Feedback from Tunisian participants:
(Here is just one of the emails sent by a participant. They are all positive about the experience. This example was given because it is so descriptive.) 

"First of all, I would like to begin by saying how much I enjoyed your course. It's only because of people like you, enthusiastic and spontaneous people that I have the opportunity to learn.

What I liked the most about your course was the number of activities that you have taught us. You have shown me a new and more exciting way of teaching, a way that is way more interesting.

You have taught me how to fight boredom in the classroom, how to keep students motivated and how to turn a dull classroom into a more energetic and alive one.

Moreover, I have learnt how to give crystal clear instructions, and how to introduce our personal lives and students' lives into teaching, in order to make learning easier and more appealing.

All in all, this was a truly unforgettable experience, thanks to you, I've learnt a lot, and hopefully I will put into practice what you have taught me.

PS: I've spent a couple of hours last night working on improving my lesson plan, and I'm pretty sure that I have mastered it now :-) .

Thank you for everything you have taught us, thank you for all your positive vibes and constructive criticism."

Receiving feedback like this certainly puts a smile on our faces :)  

Marmara region Day 1

What do we need to prioritise on Day 1?

• getting to know the participants, 
• helping them forge strong relationships with their learners     

One of the most meaningful pieces of feedback I heard was from a teacher with about 15 years' experience who said that she realised (near the end of the two weeks) that she had been losing the kids each year for 15 years. That's an incredibly brave thing to admit. I hold you in high respect, hocam! 

I would be SO happy to put my son in your class. 

We can all (myself included) learn to do it better. 


'I' is for celebrating the individuals in the class: 

All learners are stars, as our display shows. Imagine doing this with your Young Learners :). You would learn a lot about them. 

'O' for Ownership: 
We included the group members in setting our classroom rules, just as we would our own students in class. Even Kindergarten children can contribute. If we want to teach children to respect rules, we should include their ideas as much as possible. 

'J' is for journey:
A training program or a school year with a class is like a journey. There is a beginning, many ups and downs, smooth and rocky patches, and an end of the road where we say goodbye. How do you chart the process with your learners? 

Don't think, 'oh yeah, I do a few 'get to know you activities' at the beginning of the year.' I'm afraid if you want your students to make the real progress they are capable, they need you to have a deeper understanding.     

Support for trainers (Part 2)

Trainer needs Part 2 

(See  CTS-English Marmara region courses begin for Part 1)

After they arrive at the venue, teacher trainers typically prioritise Internet access. They are away from home and need to keep up with email traffic as well as use Skype or another application to stay in touch with family. 

Trainers need to unwind after work and then plan for the next day. Typically they want to have a rest and get started after dinner. This means they need Internet access where they are staying and access to a printer or photocopier in the evening or first thing in the morning before starting the sessions.) 

Most of the phone calls and emails after work are concerned with such matters. I am looking forward to a day when everyone can get wireless Internet everywhere for free and with no hassle! 

The message for schools is please check these points before the trainers arrive so that the courses get off to a  smooth start! 

The message for trainers - you can help yourselves by setting up a VPN before coming. This way, if there is Internet at least you can get wherever you want to on the web. In schools there is a block on Facebook and all social media.  

Turkish sweets (made with butter) plus ice-cream and Turkish coffee

Food and special diets:

In the UK I am a vegetarian, almost vegan. Here in Turkey these concepts are not well understood. Vegans do not eat any animal products so no milk, eggs, yogurt, honey as well as no meat and fish. This diet is quite common and most restaurants in the UK have dishes marked as suitable for vegetarians. They will prepare vegan versions as well when requested. Life for vegans in Turkey can be a bit difficult. I was once in a hotel and asked for a plate with mixed appetizers, but the ones without meat. I got a plate with loads of great salady things but also salami and fried liver on it! When I asked the waiter, he said, "But they're not meat." (!?!) 

