Classroom Environment

 

We, as teachers, are constantly in search of new teaching techniques to create a desire to learn in our students, then to make learning enjoyable and to ensure that the knowledge acquired during the learning process is placed in permanent memory. The search for new teaching techniques becomes imperative as we aim to enable the student to combine the knowledge he / she has acquired with previous knowledge, to establish connections between them and to apply them in their daily life. “In order to reap the benefits of quality education, there is little discussion and where to start for restructuring education in order to be quality, but for me it is necessary to start from the classroom. “The starting point for achieving this is the organization of the classroom environment. Making the classroom environment suitable depends on many factors. The place where the teacher tries to make the necessary changes in the behavior of the student in accordance with the general and specific aims of education is called the teaching environment. Teacher-student-educational tools and equipment interact with each other in this environment. Organization of this environment is under the responsibility of education administrators. When the educational environment is evaluated in the Turkish education system, a structure that is quite far from the modern education principles of especially public schools is encountered. The first reason for this is the crowded classes. According to the findings of educational science, it is definitely not possible to provide a healthy primary and secondary education in classes approaching students. In such an educational environment, if you assign the most qualified teacher and offer him all kinds of opportunities, you will not be efficient. The second reason is the inadequacy of educational tools (visual and auditory), which will facilitate the teacher's work and enable the student to have a more effective educational life. As one of the most wonderful inventions of our age, computer is not known enough by our teachers because it does not enter the teaching environment, so computer-aided education cannot be given. This situation slows down the learning process of the student.

Therefore, we should be able to use all opportunities for students and prepare the appropriate classroom environment.

Class Assessment For Prospective Teachers

 

Evaluation and Reflection

Assessment is an important part of teaching and learning. Assessment helps teachers and students set new goals through reflective thinking by determining what students know, understand and can do at different stages of the learning process. The results recorded as a result of the evaluations provide feedback to students, teachers and parents with the reports prepared. Regular evaluation of the program with the participation of teachers and school management contributes to the development of the program over time.

Many measurement and evaluation tools are used to measure what the student has learned and to direct their future development. Kindergarten and primary school students' activities are constantly monitored and observed. Every stage of the learning process is followed by pre-evaluation, process evaluation and result evaluation. Preliminary assessment; process assessment in determining the student's current knowledge, interest and learning style; Result evaluation in determining the incomplete learning that the learning process continues; It plays an important role in measuring what has been learned. In addition, students' understanding of a topic is evaluated with different assessment-evaluation tools and strategies such as rubrics, scorecards, checklists, entry-exit cards, brainstorming, mind maps, presentations, projects, observations. Irmak Schools tries to help students learn better by measuring their learning, informing students, teachers and parents about the learning situation of students and improving the curriculum. Information obtained from assessment and evaluation is shared with parents and students through parent information meetings, parent-teacher meetings, student-managed portfolio interviews and interim reports, development reports and inquiry unit reports.

While evaluating students, measurement results, students' participation in classroom activities, scientific attitudes and behaviors, observation, research-examination, scientific thinking, the wealth of ideas they have and exhibit, taking responsibility, their tendency to teamwork, sharing Knowledge and findings, and many other observational student activities can also be evaluated. is included. Parents are notified of the portfolio meeting times to be held at the kindergarten and primary school level. These interviews are an important process that the student shares with his family by reflecting what he has learned. Therefore, portfolio days and hours cannot be changed except for very important excuses (doctor report, out-of-town and business travel).

In my opinion, the most important thing is the feedback given to students after this portfolio and assignments. Thanks to these feedbacks, the student can clearly see his deficiencies and mistakes. Finds the opportunity to learn and develop the truth.

MİCRO TEACHİNG

 Micro teaching; It provides opportunities to help teachers demonstrate their basic teaching skills, learn about their performance and improve their teaching skills in a short time. In micro teaching, a less risky environment is provided where they can test their knowledge and skills used in teaching and develop them by getting feedback from experts before placing the teaching professions or prospective teachers in the complex structure of the real classroom environment. In this way, prospective teachers gain teaching experience.

The main purpose of micro-teaching is to “give it feedback to the students and peers and the experts” to develop the teaching methods used by the teacher candidates or teachers. Teacher can observe and comment on the points teacher needs to improve. Also, teaching profession is the profession required by public speaking and communication skills. Therefore, the use of teachers' clothing, appearance, diction, and body language are factors that affect student content, teaching method and teacher perception. Thus, these skills are developed with micro teaching method. 

