Irem's Reflective Journal by

* About me *

iremteacher — 2023-11-18 11:01:30 UTC

Hi it is Emine Irem but I usually use my second name, Irem. I graduated from Hacettepe university, English Language and Literature. I have been working as primary school English teacher since last year, in Istanbul. Before that I worked with adults and university students in general. I love improving myself for my field and I'm looking forward to learn and explore more!

1.What was the most relevant task from today's session that would be appropriate and useful in your own classrooms and why?

iremteacher — 2023-11-18 19:33:55 UTC

The most useful task for my own classroom is 'snapwords' game. I think my students may find it fun and they can learn the letters better with it. It is suitable for their age.

2.What was the least relevant task to your local context? Why? Is there anything you could do to adapt it to make it more appropriate?

iremteacher — 2023-11-18 19:37:12 UTC

To my local context, because of the lack of resources it can be hard to use Actionbound app. However as we talked in our class, I can adapt it for my young learners, they can go for like a treasure hunt without using technological devices.

3. Comment on a training activity or technique which you found interesting/helpful or one which did not work and explain the reasons for your reaction.

iremteacher — 2023-11-18 19:40:02 UTC

I found the 'get to know you' activities, that we did at the beginning of the lesson, interesting and helpful. They are great warm up activities to meet new friends in the classroom.

4. How would you adapt one idea , suggestion or technique from the sesion to make it more appropriate and helpful for your upcoming PDC meetings and why?

iremteacher — 2023-11-18 19:43:24 UTC

As we talked about the problems that we may face during our own facilitation such as resistance of teachers, I would make us of Actionbound activity, it really connects the group members and gives the feeling of being successfull at something.

5. How will today's session influence your teaching practice?

iremteacher — 2023-11-18 19:45:00 UTC

Actually we just started today, I think it is early to comment but I believe that it will inspire and motivate me about my classes.

iremteacher — 2023-11-19 16:43:17 UTC

This is the part about Ilkem, my partner in the activiy this morning. She graduated from Kayseri Erciyes Uni. She is 27 years old, she is single her favorite color is black. She likes strawberries but she can only eat them in summer. She wants to visit London. She is living in Istanbul like me. Her favorite food is kebab.

1.Think about the materials/tasks/activities we have done today (jigsaw reading, questionnaire, use of visuals). What were the purposes of these?

iremteacher — 2023-11-19 16:54:45 UTC

Questionnaire, use of visuals and jigsaw reading are all related. With the onion ring activity we discussed our opinions about the questionnaire so we shortly had an idea. With the visuals we consolidated our thoughts about the subjects. After doing the jigsaw reading, and summarizing the paragraphs to our friends, I believe that we clearly understood the subject in a better way.
My favorite one was the helicopter activity because there was a smooth transition to applying listening activities, giving instructions to students.
The last one was about creating a listening activity out of a regular activity, it was creative but I couldn't focus effectively because it was the last our (battery died :( )

2.How could you use these kinds of materials ,tasks, activities?

iremteacher — 2023-11-19 17:11:45 UTC

For the first activity that we shouted names of our friends to ask and learn something about them, I adapt it to my primary school kids like a questionnaire. I created my own version, students go to their friends' places and ask the questions about favorites.

Do you think Shared Reading is a suitable procedure to use with L2 children? Why? Why not?

iremteacher — 2023-11-21 19:15:47 UTC

For my opinion, It is suitable for children because it is engaging the students to process and gives students an opportunity to be a part of it.

Is there anything in the sessions today that you found particularly interesting and would like to find out more about?

iremteacher — 2023-11-21 19:17:59 UTC

Color phonics and binglish exercises are especially interesting for me, I would love to use them in my classess. I will definitely search for more !

Is it possible to match the stages of this session with the stages of the PDC cycle?

iremteacher — 2023-11-21 19:24:42 UTC

For the warm up part Simon Teacher drew some pictures on the board and asked us questions about them. Then he wanted us to repeat the structures after him. For the engage and share part, we thought about similar activities and shared with each other. For the reflect and evaluate part, we shared our posters and ideas with the rest of the class.

Have your ideas about teaching young learners changed in any way? If so, how?

iremteacher — 2023-11-21 19:32:16 UTC

I realized that it would be better if I use more interesting and creative activities. But I don't have the right audience for it, unfortunately.

iremteacher — 2023-11-23 15:53:42 UTC

Are there any tips or techniques from the sessions today that you could use to manage your PDCs positively?

iremteacher — 2023-11-23 16:35:33 UTC

The warmers that we learned in the morning session could be used to create positive environment. For example, the activity that we wrote things about ourselves and the others guessed who the person is can be used for PDC, it is entertaining. But it cant be used at the first meeting because people wont know each other.

I searched the Dave's ESL cafe from the list Simon shared, M & M to speak game maybe a good warmer.

Are there any other elements of classroom management in your PDCs that you will have to think about (managing Feedback).

iremteacher — 2023-11-23 16:41:44 UTC

Last year when I attended PDCs in my city, I thought that why were doing this because I wasn't told the aim of the meeting so the classroom atmosphere wasn't good.

So when I hold meeting when I go back, for the classroom management I should make sure that attenders are clear about the aims and instructions.

1) Has your view of assessment changed? How?

iremteacher — 2023-11-24 19:01:44 UTC

Yes, it has. Before when we say assessment I was thinking about official ones. But Im more aware of the assessment types now.

2) What do you consider the greatest benefit of being in a Professional Development Community for teachers of English in your local context?

iremteacher — 2023-11-24 19:03:59 UTC

The greatest benefits are supporting each other, knowing that most of us having similar problems and sharing the ideas and solutions for these problems.

3) How do you plan to benefit from the networks you have built throughout the training when you establish a PDC in your area?

iremteacher — 2023-11-24 19:08:34 UTC

At first, we should keep in touch with the other teachers to gain a real benefit from our meeting. For me, the other important benefit is sharing sources, because internet is like a bin, to reach useful sources we should share with each other.

4) How do you expect the PDC sessions in the programme would help you deal with possible problems about planning and conducting PDCs in your teaching context?

iremteacher — 2023-11-24 19:14:30 UTC

Sessions are built up on our PDC cycle, so when we look closely we can understand how we can manage planning. But when it comes to possible problems, like we talked about today, we need more support I think. For example our friends in the class are really anxious about how to manage resistance ( as far as I observe, Im okay about it though). Maybe you can give more tips about it.