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Starting the 10 day training  with such a fruitful session was really motivating. What I like most about today’s session is that both Burcu and Swany teacher showed us how to be a facilitator not a lecturer or a trainer. They were both great role models.
Starting the session with an ice breaker activity to get to know each other is a great idea and I am planning to use the same activity in my own PDC sessions.
In the following sessions, using Actionbound was also motivating but I am not sure if my participants in my town agree with me🤭 So I am not sure about integrating an Actionbound activity in my PDC session. All in all, using WEB 2.0 tools is a good idea to motivate participants. On the other hand using pen and paper activities might be boring for adult learners. The fact that my participants are teachers of young learners do not change the reality that they are adult. So while planning the activities for my PDCs, I am planning to keep this fact in my mind.
To summarize, it was a beneficial session for me and I ended the day with many things in my pocket. Thanks 🙏

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In the morning session, letting the participants to know more about each other via  ‘draw your name’ activity is a good start. Thanks to ‘telephone lines’ activity, all the participants have a chance to talk to more people. With the ‘standing next to pictures’ and ‘agree and disagree with thumbs up/down’, participants can a have chance to espress and justify their ideas. ‘Jigsaw reading’ was among my favorite activities. Thanks to this one, we read about one aspect of the topic and shared what we have learnt and learnt from other group members. When it comes to onion ring, talking to every member in the group and sharing ideas with different people was really fun and fruitful.
As we mentioned in the afternoon sessions, using TPR with young learners to develop their language skills is appropriate because they tend to learn from direct experince. Since they are physically active, they feel more relaxed and become eager to learn.
Prior to the sessions; setting up sessions is a challenging but significant part. Getting prepared for the session in a detailed and effective way guarantees the success at the end of the sessions. During the sessions, it is important to monitor the participants and give constructive feedback.
When it comes to the role of the facilitator/trainer role, the teacher should be in a facilator role in young learners classroom so that the learning-teaching process can be more student-centered.
In brief, it was a demanding but a productive session. Thanks a lot 🙏🙏

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In the morning session, talking to 8 people and finding sth we have in common activity was a good start and I am planning to make use of this warm up activity in one of PD sessions. The part that we talked about the reasons why kids find it difficult to speak has really taught me a lot. Via mentimeter - one of my favorite Web 2.0 tool- collecting the ideas is a good idea. I really find it difficult to teaching speaking. Thanks to this session, my ideas about teaching speaking has changed a lot. After today’s morning session I realised that there is a lot of way to do it. While teaching speaking,  I can let my students practice as much as they can via controlled and freer dialogues. For weaker students, I can use back-chaining so that they can memorize the long sentences easily. Scaffolding the weaker ones is also another way to create a secure and peaceful atmosphere for them.In today’s session I also realised that the some of the dialogues in the coursebooks sent to us by Ministry do not meet the criteria necessarily but there is a way to adapt them.
When looked at the stages of PDC cycle, it is clearly seen that they are similar to the stages of this lesson. Both of them starts with a warm up activity. Next, In both first what is learnt in the previous session is went over. Following the review, both in the lesson and in the session, the learners or the participants are expected to analyze a topic with a critical point of view in engage and share part. Towards the end, the participants or the learners are supposed to produce or present something new as a reflection of what they have acquired. Closing remarks is the last stage where the short summary of the session is done.
In brief, today’s session was productive and full of practical ideas that I can make use of in my own class and PD sessions.
Thanks so much 💐

