https://padlet.com/hazelkulak/a105euhz54xz3ois en-us 2022-08-19 10:33:37 UTC 2023-01-19 06:05:08 UTC hello@padlet.com hazelkulak https://padlet.com/hazelkulak/a105euhz54xz3ois/wish/2265859947 Today, we started with a ice-breaking activity, "my personal star". This activity helped all group members to feel more relaxed to the new teacher community. It was good to meet each other since we will be together for 10 days. It also built a positive rapport among the teachers. I can make use of this ice-breaking activity for my students at the beginning of the semester especially for the 5th graders. As they will be new to school, the feeling of belonging to the classmates will create positive atmosphere. Thus, they will be more motivated and eager to learning English.]]> 2022-08-19 21:11:16 UTC https://padlet.com/hazelkulak/a105euhz54xz3ois/wish/2265859947 hazelkulak https://padlet.com/hazelkulak/a105euhz54xz3ois/wish/2266212456 I think, both can be beneficial for students as far as we keep the balance of their usage as for their level, age, pace of learning and class hours etc. Authentic material give rich input about daily speech. On the other hand, they can be challenging for students because of the accent & pace of the speaker. When we look from a different perspective,the listening materials in the coursebooks can provide more appropriate contexts for the target theme and language focus. Both have pros and cons.]]> 2022-08-20 17:08:52 UTC https://padlet.com/hazelkulak/a105euhz54xz3ois/wish/2266212456 hazelkulak https://padlet.com/hazelkulak/a105euhz54xz3ois/wish/2266228938 Students need to be active participants during the listening tasks by combining a receptive skill with a productive skill to build a real life usage. For example, in today's session, class memory game was my favorite one. My students can produce many question forms to ask the friend in front of class. Students also like the quizzes and answering as the first. It will be competitive for them. This activity will encourage my students to listen in a more focused way.]]> 2022-08-20 18:12:53 UTC https://padlet.com/hazelkulak/a105euhz54xz3ois/wish/2266228938 hazelkulak https://padlet.com/hazelkulak/a105euhz54xz3ois/wish/2266547451 In today's session, we talked about the key points for the speaking activities. I think speaking is the most challenging skill for the students since they need to produce something in orally. As this skill requires some vocabulary and grammar knowledge to create sentences, weaker students can be prejudiced for their potential. As a teacher, I need to struggle with their emotional barriers about speaking. For example, the most common problems are making mistakes in terms of pronunciation and being teased by the rest of class. My students also show a resistance to the use of English. I observed that using Turkish is their safe area. ]]> 2022-08-21 14:12:09 UTC https://padlet.com/hazelkulak/a105euhz54xz3ois/wish/2266547451 hazelkulak https://padlet.com/hazelkulak/a105euhz54xz3ois/wish/2266570039 We have talked about many suggestions to help our students talk more in English. Before we start speaking activity, raising students' curiosity to the content and giving some personal experiences can help us to make our students ready for the activity. Another uselful suggestion is giving students some time for preparation. This will increase their confidence for speaking. Another important way is emphasizing the aim of the activity. When students know what the reason is behind this activity, students can be more motivated as they will get real life usage. Error correction is another important issue. So as not to make our students demotivated, we need to avoid correct them while speaking. I liked how to and when to use peer correction, modelling, putting main mistakes on board and feedback cards the most.]]