This weekend I felt like I was in another world. The world of İSTEK ELT! It was a world full of surprises, precious treasures, magical tools and fairy tale characters. I enjoyed every minute of the splendid work of art.

Here is the list of the Seven Wonders of İSTEK ELT World:

1. Keynote Sessions & Workshops: I wish I could have copied and pasted myself into each room and attended all the sessions. They were all precious studies by precious teachers and educators.

2. The Blog Queen: She did a great job by organizing this big event with many colourful activities. She was everywhere with her gentle manners giving a hand to everyone. Elegant and modest. Thanks to Burcu. It’s such a great honour to be a member of her team.

3. Shaman Dance Theatre: An audio-visual feast! I watched the fabulous show breathless. It was a great closing after the impressive speech of Burcu Akyol.

4. Pecha Kucha: One of the most exciting activities of İSTEK ELT. It was funny, enjoyable but challenging. Presenting the slides in such a short time is not very easy! A big applause to the host Lindsay Clanfield and the participants.

5. Conference Hosts: My dear colleagues Vanessa Hatoum and Louis Savoy held the conference just like two professional speakers. Congrats to both for their successful performance.

6. Conference Team: Foreign Languages Departments and the Heads of all İSTEK Schools worked hard and did their best to make everything perfect.

7. Presentation of the İSTEK Schools: Once again I felt proud of being a teacher and also a graduate of İSTEK Schools. The video we watched about İSTEK Schools revealed how productive, cooperative, confident and talented students we have at İSTEK. The great projects they have run so far impressed everyone.

If you want to catch up with the news, please visit the blog of İSTEK ELT and have a look at the interviews by Mark Andrews. He did a great job out there as well.

Fairy Tale Characters of İSTEK ELT (Listed alphabetically)

Thumbelina – Ania Kozicka
Ania, a cute and slender lady, drew everyone’s attention with her great presentation at Pecha Kucha.

Santa Clause - Arjana Blazic
Arjana earned our hearts by giving out the heart shaped necklaces with lovely Crotian writing. What a nice memory it will be!

Conference Fairy – Burcu Akyol
Burcu waved her wand and let it all begin. The conference she organized was a magical event for the ELT World.

Fairy Godmother – Evridiki Dakos
Evridiki was, sweet and kind. She was friendly and motherly, too. She touched each of us with her magic wand and activated the little child inside of us during her great workshop.

İSTEK Red Riding Hood - Gizem Kebabçı
Very young but hard working, delicate but strong! Gizem, my dear trainee at İSTEK Acıbadem touched my heart with the amazing job she did.

Prince Charming – Jamie Keddie
“Prince Charming!” That was what I thought when I saw him first at İSTEK ELT last year. The grammar teaching techniques shared by him  were as cool as him. (I’m sure I’ve been the voice of the crowd!)

Heidi – Lenka Kroupova
The active learning strategies Lenka uses and the beautiful smile on her face will absolutely avoid drop-outs.

The Pied Piper - Louis Savoy
Starting the keynote sessions with his kind manners and charisma was so nice. He glued us into our chairs. He did not use his magical flute for that but he used his cool voice.

Merlin - Ken Wilson
Ideas and recommendations he gave were like magic spells. Thanks to our ELT wizard.

Peter Pan – Luke Meddings
The first slide of his presentation (a picture of him drawn by his father) grabbed me in the very beginning. He was very creative and successful by taking us into a dream world. How could I know that it was possible to make a connection between teaching and paintings? Wow!

Dorothy (of Wizard of Oz) - Marisa Constantinides
Marisa did not give up after all the technical problems she had just like Dorothy in Wizard of Oz:) Besides she collected each of us during her wonderful presentation at Pecha Kucha as if we were going to Oz:)

Wendy (of Peter Pan) – Maureen McGarvey
Humorous and friendly. Motherly just like Wendy. I was in a trance with her funny slides. Hilarious!

Alice in Cyberland – Özge Karaoğlu
Özge did not hesitate to share lots of helpful web based tools and she did all these through a very creative virtual tour using the character, Alice. She also made my day when she commented on my blog with the flattering marks she made.

Dancing Princes and Princesses – The Conference Team
As the Conference Team we were here and there helping out and trying to make our guests pleased. I hope we made our them happy.

Willy Wonka of the Network Factory – Willy Cardoso

Meeting him made me so happy and I enjoyed talking to him. One of the first questions I asked him was this: “Have you ever been called Willy Wonka?” Guess the answer )

İSTEK Mermaid – Vanessa Hatoum
My dear friend Vanessa was kind and lovely. She was so beautiful like a mermaid. The conference became more supreme with her presence on the stage.

What about you? Have you met any more fairy tale characters? Please comment and share!

I hope you will visit the 7 wonders of 3rd İSTEK ELT in 2012 and meet the fairy tale characters, use the magical tools feeling the stardust all over you.