Ceyda Cengiz: Reflection 2

Reflection 2
I can easily say that Anaçev provided the students with a very good education. The kids did not spend anytime without doing anthing, and they were all very busy with doing something all the time. In addition to the time they spent in their classrooms, the kids had the chance to select special activities and improve themselves with the sport or kind of art they enjoyed doing. The kids had many options to choose. Tennis, piano and ballet were the most preferred ones. The students also played chess, and they had even competitions in which they could compete and show their skills. The boys generally preferred tennis while the girls liked ballet. The tennis and ballet courses were on Friday and lasted one and half an hour. There were also many competitions between the kids in the field of tennis. The ballet girls had a show at the end of the term, for which they had rehearsels every friday. Other than those, they had English classes on two days, wednesday and friday. The English teacher was a very friendly one, whom the kids liked very much. The English classes were very fun and colorful thanks to the creative and fun acitivities the English teacher provided the students. On Wednesday, the kids generally learnt English while they made their rehearsals for the end-of –the-term show on Friday. In theshow, each kid had a role, one was a banana, other butterfly, etc. ,they had their costumes and a few sentences to say in English. (I will provide the video of the kids making a rehearsal) Although the kids got prepared for this show on Fridays in the first few weeks, they changed it to Wednesday so that I could find the opportunity to see how English was taught to the kids, what activities the teacher prepared for them, and how they learnt English. It was clear to me that the English teacher knew how to teach to young learners. He was very friendly, and smiling but he also knew how and when to intervene. He had many creative activities that students liked very much. While learning English, the kids had fun. The teacher included many games, songs, and physical actions into his teaching English. He benefited from TPR, in which the kids spent all their energy and became active. With songs and games, the kids learnt unconsciously without being aware that they learn something. The teacher focused on vocabulary teaching, and taught the kids English vocabulary : colors, animals, fruits, etc. most of the time. Only grammar I saw him teaching may be the prepositions: in, on, under,etc. While teaching vocabulary, he generally used flashcards on which there were the pictures of the words, and he organized games with those flashcards. He asked the kids questions about the words, and it was very good to see that all the students were very attentive and comfortable to be the volunteer. It was obvious that they liked learning English. In addition to vocabulary, the kids also practised their listening skills. They had a tv room and they watched English cartoons there. (It was not on friday).One more thing that I want to point out is that the teacher did not make them to produce any language, or oblige them to speak. Therefore the kids learnt English in a stress-free way.