Final project for English Language teachers

Our teachers- AEPE students are actively involved in the process of preparation for the conference that will be organized in Jalal Abad city in September, 20-21. Teachers of English language from the South Region can participate their after submitting the application form. At the present time we have 262 applicants from Osh and Jalal Abad oblasts. Teachers from these regions are interested in participation and presentation of their thoughts, teaching experience, and future projects for the work. This is a great opportunity for teachers of English language to create a network with other colleagues, to listen to other presentations and share their teaching experience, and to be aware about the new methods of teaching at the lessons and at the extra-curricular activities. We think that such kind of the project will benefit other teachers and will improve and develop leadership skills of AEPE students. During 9th month of work with them, they could learn a lot, improve all of their skills, including speaking skills and to learn about the formats for presentations. This knowledge and skills will help them to present their topics about American culture in the best way. AEPE students are proposing to organize workshops for participants of the conference and to lead the conference in two days. They are going to prepare different resources, such as handouts, brochures, and etc which will be useful for participants at the conference. I can observe, as a lead teacher, how AEPE students in my group use laptops with access to the Internet in order to type and to send information. It is a big progress that shows improvement of their computer skills and knowledge of using technology. I am proud of that because this is a big achievement.

 The Conference for English language teachers will be organized by AEPE students from Jalal Abad and Osh oblasts as the final project enhancement activity for community. Our students are Ambassadors of English language to the community where they live and to others who are interested to learn and grow professionally as educators in Kyrgyzstan’s schools. 

Summer camp in Arslanbab

 The Summer camp in Arslanbob was organized from  6  to 11 of July, 2014 for AEPE students of Osh and Jalal Abad.
AEPE students of four groups from Osh and Jalal Abad, lead teachers, and coordinators met together to discuss the issues of teaching and learning. The sessions were organized from 8.45 to 21.00
We could have their morning exercises on the beautiful nature side,always different food and  team building activities through games, songs, dances, and talent show.
At the first day the program starts with the orientation session about the goals and objectives of the training. This training will be helpful to organize a final project work and to work in small and collaborative groups in order to organize working groups which will be responsible for different tasks to organize a big final project.
Ice breaking and group formation activities allowed our students to know each other better and to ask questions about the personal and school life.

At the session " lesson planning", students could analyze the main elements of the lesson plan and discussed  the process of lesson planning.  Three groups of teachers: enablers; explainers; and involvers were introduced to partcipants and they discussed their roles and functions at the school.

AEPE students reviewed the information about the learning styles and proposed recomendations to each other to use the knowledge about it in the work.
At the same time, it was a short time to organize  team bulding activities, such as morning exercise, games at the end of the day,trip to the Waterfall, etc. Students partcipated very actively.
                       



A beautiful nature side, a fresh air,and an exciting time to learn together contributed to a learning environmnet in the educational and leadership process of conducting a strong team of teachers

Day2

The main aspects of discsussion for the day were: presenting and practicing vocabulary; teaching grammar creatively; classroom management; using songs and chants; and a  final project discussion. In the evening students prepared for the lesson  demonstration.Trainers used different approaches of work, such as demonstrative lessons for participants that they discussed, games,  songs, etc. AEPE students could work individually, in pairs, and in small groups.
In the game  "Scavenger hunt" all students presented creative work and team spirit.

Day3

 The day was started with the Flashmob for morning exercise.
The sessions were  interesting for students and productive, such as discussion and practicing ideas about  Teaching Receptive skills; Listening and Reading; Using video in Language Learning; Using Graphic Organizers in the English Classroom;and a Final project discussion. Students discussed the listening and reading  difficulties and where we as teachers have to pay attention to. At the demo lesson "Dreams", trainers used several activities to listen, read, and to work with the text. They could analyze the role of the reading and listening for the learners, and challenges in the process of teaching and learning. It was very interesting to practice with watching video clips to answer to the series of questions about them. Through the comprehensive tasks  students  worked with the texts and discussed videos.
Many of our students have used graphic organizers in their teaching practice but they have never analyzed and compared the similarities and differences between them. Trainers used  Jigzaw as the  method to introduce, share, compare, and analyze information.
 Demo lesson preparation is a session where students continued their work in small groups to design a lesson that combines intrdouction of  American culture in English language teaching.
We will never forget a wonderful trip to the small  Waterfall!!! We climbed the hills; bought a lot of souvenirs and  kurtaps which were eaten on the way to the top of the mountain; and  could take a lot of beautiful and unforgetable pictures!

