MANY THANKS TO ENGLAND

Our partner and friend school ,the Ravensbourne School, sent four boxes of toys for the children of Van Province where there was a big earthquake two months ago. Many thanks to Mrs Andree Jordan, Mr. Tuğrul Kardaş and the Students who joined this meaningful cooperation. We know that there are people who ready to help when needed. This allows us to look confidently to our common future. Help and Aid Need Do and Share (HANDS)...

Christmas Cards

We have prepared Christmas cards to celebrate the new year. The students have worked hard to do their best with their hand writings and their crafts. We will post the cards to Poland, England, Estonia, Latvia and Czech Republic which are our Comenius Partners. Besides I would like to celebrate all people's new year and Christians' Christmas.

Who is Tuğrul Kardaş

Who is really Tuğrul Kardaş? This question has lots of answers actually. He is an assistant, an organizator, a coordinator, an adventurous, a World citizen, a good friend, an intellectual and above all an English teacher. Maybe you got the point. One who adopted language teaching as a profession must necessarily have these features in order to maintain an effective teaching environment.Recently he is in London as a Comenius Assistant and he works in the Ravensbourne School in Bromley. I met him when we went to London two months ago. He welcomed us in the Stansted Airport with Mr. Dave Jordan. He helped us throughout the project work. He has very nice blog which is Turkish and he broadcasts all the news which he faces in England and his journeys. I follow his blog posts and I like them all. Why don't you have a look?

Smart or Classical Board?

Smart boards first introduced in 1991 to control windows-based applications. Later on they were improved and used in classrooms or corporations. Actually the working principle based on touchable davices. The system is almost the same as computer - projector link but the only difference is that one can use it in a more flexible way. This smart technology allows an active learning environment and you can easily overcome the difficulties of introducing a subject in the classroom. However I still have some prejudice on this technology. We welcomed Overhead Projector Technology but we couldn't use it. Then we met Technology Classes but we didn't employ sufficient number of Computer and Tech. teachers. That is why those classes became out of date and useless. After that we brought the Projectors and computers in our own classrooms but we couldn't use them properly. Finally we heard about the smart boards. I think before welcoming a new technology in our teaching methods, we should get the culture of it. Besides classical boards can stand still but we should decide chalk or boardmarker.

AVIATION CLUB ACTIVITIES-1

We have established an Aviation Club as it was last year at the school. We do our activities in English Class. We work with Mrs. Eda Açıkgöz in the club. We have planned to build a model plane and give certificates to the club students. I taught aerodynamics of the aircrafts and helicopters and we blowed electrical engined helicopters just to show how their flying principles.

MANY THANKS TO POLISH PARTNERS....

Many thanks to our Polish friends from Szkola Podstawowa nr 33 for their great help in collecting toys for the children who suffer from the on-going earthquakes in Van Province of Turkey. When we opened the parcel with my students, we saw the hearts and we felt the warm feelings of the cold country. Our project partnership has strengthened by the help of this sharing activity. We have shown all the World that friendship always wins. I have cried when I saw all those plush toys as it was clear that Polish students just abandoned them for their Turkish peers. God Bless you all because of your great heart.

THE PICNIC IN INCEKUM

İncekum Municipality organized an enjoyable picnic for the teachers working in Incekum Town. Mr. Fahri Baysal, the mayor of the town, celebrated all teachers' day and gave them cloves.

CK Training Center meets at dinner

Mr. Cemal Karataş, the owner of CK Private Training Center gave dinner at Iskele Sofrası Restaurant in Alanya Harbour for the employed teachers. Mr. Karataş celebrated the Teacher's Day of the participated teachers.

Tablet PCs at Schools???

Normally I should undoubtedly support the technological supplies at schools which aim to change teaching strategies and students' awareness for technological developments. However it is a fact that one can not get the benefits of the technological devices unless he has the culture of its. That is what we face in Turkey as we don't know in which conditions and for which purposes they are produced, we buy and try to use those devices. We buy the newest and the most expensive one even if we can use only a simple function of it just because we entirely focus on consuming. Hereby I don't think it will be fruitful for our education system since we don't actually know the importance of the devices which are being given to all of the students and teachers in Turkey.

Let me tell you an example which supports my claim. Some students in Kocaeli Province of Turkey sold the tablets given to them by the Ministry of Education. This example shows that we are still at the very beginning of the road.

In spite of this, I still see a glimmer of hope if we manage to teach how, why, where and when to use that technology, The students will be educated about te culture of it and they are going to be ready to adopt the new technology for their lessons.

Teachers dies in Van Earthquake

There was an eartquake measured as 7.2 in Van Province and Erciş District of Turkey on 23rd October 2011 and unfortunately more than 500 people died some lost and more than 4000 people injured. According to the report which the Ministry of Education announced there are more than 90 teachers who died in the earthquake just because they were mostly in a Cafe to have a rest and meet each other as it was weekend and they had just gone out from a Conference, caused a big sorrow in the education community. Forebears of education, headed to the ground one by one. As a result, the Academic year had been delayed till the 14th November, Monday in Van but after the second earthquake which happened in Van Lake and Edremit District measured as 5.7 three days ago, the cancellation has been extended by the Ministry of Education.

