LAST WEEK

Hi fellows, this is our last week of blogging and end of this semester. This week we read a short story named Eveline. It was about a miserable girl fighting with the hard life and living too much inner conflicts. This week we didn’do so much things, but because of our exams I studied. Unfortunately it was a bit stressful but it’s over… This is my last reflection and I want to say something about all this semester. I had a very beneficial year but a bit tiring naturally. Everything was very nice despite the exhaustion. Firstly, I want to thank Mrs. Gültekin to provide us such an experience, it was really fantastic and different for me. I’m planning to carry on with blogging and contact with my friend with this way, if they also go on blogging.I also thank my other teacher Mrs. Ekizler and Miss Anderson, we got lots of things thanks to their experiences and the things that they learnt us. I also want to thank for understanding of Mrs. Gültekin. Despite our shortcomings, she carried on teaching patiently. I will miss my teachers and friends in holiday. Have a nice holiday…
Take care… :)

MORE EAGER STUDENTS

Education is a very crucial issue for people all over the life. Education is so important that from the primary school to the college, courses must be given the necessary importance. I’m a university student now and I had lots of courses that I didn’t want and had difficulty at high school. Even though I’m at the department that I aim at, the courses that I didn’t want to study really compelled me at high school. Although many people think that students should study the courses which are at thefixed curriculum, I think that students should study the courses that they want to study.
Opponents who think that students shouldn’t be allowed study the courses they want argue that students should study the fixed curriculum of the school. They say so, because they think that students may be lack of some issues, if they don’t bound to study the courses. To some extent they’re right. However, the unwanted courses can lead to reluctance and after a while they start to have difficulty in the other courses they like also. For example, I remember a friend from my high school , she was very hardworking but in the literature lesson she was always reluctant. After a while, her exam results showed a decrease. I thought that it was because of the unwillingness because of the course she didn’t like. Therefore, students should be allowed study the courses they want to study.
Some people who oppose to the idea maintain that students may be irresponsible for the lessons, if they are allowed study the courses they want to study. For example, if the students suppose that they have already enough information about the courses, they think that it’s not necessary to study the lessons before exams. I must admit that to a certain extent , they’re right. However, if they don’t allow study the courses they want , this can lead to prejudice against the issues about some courses.Even if they may feel an interest in issues about the courses, because of the compulsion for the courses, they have prejudice against the courses. Hence, courses shouldn’t be a compulsory for students.
People who are against the idea still assert that students may have difficulty in some issues at college in the future, if they get free for choosing the courses.They think that this can be hindered by forcing to study the courses that they don’t want. On the contrary, they’re wrong. There are many students who reluctantly study a department at college. Furthermore, students are limited for the departments at college, as they are bound to choosea section at high school.So they can’t decide exactly which department is most suitable to them.In addition, after graduation they may have a job that they aren’t enthusiastic.Therefore, it’s not logical to set a limit for students by obliged them to study the courses that they didn’t want.
Consequently, high schools should allow students to study the courses that students want to study. It’s more reasonable to make some courses optional instead of forcing to study. Teacher should be more careful about if the children really grab subjects . If high school allow students to study the courses they want to study, the prejudice and the reluctance against study is prevented. The most important point is that after graduation from college more students will be more earnest for their job. For all these reasons, to not put obstacles into students way by forcing to study courses of the fixed curriculum is the most sensible idea.

