IATEFL Chronicles, Year 2

Sessions I attended

My session was on 22^nd of March. It was a part of the Technology and Teens symposium. I was a bit stressed but it all went very well and we all received very positive feedbacks from the participants which made all of us very happy.

It was a great feeling when one finds you inspiring and I am so happy that they were there and supported us.

As I said I was very nervous that day, I missed the plenary and attended Ann Foreman’s workshop, where she wanted us to think about our professional development and asked us to plan an app to save us from chaos. It was a great session, truly inspiring and very creative. You can view Ann’s presentation and handouts here.

During the break we rushed to our room to check if everything was OK and then waited the time to come.

Graham Stanley started the symposium by giving a short introduction about teenagers of today and the technology in their lives.

The first talk was the introduction of the new site Learn English Teens of British Council. Kevan Cummins explained how the website works and what is on it. I’m sure soon it will become a hit as Learn English Kids which we love very much at our school.

I was the second presenter and you can find the details of my talk here.

Then Vicky Saumell briefly explained what digital storytelling is and how she uses it in her classes. The ideas she shared with us were great and I’m so happy that I’ll take great ideas with me for the next week.  Vicky is on twitter and if you follow her, you can learn loads from her. Her handle is @vickysaumell and more info about her talk is here.

The last talk was on mobile phones in class. Karin Tıraşın and Çigdem Ugur shared their experiences using cell-phones in the EFL classroom. They explained how they planned, how it went and what they learned from this experience. It was an amazing talk about a very carefully planned project. More about the session can be read here.

After the session, relieved and relaxed we rushed to Clyde auditorium to enjoy Pecha Kucha night hosted by Jeremy Harmer.

Last talk I attended today was called Tech-achers: get your one-way ticket to tech islands. The presenters were two very young ladies whom I love following and find very inspiring. Işıl Boy and Beyza Yılmaz welcomed the participants with an old song from my childhood, one-way ticket and explained what VLE and PLE are and how a teacher gets support from other teachers.

I enjoyed every minute of my time at IATEFL. I met new friends, old friends and had the chance to know them better and now I’m ready to pack and fly home tomorrow.