Assistant For Both Teachers and Students: ESOL Courses

    Hello my dear readers! In this post we are going to analyze ESOL Courses. This website is for both students and teachers. In this site you can find materials for both children and adult. The aim of the site is to teach English to the speakers of other langugaes. You can visit the website by clicking HERE.
    Who authored the website? Is there any information about their qualifications or credentials?
   The lessons are written by experienced authors with a solid backgrounds in writing materials for both teaching and learning English. Writers hold an internationally recognised qualification (such as CELTA or Trinity), and have a minimum of ten years teaching experience. The author's names can be found within the credits seaction on each page.
    What is the content of the website?
   There are many content in the website. Grammar, vocabulary, listening, writing, reading, featured lessons for teachers, english for work and some cultural informations such as life in the uk and life in the us.
    Who is the target audience?
    Target audience is both teachers and students. And both adults and children.
    What is the purpose of the website?
    The purpose of the website is to teach English to the speakers of other langugaes.
    Is there a date that shows when the site has last been updated?
    The only thing I didn't like about this website is that you can't find when it has last been updated. But you can see when the post was loaded.
    Accuracy of the information- Are there any errors?
    If you have a look at the Grammar, vocabulary and writing sections you wouldn't find any errors.
    Are there any broken links?
    Every link in the website works perfectly.
    Are the images of high quality and appealing to the target audience? 
    The images for both children and adut are different. In the website you can see that images are very suitable for the target audience.
    How can it be applied to EFL teaching? 
    In the website there are featured lessons for teachers to use. With the listening parts you can let your students hear a native speaker. As teachers we can want from the students to pick as many word as  they want from the vocabulary section and write a story with it. Actually what you can do with this website is up to your creativity.

If you want to see all sections click HERE. I hope it would be useful for you!!

The Most Important Mission: Endangered Species

    One of the biggest problem in todays' world is endangered species. With my seven other friends we wanted to introduce this problem through padlet. It was due to our lessons' group project.
    For the first step one of my seven friends Gamze opened a padlet page for us. After this with my other friends we sing up for the padlet. It was the easiest project that I've ever done.
    After we decided our group project every one of us started to search about endangered species. We were carefull because we didn't want to write same things and use the same data. While searching for endangered species I realize that the biggest harm to the nature and animals was given by us, humans.
Looking all those cute and innocent animals made me more aware of the situation and the danger. Because hurting those beautifull animals, actually means hurtig ourselves and the nature. As the future teachers we should be aware of the dangers and we should shape our future accordingly.
   Using the padlet was the easiest thing to do. Because it is very easy and usefull. There is nothing complicated with it! And for 21st century skills that children must have, it is very useful. Children can share what they want easily, write each other comment and find useful materials for the subject matter. I highly recommend the padlet for education!
    To get more information about endangered species click HERE!

 

WONDER WIKI!

  Hello my dear readers! Here I am again. Today our topic is Wiki. What is a Wiki? It is a website that you can both write what you want for free and also you can edit what was already written. It looks like blog but it is different in one way. That is as I said before editing some other people's pages.  I am intersted in thriller books as you know. So I have a page on wiki which you can edit! Are you intersted in thriller books as I do then don't waste your time here and click HERE!
 
   

The Hardest Adventure Of My Life!

   Hello everyone! I would really like to say that I am happy to do podcast but I just have to say that it was the hardest adventure of my life. Thanks to my brother Orhan and my partner Necla and one of my class mate Saliha I managed to finish it.
   Did I like it? Not at all. I really don't like to do things with technology but as I say I have to be futuristic and to be futuristic I have to learn how to use technology. And I am an eager learner so I hope after this lesson I will be an expert of technology :) I said I didn't like it but it doesn't mean that I won't use it in the future. Of course I will use it with my students but in a much more easier progress and I'll try to be with them throug the whole progress. I had difficulties with it but I still want to use it because maybe not for me but it will be a very exiting activity for students. Hearing their own voices and playing with it will make them very happy. So I hope you enjoy our little story. Have fun :)

       And you can see her blog with a click to her name: Necla Çalışkan   
 

Let's Become More Futuristic!

                   

  Do you ever feel like you are living in the wrong age? You are not alone because I feel that every day. Even though I am really young right now, sometimes it feels like I can't catch the time and most importantly technology. Don't get me wrong it is not that I can't use simple things like phones and computers of course I can, but when it comes to the serious parts I get confused. However as I want to be a futuristic teacher, I have to get along with the technology. So be ready technology because here I am!
  When I started to this department technology was a new tool to me. Because my teachers weren't using the technology effectively. And actually I was really cool with it. But when I started to learn about my future students, I realised that I should know how to use technology effectively. Because they are different than me they are born into the technology. That's why I have to use technology effectively.
   Teaching with technology not only effective but also helpfull. It has lots of advantages such as;

• It saves time! You can prepare your tools before you come to the classroom.
• It gives you the information in the minute that you need it.
• Sometimes technology helps students to get relaxed. Because students can have some individual activities that woulnd't make them nervous. This way they can progress better.

   But of course like every other things it has disadvantages too;

• Because students will be more accustomed to the technology than you are, it will be harder to handle them. 
• Because students are more accustomed to technology it will be more easy to get distracted.

   We can give more examples about these but lets stop here. If we really want to be a futuristic teacher then we should be able to use technology effectively. As a teacher candidate in the 21st century I will be using technology effectively and integrate it to my lessons validly. Maybe I'll have some difficulties while doing it but I believe that I can handle it!

Let's Take a Quick Look at the Boring But Important Parts!

   Let me be honest with you my friends, I don't like history but I'm quite sure that you understand it. So let's start and end it quickly without making you bored. What I'm going to write about is historical development of CALL. I can here you saying "What's that?". It is Computer Assisted Language Learning which is what we use everyday in our education life. Let's take a quick look at its' development through years;

• In the 1960s it was quite easy to use. Because of Behaviourism the first program only wanted for you to chose one of two answers. 
• In the 1970s it changed because there was a new idea. Communicative Approach came in and took down the Behaviouristic Approach. Because to most people, and to me, meaning focused learning was better than habit formation learning.
• In the 1980s the emergence of microcomputers emphesized the communicative use of the language.
• Starting from the 1990s and now Integrative CALL takes place. Because of the rapid use of the internet, language programs allow students to do a reading assignment in the target language, use a dictionary or study grammar and pronunciation.

    I hope you enjoyed it. Before leaving I'm going to leave a timeline here so you can find some shorter information in there. Have a beautiful day!

Time Changes Everthing... Including Human Beings and How They Learn.

   The change is inevitable. Even our moods change everyday. So the change in education and in the way of teaching is very normal. In the past, education system was based on rote learning, however time changed, human beings changed, and normally their needs changed. With the birth of technology and computers we are able to reach information very easily. Thus we don't need to memorize information. After computers it is not about what you know, it is about what you can do with that knowledge.
    The educational needs of students in 21st century, are totally different than before. And the abilities that teachers should have are totally different too. There are four main characteristics; crticial thinking, collaboration, creativity and communication. First of all we must be trained as critical thinkers and we must train our students as critical thinkers. We should know how to adopt technology in our education system. Because every other day we are getting more attached to the teachnology. We should be open to the innovations in education and we should except them and work through them. As the future teachers we should be aware of our responsibilities. We are going to shape future and we can't shape the future with the old system.