TYPES OF ENVIRONMENTAL POLLUTION

Environmental pollution has become a major issue over the years. It has caused death, disease, and many health problems. It is a major concern of our world today and not much is being done to prevent it. Environmental pollution is an increasingly serious problem so needs to be taken care as soon as possible. We can classify this topic in three main types: air, water and soil.
Firstly, the air pollution emanates from several factors.The two main sources of air pollutants are transportation (predominantly automobiles) and fuel combustion in stationary sources, including residential, commercial, and industrial heating. Motor vehicles produce high levels of carbon monoxides and a major source of hydrocarbons and nitrogen oxides.These chemicals give harm to our health by polluting the air. This pollution type can be prevented by walking, bicycling, and using mass transit as much as possible. Buying only energy efficient appliances, recycling newspapers, aluminum, and other materials and planting trees are other things to do.
The second type of pollution is water pollution. Water is undoubtedly the most precious natural resource that exists on our planet. Although we as humans recognize this fact, we disregard it by polluting our rivers, lakes, and oceans. Petroleum, radioactive substances can be examples for this type of pollution. Petroleum often pollutes waterbodies in the form of oil, resulting from oil spills.Secondly, radioactive substances are produced in the form of waste from nuclear power plants, and from the industrial, medical, and scientific use of radioactive materials.When our rivers, lakes, and oceans are polluted by such kinds of things the living creatures also suffer from it and so our ecological balance begin to destroy.
The third type of pollution is the soil pollution a result of many activities done by mankind.We can list lots of reason for this pollution in order.However, industrial wastes, such as harmful gases and chemicals, agricultural pesticides, fertilizers and insecticides are the most important causes of soil pollution.Although numerous attempts are being made to decontaminate polluted soils none of these is ideal for remediating contaminated.
Air,water and soil pollution have both common and seperate costs. All these types of pollution come together and affect not only people but also damage the ecological system. If we don’t take serios and care for our world every passing day we begin to lose our world and our health so we must be aware of the cautions as much as possible.

The 12th Week

We made group work in this writing lesson this week with Meryem and Dilara. It was about learning foreign language as you can see on my blog and we wrote it with argumantative essay type.Mrs. Ekizler gave us homework about American and Turkish jokes last week. Duygu, Ceyhan and I wrote an essay about jokes using appendix and presented our homework to the class. In reading lesson our topic was ‘The Diary of Adam’. We discussed the short story in class and analyzed it with Mrs. Gültekin. Then we went to Ms. Anderson ‘s conference, the conference had very benefical information for us. We didn’t have class on Friday because Ms. Anderson went for a conference to another city. That’s all for this week…

LEARNING FOREIGN LANGUAGE

Language ,is a common way that helps someone to express oneself in best way.As we know,language has an important role in our lives ,especially in child ages.Language has such a different structure that the best way for learning a foreign language is when we are child .Although many people think that learning a foreign language in young ages affects children negetively we think that these ages for learning a foreign language are the most effective periods.
Opponents ,who think that learning a foreign language in young ages is harmful for children argue that our children should learn firstly mother-tongue.They put forward this idea ,because they think that learning a foreign language can be a handicap to learn their own language .To some extent they may be right.However ,if we don’t give our children foreign language skills ,it will be too late to learn a foreign language in the future .In addition,the language that is learn in young ages will be permanent .Thus ,we should let our children learn a foreign language in young ages.
Some people who are against learning a foreign language in young ages also maintain that if their children learn foreign languages this can affect their performance that is in the other lessons in a bad way .Because ,they are already in trouble with the other lessons .They think so because ,it is logical that they should take primarily their main courses.To a certain extent ,they are right.On the other hand,it will be a preparation that they learn a foreign language beside their main courses.Moreover ,facing with a different language adds some excitements to their lives .Hence ,it is rational that children should learn a foreign language in young ages.
Opponents ,who are against learning a foreign language in young ages still assert that children shouldn’t learn foreign language in young ages .They think that languages are unneccessary things so their children learn numerical lessons such as maths and science instead of languages .On the contrary ,they are wrong languages take places in globalization ,so they don’t have trouble with their daily lives and it will contribute to their future jobs if they learn a foreign language in young ages.Furthermore ,it will be easier that putting extra things over the thing that is already laid foundation in young ages.Thus,it is important to learn a foreign language in young ages.
To sum up ,children should learn a foreign language in young ages,because it has many benefical aspects.One of them is that it will be late to learn a foreign language in young ages for children .The other is that it will be a preparation for future ages .Finally it will contribute to children’s future jobs,so the language learnt it young ages is permanent during the whole life.

(meryem,merve,dilara)

The 11th Week

We started this week with argumantative essay. Ms. Gültekin brought us some argumantative essay examples. We studied on them. In grammer lesson it was my turn to make the presentation. My subject was Relative Clause, Ms. Ekizler liked my presentation fortunately. Also we showed our advertisement this week. I liked all the advertisement. Although ours was a bit dissatisfying for me Ms. Ekizler liked it because of our efforts. We watched a movie with Ms. Anderson. The Groundhog Day… It was a bit boring form e because almost all the scenes are the same. This week was very tiring as I predicted. I hope I can have a good rest at the weekend.

