Teacher Training - Project Week #1

After our last session with Teacher Training, we started to plan our project, and in this project we wanted to explore the future of  ELT and how we can adept this future in our classrooms. Firstly, we started with deciding the main headline which is going to be "English as a Global Language".  I have mentioned this before as we talk this a lot in teacher training but we will be look into this subject deeply and we will be exploring this in the context of Turkey too. We decided our subject after a group meeting in zoom, it took nearly an hour, later we continue to discuss more about the content of this topic and we separated it into four main headlines. Later we discuss more about this headlines/topics in an WhatsApp meeting, that also took about an hour and we shared who will be researching what topics. I will be looking into ELT classrooms all over the world and how they teach English as a foreign or second language, are there any specific methods that is been used, etc. So we mainly talked about our topic and how can we do what we want, find some answers for that and shared four headlines among ourselves. 

See you next week. 

Teacher Training #6

 Welcome again!

This was the last week of our teacher training, I had so much fun exploring, working on the subjects that I mentioned in my previous posts. I learned a lot and I'm looking forward to use the things that I learned in my classroom. In this last wee our topic was materials and how we can integrate Global English to our materials and our classes. Below, you will see our thought on how to integrate Global English with an activity, enjoy;

After the final session of our teacher training, we designed an activity under the title of ‘Global English’ as team ELT Z. For the process of preparation, we met on Zoom at 2pm and had approximately two hours of meeting to brainstorm, exchange ideas and distribute the duties. We wanted to use what we learned during the sessions of teacher training while trying to maintain World Englishes as the main focus. After sharing various precious ideas and placing most of our thoughts on the project, we decided to benefit from Lino.it and IDEA: International Dialects of English Archive as the materials we learned through the teacher training sessions. Here comes our activity below, take care!

XOXO,  Team ELT Z  

Global English Activity of “ELT Z”

Designed by: Bilge Güral, Zeynep Ahsen Karasoy, Öken Demir, Zeynep Çetintaş

Classroom setting: 20 students 

Level: B2+/C1 

Skills: Speaking, Listening

*It is assumed that the students are being taught ‘British English’ 

• Activity

*It is assumed that students already have a virtual classroom on “Google Classroom”. 

1. Students will be paired and in total there will be 10 pairs of 20 students. 

2. The teacher will share the link of “IDEA: International Dialects of English Archive” with the students on “Google Classroom”. *The link to the website: https://www.dialectsarchive.com/globalmap 

3. After sharing the link, teacher will ask students to go to the link and will assign each pair a different place on the map the places will be like this: Pair 1: Naples 15 / Pair 2: Germany 11 / Pair 3: India 3 / Pair 4: Russia 24 / Pair 5: Spain 3 / Pair 6: Ghana 2 / Pair 7: Turkey 3 / Pair 8: Kuwait 1 / Pair 9: Jiangsu 3 / Pair 10: France 8 

4. Each and every pair will be asked to listen to the podcast about the assigned place on the map and will be asked to investigate the podcast in depth with multiple aspects.

5. When the investigation part is over, students will be provided an another link on “Google Classroom” again and that link will bring them to the website called “Linoit” The link to the website is: http://linoit.com/users/zeynepcetintas/canvases/inbox

6. The students will see a sticky note and on that note the reflection questions about the podcasts will be written:

• What did draw your attention when you first listened to the audio?

• Did you have difficulty in understanding it? Why or why not?

• Is there any difference from the British accent in terms of pronunciation, intonation, word stress? If yes, explain how by giving examples.

• Would you like to talk to someone who speaks this accent? Why or why not?

7. The teacher will ask each and every pair to reflect upon the questions given on the sticky note. Basically students will create a new sticky note on linoit to write down their answers to the reflection questions. 

8. When the students complete writing their sticky notes, the teacher will ask each pair to present their reflections already written on the sticky notes that they have created about the podcasts that they have listened to. 

9. Each pair will start their presentation by making their fellow students listen to the most striking 10-15 seconds of the podcasts. After this listening stage, the pairs will continue on with presenting their reflections on their sticky notes. 

10. When the activity is completed, students will be exposed to 10 different dialects of English and will be able to find out the differences as well as the similarities between the “Standard English” that they are currently learning (British English) and the different dialects that they have listened to.  

Teacher Training #5

 Hi!

