My Reflective Journal by

galp78 — 2023-11-18 11:03:03 UTC

Hello, this is me Gökhan ALP, from Ceyhan, Adana. This is my 21 years of teaching English. I have taught English in every level of schools including High School, Secondary School and Primary school. Now we are in Erzurum and English Together project starts :)

A nice warm-up

galp78 — 2023-11-19 16:44:56 UTC

At the beginning of the session, we applied a nice warm-up activity to get to know each other better.

You write down your name in the middle of paper, stick it anywhere in the class, and go and ask other people questions about themselves and write down the answers to their sheets.

After 5 minutes of wandering around the papers, you sit down to your place and change your papers with the person next to you. You ask questions about the answers given in the paper to him/her. Then you turn back your paper in front of you, and start describing the person to your buddy who is sitting opposite you.

To me, a great activity to get to know each other.

Opinions reshaped

galp78 — 2023-11-19 17:01:00 UTC

We did some jigsaw reading, used visuals to increase motivation and create a flowing discussion atmosphere in our classes and learned how to change a non listening part of a book to a listening activity by using some 3rd party applications and our creativity, of course. We, as a group, tried to change a reading passage and it's questions to a listening activity. We used voicemaker.in web page to create a listening text. Afterwards, in each group 2 people changed their places with the others to see what other groups were preparing. We thought, shared, and stole ideas to apply in our classes.

Our motto is "Think, Pair and Share"

but I wanna add a new word to this slogan, " Think, Pair, Share and Apply"

preparing a lesson plan to give it a go

galp78 — 2023-11-20 21:00:58 UTC

Today, we were given a task to prepare a real lesson plan as a group work. In our PDC lessons with the teachers, we learnt how to guide and give assistance to teachers while preparing a realistic and practical lesson plan. We organized pre, while and after activities and got the idea "how good and effective splitting classes into groups is" to include all participants in classes. Therefore, I could say that I can easily apply the stages in my PDC session.

When it comes to point of changes I would do, I wouldn't do the activity to cut out the papers, shuffle them and ask teachers to re order the lesson plan. Instead, use a mind map activity and let them brainstorming first. Ask them what are they really doing in their classes. Later on, I share some good examples and then ask them to create their own plans. And say that you are free to have a look at and steal from your friends while they are doing the same task.

Also, instead of putting the countdown clock, which makes them more stressful, I can play a relaxing and motivating music at the background.

Ideas may change when you come across a good example.

galp78 — 2023-11-20 21:14:06 UTC

I won't write down long sentences to describe what I felt today when I was doing this activity but only say "I have learnt to look at the activities from our students eyes 👀".
In fact, I felt how simple are the things to make a book better for the learners. However, we do bite our nose off by making things more complicated.
I have remembered the phrases you both utter, "Simple is better" and " Less is More"

Shared reading

galp78 — 2023-11-21 19:43:35 UTC

Shared reading means reading a book together and this method creates rich interaction during reading and it offers opportunity to communicate, therefore I could easily say that shared reading is a good way to introduce simple stories to L2 children. This method provides motivation and during reading, you can ask questions and give a pause to let listeners respond. There are some shortcomings as well, such as L2 learners may feel shy, have a fear to mispronounce the unknown words and have lack of interest. Also the teacher should pre-plan the activity so that not to get stuck in any moment.

In today's session, I do like the activity of giving a long word to SS, and asking them to find out as many words as they can in a given period of time. The activity goes on by asking SS to create a long and absurd sentence by using the words that they found out beforehand.

As a post activity, I would like to add a part in which SS draw a picture about the sentence that they composed and may ask them to act out to make it more interesting.

Managing PDC sessions positively

galp78 — 2023-11-23 21:25:13 UTC

( participants sit in groups of 4)
I could use mind mapping activity and write the sentence down to the board and ask the participants to think about the challenges they encounter in their classes for about 2 minutes. (Think & Share part) Now as a facilitator, I ask each group to share the challenges and write them down to the board. I distribute a paper to each group and ask them to write down the things they do to manage their classes. Afterwards, I choose two captains and two co pilots in each group and ask co pilots to rotate clockwise. Captains sit in their places and tells the methods they use in their classes. After I clap my hands, each co pilots stand up and continue to rotate clockwise. And this continues till they return to their original groups. Later on, I give each group a sheet of paper and ask groups to wr te down a problem and solving method list.
And do a demo;
Challenge: lack of interest
Solution : Use visuals to promote motivation

( give them 15 minutes and start the countdown clock with a calming background music)

If I'm well planned, ı know that I will not encounter any management problems but in any way If my participants make noise during my session, I use chants, repetitions ( class , class -> yes, yes) , count back ( three, two, one) , use my body language, imitate as if I was speaking with someone else and show my discomfort, stand still to make them aware that I'm aware, give them roles, engage with participants closely, allow them to work together and deliver short presentations, divide sections of the classroom through which students rotate, etc...

As a facilitator, I could encounter challenges during my session with participants.
1. Some of them feel forced to attend such sessions.
2. I could lose or try to over control the class.
3. I may not give clear instructions and feedback.
4. They may not feel comfortable in such a meeting.
5. They may have some disruptive behavior.

I will try to improve myself to overcome such challenges and try to make them aware that we are on the same boat.

Before the big bang :)

galp78 — 2023-11-24 16:13:04 UTC

Answer 1: of course yes, because I have an insight of how to;
A) prepare a lesson plan effectively,
B) not to teach everything at once,
C) give clear instructions,
D) demo first,
E) let students / participants do the most of the stuff ( engage them)
F) group SS/ Participants and ask them to rotate
and etc...

Answer 2:
We have found chance to speak and listen in English and talked about the challenges we have encountered during our teaching and discussed for solutions to overcome specific problems.

Answer 3:
I could use "what's up" to share and be in contact with the participants. I could share the official documents from the ministry, and let them know about the venue and time beforehand. I could ask them to bring necessary items with them when attending the sessions. We could share good samples of assessments we applied in our schools, etc. And furthermore, we could create an e-book in which we share good samples as dissemination.

Answer 4:
By the help of this course, I learned to adapt and apply lesson plans effectively and conduct what I have acquired in my classes. I have learned many key points to cope with the challenges I could encounter during my lessons, such as;

1. "coughing" , and saying "thank you" without having an eye contact to arise attention.
2. Using body language and showing my discomfort
3. Creating chants which whole class will understand
4. Setting a stress free environment
5. Being pre planned
6. Pairing or grouping students to engage them
7. Giving feedback in informative way
etc...
8. Using participants as a resource.