Hola my lovely friends,

Here's another website: Sutori. It might be one of my favorite among other teaching&learning tools.Because I am highly (and should be) interested in learner-centered, constructivist and communicative classroom atmosphere and this website is definitely cut out for these purposes. It encourages integrative and cooperative learning in flipped classrooms. Additionaly, it is beneficial for fostering students' creativity, communication, collaboration, and critical thinking skills (4 Cs).

I have created a student interest inventory for my English classroom and asked students to write mostly about outside the school context in order to make themselves aware of their interests and needs. I have also attached fun GIFs to the questions to keep them motivated in the task.

Here's the link: https://www.sutori.com/story/student-interest-inventory--pcmzkRiYtXeS81oeUjBtimka

Sutori is not limited with student interest inventory of course, you can make use of templates that can help your lessons and presentations, or you can start from scratch. When you go to the website you will see below there are categories for teachers from different disciplines (English, Maths) You can use them as a road map, as well.

https://www.sutori.com/

I'd like to write about a 3D virtual game called "Second Life". I have heard it from my instructor Mr. Tuncer Can and he mentioned in the course that he actually has built the Istanbul University's Beyazıt campus and erasmus office just by using the Second Life. He also touched upon how he has integrated this virtual game into ELT courses.

As you start playing the game, you are able to create your avatar as you wish and build things. In other words, you basically have a second virtual imaginary world outside the real world. It is free to access; however, to buy such things (clothes) and to build, there's a fee you need to pay for.

I have downloaded the game and created my avatar as a start.

Here's my avatar selfie which is not even close to my real look. But as I said, it is my second life and I am allowed to do anything I wish with it.

                                                                                                             

  https://secondlife.com/     

Hellooo Langualoggers,

Today I will be sharing a website/app called Voki which is a fun tool that students can use for homework, classwork or projects. Not only students but also teachers are able to create avatars that are dynamic speaking characters and customize it freely. Via these characters, they can introduce themselves to the class or they can present a topic. It is a quite beneficial tool interms of increasing the classroom engagement and motivation, espeacially establishing a good rapport in student-student and teacher-student relationship.

You can find the character I have designed from the link, not surprisingly he is an English teacher :)
http://tinyurl.com/yxlf9xhb

Hellooooo language enthusiasts, I hope you all doing  well.

I bet you all know what QR Code is, but have you ever tried to create one? 

Honestly, it is my first time... but I assure you I'll definitely use it again for various purposes. 

You can make use of QR Code Generator in brochures, labels&stickers, clothing, newspapers and magazines and so on... In educational context, you can embed a link that you have created for your students and have them more exited and interested in the topic that you will be covering. This innovative activity will surprise students and motivate them not only to scan the Codes, but also to motivate them participating in classroom's subjec matter.

I embedded my animoto link where I have created a short video for young learners of English.

Last week in the IT&MD course we had a guest who is a former student of Hayef ELT and current Research Assistant of Medipol University, Cemil Gökhan Karacan. The reason why he joined us and made a presentation was to increase our familiarity with the new technological developments and augmented reality -which is we were sort of familiar with from the previous lessons- What is more, even augmented reality (with virtual reality of course) will be outdated soon. He has then mentioned the term that will replace these two which  I haven't heard before: Mixed reality. He highlighted the importance of these up-to-date topics as we are future language teachers who will inevitably have to challenge all these innovations. Challenge may not be the correct word, but we have to conform ourselves to these innovations otherwise it may be highly difficult to find a work area in ELT.

Here's a short video from last week's implementation of augmented reality through the app: HP Reveal
We've tested the app with the handouts full of animal figures given by Mr. Karacan:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YkyiSo8kynk

Dear Lang-loggers, I am so excited to announce my first animation that I have created through Animoto. As a beginning, it is only a trial and a very amateur one. My short video is on a simple grammer topic which is designed to be for 1st graders: Verb "have got". I wanted to make a mini and easy start. You may find the link below:

https://animoto.com/play/vjBMMLM7j6feQIGDgdXhlQ

I really liked Animoto but you can check these websites/apps as well:
Film Flicker, Toondoo, Toontastic, Powtoon, Animatron, Animaker, Storybird,  Flipgrid, VOKI

Helloooo my fellow language enthusiasts and future language teachers.

Here you may find my first attempt to create a padlet post. It is about PPP procedure in language teaching.

But... What is Padlet? Padlet is an online virtual bulletin board, where students and teachers can collaborate, reflect, share links and pictures, in a secure environment. Padlet allows users to create a hidden wall with a custom URL. Padlet creator can also moderate and remove posts and manage their board 24/7. It is also free and easy to use.


Hope you'll find it helpful: https://padlet.com/yelizoztabur/mwm4eouvyiff

and...last but not least, my seesaw activity link for first graders  is also down below:

https://app.seesaw.me/pages/shared_activity?share_token=xhKj_Ks3TSKeKrfvdv5xAQ&prompt_id=prompt.cc94d97e-7700-40ec-88ab-d297bf202d81

What does Seesaw refer to and how can we take advantage of it?
Seesaw is a platform for student engagement. Teachers can empower students to create, reflect, share and collaborate.Students show what they know using photos, videos, drawings, text, PDFs and links. In other words they are student driven digital portfolios. It is simple to get student work in one place and share with families and nothing is shared without teacher approval.

Hello people...
I am here again with my newest post after a long break and a distastrous midterm week. Here is my first podcast on accuracy and fluency activities in language teaching:


https://soundcloud.com/yelizoztabur/podcast1-accuracy-and-fluency-activities-in-elt

and thank you!