21. Presentations yaaaaaa

Dear students,

In the last 2 weeks or so, in addition to your 15 practice presentations, I have watched 11 other presentations by teachers! Tomorrow I will watch 7 more teacher presentations! And in Week 14 I will watch your 15 final presentations! I have presentations coming out of my ears! :)

And on top of all that, I am spending this Friday night finishing up my own presentation (the second one in a week!) Tomorrow is the final session of my Teaching English with Technology course. 40 hours of this course have taken place online, and 10 are face-to-face. We have each been asked to present two Web 2.0 applications to the other teachers in the group. We need to cover the main features, how we might use them with students, and any limitations. It's a great idea, as it means that by the end of the session, we will have learned 16 new applications!

But wow...it takes a lot of time to prepare this sort of presentation, and I have been stupidly busy these past two weeks with the courses I teach and the three other courses I study. First you have to learn the application yourself, to the point that you feel quite confident with it. Then you have to condense the main features down into a mere 10-minute presentation. I had difficulty deciding whether to use my Macbook or my SU laptop, since one of my applications works differently in both (Much as I adore my Macbook, in the end I decided on the PC). We also have to create handouts, and I insist on mine looking professional, which also takes time. My tutor advised me "not to be too perfectionist", but come on, this is Sonja we're talking about...!

I don't know how it came to the point that I'm still working on this, literally at the last minute. Perhaps students' habits are rubbing off on me? ;-)

If you're interested, I will present on Evernote and MyStudiyo. Evernote could be endlessly useful to students; MyStudiyo allows you to create interactive quizzes and embed them in your blogs!

I will report back on how the presentation went. In the meantime, wish me luck!

Oops, The Simpsons is starting and my water is boiling...more later!

20. Pub quiz

I've been inspired by the fact that some of you are blogging about the pub quiz (and I'm under pressure to stay ahead of Beri's impressive blogging spree), so I thought I would share some of my reflections on the pub quiz.

First of all, you can check your team score in the 'league table' below. Out of 40 questions, the final scores were:

31.5 (79%)
30 (75%)
28.5 (71%)
28 (70%)
27 (68%)
26.5 (66%)
25 (63%)
25 (63%)
25 (63%)
21 (53%)

I was happy to see that many groups answered the practical questions correctly, such as those about due dates and blogging requirements. Of course I had a not-so-hidden agenda in including such questions: I'm always trying to promote time management and blogging.

I think short answers were what could be improved. When you answer this type of question, it's important to give an explicit answer without any ambiguity, and to ensure that your grammar and vocabulary are correct. (This is a useful exam tip for our class and for your other classes as well). You should not expect the quizmaster/marker to "figure out what you mean", or to wade through unclear language in search of the meaning. There's an old saying which goes "You don't really know something until you can teach it." Here we can interpret 'teaching' as giving a clear and concise explanation. The other thing to mention here is not to include two or more answers and 'hope' that one is correct. I can tell you that teachers are often trained to completely disregard such answers.

The competition was close in some sections, and this was exciting. However, it was also evident that many of you had done no review at all in preparation for the quiz. I do hope you realise that the main purpose of the quiz was to get you to review the semester, and not just for extra credit...

I must include a final point. I think it's no exaggeration to say that I was astounded that a number of groups who did not win the quiz asked me for an extra credit prize anyway! What exactly do you understand by the word 'competition'...? :)

Congratulations again to our winning teams and thanks to everyone who participated!

19. The gift that keeps on giving

'For the love of books' by Chocolate Geek, licenced under Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.0 Generic


As you probably know, Christmas is coming up, and as part of that tradition we usually exchange gifts with friends and family. It is also a time of charity to those who are less fortunate than ourselves.

A colleague of mine has a friend working as a teacher in Afghanistan. Can you imagine, despite 30 years of war and destruction, students at Kabul University are still making a great effort to claim their education. The problem is this: they have no books, paper, pencils or even chalk. The library has 147 books.

We are requesting that you donate your stationery - pens, paper, folders and so on - as well as any books in English you will no longer use after this semester. If you have photocopies or printouts of reading texts, don't put them in the bin - these would be greatly appreciated by people who are struggling to improve their lives.

I will keep a box in my office for anything you can spare. We will collect materials until the end of the semester.

Thank you so much in advance for your generosity. All contributions make a real difference to real lives.

18. Reflections on my presentation

I am currently studying for a Certificate in Trainer Training - in other words, I am doing a qualification that will enable me to teach teachers. On Friday all 8 of the participants on the course - all of whom are teachers in the SU School of Languages - were asked to do 10-minute mini-presentations. We worked in pairs to choose two related articles on any aspect of teaching and learning, preferably ones that had some sort of research dimension. We could present individually or together within our pairs. The two presentations, along with questions at the end, were to last no longer than 25 minutes.

