Happy New Year

Happy New Year =)

Idea Under Construction's First Meeting - 25 November 2010

Elif Avcıbası talked about the dilemma she had faced and she explained that in English exams there is always a writing part. The students are expected to write guided compositions since theyare young leraners and their time is limited. In the exams they are asked to answer the given questions and they are expected to write accordingly. Although there are set questions, some students write irrelevantly. What should we do with these compositions? Should we evaluate them according to the scala provided or should not we give any points?

After she listened to the suggestions her colleagues made , she took her notes. These are what they suggested doing.

1. Before the exams , the students can be given quizzes and they can practice the writing part by using the guiding questions. If there are students that write unrelatedly then the teacher can conference the students.

2. In the exams , there can be a checklistfor the students to see if there are any missing points they missed.

3. Just to get the students on the right track, the beginning and the end can be given and then they can go on writing.

4. The guiding questions can still be given to help the students with ideas but they may not have to be answered by the students. If the student has a different idea, then he should be allowed to use it freely. He should not miss any points for not using the ideas the teacher wants him to use.

5. The scala can be prepared according to the aim of the lesson. If writing is important , there shouldn’t be compulsory questions to answer. If answering the questions is important, then they should be tested in another part of the exam.

CFG Grade 1&2 Session 2

Notes on CFG Session 2 Grades 1&2 English teachers 7.12.10

Question: How Can We Utilize Music in the Classroom?

Facilitator: George Duvoisin

Presenter: Frank Canarella III

Protocol: Consultancy

Frank presented the topic with several handouts regarding using music in the classroom and the impacts of music on learners (see link to handouts given at the end of this blog post).

Benefits for Ss:

• Simulates Ss in a positive way
• Improves Ss memory
• Motivates learning
• Makes learning fun
  
• Helps Ss absorb material

Responses to handouts Frank presented:

• Music playing in the corridors during break time may help Ss transition.
• Music can be used to express emotions for Ss and Ts.
• Everyone agreed that most children love music; however, Ts should consider rhythms, timing, and level of sound when using music in the classroom.
• One participate mentions how they used different songs & rhymes for classroom management and it worked great. For instance, songs or phrases for clean up or to indicate that its time to listen to the teacher's instructions.
• Several participates agreed that their 1st & 2nd graders love using I-Dictionary (a software program) in the classroom.
• A couple of participates mentioned using classical music as a method for stress reduction and productivity.

Frank agreed with the ideas brought up and also suggested to consider different genres of music besides classical to appeal to a larger pool of students.

Link to handouts: Music in the Classroom

Team:Eda Çetintaş,Zeynep Yağcı,Gökçe Keskin, Pınar Taşcı,Alex Avşar,Alison Bahadır,George Duvoisin,Frank Cannarella

Blogumuza Yeni Tasarım

Merhabalar,

Dün aklıma esti, blogun şekli şemaliyle oynadım biraz. Değişen bir şey yok. Her şey aynı sadece vitrini düzenledim. Öyle arada blogumuzu farklı görürseniz şaşırmayın, Berna yine ekran ayarlarıyla oynamış diyip geçiniz.

Bu arada dün Critical Minds olarak 2. kez toplandık. Presenter - Alex ve Facilitator-Simge rehberliğinde. Çok güzeldi. Her geçen gün yeni bir şeyler öğrenmek ve paylaşmak insana iyi geliyor. Alex ve Simge toplantı özetini yazacaklar. O zaman daha detaylı paylaşırız neler konuştuk ettik.

Computer Kids

October 28th 2010

CFG 8&9 Session 2

Topic: What is the course content for Grade 9 English and what are the expectations of the English teachers?

Presenter: Jenny Chavush

Facilitator: Özer Gülen

Protocol: Tuning

Objective: To inform Grade 8 teachers about what's going on in Grade 9

Özer welcomed the group and reminded them of the protocol steps which were displayed on the board.

Jenny proceeded to give an overview of course content. Please see following link.

Clarifying Questions:

Q:How many exams do students have?

A:Used to be 3 per subject, now changed to 3 Language, 3 Literature &2 Writing

Q: What's the logic behind 3 exams for Lang. &Lit?

A: This is a subject that needs to be discussed.

Q: Are Writing exams based on what ss learn in class?

A: Usually based on activity in course book.

Q: How many oral grades do the students have?

A: Two

Probing Questions:

Q: You spoke only of written assessment. What about on-going assessment?

A: There is continual assessment of projects, class presentations, class performance, HW & quizzes but no Writing quizzes as the component is only 2 two hours.

Q: How do you assess listening?

A: We don't have it at the 9th grade level.

The teachers examined the resources and made notes for feedback.

Warm Feedback:

* Great presentation

* Good research on student profile

* Informative

* Wide variety of materials

* Nice to see students' improvements from folders.

* Nice idea keeping students' works in teachers' files.

* Home reading assignments.

* Nice to give them a choice for home reading.

Cool Feedback:

* Too many exams

* Lit. exams...some memory questions.

* Exam and worksheet headings are not standard... different fonts being used.

* Not enough space for students to write answers on worksheets

* Long vocabulary lists

Jenny: Need to examine number of exams.

Some memory questions to make students read.

We need to look into using different fonts and formats.

When it comes to space on worksheets, students write lit. answer in their notebooks.

Vocabulary lists contain words chosen by the students and vary according to the

length of the stories.

Özer wound up the meeting by asking how useful the protocol was.

For feedback please see the following link

green school + Sir Ken Robinson videos

check these out!
green school in Bali

http://www.ted.com/talks/john_hardy_my_green_school_dream.html


Sir Ken Robinson: Bring on the Learning revolution
http://www.ted.com/talks/sir_ken_robinson_bring_on_the_revolution.html

Sir Ken Robinson: Schools kill creativity
http://www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity.html

CFG 8&9 Session 2

Date: 14.12.2010
Time:15:45
Location: Pink Meeting Room Secondary School
Topic: What is the course content for English at Grade 9 level and what are the teachers' expectations?
Presenter: Jenny Chavush
Facilitator: Özer Gülen
Protocol: Consultancy

Looking forward to seeing you there!

