Journal 3

Creating Positive Peer Relationships in the Classroom

Two of the classes I have observed this year were preparation classes. One of them was the 6^th graders who have come from different schools and the other one was the 9^th grade classroom which also consisted of students who have come from other institutions. Thus, the environment in these two classrooms was different from that of the 5^th graders who have known each other for a long time. In these two classes, peer relationships were considerably different from that of the 5^th grade classroom.

At the beginning of the year, the students in these classes were usually hanging out in very small groups or individually. Especially in the 9^th graders, maybe because they are teenagers, the students generally preferred to be alone or with the only two or three people they knew. This situation affected the classroom environment negatively as well. For example, no one wanted to do group activities very willingly as they felt like strangers.

In these two grades, this problem was solved with different methods. For the case of the 9^th graders, the school organized an orientation program which they organize every year to make the students familiar with each other. Throughout this orientation program, the students joined some trips and sports events all together. These events were invaluable opportunities for teenagers to know each other better and to socialize. They made new friends and knew each other better after this orientation period. After this orientation program, the environment of the classroom changed considerably and we could observe more positive relationship patterns among the students. The English teacher also implemented some activities which helped them know each other better such as “Find someone who….” game.

For the case of the 6^th graders, the school did not have such a comprehensive orientation program. Rather, it was the teacher who prepared some activities and games to make the students more familiar with each other. For example, she always prepared fun group activities for them. She made them paint a picture, prepare a poster or define each other with the adjectives they have learned in the class in groups. After some time, she also added some language contests to her class which made the students feel more connected to their groups and added another dimension to their friendship.

To sum up, I can say that it is a challenging job to teach a class of students who are not familiar with each other. Thus, we should try to create positive peer relationships using all the sources we have. If the school can help us with an orientation program as in the case of 9^th graders, it can also be a very good opportunity to create a friendly classroom environment.

Journal 2

Do We Really Use Technology Effectively?

All of us have the chance of observing the use of technological tools in our practicum schools. These tools include over head projectors, computers and recently there are a lot of smart boards available in most of the private schools. At Eyüboğlu Schools, there is a smart board in every class. All of the teachers make use of these smart boards in their classes. However, there is one point I am curious about: Do they really use the smart board technology effectively?

Before answering this question, let’s look at some advantages of having a smart board in the classroom. Smart boards are great for demonstrations, they can appeal to learners with different learning strategies, they can maximize the use of computer technology in the classroom ( if there is only one computer), they are interactive and they allow for the use of multimedia resources and internet with a whole class. After reading all of these advantages, one can easily dream of a perfect classroom environment created by the touch of a smart board. However, this is not the case.

In most of the lessons I have observed until now, the smart board, unfortunately, has been used as a substitute for the classical black board we are familiar with. The teachers, instead of taking the advantage of having these tools in the classroom, just use them for taking notes with their electronic pens or for showing PowerPoint slide shows in order to cover the grammar subjects.

What could have been done instead? I have a few suggestions for activities with the smart board. First of all, it is possible to play a lot of online games prepared for online learners- the teachers can make use of such games and activities. There is a big array of electronic sources from which the teacher can choose to present through the smart board as well. Also, smart boards enable some links to be made between the subject material and technology- thus allowing the learners to see how they can use their own technological resources at home for learning purposes.

Overall, I believe that before smart board technology is presented in schools, the teachers should be given an orientation on how to use it most effectively. This way, it would be possible to ensure that technology is in fact used purposefully at schools- not as a substitute for non- technological tools.

Journal 1

Do We All Have a Favourite?

One of the points I tried to pay attention during my practicum was the participation of the students in the lesson. I observed three different classes in three different levels. In all of these classrooms, there were students with differing needs and differing levels of competence. Some of them preferred participating in oral tasks while some others were better in writing activities. However, isn’t it the teacher’s task to ensure the participation of all the students in the lesson?