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‘Swap chairs if you….’ warm up activity was a great start. My students will really like it to start the English lesson with such an amazing ice-breaker. Before we start doing the 1st Activity of the morning session(Reading a Binglish Text) Burcu Hocam created context for the task by showing a quote from Leanordo  Da Vinci written in reverse. For setting up task, she first chose the readers and the observers. It was also important to find a spot in the classroom so as not to disturb others and hear the others reading. She also told the readers not to look at the text and the observers not to show the original version and note down mistakes. At the end, we did a group discussion and realized how it felt like to be beginner reader. Towards the end of the morning session, we prepared a lesson plan for a written text in our coursebooks. It was really good to see that we could apply what we’ve learnt so far.
Afternoon session started with a great shared reading demo. Thanks Swany, it was amazing🤩🤩 I am looking forward to going to back to my school. I will read a story book with my kids by using shared reading technique. I am also planning to include the things we did in the afternoon in my own PDC sessions. The things I like most about today’s session are shared reading technique and Binglish text and I am planning to read and search more about these two.
Thanks for this marvelous session 🥰💐

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Hi!
The warm up activity- Parasites- could be a good ice breaker for a listening lesson. I am totally sure that my kids would like it. Today I realized that I already used the mnemonics in my lessons but I didn’t know the term. Thanks 🙏 I was making up mnemonic sentences in Turkish but I think it is a much better idea to create mnemonic sentences in English. In addition to these, teaching spelling to kids was among my weaknesses. Thanks to today’s session, I‘ve found out that there are many different and practical activities to teach spelling to kids.
Classroom management or maintaining a balance  is another issue that primary language teachers may find difficult. As we try to make our lesson fun and interactive for our kids, we may sometimes lose the control. Today, I also realized that there can be a balance between being a strict and laid-back teacher. There are some possible ways of managing this like sharing responsibilities with the students, letting them set the rules themselves, and following some routines in language lessons.
As we come closer to the end of the training, I’ve learnt a lot from my colleagues and you. Thanks for every minute 🙏💐

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Hi!

On our 6th day at training, it is good to see that there are still many more things to cover. The warm up activity of the day-Chinese whispers- is one of the ones that I’ve already known. Alternating it as you did in the session made it much more challenging and I also liked the alternated version. I can use this warm up activity as an ice breaker when the topic is sth related to listening. And I think this may effect my PDC session in a positive way. As a stirrer, I really liked the idea- Stop the Bus. Since the Turkish students are already familiar with the game, it would be quite easy to play the game with them. Via onion ring activity, we discussed the things we can do to manage activities successfully and it was also good to talk to many people on this issue which I sometimes found challenging. Furthermore, running dictation activity is among my favorite ones. I am planning to use it in both English classes and PDC sessions.

When it comes to the assessment, it is one of the things that I don’t like about teaching-learning procedure. Thanks to today’s session, I realized that I should make use of different assessment types other than formal assessment. It was beneficial to evaluate and adapt a test by using the criteria for the child-friendly tests.

When it comes to the PDC session’s element,I need to think about  the reflect and evaluate part since the participants are not expected to write any reflections as we do here. That’s why I am not sure what to do for this part for now.

Thanks 💐

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After today's session, my view of assignment has changed a lot and I also believe that after applying the techniques that I've learned here, I will be eager to learn more about assessment. Before here, I used to think that assessment is something scary and I used to avoid it as much as I could. But after today's session, I started to think that evaluative assessment type can be a little scary but formative assessment type is nothing to be scared of.On the contrary, it is a guide and kind of checklist to stop and check what we have done successfully and what needs to be improved so far.
I consider myself lucky for being in such a fruitful training. When I think of my local context, first of all thanks to being in a Professional Development Community teachers will have a chance to speak in English. Moreover, they will refresh their theoratical knowledge about language teaching and discuss with their colleagues about teaching different skills to young learners, assessment, giving feedback etc.
Thanks to being here, I've built a great network. When I start to work with my PDC, I am planning to keep in contact with my colleagues to share ideas about the activites they do in their PDCs. Other than this I am planning to carry out e-twinning and Erasmus+projects with some of them.
Throughout the PDC sessions in the programme, each and every day we saw great examples of ice breakers or activities for engage and share parts. I am planning to copy them:) But I am aware of the fact that while I am planning the PDCs, I should think about the participants and their needs.
Throughout the sessions here, we have also seen the ways to adapt an activity or a plan in the desired way. When I meet the particpants, I can adapt the activities when necessary.