travellerteacher

[travellerteacher]

LAST SONG

Hi everyone for the last time!

In this post which will be my last post about my course, I will reflect back on the teaching with technology philosophy statement I had written before. In that post I briefly talked about teaching with technology, it’s advantages and disadvantages, and what I think about it. I said that teachers should use technology with their teaching because we are living in the century of technology. Without using it we would fall behind and never get the chance to improve.

Thinking about it again now, I would not say anything has changed because I am still thinking in the same way. Teachers should make the best of it while we can or we can really stay behind while other teachers succeed in integrating technology with their teaching and raise brilliant students.

I also see some improvements in myself. When I think about the beginnings of this course I thought even if we can use technology, there would be a limit to it but after as the time passed by I realized that there is no limit to it. Well even if there is one it expanding every day because of inventions which are being made constantly.

About my course, I cannot say anything negative because there aren’t any. Our teacher is really good at what she is doing from the start and I really look up to her. With her knowledge, our course was really enjoyable and informative. I do not even remember a moment where course bored me. Without taking this course I do not think I would think in the same way about teaching with technology. Also what I liked the most in this course were the tasks that we had to do. I am really going to miss doing them and what I liked least about this course were the computers and class. Computers weren’t even working half of the time and class was stuffy most of the time.

So that was everything I wanted to say. Please take care. I am going to miss you. Goodbye. xx

[travellerteacher]

WEB 2.0 TOOLS

Hi everyone!

This post is about web 2.0 tools. First, let me explain my assignment. I was supposed to choose some of the web 2.0 tools and make an infographic and sharing some pieces of information about the tools I chose and explain why people should choose these tools.

After deciding which tools I’m going to choose I started making the infographic. I chose 4 web 2.0 tools for my infographic. NearPod, Quizizz, Tricider, and Animoto. Just like the instructions said I share some data about the tools and their restrictions as well as the reason why I recommend these tools. I used the same website from my creating timeline assignment even though the website is not free it let me do an infographic with a free trial.

So this is my infographic that introduces some of my favorites web 2.0 tools.

See you guys later! xx

[travellerteacher]

RSS FEED

Howdy people!

Today my topic is RSS. Before I write about my topic in detail I should write what RSS is. RSS (Rich Site Summary) is a format for delivering regularly changing web content. I personally think that it is great tool since it gives you the chance of following different blogs on the same feed. 

The RSS feedreader I am using is Feedly which is an online reeder. You can see all the blogs I follow on the left side.

In my task I also should choose a blog, preferably my favourite, and talk about it. The blog I chose is American English. This blog is for English teachers around the world and it’s provides resources for teaching and learning English as a Foreign Language, exploring American culture, and encouraging conversation within the global EFL community. I chose this blog because it gives us a chance to know the culture of the language we are learning. Most people can see culture as an irrelevant thing but in my opinion it is what makes us learn the language better. Also this blog provide us resources. Sometimes it’s hard to find any relevant resource for our students so we can benefit from this blog more than we can from other blogs. That’s the main reasons why I chose this blog. I hope you visit and like this blog like I did.

See ya!

[travellerteacher]

Hi everyone!

In this post you will be reading about my experience of making a digital story. When I heard about this assignment first I thought this was going to be easy but it wasn’t. Well it was simple but it was taking so much time and effort that made digital storytelling so hard. To be honest I really loved making a digital story. It was fun to making all those things. Finding related pictures was frustrating but it worked out well. I was also worried about how my voice sound like but then I didn’t work on it too much. After that I was finally able to like my voice and something good came out. Also apparently the tool I used wasn’t free so at the end our video has mark on it which doesn’t go away. This makes me angry but there is nothing I could do about it.

Until next time folks take care!

P.S. Also it was a pair work so check out my partner’s blog:

Hilal Gökdemir

[travellerteacher]

THE SELECTION

Hello again everyone!

This post is about an online poster making experience. Online poster making was easy and simple thing to do for me even though I’m not good at illustration and collaborations. After I figure out the website it all went smoothly. It’s not a perfect poster but at least I tried my best.

In future when I become a teacher I think I would give them an online poster making assignment because it was so much fun and I believe it can contributes our 4Cs.

Love you guys 3000!

[travellerteacher]

WEBSITE EVALUATION

OneStopEnglish. That’s it. That’s the website I evaluated for my task.

This website’s scope is ELT. OneStopEnglish aims to improve teachers’ teaching by proving some sources. In the website you can find activities for classrooms that related to lessens so you can use them also there are lessons plan that you can apply to different situations. The audience of the website is teachers since this website provide sources for teachers.

