Journal 2

This is my second journal about the necessity of enthusiasm to become a teacher. It shows my philosophy of teaching. Enjoy reading it!

ENTHUSIASM OR KNOWLEDGE?

An anecdote from my own life: I used to sleep in every History lesson in primary, secondary and high schools. The topics did not interest me, I was not curious about what had happened in our history. Therefore, I had had almost no knowledge about the history until I attended university and took History lessons. In the university something changed, but what was that? Was the change due to my age, the type of school, or the teachers? Yes, my age changed, school changed, and the teachers changed. But which one of these factors effected mu more than the others? Let me answer this question after I have written my journal. My answer will be at the end of the journal.

Teaching is a demanding job; it requires teachers to sacrifice in order to reach their teaching goals. As human beings, we have different characteristic features, moods and personalities. Therefore, it is of great importance for everybody to choose the professions they are good at. Teaching is one of these professions people should be very careful about to choose because it affects the future of the world because I am in the opinion that teachers shape the students they teach. As a result, teachers should be enthusiastic to teach so that their students are enthusiastic to learn.

The lessons I observed in the training school taught me a lot. Teachers were enthusiastic, so the lessons were effective or vice versa. In two lessons in the training school I paid much attention to this issue. When compared these two lessons, we easily see that the difference between them is very obvious. The first lesson was 4^th graders’, the latter was 9^th graders. I do not know exactly whether the age factor effected caused the difference between the atmospheres of these two classes, but I think teachers are the most important factor influencing the moods of the students. The teacher of the 4^th graders was energetic, kind to the students, helped them always, gave examples related to her students’ lives; mainly, she did almost everything necessary for the students to learn. As for the teacher of the 9^th grade students, she started the lesson in a normal mood which made the students unwilling for the lesson. The teacher is very knowledgeable in her area; nevertheless, knowledge is sometimes insufficient. As a consequence, we should be very careful about our way of teaching. Although we know what to teach, if we are not efficient in how to teach, we will not be successful in teaching. Then the question: “what should we do in order to be and feel enthusiastic?” comes to our minds. My answer to this question is that we should look enthusiastic to students even if we are not. We are like mirrors, if students see us excited and enthusiastic, our feelings will pass to them.

As for the abstract from my own life, I think you have found the answer, but I want to talk about some important points which might be useful for the prospective teachers. I do not know whether it is a coincidence or not, but all the teachers I had in primary, secondary and high schools spoke slowly and they did not use their voice effectively. Thus, I had difficulty hearing and understanding them. Secondly, they did not make the topic interesting; they just told us what the books said. The only way they used was lecturing, and this really bored me so I could not learn anything from the lessons. So, if you want to be a successful teacher, make your lessons as interesting as possible, and make yourself as enthusiastic and motivating as possible.

Reaction Paper on a Fled Article

ARE YOU NEW?

After a four year of training, being an idealist teacher, loved by their students, having no classroom management problems at all or knowing how to deal with those problems are some of the things most novice teachers expect. Therefore, they begin their profession with energy and enthusiasm. Nevertheless, those beginning teachers are vulnerable to the problems they encounter in their first year of experience. In the article “From heaven to reality through crisis: novice teachers as migrants”, Naama Sabar (2004) presents the difficulties novice teachers have by showing the similarities between the immigrants who go to another country to work and live and the student teachers who start teaching after training. The article is crucial for the student teachers because it helps them to foresee their future as teachers; furthermore, it protects them from the influence of their disappointment in real school life.

First of all, Sabar (2004) points out in the article that novice teachers are strangers in the school. Having read the article, I strongly agreed with it, and I thought that getting used to the school, adopting its rules, adapting myself to it will take some time and effort. Even though we are taught theoretical knowledge in teacher education institutions; however, we cannot internalize it immediately. Therefore, we still lack some qualifications which are indispensible for our teaching profession. I am in the opinion that it is of great importance to provide students teachers with more and more practice before they enter real school life. Nonetheless, it is inadequate to give students the chance to practice only in their last year at universities in Turkey. Thus, student teachers should be allowed to discover more about their future professions.