I was not at all satisfied with my performance. Firstly, although this project was assigned before the Bayram, because I went to Egypt for 5 days, I was unable to locate suitable articles until after I came back. It was much more difficult to find good articles than I had anticipated. My partner and I were not very enthusiastic about our initial choice of topic, andragogy, and I was unable to find any good research articles on it anyway. I finally came across two interesting articles on Freshmen students' conceptions of essay writing, and how student-teacher trust influences how students act on feedback comments. This was on Monday; the presentation was on Friday. Because my partner and I have very different teaching schedules, and because I also had two translations due during the week, we were forced to prepare separate presentations. I realised once again how poor my Powerpoint skills are, and how much better my students are at creating nice slides. We met up Friday morning just to briefly talk through our respective presentations.

I was strangely nervous during the presentation itself and I kept stuttering! I cannot understand why I felt this way; perhaps because I was presenting in front of my peers, rather than in front of my students. I realised that I should have perhaps made better notes; I had assumed I would just be able to talk off the top of my head. I have no idea about my timing, but I seemed to go for too long. No one asked questions at the end, which I found discouraging, although one teacher did say that my presentation had been very clear.

I know that I didn't put in as much effort as I would have done had it been assessed; I get motivated when the stakes are high, and I tend to get de-motivated when expectations are low.

I am writing this here because I felt a strong sense of empathy for all my brave students who did their presentations in a second or even third language; this is a psychological as well as an intellectual experience, and it made me appreciate your efforts even more. I was also reminded of how difficult it is to work with someone else.

It also made me realise that my April presentation at the biggest international conference for English teachers is going to be terrifying indeed, and I will need to do a lot of preparation if it's going to be successful!

17. Thinking ahead to the final essay...

'All your sensual ways' by Thomas Hawk, made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 2.0 Generic Licence

We've seen a lot of interesting presentations these past two weeks, and heard a lot of fascinating interpretations and criticisms of the texts and stories. I would like to encourage you to think even further about these texts, bearing in mind that they could form part of the final in-class essay at the end of the semester. It would be great to see your blog posts. Here are some suggestions:

1. To what extent does the concept of women being 'marked' apply to Turkish culture? Are men 'marked' in any way? In what ways have gender roles changed since this text was published in 1993?
2. In what ways does the Turkish language 'mark' women?
   
3. In what ways can we apply the concept of 'markedness' to the woman on a roof? Tough guise? Killing us softly?
   
4. How persuasive is Winn's argument about TV as a 'plug-in drug'? Does she use good evidence? Does she limit her claims, or does she overgeneralise? Can you counter her argument in any way?
5. There are two articles on SU Course which challenge Winn's argument about TV; "Is TV really the plug-in drug?" and "Questioning the plug-in drug". To what extent do you accept these counterarguments?
   
6. What connections can you make between Katz's thesis in Tough guise and Dave in "The man who was almost a man"?
   
7. Did Dave actually become a man at any point in the story? If so, at what point? Justify your interpretation.

Happy blogging!
:-p

16. What I've learned so far in ENG 101

'Riverboat' by ebergcanada, made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.0 Generic licence

We always talk about what students are learning in our classes, but did you know that we teachers learn from you, too? I constantly improve myself through interacting with you, from observing you, from trying to understand you. So I thought I would add my own reflections on what I have learned about teaching in this university so far this semester in ENG 101:

- APA citation format is a lot more difficult than it seems, and we need to practise it as often as possible. I think it requires more knowledge of the research process and the types of sources used in research.
- It was a very good idea to teach you how to find and cite Creative Commons images.
- It was a very good idea to talk about ways to avoid plagiarism and how to use source material properly.
- Blogging can be a daunting task, and we need to start more slowly. We should work on it more in class at the beginning. The notification emails need to be set up straight away. I have learned so much about how to implement future blogging projects, thank you!
- Blogs allow you to express your creativity and show off your analytical, reflective and citation skills. They also enable you to make links with your other classes (SPS, TLL).
-An element of competition can make blogging more lively.
-I feel absolutely delighted when someone comments on my blog, and even more so when one of my posts inspires one of yours.
- We need more writing practice and more exposure to various genres of academic writing.
- We need more practice in avoiding generalisations/limiting our claims in academic writing.
- We need more practice in effectively incorporating source material into academic writing.
- We need more class time to discuss the core essay texts.
- Reading worksheets need to be completed for the core essay texts.
- You are endlessly creative in preparing and delivering your presentations.
- Practice presentations are a good way to prepare for the final presentation, and you value the feedback comments you receive.
- You ask quite good questions at the end of presentations.
- Even when I start projects well in advance and encourage organisation, many students still wait until the last minute to do things.
- You do your practice presentations even though you are not receiving a grade. This shows that you can rise to a challenge, and that you can meet the high expectations I have of you.
- Most likely, classes at Sabancı University are never going to start on time and students are not going to stop arriving late.
- Students are more likely to bring a laptop (when reminded) than pen and paper.
- Some students never seem to check their email accounts, SU Course or my blog.
- Some students actually do take notes!
- Time management remains the biggest obstacle to student success at SU.

No doubt there are many more things I've learned, but I wanted to share my initial thoughts with you.

Please feel free to give me your feedback on any of the things mentioned here.

15. A sensible approach...or just reverse gender discrimination?

'Purgatory' by D2 Photography, licenced under Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.0 Generic

I have just read a rather disturbing article on the BBC News site.