Also, I prefer to evaluate rapport with students from peers' observations. I think it's one of the most useful feedbacks. Because first of all, communication and addressing with the students in the classroom are very important. Thanks to these feedbacks, the teacher candidate realizes his deficiencies in this subject and develops himself. The most accurate and easy learning takes place in a healthy classroom environment. Therefore, the approach of the teacher to the student is very important. I noticed the shortcomings in myself through micro teaching and I am trying to improve them. I had an experience in communicating with students in the classroom and this increased my self-confidence. In this way, I think I will have less difficulty in the real classroom environment. Therefore, the fact that your classmates or peers give feedback to you in cooperation with the teachers can have a negative effect as well as a positive criticism. Because feedback from your peers may not be objective. This situation may cause you to lose your self-confidence. Also, this situation may cause teacher candidates to feel insufficient in the real classroom environment.

To sum up, peers who observe should take note about the points to be given feedback without interfering with the teacher candidate by watching the live performance of the teacher candidate using the teaching method and examining in the video. In my opinion, the most sensitive point in this method is to be feedback neutral and sincere in criticism.

English Literature: Novel Analysis

   WOMEN`S ROLE IN THE  PRIDE AND PREJUDICE

 

In this post, I will examine the pride and prejudice novel and examine the role of women in society at that time.The author is considered among the first feminist writers of the period, but this is a controversial opinion. Even though the author questioned the equality between men and women between the lines, the ending of his works with happy "marriages" was tired by some groups that the author had nothing to do with feminism, but tells about the marriages he could not perform alone. Let's evaluate this interpretation by examining masculine literature and the historical process of the novel.

In the 1700s, literature continued to exist in the form of hymns, sermons, plays, poems and short stories. Novel and periodical publishing is based in the middle of this century. Considering that the famous work of Daniel Defoe, “Robinson Cruose”, which was the first novel in English literature, was published in 1719, it would not be wrong to say that prejudices to the genre of novel continued during the author's work. Although he did not fully reject his period, he interpreted the popular in his own way. This is a very important challenge when the current conditions are taken into consideration. Despite the waxing language used especially in poetry and games, Austen used a plain and fluent language and frequently used word games. It is considered to be the first British writer who can add the feelings of the character to the text as much as necessary and still retain the dominance of the text and use indirect narratives in his works in a broad sense. Even being able to shape the structure of the sentences according to the mood of the character is a success in itself. For example, Elizabeth's sentences, which refused Darcy, meant that she was briefly told in herself and was injured, continuing with curvature in an increasing tone.

 ``At the very beginning, or even at the very first moment I saw you, your attitudes made me believe that you were someone who was arrogant and selfishly mouthless to others' feelings, my anger was born like this and turned into a heavy discontent with the following events; It has never been a month of getting to know you that even if you were the last man in the world, I felt that no force could persuade me to marry you.

 Austen was the first woman to use humor in her works. While using it to overcome people and traditions he found stupid in his social environment like Elizabeth, he also brought ethical principles to this humor and drew attention to them.

 The position of the woman in the society, especially in the house until the 19th century, to be concerned with housework alone, especially with her emotional aspects, to be emphasized, to be deficient and weak, to be separate and distant from the outside world, the issues in the house are insignificant, the interests of men are important. For reasons such as impositions that there are issues, it is not possible to give women a strong role in the literature scene, and there is not even a space for them to write. We understand that the act of writing is considered a secret and special pleasure, as only the diary and the letter are popular among women. With the period, which is also called women's literature and started in the 1800s, female writers started to come to the fore. In the classical period texts, since the woman found herself as “missing and weak” and often “the source of evil”, it was not possible for the woman to find an infrastructure in which she could identify herself and explain her problems and awareness. Despite the masculine mentality that finds useless and unnecessary to make the woman's literature, considering the limited living space, and even fears that the balance of power may change against her; Women's literature, with the desire to appeal to the universal instead of addressing only the woman, attempted to distinguish from the masculine language under the influence of the male-dominated culture, discourse, subject, point of view and intellectual approaches. We can say that the publishing of the first works with male pseudonyms is a fear caused by the male dominant culture. Because many men who learn that their writers are women read and stop reading. Austen also signed his works as "A Lady" in order to preserve his reputation as women's engagement with literature is also shameful, yet we can think that he is brave, because his contemporary Brontë brothers, his first works with male names as "Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell" have published.

To give prejudices against women writers, writer Mark Twain said, “Any library without Jane Austen's books is a good library even if there are no other books in it,” Borges responded jokingly: “Ah Elizabeth, please Twain Don't take 's word seriously. I remembered; "It was too mediocre to be in the fourth-class writer category in Europe," Faulkner said for him. "

Until 1840-1880, female writers could only imitate male writers. Austen, in accordance with the conditions of the period, consciously avoided a womanly and emotional expression and a masculine style was adopted.

The most prominent feature of the language of the author is the social life of the era, which he ironically narrates with his simple and fluent language, based on love. In the 19th century, women addressed the inheritance of women as spouses and children, their inability to take part in society without marriage, the mistakes caused by their families and necessities when choosing a spouse, ignorant clerics who drank the wealthy, the soldiers who spent time in balls instead of fighting, the social class distinction and its strict limits.