ORTAK PAYDA UÇUŞTA'NIN İLK TOPLANTISI

Ortak Payda Uçuşta grubunun ilk toplantısı 03.12.2010 tarihinde Anaokulunda yapıldı.

Toplantının konusu ve kullanılan protokol için tıklayınız.

Toplantı sonucu ortaya çıkan fikirlerin yer aldığı döküman için buraya tıklayınız.

First Meeting of The Survivors

Survivors' First Meeting

Survivors' First Meeting took place on the 23rd of November. Our topic was “How to Deal with Different Academic Levels in the Same Classrrom”.

Sevda Uygun was our presenter and I was the facilitator and we had chosen the Consultancy Protocol to discuss the topic.

Sevda started off by framing her question. She shared what sort of problems she faced in the classroom. She usually had weak students who needed more practice as well as strong ones who grasped the subject quite easily. The question was how could she reach, motivate and folllow all these different level students in the same classrrom without falling behind the curriculum.

The group asked Sevda clarifying questions after she finished. These were short answer questions. The group asked her the levels she was teaching, how many students and how many mixed abilities did she have.

Later we moved on to probing questions part. The group started asking Why and How questions this time. They asked her, if she had tried different techniques and if she had any positive results. Why didn’t some students learn for instance?

We gave Sevda 15 minutes to answer these open ended questions. The group in this step started discussing the problem and Sevda only listened and took notes. The participants discussed what they did or tried in similar situations. They shared their own learning styles. Sema Tekdoğan and Aylin Geron said that they also had problems with Maths at school. Sema’s solution had been to study with students who were good at Maths after the lesson. Aylin said that in 8th grade they were using a new method to motivate the students. The teacher went into the classroom with a box of varied questions. The students were given some assignments from this box, according to their level of English and if they successfully completed it, it they got a ticket in return. When these coupons reached a certain number, the students grades rose. Mazal Dozbahar and Jeremy Hardy suggested the Tiering Method they were using in High School. Each week they were preparing three different level activites for Prep students all on the same topic. The activities ranged from simple and guided ones to more complex ones. Sırma talked about how she worked individually with some students who were weak in English this year in Primary School.

In the final stage, we were all happy to have discussed this issue. Sevda said she would like to meet some time again to talk about it because she said she had got some great ideas from the group and we all agreed to do so.

Here are some ideas Sevda got from our meeting:

1. Use group work to diffferentiate learning in the classroom. For example prep classes in High School are doing different papers but the students do not know this.

2. Breaking prejudices is an important thing because as we grow older they get harder to break. Aylin said, this was a difficulty ishe faced in her maths lesson when she was a student.

3. Sırma said if weak student are not guided they stop trying.

4. Student interest is important and daily life facts can be used in math teaching.

5. Checking weak student at the end of the class and using peer pressure was an another idea.

6. Preparing different levels of papers and give students time to solve them. Use tickets to reward them

7. Students can teach and help each other better too.

8. It was a good session but at the end of the day, I realised that we had focused on weak students more although my intention had been to discuss all levels.

Sırma Demirel

ortak payda ucusta 03.12.2010 Anaokulunda toplanıyor

Toplantıda kullanacağımız session form 'u görmek için tıklayınız.

Session 1 "Busy Bees"

Session 1 "Busy Bees"

Presenter: İlknur TOSUN

Facilitator:Ediz KAYA

Date: 30 November 2010

Topic: What changes should be made to the planning and organization of student admission at different levels?



Toplantıyı Ediz açtı. İlknur bize konuyla ilgili hazırlamış olduğu power point sunumunu yaptı. Ardından bu konuyla ilgili herkesin düşüncesi soruldu. Sonra çözüm önerileri alındı.

Öneriler:

• Senede 2 veya 3 Ara sınıf nakil sınavının yapılması


• Her düzey için öğrenci alım kriterlerinin belirlenmesi


• Sene başında sınav komisyonlarının belirlenerek ; görev dağılımlarının eşit bir biçimde yapılması


• Sınav 2 aşamalı düşünülerek ; her düzeyde bir sınıf ortamı yaratılarak, öğrencilerin sosyal ve davranışsal olarak Rehber öğretmen ve sınav komisyonunda yer alan öğretmenler tarafından gözlenmesi, ardından öğrencilerin topluca düzey düzey yazılı sınava tabi tutulması; burada da bir gözetmenin görev alması


• İngilizce yazılı ve sözlü sınav sorularının her düzeyde hazır bulundurulması

Toplantımız zaman yönetimi dikkate alınarak Ediz tarafından sonlandırıldı.

Sunumumuzu görmek için tıklayınız

The Bald and the Beauties Meeting 1st December

The first meeting of The Bald and the Beauties was held on 1st December.
I presented the dilemma, Ülkem Karakaş facilitated and we used the Consultancy Protocol.

The dilemma was 'How can we help our 'gifted' students. This question was originally submitted by Handan Bayraktar but I presented the subject from my perspective as an English teacher.

I presented my question to the group and during the subsequent 50 minutes a variety of suggestions were put forward.

Here is a summary of what was discussed:

Differentiated instruction is applied in the high school to deal with mixed ability classes.

Students could be given alternative texts/materials to read outside of lessons that they could present to the other students.

Students could teach the rest of the class under the teacher's supervision.

Additional teachers can take the students out of lessons for special attention but it was
concluded that this is not a long term solution.

Putting students into small mixed ability groups can give the stronger students additional roles and responsibilities.

Assessment of the extra work carried out by the gifted students was discussed but it was decided that assessment is not appropriate here as our aim is simply language enrichment and development.

I received lots of nice ideas and concluded the following:

These 'talented' students could play a part in choosing material to bring to the lesson.
I can use these students as teacher helpers in the lessons.
I can assign different texts for the students to read within the lesson.
I am not alone in feeling that we could be doing more to help these students.

We all agreed that the Consultancy protocol was appropriate for this dilemma.

