Hello world! I haven’t written for some time because it has been hectic around here. Sometimes I am envious of people I know in other countries who achieve so many things and seem to work 24/7. Don’t they ever sleep? I’m talking to you Shelly? J

But then I tell my friend Olga about my worries and she says Anna please don’t say this to anyone of your friends because you are going to depress them. Anyway, here I am again, blogging about teaching, development and my favourite young learners.

Six years ago when I had to make the decision whether to work in primary or secondary education, I thought about it for some 5 minutes and haven’t looked back since. Working with young learners is so lively, so creative, so unpredictable every day that I am still amazed people mock that decision of mine. “You will work more hours”, they told me, as if this a drawback. “They will make you crazy with their constant bickering” they said, as if they had forgotten how funny it is to be with kids under 12.

So creating a workshop about teaching English to very young learners was only natural to me. “Is the kid inside you alive?” is the title of our workshop at the 2^nd Istek International Schools ELT Conference on Sunday and along with Marina Kollatou we will try to remind you what it is like to learn a new language, but most of all we will try to revive that forgotten kid inside you! Since you probably speak fluent English to be reading this, and if you are there at the conference it means you are either a teacher of English or a student, we had the idea to teach a lesson of Greek to make this workshop as authentic as possible.

As the days go by and we are trying to put the last brushes to our presentation (last rehearsal tonight), trying to follow all the suggestions about an excellent presentation by Ken Wilson and all the tips about what to do before the conference, by Adam Simpson, stress is peaking by the minute. Thankfully, having such a fantastic PLN I just came across this superb animation video that seems to be the perfect illustration of what we want to achieve in our workshop.

Please watch it! If you intend to come to our presentation see it as a kind of pre-lesson activity, if not, just to relax!  Is the kid inside you alive? Looking forward to your answers either here or in Istanbul, on Sunday at 13.15 at Room 315!