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Today was the first of the awaiting 10 fruitful days. We have focussed on warmup activities, qualities of a good reflection, what is PDC, what are its objectives and its benefits to stakeholders,  and who is a facilitator.

Among the activities that we have carried out, I liked the star shaped warmup activity. It was very practical and useful for introducing new group members. I'm definitely going to use it in my first PDC session. Another useful part was when we used ActionBound application for a kind of treasure hunting activity. It is very good for bodily kinesthetic learners and can easily be applied in my PDC session. Moreover, it is the least relevant task to my local context as it needs technological devices and internet conntection. However, I plan to use it in my own school during teaching with a couple of adaptations, such as using print out instructions instead of mobile phones.

All in all, today was an excellent beginning, which made me excited and motivated for the following days. Now I know basics of PDC and being a facilitator, can't wait to deepen my knowledge in the following sessions !

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Morning session

Today started with a good ice breaker called "draw your name". It was very fun and became even better combining it with the telephone lines. At the beginning I thought that it is possible to use it in my PDC sessions, but not possible to do it in my own teaching classrooms. After discussing and sharing ideas with my colleagues, I have come to the conclusion that it can be used towards the end of the term, by scaffolding my students and making them use the previously learnt simple vocabulary to use while drawing their name.

Another attention gathering activity was standing next to the pictures that is suitable for your teaching style, then reading a loud the info of each picture and matching them. It was perfect to see different teaching styles, and it is very possible to apply it in my PDC meetings.

Using the jigsaw reading and combining it with the onion rings for making us aware of the characteristics of young Learners was a great technique, it was very useful and effective. Definitely must be used during PDC meetings. And the onion rings can be used while teaching English to young learners for multiple purposes as it brings fun and interaction to the class. Apart from that, chant and clap-act, listen and do activities was very useful as we tried to build up an effective lesson and adapted it to our own curriculum at primary schools. The only negative thing about it was that it was so hard to complete such an effort requiring activity at the end of a tiring day.

Afternoon session

Today, the role of the facilitator was the leader towards reaching the objectives to me. When we organize PDC meetings in our cities, we can do a meeting just as today's sessions, as all of the activities were applicable to PDC. For sure there need to be made huge preparation prior to the sessions, setting up tasks, monitoring and providing feedback. Even though it sounds like a hard job to the, I have no doubt that I will be successful with the guidance of my mentors. Tomorrow is about developing oral skills, can't wait to start it !

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Morning session

Walking around in the classroom and asking names and common interests was a fun way of farming up before the session. After that, I have met with mentimeter, on which we can re organise  statements about why speaking is hard for children. Last stage for this activity was finding solutions to these common problems, this activity also had very good leaning objectives do I have decided to copy and use the same in my PDCs.

The demonstration made by our trainers guided us on preparing effective lesson plans for using dialogues in the class. We have seen many beneficial techniques such as using mini surveys, repetitions, backchaining, scaffolding, drills. After all of those, evaluating our own course book's dialogues according to the provided criterias was so helpful to see quality of the course books. Then adapting them and presenting was amazingly good. All this session can be copied and used in my own PDCs. After this session, my ideas on teaching young learners changed, I plan to set up context better, include social and child friendly language, give speaking scripts at the end of the lesson instead of at the beginning, try to include more group work.

Afternoon Session

Relating hidden words with the topics on the board was a good way of warming up and starting the session with fun(gonna use it in my PDCs). Then we focused on stages of a lesson plan and using dialogues in it. It give a more professional sight on how to include dialogues in the most effective way. By this way, teachers in my PDC can identify using dialogues to develop oral skills just as I did today.  Other key points was to use natural expressions in the dialogues, keeping them short and giving a reason for the children to engage in those dialogue activities and speak.  All in all, we have had another beneficial day and finished it with a full lesson plan about using dialogues effectively. Today I ve learnt a lot of things for both my teaching style and PDC meetings. Ready for tomorrow's literacy skills!

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Morning session 🌄

As the warm up, we used swap chairs activity, in which we verbalise statements about past and future to find info about someone. I plan to use it in one of PDCs.
Then doing a binglish activity by trying to read a mirrored text was really challenging, but beneficial to see how our students feel when they try to learn a foreign language and what kind of difficulties do they face. During the binglish activity, our trainers showed a sample background written and mirrored text and asked us to remember primary school years of reading to set up the context. At first they have chosen observers and readers, gave hand outs. They asked readers to not to look at the text till they begin. And observers were supposed to hide their papers from the readers. At the end of the activity, we realized how it feels to be a beginner reader, and identified factors that affect reading in a second language.
Later on, talking about the characteristics of the reading skills, and using secret phrases to see if we understood the topic or not was a very clever way of evaluation. All of them can be applied in the same procedure during my PDCs.

Afternoon Session 🌞

Session begin with a very interesting activity, shared reading. Our trainer gathered us on the ground and did shared reading activity as we are kids. Although we were adults, that activity was so charming that all the teacher in the class looked overwhelmed. I can't imagine how huge effect it will have on my students, definitely going to use that in my classroom of young learners. Then we did the same shared reading and realized how helpful it is on showing teacher the power it. Then our topic was vocabulary activities that use bottom up technique to improve reading comprehension. It was very active as all teachers prepared games and played them all together. Definitely will do the same in my PDCs.

