CTS Portfolios by Nina Shandetskaya

Keeping a portfolio is one of the essential components of the CTS course. Participants must maintain a portfolio of all their lesson plans, handouts, session notes and other work. This should be neat and tidy. As portfolios are a relatively new concept for our course participants, we use the word loosely to mean a collection of all their course work, rather than narrowing the purpose of the portfolio down. My group in Erzurum found keeping a portfolio a very enjoyable activity.

How did we manage?

Well, what we really needed was one enthusiastic member of the group who turned up the second day with a nice folder containing 5 A-4 pages of different colours with all the activities from Day 1 on them to get started. Everything was creatively organized on the paper with stars, smiling faces, hands and pictures. 

A good start, isn’t it? Moreover, it was a kind of inspiration to other participants. This way we had had four teachers out of 11 with great portfolios by the end of week 1.

What about the others?

I could hear some trainees complain, "We are not students. Why should we prepare it? It’s time-consuming. I’m not good at keeping things in order." However, at the end of week two I could see 10 folders with all the course materials nicely organized. It was also the participants’ attitude to the idea of having all the materials in the portfolio that changed completely, probably because they began to see some of the benefits.

Trainees’ feedback on keeping a portfolio

“After this course, I know that my portfolio is my basic resource. It is simple and easy-to-use. I can quickly find a game and use it in my class.” 

“Keeping a portfolio is a really good way. When I need to do something differently in my teaching practice, I can always turn to my portfolio and find information easily. It saves time while planning a lesson.” 

“At the beginning of the course I didn’t want to prepare a portfolio. Now I am sure that I will always use my portfolio and it will be a good resource for the development of all skills. There are lots of activities and games that will help me during my lessons.”

“I’m impressed by the work we’ve done over the two weeks. Now I have a guide book for my teaching career!”

The teachers didn’t only compile different items, but also reflected on their own work and the performance of other participants. We decided to have a special section called “Bank of Ideas”, in which the trainees gathered activities from other teachers in the group.

I can say it for sure now that the course portfolio helps to increase motivation, develop teacher’s reflective capacities and encourage teacher growth.

These are 5 easy steps to create an impressive portfolio

• Start as early as possible! The first day of the course is just the right time;)
• Plan well and systematically collect data.
• Update information regularly.
• Involve other trainees as contributors. You can benefit from teamwork.
• Be creative and reflective.

Here are some more lovely examples from my group: 

Note from Kristina: Nina's group was all female and a male group would probably have kept their portfolios quite differently. However, even without all the colour and sweet drawings, a portfolio is a useful tool. You may like to explore the links below and share them with participants if they balk at keeping a portfolio. Please add you favorite links and ideas in the comments. 

1. Why use portfolios in assessment? 

2. Using a portfolio to reflect. (Scroll down for some useful questions.)

3. Detailed explanations of reflection, artefacts and portfolios. It's for art teachers but the basic principles are the same.   

In fact we should consider how to make better use of the portfolios in the 'advanced' CTS courses. I shall have a little think about this over the next few months. Thanks for setting the standard for portfolios, Nina :)

Cucumbers and CCQs by Rene Mark LeLong

By Rene

For my second  year as a SeltAcademy trainer  I was  despatched to the city of Konya and although I had been a trainer the previous year and I know a little about Turkey there are still some things that take some getting used to.

As I settled down for my first hotel breakfast I noticed the slices of cucumber. For me as an Englishman, cucumber is to be enjoyed in dainty sandwiches or as part of a salad, why anyone would want to eat it for breakfast is beyond me. Oh well there’s always watermelon to enjoy instead.

                                           

After breakfast it was into the minibus to be dispatched to the school to meet my trainees and the school coordinator, who  was  welcoming and  he immediately apologised for the high temperatures and then offered  me a cup of tea. They drink a LOT of tea here.

Afterwards he found me a fan for my “office” I felt privileged not only too be given an office but because as a rule the schools don’t have air conditioning and even fans are not guaranteed. My advice to would be trainers would be to take lots of water and perhaps a spare outfit for the afternoon. Things can get very hot and sticky with temperatures staying  in high 30s days and night.

Last year I had twelve male trainees but this year it was seven female trainees, so I knew that topics of conversation would be a little different. This is a traditional part of the country and as I sat there attempting to find some common ground and make  small talk with the trainees wearing the traditional long coats and the headscarves. I reminded myself that there would be no high fiving as  a form of  congratulations for successful completion of the Getting To Know You activities.