The 10th Week

This week past fastly again. On Monday we finished our last topic called adolescense. In our grammer lesson there were grammer presentation again. My presentation will be the next week and I’ m excited about it. Furthermore we had reading exam that wek. It was hard but I tried to do my best. I hope I can get high grade. Meanwhile we worked on advertisement with Duygu and Ceyhan. Next week we’ll watch all of the advertisement. I think the next week will be more tiring for me because of both my grammer presentation and advertisemet…

The 9th Week

This week was exhausting again, because we had two hard exams. Firstly, we went on cause and effect essay in our writing lesson. Mrs. Gültekin wanted us to write an cause/effect essay about Marmara Earthquake in 1999 as group work. Dilara Ufuk and I wrote together and our teacher liked it vey much. As to reading lesson we started a new topic about adolescense. Thanks to that topic we learnt new words about adolescense; early blooming, growth spurt… Finally, we had grammar and listening exams. Grammar exam was good but I had difficulty in listening exam. I hope I can get good grades…

The 8th Week

After having a rest for a week, I had difficulty in adjust lessons and unfortunately didn’t go to school for a week. However I learnt the things that I missed for that week and studied for them. Cause and effect essay was examined in detailed way. My friends wrote an essay by group working. In reading lesson, they made some discussion about the languages which struggle to survive in the world and our country.Another topic was affluenza of which meaning is to buy or have more things than necessity. Our teacher gave texts when I was absent and I took them from my friends and studied. Although I didn’t go to school that week, I tried to catch up with my friend and fortunately I did…

The 7th Week

After the exam week, I was a little reluctant to the lessons but I had to focused on them. Firstly, in writing lesson our new essay type was cause/effect essay. We learnt how to organize that essay type; thesis statement, topic sentence and the body paragraphs… In grammer lesson we had a presentation about Global Warming. Duygu and Ceyhan were my group friends. While we were searching for our topic we not only learnt lots of details about the world and earth’s ecology, but also we had one more experience for presentation.We worked really hard and were appreciated by our teacher.In the reading lesson, our topic was causes and effects of stress which is one of the biggest problems nowadays. In short, I added manymore information to my info stock.

TWO DIFFERENT CITIES
There are two places that I find both similar and different in some respect. One of them is my hometown, Elazığ, the other is Denizli which I’ve been for university. Although one of them is a western, the other is an eastern city they have some things in common.
There are many things about their similarities. Both cities are almost the same in terms of development. Although Denizli is a bit more advanced, Elazığ started to develop dramatically for a long time. For example, Elazığ have two big shopping centers and also an entertainment center near completion, “Misland”. According to the Misland’s engineers it’ll be the biggest entertainment center of Turkey. It will have all the things that people can enjoy such as; a big shopping center , amphi theater,cinema, aqua park, mosque, hotel, traditional restaurants…etc. Denizli has also developed entertainment center. The second similarity is the historical places. Elazığ has lots of historical building and ruins just like Denizli. For instance, Harput Castle built by Urartu Civilization has a very interesting story. The civilization was dealing with livestock and their animals lactated so much. They built the castle with milk because of water shortage, so the other name of the castle is Milk Castle.There is a historical church from Byzantine Empire and Elazığ has more historical places such as mosques, tombs and lots of ruins. Hieropolis,Laodikeia, Pamukkale travertines are some of the impressive historical places of Denizli. Another similarity is the public. Local people of Denizli are just as sincere as of Elazığ. When I came Denizli I didn’t experience any difficulty in this respect.
Despite their similarities these cities are different . While Denizli has a temperate climate with very hot and humid summer, Elazığ has a terrestrial climate, hot summer but not humid. When I arrived Denizli, I first noticed that sticky weather. I don’t like this, but stil in winter the temperate weather is an adventage for me. The second thing I notice is the natural language. My hometown and Denizli have different accent. Local people of Denizli speak very quickly. Sometimes I really have difficulty to understand them. On the other hand Elazığ different accent but it’s not so quick. Despite the speed of speaking they’re so lovely and intimate.
In conclusion, these are the cities I love. One of them is my hometown and the other, I mean Denizli is the city that I’ll live for more four years.I’m happy in Elazığ the place I was born and grown up.Although I miss Elazığ because I have lived there since I was born and I have a family there, I love Denizli too. I firstly take steps to the life which I stand on my own feet in Denizli. Both of them have a meaning for me.