The question I am asking in this journal is: Do we all have a favourite student? My answer, unfortunately, would be “Yes.” Whether willingly or unwillingly, I believe that we are inclined to have better relationships with the students who participate more in the classes and who make the lesson easier to handle for us. I can observe this in all of the classes I have attended. As the teachers are professional, you normally do not see that they have a preference for a certain student in the classroom as they try to behave equally to all of them. They generally have a good rapport with all the students. However, when you examine the interaction in the classroom closely, it is possible to see that some students have more chances of participation in the classroom than the others. The teachers always have a curriculum to catch up with and they want to finish the subject at hand as soon as possible. As a result, I believe that they feel more comfortable giving the chance to talk to the student they trust. There is a student in every class whom the teacher trusts that he or she will have a correct answer to all the questions. Especially for the challenging grammar subjects, I have observed that these students are generally who have the right to speak. When the teacher feels that there may occur a misunderstanding or confusion when there are wrong answers, s/he consults his/ her most trusted student.

What happens to the other students then? Especially in the lower grades, most students are too shy to confess that they have not understood the subject especially if the correct answers are given by other students. In such cases, the students just keep silent and they keep doing the same mistakes over and over as they are not corrected.

The responsibility is the teacher’s in this case, I think. Every teacher knows the level of his/ her students at least roughly. So, going on to the lesson with the high achievers and leaving the low achievers behind would be a cruel attitude. The teacher should provide equal right to speak for all her students or sometimes s/he should even favor low achieving students for the sake of learning about their difficulties and providing help.

Self Evaluation 2

The Time Management Issue

For my second official presentation with the 5th grade classroom, I was supposed to cover a grammar subject- namely “going to”. While I was thinking about how to teach this subject to my students, I decided that I would not make a lesson based on grammar explanation. That is what has been taught to us for four years. We should not write grammar rules of formulas on the board and then expect our students to understand them without any context or guidance. The first thing we need to do is to present the context for the use of that particular structure, and help the students understand what kind of space in the meaning that structure actually fills.

In my presentation, I tried to apply this idea to the classroom. However, because there was no explicit reference to “going to” throughout my presentation, the students sometimes used it in their production and sometimes did not. They knew other structures which could be used instead of “going to” and they were successful in using them. I am not so sure whether I should have restricted my students to convey their meaning across using “going to.” However, I think that this did not constitute a problem as the students were actually able to grasp the use of this structure in the lesson.

Another problem I came across was the time management issue. I believe that most of us have this problem as we are novice teachers and we cannot foresee how the lesson we planned will progress in a real classroom environment. Regarding my lesson plan, I thought that it would take a full hour or maybe it could exceed the time limit. However, the reality was not like that. In the classroom, the activities progressed really fast and I was shocked when I looked at the clock to see that I still have a lot of time until the end of my lesson. This can be due to the fact that I was too fast at the beginning of the lesson as a result of stress and nervousness. However, I fortunately had an extra activity in my mind which saved the day. I asked the students about their own holiday plans for the summer and I closed the lesson with this discussion.

To conclude, I can say that it is a must to have an extra activity in mind when you are not sure whether your lesson plan will take that much time or not. Experiencing this in a real classroom, I will always keep preparing an extra for all my classes from now on. I advise this to all my teacher candidate friends as well. Being completely blank at that moment and not knowing what to do could result in a classroom disaster. Being prepared is always better than leaving the lesson to its fate. 

Self Evaluation 1

Too Far or Too Close ?

While watching myself in the video of my first official presentation, I asked myself one question: How much distance is there between me and my students? Or is there any? Of course, there has to be some distance; however, as a prospective teacher, I feel myself incompetent in preserving a logical distance between myself and the students.

I asked this question to one of my mentor teachers during an interview for our classroom management course. She said: “Well, this is a difficult question but there is not a certain answer for this. This is just an instinct. You understand how much distance you should keep with a certain group of students once you are in the same classroom with them and this changes in every class.” Throughout my practicum experience, I started to agree more and more with my teacher’s explanation.

