It was nearly a month ago. I was so happy to have finished my post “Magic Calls Thee – Let’s meet this weekend!” Like all bloggers, I wanted to share my recent post on my Facebook wall and clicked on the “Share” button. I was feeling like a kid who was ready to show his / her homework to the teacher after a long study. As you can guess, I was impatient to see my dear PLN liking and sharing my post:)

But what was that? A message box appeared on my screen. My eyes ould see it, but my brain was rejecting to receive it! Although I tried again and again, it kept appearing. Apparently, Facebook wasn’t allowing me to share anything from my blog. After a quick search, I learnt that Facebook could have put my blog into its spam list or someone (Most probably more than 1 person) could have reported my blog. Both reasons seemed to be helpless.

I sent countless messages and completed millions of forms. Everybody around tried to help me by filling in forms and sending messages to Facebook, but nothing changed.

At last, I decided to move my blog to a new domain www.merveoflaz.net and here I am. My blog is all new and fresh, ready to be shared:)

The only problem was about the gadget ClustrMaps. Because it was a new blog, it only showed one visitor at first. I was so sorry to be losing the number of my visitors on my previous blog.

I LOVE CLUSTRMAPS

I sent a Tweet to @clustrmaps and received an immediate reply. I was amazed. They took care of me by sending what I had to do and then they moved all the visitors to my new blog. They just managed this in a few days. I am so grateful  to the team of ClustrMaps for all the help and support they have given. You should definitely add this gadget and follow it on Twitter.

Finally, I am able to share my posts on Facebook safely. My blog came back to life with a new name and it will be counting the  visitors from where I left:) That really looks like a kind of “reincarnation into a higher level”:) Below is what happened during this spiritual journey of my blog:)

What my blog learnt:

Without a Facebook share, a blog post is all alone. It can even turn into a pathetic figure:S

How my blog felt:

It felt like a celebrity whose website was attacked by a group of “freaky jealous people”:)

Who my blog thanks to:

Thanks to my friends, my colleagues, my students, my mum, and even my neighbours:) for all the support they have given and for cheering me up.

No matter what happens, I will keep writing and sharing:)

Stay tuned and follow my reincarnated blog!

No matter where you live (on Earth:) we can all meet and share our stories this weekend! I’m inviting you to a story sharing conference hosted by British Council Turkey.

I can imagine what you are thinking right now:) Don’t worry! You don’t have to leave your house or change your clothes. You can enjoy the event in your pyjamas because the conference is online and all for free.

The only thing you should do is to provide speakers or headphones. You also need to upload Adobe Connect (if you don’t have). You can test the system and the connection. Right after that you will be ready for the conference.

The sessions take place in different Adobe rooms and each room has a different link. In the conference programme you can find all the details about that.

Story Sharing Web – Conference ‘Saturday 9th – Sunday10th February 2013′ from British Council Turkey on Vimeo.

There are great pleanary speakers and I’m sure you will not miss this chance. You will even have a chance to speak out (by typing of course:)) or ask questions on the chat box during the talks. Here are the great speakers:

9th February – SATURDAY – Plenary Speakers

Reading for Pleasure: Why it Matters, How it helps, and Ways to Encourage it. Alec Williams, UK

Classroom Storytelling: Wonder, Wit & Wisdom in World Stories. David Heathfield, United Kingdom

Using Story Picturebooks with Primary Children. Gail Ellis, France

10th February – SUNDAY – Plenary Speakers

Yaratıcı Okuma / Creative Reading. Sevim Ak, Turkey

Using Graphic Novels and Comics with Teens. Samantha Lewis, Spain

Sharing Stories: Powerful Lessons in Language Learning. Shelly S Terrell, USA

There are also concurrent sessions with very interesting titles and I’m proud to announce that I am one of the presenters. My session is on the 10th February. It’ll be great to meet you at a Sunday breakfast:)

It’s at 08:00-8:30 (GMT) and 10:00-10:30 (TURKEY TIME) and my room is TOLKIEN which is a perfect match for my abstract:)

My title is MAGIC CALLS THEE and I’ll be sharing some hands-on activities you can use in your classroom. Here is my abstract:

I summon thee, the lovers of the “Educaland”!

Rise; magic calls thee.Get ready to be inspired to find out thy magic tools.