Day4

In the program were several  questions for discussion, such as "Encouraging Speaking with Teens; Effective Oral and Written Correction; Creative Writing". AEPE students had enough time to prepare for  Demo lesson and participate in different  team building activities, such as American Sports and Games.
Teachers reflected on their teaching expereince, on their methodology and the value of each skills for students. Speaking activities that were organized through the different games were accepted by teachers with a great enthusiasm and curiosity in each step of organizing them.  Provocative questions, such as "How do you feel when you make mistakes in your speech? and How do your students feel when they make mistakes in their speech?" were given to teachers and they could think deeper about this problem and the solutions to them.
Agreement and disagreement were productive  elements of discussion about different topics.

Day5

Trainers presented a session about Mobile Learning through the questions and answers.  It was very interesting, because students could use at the lesson  their mobile phones and to conduct a dialogue in pairs. Teachers can plan such lessons at their schools.  Finally,  AEPE students  presented their demo lessons that they prepared  during the training. In each team were three teachers and they had to demonstrate a team work, interactive methods of work, and strategies/activities that they have learned through the training. All lessons were prepared very well and teachers demonstrated creativity and a big enthusiasm in preparation and presentation.
 Feedback was given by the director of ACCELS and by the trainers of the training. Students have  learned through the feedback and will improve their workshop for the final project.

     

We are looking forward to a final project and our classes !

CATEC- Central Asian Teachers of English Conference 2014

9th Annual Central Asian Teachers of English conference was organized in June 21-22 in Dushanbe, Tajikistan. American Councils supported my travelling and other expenses. A team from Kyrgyzstan presented their topics through the workshops, poster-presentation, and talk for Fellows from the USA and teachers from Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, and Tajikistan. All of the sessions were very interesting for us, but there is a practice to choose a session for your interest from several that are conducted at the same time. If I had a chance I would visit all of those sessions, but they were at the same time. Thus, I only could participate at some workshops, such as  "Power Point as a Tool for Teaching Grammar", "Alternative Needs Assessments: Learning What Interests and Motivates Your Students", "Project-Based Learning», «Using Cell phones in Speaking Lessons", "Raising Learner Motivation and Improving Target Grammar Structures through Videos", "Fashion in Kyrgyzstan-How to teach reading and vocabulary using Authentic materials", "Planning Cross Curricular Lessons", "Teaching Vocabulary to Young Learners", "Using America Songs in Teaching English to Young Learners", "Using Jokes in the Language classroom to Motivate Students", "Teaching Vocabulary through Communicative Methodology in the EFL classroom", etc... Only the themes

of these workshops tell a lot....! I have learned from these workshops and have gotten new information about the research work, the presentation itself, the use of mobile phone at the lesson. All of these topics helped me to revise many aspects that I knew before, but to look on them with new perspective. Our coordinator from US Embassy in Kyrgyzsan, Djumanalieva Natalia helped us in orientation and participated at all our workshops, giving us positive emotions and a great support.

I also organized a workshop on the topic “Formative and Summative Assessment in Teaching: Use of Technology”. Through this workshop we could analyze the difference between traditional and alternative assessment and their role in the learning process. We spoke about the alignments of goals, objectives, and instructional strategies of assessment, and demonstration of students’ achievements through the summative form of assessment.

I presented my experience of work by using technology (using blogs, e-mails, PPTs, etc.) for the best way to help and encourage students in their learning process and to assess them by the formative and summative assessment. I could share my experience of work with AEPE students and present the blog that helps us to publish our ideas, success, and teaching practice. All of participants at the workshop were interested in the topic and participated actively in discussion and in a group work.