The 6th Week

That week was a stressful one because of exams :( We started the exams with listening and writing exams. In listening exam, while I had an exam, I also learned some knowledge about types of phobias that we listened in the lecture. As for writing exam, our teacher gave us an opinion essay which had missed parts and we filled them according to opinion essay organization. Moreover, we wrote a comparison/contrast essay about two restaurant which was given some facilities by our teacher. In addition we had gramer and reading exams. I probably made some mistakes but they weren’t so bad, I hope to have high grades…

The 5th Week

This week we learnt benefical information again. Firstly, in writing lesson we focused on comparison/contrast essay again. We were deeply interested in this essay type by looking for organization, sentence patterns, sentence connecters, etc… I had more information about that essay type. As for reading class, we made some discussions about the advanteges and disadvanteges of being male or female. In addition, we gained knowledge about the common features of fairy tales. These common features are called stereotypes; such as goodness related with beauty, bad charecters always have ugly appearance, good people always have a happily ever after… Mrs. Gültekin wanted us to write a familiar fairy tale with group and we wrote Little Red Riding Hood. Furhermore, we read a topic which was titled as Learning Gender Lessons At Schools.While we were reading I learnt that girls and boys take different attention in society and family. We talked about that issues in class with our friends.Despite the tiredness that week was profitable again…

THE LAST TWO WEEKS

I will write about last two weeks, because I didn't know that we would write reflection for each week.In that two weeks we learnt benefical, new words and information related with crime and punishment thanks to the texts given by our teacher.After our teacher gave us group work, we divided into four group and we were responsible for searching civilizations in terms of crime and punishments. We got lots of information in a week and prepare a powerpoint presentation. We worked really hard for this work so I was satisfied with our group performance. Thanks to this work we had historical and general culture information.As I express in my Presentation post before, such kinds of works are really useful for us. Secondly in reading lesson our subject was infertility and genetically modified foods. I learnt interesting points from both of these issues.Especially the issue about genetically modified foods was really critical, because it's related with our health. We learnt what is the negative effects of these foods and what kind of preventative rules take action against these foods in different countries.In our writing lesson, we learnt how to write comparison and contrast essay. There are two methods of this essay;point by point and block method.Again we read essay samples for understand bettter.Our teacher advised us to write with point by point method. I hope we can show our perfofmance well on all of these subjects.

PRESENTATION

I was very excited about the presentation. I made lots of search about my subject. I met with my group friends almost everyday. We didn't experience any conflict.It was very tiring especially for powerpoint. I really struggled with powerpoint. My friends also helped me they do their best.Despite of the tiredness, it worths taking a high grade and learnig something. I hope we can get good grades.I really like makig research and learning new things. We have a historical experience thanks to this work.I think it's important to do such kinds of works for our general culture.I hope we have such works again for our improvement but it's better to have more time. :)

SNOWBALL AND COCO

One day ,while I was rolling in the grass with Coco, we saw a tiny and miserable animal in the garden. After we went closer, realized it was a puppy. Although it was a puppy,we weren't afraid because of its helplessness. Coco and I began meowing tragically. When Susan heard our voice, came to the garden and saw the tiny puppy too. She had sense of pity about this dog and decided to say her parents whether take it home or not. Her parents said it was impossible but Susan said we seemed getting along. Coco and I really liked the pretty puppy. After Susan's insistence, Joy and Marty accepted. We liked this decision too. Susan wanted to name this dog as Tiny.We began living a peaceful life. Everyday we were rolling on the grass and had a very nice time. However, Tiny was growing day by day naturally and had some change in his manner towards us. Tiny was very aggressive. When we were playing, Tiny attacked us. Susan and her family noticed this case. In fact, they estimated such an event would happen. Susan could understand that take the miserable dog home was a mistake. Because he could hurt Coco and me. The family talked and decided to send Tiny to an animal shelter. That situation was worried the family but it had to be so. Coco and I were relaxed and happy anymore. Tiny was really a danger for us. After Tiny went, I loved Coco more than before, I understood she was really my fellow.

MY FIRST EXPERIENCE

Firstly I want to mention that the idea of create a blog is very interesting. After I took a look the blog, I saw that it may be very useful. I can have various options about kinds of subjects and this is a great chance for the one who is in the ELT Department. Everybody has different perspectives, so thanks to our blogs we can get different perspectives too. Above all, we can prepare ourselves for our job that we'll have in the future. As we see other ideas and our mistakes, we can get a step further. It's my belief that we can gain more creativeness for especially writing.