Meeting the parents, grandparents and school Open Day

March 5, 2011

A brunch was organised at Kuckyali Kindergarten for the parents to meet the "long awaited new English teacher". I was a bit nervous as I wasn't quite sure what to expect. I was asked to make a short speech to the parents and I never feel comfortable speaking to a crowd, contrary to what many of you may think, especially as I wasn't terribly sure what the audience's grasp of English was like!!

The headmistress, Lale, from the main school and David Coughlan, who recruits English teachers for the schools, were invited to attend also.

There was a typically Turkish feast set out for brunch. Plenty of olives, cheese, tomatoes, cucumbers, breads, pastries, nuts, fruit salad, and of course free-flowing coffee and cay (tea) and more cay....... and more cay!!!!

Most parents came which was lovely to see. They are of course quite young couples as the children are only 3 and 4 year olds. Many of them speak English to varying degrees which was a relief. Many learnt English at school or at university and some of them work for multi-national companies. 

I was able to mingle with them and introduce myself before I had to make my little speech, so was feeling a little more at ease.  Thought I'd add a copy of the speech it will give an idea of my approach.

Meeting the parents Speech

Merhaba, gunaydin

My name is Sue Houston, I am from Australia where English is our native language. I have been teaching young children for 30 years, so I have met and taught many little children during my teaching time.

I have 3 children of my own so I am familiar with the upbringing of children also.

This is my first visit to Turkey and already I am loving the city and the people of Istanbul. I am very happy and excited to come to Kucukyali. Naz, Figen , Sevgi, Meryem, Yeter, Ahmet and Turken have been very welcoming and helpful to me at this school.

I must also thank Mr David Coughlan. For 3 years I have been asking him to find me a job in Istanbul and waited until finally this job at this wonderful Kindergarten arrived for me!

Thank you also to Lale for welcoming me and allowing me to visit 2 other ISTEK Kindergarten’s to get a feel for the ISTEK family of schools and to have a glimpse of what their approach to teaching English is.

Your children are beautiful, cok (pronounced chock) guzel!!! Already they are starting to copy English words and short sentences.

Children learn their own native language by being talked to, sung to and told words to describe household items, toys and things around them, pointing to things and imitating sounds until they learn words. Then they begin to string words together to make sentences.

The learning experiences your children will be having in my class will reflect the early learning of natural language at home.

Children learn a language when they are immersed in it and I am aiming to do this in the school. The children will be playing games, singing songs and chants, playing music, performing drama, drawing, colouring pictures and making craft items and also participating in talking and listening activities.

I love children’s story and picture books and I will be reading many stories to the children and using many bright, colourful pictures to keep them excited and interested while learning.

I am with the children at meal times, which is a good time to talk about food and eating.

This semester we will be learning language connected to the themes of school, my body, my family, clothes, animals, and friends.

I am sure your children will have a happy time learning English.  I am sure they will learn English faster than me, who is trying to learn Turkish!!!! They say English is a difficult language.... I think Turkish is very hard.

If you have any questions or concerns please speak to Naz and then we will talk with you.

Tessekker ederim

I have been doing quite a lot of research on the Internet about teaching English to little children, have bought a number of down loadable resources (books and games) that I can print off and use which is great. have also bought some books on amazon.com and am getting Georgie to bring a few DVDs from England when she comes. English resources are very limited here.

The brunch went off well, main questions were about which is the better English- American or English? what would you answer? I said ASTRAYAN!!!!!

March 11



Grandparents having afternoon tea
with grandchildren



The following Thursday was Grandparents afternoon. I made a little card for each child on "good old" Publisher and they coloured a picture to give their grandparents. Sadly, I was about the same age as some of the grandparents!!! (maybe not quite, but close!!!) We performed some of the action songs and the older children introduced themselves "Hello, my name is ........... I am a boy/girl". Not much you might say, but, hey, I had only been with them for 3 weeks!!! quite an achievement, I thought!!!! They even knew what they were saying!!!!



Children performing for their grandparents.
They sang a Turkish song about grandmother
and grandfather



After the little performance, we had afternoon tea. Was quite amazing to watch some of the grannies feeding the little ones like mother birds!!! Some of the Grandparents also spoke some English so I was able to converse with them in a limited fashion, also.

March 26

Today was an Open day of sorts for ISTEK schools- yes Saturday, just like KWS, anyway certainly wasn't anything of the sort for our boutique Kindergarten! We had 3 sets of visitors and each of the children are enrolled to come, so that was a few hours I really could have spent sight-seeing!!



The brand new sign just in time for Open Day.
 It even lights up at night!





 

The girls on Open Day
Sue, Naz (principal), Sevgi (teacher 4yr olds)
Meryem (teacher 3 yr olds)
Figen (administrator)

After Open Day I went shopping at a HUGE shopping complex- CARREFORE is the main store its like Big W and Woolworth's together BUT it is so large, the store attendants wear ROLLER SKATES to go and check a price for a checkout operator!