I did my first official presentation with the high school preparation classroom. From the beginning of the first semester, I have had a very good rapport with all the students in this class. This affected my experience positively, of course. I even asked for their opinions while I was getting ready for my unofficial presentation and official presentation. As a result, their level of participation and enthusiasm during these presentations was quite high. However, there is one question that needs and answer: Would I be more successful in managing the classroom if I were a more authoritative teacher?

While I was watching the video, I had the impression that I was not very successful in managing the classroom. The students knew that I liked them and they did not always think of me as their teacher. As a result, they believed that I would not object to them if they did not participate in the activities; and this was the case, actually. I did not want to harm my relationship with the classroom for the sake of making them feel that I am the teacher. I now think that if there was more distance between us, and if I behaved like a teacher instead of a friend to these students, it would be better for my classroom management during the official presentation.

Other than that, I did not have any problems during my official presentation. The students were generally willing to participate in the activities and they replied to most of my questions. There were just a few points where I should have used classroom management skills more effectively to ensure participation in the lesson. The students should have felt that this is their lesson and that I am their teacher. 

Personal Learning Diary

Keeping in Touch!

“What is a blog?” I remember asking myself this question quite a lot of years ago when I first heard the term. Then I just went online and checked some travel blogs. They were different from the regular websites that I was familiar with. The bloggers were writing from time to time, and sharing their travel experiences through these blogs. Later, I discovered that it was in fact free and easy to have a blog and write in a blog. That was the point when I created my first personal blog on Blogger.com.

I was excited when I first learned that we were supposed to keep a blog about our practicum experience this year. I have tried to keep my blog as active as possible since the beginning of the term. In my opinion, the idea of having a blog gives us the impression that the work we are doing this term is a professional work, and it should be something worth sharing with other people. For me, the basic aim of blogging is this: sharing with others, and helping people take advantage of your own experience. As a result, I have tried to post everything I have made use of this term in my blog. Also, blogs provide us with a good frame where we can see and evaluate our own work. It is good to see all of your work neatly placed in a blog- this helps us to make self-evaluations as well.

Lastly, I see the blogs as a step towards professional development. All of the ELT professionals I have met in The Third International ELT Students Conference and the other conferences have professional blogs which they keep really active. Sharing their ideas on their blogs help these people get instant feedback from their colleagues and their followers. Most of the bloggers reply to the comments they take from other people. We also were able to get some feedback from our peers thorough the help of our blogs and evaluate our own work with the help of others.

Blogs are a great way of representing yourself and your work in the digital life. They allow us to share not only words but also videos, pictures and other online sources. In that sense, I see them as an invaluable source both for the bloggers and for the blog readers. Starting to blog from our practicum will be an advantage for our later professional life as we will have a source which allows us to keep the track of our own professional development from the very beginning of our career. In this sense, I see the blogs as a way of monitoring yourself and keeping in touch with the others. 

Feedback 5

Feedback on Fatih Sivridağ’s First Official Presentation

At the beginning of the lesson, Fatih introduced the topic to his students by asking them some questions about camping and whether they had experienced it before or not. I think that his choice for the topic was good and he made a good opening for the lesson. Some students raised their hands to answer his questions. However, it would have been better if he had used a concept map to activate the students’ vocabulary knowledge about this topic. He could have also asked some further questions to the students who said that they had experienced camping.

In the following stage, the students were required to read a passage about clouds. In my opinion, it would have been good to give the students a task to do while reading the passage or the teacher could have said what they were going to do once the passage was finished. In this way, he could have made the students read the text with an aim in their minds and this –in my opinion- is more motivating and meaningful for the students. However, most of the students participated in the question- answer part after the reading text in Fatih’s lesson and this issue did not come out as a problem.

Although this was not the case for the following parts, I felt that he did not move around the classroom especially at the beginning. This might be due to the stress of starting a new lesson and being filmed. However, it is essential for us to be close to all of our students from time to time. Also, I found some of his feedback at the beginning a little bit too difficult for the students’ age and level. As far as I could see from the video, some of the students looked perplexed. However, they were able to find their way around both with their peers’ and their teacher’s help. He was ready for help when the students were confused and when they did not know what to do. This is one of the things that make this lesson successful.

