Here are the projects and extra-curricular activities that I, together with our pupils, may carry out

during my stay in Finland. This report only includes the proposals I had thought before coming here. So, we can add more projects as well, in due course. In order to enhance students oral and written proficiency, we will use English wherever and whenever possible while conducting these possible activities. 1. eTwinning Portal: We may use eTwinning in order to ensure a sense of collaboration between our pupils and their peers living in other countries of Europe. During these processes our pupils will be using their foreign language (English) so it is quite likely that the communicative aspect of their language using will improve. Moreover, by contacting with their peers from other countries, our pupils will be able to learn cultural values of those countries. In addition to these, since I will be presenting every possible project in the eTwinning Portal we, as teachers, will be also able to find partners for our international and intercultural projects. 2. Epals Portal: Epals is basically a portal in which teachers can find pen friends for their language teaching classes. The idea of writing paper letters to peers living in other countries in order to enhance the use of foreign language may not be very attractive for our students, especially in this age of technology but we can overcome this problem by finding them partners with whom they can interact virtually, most possibly via e-mails. It is quite possible that meeting with new people will excite them and their excitement will stir up their will of learning English, the language in which theyll interact with their new friends. 3. Turkish Board If possible, we can place a permanent Turkish board on a wall in which I can put some pictures, brochures, vocabulary lists, a Turkish calendar, recipes and even articles from national newspapers. The documents can be either in Finnish or in English. I can change the documents on a regular basis. And also, I can place notifications on this board regarding the Turkish lessons I may teach if its requested by pupils or even by parents. Besides, I am also looking at the possibility of lending DVDs of Turkish movies with Finnish subtitles (if I can find) to pupils. Finally, if we manage to form a partnership with a Turkish school, I can also put the photos and other things that they sent on the board. We may encourage our partner school to form a Finnish board in their school so that the things that we send them can also be presented on it.

4. School Newspaper We can prepare a monthly newspaper or magazine which includes news from our school and the town of Kempele in addition to an introduction by the head-teacher. Moreover, in this newspaper or magazine, we can include articles and poems written by our teachers and pupils. There is two way of publishing this magazine or newspaper: a) Publishing it in A4 or A3 format with available printers in the school. b) Asking a professional to publish it. (We can afford the charge of the magazine by demanding an acceptable fee from those who are willing to get one or we may search ways of taking ads from local companies.) If we have a partner school, we can also encourage them to publish a monthly magazine and we can exchange them between the two schools. 5. School Radio I can setup an online radio for our school which can only be listened through internet. On a regular basis (preferably on weekends), students can prepare and broadcast programs on various topics. 6. Making Movies We can also shoot informative movies, together with pupils. Currently, there are three subjects I am thinking of. Firstly, we can prepare a 5-minute video in which some students will be mentioning a regular day (when they start, how to they wear, what they do in breaks etc.) in our school. We can share this video with our possible partners. Secondly, we can prepare a longer video about our school including some details such as facilities of our schools, administrative staff, general structure of the school, the main goals of the school etc. For this video we can use the theme A Comenius assistant telling of the school in which he is working to his friends. Thirdly, we can make a video of touristic purpose about Kempele including general information about the town (history, population, general structure) and views and highlights from spectacular places in Kempele like the old church. 7. Debate League We can form a debate league in which a certain number of students from willing classes will participate and debate over the pre-selected topics. The topics may be either informal (our kitchen should include more international foods) or formal (Finnish government should ease the process of obtaining a tourist visa in order to enhance cultural interactions). These debates may be particularly important both in enhancing students ability in speaking in English and teaching them the ways of presenting and defending their own ideas. If we are

really lucky enough, we can also encourage our possible partner school to form a similar league. And we can arrange a final debate between the winners of both schools through video-conference. 8. Opinion Polls We can ask our pupils to conduct questionnaires about peoples ideas about certain issues of the country. We can also encourage our partner schools to carry out an exactly same questionnaire in their country. Then we may exchange the results so that students can learn opinions of people living in other countries on certain themes. 9. Picture/Short Story Competition We can organize competition in our school in two categories: a) Drawing a picture of a certain cultural theme. b) Writing a short-story in English. The picture category will increase students curiosity of other cultures as they are looking for possible themes to use in the drawings. And the short-story category is also quite likely to increase students written ability. We can think of offering some awards, of course at a reasonable price. Such an award will increase students motivation and desire of participation in the competition. 10. A Festival on April, 23rd 23 of April is celebrated as national independence and childrens day. On these days, students prepare theatre plays and act them, they sing songs in chorus among many other things. We can also celebrate this day in the same way they do in Turkey. Since my contract will have finished on April, 25th most probably, this will be my latest event in the school. So, I will make sure that everything will be carefully prepared for this day so that it will be worthy of remembrance both for our school and me.