Grammar

In this section there lots of subheads. Like Grammarman, grammar reference, fun with grammar, grammar teaching, grammar lessons and grammar resources by area. By clicking one of these subheads you can find games, activities, articles, comic-book (related to grammar subject of course), different methodologies, lesson plans, worksheets for grammar practice that divided by language level and grammar resources.

I think this section is very helpful because it is very colorful, catchy, funny, informative and resourceful. It will be your greatest helper if you use this website.

Skills

In this section you can find lesson plans and worksheets for teaching integrated skills on a range of topics from art and video to travel and family, a selection of lesson plans for teaching reading strategies and techniques, a whole host of tips and innovative lesson ideas for your listening classes, a variety of speaking practice lessons aimed at developing functional language or promoting discussion, comprehensive explanations about common vocabulary related issues, plus a whole host of innovative ideas to take to your classroom, materials to help incorporate writing into classroom activities, tips and suggestions for teaching pronunciation, plus practice activities to use with your students, lessons based on news stories. All articles are edited by level and include reading activities. 

This section is consist of most important elements in ELT. Without teaching integrated skills how can we learn a language? In my opinion this section is very useful since it helps us by providing important materials.

Children

This section will help you with teaching young learners. Section consist of ideas, games, lesson plans and downloadable resources for listening, reading, writing and speaking as well as informative articles on young learner development. There are colorful series teaches phonetic that attract young learners’ attention, song videos by level divided, showing how to integrate storytelling and drama into your language lessons for more entertaining lessons, a series of animated song videos and resources for beginner-level young learners, flashcards on different topics, downloadable games and topic-based lesson ideas which are perfect for Young Learners and teens classes, tips and lesson ideas for teaching skills plus expert advice on teaching reading, writing and vocabulary and an archive of downloadable songs to use in class. With all these you can make your students look forward to your lessons.

Teenagers

Since teenagers are hard to teach a language - in my opinion- teachers will need different approaches to teach them and Onestopenglish has variety of original resources and activities that will both capture and hold your students' interest. All of the ideasi in the section, materials and lesson plans in this section aim to inspire and engage teenage learners of English and activate learning across all four skills. Using these not only we teach them English but also we make them love it. So that’s why I believe this section is very helpful for teaching teenagers.

So that’s all I wanted to talk about. Untill my next post take care folks! 

P.S. all the images are taken from the Onestopenglish.

[travellerteacher]

OUR PADLET

Hi everyone!

In this post I will talking about my experiences with me and my friends’ padlet project. We were supposed to choose between Project 1 and Project 2 and we chose Project 1. In this project we were supposed to choose topic and explain it, offer solutions and do an interview about the topic we chose. Our topic is ‘traffic’ which is a local problem in our country. First we chose a step act according to it. Then we did the steps which are explaining the problem, sharing the causes and effects of the problem, sharing public opinions and offering solutions.

It was a different experience for me because I have never done a padlet project in my life before this but I like the experience. I must admit at first me and my friends did not know what to do and how to do but eventually we figure it out. Padlet is a great tool because instead of some written text, padlet wall is a lot more creative, more helpful and interesting. I think that padlet is very helpful because we were able to show our work more efficient way since padlet allows us to share all the written text, pictures or videos at the same time. Also our project would contribute to the development of 21st century learning skills because it's easy to learn and use so students won't be unwilling to use it. It can be learned many things from making a padlet wall since it includes many qualities.

So anyways I hope you enjoy reading this post and don't forget to visit my padlet wall! Until my next post, take care!

[travellerteacher]

BOOK REVIEW

Hi guys!

It's me again with my weekly post. This time I'm going to write about my 'book review' experince. This was a task that my teacher gave me. The task was about reviewing a book as you can understand from my title. Anyways I was supposed to choose a book and review it and the book I chose was Of Mice & Men. It really is a good book. It will show you how some things are hard and a friendship that will break your heart. Oops spoilers!

So check out my review about Of Mice & Men. I'm pretty sure you will want to read the book if you haven't already.

[travellerteacher]

60 SECONDS

Hey everybody!

In this post I will be writing about my experience of making my first poscast. It may sound difficult at first but when you understand it you can do it easily.

I must say at first it scared me. I didn't know how to make a podcast or even what podcast is. Shame on me! After learning about podcast in my course relieved me. It gave me an idea about what to do. Then I thought it was very easy thing to do but after trying do make the perfect podcast changed my mind. It was horrible because I didn't like what I heard but it was also funny because it was amusing to see myself trying. Eveytime I thought I did the perfect one I'd realized I ruined it by sneezing or frozing while talking.

In the future, I will definilitly use podcasting with my students but of course not without my help. I wouldn't want them to suffer like I did. The reason for this I find podcasting very helpful for learners especially shy learners because I believe they will find comfort in podcasting. Since they won't see whom they are talking to they will be comfortable and this can help them in face to face conversations.

