On July 2, my 4th day in Istanbul,
I met with Ozge Karaoglu Ergen. Sitting at a café overlooking the Bosporus
River we discussed her career as an English teacher and her adventures with
instructional technology. You can read
Ozge’s bio on her blog at http://ozgekaraoglu.edublogs.org/. But what you can’t read in her bio is her
excitement about what she is doing. When I asked Ozge about her blog and her
career she immediately talks about why she started blogging. She said that she
wanted to find a way to connect with people and pass along her knowledge about
web 2.0 tools. As a result of her endeavors, this year she received the New
Writing Award by the English Speaking Union, which she received from Duke of Edinburg Prince Philip in a ceremony at Buckingham Palace.
In addition this past February she gave a TEDx talk at Sabanci University in Istanabul. The theme
for her talk was, "Yes, I can do it! " And
believe me, she can. Ozge wants to be role model for future teachers, and
demonstrate how hard work and patience allow you to follow your dreams.
For Ozge technology helps
her make a strategic shift for learning in her classrooms because it provides
students with choices. For example, students can journal using traditional
pencil and paper or they can go to pencil.com and submit their journal
digitally. She has successfully used Vocaroo with her students to encourage
them to speak English. But Ms. Karaoglu has taken this a step further and
engaged her students as creators of the Daisy & Drago and Bubble & Pebble
cartoons, and now she is developing the app! She says that technology acts
as a tool for motivating students to speak and write.
It was truly a pleasure
meeting with Ozge and I look forward to her future insights on teaching,
learning, reflecting and being a 21st century learner & teacher.