English Literature: Novel Analysis

FRANKENSTEIN

 

Mary Shelley's novel Frankenstein was published on January 1, 1818. The Gothic stories that were first emerging are for the ruined castles, castles, monasteries, and spirits hidden passages and vast dense forests in the majestic medieval atmosphere. Evil, intrigue, violence, incest and rape are common themes. Until  Marry Shelly  wrote the novel Frankstein.

The novel describes the tragic relationship between medical student Victor Frankenstein and the freak creature he created. "We must first apply to death to investigate the source of life," said Dr.. Frankenstein was able to “give life to inanimate beings” after long studies. “I had to cross the border between life and death and shed a flood of light in our dark world. Frankenstein discovered the secret of life as a result of her experiments and decided to use it by creating a superior person as a result of her experiments. It brings together the corpse pieces collected from graves and slaughterhouses. And in the end, he creates the freak that is anonymous in the novel. (Contrary to what is known, Frankenstein is the name of the creator, not the creature.) In this book, the main hero is not a woman, nor is there an important woman victim. However, it is very difficult to find another work written by a woman in the history of literature that can be examined by taking into account the gender of the author. Considered as the first example of the genre called science fiction today, the work is mostly evaluated as a criticism of the ideology of Enlightenment and fear of the results of scientific developments during the 19th century.

However, there are different readings. For example, according to some, Frankenstein is a "birth myth" written because the author herself is already a mother. It is useful to know some important parts of Mary Shelley's life to read Frankenstein as myth of birth. Living her first pregnancy at the age of 16, Mary Shelley is almost always pregnant for the next five years; however, she is an unmarried mother who lost her babies a few months after birth. Under these conditions, the author begins to write Frankenstein. And it is a born monster.

It would make sense to look at the period Frankenstein was written to understand the relationship between women's literature and the experience of giving birth. In the 18th and 19th centuries (at least in the west), few important female writers had children, the majority were single or childless. Perhaps the more important reason was the difficulty of writing about women's experience at the time when women were not welcome to write. Mary Shelley was born in fiction with the story of a mad scientist who was a monster, who tried to create a human by locking himself in her laboratory, secretly and guilt, before all the writers, not with the realistic genre, but with the gothic genre.

The Romantic and Gothic tradition is the literature of heroes that go far beyond the boundaries: superpeople who go beyond normal human restrictions to resist the rules of society or violate God's rules. The heroine of Mary Shelley is different. Dr. Frankenstein's desire to go beyond the prohibited limits of science is not to prolong his own life, but to create a new person.

He stands for mortality not by living forever, but by creating a new person. This indicates a change that has not been seen from the ancient myths up to that time. Since its publication, literary critics have made numerous comments about Frankenstein, and many filmmakers, playwrights have been influenced by the novel. Despite the novel's idea and anonymity, its creature, named after the main character's name, was almost a phrase used to describe the dangers of scientific knowledge. It was also seen as an existential novel that tells the division between mind and emotion, an attack on traditions, a novel in which racist prejudices are criticized.

 

I think that a novel written 200 years ago is still in the focus of such lively discussions and open to countless comments can only be explained by the author's extraordinary intelligence and talent. Moreover, if we consider intelligent robots, cloned creatures and artificial intelligence discussions, it seems that it will continue to talk and write about Frankenstein for a longer time.

 

 

TWO MAIN CHARACTERS

VICTOR FRANKENSTEIN

Frankenstein was born in a wealthy family and grew up in love with his half-sister. He is intelligent, sensitive and obsessed with the secrets of life. The University of Ingoldstadt operates natural sciences. Professor M. Waldman encourages him to do his experiments in extraordinary science. Victor also works to create a body of necessary parts from the cemeteries. After long studies, he creates a creature and kidnaps it.

When he hears the story of the beast and the threat of killing him, he agrees to make him a female wife, provided that they live far from people. However, if he thinks there may be worse, it will break the body. He blames himself for the consequences of the monster's behavior, but he does not understand the monster's revenge and cannot take responsibility.

Although he learns of the beast's help to people in the hut, he is worried that the beast will harm others. Probe shows selfishness by asking Waldon's crew to continue their journey to kill the Monster without thinking about them.

Although Victor is selfish, he's not his family. They adopted an orphan girl. Victor does not undertake the responsibility of the Monster he created, and he does not admit his guilt that he knows that Justine does not commit the murder. Elizabeth, however, defends Justine without knowing the incident.

 

MONSTER

It is so ugly that it was created by Victor Frankenstein and is a mixture of parts of the human body that his creator could not look at the gall face. He was very sensitive initially and not selfish like Victor. However, thanks to the society, it gets worse over time. He tells that if he does not make a wife before Victor, he will harm his family, and if Victor does not, he will kill Victor's family. Then Victor goes to the North in pain when he dies, because his creator is also dead, he is now lonely. It gets worse because it feels lonely and excluded.

