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

Important Events  

Meet my MST : set schedule + gave me site map
Observation task: I observed Seven classes (traditional and technology)

Today, It was my first official work experience at MOE. When I arrived I saw that my desk is ready with a PC and clean area. I liked my place but I think that I am going to change it beacuse it is too crowded to have two persons on one desk :-P. Any way, I met on this day Ms Huda and I hand her the booklet which has the details of the work placement of this semester. She was so delighted to be a direct mentor and she is waiting for Ms Mary to come to MOE to divide the tasks between me and Salama. I asked her today for a shoting permission ;-P I mean taking photos and video scenes for the documentary film and she contact the General Director of the Department Khulood Al Qasimi and she accepted. On Saturday,

I wrote my interview questions for the general director but unfortunately I could not ask her beacuse she was too busy. So, I learnt that  I have to book before I arrange any interviews with the employees. Generally, I am writing this from my heart since I am really enjoying my time at MOE and I believe on what Ms Mary said before: Every morning you have to feel happy for the work that you are going to do during the day. At the moment I am planning for the National Day short film and I hope that I will come up with some great ideas since the department is preparing a present for the students on the National Day so I am going to work with them on that project. At 12 I left MOE since I had a meeting with the career center for MUN and I took a permission from the department director and I hand it to Ms Ola. I just want to say THANKS to Ms Rafeef and Ola to be so co operated with me and supporting me through sorting out the meeting.

Today I have started my work placement in the Dubai ministry of education in curriculum development section. This section is a very amazing section. Every body is working hard there and collaborating with each other in a way I haven't see in my life before. This motivated me to start working with them.

When I arrived my mentor showed me the office that I'm going to work on. She helped me to prepare it so I can work on it.

We started the first task that they gave us. Amna and me we have to create a video about The Education in UAE. It is a new experience for us but we will do our best to make it. We discussed the topic and brain ideas together. Also we did lot of research to collect some ideas and information. After that I talked to the mentor about the idea and the deadline of the work.  She was very helpful and explained everything that I need in details. Also the mentor talked to us about the curriculums that we are going to create the materials for and she gave us a bunch of books for grade 1 to 12 to choose one from them and start work on it.

Now I'm really motivated to start working and developing materials.

See you later with new post of WP ^_^

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Today was my first day at the Sharjah Education Zone in Sharjah. I believe that the visit that I went to last week helped me a lot to make me more comfortable and confident to go to my placement today.

At the morning I met Miss Mona how taught us how to record Cassette using the Cassette recorder machine. I noticed the Curriculum and educational programs department duties. I found that the stuff in this department prepare and create copies for the educational materials that the ministry of Education created for the different subject. I believe that, there were lots of educational materials such as video tapes, DVD, cassettes, etc. So I noticed that the Ministry of Education provide the materials for all of the zones and the zones must create copies for the teachers in the school.  Added to that, I saw the School Bag materials. The School Bag is a small box contain some educational materials for different subject such as CD and brochures.

Moreover, I observed Miss Mona day duties. I noticed that she is punctual by attending early. Furthermore, I noticed that she has different of duties. She is usually works with the Zone Supervisors. I saw her sending and receiving fax from schools, Ministry and supervisors. Moreover, she was answer phone calls by the supervisors. Added to that she was arranging and announcing different meeting and workshops for the supervisors at Sharjah University . It pleased me to saw her writing some comments from one of the school principle who was suggestion and ask for help to improve their school laboratory.

From this experiences, I believe this improve my communication skill and my personal skills. It really pleased me that I am having my work placement in Sharjah Educational Zone because I think this will help me in my future career.

Here is a very useful website with ideas how to integrate technology in the classrooms ^_^

I found beautiful experience to share with you ^_^

Introduction:

In the following reflection, I will give a brief overview of what technology was available for me to use in the classroom, how other teachers in the school use this technology and how I made use of the technology. Also, I will reflect on the use-value of technology in the classroom, including its benefits and pitfalls.

