Professional development: Teacher Development Courses

I am a grade 8 English teacher from Terakki Foundation Schools. I feel privileged to work with a team who are very willing to innovate and collaborate with others to improve the level of education of our students. Teachers follow the latest trends in 21st century education and integrate technology into our classes. We all make use of Web.2.0 tools, follow international projects, competitions and teacher development opportunities.

Being on-going learners at heart and with the guidance from our language coordinator and department heads, my colleagues and I attend or take online or face-to-face teacher development courses, seminars and workshops. We have all had university training to teach languages but the fact is that knowledge isn’t effective without talent, experience and innovation, we all try to improve our teaching skills to boost our students’ performance in class.

We are also very lucky to  get support from organisations like the British Council which provides courses and workshops for language teachers like us. Since last year, many of us, including me, have attended the workshops which take place at the British Council Turkey premises in Istanbul. The workshops aren’t only given by teacher trainers working at the British Council, but by also teachers working at different schools in Istanbul. As a result, each workshop has a unique topic that is chosen according to current trends in language teaching and the needs of teachers. The topics of the workshops I have attended so far ranged from digital storytelling, to vocabulary, from testing and assessment to reading. They were all very informative and full of valuable tips and activities for teaching.

We all work hard during the week and have a lot of things to keep in mind. Spending an hour or so on professional development might sound like a burden, but it is a practical workshop, so it is very appealing. It is a hands-on event. We work, collaborate, discuss and have fun with teachers who work at different school in Istanbul. We learn while sharing our experiences with each other.

I would like to thank all the teachers and teacher trainees who have helped me broaden my horizons and given me wonderful ideas to use in my classes. They have proved to us one more time that sharing is caring.

Fulya Müldür Donnelly, English Teacher

Terakki Vakfı Özel Şişli Terakki Primary School

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