Thou shalt take thy little ones to a miraculous journey and

Ne’er forget these enchanted moments.

Worry not, there are so many untold stories and

Once thou enter this magic passage, there wilt always be a magic formula!

Check below to see the other concurrent sessions / presenters.

Hashtag for Twitter: #sswebcon

Facebook Page of the conference

Watch the conference live

View the plenary speakers

View the conference programme

Other posts you might like to read:

Story Sharing Web Conference – Saturday 9th – Sunday 10th February 2013 by britishcouncil_elt

British Council Story Sharing Web Conference by Ozge Karaoglu Ergen

I’ll be glad to share the links if you also have a post about the conference. Please do not hesitate to contact me:)

CAN’T WAIT TO SEE YOU THERE ))

As an international organisation that cares and respects for the diversity, the British Council is always ready to create equal opportunities, so here is one of these great occasions:

The great team of the British Council Turkey has been working on this project for nearly a year by organising meetings, training the trainers and leading the whole process. I’m so happy and proud to be a part of it. A group of teacher trainers from different parts of Turkey (me, representing the İstanbul region with other three great colleagues) will try to reach as many teachers as possible through these workshops and keep sharing and inspiring.

Each teacher trainer is in charge of gathering the group of his / her audience. I hope you are already into it, because I am inviting you to join in and I can’t wait to meet you there:) This may be an awesome chance for you or maybe your colleagues.

WHEN? There will be totally 6 workshops (once a month) that will take place on Saturdays. The dates of the workshops will be e-mailed after the confirmation of your requests.

HOW LONG IS EACH WORKSHOP? Each one is totally 3 hours.

WHERE? Bahcesehir University Preparatory School, which is the institution I work for, is gladly opening the doors of the Sisli Campus in Istanbul to be used as the venue for free.

WHO IS THE TRAINER? I’m happy and proud to announce ‘myself’ as the trainer of the workshops:) If you want to learn more information about me, you may check out my blog or my Linked In Profile.

WHAT ARE THE SPECIFIC TITLES OF THE WORKSHOPS? Some of the titles are as follows: Classroom management, teaching vocabulary, teaching reading and writing and so on. The details will be e-mailed after the confirmation of your requests.

DO YOU GET A CERTIFICATE? If you attend all six workshops, you will receive a certificate from the British Council.

WHO CAN ATTEND THE WORKSHOP? Teachers of English in both state and private schools. For your kind information, only a limited number of teachers will be chosen as attendees – maximum 30. First come, first served:)

WHEN IS THE DEADLINE? 24th November is the deadline to send me your requests.

If you are interested in attending the workshops, please send me an e-mail (merveoflaz@hotmail.com) to state your full name / surname and the institution you are currently working at.

Please do not hesitate to ask any questions (here or via e-mail).

Looking forward to hearing from you soon and hoping to get your help to spread the word:)

Special thanks to the British Council Turkey and its great team for providing professional development opportunities for the teachers of English

Great thanks to Bahcesehir University Preparatory School for supporting the project by providing its campus as the venue of the workshops for free

Sweet thanks to the tutors of the teacher trainers - Sue Leather (on the left) and Leila Tahrani (on the right) for guiding us on our journey

You might also be interested in the post by Özge Karaoğlu who is another member of our great team. Here is the post about the same series of workshops:

Invitation for a British Council Course in İstanbul

Soon after I received a silver award, I created my own blog. It was just a month before my blog’s first birthday when “Blogathon 2012” started. Once again, I was running with other teachers not only from Turkey but also from five different countries. I was not a novice blogger anymore, but I felt the same spirit especially while wearing my Blogathon t-shirt. The Blogathon Team was really understanding to show respect to the ‘holy’ connection between me and my precious blogathon t-shirt, so they permitted me to wear my ex number, 120. Just like the first one, the marathon took a month long. I believe it was much more challenging with more people joining in. That meant more blogs to read and more comments to make. The word limit (250 words per post) was a big pressure on me in the first one, but it was not a big problem this time (I confess that I was glad about that, because there so many great posts to follow.)

