Derya's Blog

Comenius partnership

2009-09-25T23:11:00.002+03:00

yes this time I am talking about comenius partnership.
finally I find partners for a procejt. my partners are from italy, germany, romania, spain, poland, greece, and bulgaria. We plan to make a preparatory visit to Italy on 25th, November.

In our eTwinning - Comenius project students change ideas and information about their life writing in English about cultural and free-time activities. We want also form international classes, that during the school-year and during our meetings work in small projects, using arts, films, video, theatre, music, handicraft.....,

Subjects: Art, Biology, Chemistry, Citizenship, Cross Curricular, Design and Technology, Drama, Economics, Environmental Education, Ethics, European Studies, Foreign Languages, Geography, Health Studies, History, History of Culture, Home economics, Informatics / ICT, Language and Literature, Mathematics / Geometry, Media Education, Music, Natural Sciences, Physical Education, Politics, Primary School Subjects, Religion, Social Studies / Sociology, Special Needs Education
Languages: English
Pupil's age: 6 - 16
Tools to be used: Audio conference, Chat, e-mail, Forum, MP3, Other software (Powerpoint, video, pictures and drawings), Video conference, Virtual learning environment (communities, virtual classes, ...), Web publishing
Based on kit: eTwinning all year round
Aims: We want to show our students, how many diversities and possibilties there are in Europe. They learn a lot about other students in Europe develop more tolerance and self competence. And of course - they improve their English!
Work process: First the students are writing,painting, blogging and chatting... in different ways (e Twinning,e-mail, msn,) about their daily life. A teachers' meeting in November will fix the detailed plans for further eTwinning-actions and the places and project topics for the international classes
Expected results: 1. Detailed plans for the next 3 years 2. curious students, more motivation in English, art, music and mothertongue lessons 3. Paintings, photos, lots of textes, Cds Videos, DVDs 4. At the end a Comenius presentation

I talked about the project to my students today and I could feel the excitement in their eyes.
they are really happy about the project and we are all so excited.

Nowadays I am trying to complete my application form for the preparatory visit. Lets see what will happen...

My Project

2009-09-11T00:50:00.005+03:00

I am realy excited nowadays.
while I was searching for a comenius project partner I found a different kind of projcet. it is called E twinning. now I want to introduce it to u.
I talked to a teacher in Poland. we will make a bilateral project.
it is called "what to do when it rains"
The project is designed for 10 – 12 years old learners and it will last for 5 – 6 months. Each school will elaborate two suggestions how to spend our free time (all ideas should concern the different manual activities). Partner schools will choose one of the ideas from other schools and they will carry out in their schools.

Subjects: Art, Cross Curricular, Foreign Languages, Informatics / ICT, Primary School Subjects
Languages: English
Pupil's age: 10 - 12
Tools to be used: e-mail, Other software (Powerpoint, video, pictures and drawings), Web publishing
Aims: 1. Getting to know the children activities in different European countries. 2.Cooperation with children and teachers from other countries and learning English. 3. Using the Internet and ICT to realize the Project. 4. Fun and interesting ways of spending free time
Work process: At first we should know our schools and ourselves. So we’ll prepare the PowerPoint presentation about this. Next each school will prepare two suggestions how to spend our free time. All partners should prepare the photo or written instrucions how to carry out their idea. Then all schools will change their ideas. Next each school will choose one proposition from every school and realize it. All partner school should prepare the presentation of their activity
Expected results: The book and presentation “What to do when it rains” (the different ways of spending free time) will be the effect of our action.

Now we are waiting for NSS aproval. if it is approved I willl share my experiences here if I have time :D
hope to see you soon :D

long time since last post

2009-03-13T21:48:00.003+02:00

it has been very long since I last posted here. I wanted to keep posting here but I didnt have neither time or sth to say.
many things have changed in my life. I remember the stresful days we had last year and now I am just smiling now. so far so good for me now. I am really happy with my post graduation life eventhough I am having stresful times from time to time.
I hope you are doing fine too.
I want to hear from you soon.

