"Going to" Future Video
I prepared this video to present "going to" future in xtranormal which is a website that allows you to create videos. I am sure your students will love it because my students love watching videos.If you want to use this video please click here.


I like using technology in the classroom and I use them as surprises. Especially my 4th grade students love surprises and they always wait for my next surprise. It motivates them a lot. Hope you like it and use it in your classroom too.

Creating Sound Files

Dear all,

I found two useful websites for you to create your own sound files. They are totally free and they don't ask for a membership.The first one is called AT&T. AT&T gives you the chance to make speeches of a female or male characters from different natioanalities. You can chooe from the box if you want an Italian, French or a German accent.I recommend you to listen to the files first before you download them. It reads some words very quickly. So you need to put a comma between the words to make it slower.The second one is vozMe.In this site the choices are limited with a male and female voice.They sound more like a robot but it is still free and a useful tool if you are preperaing a powerpoint and you want an alien or a robot to talk :) I prepared flash games and powerpoint presentation with these tools and. Hope you find them useful ,too.

Moose Song

It's a very nice energizer from CISV. You can do it with your students to have fun together.

Karaoke Party

Listening and singing songs is always fun for everyone.

You can suggest your students karaokeparty.com to improve their pronunciation and listening skills or you can give it a try yourself just for fun. I tried myself and it was so much fun. All you need to do is:
•To go to the website http://karaokeparty.com
•Choose a song.
You should have flash player in your computer. Choose allow in your screen. It’s time to sing along. It’s totally free but limited for free users. You don’t have to register but if you do you can get a score for your singing, but you need a microphone. Doesn’t it worth to give it a try?


Hope you like it:)
P.S: I found this piece of information in Nik Peachy's website.

How to Praise Our Students

I was looking for something different yesterday but I came across with 101 ways to praise a child. I started to question myself "Do I praise my students? Do I do it in a proper way or Do I always use the same words?" My answer is most of the time I use the same words. That's why I liked this suggestion.If you want to visit the website click here. Some of them are not very suitable to use in the classroom but you can choose. Here is the list that you can use to praise your students.

101 Ways To Praise A Child

Wow. Way to go. You're special. Outstanding. Excellent. Great. Good.Neat. Well done. Remarkable . I knew you could do it. I'm proud of you.Super Star. Nice work. Looking good. You're on top of it. You'recatching on. Now you've got it. How smart. Good job. That's incredible.Hot dog. Remarkable job. You're Beautiful. You're a winner. Youmake me happy. Hip, Hip, Hooray. You're important. Magnificent.Beautiful. Fantastic. You're on target. You're on your way. How nice.You're Spectacular. You're Darling. Super. Super Job. Beautiful work.Good for you. Nothing can stop you now. Dynamite. You're fantastic.Awesome. You're precious. Fantastic job. You've discovered the secret.Bingo. Great discovery. You're a real trooper. Marvelous. Terrific.You're growing up. Outstanding performance. You tried hard. You figuredit out . What a good listener. You're a treasure . You mean a lot to me. You're a good friend . That's correct. A big hug. What an imagination.You learned it right. You're incredible. Now you're flying. Bravo.Beautiful. I like you. I respect you. You're sensational. Phenomenal. A+job. Hooray for you. You're unique. You care. Creative job. You belong.You brighten my day. Super work. That's the best. You made my day. Ilove you! Beautiful sharing. You mean the world to me. You're important.You've got a friend. You're a joy. You make me laugh . You're A - Okay -my buddy. I trust you. You are perfect. You're wonderful. A big kiss.Exceptional performance .

P.S. Remember, a smile is worth 1000 Words!

One more from me. I learnt it from a teacher trainer once I atttended a seminar. Especially when the students give wrong answers you can encourage him / her by saying: "That's a very good but not totally correct answer." My students already memorized it and they repeat it together with me :)

Digital Natives

Today I prepared certificates for the first ten 5th grade students who contributed our wiki.I wrote "Congratulations. You've turned out to be a digital native." on their certificates.Tomorrow I'll give them and tell the meaning of digital native which is a new term for my students. I'm sure they'll like their certificates.This wiki study is new for them so they need motivation.Today I also updated our wiki because we had some technical problems. One of my students deleted some of his friends writings while trying to write his by mistake. So I created new pages for each student and wrote a new task for them which is about school system. I also included one example for them.Some of my students have already started writing their new pages.

Computer Skills

My friends usually ask for help when they have trouble using computers. I can not say that I am a computer genius but that’s how some of my friends see me. I don’t want to boost myself here. When I started Learning Technologies course by British Council, I realized that there is a lot to discover about technology and it never ends. This knowledge is like an ocean and you can’t see the end of it. First, you need to learn swimming then; you have to improve your swimming skills because freestyle swimming is not enough to survive in this big ocean. Most of us use computers and surf on the net; at least we have an e-mail account. But how many of us use this technology effectively? Thanks to British Council because this course helps me to learn more about the real usage of technology in teaching.

Wiki Adventure

Our first week has just finished with my 5th grade students’ wiki. They did pretty good job, even the weakest students tried to write something or commented on others’ work. The happiest time for me during the week was when I received thank you e-mails from the parents. They say it is a good opportunity for the kids to work on a project like this and they are highly motivated. The parents are happy in other ways, too. They have the chance to compare their kid’s writing with the others and see their levels. When we first started this wiki adventure , I didn’t think about the parents however, the feedbacks pleased me a lot.

