Hello
all! My name is Helena Martins, Lena for friends and I’m 38 years old.
I
was born at Fundão, Portugal in a little village called Janeiro
de Cima it’s near the highest mountain of Portugal – Serra
da Estrela (or http://www.rt-serradaestrela.pt
) The first 10 years I lived in France and Canada. Then came back to Portugal
where I studied and got my Degree in English and Portuguese.
For
the last 13 years I am teaching English at E.B.I
de Santo onofre, in Caldas
da Rainha. My pupils are between 10 and 12 years old.
Last
two years I was working on the Project International Programme on the
Elimination of Child Labour which seeks the promotion of social justice and
recognized human and labour rights. It’ a
programme to mobilise efforts to protect and
promote the rights of all children, especially the right to receive a free,
meaningful education and to be free from economic exploitation and from
performing any work that is likely to be harmful to the child's physical,
mental, spiritual, moral or social development.
I always
understood school as a place to learn and have fun. That’s why different
projects involving different “actors” and “stages” had a special place
during my 14 years of teaching: Comenius project was one of them and in
the last 4 years the epals project, maybe because I still have a full box of
letters from my own pen pals from all over the world.
During my
scarce spare time I like reading, photography, cinema and being in contact with
nature, going for a walk, being with my friends and travelling (in Portugal and
abroad)...
As the Portuguese poet Fernando
Pessoa
wrote "Sê plural como o universo!"
(be plural like
the universe)
Best regards
from Portugal
Helena Martins