102-9. Spring break philosophising..

Oh my, I'm a bit behind in my posting, aren't I? I mean, this is Week 10, so this should be my 10th post. I forgot to post one during my conference week.. :)

Who would have thought we'd still be dreaming of spring during the spring break? Renewal is coming a bit late this year..

Just five more weeks to go, çocuklar. I can't believe it. This semester has instantly gone from interminable to slipping away far too quickly, I cannot hold onto it..then I will no longer (and nevermore) be your Freshman English teacher, how weird is that, especially when I think of those of you who've been with me since September. I will have to relinquish possessiveness, that's always hard for me. Goodbyes are even harder.

There are many things to be grateful for this year, mostly the things I've come to know about you and the development I've witnessed. It's nice to see your children grow up. :)

I have to say that being around all of you has kept me young. My mother always says I was born 40. Well, I went from being '40' to being 19 again, and I relived part of my youth. That's a rare opportunity for sure. It showed me that although there were many things I could or should have done differently, I would never want to go back. Hindsight is a marvellous thing because it helps you see how you led yourself to the present point. So I encourage you to keep writing on your blogs for as long as you can, because when you look back on that writing at some future interval, you will shake your head in helpless wonder at your precious self, and you will treasure that previous incarnation and embrace it from a distance.

I will miss you..

'The remains' by Manuela Hoffman, licenced under Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivative Works 2.0 Generic

102-8. My conference presentation :)

Well, I did it. I presented at my first international conference. This was the 44th Annual IATEFL (International Association of Teachers of English as a Foreign Language) Conference and Exhibition in Harrogate, North Yorkshire, UK.

You know how I've asked you all to write an I-Search paper at the end of this semester? Well, last year in ENG 102 I asked my students to do that for the first time. My presentation is based on 52 responses: what worked, what I felt needed improving for this time - in other words, you're all benefitting from their feedback. :) This is why, for example, I decided to give detailed individual feedback to the annotated bibliographies this time rather than whole class feedback.

You can view my abstract and even download my Powerpoint slides and my handout here. It would be great to hear your feedback. :)

You cannot imagine how much I sweated over the preparation of this presentation. At one point it was getting out of hand, but fortunately my boss stepped in at that point and invited me to her office to talk through it. I had ridiculously overcomplicated it (my speciality). Once I was given 'permission' to just relax and not feel I had to include everything, it was much easier.

Strangely, I wasn't nervous at all on the day of the presentation, and in the end a mere 8 people turned up (out of 1900), two of whom were my colleagues! But there were questions from the audience throughout and two teachers stayed behind to chat. Best of all, my boss had loaned me her geeky laser pointer remote thingie and that was great fun to use..I got so close to my audience I was practically standing on top of them!

There were quite a few presenters there from Turkish universities: Bilkent, Marmara, Istanbul University, Fatih...but SU had the most - 8! :D

I'm not a huge fan of conferences to be honest, but when I believe in something, I go for it.
My next several presentations will all be based on your marvellous blogs...more to come on that! ;)