Personal Learning Diary

PERSONAL LEARNING DIARY

         Technology has become indispensible for the people in today’s world due to its practicality and time-saving features. It is broadly used in language classes; furthermore, the use of blogs, web 2.0 and wikispaces by teachers and students increases day by day. We, as Fled 416 and 412 students, use blogs in order to develop ourselves professionally. I first started using a blog this semester as a requirement for my training courses, and I have some positive impressions and one suggestion about it.

To begin with, I see the blog as a diary in which I can save my materials, experiences, lesson plans, videos, and other important things for the future use. When I become a teacher, I think I will turn back to my blog, and will make use of it. In the beginning, I was afraid of using blog because I did not see myself as efficient as to use it. However, as time passed, I got used to using it and loved spending time on it; I enjoyed designing it. If I am doing something, I want to see a product in the end; and the blog has showed my products as I uploaded my videos, journals, reflection papers, and lesson plans. Therefore, using a blog affected my mood in a positive way. Moreover, my fear of not being able to use the blog disappeared when I made an effort to open my blog and publish something every day in order to learn how to use it.

Secondly, blogs are easy to reach so we can check what our friends are doing on their own blogs; thus, it saves time. Our friends can write comments about our lessons, so we can get much more feedback from them thanks to easy access to our blogs.

I have a suggestion about using blogs; it could have been better if we had been taught to use blogs at the beginning of this year. I think, we teacher trainees had difficulties in getting used to our practicum schools, in what to do and how to do. We had a school training course, but it was not sufficient for us because we did not have any opportunities to share our experiences with the friends. Therefore, using blogs would have been better if we had started using it in the first semester.

To sum up, using blogs motivated me, and enhanced my enthusiasm as a prospective teacher. I will not waste time looking at the books for the materials to use in the class, but access to the internet and open my blog. Having experienced its benefits, I will continue using it; and if the conditions are suitable, I am sure that I will make my students use blogs, wikis, and web 2.0 in order to see their progress.

Professional Development Activity

REFLECTION ON KEN WILSON’S SPEECH

            Motivation is one of the most significant issues to be considered in language classes because it opens the way to students’ world. Ken Wilson made his speech about motivation, and how teachers can make use of it by presenting several crucial points about the topic. I loved his speech because I was also motivated very much as a prospective teacher while listening to him.

            Ken Wilson started talking about the six motivational factors, and he emphasized that the most important factor is the enthusiasm of the teacher. I certainly agree with him in that teachers’ attitudes towards the students and the lesson really affect students. I always think about this issue, and come to the conclusion that if a teacher lacks enthusiasm, that teacher should give up teaching because he/she will be of no use to not only himself/herself, but also to his/her students. Students want to see enthusiastic and active teachers; in addition, it is of high importance for the students to be activated by their teachers.

            Secondly, what Ken Wilson made us consider is the strategies which can be used to in order to motivate students. According to Wilson’s speech, the first thing we should do before we start the lesson is to make our students curious about the topic. Making students curious about the subject matter can be realized with the use of visuals, asking them questions, and choosing the topic from students’ interest areas. I think if students are interested in the topic, teachers can do whatever they want in order to meet the objectives of the lesson. Therefore, teachers should be very careful when they are deciding on a topic.

            Some of the other significant points Wilson stated are that students should be challenged, given responsibility and allowed to use technology. The task we give students should be not too difficult and not too easy, but it should be challenging so that the students will make an effort and use their higher order thinking skills in order to achieve that task. Moreover, students will feel success and their self confidence will enhance when they are successful; thus, challenge is one of the indispensable things in language classes.

As for the use of technology, nowadays the life is difficult without it. I think we will not be able to use technology in every part of Turkey; especially southern and eastern of it, but the people living in the developed parts of Turkey are used to making use of it, so it may be very beneficial to use technology for the students living there. When those students are allowed to use technology, motivation will be provided for them.

All in all, Ken Wilson reminded us of the necessity of motivation and the ways of achieving it in our classes. As prospective teachers, we should always think about the students and empathize with them. The more motivation our students have, the more fruitful our lessons will be.

Journal 4

This is my fourth journal and it is about disruptive behaviors of students during the lesson, and in this journal I tried to explain what kind of attitudes we should have in such situations based on my observations and experiences in my practicum school so that I can come back to this journal and see which methods I can use when I become a teacher.