If you have a special diet, trainers, please bring a few things you can eat to tide you over for the first few days. Fruit, vegetables and salad are freely available but if you are a vegan most cooked dishes in school cafeterias or restaurants will have something you can’t eat…. There is meat stock in soup, butter in rice, etc.

Stock up at the health food store before coming…..

Meanwhile contact people at the schools are eager to help but there is a limit to what they can do when the kitchen staff are busy catering for the rest of the people eating there. It is not possible to prepare separate meals for one or two individuals. Self-catering may or may not be possible depending on the place where you stay. Come prepared to be flexible.  

Maps:

A few years ago (well it was before the Internet so more than a few years ago perhaps….) I was in London and needed directions. The policeman I asked pulled out a map, spread it out on the ground, got down on his knees and showed me where I was and where I needed to go. This seemed perfectly normal to me.

I was brought up reading maps. Every day on holiday my father would pull out a map while we were waiting for dinner and show me where we had started and how we had travelled.  Being an ungrateful kid, I didn’t appreciate what a valuable lesson this was but I do now. Thank you, Dad!

Other cultures don’t use maps so much. I don’t see Turkish people sitting around looking at maps or hanging maps on the walls like posters or keeping maps as souvenirs of holidays.

The message for schools is please prepare a small welcome pack with a screenshot from Google Maps showing where the school is. Please help the trainers figure out transportation (buses or dolmuses- minibuses) so that they can move around interdependently if they want to.

The message for trainers - please be aware that most Turkish people don't automatically turn to a map or think about looking at maps.If possible, do your research online a bit before you come :).   

It's all about cultural expectations and cultural differences. 

What other differences do you notice? I'd love to hear from you in the comments section! 

CTS-English Marmara region courses begin

How do teachers know it’s the end of summer?

Because they are ‘invited’ to join some teacher development sessions, of course! 

This summer 120+ English teachers in the Marmara region of Turkey will be joining our CTS-English courses (for primary and secondary school teachers.) This course is our in-house version of CELTA for teachers of students under 17.

We have 18 experienced teacher trainers from around Europe working with us. For some it is the first time they are working in Turkey (although most have had Turkish students at their universities or teaching centres.) Others worked in Baku and have already had some experience of the CTS-English course.

Let me share some of what goes on before our courses begin. Then as the course unfolds we will share some of the insights we gain. 

Before starting:

We have two priorities at our end 

- arranging all the flights, accommodation, transportation and locations for the courses

- preparing the materials for the course, wherever possible based on the books teachers will work with

These practical issues are important because we want the trainers to be as comfortable as possible with the work they are doing. 

What do trainers need?

We know from Maslow's work that people need to have the areas at the bottom levels of the pyramid satisfied before they can focus on the higher levels. We have two groups of people to consider: trainers and the course participants. What do trainers need? (We'll talk about teachers later.) 

What do trainers need to be able to help the teachers become more confident professionals? to help them reflect on their own classroom practises and students? to be creative? to benefit as much as possible for the course?  

Typically the trainers want information. They want to know about the participants, the expectations of the stake-holders and information about the cultural background. Culture is an important part of adapting to life in a new location so we try to give some guidance about interpreting behaviours. Otherwise there is a danger that people filter all their experiences through their own cultural schemata and misinterpret what they experience. 

Here is part of a letter I sent round the group:

By the way, I would love to hear your reactions to these ideas in the comments section. 

“Although many women work in Turkey and there are is a very high percentage of women graduating with science degrees from universities, there is still a conservative streak in most people. They do sometimes find it very hard to understand how a woman can go to a foreign country by herself without her husband or family. It's a little easier for them to understand older women who are married with children but as for younger women, well it just seems odd to some people. They think that Westerners don't protect and look after the women in their family properly.

