A few photos from the awards do. It all went off very well and we got fed!!!!

awards presentations

No, not the Oscars or BAFTAS, rather the school is having an award ceremony at the Mediterranean hotel for this year's students who achieved success in the Cambridge and Michigan exams in May. Wish me luck as I have to give a small speech to congratulate them and tell them how to keep up their English outside the classroom (YIKES!!!) this morning. Now where's my tie ?

Transcript

Ahh, like hi, can you hear me at the back ?
Well, you know it's like great, you know that you came, like.
So good on you, like, you know.

LONG PAUSE

Read more, don't, like, you know, make mistakes, alright?
Thanks

As you can see The ancient art of Rhetoric lies safe in my hands.LOL

meme

Well, I'm not sure what a meme is either, apart from meaning some kind of list about yourself. But it seems to be all the rage in blogging circles. So thought I'd do one here and then post the questions on the class blogs in order for my students to post their answers.

FOUR THINGS

Four jobs I've had:

1 Clerk in a dreary office in Bristol.
2 Did voice overs for tourist DVDs.
3 Translator (Greek - English).
4 Teacher

I've also been a cleaner, shop assistant, farm hand, florist, examiner, proof reader (LOL) etc.

Four movies I can watch over and over again:

1 Casablanca
2 Lost in Translation
3 Fight Club
4 Ferris Bueller's Day Off

Four places I lived:

1 Bristol
2 Liverpool
3 Thessaloniki

That's all (folks)

Four places I've been on holiday to:

1 Prague (Perhaps the world's most beautiful city)
2 The Cyclades (I've seen most of them)
3 Holy Cross, Tipperary (Stayed on my grandmother's farm when I was a kid)
4 Kriaretzi, Halkikdiki (Camped on the beach for a month)

Four of my favourite dishes:

1 Grilled Octopus
2 Roast beef with roast potatoes and gravy
3 Chilli con carne
4 Revani

Four sites I visit daily:

1 news.bbc.com
2 www.technorati.com
3 www.blogger.com
4 www.flickr.com

Four places I'd rather be now:

1 Tokyo
2 On a beach in Australia
3 Paris
4 New York

Four TV programmes I watch regularly:

1 Ρεπορταζ Χωρις Συνορα
2 Deperate Housewives
3 not much else as I have an IQ higher than my shoe size.

GAPPED TEXTS: DIFFERENT WAYS TO GET THE RIGHT ANSWER

In the gapped text exercise in FCE, CAE and CPE there are many ways to
identify the correct answer. Of course the first step involves reading the
base text before we do anything else. Once you have done that you
should look out for the following “markers”.

Pronouns

E.g. he/she, they etc. Can you say who or what the pronoun refers to?

Time references

E.g. In those days, then, later, that year. When do they refer to in the text?

Lexical groups i.e. words that naturally go together

E.g. car, road, windscreen. Is there a natural continuation in terms of subject ?

Synonyms

E.g. The house, my home, the place. Is the writer using synonyms to avoid repetition ?

Chronological order

E.g. In the morning, later that day, in the evening. Does the order make sense i.e. did the person eat breakfast then leave the house?

Cause and effect

E.g. as a result, then, as, since. Can we see that something is the result of
something else ? If so what? Sometimes these connections are clearly
signposted; on the other hand they may be implied.

Lists

E.g. First of all, next, lastly. Is there any ordering in the text?

Contrast

E.g. On the other hand, however, while. What follows? Can you see the opposite idea in the text?

Common sense

Don’t forget to use your common sense to make sense of the passage. You know how the world works so apply that to the text.

No lessons today

Due to the bad weather here in Thessaloniki I won't be doing any lessons. Good for the soul, lousy for my bank balance. For any student who will miss lessons, don't worry I'll email you your assignments. How I love technology !!!
(In the background can be heard the sound of demonic laughter echoing off the stone walls of my crypt).

snow has finally arrived

The media has been warning us that the cold front that is now affecting Russia is coming this way. It finally reached us yesterday. Still it's not as bad as they all made out. I was expecting the heat death of the universe, judging by what the TV channels were saying.

However, this does mean that I won't be doing any private lessons outside the city for a few days as I don't fancy taking my chances on the Vespa in this weather

Anyway, some pictures taken from the balcony this morning.

Geeking out

Things I learned today;

1 How to download mp3s to my ibook. Talk about convoluted.
Windows has a much simpler procedure.
2 How to put music from someone else's computer on my ipod and visa versa.
3 How to get free internet access via wi-fi hotspot in the city.

I think I've geeked out enough for one day. On the other hand, I managed to get loads of music that I like and I figured out how to share this with others.

If you want to find out how send me an email.