I would like to thank my Bald and Beautiful group members for their time and positive contributions. Thanks Ülkem for your very professional facilitation skills and thanks to Gökçe for taking great notes. Thanks also to Canan and Gökçe for the snacks. See you next time.

Beverley Eaton

CFG 1&2 Session 2

CFG 1&2 Session 2

Topic:How Can We Make Better Use of Music in the Classroom?

Presenter: Frank Cannarella III
Facilitator: George Duvoisin
Protocol: Consultancy

Date: 07.12.2010
Time: 15:45
Place: English Resource Center

Nonfiction Reading in the Intermediate Grades

Laughter is the soul's medicine!

Children Are Quick
____________________________________
TEACHER: Maria, go to the map and find North America .
MARIA: Here it is. TEACHER: Correct. Now class, who discovered America ? CLASS: Maria.
____________________________________

TEACHER: John, why are you doing your math multiplication on the floor?
JOHN: You told me to do it without using tables. __________________________________________

TEACHER: Glenn, how do you spell 'crocodile?'
GLENN: K-R-O-K-O-D-I-A-L'
TEACHER: No, that's wrong
GLENN: Maybe it is wrong, but you asked me how I spell it. ____________________________________________

TEACHER: Donald, what is the chemical formula for water?
DONALD: H I J K L M N O.
TEACHER: What are you talking about?
DONALD: Yesterday you said it's H to O.
__________________________________

TEACHER: Winnie, name one important thing we have today that we didn't have ten years ago. WINNIE: Me!
__________________________________________

TEACHER: Glen, why do you always get so dirty?
GLEN: Well, I'm a lot closer to the ground than you are. _______________________________________

TEACHER: Millie, give me a sentence starting with ' I. '
MILLIE: I is.. TEACHER: No, Millie..... Always say, 'I am.'
MILLIE: All right... 'I am the ninth letter of the alphabet.' ________________________________

TEACHER: George Washington not only chopped down his father's cherry tree, but also admitted it. Now, Louie, do you know why his father didn't punish him?
LOUIS: Because George still had the axe in his hand.... ______________________________________

TEACHER: Now, Simon , tell me frankly, do you say prayers before eating?
SIMON: No sir, I don't have to, my Mom is a good cook. ______________________________

TEACHER: Clyde , your composition on 'My Dog' is exactly the same as your brother's.. Did you copy his?
CLYDE : No, sir. It's the same dog.
___________________________________

TEACHER: Harold, what do you call a person who keeps on talking when people are no longer interested?
HAROLD: A teacher .
__________________________________

:))

Critical Minds' 1st Meeting 23 Nov 2010

Hello everyone,

We - the critical minds- met last week on 23 November at "Pink Meeting Room" at high school building. We started our meeting at our exact time on 15:45.

I was the presenter and I have chosen an article to share with my friends. The article named “Ten Pillars of Successful Technology Implementation” that is about a painter who loves fishing. Oh just kidding of course it was about educational technology. By this article I want to learn my friends’ opinions about using technology in their classes. I want to thank all of them, they gave me very worthy information. Only Sinan wasn’t with us, he had a leg problem and he couldn’t attend the meeting. I hope he is ok now.

And Nathan, he was our facilitator and he did his job perfectly. And the cookies he brought were very delicious. Thank him again.

We were a little curious about what will happen at the beginning so Nathan started first and he went over our protocol again. The entire group was very well prepared and they already knew the protocol. And then I explained why I chose the article and our session started.

Alex was the first speaker and she mentioned the Pillar 6: All teachers must receive ongoing technical support. She shared her concerns about technical support. And said that, if a computer problem occurs during a lesson, too much time spent on solving that problem and this affects the lesson very badly.

Then Simge started to talk about Pillar 2: Selling is better than telling. Everyone needs to buy into the change that technology brings. She mentioned that using technology in classroom should be bottom up. People want to use it, not by anyone’s command.

After her, Hande was our third speaker and talked about Pillar 5: All teachers must receive ongoing training. She said that teachers should use the up-to-date technology and must have the courses for them. We wouldn’t limit ourselves by the old fashioned technologies.

And then, Nilhan pointed the Pillar 7: Use it or lose it. She said that; we have to change our minds first and then we can use technological materials.

Tunç was the fifth speaker and he also talked about Pillar 7: Use it or lose it. He mentioned that if a teacher uses computer in her/his daily life, it will be easier to use in the classroom so teacher don’t loose their skills.

After him, our facilitator Nathan mentioned Pillar 10: Recognize that technology is for all, and that it involves all in the process of lifelong learning. And he shared his experience in USA how he used rap music to teach in class. The students were enjoying the rap music in their lives. He said it is important to make a connection to students’ real lives. And he planned to create a facebook group for his students.

Our last speaker was our coordinator Mrs. Beti, she chose the Pillar 4: Recognize that technological change is fast. Keeping up-to-date is challenging and essential. To discuss on. She pointed that there is a big gap between today and the technology 40 years ago. But using technology isn’t about young-old teacher, it’s about to be growth minded people who likes challenges.

We followed our protocol and everyone spoke for 3 minutes and then 2 minutes together after each.

And then we summarized our opinions.

• For the technical problems in the class, we can create a team from students which are good at computers. 1 person from each class and then give them a course about how to solve technical problems.
• Using Facebook and Twitter makes the teacher cool for the students. It is interesting for them and this can be used for teaching or giving tips, etc.

And at the last we decided to share our works about this session at the next meeting. Like I have started a Facebook grup or I have started to use computer lab, something like these…

It was a good meeting for me. I have collected the reflections after meeting and had very good feedback from my friends. I want to collect the opinions and make a project how to improve the educational technology in our school. And then prepare a presentation about these.

I want to thank all my “Critical Minded” friends and my facilitator Nathan and Mrs Beti.

You can find the updated session form here…

CFG Meeting Wednesday 1st December

Wednesday 1st December

Topic: How can we help our gifted students?

Presenter: Beverley Eaton
Facilitator: Ülkem Karakaş
Protocol: The Consultancy Protocol

Place: English Department Resources Room
Time: 4:00

nn

Ödül ile ilgili özdeyiş

Bu özdeyişin önünüzdeki çalışmada işinize yarayabileceğini düşündüm..

