Reemsaqer TP’s Weblog

If you prefer reading my reflections in bigger font then go to View > Text size > Larger or just hold on the Ctrl key and scroll down the page using your mouse…I really need your comments even if my reflections are too lengthy.  Why don’t you have a look at my created website…Click here  

Mr Muneer told us to go to the library in order to complete our work and I observed that it was very clean and organized.  However, I was disappointed because I didn’t see many books and computers there which means that the students and teachers don’t use it for their learning.  I believe that the library should have variety of books from different subjects. In my opinion the library must always welcome the students who have the passion for discovering and learning new things independently via the available resources in the library.

A library view which shows only two computers and books

I was shocked to see what the students and teacher created new things for the national day.  I realized that the girls didn’t need teacher’s prompts as much as theboys needed because they were very busy talking, arguing and not paying attention in teachers’ explanation.  It made me happy when I heard that the school provides free technology training sessions for the staff who were not very motivated for it which disappointed me because I believe that these workshops are necessary for promoting better education for our children.  Another thing is that I noticed that the children were very competent in using the computer when I attended the ICT classes. 

Amazing posters created by the students and their teachers  

I realized the difference from private and government school I went last semester.  For example, in the private school the quality of delivering lessons via technologies is more likely to happen whereas in the government schools the students don’t have the opportunity of experiencing interesting lessons particularly that teachers follow traditional styles of teaching.  Furthermore, the number of students in the government schools is more than those in the private schools which I think makes it very difficult for the teacher to manage misbehaviour and meet every student needs.  I believed that the school is aware of teaching the students computers.

In terms of helping special needs students, I talked to one teacher who teaches 4 students with learning difficulties and she said that it is very challenging for her to facilitate in their studies.  She referred that their parents in which they are not very concerned of their children and don’t want them to be in special care center which is necessary for their learning.  Unfortunately the school doesn’t provide any special care or classes for them.  Even the teachers don’t prepare different materials for them which makes their learning very difficult.  I was disappointed because some of these children don’t have any assistant at home or in the class.     

At the end of the day, I felt very sad because it was my last day at the school and it was the time to say goodbye for my SST, other helpful teachers and students.   Finally, I would like to say that being at Al Wahda Private School gave me a lot of information in teachers’ and students’ lives. Before leaving the school I appreciated and thanked Mr. Muneer for his company and supporting me since I came to the school for the first time and his general positive feedback about our professionalism in the school.  I will really miss the children and teacher there and wish them all the best in their lives.  I hope to go to that school again some day.    

I enjoyed my time in this school and hope for its further improvements.

When I arrived to the school I immediately went to the photocopy room to copy the prepared worksheet for my students I am going to teach.  I must say I was very nervous when I thought about my lesson and how would it go.  However, when I saw my friends, Fatma and Rasha I felt more relaxed and enthusiastic about my lesson.

) Luckily my class wasn’t a noisy one so I was delighted that I didn’t have any difficulties in managing students’ misbehaviour.  My lesson was about adding two digits number and I prepared interesting activities for my students so that they enjoy the lesson.  In the engagement stage, I wanted them to manipulate and count some cubes so that I checked their counting abilities as well as their ability to add objects around them.  In my view, the teacher should not be writing all the time in the board so I let my students to write the operation in the smart board and answer them by them selves to make it more student-centered.    I was overjoyed when the students enjoyed the flash online activity I used in the lesson in which they think to solve the math problem and most importantly try to click on the answers via the smart board.  I was happy to see them wanting to play the game again and again which means they were completely engaged and enthusiastic.  I decided to choose this activity as It has cartoon characters and gives immediate feedback and is supported which sound effects and animations. 

I believe that we should give the students a second chance to answer especially when we know that they know the answers even if the others argue because this will make him more confident and think before answering.  I was disappointed because when I zoomed in the activity it was not possible to click properly so i had to zoom out and the pictures were a little small for the students who sit back to see.  I realized how it is difficult using the computer without its screen (The smart board is the computers’ screen itself) because it cause some neck aches when clicking and opening programs.    