Educational Psychology : What are the effects of epidemic diseases such as corona virus on social behavior?

The corona epidemic causes psychological and behavioral problems as well as biological effects. Contagion is not only virus, but also extreme phobic reactions caused by social trauma, mental problems like depression, panic, paranoia, and destructive behaviors such as selfishness, aggression and stigmatization. People temporarily lose their moral values, such as kindness, common sense, empathy, and solidarity, in extraordinary situations, and turn into a selfish being that only thinks of itself. Therefore, the psychology created by outbreaks spreads much faster than the virus and even affects people who are not at risk of encountering the virus. In a sense, the viral pandemic brings with it a pandemic psychology.

One of the behaviors created by the epidemic is aggression and selfishness caused by fear of death. The tragicomic event of a South Korean person in Konya that is thought to be Chinese is not just an indication of ignorance but an example of aggression caused by fear of death. The frightened and selfish person wants to destroy the person who poses a risk for himself and to guarantee himself.

In addition, the necessity of staying at home due to the danger of illness affects people negatively. Social distancing comes from avoiding rechargeable people, crowds, partly to a concert, wedding or a meeting to avoid coronavirus capture or spread. It is not in vain to cancel the national and international meeting meetings, to play sports matches without audience! While doing this, it is aimed to put a certain distance between himself and others, which causes the risk of contamination caused by droplets. It is aimed to minimize exposure to infection or to expose others to infection. Social distancing involves leaving appropriate gaps between co-workers in the workplace as well as staying away from public places. When social distance is reduced to concrete, it can be expressed as not approaching people more than a meter.Avoiding behaviors such as handshaking, kissing and meeting anyone negatively affects social communication. There are many relationships and friendships that ended in this process. The value of life is better understood at such times. We take these shares in our social behavior and we have to change. People may have a tense attitude as the tolerance threshold is reduced.

During epidemics, patients are a victim, but also a carrier. Efforts to control the infectious disease outbreak can raise individual freedoms and violations of civil rights. In such practices, it is an ethical dilemma to recognize the individual liberty area based on basic rights, to respect his decision and to restrict his individual liberties with measures such as isolation and quarantine in order to prevent the spread of the disease by protecting the public interest. At this point, it is important to have a human rights-oriented approach on a democratic ground, and to restrict basic rights in line with the principles of necessity, proportionality and lawfulness.

Being an unknown disease factor, the state of being unprepared by medical authorities and the media misleading information can magnify psychological responses. Preventive and therapeutic strategies under fearful quarantine Medical medical disputes are among the factors that increase fear in society. When a correct policy is not followed in social colors, one of the consequences of fear is stigmatization. These are the physical symptoms of the disease, as well as the emergence of social consequences such as stigmatization in people who have the infection.

In epidemic cases, stigma may delay patients' admission to hospitals, thus early detection and treatment, and advance the spread of infection.

The stigma can be developed on the ground of discrimination and racism, and can also be directed towards a certain community or citizens of the country. For example, we have observed that along with coronavirus disease (COVID-19), racism against the Chinese has spread. This attitude was not limited to the Chinese, it soon became a discrimination and exclusion against Asians in different countries. It is also possible that this attitude becomes a tool of discrimination applied to certain communities. Among the factors that increase stigmatization, the role of media transfer of wrong information should not be forgotten. The fight against epidemics cannot be separated from the fight against stigma and discrimination. The epidemic passes and discrimination remains!

In this case, we must remain calm and manage ourselves well.    Because social life stops completely, psychological crisis may occur. People miss their friends and other family members, and this can lead to emotional crises. Because we are sensitive, we can do nervous and irritable behavior at home. We should keep our mood positive by talking about beautiful topics and listening to relaxing music in our conversations at home.

Individual Differences In Second Language Acquisition

 One of the most confusing and debatable issues in second language acquisition is the issue of individual differences that affect the success of mastering a L2. There is much evidence that all individuals without any mental disabilities can acquire their first language L1 successfully. Some of the  widely recognized differences which play an important role in the SLA are age, motivation, aptitude, personality traits, individual preferences in learning process, and others.
For example, research study on the effect of age on SLA shows that young students are more successful in SLA than older students. Students who are most successful in learning a foreign language due to the flexibility of the brain until the age of 10 make the natural learning process possible. Researchers note that young students can get good, native-like pronunciation. The second important individual difference affecting SLA is motivation. Motivation can be defined as a reason or incentive to perform certain tasks. Both teachers and students are aware of the importance of motivation in SLA. To sum up, there are several differences in this option, including the age, motivation and ability you have chosen for the success of SLA.