PEER EVALUATION

I commented on Esin's and Gözde's reflections.

Esin:http://esinmetu.blogspot.com.tr/2016/01/free-reflection-1.html?showComment=1453574283921#c8550995409695900113

Gözde:http://gozdenurcetin1.blogspot.com.tr/2016/01/reflection-task-1-i-want-to-join-agt.html?showComment=1453574340178#c1776523928583203227

BONUS WORK

Reference Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gNaDvAYC0Jw

a) I have chosen this video because I have wanted my video to be both educating and funny. The video I’ve found is also helped me with my contextual grammar course which I am taking as a must course this year.

b) I really liked this video and it seems to be prepared studiously. Also as I am a student of foreign language education department, the content of the video was quite helpful for me with my courses. The thing I liked the most was the teacher’s effort to teach the students the irregular verbs.

c) Exercises:

1) Before watching the video, discuss the following questions.

·        Did you have trouble while learning the irregular verbs?

·        If yes, how did you get over this problem?

·        If you were a teacher what would you do while teaching irregular verbs and past tense?

·        Did your teacher make any fun plays to make you learn better?

2) Now fill in the blanks with the past participle forms of the given words.

BITE----->……….

ARISE----->……….

SEE----->……….

DO----->………..

SWIM----->……….

KNOW----->………

THROW----->………

GO----->………..

3) Did you find the video interesting? Why?

d)

·        What type of music the teacher used to attract students attention?

·        How was the teacher’s attitude?

e) I really liked the preparing process. I really found the process really useful for my educational future. On the other hand, I had some difficulties while finding a suitable video and preparing the questions but in the whole I can say that I found the process enjoyable and beneficial.

FREE REFLECTION

Connected, but alone? by Sherry Turkle

Reference Link: https://www.ted.com/talks/sherry_turkle_alone_together

The speaker of the talk believes that having a dependence on the Internet affects us negatively in some ways and I totally agree with her. Firstly, I believe that from the moment technology got in our pockets, people turned into introverted and antisocial individuals. I see in my daily life that they don’t talk to their lovers, friends and even their families. For instance, instead of seeing their loved ones and saying they love them, they simply send voice messages. Sometimes the people they send the voice message see it as a negligence and they have a quarrel about it. In addition, I believe that technology makes us lose the track of time. We don’t realize how much time we spend with devices. For instance, when their mother asks teenagers to get up from the computer desk and study for their lessons, they simply say they have just started, so they are not aware of how much time they spend playing computer games. The last reason why I agree with the speaker is that everything has become virtual. Literally everything is done on the virtual world and people are very happy about it. To give an example, as a trend which became popular recently, people buy fast food from an internet site called ‘Yemek Sepeti’ in Turkey. You give the order, give details about your order and choose the way of paying money and then your order comes to your door, so you don’t make much effort and you lose the chance of choosing your meal yourself -seeing and looking through- and having a chat with the seller. All in all, in my opinion technology influences human beings adversely in some ways; therefore, I totally agree with the speaker about the possible unfavorable effects of using the technology.

REFLECTION TASK 3

AZIZ SANCAR

If I was a jury member of the committee choosing the person of the year, my candidate would be Aziz Sancar. I would like him to be the person of the year because of his contributions both to his country and humanity. This year he was given the Nobel Prize in chemistry and he is the first person from Turkey to receive the Nobel Prize in chemistry branch. I believe that the person of the year should be someone who does useful things for his/her country, be a role model for the younger generation and s/he should prove that everything is possible. I believe that this person is Aziz Sancar. When Aziz Sancar was interviewed by the journalists after receiving the prize, he said that his family was really poor but his parents cared about education and Sancar’s future. As he had 8 siblings, his family was having hard times to catch up with their expenses and it was a really hard time for Sancar, too. Also at that times conditions were harder than now and few people cared about education in small villages. Despite all these difficulties, he worked real hard and got accepted to the medicine in Istanbul University. He was accepted to the American National Studies Academy later. Even though he was a citizen of the United States of America, he never forgot where he came from and his roots. He worked on his projects to be successful his area and make contributions to humanity. Now, Aziz Sancar is studying on a project which aims to illuminate the DNA renovation mechanism and if he succeeds, he may find the cure to cancer. Regarding the increase rate in cancer recently, at this point his studies are so important for the humankind. All in all, I think that the person of the year should be Aziz Sancar. He really is an idol for the young people who doesn’t have the confidence. He is a real scientist working for the good of humanity and most importantly by receiving the Nobel Prize he also made contributions to his country and Turkey’s name was heard.

REFLECTION TASK 2B:

THE WALKING DEAD

The Walking Dead is an American horror drama TV series. It is based on the comic book series of the same name. It was first aired October 31, 2010 and it has received well comments from both the audience and critics. The series is about zombies but they never use the word of “zombie”, instead they say “walkers”. Andrew Lincoln plays the show's lead character, sheriff's deputy Rick Grimes, who awakens from a months-long coma to confront a post-apocalyptic world overrun by zombies. Grimes reunites with his family and becomes the leader of a group he forms with other survivors. Together they struggle to survive in and adapt to a world filled with zombies and some humans who are even more dangerous than the zombies themselves.

