1.

Assessment of the Students’ Basic Personal/Psychological Needs: Describe several ways

in which the teacher assesses the basic personal/psychological needs of the students, and

explain what s/he does to help meet those needs. If you were the teacher, how would you

assess the basic personal/psychological needs of the students, and explain what would you

do to meet the needs of the students ( please make sure to use specific examples for each

need)

People have some needs that are necessary to live a healthy life. Deficiency of these needs

would cause negative outcomes. As prospective teachers, we should be aware of the physical and

psychological needs of the students.

Physical needs can be categorized as food, shelter, clothing, sleep and etc. and

psychological needs can be categorized as safety and security, love and belonging, self-esteem

and self-actualization according to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. As we see in here, we should

be aware of these basic necessities of our students. To reach our aim we should understand human

development theories, possess cultural awareness, eliminate personal biases, observe students’

needs and lastly but importantly, ask students what their needs are.

In my practicum school, as it is a private school, nearly all of the physical necessities are

met. Students have access to many kinds of facilities. Almost all of the students are sure that their

financial background is sufficient and they are not familiar with the idea of being insufficient in

terms of financial situations. So, besides the physical needs in Terakki, teachers need to pay an

extra attention to psychological and emotional needs of the students. Also, native teachers need

focus on the cultural awareness.

I observed teachers who pay attention to those needs. For example, in primary school, my

cooperative teacher has lessons to second graders. In these lessons she considers their basic needs

and has affection towards them. When a student gives the correct answer for a question she
congratulates her individually and help that students to meet her social needs. Social needs also

include the need to love, to be loved, feel a sense of belonging and acceptance. Also achieving

her aims to meet her students’ needs, teacher always walks in classroom and has access to all

students groups during the class time. She tries to communicate all of her students individually.

As the classroom size is limited to 24 students, it is easier to achieve her goal.

2. Establishing Positive Teacher-Student Relationships: What does the teacher do to create

positive teacher-student relationships? This would include a discussion of openness that the

teacher wishes to have with her/his students, the teacher’s expectations toward the students

(low/high), and the specific ways that s/he communicates his/her expectations to the students. If

you were the teacher, what would you do to create positive relationship with your students (be

specific)? How would you obtain feedback from the students concerning how they view you as

a teacher?

In my practicum school, my middle school and high school cooperative teachers are

native. This causes many problems. During the class hours, students talk in Turkish and make

fun of their native teachers. I sense that students like their teachers but I don’t think they see these

native teachers as real teachers. On the other hand, although teachers couldn’t establish

themselves as authority figures, they really try to have a positive relationship with their students.

Both of them know their students very well. They call students by their names, they even know

their characteristics. I think it is very important to have detailed information about your students.

So that you can have an idea about their attitudes.

In primary school, Miss Kutlar has a mother-like teaching attitude. She is affectionate and

disciplined at the same time. She uses the advantages of physical contact very much. When a

student come up with a good idea, she hugs him/her to congratulate. Also, she touches students
and caresses their heads when needed. She sometimes acts like them to remove the barriers

between them. She is a really good example for establishing positive relationships with students.

3. Creating Positive Peer Relationships: What does the teacher do to create positive peer

relationship (for example, acquaintance, team building, and establishing a cohesive group and

base group activities, etc. If you were the teacher, what would you do to create positive peer

relationship in your classroom (be specific)? How would assess the quality of peer relationship?

Peer relationship is very important in a classroom environment. Especially in foreign

language teaching, peer relationships have much greater importance. In my practicum schools,

the primary school part shows good examples for peer relations. With second graders, I observe

that they are sitting in groups and they know their group members very well. They share one box

with pens, pencils, crayons. Also they fill some worksheets as a group, so they are better in peer

relationships than the middle school and the high school.

During the 10 hour of observation for classroom management class, I didn’t observe any

group work in the middle school and the high school. Just once, there is a pair work in seventh

graders and this wasn’t very well handled. Teacher just said “Find a pair and discuss this and

that.” So students went near their best friends and began talking about anything but the title that

the teacher gave. Other than this failed pair work, I didn’t observe any example of peer

relationship in those classes.

So I think, in order to creating positive peer relationships, firstly we need to handle the

formation of the pairs or group very well. We need to integrate students with each other and also

the content of the lesson. We can form a pair like one of the high achiever students and one of

the low achiever students. So that they can communicate and help each other. Unlike my

cooperative teachers from the middle school and the high school, I would have emphasize on

group and pair work in the classroom environment. I think they are crucial for foreign language
education. A language cannot be learned without communication and communication

necessitates positive peer relationships in the educational settings.

4. Working with Parents: Describe the methods the teacher uses for obtaining parent support

for his/her classroom and teaching. What does s/he do to improve ongoing teacher-family

communication, and effective teacher-family conference? If you were the teacher, what would

you do to create positive teacher-parent relationship and obtain support from parents (be

specific)?