"The reward of a work is to have produced it; the reward of effort is to have grown by it."—Antonin Sertillanges, French philosopher and spiritual writer

Bir çalışmanın ödülü, o çalışmayı üretmiş olmaktır; çabanın ödülü ise o çaba ile gelişmiş olmaktır.

6-7 English Teachers

6-7. sınıflara derse giren İngilizce öğretmenlerimizin oluşturduğu CFG ile ilgili tüm haberler çok yakında burada olacak...

HAPPY TEACHER'S DAY

finlandiya eğitim sistemi video

3 saatlik eğitim ile dünyanın en refah ülkesi herkes orada yaşamak istiyor. Bizde eğitim 8 saat, gerisini siz düşünün

1.&2. SINIFLAR

The Benefits of Outdoors Play-Çeviri

Session 1

Session 1 CFG 8&9

Topic: What is the course content for Grade 8 English and what are the expectations of Grade 8 English teachers?

Date: Tuesday 9 November 2010

Time: 15:45

Location: Rm D1 Primary Top Floor

Presenter: Aylin Geron

Facilitator: Will Amosa

Protocol: Tuning

CFG 8&9 Members: Aylin Geron, Sema Tekdoğan, Özlem Bora, Özer Gülen, Jenny Chavush, Nicholas Bawcutt, Will Amosa, Hande A. Yeşilkaya, Evrem Kazma, Ülkem Karakaş

Will opened the meeting by writing the outline of the Tuning Protocol on the board:

• Intro
  


• Presentation



• Clarifying questions



• Examining resources



• Taking notes for feedback



• Warm/cool feedback



• Presenter's reflections



• Debriefing the session
  
  

Aylin continued with a very comprehensive presentation of course content.

See following Link:

https://docs.google.com/leaf?id=0BzHCIruYrzCQNzMyNDhiZjEtMGYxYi00ZTE2LWExMmEtNmQyMjUzNjEzM2E3&hl=en&pli=1

Group members asked a few questions and then went on to look at course materials, work sheets, exams, essays, journals etc; notes were also made for feedback.

The warm and cool feedback were as follows:

Warm:

• Preparation for Term Project well scaffolded/organized (Could be adopted at Secondary level)



• Well prepared work sheets



• S friendly exams
  


• Common editing policy should be formed for Primary & Secondary
  


• Variety of tasks given to ss
  


• Important role of HOD in feedback on prepared materials



• Very clear idea of 8th Grade course content

Cool:

• Level of novels? Intense. Can ss cope?



• What do you do about plagiarization in projects?



• Could ss be involved in creating the Word Wall?



• Class sizes?
  


• Project groups?



• Why do so many ss who come to Secondary have gaps in their learning?

Aylin thanked the group and reflected on the following points:

Plagiarization:

We choose projects that involve ss actively e,g. interview a singer; research a charity

We spend a long time on finding suitable project topics

Journals work well

Word Wall:

We could involve ss by choosing a topic from the Wall and playing a game, classroom activities

Class Sizes:

Class sizes differ, some groups being 10/11 or 12 and some between 20-23

Level of Novels:

We ask ss to read novel to understand what's going on, not to understand it word for word
We have a pre-session to introduce the novel
Ss bring Qs and topics to the class to discuss

Level of English:

Some of the better ss go to other schools e.g. RC, German, French etc and to Anatolian High Schools

Some of the better ss continue at Ayazağa on scholarships

Quite a number of less able ss continue at Ayazağa

English Groups:

Groups are changed 3 times per term and therefore English hours at scheduled at same time

Will ended the session by thanking everyone and said how it had given 9th Grade Ts a really good idea about the 8th Grade curriculum and that the Tuning Protocol had worked well for the session.

Reflections & Feedback from Group Members:

It was a great experience to share our work with high school Ts. I believe that we have so many things we can learn from each other. I was also proud of my co-ordinator. She was awesome! Özlem

It was nice to have a chance to share what we are doing in primary. With the help of this short presentation, I believe our colleagues in high school will appreciate how hard we are working.

Thank you for enlightening us about what is going on in the 8th Grade. You are doing a great job. I hope we could teach the best students from primary. I liked the way the protocol led us.

The protocol went well although the presentation needed more time than expected. Really beneficial the whole meeting was and I believe we (Grade 9 teachers) needed to be informed about all this. Thanks.

Evrem

This has truly been a fruitful meeting. I'm so happy to see how well everything is organised in Grades 6-8 and how much effort you are putting into your teaching. However, I'm quite sad, I must say that, like Aylin said, what we are getting in Lise is not 'creme de la creme.' Still, seeing the good work here motivated me in a way and came just as I was ready to give up hope. Thanks. I did enjoy it.

Jenny

It was a really relaxed atmosphere where people felt comfortable to share. However, I believe that we, at times, forgot to take turns in speaking.

Ülkem

The protocol worked really well and everything ran smoothly. However, I still didn't understand what happens when ss come to Lise! Why are they so uninterested and passive?

The rules worked well. The protocol was also very suitable in keeping time fruitful. I was happy to be able to get into contact with high school Ts and we will be able to set our goals more clearly and properly while teaching the ss in 8th Grade.

Sema

DENEME 23 KASIM

yeni dosya

https://docs.google.com/leaf?id=0B0PGriA5pzgiODA0ZWU4ZGQtYjlhNS00ODc2LWJjODgtMTUyOGQ2NWEyNzEw&hl=en

23 KASIM DENEME

23 Kasım Deneme Makale
https://docs.google.com/document/d/14YdPJzc_L0mm0_JlEB_zIT4VdiJdhwfRyVZsfpCRbD4/edit?hl=en#

The Benefits of Outdoor Play

The Benefits of Outdoor Play

https://docs.google.com/present/edit?id=0ATHCIruYrzCQZGRqN3BycDJfMGhncjd4cjk0&hl=en

Aşk Mektubu

Critical Minds First Meeting Preparation

Hello Critical Minds,

A long holiday is waiting for us. After holiday we will meet for our first session. Nathan will be our first facilitator and i will be the first presenter.