Unfortunately we are getting really close to the end of our teacher training and I'm really grateful for our teachers effort to introduce us 21th century skills. This week we mainly talk about the educational websites and softwares and how can we use them in ELT classroom. I learned a lot of websites and softwares which I think would be very useful for my teaching experience. There are couple websites that I really like, let me introduce them to you :

 Edpuzzle, is a teaching tool used to place interactive content into pre-existing videos from a variety of sources such as YouTube or into videos you have made. We used this website for our own class, teacher training, and I found it really engaging because teacher can add the information about the video at the start and ask question about the subject in the video in the minute that is told and as teachers we can also ask students opinion about the subject, later we can evaluate their answers and give feedbacks. I do think that I will use this website for my teachings.

Renderforest, is similar to animator which I write an introduction about it. With Renderforest you can easily create slideshows, promotional animations, music visualizations, logo animations, and other types of videos. I think we can also use this website to encourage students to create their own videos of the topic they like. 

Tiki-Toki, is a timeline maker. Unfortunately you can only create one timeline per account with the free version. However, this websites can be used for all kinds of studies so you may have a chance to persuade your school to buy the premium version. It is web-based software for creating interactive timelines. Tiki-Toki allows you to create a fully-functional timeline also it provides an opportunity to make the timeline interesting with the help of images and videos from other websites. You can also encourage your students to create their timeline and share with you.

iSpring. "iSpring Suite is a PowerPoint-based authoring toolkit produced by iSpring Solutions that allows users to create slide-based courses, quizzes, dialog simulations, screencasts, video lectures, and other interactive learning materials". It is really next generation teaching material. It has so much potential and I advise you to explore it yourself. Also we talked about Seesaw, you can find a my review on this blog.

Lastly, another good website is Quizlet."Quizlet is an American online study application that allows students to study various topics via learning tools and games". We can use quizlet as a vocabulary teaching or vocabulary knowledge testing tool in ELT classrooms because app offers variable options for testing the vocabulary. Firstly, teacher needs to create vocabulary cards,  the teacher can use imagines and further explanation about the words. Later, students can study the words with flashcards until they get themselves familiar with the words. After this, students can test themselves with testing,matching and other fun games available in the Quizlet. Also as a teacher we can add voice recordings of the words and sentences on to the website, with this students can also study spelling.

Teacher Training #4

Hi! I hope everyone is doing well.

This week was the fourth week of our training, we are getting close to the end already! Before I mentioned what we did in this week lesson I should tell you all that we decided our groups for our end project. We have couple ideas that we have in mind but nothing clear yet.

So, this week we talk about integrating technology into teaching of English. There is no doubt that technology effecting every bit of our lives and we talk about what can we do to make this experience better for our learners, what are some barriers we can encounter and how to solve them. Of course there are problems that we cannot solve our own like foundational needs for technological use in school such as need for electricity, the lack of technological devices etc. The areas that we can help are to create and use relevant tools for the learning goals and objectives and make these tools engaging for learners to use. In addition to this, to address the demands, we need to test technology to determine its appropriateness, ensuring that privacy settings align with student privacy. We need to introduce new technologies to the students and explain how and why it is relevant to student learning.

We also shared our general fears about these issues and try to find solutions for each of them. The general idea was to not give up in the hard situation and always have a plan B or even a plan C because we can't always predict what will happen. My concern was that learning knowledge is like finding the exit in a maze. The longer you spend time in the maze the more familiar you get to the grounds, and eventually you find the exit and you never get lost in it again. It can be time consuming, you may get lost a lot but you learn. Technology is like giving a map to the person who is in the maze. They know exactly where they are going and they can get to the exit faster and easier. The problem is that if they are sent there again without a map they will get lost, also because they never lift their faces from the map they don’t know anything about the maze. They did not spend enough time to figure out themselves. It makes the knowledge they learn less permanent I think and I found the solution that I can deal with this using a variety of different activities to teach the same content or use different approaches for every different types of learners.

So, as pre-sevice teachers and on-service teachers we need to know how to use technology and why we use it. We need digital literacy to understand, search, evaluate and organize what we need to know and use. Also we need to make students aware of the reasons why we use technology in the classroom and make them more comfortable around the technology

Teacher Training Week #2

 Hey ! 