Furthermore, I had a special need child who had difficulty paying attention for long period so I prepared a special worksheet for him in which I decreased the number of questions and make spaces between numbers and therefore he would answer them quickly as I wanted him to challenge his classmates.  While the students were answering the worksheet, I monitored thier work and gave help for those who had difficulties.   To be frank, I sometimes find it very challenging to say No for children who want something from me such as a card or even letting them answering and therefore the students came to me and asked if they can answer more and more.  

 I hold the belief that praising students and get them motivated in your lesson is very important so I prepared my own praising cards for them and told them that the students who collected most cards will take a gift.  This reminded me of Kyriacou “to build on extrinsic motivation include esteem related rewards such as form of recognition for effort and success.”. (2001,p. 69).   When teaching I realize the importance of being fair when dealing which pupils particularly in the classroom and give everyone a chance to participate and win when required.  Overall, I feel my lesson went very well and I wish to get a very positive feedback from Mr. Andy soon.  

These are some screen shots from the web-based game.  If you want to have a look then click here.

Tomorrow is my last day in Al Wahda School and I want to complete some tasks which I didn’t complete before leaving the school with some help from my SST Mr. Muneer.  At the same time I am looking forward to my report from him and hope to get a high grade according to my profissionalism while my presence in the school. 

Today I was very happy when I met Miss Andrea again in the library because she was to give us some considerable ideas for our upcoming lessons.  As I see, she is an expert in education and teaching strategies because she has experience in teaching for about 20 years.  She discussed with us some important elements for our lessons we should think carefully about.  Let me explain her most important points. First children have short attention span so the teacher should be varying her activities and tasks constantly.  Also, she believed in which teachers should be well-organized and prepared before the lesson begins and Be punctual and have a watch.  Moreover, they should show enthusiasm away, interesting manner and upbeat-ed when beginning the lesson so that the students take the same expressions.  In my view, teachers should not have a very friendly relationship with their pupils as this might lead to difficulty in discipline.  She pointed out that they should use high vocalisation when teaching so that all the students listen to teachers’ explanation but not shouting loudly.  Moreover, she thinks that teachers should provide some manipulative activities for this students and support the different learning styles.   Most importantly they should tot to be very self-critical as this lead them to be unconfident of her competancy and profissionalism.  Miss Andrea reminded me of Miss Karen in which they both are expert in educating and has outstanding teaching strategies I should be following in my teaching career.

Later, I thought I prepared for my lesson and decided to use some cubes in the engagement stage and make the students write the operations in the board by themselves.  Also I did some researching on Google about integrative activities for my students related to maths and found a very useful one they might enjoy.  Finally, I prepared a worksheet for them to check their understanding.  It came to my attention that I should make a simpler worksheet for a special need student.  I hope my lesson will be interesting for my students and I will get a higher grade in the evaluation sheet.   

When I arrived to the school I went to Mr. Muneer and he told me that I have an ICT class for grade four.  Then I attended Economics lesson for the first time in my life for grade 11 followed by two English lessons for grade 5 and 10. 

An Awesome website

Today I learnt more effective features of the website www.learning.com which enhance students’ learning which has a variety of activities about various lesson such as MS Word, technological symbols and Inspiration.  I was impressive when I noticed that some students had the ability of typing letters and numbers very fast without looking at the keyboard.  In addition, some of them were learning how to use shift-key letters via this website.  When I talked to one of the students, it delighted me knowing that she used the MSN to chat with her friends about studies which I believe is an important tool for sharing information and ideas.  Another advantage of this website is that it provides the results with real certificates and doesn’t move forward if the students didn’t complete the given activity which I think is important to ensure learners’ fully understanding. It also has an exit button that can eaisly be found and used.  I was overjoyed when I heared the sound effects when practicing typing that support music-smart students.  In my view, this web-based activities are fantastic which help the learners to play and learn at the same time.  It saddened me when Miss Rasha told me that there was a technical problem with one of the students which made one student do the activities again and again and made me realise one disadvantage of using technology.   I was amazed when I saw one student doing the Excel part which means she exceeded other students in term of mastering the tasks.   In short, I really remembered the Constructivist theory of Jonnason in which the computers is a mindtools which are ”Computer based tools and learning environment that have been developed to function as intellectual partners for learners to engage and facilitate critical thinking and higher order thinking skills.”  as Jonassen stated (2000, p. 9).  