I have chosen an article about educational technology. The article sets ten rules for a good technology implementation for classes.

And i'd like to send my article before the holiday, so you can download and read before our meeting.

We will use "Three Levels of Text Protocol", if you read this short -2 papers not so much- article and choose two or three passages to discuss on, it will be good for all of us.

At our protocol each of us have 3 minutes, choose a passage and tell us why did you choose it in 3 minutes. And then we can talk about what we can do.

This is my first presenting so i'm kind of exciting.

See you all on 23rd November. Take care.

Berna.

Here is the article that i chose.

Ten Pillars of Successful Technology Implementation

And here comes the protocol which we will use.

Three Levels of Text Protocol

The Teacher-Student Communication

Öğretmenlik, öğrenciyle arasındaki nezaket sınırlarını belirleyebilme becerisini de gerektirir.

8-9 English Teachers

CFG 8&9 MEETING 1

Looking forward to seeing CFG 8&9 Team Members...

Date: Tuesday 9 November
Time: 15:45
Location: Rm D1 Primary Top Floor

Topic: What is the course content for Grade 8 English and what are the expectations of Grade 8 English teachers?

Presenter: Aylin Geron
Facilitator: Will Amosa
Protocol: Tuning

Alice the Film

Dear Critical Minds,
I thought this video would be interesting for Nilhan ( who likes Heidi, because of her naiveness, and positive outlook) and Tunç, because of his music. You might want to check it out
http://www.youtube.com/user/AliceTheFilm

Betti

Critical Minds Minutes for 2010 oct 28

Critical Minds
October 28, 2010 Meeting Minutes

Attendees:
Betti Delevi, Sinan Uluçay, Hande Acarman Yeşilkaya, Simge Boyacıoğlu Le Bris, Nathan Kubiszewski, Berna Hamarat Kaya, Nilhan Atay

Absentees: Tunç Demirağ : had scheduled recording of his music (http://www.myspace.com/tuncdemirag)

The gathering started off with a welcome from Betti, and proceeded with a presentation on the blog http://www.fmvayazagaplc.blogspot.com/ from Berna.

Group Work:

Getting to know each other: drawing parallels with characters

Simge: Dory, from Finding Nemo, forgetfulness

Nilhan: Heidi, naive, good natured, positive

Alex: Carrie Bradshaw (Sex and the city)

Nathan: Inspector Gadget, interest in gadgets, robots, etc.

Sinan: Hellboy,big and likes to eat

Hande, Alice ( in Wonderland) running after rabbits, always late for sth, always rushing somewhere

Betti: Snoopy ( Peanuts) sense of humor

Berna: Elaine ( Seinfeld) attention to details

Choosing a group name:

The Incredibles
Alice in Wonderland
Madhattens
CSI Istanbul
Rabbits of the Wonderland
Hellboys
The Inspectors
Dreamers
Critical Minds

Ground Rules:

Time and scheduling:

• Honor time limits: starting and finishing on time;
• use time efficiently;
• keep phones silent or off ( inform facilitator beforehand if there’s a need to keep phone on)

Show respect:

• Be respectful of those presenting, facilitating, or talking
• listen attentively and actively
• show effort to understand
• accept other members’ comments with grace
• Respect different ideas, focus on issues and not people
• Be moderate in talking, contributing, bringing materials, etc.

Preparation and organization

• Plan well
• Schedule intelligently
• Have a group leader for each session
• Do homework
• Allow enough time to prepare and think
• Bring food for each session
• Always work with a purpose
• Participation should be voluntary
• Implementation must be followed through

Meeting Dates:

1. Tuesday, November 23, 15:30-16:45
2. Tuesday, December 21, 15:30 – 16:45
3. Tuesday, January 11, 15:30 – 16:45
4. Wednesday, February 16, 15:30 – 16:45
5. Tuesday, March 8, 15:30 – 16:45
6. Tuesday, April 12, 15:30 – 16:45
7. Tuesday, May 3, 15:30 – 16:45
8. Tuesday, May 24, 15:30 – 16:45

Meeting Place: High School Block A, Admin Floor, MUN Office

Scheduling and organizing work previously chosen:

CM 1st session

CM 2nd session

CM 3rd session

CM 4th session

CM 5th session

IDEA UNDER CONSTRUCTION

The members of the group and their nick names are:

Tarz Tuba (Aktuğ)
Düzenli Dilek (Okay)
Eğitimsever Elif (Avcıbaşı)
Eğlenceli Esin (Alper)
Sakin Seden (Mıhçıoğlu)
Araştırmacı Aylin (Gazanfer)
Artist Ayça (Kır)
Kazım Ergenç
Didem Şiranur
Hülya Sabuncu

The following meetings.....

25th November 2010
16.00-17.00

Topic: If a student writes irrelevant things in his/her essay how should I grade it?
Expected Outcome: A related part in the rubric
Presenter: Elif Avcıbaşı
Facilitator: Ayça Kır
Protocal: Consultancy

16th December 2010
Topic: Identifiying our goals not based on numbers.
Expected outcome: Checking our goals and formulating a new way to chose a goal.
Presenter: Didem Şiranur
Facilitator: Seden Mıhçıoğlu
Protocol: Issaquah


5th January 2011

Topic: How should we behave to the parents who are denying some school rules.
Expected outcome: Finding a new perspective
Presenter: Esin Alper
Facilitator: Aylin Gazanfer
Protocol: Chalk Talk


23rd February 2011

Topic: Evaluation of students and teachers.
Expected outcome: Preparing a new rubric and a new form for evaluating ss and teacher.
Presenter: Ayça Kır
Facilitator: Tuba Aktuğ
Protocol: Tunning

14th April 2011
Not organized yet

11th May 2011
Not organized yet

"ORTAK PAYDA UÇUŞTA"

GRUBUMUZUN İSMİ "ORTAK PAYDA UÇUŞTA"

GRUP ÜYELERİMİZ:

Veysel LAÇİN
Gülsüm KILIÇ
Başak KULUĞ
Ceylan NURCAN
Çiğdem KEKLİK
Esra GÜLSEREN
Melda CEMAL
Nilgün DEĞİRMEN
Ülkü UZUN
Arzu K. BODET

GRUP KURALLARIMIZ:

Zaman Yönetimi,
Fikirlere saygı- samimiyet
Grup üyelerine konuşurken eşit süre tanınması
Toplantı günlerinin belirlenmesinde adil davranılması
Toplantıların farklı mekanlarda yapılması
Sorumluluk
Toplantıya hazırlık
Toplantı tarihinin toplantı konusuna göre belirlenmesi

ÇALIŞILACAK KONULARIMIZ:

* Ödül & ceza gerekli mi? Zorunluluk mu?
Presenter: Ülkü Uzun
Facilitator: Arzu K. Bodet
Toplantı Tarihi : 26 Kasım 2010 Cuma
Saat: 15:45-17:00
Yer: Anaokul

* Işık öğrencisinin ilköğretimi tamamladıktan sonra Işık Okullarındaki öğrenimine devam etme isteğindeki azalma nedenleri
Presenter: Esra- Ceylan
Facilitator: Ceylan- Esra

* Öğrenme stillerine dayalı etkinlikler ve buna dayalı ölçme değerlendirme- farklı öğrenen öğrencilerin tümünü kapsayan eğitim modeli geliştirme
Presenter: Gülsüm Kılıç
Facilitator: Nilgün Değirmen

* Öğrencinin sınıf ortamında ve öğretmen rehberliğinde öğrenmeyi reddetmesi

Presenter: Başak Kuluğ
Facilitator: Çiğdem Keklik


* Education vs instruction
Presenter: Veysel Laçin
Facilitator:Melda Cemal

28 EKİM TOPLANTISANA DAİR İZLENİMLER

Mutlu- katılımcı- araştırmacı- güzel bir paylaşım- Böyle bir çalışmada yer alıyor olmak, fikirlerimi sunabilme ortamı ve olanağından dolayı çok memnunum.-Grup arkadaşlarıyla beraberce kuralları belirlemek ve çalışma yapmak çok güzeldi- Grupta bulunan arkadaşların rahat olması, genç olması, esnek olması beni çok rahatlattı.-Grup dinamiği oldukça olumlu bir elektrik veriyor.-İstekli ve heyecanlıyız-Yeni bir grubun içinde olmak güzel.-
Eğitim ve öğretimi olumlu yönden destekleyici konuların yeni baştan ele alınıyor olmasını gayet sevindirici buluyorum.....

" BUSY BEES"

Our group members are : Eda BİNGÖL, Heather ERGUVANLI,Filiz ABABAY, Candan ASAL, İlknur TOSUN, Mine SEKMEN, Ediz KAYA, Murat YANAR, Nesrin ŞANAY

Our first meeting will be 30th November 2010
Topic: What changes should be made to the planning and organization of student admission different levels?
Presenter: İlknur TOSUN
Facilitator:Ediz KAYA
Protocol to be decided

Our First meeting

CFG Session 1 was held on 28th of OCTOBER.
Our group name is “Survivors”
Our group members are:
1. Aylin GERON
2. Sırma DEMİREL
3. Jeremy HARDY
4. Özer GÜLEN
5. Pınar İNAL
6. Rüya BERKÖZ
7. Sema TEKDOĞAN
8. Sevda UYGUN
9. Mazal DOZBAHAR
Our ground rules are:
1. Be constructive
2. Be punctual
3. Do not judge people on their opinions
4. No interruptions
5. Stick to the subject
6. Do not raise voices

Our meeting topics and dates are:
1. How can I reach every student? How to deal with different academic levels and learning styles in the same class?
Presenter: Sevda UYGUN
Facilitator: Sırma DEMİREL
Protocol: Consultancy protocol
Date: 23/11/2010
Place: Primary School Building – Multi-media Room
2. How can lunch breaks be healthier and more productive for students?
Presenter: Aylin GERON
Facilitator: Özer GÜLEN
Date: 28/12/2010
3. How can I deal with disruptive students in class?
Presenter: Sema TEKDOĞAN
Facilitator: Pınar İNAL
Date: 27/01/2011
4. How can we improve communication with parents on school decisions and therefore improve parent-school relationship?
Presenter: Rüya BERKÖZ
Facilitator: Mazal DOZBAHAR
Date: 2nd Term

Critical Minds

28 Ekim 2010 tarihinde gerçekleşen PLC toplantımızda grubumuzun ismi belli oldu. "Critical Minds".

İlk toplantımız, 23 Kasım 2010 Salı günü saat 15:45 - 17:00 arasında gerçekleşecektir.

Grup üyelerimiz:

Beti Delevi

Alex Young

Berna Hamarat Kaya

Hande Yeşilkaya

Nilhan Atay

Nathan Kubizewski

Simge Boyacıoğlu

Tunç Demirağ

The Bald And The Beauties

Decisions taken in the first PLC meeting held in October 28, 2010 :

• Our group name: "The Bald And The Beauties"
• We decided to meet twice a term.
• Venue for Our meetings : The Resource Room next to the English Department in 06A
• Time 15.45 - 17.00
• Meeting dates: December 1, 2010 Wednesday
  January 12, 2011 Wednesday

Dates for the 3rd and 4th terms will be decided and announced later.

• Our first topic for December 1, 2010:

" How can we help our gifted students?"

Presenter : Ülkem KARAKAŞ

Facilitator : Beverley EATON

Protocol : ???????? (to be decided soon)

Expected Outcome: A set of solutions, guidelines, ideas to address this issue, and increase the help given to them.

• Our second topic for January 12, 2011:

"How can we encourage students to prepare themselves for lessons during break time? "

Presenter: Ülkem KARAKAŞ

Facilitator: Nihal ÖKTEM

Protocol: ?????(The facilitator and the presenter will work on it)

Supporting Materials: Survey

Expected Outcome: A solution to how to teach students to use their break

time effectively.