There are quite a lot of ways in which this culture treats women with respect which seem odd at first to foreigners. For example when you buy a coach ticket to travel from one city to another, they automatically put a woman next to another woman. It's marked on the computer system so that no one will make a mistake. I have travelled in rural areas and when a man has try to come and sit next to me I simply said no the seat is only for a woman, and he got up immediately and left me alone. Because he thought I was a foreigner, he thought he could sit next to me, chat me up, i.e. treat me differently from a Turkish girl or woman, but as soon as I reacted, he moved away. Don’t let anyone behave in a familiar way – they certainly can’t try that on a Turkish woman.

If you buy something in a shop, if the shopkeeper is male and is handing the bag to a female customer, he will probably hold the bag out to you in such a way that you can take it from him without touching his hands. This is a sign of respect, and also a sign that he does not want any physical contact with a woman who is not in his family. Apart from a small percentage of people who have lived abroad or are from very ‘Westernized’ families, males and females generally minimize the amount of contact that they have with each other. So two women will kiss and hug each other when they meet but a man and a woman might only greet each other verbally. I don't offer my hand (to shake hands) with a man. I wait and see if he extends his hand to me. Some men shake hands with women and some men prefer not to. This is also about being ritually clean for prayer. Even the concierge in our apartment building, who does the shopping for us, takes money out of my fingers without touching my fingers and puts the money in the palm of my hand without touching my hand. This is not meant to be insulting, quite the reverse it's a compliment and shows respect. Some taxi drivers try it on by deliberately flicking their fingers over my palm when giving me my change. This is the opposite behavior, and disrespectful.   

Many times I have been in clothing shop and the sales assistant has tried to interest me in something that I would never want to buy. I used to say, ‘oh well you know I don't really like the color’, ‘I don't really like that style’, etc. This way of talking is very British! I eventually realized the best way to stop a sales assistant from trying to push me to buy something that I really don't like is to say, ‘my husband doesn't like (leopard skin prints, glitter T-shirts, etc)’.  At first it made me angry that my word was not taken seriously but as soon as I mentioned my husband sales assistant backs off…. and then with time I realized that this all carries a different meaning here. Decisions made by husband and wife and the shared life of a husband and wife are given an importance which maybe has been lost a bit in Western Europe. Its quite normal that a husband’s preferences are given importance, isn’t it? But I doubt very many British women say that directly to a shop assistant. Culture…

One day I was talking to a taxi driver whose daughter won a place at a university in a city about 90 minutes from Istanbul. He requested his wife to move to the other city with their daughter. They rented an apartment for the two of them there so the wife could keep an eye on the daughter and make sure that she didn't get into any bad habits or hang out with the wrong kind of friends. He continued to work as a taxi driver in Istanbul for four years until his daughter finished university. This is considered totally normal. I know many families who moved to a new city, sometimes even retiring from their previous jobs, in order to be able to look after they university-aged children. Children are watched over until they are married, especially girls. The idea that for example UK families allow their children to go off to university and share a flat with other students, possibly even with male and female students in the same flat (!) Is considered quite bizarre by most people in Turkey. Not everyone, mind, but many!”

This is just one small area where the trainers may experience a bit of culture shock.... and of course there are many more.

Parochial care:

We try hard to provide support to trainers even if they are not close by. Using email, text messages and phone calls we try to maintain direct lines of communication. We give SIM cards to one trainer in each group so we can reach them. We also appoint a key contact person in their school who should follow them and help them with their questions. 

This year we called each person in the schools but I think for next year we should produce a booklet in English and Turkish for the key contact people where we outline the typical issues that come up and explain what we would like them to do. (This has been added to my to-do list)

Next.... we will consider the support and parochial care teachers need to benefit fully from a professional development course. 

Wow, what an experience!

I have just returned to Poland from Baku. Although I am still a bit disoriented from the 3 hour time difference, driving my wife crazy with waking, falling asleep and requesting meals at strange hours, (plus also complaining, ‘It’s cold here.’ referring to +25 C), I would like to formulate some of my impressions while they are still fresh in memory.