The best thing was to meet teachers from different parts ofTurkey and other countries (including Blogathon 2011 runners). Blogathon has played the role of a magnet which gathered us together ‘automagically’ and blogging became more enjoyable with the motivating comments of the readers, their collaboration and the support of the Blogathon team that fired the runners with enthusiasm. I was honoured to get another silver award (and felt a bit like a silver award collector:). This was another ending which would open the doors of a beginning for each participant. That’s why I believe the Blogathon is an ongoing journey which will never end.I’d like to thank to the British Council Turkey and the Blogathon team for organizing these kind of events and giving the English teachers a chance to develop themselves (for free:) ). Another thank you goes to my fellow bloggers for making the journey so special.

Tips for beginning Blogathon runners

The world is changing. Learning and teaching are beyond the classroom walls now. The number of the blogging teachers seems to be increasing day by day and it may be your turn now. If you haven’t gone over to the world of blogging teachers yet, you should definitely give it a shot. Maybe you don’t like writing or you think you don’t have enough time for that. Don’t worry! You can still be a part of it by following the other teachers’ blogs. You can share your ideas and experiences, ask for advices and keep yourself updated.  Here are some tips for you if you decide to run at a blogathon:

• Decide what you want to post about. Keep a list of the possible topics. Using your (smart) phone might be good for that. You never know when a new idea will pop up in your mind:)
• Comments are as valuable as the posts. Never miss them when you visit a blog post.
• Reply each and every comment of your posts and do not hesitate to leave a comment when you visit a blog. That creates the real connection between you and your readers. Besides, the bloggers you are interacting with can turn into lifelong friends and colleagues.
• Use a positive language and soften it while criticizing something.
• Do not worry about the word limit. You can continue in another post and that may even be more advantageous by drawing the readers to your blog again.
• Make your posts “reader friendly”. Expressing yourself clearly and adding some humour can help a lot.
• You may have international readers as well as the local ones, so try not to cause any offence by targeting a group of people. Respect all the political views and religious beliefs.
• Be ready to say ‘No’ to all invitations and social activities during the marathon, because you will be sooo busy :S
• Stick to the guidelines and criteria.
• Getting an award is of course motivating, but finishing the marathon is also important in terms of its spirit.
• Enjoy the Blogathon and enjoy the moment:)

An acrostic poem I wrote and dedicated to the Blogathon:

Bringing ideas all together

Leading the discussion and helping other

Organizing new posts every day

Getting replies and comment, ready to share and care

A door to be entered into another world waiting over there

The taste of each post makes me feel great about all that jazz

Hearty welcomes and warm good byes

On air all the time, running to the end ready to rise

Negotiating and interacting, broadening our minds

Other links you might like:

Does Everything Happen for A Reason? by Merve Oflaz

A Post on an IATEFL Interview with Adam Simpson (The Gold Award Winner of Blogathon 2012) and Sirin Soyoz by Merve Oflaz

My Blogathon Experience by Adam Simpson (The Gold Award Winner of Blogathon 2012)

Blogathon Journey by Özge Öztürk (The Runner-up of Blogathon 2012)

My Blogging Journey by Hale Yurttabir(Silver Award Winner)

Blogathon 2012 by Leman Ulas (Silver Award Winner)

An IATEFL Interview with Karin Tirasin (The Gold Award Winner of Blogathon 2011) and Eva Buyuksimkesyan (The Runner-up of Blogathon 2011)

Ready, get set and GO! ELT Blogathon 2011 by Sirin Soyoz

This post was first published here

Once again “Blogathon” has opened new doors to many English teachers by giving an opportunity to enter the blogosphere. Receiving the golden award at the blog marathon, Adam became the roving reporter of IATEFL. Adam is talking about his “Blogathon” experience modestly and states that he has learnt a lot from the other participants. Adam mentions about his three aims throughout this marathon: To share the theory, practical teaching ideas and the life of an English teacher. Being involved in the same race, I believe he has done this very well by drawing our eyes to his great posts.

Sirin, from the British Council Turkey, gives information about the aims of the race, participants and the criteria. I’m sure their job was harder this year because of the number of the participants from 5 countries. Will there be a third round of the Blogathon next year? Well, watch the video and listen Sirin to find out:)

Reaching the other videos is a cookie for you. Just click the titles below and soak up the conference spirit:

All Interviews

All Video Sessions

I’m sure the conference website will maintain to be a valuable resource including countless new ideas. Thanks to the British Council and IATEFL team for making this happen.

