My Bio – Konstantina

Hello everyone, My name is Dina and I come from Athens, Greece. My story of how I started teaching English goes back to 1996 when I took a turn from sitting for the University Entrance exams at Athens Polytechnic to taking a CertTEFL course. In those days my main aim was to add an extra qualification to my Cambridge Proficiency Certificate so that I could teach during my studies at University, but I soon fell in love with ELT and decided to postpone my aspirations of becoming a Mechanical Engineer. Though I never returned to my old dream, my somewhat technical background assisted in my Diploma in Translation exams where I got a Science and Technology specialisation and it has also kept me highly motivated to use technology in my current profession.
Since then I have taught both privately and in language schools in Athens and for the past 8 years I work for Eurognosi, a major educational organisation with 300 schools in Greece, Cyprus, Bulgaria and Romania. I teach all levels and age groups but I’m particularly interested in teaching adults and exam preparation classes as well as business English and multilingual classes.
We are a very technology oriented school and all our classrooms are equipped with IWBs but I feel that our ‘technology in ELT attitude’ mainly revolves around IWB versions of students’ books, online versions of practice tests for exam preparation classes and some online language games for students. I have recently completed a CELTA course and this is where I learnt about PLNs for teachers and PLEs for students and started using wallwishers for learners to practice their writing skills, so I feel this is one area I still need to explore with your assistance and guidance.
As a qualified translator I am also a member of the Chartered Institute of Linguists and on occasion I do enjoy the peace and quiet this job provides as compared to the everyday teaching of young learners, but then again I can’t live for more than 2 days without the hustle and bustle of everyday contact with students in a school. Nevertheless, I have taught translation to students taking university entrance exams where translation skills were a prerequisite and I loved combining the two.
I am as passionate about teaching as I am about learning so I take every opportunity to become a learner again and remind myself what it feels like to struggle with a new language so I’m currently a student of Italian and would love to learn Arabic in the future. Apparently, this workshop sounds like the best opportunity to combine both learning and teaching and I am eager to meeting you all and share ideas.
In my free time I enjoy working out at the gym, dancing and surfing the net. I also love travelling and reading books. For our workshop I’ve decided to read The Tenant of Wildfell Hall as I have read Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights in the past so Anne is the one Bronte sister I haven’t read the works of.
So, one great adventure soon begins…we’ll dive into the past (in the ‘Bronte marathon’ as Berni said) and take a leap into the future (by exploring new uses of technology). Looking forward to meeting you all.