To the ICT Seagulls Project Circles

Dear ICT Seagulls Project leaders and members,

We are approaching to the deadline of the delivery of 6th ICT Seagulls Projects. Until the end of May, teams are supposed to finalize their projects. They will have to inform me about the web or/and blog addresses and also send me the CDs including all the steps and contents of their projects. After an initial assessment process, all the teams and their projects' addresses will be sent to the other teams to be assessed based upon the given criteria. After the peer-assessment stage, the judge assessment stage will start.
The projects will be expected to be seen by peers and judges on a definite address (school web or a bought address). The videos related to collage, poster, drama, folk dances, etc. should also be placed to the web. The deadline for this is 29th May, Friday.
The National Award Ceremony of the Turkish ICT Seagulls will take place in September in Istanbul. For the International Award Ceremony we are grateful to Mr & Mrs Gandhi and Mrs Vineeta Kamran (City Montessori School, Lucknow, India) for their generous hospitality and special arrangement. It will take place during the "12th International Convention on Students Quality Control Circles" which will be held on 2-5 December, 2009. If you want to get more info about the Convention, please visit: www.cmseducation.org.

Teams and/or individuals, who would like to participate in the above mentioned event from Türkiye, should call me to get the broshures. With love and peace....

Hayal KÖKSAL

APRIL 23rd INTERNATIONAL CHILDREN'S DAY

APRIL 23 INTERNATIONAL CHILDREN'S DAYThis national day (23 April National Sovereignty and Children's Day) in Turkey is a unique event within the world. The founder of the Turkish Republic, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, dedicated April 23 to the children of the country to emphasize that they are the future of the new nation. It was on April 23, 1920, during the War of Independence, that the Grand National Assembly met in Ankara and laid down the foundations of a new, independent, secular, and modern republic from the ashes of the Ottoman Empire. Following the defeat of the Allied invasion forces on September 9, 1922 and the signing of the Treaty of Lausanne on July 24, 1923, Ataturk started his task of establishing the institutions of the new state. Over the next eight years, Ataturk and his followers adopted sweeping reforms to create a modern Turkey. In unprecedented moves, he dedicated the sovereignty day to the children and entrusted in the hands of the youth the protection of this sovereignty and independence.

Every year, the children in Turkey celebrate this "Sovereignty and Children's Day" as a national holiday. Schools participate in week-long ceremonies marked by performances in all fields in large stadiums watched by the entire nation. Among the activities on this day, the children send their representatives to replace state officials and high ranking bureaucrats in their offices. The President, the Prime Minister, the Cabinet Ministers, provincial governors all turn over their positions to children's representatives. These children, in turn, sign executive orders relating to educational and environmental policies. On this day, the children also replace the parliamentarians in the Grand National Assembly and hold a special session to discuss matters concerning children's issues. Over the last two decades, the Turkish officials have been working hard to internationalize this important day. Their efforts resulted in large number of world states' sending groups of children to Turkey to participate in the above stated festivities. During their stay in Turkey, the foreign children are housed in Turkish homes and find an important opportunity to interact with the Turkish kids and learn about each other's countries and cultures. City Montessori School team also had been one of the participating teams in 2004. The foreign children groups also participate in the special session of the Grand National Assembly. This results in a truly international Assembly where children pledge their commitment to international peace and brotherhood. The importance of April 23 as a special day of children has been recognized by the international community. UNICEF decided to recognize this important day as the International Children's Day.

I celebrate the Children's Day of all the children in the world.

Hayal KÖKSAL

Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/sinecan/2433115037/

69. ANNIVERSARY of FOUNDATION of the VILLAGE INSTITUTIONS

YOU ARE INVITED TO THE FOUNDATION ANNIVERSARY of the VILLAGE INSTITUTIONS

We are celebrating the 69th Anniversary of the Foundation of the Village Institutions.

THE WAY LEADING TO THE VILLAGE INSTITUTIONS:
MUSTAFA NECATİ, HASAN ÂLİ YÜCEL, İSMAİL HAKKI TONGUÇ

Speakers :
Prof. Dr.Rifat Okçabol,
Assoc. Dr. Firdevs Gümüşoğlu

Documentary Film: Hasan Âli Yücel
Concert by: Karabey Aydoğan

Organized by:
THE ASSOCIATION for NEW GENERATION VILLAGE INSTITUTIONARIES

ISTANBUL & KARTAL BRANCHES

Date: 18 April 2009

Time: 14.00 Cocktail: 17.00
Venue: Bahçeşehir University, Conference Hall, Beşiktaş-Istanbul

An İmece Circle (SQC) from Ağrı, Diyadin Boarding Primary School

Dear All,

When I got the above photo from my dear colleague Nilufer, I admired what she has been doing for her school and for her dearest students in the East corner of Türkiye. She founded a library for her students and colleagues with the support of some helpful people and she formed an İmece Circle (SQC) to focus on the current problems. When I saw it I remembered those lovely and fruitful 11. ICSQCC days and the poem I wrote for my opening speech. I am grateful those young colleagues of mine who worked hard for the translation and editing of it. With love and peace...

Hayal KOKSAL

IMECE CIRCLE

Its first syllable is to be human,
Maximal satisfaction of the expected, and its result,
Everyone hand-in-hand,
Covering all; from the beloved to the sullen.
Effective input in the one hand, “love” in the heart and “real leadership” in front.
***

Continuous “belief and trust from the heart” is necessary,
Illusions unwelcome no place for “untruth.”
Rarely, though, but there is slight, “Sweet Competition.”
Creation, production and progress – the objectives.
Learn what “İmece” really is, the “Collective spirit,”
Elucidating the way to the “Total Quality Individual.”
Translated & Edited by Esra Özkaya Saltoğlu & Ryan Nash

I am grateful to my Innovative Students...