Overall, I think that this was a good lesson but there are some points that can be improved. I hope that this feedback will be useful in that sense. 

Feedback 4

Feedback on Tuğçe Aydemir’s Second Offical Presentation

When I started watching the video of Tuğçe’s second official presentation, I thought that she made a good start to the lesson. She introduced the topic to her students by connecting it to the weather that day and started the lesson in a chatty way. This actually provided her with a good transition to the grammar point. Later, she elicited some reported speech examples from her students and quickly moved to the other activity by showing some questions from Harry Potter movies to revise their knowledge about the reported speech. At first, I thought that she was moving too fast between the activities. However, I later realized that there were only five students in the class and this was the main reason why the lesson was so fast.

There is another point I want to talk about related to Tuğçe’s lesson and also related to my own classroom experience: Should we give some right of choice to our students? At the beginning of her lesson, Tuğçe asked her students whether they liked Harry Potter movies. Most of the students unfortunately said: “No.” This could be quite a demoralizing answer if you prepared your entire lesson plan on a theme like this. As far as I can observe from her video, Tuğçe did not lose calmness and positive attitude even after this answer, and I want to congratulate her for this. In fact, the lesson went on quite well contrary to the students’ claims that they did not like Harry Potter. Yet, what can we do in such a situation? What could be a possible solution? I think that it is possible to be prepared in advance for such situations. For my first official presentation, I was really uncertain about what to do in the classroom as my teacher told me that I was completely free. Then, I taught that asking my students what they preferred would be a good idea. Actually, this worked quite well in the classroom and all the students participated in the lesson enthusiastically as it was their choice to have a speaking focused lesson. However, there is also a disadvantage to this: The students might be unhappy when you do not take their idea into account for the following lessons. It is not always possible to do what the students want. There is always a curriculum to follow and objectives to be met. In my second presentation in the same class, the students again thought that I would ask for their opinions about the topic. When I couldn’t do this as I had to follow the curriculum, they were upset and they did not attend the class as much as the first one. Therefore, I cannot reach an agreement about this issue right now. Yet, I think that if Tuğçe had chosen a theme according to her students’ interests, the level of participation could have been higher.

Overall, I think that this was an effective lesson and Tuğçe was successful in terms of classroom management. I congratulate her for being so calm and energetic at the same time. I hope that my feedback will be useful for her self evaluation as well. 

Feedback 3

Feedback on Asude Karaaslan’s Second Official Presentation

As I was watching the video of Asude’s second official teaching, I was really impressed by her self- confidence. From the beginning of the lesson, she does not show any sign of nervousness, which is in fact good both for the students and for her. As far as I have observed until now, the students generally prefer a firm attitude from the teacher although this should not be misunderstood as being inapproachable. In my opinion, Asude succeeded in being a confident and approachable teacher.

In the following parts, however, there were some points when some students lost their attention for the lesson and started to talk to their group members. This was demotivating both for them and for the other members of the classroom. In my opinion, Asude could have warned these students and she could have made them feel that she was the teacher. I am against harsh criticisms as I think that they will only make the situation worse. However, she could have used some practical strategies such as moving closer to that group of students or warning them in a polite way. It would have been better if she had changed her zone a little bit and moved among the groups.

For the problem of students talking in Turkish, I generally prefer warning them until they give up talking in Turkish or I make them feel that I am aware that they talk in Turkish. Asude did not warn her students but she preferred to address some questions to them and she tried to involve them in the classroom through the group activity. This way, the students attended the lesson but they continued to talk in Turkish from time to time. I am one of those people who believe in the need to talk in English throughout the lesson. That’s why I think she should have warned her students at some points.

I think that her lesson was generally successful; yet, there were some points that could be improved. I hope that this feedback will be useful in that sense. 

Feedback 2

Feedback on Özlem Öztürk’s First Official Presentation

While watching Özlem’s video, I realized that I was in fact unlucky for not being able to observe any young learners. From the very beginning of the lesson, Özlem’s nine year old students are so enthusiastic that it seems impossible to lose their attention. In my opinion, this is also partly due to Özlem’s good rapport with the students. She generally addressed them with their names, which is really valuable for the students. They feel that they are cared for by their teacher this way.

