Sunday, March 9, 2014

Women's Day

Do you know how it all started? 

Read about Women's World Day and its connection to the protest against war as described in the UNA-Canada site and find a vast array of information and photos about women's history and achievements in the websites listed here:

http://markaki-students.blogspot.gr/2010/03/8-march-international-womens-day.html

'Now you understand
Just why my head's not bowed.
I don't shout or jump about
Or have to talk real loud.
When you see me passing
It ought to make you proud.
I say,
It's in the click of my heels,
The bend of my hair,
the palm of my hand,
The need of my care,
'Cause I'm a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.'

Phenomenal Woman by Maya Angelou

Thursday, January 23, 2014

What are the most important qualities of every good parent?

To have a family and  especially to bring up children has tremendous responsibility. Being a good parent requires certain qualities. As I see it, being selfless and insporing are the most important.

The most significant quality is selflessness. Good parents should make sacrifices. They do nto have to be egocentric, but give priority to the interests of their children. Children feel iften unloving and lonely, because their parents cannot pas their time with them. That happens as they are stressed ad absolutely tired when they return home after hard work. However childreb always  need love and tenderness.That is why parents must devote an importnat part of their free time to them.

Αll in all, it seems to be generally accepted that the parents of adolescents must be generous and stimulate curiosity of their children. If they have these qualities, their children are more likely to be equilibred, happy, motivated , well educate , sociable to full their potential.

Moreover, I strongly believe that good parents are a good role model. Children often imitate adylts and especially their parents' habits. In addition, children admire their parents, so their relationship based on admiration, love and respect. If parents read books, do exercises, discuss with their children , the last on will keen on reading and they will be much more extroverted. Good parents motivate and inspire their children ro be creative and curious.

To sum up, to become a good parent needs generosity and inspiration. Children feel isolated and unhappy if their parents do not deal with them. They can feel if their parents care about them or not. in my opinion, it is really difficult to be a successful parent, but it is not impossible. 

Friday, July 5, 2013

American Independence Day


This video considers the wording of the Declaration of Independence and its indictment of King George III.
Source:History Channel on youtube.com
Length:4 minutes
Extension Activity

Monday, April 8, 2013

The Tallow Candle by Hans Christian Andersen

The Tallow Candle (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_Christian_Andersen)

It sizzled and fizzled as the flames fired the cauldron.. it was the Tallow Candle’s cradle - and out of the warm cradle came a flawless candle; solid, shining white and slim it was formed in a way that made everyone who saw it believe that it was a promise of a bright and radiant future – promises that everyone who looked on believed it would really want to keep and fulfil.

The sheep – a fine little sheep – was the candle’s mother, and the melting pot its father. Its mother had given it a shiny white body and an inkling about life, but from its father it had been given a craving for the flaming fire that would eventually go through its marrow and bone and shine for it in life. 

That’s how it was born and had grown; and with the best and brightest anticipation cast itself into existence. There it met so many, many strange creations that it became involved with, wanting to learn about life – and perhaps find the place where it would best fit in. But it had too much faith in the world that only cared about itself, and not at all about the Tallow Candle. A world that failed to understand the value of the candle, and thus tried to use it for its own benefit, holding the candle wrongly; black fingers leaving bigger and bigger blemishes on its pristine white innocence which eventually faded away, completely covered by the dirt of a surrounding world that had come much too close; much closer than the candle could endure, as it had been unable to tell grime from purity – although it remained pristine and unspoiled inside. 

False friends found they could not reach its inner self and angrily cast the candle away as useless.

The filthy outer shell kept all the good away – scared as they were to be tainted with grime and blemishes – and they stayed away. 

So there was the poor Tallow Candle, solitary and left alone, at a loss at what to do. Rejected by the good, it now realised it had only been a tool to further the wicked. It felt so unbelievably unhappy, because it had spent its life to no good end – in fact it had perhaps sullied the better parts of its surroundings. It just could not determine why it had been created or where it belonged; why it had been put on this earth – perhaps to end up ruining itself and others. 

More and more, and deeper and deeper, it contemplated – but the more it considered itself, the more despondent it became, finding nothing good, no real substance for itself, no real goal for the existence it had been given at its birth. As if the grimy cape had also covered its eyes. 

But then it met a little flame, a tinder box. It knew the candle better than the Tallow Candle knew itself. The tinder box had such a clear view – straight through the outer shell – and inside it found so much good. It came closer and there was bright expectation in the candle – it lit and its heart melted. 

Out burst the flame, like the triumphant torch of a blissful wedding. Light burst out bright and clear all around, bathing the way forward with light for its surroundings – its true friends – who were now able to seek truth in the glow of the candle. 

The body too was strong enough to give sustenance to the fiery flame. One drop upon another, like the seeds of a new life, trickled round and chubby down the candle, covering the old grime with their bodies.

They were not just the bodily, but also the spiritual issue of the marriage. 

And the Tallow Candle had found its right place in life – and shown that it was a real candle, and went on to shine for many a year, pleasing itself and the other creations around it.

Thursday, November 22, 2012

Relative Clause Quiz


Choose the relative pronoun to complete the relative clause sentence. Each question has only one correct answer. When you are finished click on the "Next Question" button. There are 30 questions to this quiz. Try to use only 1 minute per question. At the end of the quiz, you will receive quiz feedback.

Tuesday, November 20, 2012

When Don McLean met Van Gogh





  Lyrics

Starry
starry night
paint your palette blue and grey

look out on a summer's day
with eyes that know the
darkness in my soul.
Shadows on the hills
sketch the trees and the daffodils

catch the breeze and the winter chills

in colors on the snowy linen land.
And now I understand what you tried to say to me

how you suffered for your sanity
how you tried to set them free.
They would not listen
they did not know how

perhaps they'll listen now.

Starry
starry night
flaming flo'rs that brightly blaze

swirling clouds in violet haze reflect in
Vincent's eyes of China blue.
Colors changing hue
morning fields of amber grain

weathered faces lined in pain
are soothed beneath the artist's
loving hand.
And now I understand what you tried to say to me

how you suffered for your sanity
how you tried to set them free.
perhaps they'll listen now.

For they could not love you
but still your love was true

and when no hope was left in sight on that starry
starry night.
You took your life
as lovers often do;
But I could have told you
Vincent
this world was never
meant for one
as beautiful as you.

Starry
starry night
portraits hung in empty halls

frameless heads on nameless walls
with eyes
that watch the world and can't forget.
Like the stranger that you've met

the ragged men in ragged clothes

the silver thorn of bloddy rose
lie crushed and broken
on the virgin snow.
And now I think I know what you tried to say to me

how you suffered for your sanity
 

how you tried to set them free.
They would not listen
they're not
list'ning still
perhaps they never will.


 Don Mc Lean meets Van Gogh through music. It is a reference to Vanc Goghs' painting, The starry night. It also describes different paintings done by the artist. Let's enjoy a fabulous, tender song dedicated to one of the post popular painters in the world.