• Ground Rules:

1. Be punctual and productive.

2. Active listening and participation.

3. Take turns and do not interrupt each other.

4. No mobile phones.

5. Respect and trust each other; be tolerant.

6. No side conversation.

7. Be positive and constructive.

8. Focus on issues not personalities.

9. Share work load.

10. :)

• Group Members:
  
  Canan Okatan
  Beverly Eaton
  Duygu Gökçe
  Ülkem Karakaş
  Elizabeth Dinmez
  Gökçe Keskin
  Nihal Öktem
  Noyan Bingöl
  Çiğdem Aygün

28 Ekim Toplantısı Başladı

Yağmurlu bir gündü.... ve biz bir aradaydık...

CFG Grade 1&2 Session 1

Notes on CFG Session 1 Grades 1&2 English Teachers 12.10.2010

Question:Should Grade 1&2 students leave the classrooms at breaktime and go outside to play?

Facilitator: Alison Bahadır
Presenter: Alex Avşar
Protocol: Future

Alex presented topic with visuals showing benefits of outdoor play and gave participants 2 articles on subject to read quickly and focus on most important benefits.

Benefits for Ss:
• Ss’ need to run to develop motor skills and use energy
• Develop social skills by cooperating, taking turns
• Reduction in stress levels
• Health benefits of sunlight and fresh air/ reduces risks of getting ill
• “Playing outside halves the risk of developing short-sightedness.”

Benefits for Ts:
• Classrooms as work areas
• Less time spent on tidying up
• Ss calmer/better behaved
• Ss happier
• Promotion of logical and thinking skills

Benefits for School:
• Tidier
• Cleaner
• Parents notice difference
• Ss safer
• Ss learn better/school more successful


2014-15:
Ss leave classrooms at breaktime and go out to play. How does it look?

Sights

• Classrooms are cleaner
• Children are happier
• In general children/teachers less stressed
• Children/teachers healthier
• School looks different




Sounds

• General noise reduction
• Children are laughing

Behavior

• More aware of nature and care for the environment
• Children calmer
• Children more cooperative/responsible/caring/independent
• Children better rested/parents happier
• Children more creative

Feelings

• Everyone happier
• Less hyperactivity
• Children feel more independent
• Children more energised

2010-2011:
Ss didn’t leave classrooms at breaktime and go outside to play. How did it look?

Issues: School/Ts/Ss

• Classrooms and corridors dangerous/dirty/smelly
• Ts depressed
• Classrooms/corridors were playgrounds
• School was noisier
• Ss found it harder to relate to each other
• Ts lost lesson time in cleaning up breaktime mess
• Evidence of obesity
• Shorter attention span
• Ss didn’t know many games
• Garden wasn’t well-equipped
• Ss missed more school
• Ss’ behavior more influenced by media (i.e.negative effects of Smackdown)
• Ss used monly small part of garden
• More Ts on duty in corridors
• Ts on garden duty not interacting with ss
• Urban living conditions








Cultural Issues:

• Urban living conditions don’t allow for outdoor recreation
• Fear of cold/weather/getting dirty/sweating/catching cold
• Parental over-protectiveness
• Lack of T responsibility
• Fear of parental pressure

What are we planning to do to achieve our aim?

• Take ideas/plans to administration
• Prepare handouts about benefits of outdoor play
• Invite speakers (doctor/psychologist) to school to talk with parents and teachers

Things to Consider:

• Duty days/times
• School schedule
• Garden improvements/balconies/coat hanging space
• 1st Aid training
• Teaching ss independence
• Problem of drinks in class
• Professional support in educating class Ts/Ts/parents/ss/counsellors
• Organised outdoor games
• Enforcing the decision




Attachments:
• 2 articles:

http://www.movingandlearning.com/Resources/Articles20.htm
(Take It Outside! by Rae Pica)

http://www.thekidstoystore.com/imofoupl.html (Importance of Outside Play)


• Benefits of Outdoor Play Powerpoint Presentation

Team:Eda Çetintaş,Zeynep Yağcı,Gökçe Keskin, Pınar Taşcı,Alex Avşar,Alison Bahadır,George Duvoisin,Frank Cannarella

Yeni Bölümümüz - CFG Meetings

1- 2 ve 8-9. sınıf İngilizce öğretmenlerimizin Heather Hanım ile birlikte yaptıkları toplantılarımız için yeni bir bölüm açılmıştır. Critical Friends Group toplantıları ile ilgili her şeyi, CFG Meetings başlığında bulabilirsiniz.

28 Ekim 2010 PLC Toplantısında Yararlanılabilecek Protokoller

28 Ekim 2010 PLC Toplantısında Yararlanılabilecek Protokolleri görüntülemek ve bilgisayarınıza indirmek için aşağıdaki bağlantıları tıklayınız.

• Critical Issues For Team Consideration
• Forming Ground Rules
• Goal Setting
• Group Imap
• Planning for Teams
• Purpose and Work
• Survey On Team Norms
• Team Feedback Sheet

28 Ekim 2010 PLC Toplantısında Kullanılacak Çalışma Konuları

1 Haziran çalışmasında hepimiz bir araya gelip bu sene üzerinde çalışmak istediğimiz Student Work, Teacher Work, Dilemmas, Reading Topics konularımızı ortaya koymuş ve seçimler yaparak panolarımıza asmıştık.

Yürütme Kurulumuz (Arzu, Betti, Eda, Canan, Mazal, Tuba, Veysel) daha sonra bu formları kategorilere ayıkladı ve bir çizelge haline getirdi.
Çizelgeyi görüntülemek için lütfen tıklayınız.

28 Ekim 2010 PLC Toplantısı - Gruplar

28 Ekim 2010 tarihinde gerçekleşecek PLC Toplantımızda birlikte çalışacak gruplar aşağıdaki gibi olacaktır.

Dokümanı Excel dosyası olarak bilgisayarınıza indirmek için burayı tıklayınız.

Tekrar buluşuyoruz / We meet again!

