Ozge Karaoglu's Blog » blogging

Reflection 2011

ozge — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 10:23:30 +0000

As the seconds tick away and time marches on; New Year is a reflection time for me as well as celebration.

Here is a short list of my favourite posts this year:

A-Z Web Tools: A complete list up to K!

Homework Challange Through Technology

Homework:Jazz it up With Technology!

Tell Your Stories With Pictures

Digital Storytelling With Animation Tools

Digital Storytelling With Audio Tools

Tell Your Stories Through Writing

Tell Your Stories With Comic Strip Tools

Web Tools That Educators Should Have in the Bag

Hmm …QR Codes

Have a Wondrous year everyone!

Let’s Celebrate the Edublog Awards 2011

ozge — Sat, 19 Nov 2011 18:53:57 +0000

Here are my nominations for the 2011 Edublog Awards:

Best individual blog: A Journee in Language – Brad Patterson - a great blog that I do enjoy reading and looking forward to each new post!

Best individual tweeter : @shellterrell - Who can be better than her? No one in this century!!

Best group blog: Digital Play by Graham Stanley and Kyle Mawer – They bring so much new and exacting outlook to ELT!!

Best new blog: Box of Chocolates by Ceci – Not the newest blog as she has been blogging for more than a year, but she is a great treasure, check out her blog!

Best ed tech/resource sharing blog: Nik’s Learning Technology Blog by Nik Peachey – A great trainer, blogger with ideas that amaze everyone! He leads the way for us!

Best twitter hash tag: I love “edtech“ hash tag!!

Best free web tool: Very difficult as I have hundreds of favourites, but I would go for Vocaroo this year!

Best open PD/ unconference/webinar series: Reform Symposium – Getting better each year!

Best educational use of audio / video / visual and podcast: Breaking News English - by Sean Banville – I have never seen/met a more productive and a hard working ELT person! He deserves to be here more than anyone!!

Best educational wiki: Cool Tools for Teachers - The tools are cool and great to have them all together!

Lifetime Achievement: This one certainly goes to the Super Guru of ELT, I can not think of a conference without him in it, to Ken Wilson !

Now it’s your time!Go to edublog awards, write your nominations. Let’s celebrate and show our thanks to everyone who are doing a great job without being paid!

Everyone, good luck!

Back to Work

ozge — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 16:53:24 +0000

“There are only three questions in life: What do you want to do, why do you want to do it, with whom do you want to share it?” from the writing of a 16th century yogi …

A six week of summer holiday unplugged draws to an end and it is time to go back to work and blogging for me again. As I have been writing my very first post after a very long summer holiday away from blogging, please watch “Bubble and Pebble” cartoon that my kids drew, coloured, animated and dubbed their voices in English at the age of six.

Bubble and Pebble from ozge karaoglu on Vimeo.

10 + 10 Blogs that Worth Keeping an Eye on!

ozge — Sun, 16 May 2010 13:43:06 +0000

Wow and thanks to Ken Wilson, Shelly Terrell, Sean Banville ,Eva Büyüksimkesyan, Claudio Azevedo, Ana Maria Menesez ,Nicholas Provenzano, Leahn Stanhope, Ian James and Tamra Lanning for linking me on their “10 blogs worth keeping an eye on” list; presenting wonderful work on their blogs and inspiring me and others every single day!! I’m so lucky to have all of you on my PLN!

It’s very difficult to choose 10 blogs so I’ve created two different list of blogs.(Thanks to Shelly Terrell for the idea =)

Here is the first list of blogs in no particular order that I’ve subscribed recently. I’ve been learning a lot from those blog and really enjoy reading what they are doing:

Here is the second list of the blogs in no particular order that I’ve subscribed, read, inspired and learnt a lot at the beginning of my blogging adventure!

Now, it’s your turn to nominate if you are on the list!!

Add a picture and a link to the blog that has nominated you
Choose 10 blogs to nominate
Tell them that you have nominated them on your list
Spread the word & spread the love!!

Enjoy exploring those sites and stay online!!

How to Last Kindergarten 4Ever

ozge — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 10:48:41 +0000

”All I really need to know.. I learned in kindergarten.” (Robert Fulghum)

My mum was my kindergarten teacher and I remember playing games, singing and dancing with her. Those days have always been my favourite memories. That may be the reason why I’ve become an English teacher in kindergarten today.

I really love the idea of playing games,singing, dancing, interacting and learning with kids. It’s a great pleasure to be a part of their development process and being their very first English teacher. You should be patient,enthusiastic,fun loving and dedicated and should always keep in mind that what students learn and experience in kindergarten can shape their future and affect their success or their failure in later years.

Kindergarten students learn mainly playing games, singing songs, chanting rhymes, listening to stories or doing any kind of fun activities. It’s such a pleasure for me to see how much they can learn and produce with their limited language. You can watch this short animoto:

(You can read my guest post on Barbara Sakamoto’s blog about teaching in kindergarteners in Turkey.)

I have been using technology with my students in my lessons. When you consider kindergarten, it’s more difficult to integrate technology as my kids don’t know writing or reading. Fortunately, there are some tools that I can use in my classes such as Voicethread, Glogster, Voki, Pimpampum,BubbleJoy,Little Bird Tales, Animoto, slideshows, wikis.

I had seen other kindergarten blog examples in different countries and I had always the thought of having one and this year, the home room teacher of my age 6 class and I have started our first collaborative kindergarten blog ! I can proudly announce that this is the very first kindergarten blog in Turkey!

We are using both languages,Turkish and English. Home room teacher is writing in Turkish with her posts and I’m writing in English.We’re taking pictures, filming kids, using Web 2.0 tools, giving useful links and interacting with parents and our students. Parents also are very pleased about our blog. Some of them have already commented on some of the blog posts and thanking us for creating this blog.

Kids are also very happy and enthusiastic about our blog. They have learnt the address of the blog and they visit our blog often at home and talk about what they have seen on it. We’re also showing the blog once a week in our classes and we’re talking about the pictures and the activities they have done this week. It’s so funny to see their faces or watch their expressions when they see their pictures, hear their voices or watch their films.

What I realize is that blogging in kindergarten has also increased their attention, participation and involvement in my lessons because when they learn English, produce the language or participate in the activities, they know that they can be on the blog and others can see what they are doing at school. They are proud of themselves and I’m proud of them!