Some screen shots from www.learning.com website (It is required to register from the company itself)  

An Economical experience

I attended Economics class with Miss Andrea and was delighted to see her eliciting information for the students and that she didn’t have to worry about controlling the class.  It surprised me that there were only four students in this class unlike our government classes where we have more that 25 students.  It came to my attention that she had a friendly relationship with the students and used her sense of humor when delivering the lesson which is necessary to make the learners have some fun than just being serious all the time.  I hold the belief in which relating to real world economical situations is important for the students to learn and remember the information afterwards.  For instance, she pointed out the importance of knowing who is the target audience (Is it profitable if we make handbags for men?) was what she said.   She encouraged them to think critically when answering text book and exam questions.  I was happy to know that the teacher comforted the students about their mid term exams and gave clear instructions.  I suggested if she used the over head projector (OHP) to explain the lesson with charts would be more effective and save time.

The students’ temporary class

English Classes experience

Moving to the English classes, it disappointed me to see that the layout of the room was horrible because the teacher had difficulty moving around the class as a result of the small size of the class.  However, Miss Taiba declared that it has one advantage in which she can spot the misbehaviour easily and quickly.  I was happy when she asked the students questions to re-engage them without interrupting the lesson.  I was amazed by her high voice tone which made her ensure that all the students listen to her explanation.  It came to my attention that she realized when the students are paying attention or not just from their facial expressions.  I was disturbed when the teacher kept writing the true/falso questions on the board which wasted time and created some noise.  As I see she better prepare the questions on a transparency and display them using the OHP.  Also, I think she would better use a puzzle activity in matching when revising the vocabulary or if possible use the smart board to present a saved Word documents with the matching activity via using the smart board.  On the other hand, I paid attention to the importance of giving reasons in true/falso questions to ensure that all the students fully understood.

Finally, I cheered me when Miss Ifteckar used the search engine, Google, to search for online poem of Shakespeare.   It made me realize that one disadvantage of technology is the too much time waiting for the pages to download.   In my opinion, it was helpful making the students listen to lovely poems which was “Shall i compare Thee to a summers’ day?”.  She pointed out how translators should be working honestly after understanding and feeling deeply before translating.  However, It would be effective if she let the students read the poem rather than reading for them.  I was proud of myself when I told the teacher to press F11 in order to make the screen larger. 

In the end of the day, I went with Miss Andrea to the photocopying room and I believe it is valuable job in a teachers’ life.  I am really looking forward my lessons and preparing materials for grade two Maths. 

Reference

Jonassen, D. (2000).  Computers as Mindtools for  Schools. Prentice Hall: London. 

Today, I went to the school and observe one KG 2 class and their learning Arabic and English.  It is important to note that the teacher didn’t use any technology when teaching because of the lack in the resources. 

First, I noticed that Miss Gadha used the repetition strategy when the children learn letters.  They also repeat the words with the same tone used by the teacher.  I think this strategy is very helpful particularly when the vocabulary is very new to the children so that they can easily remember them afterwards.  I obsereved her singing with the students beautiful songs to assist them learning the new letter which was G and I tend to believe that this is a fantastic way as the children enjoy singing and at the same time learning.  I saw her making happy facial expressions when teaching to encourage the students in learning.  It pleased me to see the teacher using flash cards including pictures which I think supported the different learning styles of the visual auditory students.  In terms of controlling the students’ misbehaviour, she changed the places of naughty students and warns them by using special voice tone that they won’t have break time if not sit quietly. This reminded me of Kyriacou (2001, p.89) “A reprimand indicates your disapproval of the misbehavior.”  I hold the belief that using the story telling when teaching is a very useful method with children as they feel more excited.  It saddened me seeing a student who was asleep during the lesson and suddenly his head went off to the chair suddenly when the assistant tried to awake him.  I later on asked the boy what he was doing in the last night and he said that he was sleeping.  Maybe it is the slow pace of the lesson that made him feel bored because the teacher told the students to come one by one and write the new letter in the board which I feel is very effective as the teacher touched students’ hand when writing.

