Memories and hopes......

The journey has started this morning at 6:30 for me,I had to wake up and prepare the breakfast for    the family  so that we could have an early breakfast altogether.

After the breakfast when all my kids had left the house ,I felt the excitement of the journey more,I was  a bit nervous and stressed as there were possiblities of some problems.

At 9 am ,I had to g oto the school to meet the rest of the group,when I arrived there,two of our students were waiting.At 9:30,time had come to leave the school and start the stressful   journey from the Asian part to the European part as the airport from where we were going to depart was on the European side.

When we arrived there,everything went on well, we had  no problem  and we had also lots of time left for us to see around what we can find at the freeshopsJ)

Now I am on the plane,we are flying,it is sometimes shaking, but   it  is stil more comfortable  as it is  a direct flight from İstanbul to Barajas,which lasts only  4 hours and 25 minutes, than the other flights we had made before.

When we arrive there ,Rosa,our Spanish coordinator , the main coordinator of this project  and Willand ,our German coordinator and his team  will be waiting for usJ

Possibly the Italian team  has arrived and they have also met the families and the teachers are having their rests.

That is all for now,our students have taken lots of photos,before,during and after the flight  which I will also share here.

These sentences were written     long ago ,when the first trip was going to start.Now after having finished the first trip,I feel the relaxation  of having completed the first step.

While being there in Spain,everything we did, was great.The time  we spend   there was like magic because we had no responsibility of the families ,no boundries only 5 students and our collegues who were also very helpful and kind.

Sightseeing whole Madrid  was perfect as  we saw new places which was also a very good idea because   some  of the coordinators were there before(like me).

Being a part of something which you like a lot makes you feel really very happy and when  I  look  back, I think, I love being a part of this Project.

I love talking in English,using the language I have taught for many years to my students.This Project   not only helps me but also my students to understand the menthality of speaking a foreign language.As a language teacher,it is really important for   me  to be able to use the language I am teaching.I know that  there are teachers of English in my country who are not able to speak the language they are teaching.What a pity,isn’t it.

Not only me but also my collegues understand the importance of knowing a foreign language and it also helps you when you are abroad because you know that there is someone else who can express his/her thoughts  without your help.I   can also see the difference between the European   teachers and our teachers and it makes me a bit unhappy because most of my collegues can’t speak a foreign language  whereas most of the European teachers know more  than one foreign language.

I think,in the near future ,this will change  as most of the students are able to speak the language  they have been learning for years….

Besides speaking ,teaching the language of course there are many other problems as we are in a country where there is lots of bureaucratic work to be done before and after the trip.

Sometimes ,it is really tiring to do the whole work ,expain  over and over again why you are doing this Project and what it means,what the aims are.But stil having the hope of  having  a change,getting together  with  your collegues from all over Europe ,talking  about things you normally never talk gives you courage to continue this Project.

Nowadays,it is really hectic in here as we have an exam week and all the   final  exams are made common and in a very different style,where it is not possible to cheatJ

Next week will be a free week ,eluded from all the problems of the school,no lesson,no  exams but only the theatre play we are going to perform in Italy.

Today ,there will be a meeting about the things we are going to do for next week.If we can plan everything perfectly,we will have nearly completed  all the work.

Hope to see all the friends in February,in white and snowy OulxJ

Finally time has come !!!!

    Yes, it is time to go now!!
After so many meetings with teachers and students,so many controls  what has been done so far and what has to be done ,what is missing or wrong, time has come for Spain.
When people hear or learn that we are going to Spain next week,they tell me, as I am the coordinator of the Turkish team,that life is beautiful to me(a kind of proverb?),cause I am going to go abroad for a week.
But they forget or elude something very important,we have been working with the whole European Comenius team since last year,since last November and send each other countless e-mails,met face to face or in my case via skype to talk over and over again what we are going to do.After all these e-mails,all the Team members had to explain the project to their collegues at their schools so that some of those teachers would be willing to help and develop the project.
In my case ,it was not easy to find volunteer teachers as most of them were not thinking about the main issue,the project, but only about  where they were going to travel!!!!
So,I told them that there is a lot of work to do and if they are willing to help me,there is a possibility for them to travel with the Turkey Comenius team.
What were the duties they had to fulfill so that they could travel with us?
Choosing the students with some abilities ,for example:music,arts,dance,P.E or theatre.
It was not very easy to choose the students because there were lots of teachers at the contest or what ever we may call it and this meant that there were also lots of different opinions and ideas.
The principals were not very helpful as they wanted us to do our lessons and after school time do the choosing which would be not possible for the students because most of them continue to an extra education at a private preparation course for the universities.
After choosing the students ,we had to tell them what they were going to do for us and for how long.If it was ok for them to work for us  for 2 years we had to make an assignment with them and their families so that they could realize how important it was to be a member of the  Comenius team.
After we told them what they were going to do,I also talked with my volunteer teachers and gave them different responsibilities,some of them had to prepare the board beforehand and after the visit to Spain.Some of them had to collect the questionarres from the teachers and students,some of them had to look for the interesting things which could be taken as a present,some of them had to take photos and some of them had to make the announcements via internet,facebook,twitter.etc.....
Working with a group of volunteer teachers was sometimes easy and sometimes difficult ,cause everybody had different ideas about the things going on or some of them even didn't know what it was all about.
Don't know if the other countries had the same problems with their collegues or principals but I had ......
Of course this doesn't mean that I won't work with the team again,it means that the team is  new,it is a baby and it is learning......
I am happy that we could accomplish the things we had to,we even had an exhibition and now wait Spain,
the Turkish team is coming!!!!!!
3 days left for the journey..........

