Self reflections...

Although I am not an active blogger anymore, I think it's time to self-reflect a little bit. I mean that's why we keep blogs in the first place.

So, after a lot of preparation and work, my joined presentation with Maria is done, the conventions are over, and I still have about one and a half month of teaching work till the summer vacation.
It was nice to see some old friends, to meet new friends and to exchange ideas. I guess that's the idea of international conventions.
I am glad to see that so many people nowadays do wonderful jobs with their blogs. I was thrilled to see so many student projects going on! When I started doing projects with my classes and my private students 6 years ago, parents and school owners were hesitating to let me work on that. Again, I have to say that my students (both in German and English) were maybe the first in Thessaloniki to publish on my blog (lots and lots of projects like with themes like "my favorite thing", "superheroes", "what I have what I love", "holidays"). Unfortunately when you don't have a sponsor, you cannot show off your work the way others do. It was my personal choice NOT to work at a language school these past couple of years ( because I don't think that my work is worth 7 Euros an hour, crisis or not) and this of course has advantages and disadvantages.
Changing the subject to something more practical this time..... I would like to say something about cooperation. For the second year round I have co-presented with Maria, who is an excellent teacher with wonderful ideas and abilities. When you work with somebody, no matter if it is on a presentation or at school, you HAVE to know that nobody's perfect. Everybody has weaknesses and strengths. For example I am completely useless at "PowerPoint", but I am excellent at public relations. Of course there are disagreements, like in every human relationship.  The key is to put up with each other, like Maria has put up with me and I have put up with her. In my opinion, all of us who want to be called a professional, have to judge ourselves, enhance our strong points, limit our weak points. All in all we just have to get better.
I have never thought about "publicity" through the conventions and I really don't care if my name is mentioned or if my name is put first or second or not at all! I just share my ideas with dear colleagues and do what's best for my students. (like most of us anyway)
On the other hand, this work we have done has to be recognized somehow, so I was really disappointed that TESOL Macedonia Thrace forgot to put Maria's name on the programme and that TESOL Greece has not published both our e-mails.
All in all I have to say that I am satisfied with myself that very moment... But nothing is over.... So.... I keep walking....