Another significant point the article highlights is that knowledge novice teachers have does not suit to the daily life in school. Some novice teachers lose their self confidence due to the gap between the school reality and teacher training. As a result, they might feel unsuccessful in managing the class, insufficient and uninteresting for the students. I think this thought is enough for them to collapse psychologically.

Moreover, it is clear from the excerpts of the teachers participated in the research that they began with high expectations, and then they crash, and finally they get their strength and climb up again. In my opinion, it is of crucial importance to start real teaching with lower expectations because the more expectations a person has, the higher he/she will experience disappointment because they will have great difficulty in finding what they expected.

            One more thing to be considered in the article is that mentors and cooperating teachers play a great role in cultivating student teachers. For instance, in some universities in our country the effect of this cooperation is obvious during training program. If student teachers come across some problems in school, they have the chance to share these problems with their mentors; as a result, their burden gets lighter and lighter.

To sum up, as future teachers, there are a lot of problems, difficulties waiting us. I am in the opinion that trying to get prepared for such negative situations is inadequate to some extent. The reason for this is that no matter how prepared we get, there will be other unexpected problems which no one else has experienced so far. Moreover, we should not disregard the role of problems and mistakes because most people learn through them. Therefore, mistakes are inevitable, and we should try to keep our patience during the first challenging experience year.

References

Sabar, N. (2004). From heave to reality through crisis: novice teachers as migrants. Teaching and Teaching Education, 20 (2004) 145-161.

Ken Wilson's website

       Hi again! Dou you know the person in the picture? If you don't, I will help you to learn; he is "Ken Wilson". I certainly advise you to visit his website because he is a genius in his area. I had the chance to see him in the "Third ELT Stundents Conference". while listening to his speech, I was impressed. So I wondered about him and searched him. There are a lot to say about him, but my time is limited. I'm writing the link of his website below so that you can know him better. 

       

http://kenwilsonelt.wordpress.com/about/

official 3

This was my last presentation, students were ninth graders, and their level was pre-intermediate. There were thirteen students in the class, the topic of my lesson was modals, especially the use of can, could, should, must, would and the negative forms of them. Students had learnt it before, so it was like a practice lesson. I started the lesson with a warm-up activity because I wanted to have their attention at the beginning of the lesson so that they would participate during the lesson. The activity was breathe in and breathe out, it also helped me to create a good rapport with the students before I started the lesson. The students refreshed themselves with the warm-up activity, and I started lesson with a concept map of "holiday and the things they take when they go on a holiday". Then I got them to write what they should take in case of emergency, and I wrote the words students said on the board. After this pre-activity, I made the students watch two short videos about plane crush and getting lost on an island. I told them they were on that plane and they were alone on the island, so I asked the students what they should (not), could(not), would(not), etc. They all wrote sentences and I wrote some of them on the board. As for my post activity, I told the students they would found their own republic on the island, and would prepare a poster for which they should find a name for the republic, draw a flag, and state their rules they set for the republic. They prepared the posters and sticked them on the board. Then I chose a student, he came to the board and chose a poster, read it and the other students tried to find whose poster it was. and the rest of the lesson went on so.

