Burcu Akyol's Blog

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

January 19, 2011
by admin
5 Comments

Project APLaNet Kicked Off In Barcelona

me, right before a seagull pooped on me:-)

I was in Barcelona last weekend. Apart from having been robbed and as a result of some serious misguidance of the Turkish embassy, having been detained for two hours at the Istanbul airport, it was a fantastic trip.

Project aPLaNet

What I’d like to tell you about is the meeting we had there. It was the kick-off meeting of the Project aPLaNet (Autonomous ‘Personal Learning Networks’ for Language Teachers) which is funded by the European Union. The aim of the project is to enable the language teachers to use online social networks effectively and help them build their Personal Learning Networks (PLNs). It is a two-year project. During the project’s life, we aim to answer these three questions:

  • What is a PLN?
  • What is the added value and meaning of a PLN?
  • How to introduce a new teacher to a PLN to become a full autonomous member?

By the end of two years, we aim to produce detailed guidelines, a comprehensive set of resources including a teacher methodology guide and build a sustainable system which will come alive within the project’s own online social network. The effectiveness and validity of all these resources will have been tested via an extensive piloting system which also involves a systematic process of mentors and mentees (experienced PLN members and newbies) working together.

The nature of the PLNs makes the project highly collaborative and aPLaNet has 140 Associate Partners from 33 different countries who will be contributing to the project by mentoring newbies and piloting the resources. It was memorable to have a webinar with 23 of the Associate Partners on WizIQ on the second day of the meeting.

Click here to download the recording of the webinar.

Before going to the meeting…

I was a bit nervous since I haven’t taken part in an EU project as a coordinator before. After meeting the partners, I can’t tell you how relieved I was. It was such a vibrant group of people. Meeting these great people have made the project much more real and meaningful for me. It was also very nice to find out that each group member had a unique sense of humour and this made our days and nights so much fun.

Graham, me, Dasa and Selcen

Highlights Of The Meeting

Here are some highlights that will put a smile on the faces of the team members:

Graham – “I’ve never talked to a Ning before.”

Joel’s garlic laugh (or was it pineapple?)

Dasa  - “Everything is perfect”…and her fantastic laugh.

Monica’s brilliant start to Twittering.

Marisa’s flamenco show.

David’s calming presence.

Selcen’s inability to tell a lie in the “two truths and a lie” game.

Nina’s gentle and modest attitude…and her husband’s being a sculptor.

Shelly’s sweet laughter and her ability to run webinars anytime anywhere.

I’m also very happy to have met some other PLN members like Paul, Kyle and Jamie.

Follow aPLaNet

Our next meeting is in June in Athens. Until then, we all will be doing some background work. You will hear from us very soon! Stay tuned:-)

Click here to join the aPLaNet Facebook Group.

Follow the aPLaNet partners on Twitter:

David: davidjwilson1

Monica: M_Vlad

Marisa: Marisa_C

Nina: ntsvetkova

Dasa: LanguagePELIKAN

Shelly: ShellTerrell

Graham: grahamstanley

Joel: acerview54

Burcu: burcuakyol

Selcen: selcensecil

Finally, I’d like to thank Joel Josephson for bringing us together and Graham Stanley for being a great host!

Looking forward to meeting the aPLaNet team in Athens!

January 3, 2011
by admin
10 Comments

DOs and DON’Ts of Blogging With Students

This is a little reminder for the blogging ISTEK teachers. I will announce the details of the ISTEK Blogs Competition very soon on http://blogs.istek.org.tr and I thought it would be a good idea to publish some DOs and DON’Ts just before that. These guidelines are specific to our school but some of the suggestions might be valid for the other blogging teachers too.

DOs:

  • Find catchy titles to your blog posts
  • Write your posts in a conversational tone
  • Reply to your students’ comments
  • Encourage them to contribute to the blog, give them responsibilities (Invent new responsibilities like ‘blog assistant’)
  • Set clear guidelines so that all parents and students are aware of what is and isn’t appropriate.
  • Get students involved in the process of creating the guidelines
  • Get your students to create their own avatar without using their own photo (check out this link)
  • Tell your students to write their names only while posting comments
  • Adopt principles on mistake correction in student comments & let your students know about your expectations
  • Update the blogroll frequently and encourage your students to visit those websites
  • Talk about the blog enthusiastically if you want to get your students’ attention
  • Make the blog assignments appealing by some bribery:-) e.g. an extra plus for the students who finish the story on the blog
  • Build international connections (Start Twittering if you want to find other blogging teachers quickly and easily)
  • Post your entries both in English and Turkish (Kindergarten and Department blogs only, since the target audience is the parents)
  • Visit other class blogs for more creative ideas & share ideas with the other blogging teachers
  • Reply to comments visitors (other blogging teachers, parents, etc.) make on your blog posts
  • Have fun!

DON’Ts

  • Write too long
  • Publish students’ full names (first names only)
  • Publish individual student photos
  • Disclose the student names in photo captions
  • Use copyright protected images
  • Add music videos without reading or listening to the lyrics carefully
  • Publish links before making sure that the link is age and level-appropriate
  • Make the blog assignments obligatory (there might be students who do not have access to Internet at home)
  • Postpone moderating comments (you need to share this responsibility with your co-teacher)
  • Approve parent comments that include questions or comments that need a private phone conversation or a face-to-face meeting (e.g. exam grades, a problem in the classroom)
  • Think that blogging is the aim of your lesson (although it is how you will feel inevitably at the very beginning)
  • Hesitate to ask for help (you know where to find me:-)

December 10, 2010
by admin
15 Comments

My Job Is Not What I Do, It Is Who I Am

I’ve been thinking about motivation for a very long time. The reason why some people do their jobs lovingly and why some others look forward to the weekend starting from the very first day of the week.

In other words, the ones who see the alarm clock as an opportunity clock that wakes them up to the new day with fresh new opportunities and the ones who see it as unpleasant as a fire alarm.

I think I fall into the first category and I see myself very lucky because I’m doing something I love and sometimes an hour feels like five minutes while I’m working… And I’m also very lucky that I know hundreds of people who have the same or much more passionate attitudes towards their jobs.

I’ve also been thinking of writing a blog post about it but I haven’t known where to start… since I watched the Jay Leno show last Friday.

One of his guests was Louis CK who is a well-known American stand-up comedian. At a point in their conversation, Louis made a very good point in a very fun way:

You probably don’t see a connection between a coffee guy and a teacher. If you are a coffee guy and do not like your job, it is not a problem that could make a big difference in the customers’ lives. But, if you are a teacher and do not like your job, it could make big differences and cause irreparable results in your students’ lives. And, because of this reason, I think that the teachers who fall into the second category should immediately change their jobs.

What I desperately wonder is the reason of the difference in teachers’ attitudes towards their jobs (which I think also reflect their attitude towards life). We have such a big responsibility that even the worst conditions should not cause us not to do our jobs properly or to hate going to work every single day. The motto should be ‘Love It or Leave It’…

I would like to ask you what you think is the difference between these two teacher profiles that I mentioned?

I will continue questioning this and I hope one day I can find the chance and time to do some research on this because I am sure that there are plenty of variables and it is not easy to come up with a single reason or solution.