”ENGLISH LANGUAGE ACQUISITION WITH BLENDED LEARNING”

STAFF TRAINING AND TRANSNATIONAL MEETING

14^th-16^th November 2018 - ISKENDERUN TURKEY

”English Language Acqusition with Blended Learning” is a project realized with the financial support of the European Commission under the ERASMUS + Program, the action KA229 - strategic partnerships in the school field.

    The partner schools are:

• ·        Necmi Muammer Ortaokulu ( Turkey)
• ·        Iskenderun Cumhuriyet Anadolu Lisesi ( Turkey)
• ·        Ogres Valsts Gimnazija (Latvia)
• ·        Școala Gimnazială Nr. 1 Albești ( Romania)

      The project aims to increase motivation for learning English by creating a virtual classroom where students can work both at school and at home.

      On 14^th-16^th November 2018, the first ERASMUS + mobility took place at  ”Iskenderun Cumhuriyet Anadolu Lisesi” in the city of  Iskenderun in Turkey, being the first working meeting and the first teacher training meeting. This mobility was attended by teachers from all four of the partner schools. For 3 days, 13 teachers conducted learning, training and assessment activities, with the main goal of introducing ” Blended Learning and 21 Century Skills and Competences ”.

DAY 1
         

       We received a warm welcome from the school leadership and project partners at the ”Iskenderun Cumhuriyet Anadolu Lisesi” in the High school director's office. After I met teachers from partner schools on the project, we were handed  the schedule of activities and explained what we would do every day. The day included two training sessions on  ”Blended Learning and 21 Century Skills and Competences”.

         In the break between the two sessions of the first day we took part in a program commemorating the death of the founder of the Turkish Republic ”Ataturk”. The program was supported  by high school students.

         The afternoon continued with a visit to the "District National Education Directorate" where we were waited also with hospitality. After the visit we discovered several areas of the city and  went for a walk along the Mediterranean Sea. The day ended with  a dinner in town.

                                                                              DAY 2
     

  The second day began with a meeting of the teachers in the school- in the teachers’ room. We met all the teachers from the high school, a fairly large number, we  changed the impressions about school and school activities.

           

                A new training activity on the project was carried out, then we took part in some hours of the course of the day. We  saw several classes, where we had the opportunity to respond to the pupils' curiosities about each school involved in the project.There was a new project activity where every mobility that was to be held until the end of the project was discussed.The day continued with a visit to a private school.

         DAY 3

           

 On the last day of the training we carried out activities to assess of the days of activity after which the project was presented to the high school students, followed by handing in the certificates of participation at the training activity.

          In the afternoon we visited Antakya city, the ”Hatay Archaeology Museum”, which it is known for its extensive collection of Roman and Byzantine Era mosaics, and the Church of  "Saint Peter " which is composed of a cave carved into the mountain area on Mount Starius.

PROJECT DETAILS

ERASMUS+ KA229  PROJECT: ”ENGLISH LANGUAGE ACQUISITION WITH BLENDED LEARNING”

      Partners: 2 schools from Turkey, Latvia and Romania.

1. Necmi Muammer Ortaokulu-the coordinator, Turkey
2. İskenderun Cumhuriyet Anadolu Lisesi ( İ.C.A.L.)- Turkey
3. Ogres Valsts Gimnazija -Latvia
4. Școala Gimnazială Nr1 Albești- Romania

• Project Start Date: 08-10-2018
• Project Total Duration: 18 months
• Project End Date: 07-04-2020

The objectives of the project

• To establish a web page that contains a virtual classroom for English learners in all levels of participated schools by January 2018;
• To increase students' motivation for learning English inside and outside of school, with a web page that contains a virtual classroom;
• To enhance acquisition of English via combining different educational technologies (web-based training, film, audio, web 2 tools) face to face with instructor-guided practices by the end of eighteen months;
• To conduct European citizenship, intercultural communication, social cohesion etc. for our English teachers, who have been actively involved in the projects before and for the students;
• To be able to carry our target groups to the levels of foreign language teaching.( THE CEFR LEVELS-https://www.coe.int/en/web/common-european-framework-reference-languages/level-descriptions) accepted by the EU Council.

THE MOBILITY ACTIVITIES:

• Short -term joint staff training event-November/2018, Turkey;
• Short-term exchanges of groups of students - March/2019, Latvia;
• Short-term joint parents training event- June/2019, Romania;
• Short -term joint staff training event - September/2019, Latvia;
• Short-term exchanges of groups of students - April /2020, Turkey.

ENGLISH LANGUAGE ACQUISITION WITH BLENDED LEARNING

          The project  ”English Language Acquisition with Blended Learning”   is an international project sponsored by the EU. We are four schools in this project from Turkey two schools, Latvia and Romania. The project lasts for eighteen months. As the name says, the main themes of this project circle around different methods to teach English language by Education Technology. The key idea behind blended learning is that students have some control over time, pace, path, and place. Allowing students to take some control of their learning increases their motivation to learn and allows them the time needed to work through the material. 

      The project started on 8 October 2018 and it is going to finish on 7 April 2020. Every school launched the project in their institution in the first week. Our first transnational training activity for teachers will be in November in Iskenderun, Turkey.

Photos from the presentation of the project in schools

Necmi Muammer Ortaokulu School- Turkey

Albesti Gymnazium School-Romania