In it, British Justice Secretary Jack Straw (an idiot, in my humble opinion) argues that male offenders should be punished 'more harshly', whereas female ones should be rehabilitated and reintegrated into the community. This is based on the very 'scientific' statement that 'male prisoners are very different to female ones.'

Uhhh, how?!

The article mentions that many women offend because of issues of low self-esteem and a lack of self-respect. I would argue that the exact same things can lead men to offend. Isn't that what Jackson Katz was arguing in Tough Guise? Certainly people with healthy self-esteem would not become child abusers, would they, whether male or female? The article mentions that since women are usually the primary caregivers, it would be wrong to incarcerate mothers. But don't children need the love and support of both parents? We should not assume that children do not suffer when their fathers are sent away. In the summer when I was in America, I watched a news programme about a charity that works with African-American children whose fathers are imprisoned. It was difficult to see the suffering that entailed.

One of the reasons for the explosive growth of the prison industry in the UK and especially in the USA is a lack of commitment to true rehabilitation and an overemphasis on (often mediaeval) forms of 'punishment'. So advocating support for one sex over the other just seems to be blatantly discriminatory; all offenders should be given the requisite support.

* By the way, if you're interested in these issues, I HIGHLY recommend the book Prison Nation: The Warehousing of America's Poor. Shocking and mind-blowing don't even begin to describe it...

14. Gender equality in Turkey? Not in our lifetime...

I thought I'd better post something, otherwise Beri might catch up with me and I'll have to buy him a Coke. :)

This week we've begun the transition from media to gender by examining the film Tough Guise. Many interesting points about gender have already arisen in our class discussions, and I'll blog more about these a bit later. But first, I thought you might be interested in some information on the status of women in Turkish society.

In the recent Global Gender Gap Report (2009), published by the World Economic Forum, Turkey was ranked 129 out of 134 countries surveyed - in other words, Turkey is at the bottom of the world league table when it comes to promoting and protecting women's rights. To make matters worse, its position has fallen over the years - it ranked 123 out of 130 in 2008, 121 out of 128 in 2007 and 105 out of 115 in 2006. As you can see, its position has changed only relative to the bottom. You can see the country profile by clicking on Turkey here. Can you guess which country was ranked first? Have a look at its country profile and compare.

The report looks at equality in terms of economic participation, education, health and political empowerment. You can read Gila Benmayor's opinion piece in the Hürriyet Daily News here. The HDN also lays claim to being "Turkey's most feminine newspaper."

Once you've had a look at the report, I hope you'll start trying to answer the obvious question: Why? I look forward to reading your analyses...

13. New bloggers and new blogging ideas welcome

Embryonic Journey by onkel_wart, licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Non-commercial-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic License

This week, for the first time, I gave you a blogging task to complete in class. This resulted in two students posting for the first time, so welcome to Erman Ece and Egemen Kaftancıoğlu. We look forward to reading more posts from you.

Two students have also come up with a great idea: Hasan Can Saral and Beri Pardo have devised a blog 'race'. Why not visit their posts to see what that's all about, and consider trying it yourself? This would be particularly useful for those students who find self-motivation to be a problem; when you race, your friends help you stay motivated. I think it's absolutely brilliant; I never would have thought of it in a million years.

This week in class I introduced you to the idea of Creative Commons materials. Hasan Can Saral and Beri Pardo have expressed strong views on the issue of copyright, and I encourage you to debate them in order to make them think a bit more deeply. :) I was absolutely amazed to see that Onur Olgaç immediately applied his new knowledge of Creative Commons images to his blog, flawlessly citing his most recent image. I would strongly encourage you to follow his example and cite all blog images you use in future.

This week you've all left a lot of great comments on my and other students' blogs. Let's keep this momentum going. Interacting with other blogs is part of your overall blogging grade, and of course from a human perspective, we all love to know what people think of our work.

12. (Photo)journalists and the conscience of a nation

Photo of John Pilger by Maggie Hannan, licensed under Creative Commons attribution licence

I wanted to share with you a recent article by Australian whistle-blowing journalist John Pilger (I've blogged about him before) about the aftermath of the destruction of Cambodia in the 1970s by the Americans and then the Khmer Rouge. Pilger was one of the first journalists to enter this poverty-stricken country, where 2 million people had been murdered. He describes what he witnessed in haunting imagery. But what really caught my eye was when he mentioned that his news reports, along with the photos taken by Eric Piper, prompted readers of the British newspaper the Daily Mirror to send aid to 70,000 children in the first aid convoy from the western world.

In 1979, Pilger made a documentary about Cambodia, Year Zero: The Silent Death of Cambodia. The ordinary British public donated £20 million to the Cambodians. Not the government - the people. This is a lot of money, but it was a HELL of a lot of money in 1979. The support helped to end the American/British blockade of Cambodia.

What I'm seeing in some of your blog posts is that you think a photographer has an ethical duty to publicise suffering so that people will act. I personally feel the same, and I think this amazing story provides outstanding support for that thesis.

I highly recommend reading this article - I think you will see why I admire Pilger so much.