Saying Goodbye!

Hello my dears,

This post is all about me saying goodbye to you with my eyes filled with tears.. I am joking about tears of course but yes, we have come to an end. This is the last post of the semester. It’s been highs and lows, sadness and happiness, but mostly sleepless, exhausting nights of trying.. *just me being a drama queen* 

For the source of the photo please click here

All jokes aside you guys, it’s been a very difficult and sooo very much an educatory experience to step into the world of blogging. I’ve learned so much about myself; as a person, a learner and a future teacher. This is just the end as a course requirement of course, for I will definitely keep on blogging both as an helping friend to my profession and just for fun..

I remember being very anxious about this blogging thing. I did not really know back then how to write a block post -and it showed in my first posts clearly- , what to include to my posts, which theme to choose, what kind of a font to use, so on and so forth.. However, all of my doubts have vanished once I started just going for it. I poured my heart and soul into these posts, have been very picky with every little small detail, took this experience very seriously since I realized its importance in the field of education. Looking back, it’s been a very fruitful journey and I’m so glad to have been a part of this world. 

I could write for daaayyss you guys.. but now I’d would like to take a look at what I’ve done this past couple of months and reflect on my journey as a pre-service teacher blogger. If you want to learn more about my experience, then keep on reading!

About the course and its contributions to me..

As I mentioned earlier, initially I had my prejudices.. because I’m sure you can relate; you have been put into this new world that you hardly know anything about and at the end of the road, an evaluation of your work is smirking at you. It was a lot of pressure to cope with for sure, but I think I managed everything pretty good.

What I liked most about this course was the fact that it’s expanded my horizon beyond mountains and hills. I LOVE learning new things. I love keep growing. This course made me learn A LOT of things which I am very grateful for and it contributed to my profession as a teacher so much, which I am going to touch on now. 

First of all, it made me aware of the fact that technology is a very useful tool that needs to be incorporated into classroom settings. Because we live in a world that is governed by technology today, teachers need to have a digital competence to cater to their students in the best way possible. Furthermore, it showed me that technology can be very efficient in so many ways; it pushes students to be better, it challenges them to be more creative, more open minded, it makes learning easier for them, and list goes on and on..

Another point that lit a fire in me about this course was, there is no such thing as “If I had... I would love to, but..” Making technology a part of your teaching practice is up to us, teachers. All the reasons we come up with for not integrating technology into our classrooms are just excuses. Anything is possible if you are willing to put in the work that is needed to achieve your goals; in this case, that is to make technology a must for your teaching. You should use your creativity, your passion, your will to make this happen, and if you really believe it, you can do it.

If I had to pick a thing or two I liked least about this course, I’d have to say I did not like the fact that I spent too much time on the design of my posts. What I mean by that is for some reasons, my posts did not appear on my blog timeline as I planned them to. It may be due to the theme I chose to use, but they always looked all over the place once I published them. I had to reform them constantly, like maybe 50-100 times after I had posted them. It was a lot of work to get them right. This is not really about the content of the course exactly but only thing I can think bad about it is this one. Blame it on my perfectionistic self, I guess. :)

Suggestions to improve..

I think that the course is already very successful as it is now due to the many reasons I have mentioned above, but of course more can be done to improve it. 

One suggestion that comes to my mind is that tasks such as podcasting and digital storytelling can be left entirely to the students’ imagination. Since creativity is a huge part of 21st century learning; more innovative and imaginative products should be created by learners. I also believe that more professional creations should be expected of them since they are studying at the department of English Language Teaching. Challenging them a bit more is benefical in my opinion.

Another suggestion might be that, and I may be biased here because I like doing it, more writing tasks requiring students to reflect on themselves and their experiences could be given as assignment. The kind I am talking about here is like the wiki page entry we did. It was about our own experiences and I had so much fun writing and creating it. 

I think writing is a perfect way to let your hair down a bit and because so much can be conveyed through it, writing about themselves; about what they feel, think, believe should be required more often from students.

This brings me to my favourite assignment.. go ahead and take a guess.. after all this fuss about writing.. c’mon, you can do it!

Highlights of the semester..

Of course my favourite task I have done was my wiki entry page! My favourite English book in the entire world and one of my favourite hobbies combined in one! I had LOTS of joy completing this task. Writing about my favourite book was challenging as you can imagine; I had to be as authentic as possible but I think I did pretty well. 

What I liked about this task was also the fact that we commented on each others’ pages. I got many comments for my entry praising my writing and the way I expressed myself which made me very happy and grateful. Furthermore, I’ve made a huge list of books to read in the near future, a huge plus! 😊

Also, podcasting and digital storytelling were quiet the divas of the semester, I have to say. So much work, so much fun.. Looking back now, it’s all worth it!

My message to coming up teacher bloggers..

WARNING! A huge responsibility on its way! Run as fast as you can to save yourself!!!

OKAY I AM JOKING *not really* . Guys, yes it is a lot of work, there’s no denying that. But it is also so much fun to have a place where you can let your thought & feelings flow freely and be totally yourself.. I’ve been talking about the hardship that comes with the assignments but I should give much more credit to a lot of fun we’ve had, belive me we’ve laughed our butts off while doing some of these assignments. Great memories is what we are left with now. Me and my partners that I’ve worked with throughout the semester have much closer friendships due to these assignments. 

My advice to you is this: 

Be creative, be open. Work hard, be systematic. Do not sweat much over this experience, do not make it more than what it is like I did. Sprinkle the things that make you who you are all over your posts. At the end of the day, the control is in your hands and you can do whatever you want with your blog. Go with the flow! I’m sure you’ll be fine.

And to you..

Thank you!

Thank you for standing by my side during this experience. I hope you really enjoyed it and learned some things that will benefit you.

I am really happy with the outcome.

Thank you.

This is not the last of me, we’ll meet again. 

Love,

Lissome Logophile aka Kaan Arslan..