I walked there ( I walk alot of places) took about 1/2 an hour or so. I had to cross a major road, supposedly a freeway of sorts, check out the traffic for a Saturday afternoon, 3.30 by the time I went back over at 5.30 one direction was completely at a standstill!!! They say there are 4 million card in Istanbul!



Traffic going towards the Bridge
over the Bosphorus



Traffic going away from city



TOPKAPI Palace, Ottomans, Harem. eunuchs, diamonds, opulence

Sunday March 13


Majestic Gates at the front of Topkapi Palace. Only the
reigning sultan and the Sultan's mother were
allowed to ride throught these on horesback.

 
 

A beautiful sunny day and EVERYONE in Istanbul must have decided to go out after a few weeks of dismal weather. The crowds were huge and it isn't even summer yet!!! I decide to visit Topkapi Palace today. One needs at least half a day to do it justice, so I thought before the tourist crowds were too large I would set off. Caught the dolmus to Karikoy, ferry to Eminonu, tram to Sultanamet and walkeed dwn passed the Haghia Sofia (which I need another day to visit) around to the Topkapi Palace. Had my first encounter with a NICE young Turkish man!!! After a little chat as I kept walking towards the palace, he made the offer of teaching me Turkish and I could teach him English, I told him that my students were teaching me Turkish, thankyou, NO, I didn't need a Turkish teacher. By the time we got to the Palace gates, it was obviously off limits for him and his harrassment, so he departed! The security was very strict, which is good as there are some absolutely priceless articles inside. Go to this website to get a brief overview of the Palace.

http://www.turkeytravelplanner.com/go/Istanbul/Sights/Sultanahmet/TopkapiSaray.html



View of Topkapi Palace from
 ferry on Bosphorus

 It is not as one would imagine  a palace, but rather a series of large tree/garden courtyards with various amazing pavilions built for various purposes for the royal Ottoman households. The fourth courtyard was for the inner sanctum of family. Amazing how much power the Sultans mother had over the whole show too!!!!


Gate of Felicity-
Entrance to the third Courtyard







The sultans wives lived in thes rooms
Those that bore him a son
had the rooms with a view- top right!



The Harem certainly is an incredible place. The lifestyle that the women, slaves, eunuchs and sultans lived was utterly amazing. It is all built from stone and was very cold. There were some large open fireplaces in some of the rooms, but I suppose there would have been plenty of bodies around. The tiles, predominately blues and whites are truly beautiful.




Stone Path through Harem

  

These stone paths through the Harem
were so the Sultans horse would not slip
 on a smooth surface

Bath inside Sultan's private room


  

The Treasury, built in 1460 by Mehmet the Conqueror in 1460, is where all the precious objects, clothing and jewels are housed. Unfortunately no cameras are allowed but it and Harem are certainly the highlights of Topkapi. Inside I saw the Topkapi Dagger (1741) which is a jewel encrusted dagger with 3 ENORMOUS emeralds on the handle of the sheath and many beautiful diamonds covering it. The Spoonmaker's diamond is unbelievable- 86carats, girls! Gianormous tear-shaped diamond surrounded by several dozen smaller ones. its behind galss, as is everything else, but with a guard by its side! Had no chance of grabbing it to hang around my neck!! It was apparently originally found on a rubbish dump! and purchased by a street peddlar for 3 spoons, hence its name. There are also 2 very tall exquiste gold candlestiks, over a metre tall, amazing. There were some thrones, ebony and ivory, gold and objects with many precious and semi-precious stones. Other objects and clothing with masses of seed pearls and gold thread, also a gold cradle. Certainly all beautiful and mind-boggling.

View across Bosphorus to the Asian side where I live

The lovers wouldn't get out of the
way to give me a clear shot



View across to Taksim area- Galata Tower

 "The view from Topkapi over Bosphorus is beautiful. My photography doesn't do it justice, "had to be there"!!!!!
Having trouble loading photos here, will try later!
I went through the room that houses all the sultans portraits. They have some wonderful ones of the family tree with all the sultans, sadly I couldn't take a photo and there were no pictures in the souvenir shop, but it was wonderful.
Altogether a fantastic day, the history is amazing.
I wandered around the gardens and into various other pavilions, took some photos of the ships sailing one by one up the Bosphorus and the sauntered back through Sultanamet to the tram and then the ferry ride home.

Quite exhausting, taking in all that history.

Visit to Sultanahmet 20 Feb 2011

Liz and I caught the ferry from Kadikoy, across the Bosphorous, this time, to Eminonu on the European side. Our purpose was to show me the location of some of Istanbul's spectacular landmarks for me to go back later and fully explore. The day was overcast and freezing. I should have worn the lovely Ralph Lauren beanie and scarf Richard brought me back from Canada. It certainly has been put to good use since. My apartment is SO warm that its definitely a false sense of security and when one gets outside, down by the water, the windyy chill certainly strikes, not dissimilar to playground duty at KWS in the middle of July.