So chech out my interesting podcast about making the world better place.

P.S. I made it all by myself!

[travellerteacher]

TEACHING WITH TECNOLOGY

Hello folks!

Technology has a very important place in our everyday lives but when it comes to education that is a whole different story. It can be help us with teaching or it can be harmful. It’s up to us to make teaching with technology beneficial.

In my opinion technology is a great tool for us so we should make the best of it. We should do whatever it takes to make easier our teaching so students can learn easier and make the knowledge permanent. I must say teaching with technology has many advantages. Such as, as we talking about we can open up a PowerPoint presentation to guide us, or for students a presentation can help them to keep up with lesson. Moreover when teaching about a place or an architecture we can show students their pictures of it since we can’t take them everywhere in the world it would be best option. But also technology has disadvantages too. It can be too distracting for the students or instead of learning they can use technology to play games, watch cartoon, movie or a TV series. To prevent this we must use technology successfully.

Technology usually integrated into teaching trough presentation and listening activities but there are lots of ways to integrate technology into our teaching. In our country we don’t use technology as much as we should. We just use some presentations and call it teaching with technology! I think we should use technology because we are in a century that everything involves technology so if we teach with technology we would be preparing students to the life after school.

There are lots of different types of teacher in the world but at the same time all the teachers are the same so I am going to be different than other teacher but also the same as them. I view myself as a teacher who seeks out new ways to use technology for my teaching because we’re in the century of opportunities. As a candidate I must learn, search and improve my knowledge to help myself in the future.

When I become an official teacher of course I am going to integrate technology into my learning. As I said before we’re in the century of technology. I must also teach them how to use technology or my future students would be lost about what they can do in means of education. If every teacher shared my opinion I believe the teaching with technology would be so much easier and enjoyable.

[travellerteacher]

HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT OF CALL

Hi everybody!

In this post I'll be writing about historical development of CALL but before that I must explain briefly what CALL is. CALL is the initials of computer-assisted language learning. This term is used for learning second language by the means of computer.

About it's development, CALL can be traced back to 1950s but after that CALL seperated into three phrases:

First phase is Behavioustic Call(1960s-1970s). In this phase principal use of computers were drill and practice and principal objective was accuracy. Also repeated exposure to the same material is believed to be beneficial or even essential to learning.

Second one is Communicative Call(1980s-1990s). Principal use of computers were communicative exercises and fluency was the principal objective. Also grammar is taught implicity rather than explicitly.

The last one is Integrative Call(1990s-present). Principal objective of this phase was agency and the principal use of computers were autentic discourse. This phase has two types of Call which are Multimedia Call and Web-based Call.

Also I created an online timeline that will briefly show you the development of CALL. 

Enjoy.

[travellerteacher]

21st CENTURY LEARNING

Throughout the years, learning has changed. The way the lesson was taught or what was taught is not the same anymore such as lessons were teacher-centered but now they are learner-centered, teachers being the center of attention as a lecturer but now learners are the center of attention as a ‘doer’ and ‘creator’ and in the past students were taught about the grammar yet now students learn to use the language. These are caused mostly by technology because while it’s developing, it gave many opportunity to make learning easier.

Especially in 21st Century, technology has more important place in learning. This is because, technology has many benefits to users in this century. For example there are Learning and Innovation Skills that help us in learning. These are; critical thinking, communication, creativity, collaboration. By using this 4Cs one can utilize from technology in a good way. In addition to these there are Life and Career Skills which are flexibility and adaptability, initiative and self-direction, social and cross-cultural skills, productivity and accountability, leadership and responsibility.

In conclusion technology is the thing that made learning what it is today. Without it we couldn’t be able to do most of the things we are doing in learning right now.

Also I made this word cloud from the website called word cloud. Check it out please. 

[travellerteacher]

WELCOME TO MY BLOG!

Hello friends,

In this blog I would like to show you things that would be helpful for education, language or language teaching. I am doing this because I believe this would help me as a student and as a teacher in the future and not just for but for you as well. Also I chose this user name because it’ll remind me my dreams. I’ll do eveything I can to make sure this blog will be beneficial to me and you. I hope you enjoy this blog.

[travellerteacher]

ABOUT ME

Hello my dear visitors,

I’m Emine Nur Kalyoncu. I’m 20 years old and I study English Language Teaching at Marmara University and it’s my second year. I like watching tv series, visiting museums and nature parks, travel, reading books about fantasy, crime and science-fiction and teaching of course. My biggest dream is to be a great teacher and seeing the world. So I hope you stick with me on this journey if you do I would be grateful.

Emine -xx