One of my favorite quotation from W.B. Yeats

Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire. 
                                                      William Butler Yeats

One of my favorite Irish poets is William Butler Yeats. Here is a quotation from Yeats which exactly reflects my understanding of education. What do you think about this quotation? Do you agree with Yeats?  Does education lighting a fire or filling a pail? Let's vote it...:) 

My Mornings :)

This is exactly how I feel when I have to wake up early :) Does it illustrate your mornings as well??? :))

Steve Jobs's Speech about his Life Story

I think everyone knows Steve Jobs. He was CEO and co-founder of Apple and Pixar who died in October 2011. He was very successful businessman and inventor. He gives a speech in Stanford University and talks about his life and teaches lesson by giving examples from his own life. If you haven't watch this video, you must watch it and maybe you can inspire from his life story :)

Some ideas about smart-board activities

I have come across very nice site which has very creative ideas about how to use smart board effectively. I would definitely use some activies from this site and I recommend you to visit this site.
       
      *  http://pbskids.org/lions/  This is one of my favorite site that is shared it the site.

What do you think about the site? Would you use the site for preparing activity on smart board?

Our descriptive video -Simple Present Perfect Tense

     Hey! Did you watch our descriptive video??? Buket Çam and I tried to make a video which is about simple present perfect tense. Firstly, our aim was teaching present perfect tense inductively. So, we start with a story which includes present perfect and also simple past tense. We thought that the students can see the difference when we use simple past or present perfect. The story is about how two friends, Pete and John, met 5 years ago. The history of their friendship starts at the school bus and their first conversation is about a girl. The topic of the conversation is very common among the teenagers as Pete and John is at 9th grade. The students might find the topic interesting and it would easily capture their attention. At the end of the video, we also gave 2 usage of simple present perfect tense. Some students may feel more comfortable when they see the 'rule' of the grammar point.
     So, how can we use this video in our classes?? Buket and I have some suggestions about how to use the video. You can show the video to the class without the sound and want students to guess who the boys and the girl are; where they are going; what will happen at the end of the story etc. Then, you may turn on the sound and confirm their guesses. Moreover, you can ask some comprehension questions about the video to check their understanding and also at the same time they will practice simple present perfect tense implicitly. Although at the end of the video, there are some descriptions that tell when to use simple present perfect tense. This will also help the students to reinforce their learning of present perfect tense.
      We hope you will enjoy our video and we want to see your comments about our video:)

SMARTboard training - Lesson Activity Toolkit

I found a video that is about smart board. I thought that it would be helpful for the people who wants to learn how to use it. Check it out!

One of my favorite web page: BUSYTEACHER

While I was 'wondering' in facebook,, I came across a page busyteacher. The creator of the page shares very helpful worksheets, activities and many things related to English. Then I visited their offical web page and I really liked it. If I was going to teach, I definately look up this site. I used some of the worksheets and activities in that web site. English language teachers share their own worksheets in that site and all you have to do to use that materials is to sign up which is free. Moreover, you can also share your own worksheets or activies, games, songs with other teachers and you can see how many people download your material. So, you can see how successful your materials are. I would recommend you to have a look at that web page and benefit from it. Good Luck :)

Conversation with a Chatbot

Conversation Log: 

judge: how do you do? 
ALICE: I am functioning within normal parameters. 
judge: what do you mean? I didn't understand? 
ALICE: judge, I mean exactly what I said. Oh I'm sorry. Perhaps I can explain it again better. 
judge: could you please explain it more? 
ALICE: It's possible.. Try searching the Wikipedia. 
judge: hmm.. OK 
ALICE: I see. Yippee! 
judge: so, what are your hobbies? 
ALICE: I like robots, computers, and chatting online. 
judge: I guess so. where do you live? 
ALICE: Does that mean "yes"? My location is Oakland, California. Where are you? 
judge: I am in Cyprus. do you know Cyprus 
ALICE: Tell me a little about your life in Cyprus. I don't know if I know it. Where would I have heard about it? 
judge: as you said before try searching the wikipedia:) 
ALICE: OK I will try it.. I'm glad you find this amusing. 
judge: yes, it is amusing. I think people can learn from each other but you don't prefer that, do you? 
ALICE: Dude!. Are you sure it is? You can learn anything you set your mind to. Humans are not always infallible. 
judge: of course, human can be wrong time to time but interacting with someone is good thing. don't you think so? 
ALICE: My creator is a human. Yes I think that is what I think. 
judge: I see. 
ALICE: I'm glad you understand it. 
judge: see you then Alice 
ALICE: Goodbye.




I have just tried to use a chatbot Alice. Above is the chat log I made with Alice. Did I find it useful for language leaners? My answer is no unfourtunately. It's good to communicate with someone who speaks English but as it is just a programme, I think it doesn't give the same taste as I am interacting with a 'real' person. So, I don't think I would use this website when I become a teacher because it gives nonsense responses and student can't benefit from this robot. When I was in middle school, our teachers were finding us a pen friend. I think most of us had a pen friend which is more benefical for language learners. You write a letter who is 'real' human and practice your English. I would recommend my students to have a pen friend rather thann talking to a robot.

Modal Verb Presentation

Modal verbs

View more presentations from Duygu Tezer