The game part was incredibly effective with this classroom. In fact, they were so enthusiastic that it was sometimes impossible to stop them from jumping on their desks or shouting all together to be chosen by the teacher. This is in fact one of the difficulties of working with young learners. At some points, the class was noisy and it was difficult to hear Özlem’s voice in the video. She tried to handle the situation by using her voice and by moving around the class. She was quite effective in doing this. However, the number of people in the classroom may also be a disadvantage for a novice teacher. In my opinion, if there were less students in this classroom, Özlem’s lesson could have been much more effective as she could have managed the class more easily. There were still some students who did not wait for the teacher’s instructions and continued to talk in their groups. If the classroom was bigger and if the grouping arrangement allowed Özlem to go and visit all the groups, she could be able to solve this problem.

Regarding her instructions, I think that she did a very good job as the students generally did not have any problems understanding what they were supposed to do. In the group work part, she did a very good job providing assistance to all the groups and giving them positive feedback when they did something correctly. Overall, I think that this was a very lively and successful lesson.

Feedback 1

Feedback on Mehmet Demir’s First Official Presentation 

In his first official presentation with the seventh graders, Mehmet shows a good example of attracting attention of the students to the subject. At the beginning of his lesson, he makes the students play a hangman game where they try to discover the topic of the lesson, which is “holidays.” This game proves quite good for activating them as they are really challenged while trying to find the word. Also, by making a concept map about the subject, he was able to activate the students’ background information about holidays. The level of participation in this part shows that the subject was really interesting for the students. 

 I was also able to observe the way Mehmet presented the conditional structure to his students. In fact, I found him quite successful in this part as he focused on the usage and meaning of the structure instead of the grammatical rules. The students first found some conditions and results from the text about the Iztuzu beach and caretta-carettas. Later, they talked about these sentences and negotiated about the meaning with the questions Mehmet asked. He asked them whether the actions in the second conditional format were real or not real. Through this discussion, the students were aware of the fact that second conditional is meant to be used for unreal situations. 

 In the following parts, the students worked on a worksheet and reviewed their knowledge about the conditionals. Mehmet was helpful to his students both in this part and the other parts. The students were successful in completing the exercise and they controlled the answers all together. In my opinion, it would be better if the sentences of this worksheet were connected to the theme of holidays as well. Such connections between the activities make the lesson look like a complete unit rather than separate parts added after one another, which in my opinion makes the lesson more effective. 

 The issue of time management may be a big problem for all of us from time to time. Mehmet also could not finish the post-activity as a result of the lack of time. In my opinion, this is a skill which we will all gain in time. Being in a real classroom is different from presenting to your peers in many ways; that’s why we sometimes cannot see that all the activities we prepared for one lesson plan are in fact too much in an actual classroom. 

 To sum up, I can say that I found Mehmet’s lesson quite effective. He was a positive and helpful teacher. I especially liked the way he prepared his students for the class and the way he presented the grammar. He needs to work on his time management as all of us do. I think that he will be an effective and positive teacher in the future.

Official Presentation 3

This is the video of my third official presentation. This lesson takes place in the same classroom as my second official presentation. The students are 5th grade students and they are around eleven years old. Actually, this lesson is following the previous lesson; so it is possible to say that my second and third official presentations are connected. In this class, we are again talking about holidays. However, instead of talking about other people's holiday plans, the students will assume that they plan holidays for tourists as they are travel agency workers. My aim is to make my students use "can" for making suggestions. I hope you enjoy watching this video!

My First Official Presentation

 This is a video of me making an official presentation at my practicum school, which is a private institution. The students are in the 9th grade. They are very lively and energetic teenagers and I have always tried to have a good relationship with them. This is their reading class, but they seem to be more interested in speaking lessons. The teacher told me that I was completely free in doing any activity that I would like to do. Before preparing for this official, I asked for the students' opinions and they told me that they would really appreciate it if my activities were communicative and speking centered. So, I prepared a lesson mainly based on speaking and they were really active in the lesson, I am grateful to them:) I unfortunately I could not have a peer observer during this lesson, so I had to arrange the camera myself at the beginning. In the first 1.30 minutes of the video I am doing the arrangements so you can just skip that part. I hope you have a good time watching my video.

