Registration for Electronic Village Online 2015 Sessions Now Open!!

I would like to share the message I received today, and to spread the word, as requested by Nina Liakos, from the EVO team.  I can honestly recommend that you join at least one of the 13 free sessions!

I have attended an EVO session every year since 2009, and each session was an awesome learning experience which helped to shape the teacher I am today!  Once again, for the second year, I am proud to be one of the moderators on the Crafting the ePerfect eTextbook, led by our inspiring main moderator and creator of the session, Shelly Terrell.

Hope to see you there :-)

Registration for EVO2015 begins today! To register, go to http:evosessions.pbworks.com.

Reminder to subscribers of the EVO Newsletter: Registration for this year's Electronic Village Online (free online professional development sessions for EFL and ESL teachers) begins January 5, 2015. The sessions themselves run from January 12 until February 15, 2015. Get more information about all thirteen sessions at http://evosessions.pbworks.com. If you are having trouble deciding on which session to register for, please join us at http://learningtimesevents.org/webheads/ (scroll down for instructions and technical requirements) for the EVO2015 kickoff webcast on January 11, 2015 at 14:00/2:00 p.m. GMT (your local time at bit.ly/1CaH6fq)! Session moderators will be on hand to introduce their sessions and take questions. Please share this announcement with your colleagues and personal learning networks, and thank you for helping us spread the word! Nina Liakos EVO2015 Coordinator

Copyright © 2015 Electronic Village Online, All rights reserved.

I will be doing a webinar on 25th January based specifically on my EVO experiences called 'The EVOlution of Jan'.  More details to come soon :-)

2014 - The Year of Living Relatively Quietly!!

Looking back on 2014, I can truthfully say it was as quiet as I had wanted it to be, although there were busy bits inbetween!!  What I enjoyed most on a personal level was having a little bit more time to do what I love - gardening, composting and so on.  I did a Project 52 blog inspired by my fellow blogger Sue Annan here.  This kept me occupied on a daily basis, and hence I didn't blog so much on Janet's Abruzzo.  I will try to post more often in 2015!!

The Highs of 2014
My Project 52 blog
Janet's Abruzzo Edublog celebrating its 6th year
EVO Crafting as a moderator for five weeks in January / February
Connecting Online webinar in February
Teaching at the lake school
Online projects with the Consultants-e
Doing an excellent mlearning course with the Consultants-e
Teaching wonderful groups of students
Reading and learning more about the art of composting
Motorbike trip to San Marino
Learning more about the use of QR codes in education

The Lows of 2014
Losing the final chicken, leaving Freddy on his own, no fresh eggs!
Dearest Fluffy going missing, and accepting he is probably gone forever
No olive harvest this year - very disappointing!
The very rainy summer in Abruzzo

My resolutions for 2015?
Continue to be happy, doing what I like doing
Write more often on this blog
Produce more vegetables
Sow seedlings earlier
Continue to grow professionally by reading and attending online courses
Explore more indepth some of the Web 2.0 tools I already use

A 2015 calendar created with Photofunia today. We are deep in snow at the end of the year!

I couldn't resist taking this photo of a cat on the balcony! Hopefully we will start the New Year tomorrow with water, electricity and Internet connection!!

An Animoto message

Welcome to 2015!

The final message of 2014 to all my readers and members of my PLN:

..and a final QR message as well :-)

Happy Christmas 2014!

Wishing you all a very Happy Christmas from Janet's Abruzzo Edublog.  I haven't blogged so much this year, but hope to be more pro-active in the New Year!

George Clooney Ties the Knot in Venice!

The wedding of 2014 sees George Clooney wed Amal  Alammudin in the most romantic of locations - Venice.  I fell in love with Venice years ago and for me it is my favourite place in the entire world, second to Barcelona!

Why the interest in George Clooney?  Well, he has a connection with Abruzzo!!  I went all the way to the fairy tale village of Castel del Monte a few years back, in the hope of meeting him in person!

Image of the village taken by K and then made into a tryptich for one of our walls below;

Sadly the planned meeting was not meant to be, but you can read all about him in these blog posts below:

George Clooney in Abruzzo!
George Clooney in Castel del Monte - Update
George Clooney - Who Else?

More in pictures and news of his BIG Day in the following papers:

The Guardian
The Independent
The Daily Mail

ACIM 2014 Meeting

ACIM 2014 - San Marino

This post is a bit different from my usual ones on my blog and it focuses on a very special trip I made last week.
K and I travelled to San Marino by motorbike to attend the 6th ACIM motorbike meeting.  

ACIM stands for Aprilia Caponord International Meeting. Aprilia Caponord motorbike owners and their friends came from all around Europe, including Holland, Macedonia, Slovenia, France, Switzerland, Greece, Germany, UK and a lot from Italy. 

You can get a taste of the great fun we had by viewing this fabulous Youtube video called ACIM VI San Marino 2014 posted by Canale di SBellu 96. I can be seen sitting at the table at section 1.15.  This was on the Saturday evening's BBQ and presentation of gifts.



It was the most wonderful holiday and we enjoyed ourselves very much, meeting new people and making new friends. The whole experience was efficiently organized, and a special thanks goes to Maurizio and his Aprilia Caponord team, who helped make it such a memorable occasion.

I managed to practise a little bit of French, German, Greek and of course Italian with some of the motorcyclists and passengers.  

In total, there were 42 bikes and 69 riders and pillion passengers, including myself, (in the blue jacket) seen below during one of the frequent stops on the road.

We travelled a total of 550 miles during the 3-day trip and we took in a lot of beautiful sights.  Being part of a group riding in convoy was lovely and wearing the specially designed souvenir t-shirt was a thrill.  The Grand Hotel Primavera where we stayed was superb. 

We visited many different sites and attractions including the Aviation Park Museum, just outside San Marino.  There was an excellent open air display of old aircraft from around the world.  

I spotted an East German flag on one of the planes....I would recognize this symbol anywhere, after having lived in East Germany in the early '80s. Here's a link to a guest post I wrote a few years ago about my Life Behind The Iron Curtain.

The highlight of the tour was this 1944 Dakota which had been owned by Clark Gable.  

 Marilyn Monroe had been a passenger on this plane, and as she is one of my favourite movie stars, I had to sit in one of the seats where she had probably sat!!

We travelled to San Leo a small hill top village with a beautiful and impressive cathedral.

We enjoyed a lovely BBQ meal on the Saturday evening and there was a raffle, and we won an extra t-shirt!  Below you can see me accepting the prize and saying thanks. I am proudly wearing the blue ACIM 2014 t-shirt.

The hotel was just outside San Marino and we explored this tiny republic state on the Sunday morning.  I managed to grab a photo of us setting off in convoy.

Our expert guide Francesco from San Marino, was very knowledgeable and spoke excellent English.  

We learned so many interesting facts from him about this unique principality, and about its successful way of self-government. 

The views from the top of San Marino were truly spectacular!

The San Marino guards in front of the National Palace:

This was a truly amazing trip and the lovely people we met made it even more memorable.  We would love to go on another ACIM trip next year and hopefully meet up with the same group of riders and catch up on their news.

Thanks so much to dear K for your brilliant motorbike riding skills.  We had a lot of fun, didn't we?