Reem A.’s Neighborhood

This is my first day in Sharjah English School with Mr.Rob who is my mentor. I observed some ICT classes. I recognized that the teacher uses MS Excel to take students’ attendance.

I was seeing how the students work collaboratively in their project. One of the classes,  students created their own characteristics using clay After that I saw one of the student asked the teacher for a Webcam and I analyzed that they use webcam to create animation by moving their own characteristics and using their drawing papers. As you see here in the video

In addition, I saw the teacher ask the student to write a journal which is a page that created by teacher in MS Access as you see the picture which is very attractive and well designed. Also, the teacher include icons for saving, refershing the database, looking at the lesson objectives and exiting. It is very useful and easy in use. from that journal the teacher can see what the student learn and understand and did during the lesson. 

AcssesJournal

The journal include the following:

-          lesson number

-          Date

-          Project name

-          Programs used

-          What did I do in the class today?

-          What went badly

-          Any improvement need?

-          What you learnt?

I recorded all the lessons that the students had from the beginning of the year.

Further more, I found some of the movies that the student created using Pivot program. I wish that I can upload the piv animations that created by students put Vox dosn't support this format and I couldn't convert it to flash or video.

 Today is my first visit for Sharjah English School. I met my mentor (Mr.Rob) and he took me in a tour around the school. I saw the different section that they have. They have KG,  primary and secondary. Also, I went to the sport complex and I recognized the space that they have for play background.

I took some photos while am discovering the place. I saw that my mentor is very helpful. I had a conversation with my mentor about the software, network, and internet connection that available in the school. I saw that he is expert in using Access. Also, he showed me the ongoing school website which is designed by a professional in UK. My mentor collaborates with the professional to discuss about the website. Also, he asked me if I have any idea for better development.

I believe that he is an organized teacher because he arrange all his resources in the shelves and prepare his staff before the class start. In addition, I liked the computer lap arrangement in the primary section as you will see in the photo that the screens are inside the table to make easy for the teacher while observation and monitoring her students.

Here are some photos

It is the first day in the week of my work placement. I saw my SST and gave her the scheduled booklet.

 It was difficult to take classrooms photo because all English classrooms were busy. During the break time, I took photos of LRC (Listening Research Center) which designed for low level students. The idea of this project was for my SST Natalie to improve the students in their English. She reordered the schedule of Art and Science students to have an English lesson on the same time. As a result, the low level students gathered in one classroom and the high level students from different classrooms gathered in another classroom.  I feel that this project is a good idea because low level students need more attention to develop theirselves.  

 The classroom divided to 5 groups of 5 students on circle tables. There are many posters and cards distributed in the wall. Moreover, I found 4 shelves contain different materials such as videos, Reading practice, different types of stories and over 140 dictionaries. Besides that, the classroom has 10 computers with headphones to practice listening skill. Also, there was one over head projector, a printer , and a multimedia projector.

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After the break time, I observe a lesson in LRC for Miss Bassema and it lasted for an hour. First of all, teacher settle her laptop and connect it with the multimedia. She reviewed the last lesson with the students and elicit vocabulary from them. The new lesson was about the “Characteristic of the Hero”. Teacher showed her students  a hidden picture which was Tom and Jerry Cartoon and she gave  them a chance to guess it. Then, she  showed them a video of the cartoon for 10 minutes. Afterward, she elicit information and helping students to build new vocabulary.  Subsequently, she let them to work as group to write the characteristic of the hero.  Finally, each students wrote down their own hero and explain why they chose it.

To reflect on my observation, I think  integrating technology in the lesson motivate students and break out the routine. Moreover, I believe using group work to collaborate and  share ideas help students to gain new information and build new vocabularies. Finally, I think, it is a good thing to give students a chance to be confident by allowing them to talk and describe about their own hero in front of students.

Today was my first day in Al-Jurf  Secondary School in Ajman. It is a government school and one of Alghad Project School. My day began with meeting the principle. Then, I met my SST Natalie who is an English Coordinator.

I took tour in the school with my SST and I met other teachers. Next 3 weeks, I have to work hard by collecting data and interviews English, Math and Science teachers .  

Good Luck to All in Your Work Placement J

N

Hi All

I post this picture which descripe that nowadys most children are dedicted to the computers.

Overall, although the technology is very useful, it has many disadvantages in children.

What Do You Think??????

