Burcu Akyol's Blog

reflections and insights about teaching, technology, and life & practical tips and resources

January 14, 2012
by admin
10 Comments

Please Send Your Good Energies To Gozde

There have been some changes regarding my work life which I will write about another time. I started working at Yeditepe University where we had both of the ISTEK conferences.

Last week I learned that a Yeditepe student has been battling a very rare type of cancer since 2003 and she is having a very critical operation on Monday. Since it is a very expensive operation, we started a campaign to raise money. It is great that lots of people helped and we almost have the money that is needed.

I’d like to upload the campaign poster here. The words you see in Turkish are the words that describe her. Young, cheerful, fashion designer, dreamer, curious, strong, successful, creative, ……. cancer. 

I have a feeling that the more people think about her, the more successful the operation will be.

Please send your good energies to her from wherever you are.

October 18, 2011
by admin
30 Comments

Six Reasons Why You Cannot Be A Bad Teacher

Year 2011. And it is almost impossible to be a bad teacher.

Because…

If you are a teacher who is passionate about teaching and who considers continuous professional development as an important aspect of your career, the opportunities to become a good teacher are ENDLESS.

I am not going to share with you a long list because I find long lists overwhelming and confusing.

Here are my six reasons why you cannot be a bad teacher. In other words, learning opportunities for enthusiastic teachers:)

1. Twitter

It is a global staffroom with endless learning and sharing opportunities. After you sign up and before starting to think desperately what to do next, go to We Follow, search for educators on Twitter and start following them. You can search with keywords like elt, esl, efl or tefl. If you think you need some guidance, you can join the aPLaNet Project. It is a European Union funded project which aims to help language educators become autonomous members of online social networks.

A great way to understand how Twitter works and how wonderful it is to be in a global staffroom, you can join the #ELTChat discussion sessions that take place every Wednesday at 12:00 p.m. GMT and 21:00 p.m. GMT. ELT teachers from all around the world log into their Twitter accounts and for one hour they discuss on a topic they have selected. Read more about the #ELTChat.

2. Nings

Ning is an online platform for people and organizations to create custom social networks. (Source: Wikipedia)

When you join a Ning that is created for educators, you have the opportunity to join discussions, share articles, videos and photos.

Here are four Nings which you can become a member of and start interacting with likeminded colleagues:

EFL Classroom 2.0

The Educator’s PLN

Teacher 2.0

aPLaNet – Autonomous ‘Personal Learning Networks’ for Language Teachers

3. Facebook Groups & Pages

Through Facebook Groups and Pages, you can stay more connected with educators from all around the world. (Click here to read about the difference between Facebook Groups and Pages.)

Here are some Groups and Pages you should check out:

#ELTChat (Group)

EU Educators (Group)

aPLaNet – Autonomous ‘Personal Learning Networks’ for Language Teachers (Page)

Teaching English – British Council (Page)

4. Blogs

There are so many wonderful educator blogs in the blogosphere. Once you start following some of them, you will see that they support each other by giving links to other educators’ blogs and that’s how you will discover other great blogs.

As a beginning, check out these blogs, and their blogrolls* as well:

Teacher Reboot Camp

TEFL Matters

Teaching Village

Reflections of a Teacher and Learner

Box of Chocolates

OUP ELT Global Blog

*Blogroll: A blogroll is a list of links to blogs that the blogger likes. A blogroll is usually included in the blog’s sidebar.

5. Online Workshops & Conferences

IATEFL Online

IATEFL Online Project has been providing online coverage of the IATEFL Conference for five years. The next IATEFL Conference is taking place in Glasgow on 19-23 March 2012 and I’m sure the IATEFL Online Team will do a wonderful job again and take the conference to teachers who are not able to attend in person.

Virtual Round Table Conference (20-22 April, 2012)

The Virtual Round Table Conference is a 3-day online conference. So far more than 2000 participants and 180 guest speakers have participated in the conference. It is great that all the sessions are recorded and can be found on the Virtual Round Table (VRT) Ning. You can join the Ning at http://www.virtual-round-table.com/.

The Macmillan Online Conference (8-9 November, 2011)

Macmillan is organizing its first online conference. It is a 2-day event with a very good line up of speakers. You can see the program here.

The Electronic Village Online (EVO)

EVO is a set of online discussions and workshops that takes place every year from mid-January to mid-February. Sessions include a range from simple discussions to virtual hands-on workshops. Registrations start on January 2, 2012 and being a TESOL member is not required to register.

6. Webinars

The term webinar is short for Web-based Seminar, a presentation, lecture, workshop or seminar that is transmitted over the Web, specifically a portmanteau of web & seminar, to describe a specific type of web conference. (Source: Wikipedia)

You can check out TeachingEnglish | British Council | BBC, Macmillan and PearsonELT webinars that offer good quality content on a regular basis.

Teaching English Webinars

Macmillan Interactive Webinars

PearsonELT Webinars

It is great that everything I have shared with you here is free and you don’t need any special computer skills to get started. All you need is enthusiasm and some time!:)

Let me finish with a quote…

“Enthusiasm is excitement with inspiration, motivation, and a pinch of creativity.” Bo Bennett

:)

October 17, 2011
by admin
5 Comments

Einstein Would Have Loved an iPad!

Einstein, who was never able to recall his own phone number, was famous for not memorizing anything that could be quickly and easily looked up in a standard reference volume. “Never memorize what you can look up in books,” he said.
(Source: Life Magazine)

He said this probably in 1920s when books and newspapers were the only sources of information, and at the time it was probably an odd way of thinking for many people. But he was so right, because he needed the capacity of his brain to identify problems, find solutions and new ways of seeing things rather than store millions of not-so-necessary information.

Can you imagine how much he would have loved an iPad? :-)

Here I use iPad as a symbol for the other available technologies that make reaching information easy and I want to thank Steve Jobs for changing the way we work, the way we create and the way we communicate.

Rest in peace Steve Jobs.

Well… From 1920s to 2000s, although the school systems haven’t changed significantly, the way we live and learn has changed enormously.

In today’s global world, in order to be successful, we should be able to think critically and creatively. Therefore we don’t need not-so-necessary information in our brains either. 

What we need to do is to identify the best channels through which we can reach information. As educators we have twice as much responsibility. First, for ourselves, to develop professionally; second, for our students, to guide them towards appropriate learning resources. Besides we need to accept the fact that today’s learners need information to use it, not to memorize it. Therefore we should set them meaningful tasks, give them real reasons to learn and create learning environments where they can use what they learn in class. While doing this, we can benefit from available technologies, technologies that offer us useful tools to make learning easier, more interesting and more fun.

I think it is necessary to reconsider our role in students’ learning experiences. We are no longer ‘teachers’. We are guides, facilitators and sources of inspiration. And most importantly, we are lifelong learners.

Wishing you a week full of joy and laughter!