We had a great first meeting September 14th. Thanks to everyone who came and shared experience and ideas. A good first step towards building a strong community of practice.
The ideas we discussed in the small groups were very interesting as well. From questioning the term “digital native” to designing a curriculum to teach innovation to learning more about the HR Law that governs our lives in Istanbul to figuring out how to provide meaningful professional development topics for language school teachers, it seems that everyone learned a lot from one another.
We asked people about which professional development topics and/or speakers that people would like to see in future meetings and I’m putting the list below. If you have something or someone else you thought of after the meeting, please a
Using moodles innovatively
Testing system knowledge/use in the classroom
Dealing with too many digital platforms
Integration and anti-racism
Lesson planning
Applying emotional intelligence (innovations)
Politics of the Turkish classroom
Thwarting increasingly sophisticated plagiarism/ Academic honesty
Life after TEFL
Turkish culture – how to teach across cultures
The benefits of the lexical phrase approach
Instructional design models/uses
Discipline – methods and structures
Advanced Turkish grammar/language lessons
Work permits/Residence permits
Using drama to teach other subjects as well as English
Battling the “ESL isn’t a real job” stigma
Docent exam for people who haven’t studied in Turkey
Zafer Parlar – speaker – author of “Business over Turkish coffee”
The Istanbul Instructors' Network 