Run Merve Run:)

Merve Oflaz — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 20:05:52 +0000

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 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

‘Sorting sticks’ of a teacher

Merve Oflaz — Sun, 06 Nov 2011 23:47:14 +0000

As Adam Simpson mentioned in one of his posts, we have millions of things to do as teachers. Sometimes there is very little time to create materials and develop tools. That’s why I prefer to use the tools / materials I create for different purposes.At the beginning of the year, I wrote my students’ names on the wooden sticks (the ones used to stir coffee) to call out the names of the students in the classroom by picking up one at each time. I call them “sorting sticks”, because they act as the “sorting hat” at Hogwarts in the book / film ”Harry Potter”.

6 Things to do using the sorting sticks:·

1. Making up pairs / groups (saves time and prevents the moans and groans:)

2. Drilling – asking questions, making up sentences etc. (helps them to listen to each other more effectively)·

3. Sharing tasks / parts of a project (so they have no chance to reject)

4. Using students’ names in the sample sentences (they can be deadly passionate about this:)

5. Assigning roles (before a role – play or an improvisation)

6. Assigning responsibilities (tidying up / putting the flash cards, bringing chalk / board markers, turning on the computer, looking up a word in the dictionary etc.)

If you want it to look more mysterious, you can keep them in a “sorting” hat like the one in “Harry Potter”. Do you have any more ideas about how to use the sorting sticks?

This post was first published here

Merve Oflaz | Teacher, Trainer, Materials Developer » sorting sticks of a teacher

Run Merve Run:)

‘Sorting sticks’ of a teacher