Reflection Week I-1 By Dilek Turan Eroğlu

 Today was my first day with my class. I started the lesson with some ice breakers. The students wrote 4-5 questions and asked them to eachother moving around the class. Ice breakers are the best way to help the students to get to know each other, to break the ice on the awkward first day of school.

They were really curious about me and my style. To have them feel that I am approachable and lenient I wrote a kinda quotation on the board saying: "Your mistakes are welcomed. They are my syllabus about what to teach/ cover next". They might have felt more relieved to be involved in the activities as I had almost no student who was nonparticipant in the class activities.

My students worked with pairs and within groups and I told them I would change their pairs and group members everyweek so that they could work with different people every time talking about peer teaching a little bit. The pairs and groups will have been arranged by me by next week and they will have the list and know their next peers.Secondly, I do this for the sake of classroom management. Students tend to have social chats in their language when paired with the same people.

I have positive feelings about my new class and I hope it goes in the same fashion.

The overall purpose of Teacher Development and Professional Learning Unit at Anadolu University School of Foreign Languages

To co-ordinate the provision of high quality professional development, training and learning opportunities for teaching staff across AU-SFL. Teacher Development and Training Consultants hold functional responsibility for planning and implementing a range of learning opportunities that allow individual teachers, LU teams and wider communities of AU-SFL learning professionals to connect theory, practice and student learning outcomes; to solve educational and classroom-based problems; and make significant and meaningful decisions about teaching and student learning.

Teacher Development and Training Consultants manage and implement the on-going evaluation of AU-SFL’s orientation, in-house continuing professional development initiatives and external professional teacher learning partnerships so as to enhance the ability of individual teachers and LUs to meet the needs of students and realise the strategic learning and student success initiatives of AU-SFL.

Teacher Development and Training Consultants also function as leaders in their teaching duties and serve as role models for all LU staff. They demonstrate leadership by the way they manage the learning of their own students, maintain accurate and meaningful records, collaborate with teaching partners and develop themselves as learning professionals.

As a key member of the AU-SFL middle management structure, Teacher Development and Training Consultants also work closely with HLUs and other AU-SFL specialist units to provide leadership in establishing and maintaining an educational community of students and staff committed to performance improvement and life-long learning.