"I hope God have mercy on those who died in the Earthquake and patience for their families."

Promoting the Trip to London

We have organised an exhibition at the school paper corner to promote our trip to London, England between 12 to 18 October. We have exhibit the documents and video records we have collected in England and it was very helpful for our students to be informed about London and English culture. Students have asked questions about the trip and the ones who joined the trip have answered the questions. The exhibition has lasted all day long and almost all the students and teachers have visited it.

LET'S HELP CHILDREN AFFECTED BY EARTHQUAKE IN VAN - TURKEY

We help the children in Van Province of Turkey by giving our toys to them. They have lost theirs under the ruins of the city. They have lost their past. Let's share our toys with them at least. Be sure they will forget those bad memories since they are children who are our common future.


Please send your cargo : Mr. NedimDelikara İncekum Öztaş İlköğretim Okulu 07470 Alanya / ANTALYA - TURKEY

1. PROJECT MEETING, OCTOBER 2011 / ENGLAND

Although we haven't been given the grant by Turkish National Agency for the project which our school supposed to co-ordinate with 6 other schools from 5 different countries, we decided to take part in the project works. As a result of this, the first project meeting was organized by our English partner schools, The Ravensbourne and Hayes in Bromley, London. As the Turkish partner, we joined the meeting with two teachers ( me and Mr. Ahmet Selim Gürbüz )and four students ( Emine Baysal, Sefer Fırat Odabaş, Büşra Günal and Hüseyin Baysal ). Actually it was a nightmare for me to get the visas since I have dealed with lots of documents and translations of them and the process and the payment of the visa since those things took time and we missed our flight to London. I had to book another outgoing flight which means extra money.

However when we landed London Stansted, we forgot our tiredness anger and started to explore the symbols and values of London. That is inevitable that one can find huge amount of things to do like visiting the museums which are full of everything from all around the World, experiencing London Eye, touching the old but precious buildings and arts, watching changing of the guard and street entertainers, enjoying Fish & Chips, shopping in a very cheap ( Primark, Tesco, etc. ) or very expensive stores ( Harrolds ), getting on a Double-decker bus or a black cab.

London is the city of Big Ben , Backingam Palace, beautiful gardens, Greenwich, St. Paul Cathedral, Beatles, Tower Bridge, Chislehurst Cave, Trafalgar Square, 2011 Olympic Games preparations, Covent Garden, the Quenn, Princess Diana, River Thames, museums and shopping centres. In the mean time, I would also recommend you taste English earl grey tea.
Anyway, we were four schools with two English schools, Czech and Estonian. Hovewer Estonian partner left the meeting two days before the closing ceremony.We did lots of roject activities for our on-going project. Preparing animation about Caretta Carettas in danger and preparing postcards about the visit were the most enjoyable ones. At the end of the meeting, there was a closing ceremony and cocktail. As Turkish representatives, we exibited some paintings from our students, booklets and posters from İncekum Beach Hotel, Annabella Hotels, Aska Hotels and Pegasos Hotels which did gave their great financial assistance . We are thankful to those hotels. We also introduced our region by the exibition and folk dances.

Many thanks to Mr. Baysal, the Mayor of İncekum Town, since he never refuced our needs and expectations as İncekum Öztaş Primary School. He gives great importance to Education of the residents in his town. He is such an intellectual character that he assists us in every subjects if it is about Education. The last thing he has done is giving certificates to our 8th grade students due to their participation and contribution to the Children's festival which was held on April. If you are interested in İncekum Town which is one of he well-known touristic reagon, you can have a look at the Municipality's website by clicking.

I wish health, happiness and success throughout his life.

Today is the day to remember our fathers and sons which are our last and next generations. That's why I would like to add a photo of mine which is actually not relevant for an Education site but anyway today is a special day since I am a father, too.

A man can not understand how his father loves him since he becomes a father and has the same feelings to his son/daughter. Actually fathers have difficulty in expressing their emotional feelings and how they give importance to their children and family at all. This situation makes them hard to be understood by their family. Children and fathers in every minutes of their life mutually think of each other. Children always watch and imitate their fathers. I love my dad and son.

HAPPY FATHERS DAY.

Video-Conference (International Day - England)

The Ravensbourne school celebrates 26th May as "the International Day" and organizes some activities internationally. As Incekum Primary School, We join the video conference together with a few schools from different countries by the leadership of Mrs. Andree Jordan's , the English Teacher. It is the first and the most exciting activity for my students so far since they long to see their friends from England. They prepare on some subjects and present them. Actually it is hard to understand most of the sentences but thanks to typing feature of the system we can write when we have difficulty in understanding each other properly.

We mainly talk about our schools, dances, life styles, environment, recycling, lessons, socal activities, food and drinks. It is absolutaly fruitful for my students' individual development. It is also handy for the concepts of harmoniusness, citizenship, belonging and being international.