Hello! Hello! Lovely person reading my blog!! Thanks for stopping by. Today I thought I’d tell you what I did today (that’s a lot of todays in one line).

A.M. to P.M.

I didn’t sleep well. Dunno wy. I kept waking up, tossing and turning. I looked at my phone a few times, I even watched a YouTube video in the middle of the night.

Wakey wakey

I  got up at around 8:30. I washed my face and because I was feeling a bit off I used my Tea tree facial wash (it wakes me up. You can read a review here). I then had breakfast aka a coffee and a toasted cheese and turkey sandwich. I brushed my teeth, put on my Clinique BB cream and went to work. Where is work? Another room in my house (huh! gotcha!)

Work

You see, I am an online teacher. I teach business English. I am in Crete, Greece,  and my learners are somewhere in France. All business people cause I teach Business English. I had lessons from 10-3:00. There were a few breaks and during my breaks I rode my bike a bit. Two songs were on repeat. This one:

The video clip is so beautiful and the song’s message is so strong.

and this one:

So, I did a bit of working out whilst on my ‘work break’.

Extra info: I had a few extra minutes with my learners and I read an article with them.Today’s article was 13 things airlines don’t want to tell you. Random fact? Umm you know the trays that airlines put our food on? Yeah. They don’t wash ’em between flights.(Yuck).

3:00

I then decided I had to go get some chewies and gamble… yeap yeap. Lottery time. After that I went home and had my soup.

My soup recipe

Oh!Before you get over excited and think to yourself, ” Yay! A recipe! take a minute. This ain’t that type of blog”. I don’t cook. Whenever anyone asks me if I cook, I say, ” does boiling count?” So, I am not a cook. I am a boiler (haha that sounds funny). This is my favourite soup recipe cause I use all my cooking expertise. So, how do I make this soup? I just chuck in any veggies I have. This time I chucked in corn, brussel sprouts, green peas, broccoli and a knor vegetable stock. I boiled the vegetables in a big pot with extra water so they could be soupified ( see how good I am at… cooking?). I then added a few tea spoons of olive oil. They say (dieticians) that it’s better to add the olive oil at the end cause…. something about the fat and the toxins, dunno why. You just need to add it at the end.

Napping

So, soup was in my belly and then the most important part of the day. Siesta!! I slept for about 30 mins. Woke up and started writing this blog post. In a few minutes my students (kids) are going to come to my house for an exam class. In Greece people take exams to certify their level of proficiency.The kids coming over in a bit have been having lessons for a while now, so they are about to take exams. So, I will be teaching until 8:30. Then I am gonna watch my YouTubers’ vlogmas videos and unwind. Then sleep time. Yeap. I know. I live an adventurous life. Welcome to my life. A stay at home… teacher/boiler/blogger. ❤  ❤

Another thing you don’t need to know about me?

I got a cool pressie. A lovely girlie/glitter picture/painting. Love it. My sister got it for me cause she was in Athens for the weekend.

So, that’s all for #Blogmas Day 9. Feel free to tell me what you did today. I would really love to hear from you especially since you lasted till here, the end of the post. Give this a thumbs up (aka ‘like’ if you liked it). Don’t forget to follow/subscribe to my blog. I am @mypinkrambles on Instagram and Twitter. You can follow me on Pinterest as well.

Talk soon

xxx

Joanna

 I went to the movies the other day and saw a French film called Margaret (that’s the English translation of the Greek French translation. Heheheh). It was about a woman who was bubbly and lovely, and thought she could sing for the opera, but she couldn’t. Her voice was terrible and no one would tell her. She then decided she wanted to sing in front of a big audience and the people around her let her, because they thought that would make her happy. I am not going to tell you what happened in the end you should watch the movie (this is based on a true story by the way). I didn’t like the movie, or actually not the movie per se, but the sentiment in the movie. To me, the message was, if you love someone who loves doing something (thinks they are talented at something), it’s not always the best idea to tell them that they are not good at it. Just let them do their thing even if that means that others might make fun of them. It’s like saying, ” Let your loved ones  do their thing”  but is that always the best way to go?

How supportive is being supportive?

Yes, you need to help our loved ones follow their creative dreams. Yes, you need to support them. Show admiration etc. etc, but what if a loved one is terrible at something and thinks they are fabulous? Do you lie just for the sake of being supportive?

Hmmmmm

Nope. You gotta be truthful.

Why should someone tell you you ain’t that great ( in a nice way?)

