Introduction

Welcome to my ePortfolio!
My name is Chryssa (Chrysoula) Lazou and I live in Kavala, Northern Greece. I hold a Bachelor degree in English Language and Literature from Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and work as an EFL teacher in secondary education. Having worked in both the private and public sector for quite some years, I feel blessed that I have had the opportunity to work with wonderful people, learners, and colleagues that make me happy for my initial decision to choose this career path. Nevertheless, being a teacher is not an easy task; it calls for skills and competencies that, apart from the cognitive field, play a crucial role in being an effective educator, well-equipped to motivate, engage, and inspire your learners to achieve their intended learning goals. Especially in my case that my students are teenagers, I always feel that it is my responsibility to make their everyday school life joyous rather than miserable! To this end, I am a lifelong learner, who never quits taking courses for my professional development, fervent seeker for new approaches and educational practices.

After my voluntary and devoted offer to the Association of State School teachers of English in Kavala, I had the absolute pleasure to be elected as the president, which proved to be a turning point in both my personal and professional life. Apart from having the opportunity to organize seminars for my colleagues’ professional development, I had the pleasure to implement community projects, inspiring my students and colleagues to become volunteers—which is quite missing from the Greek context—and fervent supporters of transforming our lives and community. Without realizing it, this brought me to a new stage in my life, as I was nominated by the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs of the US Embassy in Athens to participate in an International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP) in 2017. The program took me to distant North America, where I had the opportunity to visit 16 international schools and organizations in major cities, such as Seattle, Atlanta, and New York, where large number of refugees and migrants have settled.

My observations and fruitful exchange of ideas and practices with international educators changed my worldview and on my arrival back to Greece I had the pleasure to implement a number of voluntary projects for social and educational inclusion of the newly arrived refugee population. My projects attracted academic interest, and I was thrilled to have participated in a number of conferences, among which two international ones—AU Graduate Student Conference 2018 and the 4th World Conference on Blended Learning 2019. My near future plans involve a new project based on my participation in an AlumniTIES Seminar held in Kyiv last October after having been nominated by World Learning and US Embassy, which involved the participation of 43 educators from 24 countries from Europe and Eurasia. The theme of the seminar was Media Literacy and Critical Thinking in the Digital Age and our networking opportunities led me to be one of the few recipients of a small grant as to implement a new project in my community!
As for my personal life, I am a mother of 14-year-old twin daughters who, along with my beloved husband, fervently support all my endeavors! When not studying or working, we spend precious family time, mostly travelling round Europe.