The Door to Career by Tuğba Avcı
Tuğba Avcı is an English Instructor at Karabük University, Türkiye. She completed her B.A in English Language Teaching (Hacettepe University) in 2008 and has been working for Karabük University for less than a year. She can be reached at tugbavci@karabuk.edu.tr .
THE DOOR TO CAREER
About eight months ago, I was wandering around the campus with my happy-go-lucky friends. Those were the days in which I could not anticipate where and as what I would be working. Never had I thought about academic career before my last year as an undergraduate student at Hacettepe University. It was the year when it suddenly dawned on me that I really had to make the best use of the four years’ training. Even if I seemed to master the language, I was extremely worried about the very first steps to take in order to achieve my fresh ambition. But as the time passed, I learnt what to do to open the door to the career.
After many applications and daunting interviews I grabbed a golden opportunity to be a part of an academic staff. I started this teaching adventure in September 2008, and as a young instructor at Karabuk University, the things that I have experienced so far are just the tip of the iceberg. I teach 34 hours in a week for preparatory classes that makes me as busy as a bee, which poses unique challenges to me. The programme of the School of English Language calls upon students who are at different levels of English. However, as instructors, our primary goal is to accommodate students’ needs, regardless of their educational background or profile. Hence, I have to prepare a detailed presentation for each lesson taking their interests and pre-existing schemata.
Working in this university has given me the distinct opportunity to learn about different student personalities from all over Turkey; getting to understand their life conditions, their aspirations and difficulties. I believe that I should consider the students’ personalities and how they are feeling about their private, social and school life. Exploring English with the students who are eager and open to learn is an exciting experience for me.
It is an incredibly tough job both to be teaching at the university and to be bound to duties that require dedicated work (e.g. participating in the commissions like material development or testing and evaluation), since it is a recently founded and developing university. Nevertheless, it will be a great experience in terms of professional progress, sense of achievement and interacting with colleagues. To sum up, for me, an instructor is not only responsible for teaching but also learning. So the most candid advice I could give to you is that: determine your future, get ready for it and never give up!
Tuğba Avcı
English Instructor
Karabük University, Türkiye
Posts
1 comments:
Olcay hocam a big hello from your hometown :D How's your life going? I hope you and your family are all OK. A lot of time has gone away since we talked about gathering in Bursa in this summer but unfortunately I couldn't have both time and a chance to call or contact you as there was a lot of hectic deeds like testing stuff, substitution lessons, shifts, etc :( Anyway I am alright now but the good news is that I will have to do my military service as of this August :) So I thought up I might not have opportunity to talk or contact with you maybe for long of time. For this reason, I have created my own blog and I wonder if you possibly could my own anecdote of success in being an instructor at SFL in Uludağ University ?? Thanks in advance my dear teacher !!
All the best.
Fatih Mehmet YİĞİT
Instructor of English
P.S :
1- I am going to begin typing my writing soon enough and will be ready to send you once finished.
2- Fatma also sends her kind regards to you. :
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