The Darussafaka school in Instanbul, Turkey enrolls students from 80 of the 81 provinces around Turkey. The school is residential and entrance requirements

include students who are fatherless or orphaned, come from an impoverished background, and are also gifted and talented.

Darussafaka school is in Sanyer, Turkey, which sits right on the Bosphorus Sea. Sanyer is north of Istanbul, which is the most populous city in Turkey, and the 3rd largest city in the world.

The Bosphorus Strait is a strategic water way that connects the Black Sea to the Sea of Marmara and ultimately the Mediterranean Sea.

As the only passage between the Black Sea and the Mediterranean, the Bosporus has always been of great strategic importance.

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The strait forms the boundary between the European part of Turkey and the Asian part.

The strategic significance of the strait was one of the reasons the Roman Emperor Constantine the Great to claimed it as his in 330 AD. The new capital was Constantinople. In 1453 it was conquered by the Ottoman Empire. They later renamed the city Istanbul.

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The entrance exam has just been recently changed to assess students for multiple forms of intelligence as the school personnel did not want a narrow definition of intelligence. Giftedness manifests itself in many ways and school leaders and teachers are working to foster this human potential for achievement for students who would not normally have this chance.

Here you see the front of the dining hall.

• Classroom design at Darussafaka is comparable to that of American classrooms. Each classroom has a projector mounted on the ceiling for digital presentations.

This is a study room for students to work together after school hours.

To ensure individual development of students, there are exam halls, libraries with over 20,000 books, 11 science laboratories and six computer lab rooms with two hundred PC's with internet access to meet today's educational needs.

This is one part of the senior girls’ dorm rooms. The rooms are very comfortable and cozy! All students' needs are provided for by the foundation including clothing, food, accommodation, school materials and health care. They are also given monthly pocket money. After high school the students are then guided on their way of the university.

Çiğdem Kaya worked very hard before I arrived to translate all of my English power points into Turkish. We were diligent in working over the summer, sending files back and forth so that both languages would be projected in the room.

One of the first orders of business at Darussafaka, the day before we began our work, was to rearrange the room so that 100 teachers could fit comfortably into the air conditioned room. The building we worked in is normally used as a cinema, thus the pictures on the walls. The school leaders worked hard to make sure the environment was optimum for the teachers' work and comfort.

The English version of the curriculum presentation was presented on one side of the room while the Turkish version was projected on the other side. Digdum, and all of the interpreters, kept the group engaged with wonderful translations.

The first day was more presentation than the other two...I had to teach them about mapping and give them the conceptual framework before they could begin to articulate their curriculum together.

These are the art and music teachers. They were fabulous!

Some of the English teachers and I worked through different ways to organize their

units.

The math department worked hard to formulate Essential Questions as they began to

articulate their units.

We spent a good portion of the morning of day 2 agreeing on common language and choosing concepts that would be taught in social studies for the younger students. We used chart paper to capture an initial view of the vertical connections that they would map out. The school is not using mapping software, so we worked on Word templates in an electronic format.

Two of the foreign language teachers and I looking at different ways to organize their units.

Darussafaka students learn foreign languages from the 4th grade, which is the youngest grade in the school. They refer to grades 4 & 5 as the primary school. All students take English until the end of high school. Here you see the Turkish teachers working to articulate and organize the curriculum. Language based curriculum presented the same challenges that we face in the US.

The themes that they used to organize instruction were very similar to the way that my foreign language teachers are organizing maps in West Seneca. Isn't if funny that despite how different cultures and people can be, certain aspects of education are alike no matter where we are.

We moved to another room so that we could work together to come to consensus on how we would organize foreign language and Turkish. Here you see Dominic working with his foreign language teachers.

The rich discussion and learning on the conceptual level, as well as the practical level, made it a great day! Meltem Ceylan, Selvihan Ozel and I are working through some of the details of articulating quality maps. Meltem, in the middle, is one of the school leaders and she is currently working on her Ph.D.

We all felt good about the direction we were going in about half-way through the second day.

The sharing of maps continues with Robert Grider (black shirt), Special Programs Coordinator, looking at his colleagues maps. Robert is originally from Oklahoma and has been working at Darussafaka school since the 90s.

Day three was productive as everyone was now prepared to continue to work on writing the maps.This is Gulay Hacioglu (Primary School Principal), Okan Uzelli (Philosophy Teacher), Gul Essizoglu

(Primary School Teacher), Esra Bakim (Primary School Teacher), Ayca Bagmen (Primary School Teacher). The principal attended all three days and worked through the entire process with her teachers to articulate the primary social studies curriculum. She planned with me to outline expectations and a time-line for the rest of the content for her school.

The science department was brave enough to allow us to project one of their maps and we did our first whole group review on day two. After I suggested ways to align and articulate the components in the maps, I asked all teachers to walk around the room to read the maps of their colleagues. This helped everyone improve their map writing.

The physical education teachers worked very hard together to begin to tease out the essential learning they are looking for with students.

Teachers and principal Gulay Hacioglu, examine maps and discuss ways to articulate the concepts that are taught in a manner that can be read and understood by everyone.

This is the teachers lounge where many of the teachers went for coffee and conversation

at the end of each day. They are truly a group of friends! The Turkish coffee was fantastic and

the professionalism was some of the best I've seen anywhere.

The school director, Nilgun Akalin, addresses the faculty of 100 teachers after they have worked hard for three days. She gave an inspiring speech about the life and educational possibilities they are providing for students who would not normally have this chance. The speech was moving as it was evident that she was a strong, informed leader who believes in her teachers! They truly work as a team to change the lives of students who are then capable of great things! The commitment they are making to mapping out their curriculum is an excellent way to enhance their collaborative culture to ensure an aligned curriculum and increased student achievement.

Here I am thanking Nilgun Akalin for the chance to work with her staff for three days. She shared her appreciation for the work we had accomplished!

I was thrilled to have had the experience with the people that I was given the chance to work with.

The goal of curriculum mapping in the school is to articulate the curriculum and examine it for rigor and relevancy. The teachers hope to ensure that all of the students at Darussafaka enter the Turkish University system, continue to learn and come back to contribute to the society of Turkey and improve it for all of its people.

It was time to pack up and head to the Old City section of Istanbul for some tourism. The town

and areas near the school were modern and busy. Old Town offered ancient sights that reflected the history of Istanbul.

The ports in Istanbul are stops for the many tourists enjoying Mediterranean cruises. Istanbul and

Darussafaka School are spots worth seeing!