How it all started - Guest post by Anastasia Pistopoulou

 It's a great pleasure to host another wonderful person on my blog. Anastasia used to be one of my very first students. She has always been diligent, hard-working and enthusiastic learner. Now she is all that as well as a passionate educator and a loving mother. Here is her post on her first time teaching:

To be honest, I don’t remember details of the first time I entered a classroom. I do remember that I had just graduated from the School of English (Aristotle University of Thessaloniki) and found a job at a foreign language centre. I mainly taught grammar at all levels, from beginners to C2 level.

Although I had chosen to become a teacher in order to make lessons more interesting to learners, my first thoughts were to do the basics so as to “survive” having to deal with 10 children at the same time! The number sounds small, but this isn’t how you see it when you are totally inexperienced!

“The basics” meant that I explained the relevant grammar rule and then proceeded with exercises and lots of homework. That seems to be enough, right? That’s what I thought then, but completely changed my mind a few years later. Incorporating engaging activities that make learning meaningful has been an integral part of my teaching since then. Every year I think about my learners’ needs and interests and try to renew my creative activities.

 

Anastasia Pistopoulou is a BA holder of English Language and Literature (Aristotle University of Thessaloniki). She has been working as a permanent English teacher at secondary schools in Greece since 2004 and since 2013 she has been teaching at the 2^nd Vocational Senior Highschool (EPA.L.) of Amaliada.