We did our second lesson and it was about collaboration skills and of-course English Language Teaching. This lesson was even more interactive and more fun. We firstly try to make sense of a word cluster and then wrote a short story with those words. We worked with groups of three. I must say I wasn't expecting such good short stories in such a limited time. Then we listen a song which contains all the words of the word cluster. Be careful of my word choice please we only "listened". It was a lovely song called "The A Team"  written by Ed Sheeran. Then with the groups that we wrote a short story we designed a video clip for the song. Me and my group members almost got the same as video that originally made, another group got even closer than us. It was enjoyable as a group work and I would love to try that on a language class. It was difficult at first but when we decide what to do and how to do it we moved quickly. The second activity that we worked on was a murder case. This time we worked with groups of four, each one of us had different cards that contained a name and what they did before and during the time of murder. We also had a print of the place and an empty time table with character names. This activity was much harder because we didn't know what information other team member hold. We try to share it but it got too complicated, then Melda hoca said everyone could read one by one what information we hold. I had the blueprint and the time table printed so I wrote down what my group members told me to paper and we checked which one had witness and which one did not and also which one had time to sneak out for murder. We had 15 minutes but we cracked the case in time ! In addition to this my group was the only one who find the murderer. This activity because of its more complex nature demanded more organize work, and clear communication.

 Thirdly we talk about ELT and a worldwide problem of ELT. The discrimination between native and non-native speaker language teachers. With the references to Introducing Global Englishes by Galloway, & Rose. The writers ( Galloway and Rose ) suggest that Global Englishes as a new approach that puts the native and non-native speaker language teachers on the same status. The main argument of our discussion was the necessity of a "standart language and standart accent". I don't believe that we should impose children to change their accents for another language. The language is a communicative tool and a language that has a global status should be more tolerant to other types of accents. The factors that determine the better teacher are not their exposure to the language when they are young but the factors that make any kind of teacher good. I also don’t think nativeness is a quality of an ideal teacher but the general public believes it is the case. The paper is also talks about that there are some barriers to innovations in English language teaching, we also discuss these factors. The writers listed five elements which are ; lack of materials, language assessment, teacher education, attachment to “standard” English, and lastly teacher recruitment practices. I do agree that there is a lack of variety in the materials. Even if they suggest different methodologies for the class most of them are not attainable. As English is the global language and people want to learn it to have more options, language assessment has a big part in their learning. I do agree with the writers that it has a wash-back effect on the objectives of many language classes. Third factor, the teacher education, again I agree with the writers. The education for teachers is  improving and raising awareness of teachers will help the innovations in ELT. I also agree that one must stop looking upon English as something that cannot and should not be changed. I also agree that the teacher recruitment practices should change. The implication of one can teach the language better because they are born into the language is an absurd thought.  

Here the link to the song that I mentioned : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UAWcs5H-qgQ

How would you design the video clip for this song ?

"Integrating 21st Century Skills Training With Project Based Learning to Cultivate EFL Pre-service Teachers' Professional Skills

Hello!

Yesterday was the first day of  "Integrating 21st Century Skills Training With Project Based Learning to Cultivate EFL Pre-service Teachers' Professional Skills."( It is so long so from now on we will call this teacher training) After filling lots of forms and self reflection questions I was so excited to finally getting started to the lesson but before I that I need to tell you about the readings that I did and how they change my opinion. So this week's subjects were Critical Thinking Skills and English as a Global language. First reading was "Critical Thinking Skills for Education, Students Critical Thinking: Why is it Important and what is it Anyway?'' It was very short and very useful paper. It contains all the terminology you need to know and it gives small explanations about these terminology. It really did not change my opinion on anything what did change my opinion is this reading that I did "Why a global Language" by Crystal. There is a certain fact that English is a global language but have you ever thought why ?  Crystal argues that  contrary to popular beliefs what made English a global language were not reasons like ease of learning, its size of vocabulary, or its association with a great culture or religion but simply the power of the people who use this language to establish the global language and the economical power to maintain and expand it. He also says "with the technological developments English became the number one language that fuelled new mass entertainment industries which had a worldwide impact." So  I learned that it was not about how many people do speak the language, but rather its influence on world with its military power, economical power, technological power and cultural power, all combined makes a language the global language in our case this language is English. Now, let's talk about the lecture. It was more interactive than I thought. In the first part of the lesson we created a presentation collaboratively, we did group work together and shared our findings , we had a competition about the critical thinking skills( I came out 6th :( ), it was a lot of fun. In the second part of the lesson we talk about our understanding of English, we did a lot of speaking and our teachers contribute us with some facts. So to the end of the lesson it was very interactive. I'm so excited for the next lesson !

