Now A Real Real Teacher...

Hello everybody, I am a teacher of İzmir Özel Ege Lisesi from now on :)...
I am really happy and I wanted to share it with you :)

ASSESSED TEACHING

We did our assessed teaching this Monday with Ersin. It was really nice, I loved the students again. They were so nice, I think I want to work as a young learners teacher...
Als, Nurdan Hoca commented on my assessed teaching really positively and she helped me to decide on what to do. I was not very sure about young learners, but since Nurdan Hoca said 'yo7u can work with young learners', now I really want them, especially the kindergarten students. Thanks...

MANAGING PROBLEMS

Hello everybody, I want to tell you something that I have experienced during the practice teaching. At the kindergarten, there is a classroom teacher, and a classroom nurse except for the other teachers. The classroom nurse stays in the classroom all the day with the children, and cares for them.One day, our mentor teacher, Ersin, and I entered the classroom and the classroom teacher was still there. Our mentor teacher, Olgu Hoca, began her teaching. However, the classroom teacher and the nurse were talking to each other, not whispering, and laughing time to time. This distracted both the students and the teacher, it even distracted us. At last, Olgu Hoca stopped, and we were shocked. We thought that she was going to say something to the teacher and the nurse. However, she said in Turkish, to the students, 'Can you see? There are one, two, three, four, and me, five teachers in the classroom and you are still talking... Now, be silent and listen to me...' The classroom teacher and the nurse were really ashamed, and they stopped talking...This is a good method, and I told it to you so that you can use if you need :)

I HAVE A PROBLEM

Hello everybody, as most of you know I am working as an English teacher at a course. The students are at the sixth and seventh grades. There is a student in the seventh grade, and he makes me mad. He always talks in class, he sings, he chews gum, he never listens to me and never participates in class. I looked at him in the eyes, it did not worked. I called his name, it did not work. I warned him, it did not work... (hrrrrrr). I saw that he is behaving in the same way during the other courses, too. The other students told me to send him out of the class, because the other teachers did so, and the student begged to come back to the class. Some other students also said that I should call his parents, but I don't think that it is a good idea because he is afraid of that. So, everybody, what should I do with him? I need your help...

Motivation is a Hard but Enjoyable Job :)

There was something really interesting and funny for me during one of the courses at practice teaching. That was, how the teacher motivates the students during the lesson. During this course, the students were very tired and about to sleep, and nobody participate in the class. The students are separated into groups of four at their tables each table with another color. The teacher shows some pictures to the students at their course books and wants them to draw lines between the pictures as they repeat something, a sentence.

The students do the drawing line part, because the teacher looks at their books, but they do not repeat the sentence which is the reason why they are doing the activity. The teacher heard one of the students repeat the sentence by herself, sleepily. The teacher said well one Hülasimcim. Nobody reacted. She kissed her, nobody reacted. The teacher repeated several times to her, ‘well done, congratulations, etc’ but nobody reacted. At last, the teacher said, ‘Aferin Hülasimcim’ in Turkish and all Hülasim’s table began to repeat the sentence. The teacher said, ‘well done blue table, aferin mavi masa’ and then, all of the class began to repeat the sentence in a energetic tone:). Then of course the teacher appraised them.

Going Mad Means This :))

All of the students at the grades I see (the preschool children) have a problem with 'a'. They like it very much and use it everywhere. They say ‘I can see a three clowns’, ‘I can see a two flowers’ etc. during one of the courses, the teacher tried to correct this, result?? Let’s see :).

The teacher asked the students repeat the sentence ‘I can see three balloons’ as they circle the three balloons on their books. The students began: ‘I can see a three balloons’. The teacher repeated the correct type, it did not work. She told them that ‘You should say like this, I can see three balloons, not ‘a’ all right? Repeat after me, I can see three balloons’. At first, several students used the correct type, but the rest did not. And in the second repetition, the whole class said ‘a’. The teacher looked at us, about to go mad…

She explained them ‘All right, everybody, listen to me carefully please, you should not say ‘a’ there, because ‘a’ means ‘one’ but this is not ‘one’ this is 2three’ ok? You should say ‘I can see three balloons’’ ‘now repeat after me, I can see three balloons’. The students said ok, to everything, but when it came to repetition part, all of them used ‘a’.