time to make final decision

2008-08-07T13:29:00.003+03:00

hey everybody
finally I have made my mind. I was accepted by METU foundations school in Kayseri and a few other collleges out of Ankara. however I did not accept them, planning to stay in Ankara and continue my education at METU. but it did not come out like I had planned. I was not accepted to the graduate program. and I am really sorry for this. but I have still hope for the future.
after the KPSS, in these days I am to select the schools where I want to work. the score I have taken will be enough for a school near my home. Today I went to the school that I want most and that I will write at the top of the list. there are a few things that I want to talk about.
the school is a small one. but the thing that suprised me most is that eveyr classroom has a computer and projector, if they work :). besides this the school has a computer and scicence lab. in our times, schools could not afford such technology and today's most of the schools, even some colleges, still do not have computers and projectors in every classroom. this detail made me really happy. I will choose that school and there will be a lot of things to do there, to share here. I hope I will keep sharing my experiences. the first few years may be chalanging for us.
lets see what will happen.

hi again

2008-07-08T12:25:00.002+03:00

after such a long time, I say hi again.
at last we have graduated but we do not hear much about each other. lets keep sharing. how do you do nowadays? and what are you planning to do this year?
I had an interview with Kırıkkale University and they said they would be pleased to work with me.but they are waititng for Yök to anounce the vacancies.
besides this, I took the KPSS. like most of you think, it was a really difficult one. but still I hope to be assigned to a school in my hometown.
I am very curious about you. if you talk about yourself we would know about you.

Motivating the Learners.

2008-05-25T13:55:00.003+03:00

we talked about the strategies already and I want to add something about this motivation issue.

I would like to talk about types of motivation, extrinsic or intrinsic. The motivation that comes from the inside of the individual, namely intrinsic motivation is sometimes stronger than the extrinsic one. In education the teachers make use of extrinsic motivation most of the time, with grades, praises etc. and it really helps very much to make the students gain motivation. However, extrinsic motivation ends up somewhere when the student leaves the school whereas intrinsic motivation last for a whole life. So, in addition to extrinsic motivation, the teacher should help the students gain intrinsic one, which will affect their motivation level towards the English lessons at schools. I think s/he can do it by providing them with the feeling of success. The feeling of accomplishing something good makes the students at this age motivated. If the teacher should provide the students with achievable tasks and attainable objectives, the students will be automatically motivated and this motivation will come from the inside. If the students have the sense of achieving a goal, they will enjoy it and try their best to be successful.

a video for future tense

2008-04-27T13:18:00.004+03:00

I was still searching for some material for future tense and I found a video.
there is a little kid in the video and I liked her very much. she is the kind of "büyümüş de küçülmüş" one :)
I thought we could use this video as warm-up activity for our presenation at school. but the lyrics is a bit advanced. the video is very funny and it is sth story-like. I thought that the teacher can provide the lyrics then it will be much more easier to follow the song. I still think that it can be a good material for presenting future "will".
Do you think it would be suitable to use such a video for fifth grades? or how can it be included in a lesson plan for fifth grades? I would like to learn about your ideas...

a teacher portfolio

2008-04-27T12:23:00.003+03:00

dear friends.
I remember reading something about teacher portfolios around here. If I am not mistaken it was in one of Zeliha's posts.
while I was searching for teaching future tense I came across one of them. it is Alexander Luis Newby' s, he is an esl/efl instructor, native speaker of English. in his portfolio he has a lot of things such as his cv resume, a sample lesson plan, a sample piece of writing, reference letters for him and transcripts etc etc. many things about him on the net. if I were an employer I would like to have an interview with that teacher :):)
I just wanted to share it with you. link: http://www.alexnewby.com/
it is difficult but if we manage to have something like this it will be useful for us.