Lesson plan for official 3

ACTIVITY       & AIDS	INTERACTION	PROCEDURE	STUDENTS	COMMENTS	TIME
Warm-up Physical Exercises	T®C	T greets the students and asks how they are feeling on that hot day. T asks students to stand up and do some physical exercises. T tells them to breathe in and breathe out using modals.	Ss give response to the teacher. Students stand up, breathe in and breathe out to be more energetic.	This will make the students engaged in the lesson. Students will feel more energetic and refreshed. In addition, students will be motivated for the lesson.	2 Min
Pre-activity Activating Schema Concept Map Blackboard	T®C T®C	T asks students what comes to their minds when he/she says “holiday” and makes a concept map with students’ answers. She asks the students what they should take with them when they go on a holiday and makes a list of them on the board. Then asks them what they must take in cases of emergency. While writing the words on the board, teacher makes sentences with modals so that students will have an impression about how they can use modals. She elicits most of the words from the students and adds some things if necessary.	Ss tell the words which come to their minds. Ss give answers to the T’ question. Ss listen to the teacher, and see how he/she makes sentences with the words they told. Ss think of other words which they did not think.	This activity will help the students to get the gist of the topic. This will increase the Ss’ higher order thinking skills. Moreover, with the sentences of the teacher, Ss will be able to recognize the situations in which they can use modals. If the teacher adds some words, Ss will see how the teacher is knowledgeable in this area.	6 min
Main Activity Videos Pen and paper Blackboard	T®C S ®S	T makes Ss watch two videos which are about a plane crash and getting lost on an island. T tells Ss that getting lost on an island is an emergency situation. T distributes a paper which is about “first things to do in any emergency” and makes Ss read it. T asks students to be pairs and add three things to do on the island in order to survive using “should, shouldn’t, may, can, must, mustn’t and don’t have to” and read out their sentences. T writes some of their answers on the board, and correct if necessary.	Students watch the videos and try to understand what happens in the videos. Ss read the sheet and try to understand it. Students work in pairs, read out their sentences, and they correct their friends’ mistakes if necessary.	The videos will increase the interest of the students and give an idea about the theme of the lesson. This activity will help the Ss to see the target language in a written form, so it is helpful in terms of visual mind. This will improve their writing and communication skills.	15 min
Post Activity Making a Poster Colorful pens & Papers	T®C S¬®S	T tells students that they are alone on the island and they will found their own republic.  T wants the Ss to prepare a poster about their imaginary republic. T asks Ss to find a name, draw a flag for their republic and write the rules, necessities and availabilities using “ should, shouldn’t, may, can, must, mustn’t and don’t have to”. T asks Ss to present it in the class. Students come to the board, choose a poster and read it to the class. And the other students make guesses about whose poster it is.	Each student will find a name for their republic, draw a flag and write the rules. Then the Ss declare their rules to the public which is actually their class.	This will help them use their creativity and higher order thinking skills. Moreover, students will enjoy the lesson while both presenting their posters and listening to their friends’	17 min
Extra activity Board	T®C	T draws a baby on the board and asks Ss what this baby should(not), could(not), can(not), must(not), (don’t)  have to in order to be a good person. Teacher gets answers and makes one student write the sentences on the board.	Students listen to the teacher and make sentences related to the context.	This activity will increase Ss’ knowledge about modals. Students will like it because it is like giving advice to a baby, and teenagers like these kind of things.

how to teach English in a kindergarten

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vwCwj21MdlY

Teaching young learners is a very difficult process because their attention is very limited so we have to use interesting games for them. always playing games with them may be tiring for us, but there is no other way of getting their attention on us. this video is a real example of what I am trying to tell. 

Official 2

The lesson was arranged for seventh graders and there were eight students in the class. It was a Language Development class, so my activities were based on grammar. The topic was "Reported Statements", and I made an opening to the topic so I thought that it would be a difficult lesson for me to cope with. However, it did not turn out to be so, I think it was a successful lesson because it met the objectives I put. The lesson was not how I wanted to it be because I had to include what my cooperating teacher told me to do. For instance, she gave me some materials to use during the presentation. I had to obey that because after the day of my official presentation, the class would have an exam which would include the topic I would cover in class. She gave my the slides and told me to use them while presenting Reported Speech. Therefore, I used about five minutes to present the slides to the students. However, I wanted the lesson to be enjoyable for the students; as a result, I used some activities students had fun doing them. Below you an see my lesson plan for this second official.