  The time schedule was organized very well and the conference was from the early morning to late evening. Cultural night followed after the session was beautiful and full of national songs and dances. Souvenirs that were given to each other were wonderful and unforgettable. Official meeting with the US Ambassador at the next night was organized at the Serena Hotel. Speeches, jazz band with a lovely music, and a buffet for dinner made the evening fantastic. Uncountable photo-sessions from all participants were all time and it gave us a lot of memory about this unbelievable event. Dushanbe in the evening is a beautiful as well as in a day time, and our walk after the official meeting gave us a wonderful impression about this city.

I could find new friends from each country and could know better the teachers of English from my country, Kyrgyzstan. I’ve gained new knowledge that I will use in my teaching practice and share with students of AEPE program (teachers of English), young learners,and  with  other teachers.

Work in June

At this month, we continued our work and studying .We used our "Student file Book" and other handouts for classes and discussed different topics such as "A party animal", "What makes you feel good?", "Sport activities". We used a video-file to improve students' listening skills and to speak about the information "At the department store".  The main objectives of the classroom work were: 

• revise  grammar -the use of infinitive form (to+ verb)
• describe the cultural similarities and differences between  the parties in USA and Kyrgyzstan
• describe what does it mean to be polite
•  learn some rules about the gerund (verb+ ing) and to use it by their examples
• use correctly verbs followed by-ing
• revise buying clothes, and learn expressions for taking things back to a shop.
• learn how to use " Have to, don’t have to, must, and mustn’t" 
• use a verb+ preposition to express movement. Vocabulary focuses: prepositions of movement and words related to sport.
• plan  Project enhancement activities
• revise the lesson plans and to prepare for the presentation  

Photo presentation and demo lesson presentation were organized in  Osh Regional Library. Students of My group (Nazgul, Malika, Mirgul, Kanykei, Irasagul) presented their work through the published materials with the stories of successes, lesson plans, and objectives of the work for our group. Irasagul and Mirgul presented their lessons as their lessons were chosen from the group as the best ones. Teachers from four groups (Osh and Jalal Abad) of AEPE program could share their teaching experience through the lesson presentation. They could learn about new activities for them and to discuss the ways to improve such lessons. All of them participated actively in this event, as it was very useful for all of them.

The training “American studies” motivated my students to learn more about American history, culture, education, holidays, famous people, music, and food. Training was organized by the Director of ACCELS Ms. Rebecca and Peace Corps volunteers.  Students have learned about different genres of the music and could identify and differentiate different many of them while they listened to them. AEPE students actively worked in groups and prepared American salads: fruit salad, Potato salad, Macaroni salad, and so on… It was a great fun, as everyone could try each of them and enjoy the way of preparation salads together, in groups. Through all of sessions, group work, and presentations students have got new information, worked in one team, found friends- teachers from different groups, and improved their English language skills.

AEPE  student , Ms. Ainagul organized a demo lesson that proposed for the project work with lesson plans. Students have learned the construction of direct and indirect speeches and practiced it by using the text and different handouts. Students (Malika, Irasagul,  Kanykei, and Nazgul) observed the lesson and organized a round table to give a constructive  feedback . Lesson plan is attached in the previous post.

The proposal for the whole Project work is to teach about Kyrgyz culture, education, fashion, food, music, and etc. through the small projects for participants-students from different faculties of Osh city. 

In the Project enhancement activity, students of my group presented different genres of music (information that they have learned at the training) and folk Kyrgyz music as well as dance Kara Jorgo. Students organized a flash- mob where participants could learn about music and dance the Kyrgyz dance. All of the following activities engaged participants into the active discussion and participation. They were happy to be there and to learn a lot!

All of our activities motivate AEPE students to change their style of teaching, to learn more, and to use into their teaching practice new ideas and knowledge from AEPE program.