P.S : I'm sharing the link of the video we watched for the lesson by David Crystal. I advise you to watch. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Kvs8SxN8mc

Thinglink

Hi everyone ! 

I'm here with a new website that surely will increase classroom performance! The Thinglink! This website is great in many ways. Firstly, it creates interactive learning with technology with images, videos and VR experience. 

Secondly, it is really easy to register, and right after it gives an introduction video on how to use the website. After the video you can see this page; 

You can take a look at the inspiring project ideas, there are a lot of good materials to be learned and when you click the ''My Media'' will see this;

It is a wall that enables you to see, edit and share your works. I must say I was not expecting images to be so clear when I uploaded them but they were really good preserved. I created a image interaction but I will be surely using this app in my classes to teach all kinds of subject in a more fun way ! I just loved this app...

Here is my interactive image; https://www.thinglink.com/scene/1323577121271971842

Augmented Reality

Have you ever heard the term Augmented Reality ?

It sounds similar to Virtual Reality, and I was not familiar with the term or the concept couple months ago. It sounded like alternative reality or representation of something that is digitally created. And I was not totally wrong. So today we are going to talk about Augmented Reality.

'' Augmented reality (AR) is an interactive experience of a real-world environment where the objects that reside in the real world are enhanced by computer-generated perceptual information, sometimes across multiple sensory modalities, including visual, auditory, haptic, somatosensory and olfactory.''

It is the textbook definition of the term and the context. It has to subcategory; marked-based and markerless. In markerless, the object that you choose appears in any area you hold your tool’s camera while in marker-based one, you need to scan a specific image for a specific object which is used in education the most. You may remember the game ''Pokemon Go'' where pokemons appear in front of the camera in three dimension version and you could catch them. Yeap that was too AR! 
It can be really fun to introduce to students in the class. However, I believe it will eventually be a part of virtual reality or replaced with virtual reality as VR offers so much more.

Two New Models of Teaching TPACK and SAMR

I want to mention two new model that can be helpful to language learning. First one is Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge, TPACK. It ‘’attempts to identify the nature of knowledge required by teachers for technology integration in their teaching, while addressing the complex, multifaceted and situated nature of teacher knowledge’’. It is a model that enables teachers to use their knowledge of content, pedagogy, and technology to use in a way that enhances students learning. The TPACK framework was introduced by Punya Mishra and Matthew J. Koehler. It was their concern that while trying to teach with the technology of 21st century, which is a whole other expertise, teachers tend to concentrate on one of the knowledge more than others. TPACK is a combination of what teacher know, how they teach and how teacher uses the role of technology to enable better learning. For example while learning about global warning, students can explore the three dimension charts of the causes and then create their own solutions, and then they could share their solution with a field expert. This has all three components and gives more than one perspective to acquire knowledge. 

The other model is SAMR, introduced by Ruben Puentedura. ’’SAMR’' stand for Substitution, Augmentation, Modification, and Redefinition. SAMR provides a framework to show the impact of technology on teaching and learning, it is like a guide for teachers to use of technology to create activities for classroom content. This activities advice to be design in a way that will uncover students’ creativity and also enable students to interact with each other’s discoveries. In Puentedura’s own words ‘’ …where you are using technology as a gateway for social practice of explanation. ‘’ It is designed as a peer mentoring like evaluation. Students are taking the lead of their own learning, they are the ones who create and not the ones who sit down and watch. These two models are designed for using the technology in a way that enhance the students’ learning. They can be useful for language learning and also for other areas of the education.

You can visit Ruben Puentedura's blog here; http://hippasus.com/blog/

Language Learning Apps

Hi, today rather than introducing you new websites that can help create materials for language or other classes, I will be introducing language learning apps. I mentioned this before, how the century shaped our understanding of school, this apps offers language teaching in not classes but online. 

Let's start with Busuu. It is an app offers 12 different languages' course and materials. User can purchase more content with money but Busuu offers free materials too. I have used Busuu to learn basic Russian before my course starts. I did not purchase any content and it was not very helpful for me as it was not start with the alphabet. However, after completing a section of the language course you can write a paragraph about the topic you just learnt and/or record your voice and pronunciate a sentence and post it only your given page. With his the native speakers of the language can help you to fix your expressions or pronunciation. This native speakers are not field experts they are just born into that language and trying to learn a new language themselves. This kind of peer correction can really help one to be better. I recommend this app on the level of this aspect, but it would be good to remember its free to use materials are not so good.

