English Together Reflective Journal by İlkay Arar https://padlet.com/29wjgqmsc2/mt00yugq91wd2dmj en-us 2022-10-30 15:15:33 UTC 2022-11-07 14:00:43 UTC hello@padlet.com 1. What have you learned in today's workshop? 2. How do you now feel about being a PDC facilitator? 3. What activities from today would you like to use in your PDC? 29wjgqmsc2 https://padlet.com/29wjgqmsc2/mt00yugq91wd2dmj/wish/2363684241 1) In today's workshop the main theme was going on the "reflection". As being a PDC facilitator giving feedbacks is one of our main aims. So that, defining the reflection is crucial. While preparing a PDC plan, including the reflection into the context will give the opportunity to link the previous subjects, ideas, etc. to the next experiences.
 2) As I didn't know what a facilitator is before, I had questions about it. Today, all is answered during the session and as a result I get excited about being a facilitator. To be a part of a team in solving our common problems and give them chance to be creative and together will satisfy me both as a teacher and a facilitator.
3) My personal star activity was my favourite because it includes too many suprises in itself. While trying to find out an answer's question you encounter with other information about the person that you don't know. So that it's really warming up one another. Onion Rings was challenging because stating the problems and finding solutions in that short time was a bit difficult. But changing the person you're talking to gives the opportunity to see others' point of views and link the ideas that you've just talked with another person.]]> 2022-10-31 17:11:08 UTC https://padlet.com/29wjgqmsc2/mt00yugq91wd2dmj/wish/2363684241 Think about the materials / tasks / activities we have done today. Choose at least three. 1) What were the purposes of these? 2) How could you use these kinds of materials /tasks/activities in your PDC meeting? 29wjgqmsc2 https://padlet.com/29wjgqmsc2/mt00yugq91wd2dmj/wish/2365280236 1) Today, throughout the lesson we've experienced many materials, tasks and activities. The common things of these things were about warming up, seeing others' point of views, understanding pros&cons of a task, getting motivated and having fun.
2) I would choose to use pictorial, listen&do posters and jigsaw reading. Pictorial is an effective way to warm up with the others and make people to think about conveying into their classrooms. Listen&do posters give the chance of seeing other people's creavity, point of views. Jigsaw reading helps people to learn cooperatively. It helps communication and problem-solving skills in a group. So, this is not an individual activity which is not suitable for the PDC meetings.]]> 2022-11-01 16:58:25 UTC https://padlet.com/29wjgqmsc2/mt00yugq91wd2dmj/wish/2365280236 1) What do you think needs to be adapted most in your coursebooks to help children improve their oral skills? 2) If you were running a PDC meeting on improving oral skills, which suggestions/practices from the training do you think would be useful to include? 29wjgqmsc2 https://padlet.com/29wjgqmsc2/mt00yugq91wd2dmj/wish/2367071342 1) Many precautions should be taken about the coursebooks on primary classes level. But, initially there should be more examples of the dialogs in each one. The number of the dialogs are not enough to improve students' oral skill. Beside from that the dialogs that are already in the book are not effective or suitable for the students in many ways. Firstly, the graphic designs, colours, the size and the context of the pictures can not reflect the main idea of the  context. Apart from that most of the sentences are too long for the level of the students and they are not useful in the daily life. As a result, these so called dialogs don't have a meaningful and clarified language for them to speak. Our first aim should be motivating the student to speak but these problematic areas put sets in front of them.
2) I would choose "new friends in common" and "pass the paper". New friends in common can be useful especially for the warming up sessions. It pushes you to find common ways with an unknown person and it makes a connection between them which helps to declare their opinions or work as a team easily later. On the other hand, pass the paper is a much more useful practice in oral skills. Every time a paper comes in front of you, you have to talk, discuss and declare your opinions about the subject. So it pushes you to speak, explain your contradictions and as a result improve your oral skills.]]> 2022-11-02 17:12:09 UTC https://padlet.com/29wjgqmsc2/mt00yugq91wd2dmj/wish/2367071342 1) What is one difficulty you think your teachers (PDC members) experience when doing reading with children? 2) Teaching reading is a big topic. Which aspect of the topic would be useful to discuss in your PDC session? 3) Do you think Shared Reading is a suitable procedure to use with L2 children? Why/why not? 29wjgqmsc2 https://padlet.com/29wjgqmsc2/mt00yugq91wd2dmj/wish/2371199571 1) Most of the teachers encounter with the same problem among the students which is children's lack of motivation to reading. This is of course a problematic situation not only about in the target language but also in their mother tongue. Teachers need to get the students motivated by the help of different reading activities.