Official Presentation 2

This is the video of my second official presentation. In this presentation, I am in a 5th grade classroom in a private school. The students are around eleven years old and their proficiency level is intermediate. Throughout this lesson, we talk about holidays and holiday plans. The grammar focus of the lesson is "going to". I did not want to focus on grammar very much but I rather tried to make them use "going to" in appropriate places during their speaking activities. Hope you enjoy this video !

Reaction Paper on the FLED Article

                                             GOING FROM FANTASY TO REALITY

 It has been nearly ten years since the publication of “From heaven to reality through crisis: novice teachers as migrants” by Naama Sabar. However, when I examined the issues raised in this article, I could see that the challenges I have faced as a teacher trainee are similar to those that the subjects of this study went through. I am not a teacher yet; nevertheless, I have experienced some of these difficulties although I do not have much responsibility as a teacher in my practicum school. I have not experienced most of these cases recited in the article; but I believe that being in a real school environment helps us presuppose the demands of beginning our career as novice teachers. 

 The writer defines three stages that novices go through during their experience; these are fantasy, reality and adjustment. When I compared this to my own practicum experience, I have found out that I have always been in the fantasy stage from the beginning of my senior year. I hoped that everything was going to be very good. I had the misconception that I could control how effective my training experience would become. It was only when I started to be involved in lessons and when I made my unofficial presentations that I have been involved in a little bit of reality. There are so many extrinsic variables that affect my experience that it seems impossible to control them all. It would be correct to say that we as teacher trainees are much more relax than the novice teachers as it is the teacher who has the responsibility of the classroom even if we are in the classroom. This reduces most of the stress and pressure on us. However, it was still disappointing for me when I found out that the class was really tired at the end of the day while I was really enthusiastic about my first unofficial presentation. I think this is an example of what the writer calls “classroom realities” and there are much more varieties to these realities. During the observation hours, it is possible for trainers to witness some of these classroom variables. Yet, the unpredictability of the situations that arise in the classroom is scary for most of us. The article also made me realize that there are many variables other than in- class variables such as school administration, mentor teachers and veteran teachers that may affect novice teachers’ experience. After reading this article, I have a more clear idea about what to expect once I start my teaching career. I feel one step closer to the reality stage, and the quotes from the subjects of the study have been really helpful in this sense. 

 Another point I want to talk about is the fact that the subjects of this study started teaching in public junior and senior high schools. In my opinion, this is a variable that affects their experience positively. The writer does not give any information about the conditions and opportunities in public schools versus private schools in Israel. However, when we think about the context in Turkey, this would mean a really big issue for a novice teacher. The difference between the qualities of public versus private schools in our country is obvious even if there are exceptions. Teaching in a private school would be an extra source of stress and burden for a novice teacher in Turkey. The demands and the levels of success expected from the classes and thus the teacher tend to be really high in most cases. Throughout my training experience; I have generally been surprised by the high levels of vocabulary and speaking skills even low grade students possess, and I have found the work load on the teachers and the students excessive. This makes me think that it would be much more difficult to meet the demands in a private institution compared to a public school. In Turkey context, a novice teacher would certainly feel an extra load of stress and frustration as a result of the fear of not being able to meet the demands of the private institution while at the same time trying to realize professional and social integration. In my opinion, the writer could have added this dimension to his study as well; and he could have included the types of school as a variable affecting novice teachers’ experiences in the workplace. 

 To summarize; throughout Naama Sabar’s article, the quotes from novice teachers have influenced me the most. I have realized that the things that make me scared as a teacher candidate are normal processes that all teachers go through and there are ways to cope with them in time. In this sense, I have found the article helpful and thought provoking especially for future teachers like myself.

A Really Cute Story I Used For My First Unofficial Lesson