Dear all,

We hope you are all doing well and prep days are going alright for everyone.

Here are the updates for this week:

1. Teacher Strand

a. ScOLa General Meeting

Last week, we had our first “General Meeting” with the participation of all the teachers from three programs and welcomed the new academic year.  In this meeting, our director, Nergis Uyan, updated us with the general overview of last year and shared the plans for this year.  The coordinators also shared the general updates in all the programs and units to portray the actions taken across ScOLa.

 

We would like to take this opportunity to welcome everybody once again and wish all of us a great new academic year.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

b. English Language Teaching in Turkish Higher Education: A Journey from Retrospective to Prospective

ScOLa Event Organisation Committee has started working on our upcoming forum. This event on English Language Teaching in Turkish Higher Education entitled “A journey from Retrospective to Prospective” is going to be a one-day forum to be held face-to-face on November 3, 2023 and the aim is to explore the historical development and evaluate the current state of English language provision in Turkish Higher Education, and propose future-oriented solutions to current issues in language teaching. 

We will be sharing the updates with you as we proceed.

 

 

c. ScOLa Effective Teaching Criteria

ScOLa Effective Teaching Criteria was updated last semester based on the results of a study conducted with the participation of nine instructors and nine observers, including coordinators, team leaders, and TLDU members. The new version of the criteria is available in the Z-drive TLDU folder > classroom observation documents > face-to-face education. You are welcome to share any feedback you may have about the new version with us via kezban.altuntas@ozyegin.edu.tr

d. ScOLa Professional Development Needs Assessment Questionnaire

We would like to thank our colleagues who have already completed the questionnaire. We have  received a total of 77 responses. The breakdown of the respondents by group is as follows: 15 instructors from the ML group, 15 from the UGE group, and 47 from the PREP group.  The survey will be extended one last time until Friday, 29 September for those who would like to participate.

2. Student Strand

a. ÖzU English Language Support Center

This year, ÖzU English Language Support Center will continue to function with its 3 sub-centers: Study Center, Speaking Center, Writing Center. As usual, it will provide individual support for our students both face-to-face and online starting from week 2 (October 9). The slots are being arranged based on the necessities of our current practice (face-to-face class days and self-study days). The Support Center poster and student guidelines documents will be shared in a future post when they are finalized.

b. Student Clubs

We will continue offering clubs for all levels this year and in all clubs the first sessions will be held in week 3. Below, you can find the relevant information related to student clubs in the fall semester:

A2 level,

  1. A2 Speaking Club by Babak Jahanaray (every Wednesday between 14:45-15:35 in ScOLa G05)

B1 level;

     2. B1 Movie Club  by Nuran Uysal Duman (every Tuesday between 13:45-14:35 in ScOLa 216)

B2 Level Faculty Clubs (every Tuesday between 10:45-11:35)

    3. Architecture Club for B2 Students by Dilan Atila (in ScOLa 114)

    4. Engineers’ Club for B2 Students by Özlem Kaplan Snyder (in ScOLa 220)

    5. Applied Sciences Club for B2 by Babak Jahanaray (in ScOLa G05)

    6. Ready to Take off by Sedef Nur Yaman (in ScOLa G06)

    7. Social Sciences Club by Özge Özgen (in ScOLa G07)

    8. Business Club for B2 Students by Derya Yılmaz (in ScOLa G09)