Kayseri: the trainer's view

Jennifer Hillhouse was with us in Kayseri in August 2013. Here is what she wrote after working with teachers there on our CTS-Primary course. 

"Kayseri was a great adventure.  The teachers, all newly arrived from Tunisia, were all amazing.  Full of enthusiasm and with a great attitude to learning, they were all really eager to take on board as much as possible before embarking on their teaching careers here in Turkey."

Jen's group

We were very well looked after.  Ismail Bey, Edibe Hamin and all the staff at the school were all ready to help us in any way they could, from photocopying to chalk supplies!  The accommodation was lovely and  we had a hilarious taxi driver, who did a great job of teaching us some Turkish.  The food was amazing, everyone went to a lot of trouble to teach us as much as possible about the local cuisine.  It is delicious! 

Turkish chilis  

When we weren't working, we had the chance to wander around and explore the city.  At the weekend we got out to Kapadokya.  Two of us took it reasonably easy, sipping coffee and wandering around the shops.  The rest of the team bravely hiked to the fairy chimneys for about 5 hours!  A heroic effort, given the heat, but definitely worth it!

At the end of the course we were taken for a lovely meal and on an excursion up the mountain in a cable car.  Kayseri is a really beautiful place, and I would never have had the opportunity to discover it without the course.  Thank you for everything!" 

We're looking forward to working with Jennifer again in 2014 somewhere else in Turkey. Stay tuned for more adventures of the CTS team. 

Ismail Bey and sons, plus the rest of the Kayseri team in the background

A view of the mountain

A lion in Cappadochia

TEAM 2014 - Day 1

TEAM 2014 stands for 'Testing, Evaluation and Assessment Masterclass'. 
This is our special three-day training event for Testing Unit members from university preparatory programs. It also forms the basis for the CTS-Academic module 'Testing, Evaluation and Assessment for Testers'. 

Expert trainers Dr. Simon Phipps and Zoltan Rezmuves shared their knowledge and expertise during this three-day event. Their slides are available on SeltAcademy's slideshare channel. All the presentations have been uploaded with a Creative Commons non-commercial, share and share alike licence. 

The format of the training: 
Together we planned a series of plenaries where participants got input or refreshed their knowledge. These were followed by workshops where participants applied the input to tasks. Finally in the third part of each day the participants worked on groupwork, more independently of the trainers. At the end of the day there was a whole-group session where they could share what they had learned. 

The first plenary:

After a warm welcome by Associate Professor Dogan Bulut, Dr Simon Phipps started the event with a plenary outlining the state of Language Assessment in Turkey at the present time. He drew on his experience as Assistant Director at Bilkent University Preparatory School to highlight some of the challenges testers face when they choose, design and evaluate different kinds of assessment tools. We all left the session with a healthy reminder of just how much there is to know about testing. 






Afterwards Zoltan Rezmuves continued with a Plenary on the 'Principles of test design'. I personally found it very useful to review these issues. For example sometime teachers want to measure something so they write a test, whereas in that situation a test might not be the best way to get the data they are looking for. Zoltan shared some of his experience of factors to consider when choosing to test and choosing the types of test we need according to particular situations. 



We hope to run the TEAM event every two years - where the focus will be on assessment and alternate it with a curriculum masterclass.

And of course we would love to repeat this exciting program with other groups....

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 :)