Work in May and the result of the work

   In May according to the plan we conducted 12 lessons, organized project enhancement activity, and conducted two demo lessons for AEPE students of our group.

 In classes we discussed with AEPE students the lesson plan format and they wrote the same lesson according to the Phase1 and Phase2. Students gave peer-feedback to each, they self-assessed their lesson and they got a feedback from their lead teacher. Director of ACCELS Rebecca and coordinator observed our classes and gave some recommendations on the process of work. Not everyone could cope with this task but most of the teachers rewrote the lesson for phase 2.  The best results have gotten our students-teachers Mirgul, Irasagul, and Malika. Mirgul and Irasagul presented the lesson plan at the presentation in Osh Regional library. Five  students  from our group were there as  participants (Kanykei, Irasagul, Mirgul, Nazgul, and Malika).Teachers- delegates from other groups also participated  in this activity and lead teachers met to observe and assess the lessons and discuss the future plans. Other teachers were participants at their lessons and participated very actively. Lead teachers from Osh and Jalal Abad assessed their presentations and gave some comments to improve this lesson in the future. It was very useful exercise and eight teachers from Osh and Jalal Abad presented their demo lessons. Teachers could learn more about each other and share their opinion on conducting activities at the lessons. At the same time, it was a photo presentation from 4 groups where AEPE students-teachers could share what they did according to the program. Photo of each AEPE student at the lesson from my group; with other classmates at the lesson of AEPE program; with their students at the school or University were presented by PPT presentation. This photo presentation demonstrates the work of students at our classes, their involvement into the project enhancement activities, and their teaching and implementation of the activities in their classrooms at their schools or Universities.  The slides are presented in this post.

     Our students continue improve their speeches and at this time we have worked with the project #5 with the main objective to improve their body language.   All students presented their different topics and it improves their speech organization and generally presentation. We discussed the strategies of work to develop writing skills of the students at the lesson, pre-activity, while-activity, and post activity in different scenario. It helps them understand better the process of organization reading activity and engage their students into this process. Two teachers- Mirgul and Irasagul started their 6^th project for speech presentation (vocal variety) when they presented their lesson for other teachers in the Library.

     
    Two AEPE students- Kanykei and Irasgul organized demo lesson at the school and other AEPE students and a lead teacher could come, observe, and talk through the constructive and positive feedback that helps teachers to analyze the problems, challenges, and success at the lesson. This is a practical work and implementation of the program into the real life and it shows the result of our work that affects our AEPE students.

     

      Students planned and organized very interesting project enhancement activity for 24 students of three faculties. The topic was “The national clothes- ancient and modern one”. Students were interested to discuss   it and AEPE students presented through different activities and sessions information about it. Feedback after the event was useful for AEPE students, because a lead teacher and other AEPE students could share their thoughts and opinion on the organized event.

All of these activities require time and a lot of efforts and
 only hard working teachers-AEPE students and teachers who eager for their professional development can pass this entire exam” during 9 months of our program.
Some materials to share:

 1. A lesson plan of Irasagul can be found and download at this link: https://www.dropbox.com/s/t3o87q0m6n81mjl/Lesson%20planRasagul.doc?n=120987772
2. A lesson plan of Mirgul can be found and download at this link:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/udussws6eo6dt0q/Mirgul.doc?n=120987772
3. A lesson plan was written by Malika
https://www.dropbox.com/s/g2x54zwv5cvzbxm/Abdikarimova%20Malika.doc?n=120987772
4. A lesson plan was written by Kanykei
 https://www.dropbox.com/s/66vhf13zdu1nje6/Lesson%20plan%20Kanykei.doc?n=120987772
5. A lesson plan was written by Murod
https://www.dropbox.com/s/vlt6zmffqr7zqdu/Lesson%20planMurod.doc?n=120987772
6. A lesson plan was written by Nazgul
https://www.dropbox.com/s/02o30xqp4zfee6b/Omuralieva%20Nazgul.doc?n=120987772
7. A lesson plan was written by Asel
https://www.dropbox.com/s/npqqar4n1nlau12/Asel%20Lesson%20plan.doc?n=120987772
8. A lesson plan was written by Ainagul
https://www.dropbox.com/s/y6z3db0ncvbgad8/lesson%20plan%20ainagul.doc?n=120987772
9. A lesson plan was written by  Gulnora
https://www.dropbox.com/s/rdwdsg2ug0cpjd9/Lesson%20Plan.Gulnoradoc.doc?n=120987772