The second app is Duolingo. It has three languages which are ; English, German and Russian. Also there is a not that French will be there soon too. The graphic of the app and website, and how smoothly it works are the reasons why I liked this app. Like Busuu, it has free to use materials and courses and payed courses I have not bought the payed content however this app also gives 7 days of free trial for premium account. Which is great to discover. One problem that I have seen while using this app is that the language test to determine the level of your language if you are not a beginner in the language is quite easy. My test turned back 100/100, and no complex sentence or translate was asked. So I'm not sure if it has a good ranking system. But if you want to start learning one of these three languages you can use this app and it has 7 days free trial!

Virtual Reality!

Virtual Reality excites me more than anything else, I could say. So what is it ?


''Virtual Reality (VR) is the use of computer technology to create a simulated environment. Unlike traditional user interfaces, VR places the user inside an experience. Instead of viewing a screen in front of them, users are immersed and able to interact with 3D worlds. By simulating as many senses as possible, such as vision, hearing, touch, even smell, the computer is transformed into a gatekeeper to this artificial world.''

One of the most important one that technology changed the understanding of brick builds to everywhere around us. People do not need to go to school to receive education or go to a library to read a book and even they do not need to read a book to obtain knowledge anymore. People all around the world became teachers because the meaning we except is not dictated anymore it is socially constructed and reinvented, with the opportunities given by technological developments. This is quite basically how the perception changed around the traditional education. And virtual reality takes this into the next step. Creating an environment for learning on a non existing place. In today's world it did not advanced like I dreamed it to be however, it creates an interactive learning. It is not just limited with their interaction but also it creates different ways to give students the necessary input throughout the different sources. For example the topic of animals, it is not possible to bring animals to the class and teach them but we can show their natural habitats, their place in food chain via virtual reality glasses. It will make learning much more fun and we give the input not just visually or voice based but with all the things they have in their natural form, closest they can be to real life experience.

MindMeister

You must heard this expression expression before; the mind creates maps and connects them together with the context in a complex way. Have you ever thought you can create this map concretely and interactively with your students ? 

This is what exactly MindMeister does! 

 You can use different types of charts and maps and while doing this you can see what your students are doing. Also in the same time you can contribute their work.
This is my map about the subject seasons, it was really easy to create and add and color them ! This website can be used before class to see what students know about the subject and they can add more details as they learn more or it can be used at the end of the class to remember and go over the things that students learned in the lesson. 

Kahoot!

Hi everyone! I'm here with a  new app/website introduction that can be useful for your classes. You might be familiar with the name as it is a popular app/website that teachers use for their lessons around the world. In Elt we are using this app for our Linguistic class and it has a good effect on students as they can compete with each other about what they know and see what they don't know or did not understand. Registering to website is quite easy you only need a mail address. I sign up as a teacher. It is the home page ;

You can see there is a white box in the top of the page you can create your quiz. It has also challenges in the left side of the page. I loved how each segment of the page is simple and it also starts with an introduction video. When you click on create button this page pops up;

As you can see creating a quiz not just easy but it also offers questions to ask with the Question Bank button. You can upload images for your quiz or a video link.
I will be definitely using this app in my classes, how about you ?

Seesaw

Hi, today I will be sharing a new platform that can be useful for teachers and students. This platform called Seesaw. It is similar to EDMODO. You can sign up for free and create a student or teacher account. Teacher can give assignment through this platform also can share document, can get feedback from the students, can inform the parents at the same time.
The starting screen looks like this;

As you can see you can add students and families to the class you created in the beginning screen. The big green'' Add '' button on the screen allows you to make announcement, assign activity and post the work of the students.
Seesaw enables teachers to manage the complex features of the class through one single platform. Also students can post their works and comment with each others posts. A nice touch that differentiates Seesaw from the other platforms is that it has two comment mode; vocal and written.

Animaker

 Hi everyone!!!

Today I will be sharing a new website that can be useful or fun to use in your classes ; Animaker. You can easily register in two or less minutes. It is really easy to use and it introduces you the website quite well. Here is a screenshot from website;

And you can watch my video from here ;

https://app.animaker.com/animo/2SdFmW1sDd25nLWh/

Padlet

Padlet is an website that allows teachers and students to interactively communicate through panel like design. It is really easy to open an account. You can use your mail to sign up. After entering Padlet immediately suggest couple of different forms of the panel that you want to establish ;

I choose the wall ''Duvar'' as I hadn't planned something beforehand, as you can see you can choose the best panel for your class, or the topic you teach. After you choose the type of padlet it directs you to the this page;

In here you can choose a headline for your padlet and design the panel with the characteristics of your topic or yourself. You can choose different styles of the font and colors and the wallpaper for the back of the panel.