My practicum school establishes a teacher parent relationship type based on one-by-one

meetings. Each teacher has a planned session on their weekly programme which they will meet

parents at that time. For example, here is the programme of my cooperative teacher from the

middle school:

During my observation weeks in primary school, one day Miss Kutlar said one of the

students that “Efe, your mom told me that you have lost your booklet and you are upset about

this. You can just come to me and talk about it. Don’t worry, I will bring you a copy and you

will continue with it.” From this example, I can deduct that parent-teacher relationship is closer

in primary schools than that of middle and high schools. Also, second graders’ parents have a

whatsapp group and they are in contact with each other and also with the classroom teacher

from there. Classroom teacher Miss Ayşin tells important situations (for example if one of the
students is sick or absent) to Miss Kutlar. She also has a session in her programme to meet

parents.

5. Enhancing Students’ Motivation to Learn: Describe the major methods, strategies and

activities that the teacher utilizes to enhance student motivation. If you were the teacher, what

would you do to enhance your students’ motivation (be specific)? In your discussion, please

utilize motivation formula (Motivation= expectation X value X climate) and students’ academic

needs.

For enhancing students’ motivation to learn, in my practicum schools, teachers always

exhibit their students’ works. As in the photo, besides the art works of the students, the review

papers are also exhibitted on the walls. In classroom environment, in order to motivate students,

my cooperative teacher from primary school, Miss

Kutlar always find an appropriate song for each unit. So

that students pay attention to the class. For example

students do the activities immediately with enthusiasm

because they want to skip to listening to the song part.

In the middle school and the high school this process is

different. Songs do not take their attention. Other than

these, teachers find related videos to their units’ contents

for motivating students for the class insturctions. They

fill out some charts according to these videos.

6. Develop Standards for Classroom Behavior: How does the teacher begin the school year

related to the issues of student behavior. This should include a discussion of how behavioral

standards are developed as well as what key procedures are taught. Include a description of how

s/he involves students in this process. This should include the extent and manner of involving

students in developing, committing to and practicing behavioral procedures. If you were the

teacher, how would you develop behavioral standards and procedures in your classroom (be

specific)?

Unfortunately, my practicum began at the end of the November. As our approval didn’t

come from MEB, we could begin nearly at the end of the term. When we began to our

practicum schools, students were taking their midterm exams. Due to these unfortunate

situations, we couldn’t observe the beginning of the school year. But I can say that, behavioral

standards and some key procedures are written everywhere in the schools. Some posters and

announcements about these procedures are written on the bulletin walls in the corridors.

7. Responding to Violations of Rules and Procedures: Describe the methods and classroom

procedures that the teacher uses for responding to disruptive student behavior. If you were the

teacher, how would you respond to violations of rules and procedures in your classroom (be

specific)?

In primary schools, it is easier to warn students. With second graders, in case of

violations of rules and procedures, Ms. Kutlar just go to the problematic student and tell

him/her that he shouldn’t do this again and it is against our school’s rules. Then, student

apolagizes and problem is solved!

But, in the middle school and the high shool, this process doesn’t work like that.

Disruptive behaviors of the students are sometimes ignored by teachers. Because warning them

doesn’t matter mostly. They prefer to ignore their teachers warning so teachers got used to this
situation. And except serious cases, they don’t warn students individually, they just try to ssh

them in the classroom environment in order not to make the situation a big deal.

I am supposed to admit that I am a person who likes to take control in a classroom

settings. So I definetly need to have some strategies to gain control in the classroom

environment.

8. Using Problem Solving to Resolve Behavior Problems and Developing Individual

Behavior Change Plans: Describe methods that the teacher uses to resolve behavior problems

and/or develop individual behavior change plans with students who demonstrate serious behavior

problems. If you were the teacher, how would you resolve behavior problems and/or develop

individual behavior change plans with students who demonstrate serious behavior problems (be

specific)?

In Şişli Terakki, teachers have a tendency to solve the problems by themselves. They

didn’t send students to the detention or something else. In primary schools, once Ms. Kutlar send

one of the students to their class teacher because she couldn’t handle the student at that time. She

was supposed to give students their new booklets in that lesson and that one students was

insistently walking around the class. Ms. Kutlar wanted him to come with her and they went to

the class teacher.

In the middle school, Ms. Jaffe prefers to talk students with disruptive behaviors after the

class. She kindly asks them to see her after the class and talks them nicely to not do that behavior

again. In the high school Mr. Anderson tries to solve the problems by mentioning grading system

 Then students pay atteion to him and get silent. Students can easily get frustrated about their

grades. Maybe it is not the exact right way but getting their attention is very hard.

In my case, I would contact authorities in the school in case of such disruptive behaviors.