End of Semester Projects Due

1) 1st Draft of Final Work Placement Report- Due Jan1st - can be sent by email - I will review and send as quick as  Ican back for you to revise and get to me by Jan 8th.- The report does not have to be long, just cover the steps I posted in the earlier post explaining the ADDIE process for your report.

2) Electronic Professional Portfolio- Due by Jan 8th- can be sent by email.

You may create 1 Dreamweaver page and put images and links to your "best examples " of your work and a link to your CV.  Since you are using Dreamweaver this semester anyway this will make it easier for you...It does not have to be perfect...In year 4 - next year- you will work on this to improve it and finalize for graduation..so it is considered a "work in progress" now.  

Don't Stress ! You are doing a great job! You are ALMOST there now !!!!!

I still have some problems with Dreamweaver. As I mention before that the DreamWeaver do not support Arabic.

So, I am trying to solve these problems and I met Mr. Mohammed from the educational technology section and he helped me with it.

After that, we had a meeting with Mr.Taha and  Ms.Maryaane. it was fantastic meeting because we discuss different things about the technology and the problems that face the IT person.

I believe that Mr. Taha is expert in the technology and IT. He told us different stories about the situations that he face and how he solved them. I learnt a lot from him. I learnt how to be confident and face the problem in the same time. I hope to be in the RCEP next work placement.

Today was a amazing day during my work placement. Mr. Taha took us around the department showing us the different sections that has IT and Technology.

First, he showed us the Server Room which has IDF Cabinet (Power Over Network), Camera to observe the server room, Multimedia devices such as :FM, CD player, Multiplexer for sound and DVR for camera recorder.

Also, the server cabinet which has UBS for network timing and 2 kind of storage which is:

·         NAS network(Network area storage) for file sharing.

·         SAN network(Storage area network) for sharing storage between servers.

Then, we went to the Communication Room. It has Management switch, fire wire, IP phone, Etisalat units and digital telephone. He described for us how it works and the different kinds of cables.

After that, the Translation Rooms. It has advancement multimedia and devices that control the sound and translate it.

He showed us the multimedia projector in one of the training room  and how it is connect with the active screen , active screen has a pen that you can control it using the pen. I noticed that it is similar to the Smart Board. I saw that he used the Interwriter work software.

Mr. Taha asked us to go to the Translation room and switch on the Microphone power as a training.

I like the software that they used and their work.

Finally, I went to the library and I noticed that the book are not organized  on the shelves. I suggested to put an employee for the library.

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This week I was in the Regional Center For Educational Planning Under the auspices of UNESCO.

During this week I had learnt different aspects of the career  life. From my view, the business organizations are completely different from schools and dealing with teachers. I think that, both of them has positive and negative sides. For example, schools have  nearly close environment, but the business organizations have an open environment that you can deal with people from everywhere and got a big different  community. However, in schools you get more care than in the business organizations.

Our project is to develop their website(http://www.rcep-unesco.ae/ ) which is quite simple and passive.

Web

First of all, I worked on the Arabic section. After I got Mr. John opinions about the website I decided to change the font and the layout. Also, I added a sidebar and some pictures and interactive elements such as JavaScript.

I learnt how to make a JavaScript for an Image that when you rollover mouse on the image it became larger. It was difficult and I found some problems but I solve it with a friend assistance. I believe that, friends’  help is very important to motivate me and instruct my knowledge.

The most problems that I faced is the template of the website. Also, the Dreamweaver doesn’t support Arabic. Although, the problems that I faced, I finished most of the website.

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Furthermore, I noticed the different meetings that hold in this building. They do different activities and training meetings. They have variety of technology to help the trainer. Technology help learners to better understand and motive them. Also, make the learners active not passive. One of the technology that I had look at and interested in is the lecture capture which refers to the use of a set of technologies to capture the audio and visual elements of a presentation to enable remote viewing. Depending on the technology used, viewers can connect live to see the event while in-progress or view a recording on-demand after the event has completed.

Finally, I learnt from my supervisor how to deal with the problems and impolite request from others. As he said” IT person should be very very cool”.

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Today I feel that I did a great job. We finished the website ,but there is some changes I have to do in the website.

Also, today I noticed that there were meetings for the human resources.

I learnt a new thing about the lecture capture which is a video with sound and picture of the hall or the meeting. I found it in the Mr.Taha office and we asked him about it. It is amazing technology that you can share others meeting without attend them.

Finally, I am planning to go to the Mr.John  to help me solve the dream weaver problems.