How to Get Your Students to Stop Translating and Start Thinking in English?

  Hey there! How are you all? Hope everything is okay.
 Today, I will talk about one of the biggest problems that ELT teachers face. It is TRANSLATION.

Unfortunately, Turkish students don't want to think in English or they are adjusted to be given the equivalents for each English word. In the process, they make it a habit to translate everything, really everything from English to Turkish (or for other learners that have different mother tongue). In order to overcome this bad habit there is a short but effective article. As you can see above, the slogan is ''Stop translating and start thinking in English''. It is the must if you want to be a fluent user of your second language. There are some steps for teachers to apply. Once you achieve it, the rest will come automatically. You can reach it from here. I also recommend you to visit the whole site. Its name is Busy Teacher. There are lots of worksheets, articles on ESL, games, flashcards, etc. They also have a store where you can buy ESL eBooks, flashcards, bundles of different topics. Just go and explore it.
Keep thinking in English! ;)
Bye...

Glogster Time!

Hi there!
This week's post is from an interactive site. It's name is Glogster. It is a useful site for creating online posters. There are many kinds of posters there. Just go and choose one. The glog you prepare will reflect your creativity.
Our subject is ''What is 21. century communication for you?'' And we reflected our ideas for this statement in our glog. I worked with my friend Ayşenur again. First we talked about the topic and we found some materials in relation to our topic. Finally, we created our poster. There were few problems while constructing it, but we managed them after some trial. Glogster is a very useful site both for teachers and students. As it's not a traditional technique, teachers can use it with the relevant subject. It also improves the child's creativity. And the most important one, it shows the teacher some clues about the student's backgroud. For example from the background they choose, the colors they choose or the photos etc. Furthermore, as a future teacher, I will definitely use it with my students. I know they will like it, too.
Keep searching!
Bye...

Digital Storytelling

Hi everyone,
This time we had a more challenging work to do. We prepared a digital story. I worked with Ayşenur and Gülden. It was a hard but funny process. First of all, we decided the setting. We wanted it to be more appropriate for young learners. After deciding on setting, we began the most enjoyable part: drawing! We drew the characters and other items, and we painted them. To be honest with you, after such a long time, we discovered that we are all right in drawing. We prepared our storyboard and music for the entrance and other sound effect. As everything was okey for recording our story, we began recording. It was the most challenging part. We used some sticks to give an action to our characters. We gave them action, as well. And after so many times of recording, we finished. We are finished, too! But it worths watching. I hope you all will like it. Here it is;
Windy Day from ayşenur doğan on Vimeo.

An Enjoyable Task:Creating A Comic Strip!

Hi everyone!
There is a very enjoyable site in which you can make comic strips very easily. You can have a look at it here. I think it is a very funny way to convey information, because there is no normal character here. You can use your creativity, and choose the best for your message. You can play with it anytime you want. And when it is time for you to see the outcome, you will see it is worth trying. I enjoyed so much while doing it, and I will use this technique with my future students. Here is my comic strip.
 Enjoy your comics!

Every Kid Needs A Champion!

Hello dear everone,
I will share a wonderfully inspiring video of a teacher named Rita Pierson. And let me give a thank to my Scientific Search Methods teacher Cansever Güner.
Rita F. Pierson spent her entire life in or around the classroom, having followed both her parents and grandparents into a career as an educater.  For more information please visit here.
I think we-as future educators- need to understand each of her ideas about teaching, children, education. I will definitely watch this video whenever I feel that teaching is a difficult job, or dealing with students is so hard. I know she will inspire me, and I will feel that I am the champion of my students!
We are the champions!
You can watch the video from here. Please, watch it. You won't regret.

Nadire

Magic Words from Wordle!

Hi everyone!
I hope you're all well. This time, I will share a very colorful picture which I created in Wordle. It is so easy that without instruction, everyone can use it. It's very attractive, and a strange job, as well. You can write about whatever word you want either for expressing yourself or a totally different topic. For example, my topic is writing words about digital story telling. What comes to my mind when I say digital story telling? And I created this one. So just play with words. And, have a look at my picture.

See you soon:)                                                                                                                

Using Websites in Education! :)

Hi everyone,
I hope you're all well. This week's task for Technology and Materials Class is to create puzzles, comics, or timelines with the help of useful websites. I chose creating puzzles and used the website named Free Puzzlemaker. It is such a simple and clear site that everyone easily can create many kinds of puzzles. It provides several kinds of puzzle choices. I chose word search and hidden message types. While creating, you have to determine a theme such as occupations, flowers, animals, colors etc. Then, it directs you to write the title, the words you want to share, how many words you want to see there, and what message you want to show. You just fill these blanks. And, for sharing my puzzles, I used the print screen key. With the help of the program 'Paint', I changed the form of the picture into Jpeg. And as we all agree that doing puzzles is an easy and enjoyable task in education, we can obviously use this technique with our future students. It also develops students' visual abilities and attention. It also facilitates students' learning vocabulary. I will use puzzles in the future.

See you soon :)