Out of class activities – An important part of our curriculum

Out of class activities – An important part of our curriculum

During the past 50 years of our operation we have understood the importance of providing our students with information about Greece, Greek history, music, diet, dances, the language etc.

So we developed a series of presentations and activities that are offered after the normal teaching hours. Initially we have named them “extra curricular activities” but we have soon realized that they were an important part of the curriculum and we changed the title to “out of class activities” as they happen out of the normal class hours and lot of times out of the school.

Though they are an integral part of our educational method and they are included in all our morning courses with no additional cost.

Nowadays they belong to the following groups :

  • Presentations about Greek Cultural topics, like history, music, dances, diet, religion etc.
  • Seeing and speaking about Greek films
  • Visiting Museums and Galleries
  • Learning Greek Popular Dances
  • Eating out like Greeks

The list of the topics is always open and new items are added to meet with the interests of the students and the lecturers and also important historical anniversaries like the 200 Years from our Independence War during 2021 and the 100 Years from the Asia Minor Catastrophy this year.

As an example during August we have offered our Athens School students free participation in :

–    A presentation about the Greek Orthodox fasting periods, one of the long ones (during the first 15 days of August)

–    A lecture about the MIKRASIATIKI CATASTROPHI (Asia Minor Catastroph)

–    A lesson to dance syrtaki

–    A visit to the Acropolis Museum

–    A visit to the Archaeological Museum

–    Two “Eating out like a Greek” dinners

–    A presentation of the film NYFES (BRIDES)

–    A presentation of the film LOUFA AND PARALLAGI (LOAFING AND CAMOUFLAGE)

–     Improving our students’ reading, writing and comprehension skills with the use of Greek songs

It should be noted that at the end of cultural presentations ( films, history, diet etc) students are provided with brief bilingual texts containing a synopsis of what has been said.