Final Countdown .....
   Everything is nearly ready,we have worked very hard to complete our work.
What have we done so far?
  We have choosen the students,talked with their parents about the Comenius Project,given them information about what will happen.Then ,we have given the volunteer students  some homework about the  mini project ,lots of beautiful things were prepared by them,most of the art works are ready and some of them are still working on it.
  While our volunteer students were working on the mini project,our volunteer teachers have prepared the boards on which we were informed about the countries we are going to visit.
  I ,myself had to organize the whole thing,besides these there was a huge   bureaucratic work  to be done.We first had to take the permissions to go abroad  then the passports had to be taken for some students who didn't have any.
  While all these bureaucracy was going on,I had to stay in contact with the partners and share the information with my collegues and students.
  I really wanted to prepare an exhibition about the mini-project,all the work done by our students,even if they don't look perfect for some teachers but unfortunately  it is not easy to assure the principals about the work done by our students.Somehow ,they didn't want to share it with the public authority.They told me that  the work wasn't worth.
Strange?


So now it is time to get relaxed and start the countdown.....

Only 12 days left to meet our partners in Espana:))

Finally back again,
I know that it has been a long time since I wrote.Lots of thing happened,a school year finished and another one has started.Within this year there is lots of work to do,one of the most important things is that we have a new Comenius Project at school:)
Tomorrow is a big day for our students as they are going to show us what their abilities are and we have to choose the best 30 students among them with whom we will work together as a team for 2 years.
After having finished choosing the students we have to give them some work to do which will be presented both at our school and at the school we are going to visit this November.
I am very curious about what will happen tomorrow as it will be a hard day for both teachers and students but I know also that it will be good when we can accomplish it!!!
Let us see what the results will be and I will share them here with you !!!
I will also share other things such as the work which has to be done by our students,evaluation forms which have to be  answered both by students and teachers.
Some people might think that preparing a Comenius project is easy but  when you look in detail,there is lots of work to do,organising the teachers,students,preparing queationnaires,trying to find the best students,explaining the job to be done,translating whole work from English to your own language,getting the permissions from parents and government,buying the tickets,and lots of other stuff which ı can't remember now!!
I believe that most of the teachers who are willing to do such great work will use the things I publish here.
I hope it will be helpful for all of us:))
Thanks a lot who are volunteerly helping me to complete all of this great job!!!!!

currently blogging somewhere else:)

Currently blogging at the blogathon of teachingenglish web site everyday so if you would like to read my blogs visit the link:
http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/blogs/jthunder/i-have-a-question-all-you
and leave comments if possible:)

Blogging ?What's that?

Well as I am also new in this blogging thing  ,I am searching for more information to carry  our blog onto  a better level.If you want to learn more about blogging,you might visit this link and complete the crossword puzzle:)
http://edublogs.org/files/2010/08/Blogging-Terms-and-Vocabulary.pdf


And also read these which will help you to understand what blogging is all about:)

1. Dashboard – This is the back-end area of your blog where you make changes and edits.  This area is not seen by the public and only accessible to blog administrators, editors, or contributors.
2. Theme - Usually one of the first things bloggers do is pick out a theme.  This is the template or look of the blog which helps give it a personal touch.
3. Post - Posts are the basic entry in blogs.  Usually, the main page of a blog shows all of the posts in reverse chronological order.
4. Page - Pages are similar to posts, but are best for “static” content which you want to always be accessible and doesn’t change to often.  For example, you usually find pages such as Contact Us, About, or Calendar on blogs.
5. Comments – Depending on your theme, comments are allowed on posts and sometimes on pages.  Here, users can reply to what you write, leave links or comments, and create a general discussion.  You can turn on and off comments on individual posts and pages in your blog’s dashboard.
6. Sidebar - The location and even existence of sidebars depend on your theme.  Some themes even have 3 or more sidebars.  You can add and rearrange widgets in your sidebars in your blog’s dashboard.
7. Widget - These are the blocks that make up sidebars.  Popular widgets include the ability to subscribe to a blog, user statistics, and suggested links.
8. Plugins – Plugins are extended features that you can turn on and off on your blog.  Popular plugins include form creation, facebook and twitter connections, and calendars.
9. RSS - RSS stands for “Really Simple Syndication” which is a way for people to use RSS Readers to subscribe to and follow your blog.  For all Edublogs, the rss feed is found by going to yourblog.edublogs.org/feed.

Merhaba,hi,hallo,bonjour......

      Does it matter which language we learn?Is it so important to understand eachother?If everybody could speak the same language would there be still problems in understanding eachother? May be if everybody could understand eachother  there would be other problems to be solved,may be not .
      But we all want to speak but mainly we want to understand eachother so that's why we learn languages. We all try to find a language which is spoken by many people,that's why we prefer to learn English as it is easy to learn and there are lots of materials to be used in teaching English and most of the movies,songs ,soap operas etc. are also in English.
      I don't want to say that there are only materials found in English,there are also others produced in other languages but still English has a priority among languages.So trying to be better in speaking and understanding would help us to communicate with people around the world  which would lead us to peace hopefully:)