2) Ss don't have a purpose to read and as teachers we should make them to find this purpose for themselves. The duty of us is getting the students motivated towards reading by warming-up activities, showing pictures, predicting the story before which all help encouraging the students to read.
3) I think Shared Reading is the most suitable procedure for L2 students. Because these learners have difficulty in reading skills. By the help of this activity, students become more active so that they take the responsibility to get part in the reading activity. ]]> 2022-11-05 17:21:17 UTC https://padlet.com/29wjgqmsc2/mt00yugq91wd2dmj/wish/2371199571 Which activities from today could you use with your PDC teachers and why? 29wjgqmsc2 https://padlet.com/29wjgqmsc2/mt00yugq91wd2dmj/wish/2371226842 Actually, I am planning to use "look, say, cover, write, check, correction". Because it will give the PDC teachers to identify the most challenging parts of the spelling and give chance them to self-assess themselves. Also, this is an activity to use in their own classes and in all levels. LSCWCC is being used for the words that have been already known by the students and with the help of this activity they re-learn the correct spelling.

]]> 2022-11-05 18:07:28 UTC https://padlet.com/29wjgqmsc2/mt00yugq91wd2dmj/wish/2371226842 1) Are there any tips or techniques from the sessions today that you could manage your PDCs positively? 2) Are there any other elements of classroom management in your PDCs that you will have to think about (managing Feedback for example) 29wjgqmsc2 https://padlet.com/29wjgqmsc2/mt00yugq91wd2dmj/wish/2371278709 1) In PDC meetings, members will not know each other, for that reason warming up them fast is crucial. "Chinese Whisper" is a good way to prepare the members introducing into the subject and get them motivated in an enjoyable way. They would see making mistakes are very normal for all the people and this will help to encourage them express themselves freely throuhout the session. As another example which can help them to summarize the whole session in a fun way is "hot seat". By the help of this activity, they can remember the whole session and revise them.
2) In PDC meetings, class management will be an important subject for the members to understand the session and adjust it to their classes. To manage the class, ICQs will play an important role to prevent the complexity. ICQs will help getting everybody's attention, the importance of the context, the purpose of the activity. They are short, clear and effective ways to manage the classroom.]]> 2022-11-05 19:48:06 UTC https://padlet.com/29wjgqmsc2/mt00yugq91wd2dmj/wish/2371278709 1) What do you consider the greatest benefit of being in a Professional Development Community for teachers of English in your local context? 2)How do you plan to benefit from the networks you have built throughout the training when you establish a PDC in your area? 3) 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? 29wjgqmsc2 https://padlet.com/29wjgqmsc2/mt00yugq91wd2dmj/wish/2371861037 1) I have been working as an English teacher for eleven years and with the help of this programme I feel the part of a solution for the first time. Problems while teaching English can differ according to the disricts. Most of the time in the same disrict  teachers have the similar problems. With the help of PDC sessions we can all underline the problems and maybe the first time will have solutions in a "standarized" way under the light of the scientific approaches. We will fit the techniques into our classrooms and share them in the following sessions so that we all will collaborate and work as a team which can bring the success. 
2) PDC sessions are holding an important role in our areas. For that reason carrying out them properly is crucial. Our facilitators have given and emphasized the information we need. Moreover, we will be in touch before our sessions and they will continue their guidance. Apart from that our training class consists of many people from different parts of our country. While studying here, we have the chance to work together all the time (changing the groups).  We have studied as a team and with the habit of working and producing together, asking and sharing any knowladge we could ask for their opinion about anything even after we split up.
3) PDC training sessions have given the chance to look at the problems all together; and working on them as a group arose the ability to see other point of views. By the help of the our facilitators' emphasis on certain things draw a template about how a lesson should be carried out, what we can do about the problematic skills of the children and how we can teach English effectively.]]> 2022-11-06 17:39:29 UTC https://padlet.com/29wjgqmsc2/mt00yugq91wd2dmj/wish/2371861037