Some flashcards used while delivering the lesson

In the next class, the children had English classes with Miss Nancy.  It made me happy seeing her using colorful flash cards to present the words that use the new letter A because the students would easily remember it in the future.  I paid attention to the fact that she wrote the correct and the wrong way of writing the letter to make the students recognize the differences so that they would avoide the wrong style.  I saw her changing a place of a students as a result of misbehaving and producing a lot of noise which distract other students’ attention to the lesson and I think It was a very practical strategy.  It cheered me that she used meaningful body language to show the students the meaning of the words such as the arms.  It is my belief that praising the students via stickers is an effective way for motivation and managing students’ behaviour and encourage the weak students to do their level best.  In other words “to build on extrinsic motivation include esteem related rewards such as form of recognition for effort and success” according to Kyriacou (2001, p.69).  In addition, she used the privilege to encourage the students complete their work and stop making noise.   For instance she made them played puzzle, jigsow and playdough. I was overjoyed when she counted down to settle the students down again after they had their short play time which make the students rapidly sit in their places.  I observed the layout of the classroom was in U shaped and a group in the middle of the class to support scaffolding and collaboration between the students.  I completely agree with Vygotsky in which the language plays critical role in learning.  To quote Trawik-Smith (2006, p.53) ”Using Language and social interaction to guide children’s thinking.  Indirect guide with hints and questions allow them to think independently.”  Most importantly is that I took part in distributing students’ workbook and helped them in completing the tasks in the books.

                  Students were very happy when playing with each other as a result of finishing off the work quickly

In my opinion, using technologies creates an interactive learning environment but the teacher has the control of making the lesson impressive and clear for the students even if the technologies are bot being used.  Some teachers use the technology but the students don’t benefit from it.  We all know the disadvantages of it especially when the system crashed or the computers are affected with viruses.  While it is true that technology is essential in every class, it is also right that the teacher should be using her skills when it is not provided. 

References:

Kyriacou, C. (2001) Essential Teaching Skills. Cheltenham: Nelson Thornes.

Trawick-Smith, J. W. (2006). Early childhood development. USA: Pearson Education Ltd.

After I arrived to the school I went to the KG ICT lab because I have been planned to attend two training sessions on using the smart board and the robotel machine which is designed for monitoring students’ progress.  I also was excited to learn using the Oyned software which is made for students’ learning different subjects such as TOFEL, Mathematics and Arabic.  I believe that teaching the student TOFEL basics from their early studies is very important and therefore they won’t have to take the foundation stage when learning in tertiary education which for me is a very long time of a student’s life.

Today, I attended four KG classes in Al Wahda School for ICT and Arabic lessons.  First, I paid attention to the fact that young students loose attention, get bored quickly and can’t concentrate on a lesson for longer time which means as I think that teachers should create interesting tasks and an interactive learning environment for them.  Another vital point I realized while attending ICT classes, where the students has to use a flash activity about numbering and letters is that they should be monitored by teachers and about two assistants to help them out while they are practicing.  In other words, they should be well-trained and paid so the money is a signeficant consideration for the school.  I really was amazed by the ability of some students to master numeric and alphabetical tasks.  However, I noticed that other students needed more supporting in order to carry out to a forward point.  Mr. Muneer made me think about the importance of setting up the computers and chairs before students’ arrival to save time.  Also, I believe that I have to make my students feel comfort and gain their trust by not standing up when explaining a point for better understanding and having eye contact.  I wonder why demonstrating is not an effective methods for young students so when I asked my SST he suggested that they don’t prefer demonstrating and want to do the activities straight away in the computer and thus some of them need more time to be helped out. 

I also visited an Arabic class and I was very delighted to see the children sharing materials such as color pencils and rubbers which make me think that they are not very egocentric and enjoy helping others.   Also, I was happy to see the teacher using the smart board to help the students learning the letters as the teacher let everyone comes to the baord and try to write the letteres correctly by catching thier hands. It made me laugh when I saw some students didn’t want to go to their places and just would like to use the board instead and as a reslut the teacher assistant found difficulty in getting them to their places.  In addition, I believe that the group layout encourages the students to collaborate and learn from each other and most importantly ease teacher movement and monitoring.

