ARCHELON, which for several years has been one of the NGOs in the TESOL Greece (www.tesolgreece.org) community outreach program, has been well-received at TESOL Greece events throughout the year (including events held outside Athens), from the ʽStart of the School Yearʼ event in September to the annual TESOL Greece Convention which took place on March 15-16 in Athens.
At this yearʼs Convention, over 500 TG members had the opportunity to visit with ARCHELON volunteers Melissa Foley, Jane Mantarakis, Joanne Stournara, and Luc Glodt, who shared information about ARCHELON, encouraged people to adopt sea turtles, and invited educators to visit the Rescue Centre in Glyfada or online. In addition, teachers whose classes had visited the Rescue Centre and had first-hand experience with ARCHELON described the programs they had developed for their students, including all the stages of the process as well as studentsʼ benefits from it. ʽA Case Study: How can young learners make the most of a field trip?ʼ, featured the work of English language teachers Julia Stephanides and Eva Padouva, who demonstrated how their visit to the ARCHELON Rescue Centre provided for the interplay of technology and hands-on activities in a natural environment while enhancing English language learning in young learners. The field trip provided the context for listening, reading, writing, speaking and applying English language as they learned more about the problems facing the sea turtles. As a follow-up, the entire student group prepared a multimedia presentation for their school to help raise awareness about conservation and the need for protection of the sea turtles and their nesting beaches in Greece.

In another presentation, ʽEnvironmental Education in the 21st Centuryʼ, educators Irene Soteres and Jane Mantarakis presented their viewpoint of how worthwhile learning experiences can come from weaving environmental awareness into lesson planning by using environment-based learning as a context for teaching and learning English, math, science, history, geography, and other major core subjects. The presenters pointed out that according to researcher/educator G. Lieberman (Education and the Environment, 2013), children and students learn best when their time in the classroom is augmented by experiences in the wider community – including the natural world beyond the schoolhouse walls.
As an extension of the classroom, ARCHELONʼs education program connects with schools through field trips, awareness activities and special events, Turtle Club projects, and Young Volunteers in Action initiatives, helping students develop problem-solving skills and acquire more effective communication and collaborative skills. Besides benefiting from field trips to ARCHELONʼs Rescue Centre, students can gain from virtual experiences involving them in key environmental and social issues through ARCHELONʼs website www.archelon.gr which contains a wealth of information, articles, links and free downloadable activities.

ARCHELONʼs collaboration with TESOL Greece has proved valuable to both organizations: It has provided ARCHELON with the opportunity to be introduced to a wide range of teachers and schools from all parts of Greece and abroad, while at the same time offering TG members the means to provide a unique learning opportunity for their students.

Jane Mantarakis and Joanne Stournara
ARCHELON volunteers and TG members