color-blindness

2008-04-21T01:13:00.008+03:00

yestarday, at the conference at Atılım Uni, I met a person who is color blind. this was the first one I have met a person who is color blind and it was interesting for me. once I had learned this issue I asked some quesitons immediately such as which color is the skirt of that lady? and I especially chose the red and green ones and he did well suprisingly. actually he said he could discriminate the colours almost perfectly. but the test results says he is colorblind. then I got the point... and made the connection....tat taaa...
actually, it is related to the way how we learn the language. if somebody calls something as table, for example, when we are child that thing is "table" for us too from then on. and it is the same for learning the names of the colours. others will describe something as red and it is red for the child who is colorblind. but actually he sees something else. it is what the other people call it for him but in fact it is something different. normal people call red as red but they call green as red, I mean.
so then how can we understand if we are colorblind or not? there are some tests on the net which shows some numbers. and the results are diferent for the normal and the abnormal ones.
I have solved one of them and hopefully I am normal. what about you?
PS. I can provide the link which I liked most.
http://www.guzeldunyam.com/Renk-Korlugu-Testi.2
but there are many results when you google for the term.

funny cartoons

2008-04-13T22:10:00.001+03:00

I like them...

Teaching grammar with fun

2008-04-12T12:34:00.006+03:00

everything goes ok but a bit tiring nowadays. anyway life goes on and show must go on. :)
I would like to talk about our mentor teacher's way of teaching grammar. she does it inductively and tries to make it be communicative.
she doesnt give the formulas for the language item but makes students be exposed to language as much as possible.
for example the students learned "must and should". the teacher gave some fill in the blanks exercises but she did not focus on those much. the students learned the form with those mechanical activities. then the teacher continued with more communicative activites, requiring students to produce real life sentences. for example she talked about her problems and wanted students to give advice. or she asked the students the rules in their homes. the students liked those activities very much and they were very willing to participate. and they communicated their ideas in English very well. so I found these activities much more effective, communicaticve and motivating than the traditional ways of teaching grammar. I would like to know what you think about this issuse. how should a teacher of Englsih teach the grammar point do you think?

REFLECTION ON THE SECOND WEEK

2008-03-20T11:05:00.000+02:00

Now, I would like to add a few things for the second week.
First I want to talk about something related to last week’s topic. After I had completed my Task I, I encountered a good strategy of our teacher about classroom management. This week the students were a bit difficult to control unusually. For some time in the lesson most of them started to talk among each other. The teacher told them to listen a few times but they continued talking. Then the teacher drew a big sad face on the board and said “I don’t want to write the names on it”. It really worked and they stopped talking among each other. I got the impression that the students really felt sorry for upsetting their teacher so they remained silent. Then the teacher had the chance to go on.
Another thing I observed during the past two weeks is that our teacher is not just the teacher of the classroom. She has several other roles in the class apart from teaching. For example, she is also the evaluator of the materials. Sometimes all the teachers hand out common worksheets to all sections. It should not have mistakes but sometimes it has few mistakes. The teacher explained those parts to the students and specified that she did not like that part.
This week our teacher showed us a writing portfolio of a student and explained the process. We also observed a writing lesson last week. The teacher made a warm-up about the topic. For example the students wrote a letter of invitation last week. The teacher started from students’ real party experiences. Then she linked to topic to the letter of invitation. First she explained the format and what to write about. Then they analyzed the sample invitation letters in their books. Finally they started to write their own ones. Once they finished their first drafts the teacher checked the papers and showed the mistakes. Then they wrote their second and last drafts. After all had finished they stapled their first and second drafts together and put them in their portfolios.
In the last two hours we observed this week they made a speaking activity. It was a pair work first. While the students were talking about the topic the teacher monitored them moving around the desks, giving feedback and, correcting the mistakes. Then it turned into a whole class activity. All the students were really willing to speak. All the students had a chance to speak. The teacher declared all the students as the speaking kings and queens of the day and she gave them “speaking king” and “speaking queen” cards in order to stick them on their notebooks. The students were excited and happy about this sticker issue.
The last thing I want to talk about is this sticker issue, which I like very much and so do the students. Our mentor teacher chooses every week the writing, or the speaking kings and queens. She gives those kings and queens their cards and they collect these cards in their portfolios. This is really motivating for the students. Because they try their best in order to be the king and the queen. So I think that it really works.