Then, at last, the teacher explained everything in Turkish. The students said all right, and began to repeat correctly. Then, one of them said ‘a’, in the following repetition several of them used ‘a’, and in the third one, all of them.

Just think about the teacher :) …

FIVE THINGS THAT YOU DO NOT KNOW ABOUT ME

1) Did you know that sometimes I can easily go mad? You probably haven't seen me getting angry too much, but I do it sometimes, and at those times, never and ever come nearer to me, just: escape!

2) I like all of the colours except yellow and brown, however, did you know that I have brown clothes more than with any other color? I don't know why :)

3) I am sure you all knew that I didn't want to be a teacher when I first came here, but do you know that I am dying to become a teacher now?

4) I am trying to lose weight, so please do not insist on giving me something to eat, especially those biscuits :)

5)I am learning Japanese and Origami, I am going to pilates, I love ice-skating, I am a member of OCİT, I am not joining the METU Scouts any more, I have glasses (even though you haven't seen me with glasses :))), my sister is also in the foreign language department at Akşehir Anatolian High School and I want her to come here METU as a suny student as they are more favored than us...

REFLECTIONS ON FIRST WEEK

The first week of the practice teaching was very enjoyable and useful form e. I saw my school teacher fort he first time this week. She is a really nice and positive person. She is trying to give us as much possibility as she can for practicing. She has five different classes which are on the same age and same level, and she prepares only one lesson plan for the day. She uses the same lesson plan for these five classes again and again through the day. We will have the chance to practice every week, after observing her two times.

Since we are doing our practice teaching in a kindergarten, we learn different things. For example, repetition becomes more important with the kindergarten students. They do not write anything, they do not read; so, the only thing they can do is, repeating. They repeat some sentences while they are circling pictures, connecting or showing them. They repeat some words and sentences after the teacher. They talk about pictures, listen to songs, draw pictures, they move, they play games, etc. they are not aware that they are learning something, they just enjoy themselves. The teacher has to be really active in classroom and this is really tiring.

At first, we did not think that the students would be so good. Their teacher does not speak in Turkish in the classroom. The explanations, the instructions, the warnings, everything in the classroom is in English and they all understand what the teacher is talking about. They usually listen to the teacher and do what she asks. They have some classroom jargon, and they all know what the teacher means when she use some specific words. For example, when they are making a semi-circle with their chairs, the teacher begins, ‘tik tak, tik tak, hurry up; tik tak, tik tak, hurry up!’ and the students also say the same thing and they rush to their places.

When there is a problem with the classroom, for example, when the students speak a lot and begin to walk around, the teacher warns them by saying ‘What’s the problem Ana 1?’ or she says, ‘Be happy flowers now!’ and everybody is silent and at their chairs. Sometimes the teacher closes her eyes and counts, ‘One, two, three!’ when she opens her eyes, everybody is silent and they sit on their chairs.

Sometimes, not the whole class, but some specific students go crazy and the teacher asks them if they want to lose their happy faces for that day. These happy faces are sticked on a cartoon for each day and each student, and if the students become too naughty, the teacher takes their happy faces for that day. At the end of the week, if a student has his/her all happy faces still on the cartoon, s/he gets a sticker.

The teacher always appraises her students by saying, ‘Well done, Gökhan’, ‘Congragulations, Ali’ etc, after each answer to a question or participation in class. She usually do not say simply Can or Karya, she says Cancım, Karyacım and so on. These work really well because the students are really young and they need appraisal.

First Impressions...

The first meeting of the practice teaching was mostly like the one I expected. It was fine to learn what the school expected from us, for example, what kind of clothes we should wear, how we should behave, etc. Especially, the warmth and the hostility of the teacher who prepared our schedules was really encouraging for me. It was good to decide on our schedules there, so we knew our mentor teachers’ names, our schedules and the grades of the classes we will observe. However, it would be better for us to see our mentor teachers in the first meeting, so we would feel more comfortable when we begin the practice teaching.

Hello :)

I am a fourth year student of the Department of Foreign Language Education. I would love to hear about your experiences and knowledge on 'Foreign Language' , 'Education' , 'Foreign Language Education' or some other subjects that I will be adding to my blog time to time... I would also love to have your comments on my articles.

Thank you all for your interest...