The perspective of the director is obviously pessimistic. The story is told from the alive group of people’s point of view but sometimes in some scenes, you can see the apocalypse from some other people’s point of view. I think the perspective of the director is quite a good one and if I were the director, I would use the same perspective because the perspective is such in a way that when you watch the series you feel trapped and that makes you more curious about the series. For example while I was watching the series it embraced me so much that, I watched 3 seasons in 1.5 days. Beside the choice of perspective, also the series is a good reflection of the topic. There are many zombie films present but none of them has been viewed as much as The Walking Dead because they weren’t reflected well enough. Of course zombie apocalypse is something an output of imagination but as the movies have limited time, they have to shorten the stories and that makes the viewers bored. In the series however, every step of the apocalypse is shown and it makes the story more realistic. The content of the story is also quite an interested one. I have always wondered what the life on earth would be like if an apocalypse had occurred? That’s way the series is a source of attraction for me. I find the story quite consistent but in some points, it seems like not close-reality and that is one of the things I dislike about the series. Other than that I love the series and it takes my breath away when I watch it. One of the things that I like the most is that in addition to being a cool horror story, it has a main message in it and the message is repeated on a regular basis. While they are giving a life struggle to survive, the people in the series also kill one another. They just don’t kill zombies to stay alive, they also kill one another for unimportant matters instead of helping. It is one point which is repeated in the series and it’s the social message for the community. All in all, besides being a realistic TV series, The Walking Dead also has an social importance and I really like it.

Here one of the scenes I found so breath-taking:                  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8wuzLiyKVSU

REFLECTION TASK 2A:

THE ROLE OF WOMEN IN SOCIETY

I would like to choose the topic of the role of women in society because I think it really is an important matter. Also the topic has significance for me as I am a woman myself, I feel that I should protect firstly my rights then other women’s rights because even in  today’s world, women’s right are not still clear.

First of all, women are bridge between the family and the society. Women contribute the society by bearing and raising individuals. As we cannot think a society without individuals, we can say that women are the creator of a society. Also, although they contribute the society as much as men do, women regarded as incapable of some works. In sexist societies they are thought to sit at home, take of children, do housework and also they have no right to speak but we see the example in our daily life that women can do much. For example in the times of Independence War in Turkey, women catered the soldiers, took care of their home and children and sometimes they fought in the war and defended their country. As it is seen in the example women are not helpless and weak individuals as some societies regard.

Also in our society, the role of women is a controversial matter. While some people think women belong with home, have to do the housework and shouldn’t be included in daily life; some people think that women should be educated and be an active part of the society. To give an example, when I was living in Bitlis in the year of 2004, I was really shocked. People were marrying their daughter in early age and they had no problem with it. Also, women didn’t have the right to speak, they wouldn’t even get out of the house. I felt really sorry for those women. It was really my motivation source when I started to justify women’s rights. I saw it with my own eyes that women are underestimated, I read a lot of books about women’s rights and I tried to defend women’s rights as much as I can. I consider myself, at least I want to be included, in the latter group of people. I think women should be educated, be a part of the society, and make big achievements. When women are given the chance we can see the examples of successful women.

YES, WE CAN DO IT!

REFLECTION TASK 1A:

Hello METU Amateur Photography Club!

My name is Emel Nur Er and I’m studying English language teaching at foreign language department. I am a first year student in METU and I would like to join your student club. I shall start introducing myself.

As I said before this is my first year in METU and I’m happy to be here. When I first came to the campus, I felt really excited and I was amazed by the beauty of the campus. Normally, Ankara is said to be a “gray city” but the campus is like from another world. It’s full of beautiful trees, plants and animals. I thought that all that beauty should be kept in photographs and I decided to join your club. Since I was a child, I have been interested in photography and now that I am a university student, I have thought that I should take the advantage of the METU’s one of the most active groups and I have decided to send you an introductory report about myself.

In my daily life I take a lot of photographs but not like people’s selfies, they are more like from a different perspective. I take interesting photos, do some photo shopping and make them more beautiful. Because of my ability to see details-as I am an elaborative person-I think I can manage to take good photographs for the photography club.

Actually, I have always had interest in photography and I have joined photography clubs during my elementary, secondary and high school years. In my high school years, the photography club in the school was very active. We prepared a notice board about photography. It was catchy and so many people read that board and got information from it. We also organized a school trip to the forest to take natural pictures and then we made an exhibition with those photographs. The principal congratulated us for our work and everybody really appreciated it.

I take photographs because I think every moment is special but some moments are just meant to be remembered and they should be made eternal. I also think every photograph has a story and that’s why I name every photo I take.

Lastly, I want to share with you some photographs I have taken, I hope you like them and I get to chance to join your club.

TIME FLIES IMAGINE ANITKABIR D"EV"RIM ANGORA UNIFEB MEETING AT ANITKABIR EYMIR FORESTATION OUR LOVELY EYMIR ANITKABIR II