A trainer goes somewhere to share knowledge and expertise, to make positive change, but there is always this added value for him or her: you teach but you also learn from others and grow as well. This is what I got from my Baku experience; this is what enriched me:

1.) The understanding of what the Turkish schools contribute to education in Azerbaijan. The teachers and school administrators attach great importance to quality education, and channel incredible resources into it.

2.) Living briefly in this country. Before I went, I did a bit of homework reading about Azerbaijan and also contacting people who have also been there, but nothing prepared me for the grandeur of Baku and the dynamism of its growth. In my part of the world there is always talk of economic crisis, followed by budget cuts for education and worry caused by low demography. This part of the world , in turn, looks extremely vibrant, with incredible potential. For instance, I was impressed by the facilities in which I was to work with IWBs in every classroom.

3.) The contact with my teaching group that came from Nakhchivan, a place I had never heard of. They turned out to be pleasant, gentle, and good-humored people. We had a lot of common knowledge in terms of global culture, but it was exciting for me to pick up all these little ‘exotic’ elements: the way they addressed me and the others in formal situations, (Hasan Teacher), the gesture of crossing their hearts, the little dance that my people did in class, or the literal meaning of their first names: Sahil, Jahid, Elkhaz, Elchin, Niyameddin, Sakhavat, Sumer, for example.

4.) Finally, the contact with my team, my co-teachers at the smartboard: Anette, Ola, and Vanessa, but also the ‘mission control’ people (Houston, we have a problem!), Kristina and Andi, working hard behind the scenes, making things happen. When you are blessed with a good team, their special combination of EFL expertise and international teaching experience, they share with you tips and materials, they support you, plus you have good fun with them after hours (every good trainer is a superb storyteller and an actor).

I will remember all these things, but what am I not going to miss? The situation when, before a class, I carefully arranged my notes and handouts, and then, because of the heat, my somebody opened the windows and the doors and turned on a fan. Guess what inevitably happened next ;)

Krzysztof

Baku course reflections 1 by Ola

On the first day of the course we met our trainees. It was a challenge for me to get a group of ten energetic men (in alphabetical order): Adalet, Ahmet, Cem, Emil, Ilkin,Mustafa, Reshad, Rufet, Sarvan and Yakup. They all came rather unprepared (no pens, not notebooks) but we have managed to get them organized! At the end of the course theY ALL produced folders with their handouts and microteaching stuff! 

Their expectations were very concrete: to get an insight into the EFL methodology to become better teachers. I myself also had goals – I wanted to learn the Azeri EFL context and… to have fun :). Teaching and teacher training is a job, but doing it without pleasure is a dreadful thing.      

One of the activities all my trainees enjoyed a lot was called 'It’s a bad line'. I have used it many times with all age groups of students, including adults. It always works! Students sit on the chairs in two rows, each person facing a partner about 2 m away, like this: 

x  o  x  o  x  o  x  o

o  x  o  x  o  x  o  x  

The ‘o’ students have a piece of paper with personal info about a person (name, address, telephone). Their task is to dictate/spell the info to the partner opposite (‘x’) whose task is to write all this down. The only problem is there are other people around who have the same task! Can you imagine the noise? Yes, it is a noisy activity but also fun and you practice spelling. Can you imagine 10 grown up men shouting like crazy to get the message across? I wish I had taken a photo of that activity. 

So, the teachers enjoyed the activity, they also practiced spelling. But what about the noise? Some of the teachers said they would not be allowed to do such an activity with their students because this would mean other teachersconducting their lessons nearby would get upset. They told me noise in the classroom means you are not controlling you students. Well, there is bad noise and there is good noise. If you are in control and know how to install order once the activity is over – that’s good noise! How can learn a language without using it? Even if my trainees decide not to use this activity in the classroom they at least had some fun and learnt at the same time!         