Once arriving at Eminonu ferry stop, we walked through the subway to the tram station. The subway is absolutely full of merchants selling every type of paraphenlia you can imagine, particularly clothing, trinkets, bags etc.By the afternoon you can hardly walk through the subway because of the crowds, AND IT IS ONLY WINTER! Summer is apparently a night mare, so I will be doing my Istanbul sightseeing in the cooler monts as the queues into the more popular attractions are horrendous, so they say.

We caught the tram up through the very narrow streets to stop off at the Haghia Sophia (Aya Sofya) (huge mosque which is now only used as a magnificent museum) and the Topkapi Palace.

The Haghia Sophia is truly an awe- inspiring architectural masterpiece. It is over 1400 years old,CAN YOU IMAGINE THAT!!! and I can't wait to spend a day exploring it. It will certainly take more than a day to do it justice I am sure. It was "deigned as an earthly mirror of the heavens, the interior of the Haghia Sophia succeeds in imparting a truly celestial feel". Can't wait.
We then walked through the first courtyard of the Topkapi Palace. This is not just one Huge building as one would imagine a palace, but a series of  stone pavilions built by Mehmet 11 between 1459 and 1465. We only went to the main gate as I will need at least another day to completely explore the Palace. Can't wait to see the huge kitchens although I believed that parrt is being renovated, but during its heyday is would produce enough to cater for up to 12,000 residents and guests!!!! Can you believe it- I think there are some seriously BIG pots and pans in there.
Liz and I then walked back past the beautiful Byzantine church of Haghia Eirene, in the grounds of Topkapi. Liz has sung in a choir in this church, they often have choirs performing there, I imagine the acoustics are incredible.


Another type of provincial dress from Iran.



Some of the traditional dress in the
 Iranian exhibition.

 We walked back past a tented exhibition from Iran, with the many differnt areas and people in national costume on display. There are some very beautiful areas there, but I certainly won't be visiting that area in a hurry!


Bad photo inside the cistern- you can get
the general idea. very tall columns.
 All underground, water dripping down and
 carp in the pools below.

 After seeing Topkapi (or at least the entrance to it) Liz wanted to show me inside the Basilica Cistern. She is a very keen photographer and wanted to get some shots inside the Cistern. It is a vast underground water cistern and was laid out in 532!! it is 65m x 143m and is supportedby 336 stone columns arranged in 12 rows. It once held 80,000 cubic metres of water- quite amazing. There are 2 stone heads of Medusa at the base of two of the columns. Each of the 336 columns is lit at the base and the ettect is absolutely stunning.


The head of Medusa at the base of one
of the huge columns in the Basilica Cistern.
 They are not sure why one was upside down
and the other one was side-ways.

 We took some photos, mine were extremely amatuerish, I am sure Liz's are far higher quality!


One of the thousands of dress shops
displaying  wedding dresses

 After catching the tram up to the top of the Grand Bazaar, we were to find that is is closed on Sunday's! Never mind, there were still plenty of little stalls open selling everything and everything.
You wanna buy a wedding dress????? I saw some real stunners, attached are a couple of photos!!! The Turks seem to love "the more TIZZ the better!!!!"


Bit of TIZZ for the bridesmaid!!

We wandered down through the small avenues to the Spice Bazaar which was open.  

Anyone for Turkish delight?

A vast collection of stalls, all undercover selling all sorts of spices, tea and Turkish delight. Liz and I couldn't resist buying some Turkish delight made with Honey and pistachio and another one made with pomegranate and pistachio- absolutely stunning and delicious- that's about the only sugar i am going to eat- Turkish delight- I'l try a different one next week when I go to look round the Grand Bazaar- 4000 shops!!!!!

Spices galore!! The smell is amazing!

Once through the Spice Bazaar, we wandered over to the wharf to smell the beautiful aroma of the "Fish Sandwich". A definite MUST when I go back. We didn't have one because we had not long eaten simit (sp)

The ornate boats on which the fish sandwiches
are cooked. They are moored at the dock.



Cooking the fish sandwiches. Served with lettuce
 and a sauce on a fresh bread roll.

 which is like a bagel and sold along the street by little stallholders. They're best with peynir (white cheese- feta) They are truly to die for- if you like bagels, these are 100 times better- delicious. Many people get one on the way to work for breakfast, and I now have one when I come across a stallholder, but he must have cheese!!
The wind was blowing a chilly blast, so we decided to head home across the Bosphorus, Liz pointed out the huge number of ships waiting out on the Marmara Sea for permission to sail through the Bosphorus. It is a very narrow strip of water that basically links the Aegean and Mediterranean to the Black Sea. Only one ship at a time can go up and one down. I am waiting for Georgie to visit in April when we will take a tour up the Bosphorus to the Black Sea for the day.

I arrived home, glad to be in the warmth, but anxious to visit the wonderful sites at length next time.