If you couldn’t make it, you still have a chance to be a part of it in the comfort of your home. Glasgow Online gives you the chance to watch some sessions live. You can also chat using the “LiveStream Chat” window and share your ideas during the live sessions. If you want to join in, do not forget to log in. The conference is starting tomorrow and the testing of the Live Channel has just finished. Many viewers (including me:) from different countries were there to give feedback on the testing and had a chance to chat as well.

Chatting while waiting for the testing of Glasgow Online video streaming

It was great to watch Rob Lewis and Andi White talking about the event and giving general information. It was so considerate of them to mention the names of the online viewers during testing.

Rob and Andi tweeting while waiting for the sound test

The conference will take place  between 19th March and 23rd March. Tomorrow is the big day! Looking forward to the plenary sessions online. Please keep in mind that the time given on the website is for Glasgow GMT. If you are in another country, be sure to check your local time. The live sessions will be available right after they are streamed, so you can watch them whenever you want. This year the British Council has invited the ELT bloggers to report on the conference by becoming a “Glasgow Online Registered Blogger”. You can check the list of these bloggers and follow their posts. I’m so happy to be a part of it. I will try to share my thoughts on the videos during the conference.

If you want to check the tweets about the conference, it is enough to type #iatefl in the search box. When you want to tweet about the conference, adding this hashtag will make your tweet visible and available for the other followers.

Twitter Updates on the conference

The Conference Programme

Online Sessions

Follow IATEFL on Twitter

Wishing all the speakers and presenters good luck and sending lots of energy to the conference team:)

Feeling so excited to be one of the Glasgow Online Registered Bloggers and looking forward to sharing more with you all. Are you ready to be a part of this wonderful event? It’s so easy to join in. Just a click away!

Stay tuned!

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 1^st 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

by one of my students Tulya Elif B.

There are films that change your life. There are songs that give you a very strong heart beat and there are books that spiritualize you. There are also some days or events that change your whole life.

My story begins on a nice snowy day in Istanbul of the 1990s…

It was the day when I first entered the doors of the British Council at Istiklal Street in Beyoglu. I was a fifteen year old prep student with the strangest hair style ever. My mum who has supported me all the time took me there after my English teacher had advised me to become a member of the British Council Library. I can still remember the smell of the books, the cosy atmosphere and the friendly people working there. The hardcover books were really big and thick with many unknown words. I enjoyed walking through the library aisles looking through the reference books, atlases and novels. Unfortunately I was only able to read the leveled readers as an elementary level student. I was considering myself lucky if a reader was in a plastic bag because that meant the reader had a ‘cassette’ (a flat rectangular device that is used to record sound. (Hard to find one of these nowadays. Oopsie I think I became a little old:) ) These bags were soft and transparent with hard white handles. If the readers and cassettes were heavy, the handle could nearly cut my hand but I never thought of putting it in my rucksack. It was kind of a pride (but not a prejudice:) for me to carry them with a serious look in my eyes saying “I’m learning English.” My favourite section in the library was the great classical novels and poems. I didn’t understand a word in them but I was making a secret oath deep inside my heart to become a real reader of those books one day. I spent hours and days in that library. Looking through newspapers and magazines, choosing the books sitting on the stool by the shelves, reading and listening to cassettes by the bay window, the best liked seat of the library. That place was like the front seat at a theatre because you could watch the busy people walking along Istiklal Street and the little red and white tram ringing its bell.

Days chased days and I became a university student. I was studying English Language Teaching and drowning in homework and projects so once again the British Council Library had been my loyal assistant. Now the library had this huge catalogue, a machine looked like a mixture of a computer and an Atari. It was easier to search the books and materials through by using this thing. Besides I could understand and enjoy the books on any shelves. It was nice not to be limited with the leveled readers. There was also a video club (still no VCDs or DVDs) which was a bit expensive for me but we were allowed to watch them in the special area they provided in the library.

It was just after I had become an English teacher. I learnt that there were seminars about drama techniques and teaching young learners at the British Council. I did my best to attend these seminars given by Laura Woodward and Gulfem Aslan (They were both my heroines and idols, actually they still are) and tried to improve my teaching style.