DISRUPTIVE BEHAVIORS AND SOLUTIONS

            Students are sometimes difficult to deal with, and they do not avoid displaying disruptive behaviors. As prospective teachers, it is our duty to find the ways of hindering such behaviors. However, it is not that easy because in my practicum school, teachers know what to do when a student is behaving in an undesired way, but the result is not always what teachers want. Whether they work or not, I want to tell you the techniques my cooperating teachers use and I used during my presentations.

            In the first place, when the teacher saw a student who was not listening to her or was speaking to others, what she used first was eye-contact. In the situations when eye contact was useless, she moved close to that student. It was very effective because the student could not dare to speak near his teacher. In another class, the teacher gave the student who was misbehaving an errand to do; for instance, and she made him clean the board, write a sentence on the board or turn on the projector. I observed that these kinds of errands made the student happy and self-confident, and interestingly, this technique created more positive student-teacher relationship. Moreover, teachers often tried to involve these students in the lesson by calling on their names, asking them questions about the text they were reading or do an exercise. These were what I learned from the cooperating teachers, and I want to continue with my own experiences I had during my official and unofficial presentations.

As teacher trainees, I think we confronted with more disruptive behaviors than the teachers working in the school because students knew that we were not their teachers. Therefore, we had difficulties in managing the class due to disruptive students in the class. In my second official (it was seventh graders’ class), one of the students finished his work much more early than his friends, and he began bothering his friends. I could not know what to do in such a situation, and then I thought that giving extra work to that student would work. I told that student he was successful so he finished his work early, and he could add some more things to his work. I think he loved my communication with him, so he turned back to his work. My other experience was with the ninth graders, who were teenagers so it was much more difficult to make them participate the lesson and do what you told them to do. It was my last presentation in the practicum school, so I was upset because I loved the teachers and the students and I felt as if I had been a teacher at that school. Thus, I was more relaxed with these feelings, and I was not anxious at all. In one of the activities I wanted students to make a poster and gave the instructions, but I saw that students are talking to each other. Then I chose one of those students, and asked him what I said and what they were supposed to do in the activity. He tried to explain, and I helped him in order not to humiliate him. It was effective because students stopped talking with each other and concentrated on the activity. Again in this class, students wrote sentences and I wanted them to tell their sentences to the class one by one. While one of the students was reading his sentence, others did not listen to him so I called on a student and asked him what his friend said.

These are some of the techniques I experienced during my training. I am sure that there are a lot more, but time will show them to use in the future and we will learn as we are experiencing them.

Journal 3

This is my third journal about the questions “How can you increase your classroom management abilities?”, “Can you communicate with the students effectively?”, and “Why is it so important to have good rapport with students?”

HOW SHOULD WE MANAGE THE CLASS?

         Teachers are always with students at schools, so interaction with students is inevitable. As prospective teachers, we should pay much attention to this issue because how we interact with students has great effects in our teaching. Being always with the same students might cause the relationship between teachers and the students to be too free and easy after a while. Classroom management is one area in which students, teachers, classroom environment, materials in the class are all included. Therefore, teachers may have difficulties in managing the class due to lack of control.

            What makes the classroom management difficult? I will try to give an answer to this question by giving examples from my training school experiences. In my training school; for instance, some teachers are very good at managing the class while some others cannot achieve it even for only five minutes. Considering the difference between these two types of teachers, it is of high importance for us to find classroom management methods. One of the teachers I observed was a native speaker, and there are a lot to say about classroom management in her lessons. First of all, both the teacher and the students did not listen to each other, they shouted at each other and the students did not respect to the teacher. When I first saw this situation I was shocked, and I thought whether they had a lesson or not. Before I observed that class, I had always thought that native speakers were better at classroom management than non-native teachers, but it is not actually so. In non-native teachers’ classes students obeyed the rules, listened to their teachers, and did what their teacher asked them to do.

            As for the classroom management in my official and unofficial presentations, it looked difficult to achieve at the beginning of the year. However, as I experienced the feeling of becoming a teacher, I became happier and more self-confident. I think I reflected my feelings to students, and we established a warm, personal relationship with the students. Therefore, we can say that it is crucial to make the students feel that we are really caring for them. If we can give the students this impression, there will be no problems at all. Students need to be cared and loved; therefore, everything is up to us.

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/