Among today's activities, my favourite ones were binglish and shared reading. I plan to make future research about them and include them in my teaching activities.

Tomorrow is about managing children positively, ready to be amazed about this interesting topic !

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Today's warmer was an activity called parasites during which pairs tried to convey a message to each other by passing the voice and visual obstacles of the parasites. I was a parasite and did quite good job blocking the messages. This warmer can easily be used in my English lessons, however I don't think I will use it in my PDCs as there were better activities than this before. The topic of the day was spelling, at first we analysed a text full of with misspelled words. Most of the time they were homophones. Thanks to this activity, I have noticed the importance of the spelling, how it can be so hard, and as a class, we have found great solutions and ways to teach spelling. I have learnt new techniques that I didn't before, for example look-say-cover- write - check, mnemonic activities. I'm definitely going to use that with my young learners as soon as I go back to my school. Also, most of the spelling teaching techniques that we have seen today will be very beneficial to local teachers in my city so I'm going to include them all in my PDCs.

Another important point was the classroom management. Before I used to think this term in a narrow way but today I realised that it has multiple dimensions. I'm going to use the same related activities that we have used today in my PDCs to spread these benefits.

I totally agree that maintaining a balance between children's behaviour and acceptable behaviour is often one of the greatest challenges we face. There are always naughty and well behaved children in a class. As teachers, we try to take control of the lesson and correct and prevent misbehaviours by using different techniques such as using our eye contact, changing our position, coming closer to them, telling their names, or just standing silently so they will understand that something is wrong. However, while doing so, we try not to ridicule them and find a balance.

Tomorrow we are going to see more of classroom management and i m so ready to deepen my knowledge, learn new techniques about that !

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The warmer called "cats and dogs whispering" was like a harder version of Chinese whisper game. I found it quite fun but confusing, can be used in my teaching, about PDCs I'm not sure.

Classroom management and trying to follow the curriculum is a hard job. Today I've learnt that stirrers and settlers should be used in a mixed way to make lesson both calm and dynamic when we need. While learning it, stop the bus activity was so helpful, also the alphabet race was a good example for the stirrers (Gonna use in PDCs). Another good activity was putting sentences around the walls, pairing the teachers and making them complete the LO. Also, today I realized how important are ICQs. I felt that I'm not using them enough and I'm going to use them more frequently while teaching English.

Creating a contract with the class for better classroom management didn't look like a nice technique for me. Instead, I try to set up classroom rules with the students, and they obey the rules as they created it. And it is quiet successful. However, today I ve learnt many ways of getting attention such as; whispering instead of yelling, counting down from 4, asking to copy what you do, etc. - and holding attention techniques such as giving lots of praise, nominating students, delegating duties, etc. And as another topic, I've realized that Assessment of Learning is something scary for children, and Assessment for Learning is more child friendly. Also I had a chance to remember peer, informal, formal and self assessment's importance in an education environment. Moreover, I have learnt many things about preparing child friendly test that paves the way to AfL.

As an extra, we have worked on color phonics and remembered our university years when was the last time that I was doing it.

All in all, today was another perfect day for piling up my knowledge to use in my PDCs and teaching English. Ready for tomorrow's feedback sessions!

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After completing today's morning session, my view of assessment has definitely changed. Before, I used to do mostly evaluative assessment in my classrooms. After today, I have realized the importance of informative feedback and formative assessment. Moreover, I'm going to try to use assessment for learning instead of assessment of learning to encourage students more and help them learn better in a child friendly environment. I've also seen very beneficial feedback techniques such as wiggling fingers to show them wrong part of the sentence and teach contractions.

In the afternoon, the drawing a shark and guessing the words was a fun way of warming up to use in my PDCs. Another one was building up new words by using the letters in CONGRATULATIONS  word. Later on have participated in so fruitful activities such as acting out and correcting student mistakes in different ways, assessing and trying various assessment activities such as 321, multiple choice cards, thumbs up and down, traffic lights, and success criteria. Each one of them is so applicable both in my teaching lessons and PDCs.

One of the greatest benefit of being in a PDC is that I will be a popular English teacher in local context. Will have a chance to discuss and find solutions to common problems, share good implementations with my collogues and learn from them. Here in our PDC facilitators group, I've met very qualified English teachers with many skills. In the future, it will be so beneficial to me for self improvement and solving problems as there is a wide range of skillful teachers in our current group. These PDC sessions in the programme will help me deal with possible problems about planning and conducting PDCs in my contexts as here we have a good chance to learn, practice and implement. This implementation and demo sessions that we will present with our group members will be like a trailer of a movie. When we go back to our own cities and organize our PDCs, our materials will be already ready and we will know what to to thanks to this training and our trainers.

Tomorrow is about planning our first PDC session with our group members, so ready to plan and learn!