The children enjoyed coloring and tracing the letter

In brief, I really loved KG students and just watching them working or playing around is very touching.  In my view, they really required more time and effort to be settled and engaged in the lessons and therefore teachers should be confidant and kind.  This means, the teacher should carefully design an environment for the students to learn and sometimes maybe try hard to convince them doing the right behaviour.  To be honest, I really had a backache as a result of looking after the KG students (God bless their educators).  However, I really feel very proud when being called as a Miss encourages me to learn more and more.  Tomorrow, my peers and I are going to take some learning sessions on using the intelliboard (Smart board) and robotel that monitors students PCs.  I am really very excited and look forward to learning these technologies for a better career.  These students are really lucky to use all these technologies in their learning (I remember how boring our lessons were when we were in their age :-\ ).     

Some of the educational materials used in KG classes    

A positive feedback

In the end of the day, Mr. Andy came to the school for our teaching feedback and he made me paid attention in which using technology is not as important and necessary as getting the learners learn dynamically and actively.

Today I was more relaxed than the last two days.  Furtunatelly, I got used to the layout of the school and easily went to the classes and canteen or visa versa.  Generally, we didn’t have to attend many classes yet helping the teachers in teaching was our main mission for that day.

In the Science class I attended, I was proud of myself when I helped the teacher in managing her students and assisted them in completing the given worksheet of parts of the plants.  In addition, I attended a class in ICT lab and I was amazed when I saw the students’ high level in many IT skills such as using online activities and achieving almost all the stages in the activity.  I really loved the website they used which is www.learning.com  because it has many interactive elements which are giving immediate feedback and most importantly, record keeping features where I recognized that the students could easily move to the forward point without teacher’s monitoring each of them.  I paid attention to the fact that every student has different levels and they all enjoy using interactive tools and work independently.  To be honest, I didn’t have a challenging time with the grade 2 students as I was amazed by their ability of understanding quickly.  However, some of them were very hyperactive where the teacher had difficuly controlling them. 

The students were very engaged when using the website for learning

Furthermore, I noticed that the Arabic teacher didn’t used the smart board however the student were very engaged because of her ability of gaining their attention by praising or giving clear instructions which I made me admire her.  I strongly believe that the external motiation she gave by distributing candies as rewards and showing great work achieved by bright students is a significant part of encouraging other students.  On the other hand, I suggested that if the teacher used a puzzle activity of pictures and their adjectives would be a very dynamic methode for motivating the students.   It disappointed me seeing her writing the answers on the board instead of letting the students doing and therefore create enthausiastic environment where the students are motivated when the answers are correct. 

It irritated me seeing the children shouting and playing around in the corridore and realizing that the boys are more energetic than girls.  Overall, today I learnt the importance of monitoring students’ work regularly and being able to encourage the learners as well as trying to use as many interactive tools as possible.

Today is my second day in the school where I enjoyed attending a very interactive English lesson in grade one given by Miss Hind and decided to write the observation task one based on this lesson.  I was delighted to see her using the smart board to introduce the new vocabulary for the students as well as emphasizing the main words by changing the colors and drawing.  I believe that the clapping sound effect used in the classroom via the smart board to praise the bright students and encourage the others was an effective way.   I was amazed to see Miss Hind suing a web-based activity that let students drag objects in a matching activity which made the learning very animated and motivated the student to pay more attention.  In addition, I love the immediate feedback from the activity.  What made me more happy was that the teacher used the privilege strategy as a reward for the students who finish the worksheet earlier.  I was amazed to see a variety of students’ self-made work such as a PowerPoint game and a science-related activities’ photos.  I was amazed when the teacher showed me other smart board features in the end of the lesson such as a timer to time students’ work and a spot light function which hides some information in the board and makes the students curious to know the forward point when the spot light becomes larger.  Also, I noticed that she could  easily move to a new page without using the eraser which I think saved time.  This made me realize how the board is an interactive and a must tool in every classroom.  I was disappointed when I had been told that there are not adequate smartboards for a few classes in the school and that some teachers don’t look after its materials of pens and erasers.

