki. So I gave the article to my students and asked them to read it and write something similar from their point of view.

The responses were great! I promised Artemis to post her work on my blog, so here it is!

P.S. I haven't corrected it!!





Comparison between Seattle and Thessaloniki
By Artemis K.


Thessaloniki, founded in 315 BC, is the second biggest city in Greece. Its prefecture has a population of about 1, 3 million. None of these facts, though make this city “the Seattle of the Balkans”.
It is more the same form and structure of their harbors – the similarities on a satellite photo are so many that one can be easily confused!
But this aspect is not the only similarity Thessaloniki has to the largest city in the Pacific Northwest region of the US. Seattle, also called “Emerald City” thanks to the evergreen trees in the surrounding area, which has a population of 3, 3 million, shares more similar aspects with Thessaloniki: both cities have Mediterranean climate, despite the fact that Seattle is the northernmost city in the US. In addition, major events that had marked both cities’ history include the “Great Seattle Fire” of 1889 and the “Great fire” of 1917 in Thessaloniki with bad consequences for the citizens.
All in all, Seattle and Thessaloniki are both major port cities and industrial, commercial centers, with many interesting annual events and a great number of tourism.

Artemis and Juna live from lesson!


Friday, May 4, 2007

Peter's Zimmer


This is Peter, one of my students. We were talking about rooms (descriptions of places) while playing with my mobile phone and we ended up taking pictures of his room. He agreed to write a description in German, as long as I posted it on the net! So here it is!!!

Mein Zimmer ist Spitze! Es ist ein bisschen klein, aber es macht nichts! Ich teile mein Zimmer mit meiner Schwester, Maria.Neben dem Fenster ist mein Schreibtisch mit meinem Bücherregal. Da mache ich meine Hausaufgaben.

Auf der anderen Seite des Fensters ist mein Kleiderschrank. Es ist grün.
Neben dem Schrank ist mein Bett. Ich schlafe unten und meine Schwester schläft oben. Wie haben auch einen kleinen Lagerraum. Dort haben wir unsere Bücher und unsere Spielzeuge. Mein Zimmer gefällt mir!


Μarianthi live from lesson

I recently found out how I can post pictures through my mobile!!!
This is Marianthi, taking the ECCE exam in two weeks! Good luck!!!

My pictures so far...


My creation
Originally uploaded by tpapapanayiotou.

Thursday, May 3, 2007

red


red
Originally uploaded by
tpapapanayiotou.
I had to take my son to the doctor today, nothing to worry about, just a regular eye test and on our way home we "discovered" a bunch of red poppies, so he suggested I should take a picture...

Tuesday, May 1, 2007

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