Dear All,

Innovative Teaching course participants created miracle with their first SQC projects last Wednesday. They focused on creative marketing projects in a group of four.Each of the 12 teams presented 20-slide ppts to convince the audience on their newly-created products. The innovativeness and creativity were at the highest level, and we all had wonderful 3 hours together. All the teams were assessed by the other teams and the winners will be announced on the coming week. The first three teams will be awarded.
I am very happy that all of my students are very talented, innovative, productive and creative. They presented their products with fun; sometimes used drama, sometimes video and sometimes funny stories. I am grateful to them for showing great interest to my course. Even though it is an elective course for teacher trainees, it is a lovely feeling to be instructing to a full classroom. I know that all those teachers will be "Innovative Teachers" just like the ones I trained between 2005-2008 through the Microsoft's PİL Program. I believe that our future will be enlightened by them. I thank to all of them for being my students and for giving a total satisfaction to me. I wish all of them good luck for their near future career. Loves,

Hayal Koksal

To be a Good Model Teacher

Dear Colleagues,
Yesterday I gave my Students' Quality Circles and Project Management seminar in Boğaziçi University. It was very fruitful. At the end of the seminar, my students determined their final project topics and formed 12 circles. Their excitement and enthusiasm, created the similar thoughts and feelings in me. My profession_teaching_is not only a profession or job for me: It is a real and a very powerful Hobby! It has been 33 years but I feel as if I graduated yesterday.
I worked with almost every age group in my professional life: I started with 6th graders and then High schools students. In 1985, I moved to University. During the last ten years, I have been giving "In-service training" to every subject matter teacher and administrators at every age. They all have different values and beauties, however, I must confess that I always prefer the youngest students and the teacher trainees. Collaborating with them always opens different wondows before me. Some of my colleagues are afraid of teaching older students due to witnessing some possible discipline problems but I always smile at this thought. It is essential to give self-confidence in teacher training. Another improtant issue is as a teacher; showing the courage of admitting her/his ignorance in some problem areas. A teacher is not the one who knows everything in his/her field. Sharing the unknown topics and asking help from them or collaborating with the students how to learn it is a very critical and significant issue. A teacher is not the one who sits in an iwory tower but a life-long learner. A teacher must perform and also prove his/her attitude in this point. I always try behaving like this, but I never lose the interest or respect of my students. Up to now, I have never lost my authority within the class, either. Believe me! They are our real partners and real dosts. They learn to show tolerance to you if you do the same. This is a way of having fun altogether. It is also the only way of giving self-confidence and teaching critical thinking to them.
Last night, an old student of mine called me. I had taught him English in 1978-1981 at Göle High School. Yücel is now working in Istanbul and calling me from time time. Last night he shared his feelings concerning my being a good teacher and a real Ataturk daughter. He also said that he was reading my blog regularly to learn more what I did. It was one of the best times of mine; I felt happy. Just like how happily I felt on Sunday.
On sunday morning Ms Şükran Çetin, my dearest instructor from İzmir Teachers' Training College, called me and she shared her sincere feelings with me related to my achievements in the profession. She was so excited and she sounded very happy and healthy. This also made me very happy, for she was my idol teacher with her perfect English, human-focused attitude, and with her kind and smiling face. We had never seen her in a sad or angry manner. She was very careful with her outlook and she used to wear formal suits. She was a lover of nature, working and teaching. We all have learned a lot from her. She was a real expert of training teachers. During my life, I have always tried to be like her. I salute her with great respect and love.
While saying good bye, I wanted to share a photo from the SQC seminer. With love and peace...

Hayal KÖKSAL

Seminar for İmece Circles

Dear Dosts,

The way of "Managing Change" and "Managing Quality" in any organization starts with the establishment of "Continuous Improvement" philosophy. Then, it goes on with the "Project Management" focusing on "Quality Circles (QC)". If we make a list of TQE Aopplications, the steps can be listed as follows:
- After "Awareness and Leadership" seminars, drawing the Road map and Making the "Strategic Planning".

- SWOP Analysis and,

- İmece Circles (QCs) with the collaboration of students, parents and teachers.

Since 2000, we have been conducting the QCs under the name of İmece Circles. İmece is a very important concept within the Turkish culture. For years, Anatolian people used to finishing up all their works with their neighbours and friends. Such as wedding ceremonies, harvesting, building a new house, or agriculture... In order to start a new method or approach you must not apply it as it was founded in its original land. Re-inventing the "tyre" is wasting time, energy and money. But localization and adaptation are the key words. That is why I changed the content and philosophy of SQCs and localized it for the Turkish schools as "İmece Circles" and since 2000, I have conducted almost 1000 students' İmece Circles: Not only in my university courses but within my projects like Bigg-İst and ICT Seagulls. Participants appear both successful and happy. These features are very important. Students learn critical thinking and problem solving skills at a very early age and through "technology use", they share and present their projects. Using affective technology (Web page and Blog design) forms a good sample for the partners abroad.
Tomorrow, I will give the "İmece Circles and Project Management" seminar in Boğaziçi University. We will meet on the North Campus, between 1.00-4.00 pm. Participation will also be certified. We invite you to our meeting. With love and peace...
Hayal KÖKSAL