Well, our loved ones can be passionate about many things and because they are passionate, they cannot really see how bad they are at them. It’s like falling in love, only this time you are in love with what you are doing. ❤ ❤

Me, me, me

Take me for example, I love blogging, drawing, and singing. I am passionate about them. I even think I am good at them (toot toot aka totting my own horn). The other day though my friend told me that yes, my painting is nice, but I need to improve my proportions. Thank you!! That helps me. I will keep on doing what I love, putting myself out there, but I want you, the person who cares for me, to tell me when I am not doing something well and give me ideas on how to become better.

I don’t want my people to completely shatter my dreams and make me feel horrible (cause that is not being honest or constructive, it’s being mean), but if I am doing something that I love and I shouldn’t be going tooooooooooooooooo public with it. Tell me!!! Help me become better. I will still be driven and love the things I love, but I will be careful, I will try to find ways to improve. It is OK to burst my pink little bubble.  Living in LaLa Land is grand, but for how long? (For dramatic purposes I am using the word suck. Reader discretion is advised. Do not use the word ‘suck’ when talking to someone you love).

How to give your loved ones constructive feedback about their talents/ the things they love.

There is a thing we teachers call sandwich feedback.  That’s how we give feedback to our kids.

What you do is:

Say something nice.

Say what needs to be improved.

Say something nice again.

OR  say,

You do this….

You don’t do this….

Maybe you need to do this…..

Final thoughts

Giving a loved one constructive feedback doesn’t mean that they will stop what they are doing.That’s not why you give constructive feedback. It is just a way for you to help them to become better. Even if you hurt their ego a bit, in the long run they will thank you cause if they take your (genuine) advice only good things will come.

So, as Christmas is right around the corner and everyone is lovey-dovey, just give your loved one a helping hand and be truthful/ be constructive. Help them hone their talents.

Follow my blog if you enjoyed this post (maybe even subscribe?). I am @mypinkrambles on Instagram and Twitter. Do feel free to leave a comment below. I would love to hear what you think.

See ya tomorrow.

xx

I am a teacher and I just published a blog post with ideas on what teachers can do with the students and then I thought, ” Hey waht about mums and dads?”. So, I have adapted my blog post and have written a post with ideas on what you can do with your kids. Here are some ideas 😀

• Christmas/holidays around the world project: Get your kids to find information about how Christmas is celebrated around the world. It may be a good idea to do some research on how people in Australia celebrate cause it is summer over there :). You can also send your them to this website  and ask them to  out.

•  Sock Snowman: Make a snowman out of a sock.

• 3D paper tree: Again time for some video-viewing. Make some 3D paper trees and decorate your house with them.

• Christmas gingerbread men streamers. Get a string of paper and get each student to draw a gingerbread man. Then cut out the men and make a hole on the top of the paper and hang it in your house.

Picture from http://www.enchantedlearning.com. Found here

• Make gingerbread men: watch  the recipe with your children and then make  gingerbread men.

• Make decorative banners using various Christmas Fonts with your kidss. You can find free Christmas fonts here.
  
• Online Christmas trivia: Get your kids to answer questions about the holidays.This can be done online. You can find the quiz here.

• Pin Rudolph’s red nose. How do you play? Find a picture of Rudolph online, blindfold your kids, turn them round in circles for a bit, and then ask them to pin Rudolph’s nose. This activity is loads of fun and young ones. 

• How about watching a movie related to the holidays? Here are some movie ideas:

The Polar Express

Home Alone

Frosty the Snowman

Miracle on 34th Street

The Muppet Christmas Carol

It is a wonderful life

• Go to audible.com and use the free trial option to listen to Charles Dickens audiobook (it is 2hrs 54 mins long).

• Play Christmas word snake. How is this played? Each person takes turns to write a word connected to holiday season on the board. The final letter of A’s word is the first letter of  B’s word.

                                     Christmas

                                                       Santa

                                                                 Angel

                                                                           Lantern   

• Time to make a card for the Holidays! You can find templates here or improvise!!

• Play Holiday season Bingo (make word or picture Bingo cards). You can find templates here.

Picture from DLTK website (linked above)

So, that’s all for now. Happy planning your Christmas/ Holiday season exercises.  Feel free to add any ideas in the comments section below. Don’t forget to follow/ subscribe to my blog :). Check the sidebar on how you can connect with me. Give this post a ‘like’ , if you want me to make more posts like this one.Thanks for stopping by!!

Till next time…..

