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1.Are your thoughts about using online tools for writing mostly positive or negative, and why?

In my opinion using online tools for writing is a positive thing. While writing on a paper people lose so much time to check their spellings, to find synonyms of words, etc. Using online tools also enable students to keep all their writings in a site and they can see the progress they have made in time.

2.What is the most important idea/approach you have thought about today related to writing?

Today I have realized that using online tools for writing can be beneficial for both students and teachers. They are beneficial for student because when they use online tools they can easily check their spellings, can get online feedback from sites like grammarly.com so they won't become discouraged about the mistakes they make and they will get a chance to realize the mistakes they make frequently. It benefits teacher because they will spend less time while giving feedbacks.

3. What do you think your colleagues would be most interested in exploring in a PLC meeting focusing on writing?

I think my colleagues will be most interested in exploring online tools for writing in a PLC meeting focusing on writing. I hadn't used Padlet before and today I realize that it was really easy to learn how to use it and it is a very useful tool to use in classrooms while teaching writing.

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1.What is the value of coursebook listening activities?

Listening is one of the most important component of a language. Naturally having listening activities related to our topic is an indispensible part of a foreign language course. In this sense, coursebook listenings are truly valueable resources. Because they are made specifically for our books so their levels, topics, diction are choosen accordingly. Teachers can directly access them therefore they are time saving for them. Last but not least they are recorded in isolated places hence they are easier to understand .

2. What is the value of authentic listening materials?

As discussed above, listening materials are irreplaceable materials of language courses. Teachers can use authentic materials for additional benefits. First of all they can enhance accent of students and they can learn daily expressions. Since teachers will choose them they can be more interesting and up to date. Finally, students can establish direct relationship between the language classroom and outside the world.

3. How can you develop more active listening skills in your classes?

It is really important for teachers to help their students to become more active listeners. They should limit things in the classrooms that can distract the students such as posters. They can use videos instead of audio texts so students pay more attention. They should also prepare pre- during post activities for their students so they can listen more motivated during the whole activity.

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What is the one difficulty when you are doing a listening or speaking session that you would like to explore with your colleagues in the PLC?

As I argued yesterday, listening is one of the most important component of a language. We acquire our mother tongue with listening people around us and then we mimic them. However when someone learn a new language in the classes they have less chance to be exposed to that language. Sometimes only thing they can listen is listening text of our text books. The students of my schools either have limited or no chance of using internet so I really would love to explore how can I make my students to be more exposed to English with my colleagues in the PLC.

Give examples of major challanges your learners/other colleagues face related to listening or speaking?

Today we discussed that we face major challanges related to speaking activities. First challange that I and my other colleagues face is shy students. Second best common problem we all agree was our students don't try to use new language very much.

What is the most useful idea or suggestion you have taken away from listening and speaking sessions?

I was aware that I should differentiate activities for my students but thanks to the sessions now I have better understanding of how to do it. Secondly, I wasn't a big fan of repetiton but today I realized that it can actually be quite useful and it can increase the quality in each turn. I also realized that there are ways to make repetition fun which was truly shocking.

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Choose 3 adjectives to describe your thoughts about the flipped classroom and explain why.

If I had to choose to desribe my thought about the flipped classroom I would choose curious, relieved and excited. I would be curious because I would wonder how well my students can be prepared without any external help. I would be relieved because this activity could reduce my workload. I would be excited because I anticipate that if my students come to class prepared they will be more engaged in class activities.

Do you have any concerns about flipped classroom? If yes, what are they?

In all of the classes there is a knowledge gap between my students and that is usually because of the time they spare to study. I am worried that if I give them more autonmy to study at home result will not change the situation and enlarge the gap.

How do you think your colleagues respond to this idea?

I think they would love the idea because we all like the idea of having students that come to class prepared for the task. However probably they will share my concern about enlarged knowledge gap between students who studies a lot and the ones who won't do the tasks assigned to them.

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There are more disadvantages than advantages in using translation to teach meaning.

Writing a reflection on this statement is really hard for me because even though using translation to teach meaning is an old- fashioned and probably the most boring way it still may benefit our students. The real question here is to whom we teach by using translation technique. It can benefit avarage and below- avarage students since students can easily understand what is the meaning of words in that context, how to order words etc. On the other hand, it can be really boring for students who are above avarage and it doesn't help them to improve their speaking skills. To sum up, I cannot tell it has more disadvantages than advantages but as it is the case for all the techniques we should choose when to use it carefully.

It's really important to teach learners how to keep vocabulary notebooks to store all the new information about new words.

I strongly belive in that statement. Our curriculum is a really repetitive one so I ask my student to use the backside of their notebooks to make their own dictionaries. I tell them to write the meaning of the words, antonyms and synonyms of the words and write down an example sentence for each one  of them. By doing this they learn more words and revise the words when needed. (I ask them to keep using the same notebook from fifth grade to until the end of 8th grade).

Getting to know words is like getting to know a friend- you learn more about them bit by bit.

I really like the metaphor and I agree with it. When we start learning new words -both in mother tongue or foreign one- we usually learn literal meanings of them. It is the first time we see them and we judge them within the context we meet them. Then we realize that these words may have friends (collacations) and they may change their meanings when they are around them. After a while we also understand that they may have more than one job (parts of speech) and their locations may vary as they shift one to another. On our journey to learn the language, we may meet some new words that can replace them (synonyms) or we can meet some who have the opposite personality (antonyms). Sometimes we think that we really know that people but all of a sudden they may act like somebody else (homophones).

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What method of grammar presentation do you think is used most in your area?

I think deductive grammar presentation is used most in my area.

What are the key ideas from the two grammar sessions to pass on to local teachers?

Deductive teaching, even though it is used commonly, have some disadvantages. It may drive many students away from learning a foreign language because it is usually " talk and chalk " with rote learning. They should focus on inductive teaching more since it is a student-centered and it can make an impression on students’ contextual memory.

How do you think they will react to the ideas?

Probably they will object to the idea of using inductive teaching since it requires more time to plan a lesson with the technique and also more time to teach with it. But as they become more familiar with concept probably they will be more willing to integrate the technique to at least some parts of their lessons.

How can you make your classes more communicative with grammar?

First of all the teachers who teach foreign languages should remember that teaching grammar is not our only goal while teaching a new language. I think our main goal is motivating our students to learn it. If they get involved in the process more, if they feel like they can notice how the concept works from various texts that are given by the teacher they will be more motivated. Thus, they will be more communicative with not only grammar but with the language they learn.

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What do you now understand the role of a PLC facilitator to be?

I realized that PLC facilitators have various roles from organizing monthly meetings to encourage sharing of ideas during the meetings and much more.

How do you feel about the role of a facilitator?

I think it should be a really fullfilling thing to be a facilitator because the last seven days were the best times for me to learn new things from my colleagues and if I become a facilitator I will meet more people and if I meet more people I will learn from their experiences and hopefully they will gain new perspectives.

What new networks have you built during the course that will help you?

I met really wonderful people here and I am sure we will keep in touch with the most of them and we will support each other professionally, we will keep our Whatspp group and help while preparing for our PLCs.

How will you work with others from your region to support each other?

I believe that we experience similar problems so during the meetings we will probably discuss them and try to find sollutions to them, also we will help each other to help our teachings to become more engaging etc.

Are there any questions you still have about the role of PLCs and faciliatators in your teaching context? If so, what are they?

When I became teacher what I did was trying to do things my teachers did and I thought it was effective and avoiding the things that I didn't like. Here I learned lots of new techniques thanks to our lovely moderators. Hopefully I learned many things not only from the topics taught but also the way they taught the lessons.