My name is Ola and I’m Polish. I have been teaching English (and Geography) for 25 years. For the last 8 years I have also been engaged in teacher training as a freelancer – mostly in Poland (especially in Geography and bilingual education) but also in the UK (EFL teacher training courses for Pilgrims and Bell). As a professional geographer I like travelling so combining English teacher training with visiting new places is what I like best! So far I have worked with teachers in Uzbekistan, Qatar and now in Azerbaijan as part of the CTS wonderful teacher training team. Thanks a lot for this opportunity, Kristina :).        

A guest post from Ali Bilgin Bey

Today we have a special treat. 

Ali Bilgin Bey, the Fatih Schools' Head of English, whose opinions I respect very highly, kindly consented to contribute a post on lesson planning. Here is his guest post:

I have been practicing teaching English for 16 years,

and let me tell you, in these 16 years, whenever I planned a decent plan 

and wrote it down, and went to my classroom, that lesson always went well.

The possibility of any planned lesson going bad is almost zero, and 

the possibility of any unplanned lesson going well is most probably again zero...

OK, it isn't easy to do the planning every time before the lessons.

It is time consuming and in this era when the teachers are super loaded,

it takes a lot from the teachers; but it gives us a lot too as an English teacher...

In Bediuzzaman's books (risales) there is a simile for the sins,

Bediuzzaman describes the sins as poisoned honey,

They first give us pleasure but then poison us when we eat that honey...

For that 10 seconds pleasure, we mustn't risk our life...

Like this simile, lesson planning is also like a reverse poisoned honey comparison...

It first gives you pain for 15 minutes, but then when you get accustomed to do,

you get a lifetime long of pleasure of teaching English properly.

Just try it and keep doing it, you will never regret it...

I hope it works for you.

Best wishes...

First Day Stresses

26.06.2013

First day stresses of any PD course…

Will we get started on time?

Yes! The director of the schools in Azerbaijan made a fantastic speech to all the course participants who were gathered in the amphitheater the first morning.  He welcomed all the foreign trainers (more about them later.) He clearly explained that as everything is in motion, from the stars and the the planets to the molecules in our bodies, we must accept that change is the norm. In short, all teachers need to study throughout their professional lives to learn more so that they can help students better.

As trainers we appreciated this support at the start, since there are always differing levels of motivation on a required PD summer course. A nudge from the ‘boss’ helps make some participants work more J. We also have a demanding course – with homework every night!

The director also reminded people about cell phones – we are at the ‘let’s keep them off’ level here. No mobile learning apps on this course. (Sorry, Işil Boy) And 100% attendance is expected. Work hard, play hard (but after the course finishes.)

There was almost nothing left for me to say to the audience except to joke that we are working on ‘German time’, where 9.45 means 9.45 and not 10.30 like some places I have been to! An ambitious statement. Let’s see what happens. Then I introduced the trainers and got them matched with their groups.  They went off to show the groups to their classrooms and find tea. I breathed a sigh of relief and checked my watch.  9.30 - right on time. Fifteen minutes before we should start the first session.   

The last fifteen minutes …   

We rather cleverly(if I do say so myself) organized a 30-minute session from 9.00-9.30 in the morning of flexi time where the trainer can go over homework or review a point from the previous day before the first major input session starts. Why? Think Maslow. It allows us to all get a cup of tea or coffee before getting stuck into the main input. Very important. I don’t function very well without enough liquid caffeine. (Hint, hint.)

For a moment that nervous tension before that first session made me feel like there is something I was supposed to do for trainers (but had forgotten.) Then I snapped out of it. They looked like I felt. Thoughts and energy inside getting focused for going ‘on stage’. Finally we are heading down the corridor at 9.45. German time. Hmm. I am going to live to regret that remark.

Who are the participants? What are our aims?

On our Baku course we have 4 groups of teachers – three male and three female. They are all secondary school teachers working at Turkish schools around Azerbaijan. To make everybody more comfortable, the ladies were one floor higher up with their own room for breaks. Obviously we gave them female trainers since we had enough. The male teachers were mostly people I have met or observed except for one group.  (After 7 months of working in the country we didn't even know they existed!)