All these live memories rushed into my mind and filled my heart with a bit of gratitude and a sip of nostalgia at the end of the 2^nd International Conference on Language Education, Eclipsing Expectations at Sabancı University. As I was leaving with a bitter feeling and thinking “If only it hadn’t finished so quickly…” (but that’s another story to be mentioned in another blog post), I saw Raymond Kerr (raymond.kerr@britishcouncil.org.tr) sitting there in the foyer outside the conference hall. I walked out saying bye to him but then I went back and shaking hands I thanked the British Council for providing me such a nice award after the Blogathon, the blog competition. As a silver award winner, getting a ticket to that conference was a real pleasure for me.  Then, I handed him my card and kindly invited him to my blog. I said “My real award is this blog I started. The Blogathon that brought a lot of teachers together gave me the real inspiration and courage.” He was surprised and asked again if I was serious or not. Then he offered me to share this experience with others through a blog post. “Why not?” I thought. And here I am.

Thank you British Council for changing my life sooo many times. The very first day I entered in that library made me walk in doors of time. Does everything happen for a reason? Yes, I believe that there was a reason that made me go there.

MY UNFORGETTABLES OF THE BLOGATHON

Here are some callouts appeared just above my head during the Blogathon:

• Fantasies about my blogathon t-shirt: feeling a relationship emerged between the number 120 t-shirt and me.
• The wonderful (!) word limit: Cookie for me !!! “What if I omit this word and add a comma? Mmm, is a comma considered as a word? Gosh! Why is this limited with 250 words but not between 250 or 300?”
• Happy as a kid: The excitement I had whenever I see a comment in my inbox.
• Me, the magician: Ordering the inbox with a bossy manner. “Inbox, Inbox! I order you to be bold.” (so I could see that I had mail.)
• Super disturbing: The anger I felt if it was one of those spam or forwarded e-mails.
• Sense the presence of the blogathon spirit all the time: Approaching every little situation in and outside the classroom as a potential blog post.
• I admit: The anger and panic during the technical problem in the process of readers’ voting. (Luckily we were all officially evaluated by the professional team of the British Council.)
• I am available: Making myself available even at lunch and break times to read posts and comment on them.
• Feeling flattered: Cooperation and support of all fellow bloggers and other readers. Post and comments from famous bloggers.
• A bump in the road: Facebook and Twitter. I did not have any chance to share my posts on social network because I deactivated my accounts for some reason then. (Fortunately, they are active right now.)
• Trusting my instincts: The day I decided to start my own blog. Apparently it worked out:)

Never forget! Everything happens for a reason

This post was first published here.

Dear Student Teachers,

Dear Students,

Dear Friends and Dear Others:)

Welcome to my blog! It’s a privilege for me to host you in here. I hope you will like my posts and share your thoughts and feelings.

I’m so excited about my blog. I just can’t wait to be in touch with my readers. Because of this, I’ve been wandering around with a grinning face as if someone is about to take my photo here and there. You know when someone is ready to take your photo you are expected to say ‘cheese’ and when you do that your face mostly changes into a grinning MSN Smiley. That’s the expression on my face nowadays.

My blogging story has begun with the inspiring competition the British Council opened in February. I should admit that ‘ELT Blogathon 2011’ has encouraged many of the competitors to open their personal blogs. Many thanks to the British Council for the opportunity it offered. The gold award (being sent to the 45th IATEFL Conference in Brighton) attracted most of us, sharing with other fellow bloggers charged our energy and precious guest bloggers supported us with their posts and comments. That was a unique experience for me. I enjoyed reading the posts, writing and sharing.

When I learnt about the Silver Award I received, I felt so happy. I will have a free entrance for Sabancı University ELT conference. I’m looking forward to taking place at the conference.

I believe the inspiration I gained is another award of the competition. I hope I can manage to keep you stay tuned. I am sure we will colour up our lives and shine our lights by sharing.

Remember! The more you share to more you grow knowledge.

Endings and beginnings are like matryoshka dolls. One closes the other and one opens the other. Then each beginning is an ending and each ending is a beginning.

Blogathon has been a marathon start for me. I learnt many things from all of you, shared my ideas, asked and gave advices. I felt the joy in my heart and the spirit of shared knowledge surrounded my mind.

Now, it is about to end but that will start another thing in most of our lives. As we stated in some posts, we will open our own blogs and go on sharing.  We will go on sharing knowledge like the generous nature.

I thank you all for the delightful journey we had together and wish you good luck.