BOARD USE

2008-03-20T11:04:00.001+02:00

Our teacher uses the board in an organized way. Actually, she uses it very neatly as if it were a real notebook. For example, the students would learn ‘adjectives’. She wrote the adjective at the center in a balloon then added some describing words around it, which she linked to the center “adjective”. So the topic looked more organized and more easily-remembered. She, most of the time, divides the board into half with an imaginary line. She uses the left side first and continues with the right side. In this way it looks neater and more organized, I think.
Other things that I want to mention:
First of all she writes big enough for everyone to see. Her hand-writing is quite illegible and visible to everyone including the ones sitting at the back.
Sometimes she uses some colorful carton papers on which she has already written the things she plans to write on the board such as exercise items. She sticks those cartons on the board instead of writing the sentences. The board looks appealing with all those colorful papers and colorful inks on it. In this way she, also, saves some time since it takes less time to stick them on the board than to write.
Our teacher also uses the colors wisely. She doesn’t use the same color at all the time. She frequently uses chalks in different colors. So, she highlights the titles and important points with different colors.
Another thing that I want to mention is that the teacher doesn’t let the students write the things on the board while she is explaining them. After she has covered all the things, she gives the students time to copy the notes onto their notebooks.

That’s all that I could observe about our mentor teacher’s board use.

REFLECTION ON THE FIRST WEEK

2008-03-12T23:23:00.001+02:00

During the first week we focused on classroom management skills of a teacher. I have already talked about my observations in task I. now I would like to talk a bit about what I have learned about classroom management first and then a bit about other things as well.

Now I feel I have learned a lot about what to do in the classroom and how to behave at times of disorder in my real classroom in the future. I know that only the things I have learned this week will not be enough. I am sure they will be beneficial for me however, as I get more experience in my teaching life, I will get better, I believe.

The most important thing in my opinion is that the code of conduct should be determined at the very first meeting. So, the first thing I plan to do in my real class is to determine the rules with students’ participation at the beginning of the year. Now I have learned that if the students cooperate with the teacher about the code of conduct they will obey the rule more. And I am aware that I will not have any other chance to give the ‘first impression’. So I should value my only chance. If I look sober at the first meeting I believe the students will respect me more. If the teacher wants order in the classroom, s/he should make the students know what to do, how to behave in which situation, why to do that and what consequences of obeying or transgressing the rule will be. The rules should be clear and understandable to the students. And it is easier to remember and obey a few rules rather than many.

Another thing I have to be careful about must be the consistency of my reactions to problem behaviors. If I want my students to behave properly in the classroom I should remind them the rule if they break it but without humiliating them. The students will try my limits in order to see what they can do and cannot do in the classroom. I should not give any impression that they can make some disturbing behaviors in the class. So, I should give the same reactions to every student demonstrating the same wrong behavior.

Now I would like to turn to other points such as classroom environment, the students’ attitudes towards us and English etc. The classroom for English lessons in METU College is very colorful. They are mostly students’ works hanging on the walls. I am sure they feel proud whey they see their “masterpieces”. Also, there are new vocabulary items, irregular verb forms, or anything related to their subject matters on the walls. They get the chance to see those new words whenever they want.

About students’ attitudes, they are mostly enthusiastic except the few. They want to answer all the questions every time. Sometimes, at first hours of the day they are a bit mute. But they get over it soon. Another thing I like very much is their attitudes towards us. For example once we entered the class after their bell rang and they all stood up. That was the feeling that “I am the teacher”. I think they see us as their teachers, too, which I am very pleased about. I feel myself as the teacher now.

IT S A BIT LONG BUT ABOUT "CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT"

2008-03-11T22:39:00.003+02:00

It is essential to manage the class and the classroom effectively so that learning can, also, occur effectively and in a shorter time. There are many things that a teacher can do to provide order in the classroom and make the lesson go on smoothly. Some of them may be preventive, for example the teacher can take some precautions in advance in order to avoid probable problem behaviors during instruction maybe by announcing the rules at the first meeting. And some other of them may be remedial; the teacher may be supposed to make some instant actions at the time of the problem. There are many things that come to my mind about classroom management from my “Classroom management” course. However, I should talk about my observation experiences of this week. Let’s look at the things that I noted during my observations.