So, today I am going to talk to you about my job. I am a teacher, but a different kind of teacher. Huh? You may now ask, ” How many types of teachers are there?” Well, in today’s day and age there is something called an online teacher as well. So, that’s what I am. Half of my lessons ( I teach English as a foreign language) are online, hence an online teacher. Now you may ask, ” So, what on earth do you do Joanna? How do you teach?” When I teach online, I use the Internet of course. My virtual classroom is in Adobe connect (it’s a platform). There is a white board which is also the area where I can upload files and share the lesson material, a chat box section and an area for the web cam. I send a link to my student and s/he presses the link and comes to my ‘classroom’. Sometimes I  also use a land line or Skype when Adobe is acting out and the sound is all over the place.
So, after this brief but succinct description of my morning job, let’s move on to why I like my job. What are the perks of teaching online?  So, here goes!
Perk No.1
I have students from all over the world which is probably the thing I like most about online teaching! One minute I am in Stuttgart, the next Paris. I see how my students view things and how their educational background blends into my teaching practice and choice of techniques. The classroom is not my limit, my internet connection is!

Perk No.2
To all you weather freaks, at last a chance to talk about the weather with not one, but ALL my students. When teaching online, you get real life weather descriptions from all over the world. I often ask….. “So, how is the weather over there?” I always smile after asking this question, cause of course, my weather , here in Crete, is much better than theirs : P.

Perk No.3
It is green teaching (kinda…). Paper free to the core. I use no books, no handouts, nada. Just my computer screen.

Perk No.4
I save money on transportation, snacks and coffee. I am at home. I make everything myself. On the plus side, it literally takes me one minute to get to work : D.

Perk No.5
When my students are late, I do not have to sit around doing nothing. I go to my kitchen make some coffee,  tidy up my room….the lots!I can do whatever I want whilst waiting for the late comer.

Perk No.6
I get to wear my pyjama bottom. What else can a teacher ask for, people?

Perk No. 7
I am hip, a tech savvy teacher and it looks great on the CV. The kids love me cause I am a ‘cool’ teacher who uses technology.

Perk No. 8
You sound cool when you describe your job to other people. No one can get their head around using a computer to teach and everyone asks, ” So, what about a board?” ” Does you learner see you?”

Perk No. 9
Your time zone is NOT your limit. If you want to teach at 12 o’clock at night, you can. It is day time somewhere else in the world!

So, that’s my morning job. In the afternoon I teach face to face. This post was originally posted in my edu blog www.myeltrambles.com but has been adapted here.

Remember to follow my blog if you like what you read (check sidebar for info on how to follow). Feel free to leave a comment below. I mean would you consider having lessons online? Give this a thumbs up (aka like) if you enjoyed reading it ( you help me get a sense of what you guys like reading cause I am still trying to find me voice). Thanks for stopping by lovelies!

Talk soon.

xxx

I am partially colourblind. That means that I have difficulty distinguishing colours. I can see something is A colour, but I do not know what colour. To make matters worse, I fall in the low vision category which makes my vision and my ‘seeing’ colours even harder.

My question to you, my lovely reader is, ”have you ever thought how hard life is when you cannot distinguish colours?” From the most simple thing like buying a nail varnish to following the red line that leads to the X-Ray machine on the floor of a hospital. It’s tough.

In today’s post I am not going to focus on how colour affects my life. Nope. That will be in a later post. I am going to focus on people’s reactions to my saying I am partially colour blind.

Typical reaction

• Really?

Some people respond to my saying I am colour blind by asking me, ” Really?”. This is the response I hate the most, because do you really think someone would make up being colour blind? I mean is it ha-ha funny?

• So, what colour do you think this is?

My second (un)favourite response is, ” What colour do you think this is?” and to make matters worse, people start pointing at things and say, ” So, what’s this? And this? What colour do you think this is?” Why? Why do you need to know what colour I think something is, when there is an 80% chance (number chosen randomly), I will get it wrong?

• Let’s yell

Another typical response is the ‘yellers’. These ones aren’t that bad. I have found myself being yelled at because someone thinks I cannot hear either. Even if you scream the colour at the top of your lung, I still ain’t gonna be able to ‘see’ it.

• Oh! That’s so sad. You are missing out

Yeap, there are those who feel sorry for me. Don’t feel sorry for me mate. I am fine. I manage. Am i really missing out? I ‘see’ colour, just not the way you see it! Pointing out that I am missing out, is not really helping either. Stop making me feel bad about myself. Help me or ignore me, but don’t feel sorry for me.

• The helpers

Luckily, there are people who do not judge or feel sorry for me. These are all the lovely ones, who say , ” OK! So this is a blue top or that is a brown bag, but it is not a nice brown so maybe you should go for that one”. They tell me what something is, and they give me advice. ❤ ❤ Thank you from the bottom of my heart.

I am sorry this is a rant, I am trying to raise awareness. Next time someone says that they are colourblind, give them a helping hand….

1/12 men are colour blind and 1/200 females are colour blind. Check out colourblind awareness org’s website for more information.

Talk soon

xxx