Using fantastic websites for teaching the lesson

On the other hand, I attended another English lesson where I think the teacher lack the control of the class and better to use flashcards to present the new vocabulary instead of just writing them on the board whereas she was effective in prasing the bright students by giving them a card of the student of the week for 2 students.  Furthermore, I was impressed when I saw her translating some difficult words in Arabic and.   :-@ It annoyed me seeing her frightening the students and shouting at them when they misbehaved because In my opinion, the teacher should not use these traditional techniques in her classrooms which leads the student to study for an external reason.      

A special Need case

In the English lesson I attended, I discovered that there was a special need student, who had difficulty paying attention and slow learning pace which made a caregiver, attending the class, to keep up with this child to meet other students’ work.  I was delighted when the teacher let him drag objects in the smart board which is a helpful way to improve the learning process of this child.  Surprisingly, his younger sister is in the same class yet an intelligent student in the class according to Miss Hind.

Later on, I attended three classes of Math and Arabic, which fascinated me as the teacher was using the smart board effectively.  However, I was disappointed because the teachers had difficulties in controlling students’ behavior.  Another challenging element of the lessons is that I noticed that the students were hyperactive and the Religion teacher was not able to settle them down which means that the time was wasted in just shouting out at the students.  She also didn’t use any technology in her lesson which I feel made the students bored.

After this day, I really paid attention to the importance of using smart board and learnt some interesting features I might use in the future.

Sunday, November 4th was my first day in the Teaching Practice in Al Wahda School which is located in a place called Al Qarayen in Sharjah.  Before beginning my day in the school, I encountered a problem with the bus I was supposed to go to the school by because of the rush hour and therefore I arrived quite late which disappointed me in the morning, yet the day after that was full of excitement.   I wish if I get my driving license soon.  When I went to the school I noticed that it has students and teachers who mostly are from Arabic countries such as the UAE, Egypt, Syria, Lebanon and Syria.  However, there is an English teacher who is from Britain to teach primary students the English subject.  The school is devided in to seperate boys and girls section but in primary they are mixed even the entrance and exit areas are separated. 

Al Wahda School buildings

I was happy to be welcomed by Mr. Mohammad, the manager of the IT department who later on took me to the computer lab.  In that class, I was extremely delighted to see the KG students coming in a neat queue and completely engaged in the web-based activity about finding out the place of numeral keys in the keyboard via using PCs.  Even more when I discovered that the learning process had a constructivist approach where the learning was basically very student-centered and pair work with means exchanging information between each other.  On the other hand, I was disappointed because there were not adequate resources in the lab such as chairs and headphones (Imagine two children sitting in the same chair!).

In the next two classes of Mathematics and Science, I was amazed to see the teachers were using the smart board to teach their lessons about human resources and addition and subtraction which eased delivering the information actively.  Furthermore, I enjoyed attending the Science class as the teacher was contextualizing the lesson for the learners by going to the playground before answering the textbook questions as the students will be more likely to remember the information afterwards.  I was delighted to see her operating the smart board effectively by underlining, drawing simple graphics and giving clear instructions for the students bearing in mind punishing those who were not to be models for the class.  I was sad to know that the students couldn’t yet write their names let alone reading simple-structured texts.  Whereas, the math teacher was not able to log on to the computer and therefore not being able to use the smart board which means as I believe, she ought to check the materials before beginning the new lesson as well as not giving clear instructions for the whole class which created a lot of noise.  Finally, when I had a tour with Mr. Muneer, my SST, and was disappointed to see some high-grade students showing disrespect for their teachers.

                  1                                              2

1. The students and the teachers looking to the environment

2. The teachers used the smart board effectively by drawing some graphics

In the end of the day, I was satisfied when my SST sat with my peers and gave us feedback in order to negotiate some important strategies and plans we are expected to achieve such as attending seminars and getting a schedule.