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Current Status -
28th May, 2001
"The Munting Nayon Community School in Athens, which is run by the Philippines' Association, has adopted Living Values in their curriculum. Values education already has a place in their education system, but the teachers are particularly happy with the activities that we offer and also the way we go deeper into the values for their own self-development. For the last eighteen months I have been giving training on an ad hoc basis to their teachers, but from September 1999 the principal and teachers decided that they would like me to continue values training with the teachers once a month when they have their teachers' meeting. They are very serious and enthusiastic during these sessions and have a genuine interest to go deeper into the values, what they mean personally and how they can really put them into practice in their everyday lives. There is a refreshing honesty in their desire to learn and to improve. Already we are starting to see changes in the educators themselves and I think this is already visible in the classroom. Formal evaluations have not yet been done, but I will introduce this idea during our next meeting on 28th January 2000.
TESOL Macedonia Thrace - 7th Annual Convention, 16-17 October 1999
"The title of this two-day event was "Reflections and Directions". On Saturday 16th October, George Mavroudis presented a workshop entitled "How to Create Leaders: The Challenge of Future Education". George explored the skills needed to prioritise properly what to teach and how to teach and asked the question "How do you motivate students to actively participate rather than comply with 'orders'?" He also examined those factors that foster trust in the classroom. On Sunday, as the
Living Values Education Coordinator for Greece, I presented a workshop on "Facilitating Learning, Facilitating Language" which took educators through several practical steps, and a process of self-questioning, to identify those areas of the teacher's changing role that can influence the quality of language learned by students. A lot of interest was generated. One participant is a member of the TESOL board and he later emailed to offer cooperation and a venue for future activities in
Thessaloniki. The venue was the University of Macedonia-Thrace in Thessaloniki and the event was attended by about 300 people.
TESOL Greece Mini-Convention on Sunday 3lst October l999 held at the British Council in Athens
"As the Living Values Education Coordinator I was asked to present a workshop in the multimedia section and talked about "The Influence of Technology on Life in the Classroom". I noted that as we move into the new millennium the use of computers and video in classroom teaching is no longer an opportunity but a necessity. In the workshop I showed how technology can have a positive and beneficial influence on the quality of educating our students and how to create the right attitudes towards technology in language teaching and in the creation of an active and positive learning environment.
Amongst the participants was a Montessori school teacher with her own school in Kifissia in the northern suburbs of Athens. She was so impressed by the forum and the Living Values Programme that she invited me to give a presentation in her home to a group of parents. Twenty-five people turned up at 8 pm on 19th December 1999 and we left at after midnight! The evening was lively, with 18 very enthusiastic parents who listened attentively to the presentation and then spent 90 minutes firing questions at me about values, how we can teach them to children, how we can model them, etc. As a result, we will have monthly meetings with this parent group starting in January 2000.
Living Values gets a new partner!
"Andrew Betsis publishing house in Athens has offered us a place to conduct training seminars and offered it free of charge, because we give our services free of charge. They will also do all the advertising and mailing of invitations. So I have given them a proposal for seminars as follows:
30th January 2000 - Eight Steps Towards Creating Good Relationships
26th February 2000 - Education without Fear
1st April 2000 - Communication Skills: Active Listening and Conflict Resolution
22nd and 23rd April 2000 - Educator Training in Values-Based Education
TESOL Greece published my full paper in their July-September quarterly journal. The title: "Learning to Be: A Values-based Approach to Language
Learning" had been presented at their 21st Annual Convention in March. They included a synopsis of all twelve values. The journal has a circulation of about 2000."
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