Photo slide to share: http://www.photosnack.com/deryabki/pdzmyk99#
A short video link: http://animoto.com/play/Td5KcHB77h7lBJ0wEIdEOQ
A group work  publication  https://www.dropbox.com/s/o9lznk3orw8n3nq/group.pub?n=120987772

Work with AEPE students in April

         During this month, we could organize 12 lessons for AEPE students and a meeting in Native Speaker Club. Our students presented two demonstrative lessons and project enhancement activity.http://animoto.com/play/Td5KcHB77h7lBJ0wEIdEOQ

AEPE students continue their learning process and develop their knowledge and skills. They prepared individually to present their teaching philosophy(see the previous post), their work in the classroom, and their perspective future plans at schools/Universities.  Students presenting their speeches achieved the fulfillment of the 3 project in speeches “Get to the point” and they did it successfully. AEPE students  began to think  about their 

ways of teaching for students with different learning styles   and this process is very important for me as for facilitator as I want to know  what are my students’ thoughts on their teaching, in order to motivate and help them to learn more. At our classes we are using “New English file” book and other resources to improve grammar and vocabulary. 

Coordinator of the program supported in getting access to computer lab with access to Internet at the Faculty. AEPE students created their 

e-mail account and a blog page. My Students need a support in order to learn better to use sites here they can work on blogs and publish their posts, write comments to each other, and as the result to create   a teaching e-portfolio.  They can use this portfolio in their future work, and present their work at their working places.  At this month, I could present to my students ABCD method to write objectives and we discussed in details the lesson format with the series of activities that are appropriate to different levels of Bloom’s taxonomy.  Students on practice presented such activities or one lesson and reflected on all of them through the prism of Six Hats De Bono.

Demonstrative lessons allow all AEPE students to learn on practice, analyze and reflect through the feedback after the lesson on the activities organized for students and on preparation and organization of the lesson by the teacher. At this month it was a turn for Aselya and Malika. Aselya presented the topic “Healthy and unhealthy food” for 7^th grade students at school #52.  Students divided food on different categories: fruits, vegetables, drinks and discussed the type of food that is beneficial for people and harmful. Students were involved actively into discussion, conducted short dialogues, and guessed words in the puzzle.  

 Together with AEPE students we also observed the lesson “Importance of money in our life” that was prepared by Malika for the 1^st -level students at Business and Management Faculty.  Discussions, sharing ideas through the group work, matching currencies, true and false activity were very interesting for students there. Positive learning environment and student-centered approaches of work were motivating for students to participate actively and to learn with enthusiasm.

It gets to be “a tradition” at our program to make in input into community and AEPE students could organize an interesting Project Enhancement activity for students of different faculties. The topic for discussion was about the importance of money in our life.   All students took a turn to organize sessions during the project. They presented ideas through the PPT, playing with students in the economical game-auction, and discussing the topic on different questions associated with this topic.

At the Native Speaker Club, Paula presented very interesting and actual for our days topic “Resume and CV”. Students could compare and contrast them, and to learn more about writing Resume.  

 Of course, we know that there are so many points that we have to “polish” through the program:  students  of AEPE program have to learn better about organization of activities at the lesson; give instructions to the students; present PPT by using rules for presentation; etc. We like the most that we become to be a good team of teachers who shared their learning and teaching experience to improve our studying and work.Our next plans looks ambitious with the wishes to organize a photo contest, to present the most interesting demonstrative lessons; to create teachers' e-portolio on blogs, and so on.... and we hope that the dream comes true!