> 2022-08-21 15:13:27 UTC https://padlet.com/hazelkulak/a105euhz54xz3ois/wish/2266570039 hazelkulak https://padlet.com/hazelkulak/a105euhz54xz3ois/wish/2267483237 In today's session, we have talked about what the flipped learning is and how we can apply in our own classes. First, it is very useful in terms of saving time in class by not losing so much time for introduction and preparation. When my students read the text at home, they have chance to understand it at their own pace. I can also have more time for post activity. In this way, I will have a chance to concentrate on production part and language structures. ]]> 2022-08-22 14:37:06 UTC https://padlet.com/hazelkulak/a105euhz54xz3ois/wish/2267483237 hazelkulak https://padlet.com/hazelkulak/a105euhz54xz3ois/wish/2267505777 We have learnt many things to apply in our reading classes. To me, the activity suggestions for pre, while (gist & detailed), post reading are the most useful parts. Another thing that I noted is not using more than 7 vocabulary for pre-reading. I will be more careful about it. From now on, I won't make use read out loud activity. In addition, I found using flipped learning for my reading classes. Since I sometimes have problems with keeping up with the curriculum, I can give reading the text at home. In this way, my students will come to class as prepared.]]> 2022-08-22 14:53:27 UTC https://padlet.com/hazelkulak/a105euhz54xz3ois/wish/2267505777 hazelkulak https://padlet.com/hazelkulak/a105euhz54xz3ois/wish/2268564075 In today’s session, we have covered three types of writing; product, process and snack. Three of them are useful for my context. For example, I can use product writing for my 5th and 6th graders since giving a model text and replicating it will help their writing. In this way, students will feel more confident and eager to write. Process writing suits my 7th and 8th graders. They are able to write full sentences with a given topic. They can also  write individually and autonomously. Snack writing is also good for all the graders. My students like writing for pleasure because they dont focus on the accuracy and the fear of making mistakes. They all love commenting to something. 

]]> 2022-08-23 09:16:03 UTC https://padlet.com/hazelkulak/a105euhz54xz3ois/wish/2268564075 hazelkulak https://padlet.com/hazelkulak/a105euhz54xz3ois/wish/2268565288 We started writing lesson with “agony aunt” activity. We wrote  some advices to the given situations and problems about writing lessons of some teachers. By this activity, we shared different solutions to some common problems we experience in our own classes. We can also apply this activity on padlet. Every Teacher can write  his/her suggestions on the comment part. They can read all advices easily.
Another thing my colleques would be interested in is how to correct students’ errors. I believe they will like self and peer corrections usage in their classes. Thus, they can save time for correction.]]> 2022-08-23 09:17:51 UTC https://padlet.com/hazelkulak/a105euhz54xz3ois/wish/2268565288 hazelkulak https://padlet.com/hazelkulak/a105euhz54xz3ois/wish/2268567258 I always use this website for all language skills. If I talk about just writing part, there are many worksheets which include pre, while and post activities. Students can also make choice for the topic they would like to write about. There are a wide range  of topics for real life purposes. They can practice how to write a CV, an email, an invitation card etc. according to their level. ]]> 2022-08-23 09:20:29 UTC https://padlet.com/hazelkulak/a105euhz54xz3ois/wish/2268567258 hazelkulak https://padlet.com/hazelkulak/a105euhz54xz3ois/wish/2269896892 Today, we talked about implicit and explicit grammar teaching. We discussed the advantages of the usage of both. Both of them have practice and production parts. The difference is how student will get the structure. For our own class, it can be sometimes difficult to use implicit teaching for some grammar structures. For example, relative clauses are challenging one to teach. Student’s are not familiar with it in their mother tongue. They can also be confused the relative clauses with -wh questions. For these reasons, we can use explicit teaching. After providing a context, we can make students underline sentences and than concentrated on the meaning. We can use both of them according to the content and the level. ]]> 2022-08-24 09:13:09 UTC https://padlet.com/hazelkulak/a105euhz54xz3ois/wish/2269896892 hazelkulak https://padlet.com/hazelkulak/a105euhz54xz3ois/wish/2269898201 In my PDC sessions, I want my collegues to discuss the activity types for explicit and implicit grammar teaching. They can also discuss how to differenciate controlled, guided and freer grammar activities for weaker and stronger students. ]]> 2022-08-24 09:15:07 UTC https://padlet.com/hazelkulak/a105euhz54xz3ois/wish/2269898201 hazelkulak https://padlet.com/hazelkulak/a105euhz54xz3ois/wish/2270138115 We love teaching vocabulary to students because students experience difficulty in understanding context without knowing enough vocabulary. Activities for teaching vacobulary is also enjoyable and rich. For example, personalising a new word will be useful. My students can act out new words to make themselves remember easily. Adding some silly and fun details can be beneficial for my students. In addition, learners also need to learn more than the meaning of a new word. I will be more careful about providing the register, collacation and parts of speech of the new word.]]