WHAT WOULD THE WALLS OF OUR CLASSROOMS TELL?...

Hi FRIENDS, I wanted to tell what is hidden deep in my heart about this issue. We are all student teachers and lucky to do our practice teaching in METU Development Foundation Schools. Almost everything goes OK. in our classes with our mentor teachers. What I suggest you here is that while considering our future as professional teachers we should also take the reality of our state schools into consideration. I believe that if we work in a private school, we could do lots of things which will most of the time be easy to conduct in nice settings of such schools. What about our reality or state schools? Will we be able to realize what we plan in our minds which I believe are idealistic ones? What should we do? Will we be transformed into "stable, not changeable" teachers? I sincerely want to hear my dear friends' voice here. What can we do in our state schools? What are the facilities that we can provide our students with? Can we create nice settings as in private schools? Sharing our thoughts on such an important issue will certainly broaden our horizon...

CREATING A STORY...

This is a kind of follow- up activity after teaching some new vocabulary items. It is our mentor teacher's style to continue in this way. She first provides the students with nearly ten new items and works on their meanings together with the students. For this activity, the teacher elaborated on the items in the previous lesson. In the following lesson, she put the words on the top of the board. She asked the students create a story using the words on the board. Each student made a sentence and the teacher wrote them on the board. In the place of the target item in the sentence the teacher put the colorful word card (instead of writing the word). The students continued to tell their sentences until all the items were used. At the end of the activity, there was a full story that the students themselves created using the target vocabulary items. As you see our mentor teacher gives her students some "autonomy" in their learning. Or you may call this "responsibility", too. The students have the responsibility for their learning. They realize that when they do not participate in the activity, there will be no learning on the part of them. Thus, the teacher also aims to keep the students' attention on the activity and creating their own products. Another advantage of this activity is that the teacher helps the students internalize the newly- learnt items in a meaningful task. So my dear friends, it is all about the activity. What do you think? Does it make sense to you? Can it work in your class? Do you want to add some more aspects to it if it is not efficient in your own opinion?

A PRACTICAL EXERCISE...

HI friends, I want to share one of the techniques of my mentor teacher. It was related to make the students create their own fill- in- the- blanks exercise to learn the newly- learnt vocabulary items. First the teacher provided the students with the items and they together worked on their meanings. Then, she gave each student a word and required them to write a sentence which would have some clues related to the target item. The students were required to use the target item in the sentence, too. In our observation hour, the teacher told the students write their sentences with blanks of the target items on the board. After all the students had written their sentences, the teacher said, "As you see this time you created your own exercise." (which is really motivating on the part of the students:)) The students tried to find the missing target items in their friends' sentences. I liked this kind of exercise. First, it was really good for helping the students get motivated and continue to be motivated during the lesson. Second, the students created their own products. Third, all the items were covered successfully at the end of the lesson, which is really desired on the part of every teacher. So my friends what do you think? Can you add some more advantages of such an exercise? Do you think there are some disadvantages? Do you think you can do such tasks with your own students in your class?

2nd ELT CONFERENCE at ATILIM UNIVERSITY

Hi all my dear friends, On 19Th April, 2008 there is the 2Nd ELT Conference at ATILIM UNIVERSITY. Registration date is over but if you want to attend such a conference, you can make contact with the representatives whose mail addresses are on the website of the university. I hope we will be there altogether, have a nice day, and share lots of things (you may include whatever you like into the list:)) SEE YOU there!!!

KPSS EXAM:(

KPSS exam and state school have become the hottest issue in my life this term. From the very beginning of the academic year, really everything turned out to be very different from what I imagined, hoped, expected, etc.:) My ideas about my future profession went under construction and I made my decisions in the end. I want to continue with MA degree...I want to work at private institutions...and I want to live in Ankara...Now I need to take some advice from my dear friends who are already teachers at private courses. My questions are :

- What do you think about KPSS exam?

-When you compare state schools with private courses and schools what can you say?

-Do you really feel like a teacher when you are both inside the classroom and outside?

-How about the relationships at your job?

- Do you think you are working more than you should work? (if you understand what I mean)

- Are you happy with your development and current performance?