I work at ISTEK Foundation Schools in Istanbul. I am responsible for coordinating the foreign languages departments of the schools which also involves developing training programmes for teachers. We have 168 foreign languages teachers at eight campuses. As well as having very enthusiastic teachers, I’m very happy that I work with a group of dedicated and well-qualified department heads who have been very supportive since the day I started.

In the conference, which took place on 14-15, September, we had wonderful plenary and workshop speakers who inspired us by giving great ideas to make a very good start to the new academic year.

The first speaker of the conference was a ‘student’. Since students are the main focus of this kind of events, I thought it would be nice to have a student as a guest. Before Ken’s (Wilson) plenary session, I invited her to the stage and we had a lovely conversation. She told us about her dream school where teachers guide students to gain practical knowledge, add fun, excitement and challenge to their learning experience.

Our first plenary speaker was Ken Wilson who I believe is a gifted speaker. The name of his talk was “Turning passive students into active learners” in which he talked about the most common aspects of a passive lesson, and looked at ways to get students more involved. It was a great session with a lot of laughter!

Our second plenary speaker was Jamie Keddie. The name of his talk was “Materials World”. He talked about the great variety of resources that are available to language teachers and shared some practical lesson plan ideas with us. I met Jamie in Cardiff and didn’t have chance to attend his session before. I admire his creativity and think that his students are very lucky!

We opened the second day of the conference by Gavin Dudeney‘s inspiring and thought-provoking session: Beyond the Book – Digital Literacy, You & Your Learners. I enjoy Gavin’s sessions very much and we were very lucky to have him here!

Our last plenary speaker was Nina Lauder. The name of her talk was “Story Fun For Little Ones”. Her performance was amazing. She talked about why we use stories in class and shared a couple of activities that appeal to young learners. I’m looking forward to meeting this lovely lady again!

We had also twenty workshops that I couldn’t attend unfortunately. However I am happy to see that teachers gave very positive feedback on workshops as well.

After the conference, we went to Doga Club which is a great holiday village owned by ISTEK Foundation. We had a lovely dinner and a big raffle there.

Time passed very quickly and I said goodbye to my guests. This was a fabulous experience for me. I would like to thank Ken, Gavin, Jamie, Nina and the other speakers for being with us and spreading their knowledge! Now, getting ready for a bigger event in April. More time for planning, lots of support from management and so many ideas in my head…

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