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My first day on the PDC program was more enjoyable and informative than I expected. We’ve met lots of primary school teachers all around the country. Sharing our thoughts, feelings, problems, and solutions with each other was great.

We’ve started to meet each other with some icebreaker activities. I think they’re a useful way to create a nice and warm atmosphere for a group of people who haven’t met before. I can use most of them both as a teacher and facilitator. We’ve also got the main basics of PDC, its process, benefits, challenges, etc. I’ve learned that when we become facilitators, we won’t try to teach something to our colleagues; we’ll create a relaxed atmosphere to share new ideas, experiences, feelings, and forces they face in the teaching process.

Today’s program met my expectations. It provided opportunity to practice our English language skills. At the end of my first day of the program, I feel less alone about the problems in the ELT process, more supported by my colleagues here, and more capable of creating solutions to the problems that I face in my ELT process.

Zeynep Çakmak

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After the second day of PDC’s program, my ideas about teaching English to young learners have changed in some matters.

First of all, I realized that I focus on the language use of students more than their attempts to make sense in my teaching process. But for young learners, meaning is more important than the accurate use of language. Hereafter, I’ll try to understand the message they want to express and respond in a positive way to their speaking attempts in English.

Secondly, I realized that trying to explain the necessity of learning a language to students is not a good idea. As teachers, we should try to create a positive learning atmosphere, teach English in an enjoyable way, and motivate them. We should give some space to young learners to discover their own reasons for learning English.

Lastly, my critical judgments towards some inappropriate behaviors of young learners have changed. I have learned that young learners may not control their behaviors even if they are eager to attend an activity or if they have positive feelings about the course.

I’ll take into consideration all this new information and perspectives about teaching young learners in my teaching process.

Zeynep Çakmak

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1- In the course books, dialogues should be presented in a meaningful context. The teacher can create some warm-up activities before presenting the dialogue to make the meaning clear and understandable. As teachers, we should not start to present a dialogue by making groups of students and wanting them to read and act it out. We should arrange a lesson plan to present a dialogue to make it meaningful and enjoyable for young learners. We can use some drilling, repeating, pictures,realias, objects, etc. before presenting the dialogue.

2- PDC gave me some ideas about using dialogues to improve students’ speaking skills. I’ve learned that we shouldn’t choose students from the class and want them to act the dialogue out. It will be time consuming and stressful for students. We should group them and repeat the dialogue (maybe with rhythms). Grouping and working together is important.

Also, I’ve learned that using drills, keeping rhythm, and grouping students while presenting a dialogue are important. I’ll give much more importance to these techniques in my classes.

Zeynep Çakmak

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I think shared reading is a very effective procedure for L2 learners because they learn how to read a text in a systematic way with the help of their teachers. Reading a text and choosing a student to read it again is a totally useless process. In shared reading, teachers go on step by step, work with all the learners, clarify the problematic parts of the passage, improve the students’ knowledge, and motivate them to improve their reading skills.

But, shared reading can be difficult for lower level L2 students. Because in shared reading, students have lots of responsibilities for the reading activity. L2 learners need to know how to pronounce the words, the meaning of the words, chunks, patterns, etc. If they have to focus on these things too much, they will have some problems with fluency, comprehension, confidence, and meaning of the passage in shared reading activities.

Zeynep Çakmak

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1-Yes, I agree with this idea. Students may not control their behaviors even if they have positive feelings towards the activity/course. As teachers, we need to develop some activities to create a positive and enjoyable learning atmosphere for them. But, these activities may cause a lose off control in the classroom. They may behave in an inappropriate way in such circumstances.

2- Keeping a balance in the classroom is hard while trying to make the course enjoyable, exploratory, and productive. Teachers can set up the rules and responsibilities for the course at the beginning of the term. These rules help students to know what goes on in the classroom environment. Also, teachers should have some routines in the classroom. These routines will be time-saving for students and teachers. Lastly, teachers should collaborate with students, parents, and school administrators. Cooperation is important.

Zeynep Çakmak

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1- Yes, I’ve learned many tips from today’s session that I can use to manage my PDC’s.

I’ve learned some techniques to create groups. Grouping is a very efficient way to encourage people to work together and collaborate. Giving people numbers(odds-evens), colors, and creating onion rings was a good grouping technique. It was a good idea to assign people to four different destinations and to select a captain and co-pilot. Grouping people as sleeping pandas was a very enjoyable activity. Also, grouping people as writers and runners and making activities according to this technique was a good idea. I can use them in my PDCs.

I’ve also learned lots of settler and stirring activities to share with my colleagues in my PDCs. In that way, they can try these techniques in their classrooms and see whether they are effective or not.

Lastly, I can share my ideas about the assessment process. I want to share the difference between assessing for learning and assessing of learning. We need to recognize the types of assessments that we apply in our classrooms.

2- I need to think about keeping balance in the classroom, appropriate classroom and school settings to apply some activities, assessment types that we need to apply in our classrooms.

Zeynep Çakmak

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1- Yes, my view of the assessment has changed. Generally, I use formal assessment in my teaching process. This is a result-oriented way of assessment. In this way, we miss our students’ improvement in the process. To assess their progress and enhance their learning, I need to give more importance to peer assessment, informal assessment, and self-assessment types.

2- Now, I feel more informed and experienced in terms of the assessment process and assessment types. So, my monkey has changed in a good way.

Zeynep Çakmak

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1- I think learning new techniques and activities to enhance the effectiveness of the English language teaching process will be the greatest benefit for the teachers who are in my local context. We will share our ideas, techniques, activities, problems, solutions, etc. In that, they don’t feel alone in this process and can try to make good changes in their classroom environments.

2- Actually, the trainers did lots of PDC sessions here. So, I have got a main picture of PDC in my mind. Now, I have an answer for these questions: How the process goes on a PDC session, what are the critical points, what are the do’s and don’ts in the process , what are the roles of a facilitator, what can I share with my colleagues,etc. This face to face training program will be a sample for me and I will try to adapt my PDC sessions to it.