Poster-presentation about teaching philosophy

    At the lesson I  presented ideas about teching philosophy  to AEPE students of my group and  during one month they analyzed their learning style and learning styles of their students in pilot groups, and thought about their teaching philosophy. Through the poster presentation, they shared their ideas and thoughts on this topic.Many of them didn't  think about it at all and have never discussed it with other teachers. Teachers took interview in small groups, made an inquiry in their classroom, and analyzed their roles as teachers, their mission and vision in teaching students. This activity develop our students' critical thinking skills and I am as a teacher have learnt more about my students' thoughts, their challenges in teaching, and their future plans. It will help me to construct the program according to their students' needs and interests.

"I learnt today from Gulnara's presentation to concretisize my presentation because "Teaching philosophy is really a wide topic, wide aspect of our life, it's our profession and it's really big. I like experiments I held with my students, their philosophies. It's fruitful that I know their learning styles and I can change my lessons according to their learning styles. At next time I want to present the results of  my lessons with changes. Then, I think our students-flowers will blossom better and there will be more great people, ministries, ambassadors, as I expect from my students, according to my teaching phiosophy."

Ainagul Bekkeldieva.

"I like in my presentation the point about interactive ways of teaching and about generation. My speech was presented logically with introduction, body, and a conclusion. I have learned from Ainagul's presentation that it's important to present student's work. I have caught  the main idea   of her teaching philosophy .In the future presentation  I will pay attention to my students' future work. I will think deeper about my mission."                                                                                                                                       Malika

"I think that my presentation was clear for all participants. I could shae my teaching philosophy with them. I could answer to all questions of our teachers. Next presentation will be better. I could take more approaches of work rom my groupmates. They also presented own ideas and teaching methods, how to imagine and to compare learning styles. All of presenters demonstrated creativity in poster paper and in presentation."                                                                            Hamdamova Gulnora

"I got a lot of new for me ideas about teching. As a eacher I should think about student's motivation. First of all to enrich student's knowledge we have to raise their interests in learning. Teachers should carefully plan lessons. Through this presentation I could share my opinion and think about my teaching."                                                  Kanykey

"I am as a student learning more about myself, and than about my role as a teacher".

I liked that I could explain every photo that I posted
and that I could share my ideas about my world to others. From Ms.Irasagul’s
presentation I got that presentation might look like simple and not
understandable when you see it at the first time but after explanation of it,
you understand the deep meaning of it. Don't hurry up by giving evaluation or
taking a decision.

 Probably I would like to change a theme of my
presentation because I felt a shame that my theme of presentation was different
(I was confused). Also extremely I felt that I don't have my own point of view
in one-two words, and I suffered from lack of words. I would like to change it
and to write my own ideas                                                                                                                         Murod

"I presented my ideas about my teaching philosophy, but the best expereince  for me was to  listen to others. I agree that we have to think about our learners because they need our help and support. In my presentation  had to involve my groupmates into converstaion or interactive discussion."              Nazgul

"I like my presentation becaue poster itself is philosophical: we can't live without air, water, and fire and we can't live without learning or knowledge.I lernt from others that teacher should know first of all about own teaching philosophy, and should know more about students' philosophy too. For the next time, I will try to present the topic with attention to the students' philoophy: what do they learn, what are they doing now?are they satisfied with my teaching, etc. shall I have better knowledge to prepare to the lessons in more creative and effective way. I will take in consideration all of these points."

Irasagul Zainidinova

Asel

"Every person is unique, so all of ours students prepared and presented their posters differently the first. As in proverb says: "Many men, many minds". I liked all posters of my groupmates. They learned that we are in a team., for example: Nazgul's tree; Malika's flower; Ainagul's sun  with flowers;Irasagul's Earth have so many common in teaching. I could take some ideas about my groupmates' teaching phlosophy, their styles and methods of teaching, activities that they use in the classroom. their own learning styles and of course their students' too. At the same tim, I have learned some ideas of poster presentation."

Mirgul