Teaching in Turkey

A small part of the high school side of my school

Another view of the front of my school--the primary building is actually past the flag--its huge!

 Since the school I am at is kind of like a high school, the periods where I am not teaching I am usually preparing lessons. So Monday morning, I was getting some things together for the week's lessons. I made a powerpoint and worksheet for the first graders, and was looking into vocab games for the second graders. Then, my mentor teacher realized that she had meetings the following morning, and mentioned that she needed someone to cover her classes--and she asked me to do it! Crazy--I never thought I would be teaching alone in a classroom full of students who are just beginning to learn English. Of course I said that I would teach the lessons.


The rest of Monday was pretty uneventful. I spent most of the evening writing some lesson plans so that I knew what I was going to do Tuesday in the lessons all alone. My mentor teacher told me what she expected, so the plans were pretty much just to keep me on track. I also wrote some Turkish phrases on them (like write your name on the paper) just in case.

Tuesday, I had some time in the morning to prepare for my lessons before teaching them. The second grade lessons (I taught a "double-period") went realy well. I never thought so much about non-verbal communication before teaching these lessons! The students worked really hard to communicate with me--they put words together so that I would understand them. It was a really wonderful experience :)

I was really nervous about the first graders because they only know some English words--they do not speak in sentences. Some of them are able to ask me my name, but that's about it. Before I taught, I got some tips from the other American teachers at my school, which helped. The lesson actually went really well, and the students really liked it. Fortunately, this particular lesson is usually observed by a university student, so she helped me translate some things when the students looked lost. She thanked me at the end of the lesson for letting her help me teach and that it helped build her confidence! My mentor teacher sat with these first graders at lunch, which was right after my lesson, and she said the students loved the lesson and only told her good things about it :)

It was intimidating to be asked to teach students who do not understand me, and whom I do not understand. But it was a great experience and I am very thankful for it.

Yesterday morning, there was a ceremony at school commemorating Ataturk, the founder of modern day Turkey. November 10th is the day that he died (in 1938). In the morning, the students stood out in the "garden" of the school. All of the younger students bought bouquets of flowers and put them on the school's memorial for him. It was pretty cool to see. There ceremony was in Turkish, so I kind of had no idea what was going on. At one point, sirens started going off, which happens all over Turkey at the same time on this day. It's crazy seeing how much the Turkish people love Ataturk. I can't really think of any leader in the US who is celebrated in the same way.

Where the students put their bouquets of flowers

It's been a great week so far!