21st Century Skills Training Course | Last week

    Hello everyone. This is a rather sad opening for a very happy and educational course.
    The first stage of the 21st-century skills course that I have been taking for over a month now has come to an end. Our dear teacher Melda Yılmaz gave her the last lecture last Friday. From the beginning of the course, I've learned so much from her on critical thinking, 21st-century skills, digital tools, and the place of English in the world. This course helped me to understand where I stand on certain topics and taught me not only to look but also to see what is already in front of my eyes. I will forever be grateful for what she has taught me. Her sympathetic feedback and constructive solutions will always be remembered in my heart. Before crying out loud let me tell you what we had done last week. 

This is a group photo from our last session. 

   In the last session, we had a group discussion in Zoom Breakout rooms again. I liked sharing my thoughts and getting feedback from my friends soon to be colleagues :) We had a discussion on Aya Matsuda's article Teaching Materials in EIL. As the name suggests, we discussed English as an international language. And as the students of IEL, we had a lot to say on coursebooks, materials, methodology, and curriculum. We further discussed the coursebooks that we already had at home. And we found a common ground on a lot of topics. English is being taught to be a British or American language. For many years, and still, in many cases, the context, accent, manners, and many other aspects of language are being taught in certain frames that might not be familiar to students. We further elaborated on material development in the context of EIL. It was a very honest, fun, and educational session for me. I took the floor too many times even when I weren't asked of it :) 
I wanted to thank Melda Yılmaz and Dilek İnal for this opportunity. Worth every minute. 
    Overall, we had a great time with my group in this course. It hasn't finished yet. I'll still be posting on my progress because we're creating a website with my friends! We've chosen our topic yesterday. We're going to focus on the development of synchronous education in ELT. I'm going to stop now and share with you the activity that we've created with my group. 

The website: https://www.dialectsarchive.com/