Peer Observation

Today I've experienced something different. We've started observing each other's classes. I went into a French class with 7th grade students. I don't know any French but it was so surprising that I could undertand some of the parts. Some words are similar with English.The pronounciation is so far different though. The kids also pronounce the similar words as English. Tomorrow I'll observe 9th grade but this time it will be an English lesson.

Wikis

I created a wiki for my 5th grade students at the weekend. It was a bit time consuming to create accounts for 50 students but it worths at the end when you see how excited your students are.I gave them general information about wikis and told them how to use their wiki. When I arrived home the first thing I did was to check 5th grades wiki. I am very happy and proud of my students because I saw at least 3 or 4 interviews and reviews.
In the beginning I was concerned about my students' computer skills but now I realised that they are pretty good at it. Today is our first day on wiki ,so I tried to support them online. I could see them editing ,writing and commenting. They asked me questions when they had difficulties. Two of my students changed the front page and deleted the other class' name.Some of my students created their own pages which made it difficult for me to control their writings. I tried to change the setting but it requests upgrade and we need to pay for the upgrade. I wrote directions for them to follow but I have lots of confident students who likes being different. Do you have any sugestions how I can manage my students' writings?
To visit our wiki click here.

Creating Your Own Movies

Have you tried xtranormal website which lets you create movies and publish them? I've tried one today.That's very amateur, but this is my first trial.

End of Year Shows

It is nearly the end of the academic year. We have just 7 or 8 weeks left. As you know that is the busiest time for the teachers. You try to finish preparing exams, grading them , project homework presentations are done and I think the most exciting one is the end of year shows. This year my students will perform four dramas at the end of May.I gave them the playscripts right before the winter break. They memorized their parts from the texts. We rehearse our plays during the week in our lessons. It is not enough but thanks to my students .They are so eager to do it and they rehearse it themselves sometimes in the breaks ,too.

Last night I prepared powerpoint presentations for my classes' shows.It took me alot of time but I enjoyed it a lot. I found lots of animated pictures to use. Nearly all of our shows are like musicals. My 7th grade students will perform "The Hunchback of Notre Dame". A group of my 5th grade students wrote a play on their own. They inspired from "Yemekteyiz" and they wrote a funny English version of it. It's name is "Let's Cook". The other groups will perform "Happy Together" and "We are the World". These two plays are written by a friend of mine , Serpil Kut,who is also an English teacher. I want to thank her giving these scripts to me. I can't wait to see my students on the stage.

This is another “English Alive” video from my 4th grade students.Three friends go to a cafe.They order drinks.Watch and see how enthusiastic they are.

Big surprise to the thief

The taxi driver is not aware that a thief got on his taxi. The thief wants to go somewhere and he gives the directions to the driver. At the end a very big surprise is waiting for the thief. Watch and learn what. Thanks to my 5th grade students.

English Alive

I love “English Alive” lessons. Every month we choose a topic on daily life and my students write dialogues. Then they act out in the classroom. Before they start writing their dialogues, I give them the key words and show them a sample dialogue. We talk on the sample dialogue such as which parts they can change, we practice on pronunciation. There are two pictures above. My 4th grade students are at a café and one of them is a waiter / waitress getting the orders and serving, the others are the customers. Look how cute they are.

Here's my first wall from "wallwisher".
Hope you like it.
http://www.wallwisher.com/wall/graffiti

MUN Conference

Last week Wednesday to Saturday my students and I attended a conference at "Robert College". It was MUN (Model United Nations) Conference. I don't know if you've ever heard about it before.It was a very good organization including social activities.They represented Estonia successfully.Estonia delegation made new friends,had dinner in "Sait Halim Paşa Yalısı",went on a boat trip.These conferences needs lots of preparations before you go, but you are very proud to see your students discussing some world issues in their committees. Although we spent four tiring days, it was very beneficial, not only for my students but also myself. I made lots of new friends from different schools, cities and countries. It was advantageous to exchange our ideas.
I am so proud of my MUN club students.

Bogey Man

I had a fun game at the end of the lesson with my 5th grade students today that I want to share it with you. I've learnt this in a summer camp which I attended two years ago and I use these energizers time to time in my lessons. The songs name is "Bogey man". The teacher starts the chant and actions are included.Here are the lyrics:

Hey, there George you're a real cool cat
You've got a lot of this and a lot of that
So don't you be afraid of the Bogey man
Just stand up and sugar as fast as you can
Sugar up sugar, sugar, sugar, sugar
Sugar down sugar, sugar, sugar, sugar
To the side sugar, sugar, sugar, sugar
Other side sugar, sugar, sugar, sugar

I wanted to add the music but I couldn't. If I learn how to add music, I'll have a chance to listen to it.

You can download the music here.
http://www.divshare.com/download/7212507-f2e

Blogging - Baby Steps

The reason I want to learn about web tools such as blogs, podcasts and wikis, is that it gives us a great chance to engage the needs of our students and motivate them. We have to adapt ourselves to the changing learning technologies in order to create an effective learning environment for our students.
In the beginning of this academic year I’ve met the term “blogging” at a teachers’ symposium. It was a big coincidence because the presenter was one of my colleagues that I worked with in the previous years. I was so fascinated what she did with her students. I said “Why don’t you start a blog with your classes?” to myself. Unfortunately, I couldn’t accomplish it with the busy pace of the daily life.
After a while, I heard that there will be a course by British council about “Learning Technologies”. I volunteered for the course and it’s been a week I’ve been taking the course. So far I’ve read articles about netiquette, advantages and disadvantages of using technology in the classroom. I took some quizzes and shared my ideas in the forums. I was a bit nervous at first because this is the first time I’ve taken an online course but I feel relieved now.
Happy blogging everyone.