First of all, I realized the class rules hanged out on the wall. They say, for example, “Bring all your materials every lesson”, “Do your homework regularly”, “Come to class on time” or “Speak in English in the lesson”. I thought that this is useful for students to remember the rules and make them obey the rules. I asked my mentor teacher whether they made those rules with students jointly or not. She said they did so and added that if the rules are determined with students' participation, they obey the rules more. Mostly there were not many problems in the class, but a few problems. Since the students knew how to behave in the classroom everything went on smoothly most of the time.

Now I would like to talk about the few small problems and the things I have learned during my first week observations.

I remember a classroom management topic called ‘overlapping’ from my previous “Classroom Management” course. I witnessed an example of this during the first hour I observed. I mean with ‘overlapping’ that a teacher can encounter more than one activity to deal with at the same time. In the first hour while one of the students was doing one of the exercises, another student wanted to show something tı the teacher. Actually at first I thought the teacher could not focus on the student’s answer because she answered the question of that student showing something.. Later it turned out that she managed to deal with those two activities at the same time, because she gave a relevant feedback to the student doing the exercise. Our teacher was able to respond to that student showing something and listened to that one answering the question at the same time very well.

When a student talks to another one, the teacher deals with that student instantly. She takes the student’s attention to the lesson by calling out that student’s name. Sometimes her ‘teacher look’ is enough to control the student creating the problem. By looking at the problem student in the eye she stops him or her without interrupting the lesson. Or she continues the lesson when a similar problem occurs by just approaching that student who is talking or doing something else not related to the lesson. So she goes on with the lesson without interrupting the flow of the lesson.

There are a few more things that she constantly does during the lesson to provide order in the classroom, which prevents some problematic behaviors in advance. For example she constantly uses eye contact with every student and moves around the desks. So the students cannot create problems during the lesson.

Another thing that I realized was that while the teacher was writing on the board, she regularly turned to the students and checked if they were writing, or if there was another problem. This is also important because the teacher loses eye contact for some time while writing on the board. So there will be an opportunity for the students to talk, or create discipline problems . However, it works when the teacher sometimes turns to the students and in that way she takes them under control.

When a student breaks a class rule, the teacher warns that student not harshly but in a friendly way. For example, sometimes students cannot explain a thing in English so they sometimes attempt to speak in Turkish. In such a situation, the teacher answers saying “sorry,I can’t understand you, speak in English”. In this way she reminds the class rules and revises them. I want to give another example about this matter. Our mentor teacher likes her students’ having colorful notebooks. So everybody should have colorful pens and pencils in English lessons. One of the student said that he forgot his colorful pens at home. Then the teacher reminded the student and at the same time the whole classes the rule about classroom materials. She solved the problem at that moment and revised the class rule about bringing materials and reminded them to have their colorful pens with them all the time.

Final thing that I want to talk about is “time management”. Our teacher managed the time very well, too. She finished the lesson neither too early nor late. There were some strategies that our teacher used for managing the time effectively. For example checking the time and slowing down or speeding up the activity accordingly. Or another strategy she used was to clean the board while the students were in while-listening stage. Actually this is a very simple behavior but it really saves time.

That’s all about what I noted during the six hours I have observed this week.

MY FIRST IMPRESSIONS ABOUT THE SCHOOL

2008-03-09T14:42:00.001+02:00

At the first meeting I expected to be informed about my practice teaching days and the rules about how to be dressed, how to behave in the school, where to wait at break intervals etc. We assembled in front of the school and entered into the school all together. The first impression of the school on me was great. I had expected a different environment from what I am familiar with from the public schools. At first impression I observed physical appearance of the school building. It really attracted me. Actually, I had been to the secondary part of the school before but it was the first time that I had ever been to the primary school building. The inside was really decent and seemed well equipped.

Firstly Ms Sadıka gave all the necessary information we need. I was able to answer all the questions in my mind. Then English teachers’ coordinator arranged timetables for each of us. It was a hard job really. And in the end, everything was ok. I wanted to learn about my practice teaching hours as soon as possible, because I planned to arrange my other things accordingly. Finally I am happy about my school days although I have to attend 3 different days.

The first meeting met my expectations. And I am really enthusiastic about the course. I consider myself really happy about the fact that I am attending to METU College for my practice teaching.

WELCOME

2008-03-03T22:56:00.000+02:00

Finally I have a blog :)