Sevgili Critical Friends,

Bu yıl, buluşmakta çok geç kaldık; ama birbirimizi ve yapmak istediklerimizi unutmadık. Size aradan geçen zaman süresince neler olduğunu özetleyelim:

1 Haziran çalışmasında hepimiz bir araya gelip bu sene üzerinde çalışmak istediğimiz Student Work, Teacher Work, Dilemmas, Reading Topics konularımızı ortaya koymuş ve seçimler yaparak panolarımıza asmıştık.
Yürütme Kurulumuz ( Arzu, Betti, Eda, Canan, Mazal, Tuba, Veysel) daha sonra bu formları kategorilere ayıkladı ve bir çizelge haline getirdi. Çizelgeyi blogumuzda bulabilirsiniz; ekte de var.
"Blogumuz da ne" mi dediniz
Berna Hamarat Kaya, yazın çalıştı ve şimdiye kadar yaptıklarımızı kayıt altına aldı, takvimimizi oluşturdu, Professional Learning Community ile ilgili bültenlerimizi, toplantı notlarımızı, protokol ve yararlı dokümanları bulup indirebileceğimiz, sevdiğimiz okuma parçalarını ekleyebileceğimiz, yorumlarda bulunabileceğimiz bir blog oluşturdu. Adı www.fmvayazagaplc.blogspot.com Hepiniz bu bloga girebilir, istediğiniz dokümanı indirebilirsiniz. Ancak katkıda bulunacaksanız (ki ileride her birinizin aktif üyeler olması söz konusu) birer gmail adresi almanızı ve bu adresleri Berna'ya iletmenizi öneririm.(bhamarat@fmv.edu.tr)

Blog kullanımı oldukça eğlenceli. Berna her birinize destek vermeye de hazır!

Eğitmenimiz ve mentorumuz Margaret MacLean ile yazışmaya devam ediyoruz. Bu sene 6 grup halinde çalışmayı planlamıştık; gruplarımızı ne şekilde oluşturmamızın daha yararlı olacağını sorduk ve cevabına göre hareket ettik. Gruplarımızı ekteki çizelgede görebilirsiniz. Her grupta okul, branş ve görevleri karma olarak saptanmış arkadaşlar var. Bu gruplar yıl boyunca aynı kalacak ( tabii ki yeni arkadaşlar katılabilir) ve sırayla "facilitator" olarak görev alacaklar, tüm çalışmalarını blogumuzda kısa notlar halinde kayıt altına alacaklar.

İlk buluşmamız 28 Ekim 13:30 da, ÇAS da...Biz toplantıda koordinatörlük yapacak arkadaşları belirledik, tabloda işaretledik.
O gün ne yapacağız?
Her gruptaki arkadaşların önerdikleri konular ele alınacak, öncelikleri saptanacak ve her birinin "presenter"ı ile "facilitator"ı, bazı yönergeleri ve yardımcı dokümanları kullanarak uygun protokollleri seçecek. Yıl içinde nasıl çalışacaklarını saptayacaklar, takvimlerini belirleyecekler, kurallarını oluşturacaklar. Bu çalışmada, ekteki dokümanların kullanımını faydalı bulabilirsiniz; lütfen onları inceleyin ve ne şekilde kullanabileceğinizi düşünün.
Berna da blogumuzu ve kullanımını anlatan kısa bir sunum yapacak. Bu çalışmaya gelmeden sizler de bloga girer ve gezinirseniz, sorularınız, önerileriniz ve yorumlarınızı paylaşmak mümkün olur.

Tekrar bir araya geleceğimiz, birbirimizden öğreneceğimiz ve öğretmenler olarak gelişeceğimiz için heyecan duyuyoruz. Müdürlerimiz de çalışmalarımızı ilgiyle izliyor ve destek veriyorlar. Onları da sık sık aramızda göreceğiz.

Dinlediğim bir konferansta konuşmacı, öğretmenin işlevindeki değişiminden bahsederken bir vecize kullanmıştı:
“Not a sage on the stage, but a guide on the side”
Yani sahnedeki bilgin değil, kenardaki rehber olmak... İşte rehberlik yolunda gelişebilmek için, 28 Ekim de buluşmak üzere, hoşçakalın.

Sevgiler

Yürütme Kurulu adına Betti Delevi

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dear Critical Friends,

It’s been a long time since we last came together, but WE’RE BACK!

So here’s what happened in between:
Remember last time we met on June 1, we had brought samples of work we wanted to use this year? Student work, teacher work, dilemmas and reading topics – we had selected the ones we wanted to work on and put them on boards. Afterwards the organizing committee (Arzu, Betti, Eda, Canan, Mazal, Veysel) sorted them into categories and put them in a table (which you can find in the attachment and on our blog)
You ask, “What blog?”
Well, Berna created this blog called www.fmvayazagaplc.blogspot.com during the summer. There you can find most of our work, our meetings, calendar, documentation, useful protocols, links to articles, etc. Please review the site and bring questions, comments and new ideas when we come together. If you want to contribute to the blog (which everyone will, in the coming weeks) please obtain a gmail account and send your address to Berna ( bhamarat@fmv.edu.tr)

Something else we did was forming the groups that will work together this year. It seemed tricky, so we consulted Margaret MacLean, our trainer and mentor. She told us to form groups that will have members from diverse levels, subjects, and positions from our campus – so that’s what we did. You can find these groups in the attachment. We expect the blog to be a common ground where all groups will share their work and growth, give feedback, comment on posts and contribute all year long.

When do we come together?
October 28, 13:30 – 15:30 at the Ç.A.S. (a.k.a. The Glass Box, by Heather)

Coordinators for the day will bring together presenters and facilitators in your group so they can choose their protocols, help you form your ground rules, calendar, schedule and methods of feedback. You can find the documents in the attachment helpful. Please review them before you come to our meeting.
During the meeting, Berna will also give a short presentation on our blog.

We feel excited that we’re starting again on this journey of learning and growing together. Our school principals are very much interested in our work and will be participating in our sessions frequently.

Referring to the changing role of teachers, a speaker in a conference said, they should try to be, “not a sage on the stage, but a guide on the side”. And so, hoping to grow as guides, we hope to meet you on October 28.

Betti Delevi, representing the Organizing Committee.