However despite initial trepidation from both trainee and trainer we soon slipped into our respective roles and  thanks to a well organised and resourced programme  things continued smoothly.

There were certainly some lighter moments. 

The trainees were keen, sometimes too keen, as was illustrated when I had told them about concept check questions (CCQs) they got a little carried away. In one demonstration lesson, one trainee was presenting a recipe. She said “Milk- do you know what milk is?” then remembering the need to CCQ she said “ “Does milk come from a cow?” Does milk come from a donkey?” One trainee answered  ‘well yes I think you can get milk from a donkey.” “Can you ? “ said another. “Yes I have heard that…..” Time to move on please ladies!

                  

Original graphic by Rene

     

All too soon the two weeks had raced by and  it was time to say goodbye to my hard working trainees and present  them with their certificates. It was so rewarding to see the progress they had made, the ideas they had shared and the willingness there had to try out fresh ideas in the classroom. We went our separate ways and I look forward to having the opportunity to work in Turkey again. Now if only I could develop a taste for cucumber for breakfast.

Rene with his all-ladies group

    

Note from Kristina: If you want to know more about a traditional Turkish breakfast, check out my VoiceThread or explore this website starting with the article about Turkish breakfasts.  

'A rewarding and touching experience in Konya' by Juan Alberto Lopez Uribe

"Students learn when their teacher also learns" Alicia Fernandez 

                                  Juan

I had the unique privilege of living and learning with a group of carefully selected Algerian teachers during the two last weeks of August 2014. During these two very intensive weeks I was their instructor at intensive CTS course they took as part of their initial training to teach English in the Turkish school system.

When these teachers arrived, many had teaching experience, others none.  But one thing these young teachers all shared was their dedication, willingness to learn, and to work together. Wait, the lively and contagious Algerian energy was always present!

Being together with this lively group of Algerian teachers was both a very rewarding and touching experience for me. I say it was rewarding because the group went from

a quite traditional teaching-centered approach in which most of the talking was done by the teacher to a more dynamic learning-centered approach in which students shared their experiences through the foreign language. I felt touched as I learned about their stories, hopes, and dreams. I was touched to see that our work together brought them close to living their full potential.

Small group discussions maximized and modeled student engagement.

By the end of our course, I could see them not only living a more communicative methodology, but also discussing it with each other using all the terms I had presented them. What a joy it was to see them having a-ha moments when the right question was posed.

I would like to share special three moments among the many memorable ones that we lived together:

1. Before every session students were always received with involving music and with an inspiring quote on the board (like the one at the top of this post) to set the mood for our time together. We listened to bossa nova, tango, samba, and to songs in Arabic they also chose. These moments were great because we could appreciate our own different cultures and exchange experiences about our likes before sessions started. I got very happy that when during microteaching some trainees also wrote inspiring quotes on the board. 

2. On the third day our course coordinator told me that my desk and my materials were messy and that was not good modeling at all for the group. I couldn’t agree more! On the next day, as you can imagine, my desk was pristine when students arrived. I asked if they could see any difference in the room and we discussed about the importance of being good models for our students. I apologized and modeled how it is through our vulnerability that we build rapport with the group. I loved that during microteaching one trainee was super organized and tidy with her materials. All of us learned. Yes!

3. In one of the last sessions I used the pictures I had taken of them during their microteaching as the material they used in the maximizing student interaction session. I could see their eyes shining when they talked about what they learned that far in the course. In one activity trainees experienced personalization, reflection, and different interaction patterns. Needless to say, I facilitated discussing of what we had lived.

Students used pictures of what they had experienced during their microteaching to live the power of personalized material

I am grateful for having lived this important moment in our lives in which we all evolved collectively. They are better language teachers and I am a better teacher educator. Oh, I forgot to say that I learned lots of Algerian Arabic during the time we were together. I was invited to go to Algeria and I am definitely going. This is the beauty that only genuine learning encounters bring. And now it is ours to enjoy!

I would like to thank and congratulate Chahira, Maya, Mariam, Imene, Kahina, Leila, Mohamed, Mohammed, Mostapha, Mouhssin, Karim, and the two Amines for their progress and wish them a bright teaching future. I would also like to say that I learned and enjoyed working together with Anette, Kylie, Magdi, Ben, and Rene. Special thanks to Kristina who invited me to be part of the SeltAcademy team this year.

Hugs and hugs,

Juan 

Celebrating the joy of living and learning together in the CTS course.

Getting a group photo after one session we had in the lovely garden