Soldiers on parade - Greece

Soldiers on parade - Greece, a photo by Teacher Dude's BBQ on Flickr.

Easter in Greece

Easter in Greece, originally uploaded by Teacher Dude's BBQ.

Thinking of Shakespeare

Thinking of Shakespeare, originally uploaded by Teacher Dude's BBQ.

Romeo and Juliet, III, v

JULIET: Chain me with roaring bears;
Or shut me nightly in a charnel-house,
O'er-cover'd quite with dead men's rattling bones,
With reeky shanks and yellow chapless skulls;
Or bid me go into a new-made grave
And hide me with a dead man in his shroud;
Things that, to hear them told, have made me tremble;
And I will do it without fear or doubt,

"And was the holy lamb of God"- Jerusalem

Easter is almost upon us, originally uploaded by Teacher Dude's BBQ.

And did those feet in ancient time
Walk upon England's mountains green
And was the holy lamb of God
On England's pleasant pastures seen

And did the countenance divine
Shine forth upon our clouded hills
And was Jerusalem builded here
Among those dark Satanic mills

Bring me my bow of burning gold
Bring me my arrows of desire
Bring me my spears o'clouds unfold
Bring me my chariot of fire

I will not cease from mental fight
Nor shall my sword sleep in my hand
'Til we have built Jerusalem
In England's green and pleasant land
'Til we have built Jerusalem
In England's green and pleasant land

Jerusalem

Easter is almost upon us

The holidays have eventually started for me and I've finished with the last of my lessons. It's Good Friday here in Greece as the Orthodox church's Easter is a little later this year. Half of the country is on the move it seems as the cities empty out and people make their way to the countryside to visit family and friends in the villages and small towns.

However, despite the festive spirit there are lots of complaints about rising food and petrol prices. According to consumer organisations the cost of the traditional Easter meal is going to be 20% higher than last year. though saying that the cost of fresh produce such as tomatoes and other veg has doubled. Rather predictably the government says that prices have only gone up by 6.5 %. I'm not saying that I'm distrustful of their figures but if they came out with an official announcement that grass is green and the sky blue, I'd take a quick look out of the window to check that nothing had changed.

It's getting harder and harder for many people to make ends meet in such a climate as wages have remained static for a long time and the cost of basic goods have outstripped our meagre gains. I'm seriously thinking about quitting the school where I work as the wages have remained so low that there is no way you can survive on them anymore.

ΚΑΛΗ ΑΝΑΣΤΑΣΗ

Today is Good Friday for the Greek Orthodox church and the biggest religious celebration of the year here. To all of you celebrating, I hope you all have a great time.

podcasts in efl/esl

The Greek Orthodox Easter is approaching fast we just have a couple more days before we break up for the holidays.

Anyway, I have been handing out DVDs with all the audio material I've managed to download from the net so students can practice their listening skills over the holidays. Usually, I hand out two or three DVDs to the class and ask them to copy or circulate the originals. (viral teaching ?) I do this as not everyone has access to a pc and the internet.

The DVD includes podcasts from;

In Our Time (BBC)
Go Digital (BBC)
From Our Own Correspondent (BBC)
BBC I Xtra
World Service Documentaries (BBC)
Mark Kermode's Film Reviews (BBC)
The Today Programme (BBC)
CNN News Podcasts


Podiobooks

Earthcore by Scott Sigler
Ancestor by Scott Sigler
The Pocket and the Pendent by Mark Jeffery

Audio books and poems

Alice Through The Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll
The Art of lying by Mark Twain
The legend of Sleepy Hollow by Irving Washington
The Dubliners by James Joyce
Telltale Heart by Edgar Allen Poe
Kubla Khan Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Fables by Aesop

Speeches by

John F. Kennedy
Martin Luther King
George W. Bush
Richard Nixon
Malcolm X
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Winston Churchill

etc.

To fill up the DVD ( I hate just using half of them, it seems such a waste) I add a few hundred songs just to “sugar the pill” for students who are not crazy about the other stuff.