After these steps it is really easy to create a post. I uploaded some documents and photographs to see how easy or hard to upload them. It also was quite easy. You can change the places of the posts that you put by simple dragging them across the screen. It is easy to edit after you post. Also you can allow the visitors to make changes. The sharing system of the panel is similar to the google documents, in additionally you can share a QR code. 

This website can be useful for many different classes and for many different purposes. Students can interact between themselves and with the teacher. Students also can use this website as their own blog. It is really enjoyable to look at and create. 

This is my test account;  https://padlet.com/zeynepahsenkarasoy/dj2el3wtdpfajxlz

EDMODO

Hi everyone!

I would like to introduce you to another app, Edmodo. Edmodo is like a digital class. It helps teachers  to engage lessons, give homework, share documents and keep parents updated and it is completely free to use. My English Literature  teacher uses this app to give us the documents of the week, shares class related videos and books, and gives us homework through this app. We students also submit our assignments through this app too. It    is reminding us the due dates is we forget. And also my Linguistic teacher uses this app to share documents and presentation through it. We can also learn if the class is cancel. We can communicate through the comment section of the app. It is super easy to use this app. You can join classes with the class number and that's it. It send notification and email each time teacher shares something or give assignment. I highly recommend teachers to use this app. Edmodo has accounts in different kind of social media and shares really good educational stuff, you can check them out too!

Links;

https://new.edmodo.com/?go2url=%2Fhome

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/edmodo/id378352300

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.fusionprojects.edmodo&hl=en

Canva

I'm here with another website that will make your classes waaaaaay cooler and enjoyable; Canva
It is an website that enables you to create a lot of different materials for and outside of your classroom. Such as posters, instagram posts, videos, logo, Facebook posts ( now you know where all the cool Good Friday messages come, yey!), invitation, leaflet, resume and so much more!
This is the first page you see after your registration,

You can see the names of the materials I wrote and a search engine to find even more!

After you choose what kind of material you want to design just click one,

I have chosen the video material, and you can add text with different writing styles, images, shapes to make your material exactly how you want it to be. It is a really easy website to use, I really liked it!

Podcast

Hi everyone!

Today I want to share a podcast of mine that I prepare for ELT students to introduce GTM briefly. I used an app called Anchor which my friend Zine Berfin recommended. It is a really easy app to record and share podcast. This is the link;

https://anchor.fm/zeynep-ahsen-karasoy/episodes/Grammer-Translation-Method-ecnl2p

Storybird: Digital Book

Hi everyone!

Today's subject is Storybird. It is a website that enables it users to create their stories. This site can be useful for creating materials for your classroom. It is easy to register. However, I couldn't find how to create a story in the website and I search for like 5 minutes. So an introduction would be nice for rookies like me. Their motto is artful storytelling and you can understand why quite easily. It has a lot of drawing for each subject you want to write and you can add them to your book. Here is a photo from the website;

This is starting my page, and you can start writing your book by clicking the second blue box and you can also join challenges by clicking to first box here;

And this is my poetry book, I wrote one of my favorite poems: https://storybird.com/poetry/preview/essay-on-man

Gistory

Hi!

Today I wanted to introduce a new app that my lecturer told me. This app called Gistory. Gistory aims to help teachers or students to create interactive stories for education and for fun. It is completely free to use. The app is really great for idea, it reminds me of Bandersnatch, the movie that enables you to shape the story and get different endings according to your own choice. It could be useful for English teachers to make students to use cognitive and language skills together. My first Gistory idea was about a detective story where you try to find the clues and choosing best choice that you think and get different endings according to your evaluation of the evidences. It can be so much fun to try to understand between the lines while using the language. Also it can be used to test grammatical skills. Down side of the app might be creating a story in the app is taking too much time and sometimes it does not allow you to create a story at all. You can look the app from the link down below;

Link for android users: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.gistory&hl=tr
Link for iOS users: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.gistory&hl=en_IE

The mind is its own place, and in itself
Can make a Heav’n of Hell, a Hell of Heav’n... (Paradise Lost)