Almost all the participants have been observed and certain common points have come up: In general ….

1.)    Lack of planning for lessons means there are a lot of classroom management problems and a LOT of potential learning time is wasted.

2.)    Classroom management problems are compounded by a “We talk about it in the first week for 10 minutes” attitude. Teachers are not aware that they need to spend time in the first weeks and months setting clear expectations and creating (and enforcing) natural consequences to get the students behaving the way they want them to.

3.)    Classes are very teacher-centered (in general). Most opportunities for genuine interaction in the course book are skipped. As a result, students do very little speaking. I have not seen any communicative activities with an info-gap.

4.)    Students do very little reading – just reading aloud or listen and read with the book. Reading skills are not really taught directly (and are probably not tested.)  

5.)    Skills work in class needs a much stronger focus. Skills are tested, not taught.

6.)    We have never seen teachers use any Concept Checking Questions or timelines, which are pretty standard tools in a teacher’s toolkit.

7.)    Instructions tend to be unplanned and therefore too long, not checked, etc. which again brings us to the classroom management problems in (1).

Our course is organized to help teachers think about these points (1-7) and have strategies for improving student learning.  

Downstairs I went to my class. One trainer, Vanessa Esteves, hadn't arrived yet due to visa problems so I took her group for the first day.

What did I notice? Well, again I was struck by the number of teachers turning up with no pens and no paper. Is it really such a gender issue? Don’t men ever write anything down?  I’m not expecting color-coordinated Galatasaray pencils and erasers but a workmanlike set of stationery for a two-week course shouldn't be too much to ask…. Especially when it is Part A and they have to bring their completed portfolios to the next two-week sessions. We will have to make it a requirement that everyone has an A4 notebook and a file for handouts. (Note to self to organize this next time.) 

The Final Preparations

25.06.2013

The day before our course started we were all busy. We checked all the arrangements to ensure the course would run smoothly.  The suitcase full of stationery items has been unpacked - thank you Ali Bey for bringing that!  The books for micro-teaching are on the table. Our laptops are connected to the Internet and the printers. There is enough paper for photocopying. Tea and hot water have been arranged for the next day. To be done... get a good night's sleep before meeting the teachers.

This picture is taken in front of the main Turkish school in Baku, 'Baku Privat'.  A big thank you to Cag Egitim Merkezi for making all the arrangements.

What is the CTS-English course?

SeltAcademy has been very busy these past few months preparing for our first 'Certificate in Teaching Skills' course for English language teachers in Baku, Azerbaijan. CTS-English is our  flagship course for primary and high school teachers. We aim to add more versions later - one for Young Learners and another for Very Young Learners. Perhaps later some others will come... like a Diploma level one for teachers who have CTS, CELTA or ICELT.

The course is given in two parts (A and B), each one lasting two weeks or a four-week version. Generally speaking, splitting the course into two parts works better because teachers have more time to digest the material and try to incorporate it into their classes before we start the next half. Conditions permitting, we also visit teachers to observe their classes between the two parts to help them with their lesson planning and lesson execution.  In Baku the plan is to go back in the spring break to do the second part.

The CTS-English course is similar to CELTA in that there is micro-teaching, but it is done with the other teachers in the group as the language learners. Participants use an adult course book close to their own level of English so that there is some language development for teachers as well.

The course is driven by the micro-teaching. Trainers are asked to respond to what the participants need so although there is a program and we provide PowerPoint presentations, Trainers Notes, Handouts and articles with homework tasks for the participants, we are happy for trainers to interpret the session titles and aims according to their group's needs. This provides a flexibility within a consistent structure. Teachers who attend this course anywhere in the world will have received input on roughly speaking the same topics but with local variations.

On this blog we will be sharing some insights into the course, the way teachers develop and the way the trainers work with the teachers.