English Club Welcome Party

Fortunately, we have begun working on English Club activities which I have scheduled carefully in order to increase the awareness and interest of the students towards English Language. There are three groups and they each come one day of the week. The Club is on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Students choose the suitable day for them and follow the syllabus. There are a lot of interesting subjects we will handle this year. Shotting a movie, writing sceneries, short plays and poetry, reading stories and poetry, declamation contest, song and karaoke contests and so on. All the joint students are enjoying the club activities and as I have observed, students are really happy during the Club hour. They enjoy the things they do and share. I am also doing this work voluntarily. My only aim is to teach the students how to speak properly in English Language.

TWO INTERNATIONAL PROJECTS IN A YEAR

            As Hanım Ömer Çağıran Primary and Middle Schools, we are planning to run two projects which were decided last year and worked on before. One is for the Primary School which is about EcoSchool and it includes  activities about environment and recycling in it. The second one is for  MiddleSchool and it is on Positive Digital Citizenship including ICT activities mostly. In November, there will be a preparatory visit in England and me and mr. Batmaz, the Head of the School, are going to join the meeting and give the final shape to the projects. We have some European partners such as England, Poland, Romania, Estonia, Czech Republic,  Greece, Germany, Sweden and France. We believe that we will manage all these work and supply our students with a high quality international education by the help of our partner schools and our experienced and equipped colleagues in our both school (Primary and Middle). 

A NEW BEGINNING....

 

I have been appointed to a new school, Hanım Ömer Çağıran Middle School,  in Antalya Province. The school I have started working is an academically successful public school with its number of facilities. I have constitute and put into action most of my projects covering European values and even the whole World since I found an active school environment. The first thing I will do is to join a preparatory meeting which will be held in England in November. Then I will start another Comenius multilateral project work just after I arrive Turkey. I have also prepared the schedule of the English Club. We will start working with the participant students next week. I will write about the opening and welcome party later.   

4+4+4 is a New System... Is it the one?

Let's have a brief look to Turkish Education Revolution.
During the Ottoman Empire, there were schools like Elementary Schools, Madrasas (Moslem seminaries), Enderun Schools ( Institutes to educate the people who planned to work in the Palace) Military Schools and so on. The education system was often intervened by the state to meet the needs of the times.
When it comes to the establishment of the republic, Atatürk (the founder of modern Turkey) renewed the system from scratch especially by bringing Latin Alphabet instead of Arabic Alphabet. Compulsory Education was 5 years in Primary Schools. Village Institudes was established to educate villagers efficiently. Then, For the first time, compulsory education was 8 years in 1961. National Education Basic Law was adopted to the system and accordingly, education divided into two groups as "formal" and "common" in 1973. Primary education was divided into two groups as non-compulsory and compulsory. Compulsory ones were elementary-5 years and Primary-8 years and non-compulsory ones were preschools, coaching courses and classes. In 1998, Compulsory Education was 8 years again. With this decision, the books, the program and the materials changed. During the last 13 years,  There were often the Military and Political interventions seperately on National Education System. It even became a battlefield between these two groups.
Finally, the government changed the compulsory system into 4+4+4 (Elementary-4, Primary-4, Secondary-4).
As teacher, we are going to see if this is the solution of the problems of Turkish National Education System. Time will show us if this will suit our educational goals. I wish the ministry would ask our ideas, thoughts and suggestions about the new system. There is only one thing we can do. Wait and see politics (like politicians). I hope it creates a well-educated Turkish generation.

Intern Students in İncekum

Intern students from Türkler Anatolian Teachers Training Highschool got a one-week training at İncekum Primary School attending the lessons in their branches and they had an opportunity to get to know the working environment. At the end, they performed a program and gave presents to the students participating the competitions in the program. They said it was a wonderful experience for them to meet the students and to teach them and they all decided to be teachers in the future.