Social Network

             

Liverpool Online Registered Blogger

Glasgow Online Registered Blogger

Live Traffic Feed

Posts Tagged ‘adam simpson’
Run Merve Run:)
blogathon-story

I’ve put on my marathon t-shirt (number 120) again and started running at the blog marathon. Feeling very excited and full of energy, I’m trying to reach the finish line.

The Blogathon has been a lot to me so far. As one of the silver award winners of last year I opened the doors of a new world after the race. Being inspired by the race, I started my own teaching blog and I believe this has been the biggest award I have ever received.

Teachers of English from different countries have been running at this year’s Blogathon started by the British Council Turkey. The race takes place on TeachingEnglish site of the British Council. The blogging teachers are supported by the motivating comments of Karin Tirasin, last year’s gold award winner, and the 1st runner up, Eva Buyuksimkesyan.

Teachers send great posts about their experiences, share their ideas, discuss issues and comment on each other’s posts. The race started on 16 January and it will end on 12 February. The gold award, a ticket to IATEFL Conference 2012, has been really motivating for most of the blogging teachers. More teachers are about to enter the magic world of blogging planning to start their own blogs. The British Council Blogathon team is doing a great big job by giving an opportunity to the teachers of English by helping them update themselves, opening a free space to blog and of course motivating them with awards.

If you want leave a comment and support blogging teachers, you should become a member of TeachingEnglish site and it will only take a minute. It is free and fun guaranteed:)

If you want to read my posts at the Blogathon, just click on the titles below.

Today is the first day of the rest of your life

My precious blogathon t-shirt

My Blogathon resolution: Losing weight by writing

The personality you carry with you

Using movies in class

Sorting sticks of a teacher

One minute

Teachers of Crystal Teacher

Are you in danger of …?

Have you been to Barcelona?

A poem dedicated to Blogathon

Today’s Menu

The biggest snowball ever

Other post about the Blogathon:

The race is on in the ELT Blogathon by Adam Simpson

Marks, set,  go! ELT blgoathon 2011 by Dave Dodgson

I’ve entered a competition by Naomi Epstein

Taking part in the TeachingEnglish Blogathon 2012 by Sanja

 
Unforgettables of Dogus University 1st International ELT Conference
Saying goodbye...
Dogus University 1st International ELT Conference provided hundreds of teachers new ideas, new techniques and approaches. The album below inspired me, so I made this crazy comparison between each thing I wanted to mention and a period in music:)

Name of the Album: Unforgettables of Dogus 1st International ELT Conference – Turning Challenges Into Opportunities

Genre: Nostalgic / Oldies

Release Date: November 26, 2011

Manufactured and distributed by: Dogus University

CLICK TO LISTEN!

 

Great Hits of the Conference

1. Speakers and Workshop Presenters > the 60s: The speakers and presenters of the conference were so special just like all those pop and rock’n roll songs of the sixties. The practical ideas they gave and the activities they shared were enlightening.

Here are my favourite parts of the speeches and workhops:

David Crystal:  “blogarrhea and tweeterrhea”  (like the word ‘diarrhea’ :) ) - I loved the expressions he made up for the addicts who overuse blogs and twitter. He compared electronic language versus traditional language.
George Pickering: “While focusing on the task, we sometimes miss the opportunities.” I totally agree with him. Here is another thing he mentioned:

Questions to be asked

Rod Bolitho: “Learners feel valued if their opinions are asked.” Absolutely right. Who wouldn’t?
Lindsay Clandfield: He gave many ideas about critical thinking.

A meaningful rewrite activity about the Passive voice

Jane Willis: “Start ‘small’. Simple but crucial.” That’s what we also have to do as teachers.
Paul Seligson: Categorizing mistakes as ‘serious’ and ‘non serious’ is a good way before the feedback.

About correcting mistakes

Tom Godfrey: We were really active during the wonderful drama and drilling activities involving the whole class.

Drama, "Cinderella"

Jamie Keddie: He showed many activities on using images and reading texts in our lessons.

Predicting, pre-reading activity

Isıl Boy: By using wikis in the class, students are able to read the other students’ tasks and  give feedback to each other. Wikis also enable you to check the plagiarism with one button. Who wouldn’t want to use this?
2. Special Guests > the 70s: The Henry Brothers reminding me of my childhood with their great acting performance on the stage involved the audience into their show. It was an unbelievable experience watching them through the story of the ‘paper theatre’ .

The Henry Brothers

3. The Roving Reporter > the 80s: Adam Simpson, the roving reporter of the conference popped up from 1980’s with his new beard style which really looked cool. As he twitted during the conference, with his new look he supports a movement about health. Adam took his place at the very back of the conference hall and tried to keep the virtual spirit of the conference alive with his tweets, photos and posts on the  facebook page of the conference.

Adam, Me and Sharon

4. Conference Attendees > the all-time hits: It was so nice to see enthusiastic teachers trying to improve their teaching, to share and follow the upcoming news on ELT. Because a big group of them are usually around all the time at many conferences, I named them as the all-time hits. They are like time travellers. You never know who you will see:) Meeting ex-colleagues and friends is good.  This is one of the best things of attending  conferences.
5. Me myself > the 90s: This was the first ELT conference I attended as a workshop presenter. The first is always special, so I will never forget it. I had emotional flashbacks going to 90s, my high school years with the butterflies in my stomach but thanks to my audience. They wiped it all by participating the activities. My workshop called “1 Coupon 1 Word, 1000 Coupons 1000 Words” was about an award system based on vocabulary teaching. It was so good to share it with other colleagues and getting feedback from them.

Me, at my workshop

6. Awards and the Raffle > the New Millennium’s First Decade: Just like the millennium surprises, the awards were great. I won the best workshop proposal award whereas Jeffrey Doonan received the best comment award. The presents given at the Raffle were also awesome. Spanish courses, resource materials for teachers, online teaching courses and so on.

7. Conference Team > the New Millennium’s Second Decade: Each member of the conference team was like a busy bee flying around to make the best honey for the guests and attendees. The rooms (the honeycombs :) ) were all ready without any technical problems. The colleagues that assisted the speakers and the workshop presenters were so polite and helpful.

Hope you enjoyed reading my reflections on the conference. If you want to watch the videos or have a look at the tweets, check out the links below.

Check the Conference Tweets: #DogusELT