> 2022-08-24 14:03:19 UTC https://padlet.com/hazelkulak/a105euhz54xz3ois/wish/2270138115 hazelkulak https://padlet.com/hazelkulak/a105euhz54xz3ois/wish/2270140285 Students can make use of vocabulary notebooks by not only writing their Turkish meaning but also writing their own sentences with these new words. Lower graders can also draw pictures.]]> 2022-08-24 14:05:06 UTC https://padlet.com/hazelkulak/a105euhz54xz3ois/wish/2270140285 hazelkulak https://padlet.com/hazelkulak/a105euhz54xz3ois/wish/2270617375 Teachers can prepare their own videos to teach grammar. By means of this videos, students can watch them at their home how many times they want, in order to understand the function of the grammar structure. On the other hand, there can be some disadvantages like the difficulty in controlling students' understanding.]]> 2022-08-24 21:41:10 UTC https://padlet.com/hazelkulak/a105euhz54xz3ois/wish/2270617375 hazelkulak https://padlet.com/hazelkulak/a105euhz54xz3ois/wish/2271415275 I think assessment is one of the most significant part of teaching and learning processes of the students. Students generally have a tendecy to learn what we test in their learning. Thus, we need to assess our students’ all language skills. If we only focus on the grammar and vocabulary in our exams, students will not pay attention four language skills during the lessons. Many of my colleques don’t assess the skills and give grades for them. Another problem is the lack of rubric usage. We need to set clear criteria for the assessment rubrics according to their level.]]> 2022-08-25 13:24:12 UTC https://padlet.com/hazelkulak/a105euhz54xz3ois/wish/2271415275 hazelkulak https://padlet.com/hazelkulak/a105euhz54xz3ois/wish/2271416553 Self assessment helps students to evaluate their own learning. By this way, students will have a chance to see their strong and weak sides on their own. Thus, self assesment  boost the autonomy of the learners. Students sometimes cannot be sure about their own progress. They need feedback from their teachers. It can also be time consuming for the teacher so the teacher can give a format which has not so many items. Students are also needed to be trained. On the other hand, peer assessment will help teachers to save time. Students will also learn from each other. I think peer correction can be more reliable than self assessment since students will not generous while assessing each other. Both are not objective assessment types. For the sake of advantages of them, they can be used in our classes according to their age and level.]]> 2022-08-25 13:25:12 UTC https://padlet.com/hazelkulak/a105euhz54xz3ois/wish/2271416553 hazelkulak https://padlet.com/hazelkulak/a105euhz54xz3ois/wish/2271418525 I think I have learned a lot of things to share with my colleagues in 10 days PLC sessions. When I go back to my district, I will also create an atmosphere in which teachers will make discussions for common problems and find solutions like my PLC experience. I saw how to plan, guide and manage a group meeting from my trainers in Erzurum. I will also try to build a dynamic community in a similar way.]]> 2022-08-25 13:26:53 UTC https://padlet.com/hazelkulak/a105euhz54xz3ois/wish/2271418525 hazelkulak https://padlet.com/hazelkulak/a105euhz54xz3ois/wish/2271420707 I have had many friends who are going to be facilitators in their districts and apply PDCs for the teachers in their local contexts. After our PDC in Erzurum, we will continue to communicate and share our experiences in PDCs that we are going to apply in our districts.  We can also provide solutions to problems that we encounter and give suggestions each other that work well in our PDCs.]]> 2022-08-25 13:28:27 UTC https://padlet.com/hazelkulak/a105euhz54xz3ois/wish/2271420707 hazelkulak https://padlet.com/hazelkulak/a105euhz54xz3ois/wish/2271424289 We talked about how to plan and conduct a PDC in this session. ]]> 2022-08-25 13:31:03 UTC https://padlet.com/hazelkulak/a105euhz54xz3ois/wish/2271424289