Technology in My School and Classroom:

The classroom and school that I was in afforded me the opportunity to use many different types of technology. Within the classroom itself, there was an overhead projector, a television, a VCR, and three computers. There was also a printer in the classroom itself. Each computer was connected to a school-wide network on which each student had a password-protected user folder. My cooperating teacher also had six AlphaSmarts, which are essentially keyboards with memory chips that the students can use to type up their text. This data can then be uploaded into the computer from the AlphaSmart. Each of the computers had a variety of software installed on them, including Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing, Microsoft Office, ClarisWorks, several Internet programs and a few math games.

Teachers in the school made widely differing use of the technology in the school. While some teachers, including my cooperating teacher, made full use of the programs on the computers, many other teachers seem wary of the technologies. While some students were creating PowerPoint presentations for their reports, other students used the computer technology much less frequently. I suspect that in part, this reluctance to the computers came from a lack of familiarity with the technologies. In my limited interaction with the other teachers in the school, I noticed a lot of animosity toward technology, which often stemmed from a teacher not knowing how use the computers, for example, not being able to fix the problem that their printer was having. However, I attempted to try out as much of the technology as possible during my student teaching experience.

Using Non-Computer Technology in My Lessons:

I often used the overhead projector instead of the blackboard to put up instructions, diagrams, pictures and notes. I also both made and used overheads from texts that the students were reading or of other images that I wanted the students to see. I definitely enjoyed being able to scroll back through notes over the course of several lessons and being able to reproduce text or worksheets that the students had on an overhead projector. On the other hand, I realized that I would not want to rely solely on the overhead projector over the black board as there were times that I wanted the students to be able to look at a couple of different images of items at once and scrolling back and forth was not practical.

I used the television and VCR to watch a movie with the students, but I also used the television to project images from the computer when I wanted to whole class to see what I was doing or looking at on the computer. I really enjoyed being able to use television/film media with the students as they generally enjoyed watching the television and also seemed to get a lot from what we did. Being able to hook up the television and computer was also helpful, because it would allow the whole class to see w website or image at the same time, alleviating the problem of having too few computers in the room. It could have allowed me demonstrate how to use a program on the computer.

Using Computer Technology in My Lessons:

We used the computers a lot during my student teaching experience. The students used both the computers and the AlphaSmarts to publish final drafts of poems, stories and research. For the most part, students wrote drafts before they used the computers to type up their poems, stories and research. Not only were students typing text, but they were also formatting this text. I also had the students use the Internet to look at math-related sites. Furthermore, the research that they did for their environmental projects came almost entirely from the Internet. Students looked through websites that either my cooperating teacher or I had directed to them, or through search engines for kids such as Yahooligans.

One final place that I used technology was in planning for my lessons. I often found a neat activity or idea on the Internet, such as the simulation I used in my unit on Rachel Carson. This was an invaluable way that technology filtered into my classroom. There are pages and pages of lesson plans that can drawn upon. While many of these resources are not necessarily useful, it still served as an important resource for me.

Reflections on Computer Use:

There were definitely ups and downs with the computers. On one hand, the computers allowed students to interact with information they might not have otherwise experienced. However, using the Internet was always risky, as pop-up ads and unexpected links might be inappropriate for young learners. Similarly, students often had trouble finding ability-appropriate text on the web. At the same time, students were learning valuable information about searching and using the World Wide Web, a skill that will definitely be important in their later lives. Also, students in general seemed to enjoy working with the web, though this sometimes meant that they were playing around more than they were working.

Students were also learning valuable word-processing skills. However, I wish I had spent more time working with kids on formatting their texts, as students often spent a lot of tie putting spaces in their poems in order to center it as opposed to changing the alignment to centered. When the this technology had some malfunction, students were often frustrated and upset. For example, one boy lost a large chunk of typed research when a computer crashed. While to some extent, these events were valuable lessons for the students about backing files up and saving often, it was certainly a disappointing experience for a ten-year when his research is lost forever.

While there are potential pitfalls to the technologies, in systems crashing or time being spent with students playing around and formatting, I still believe the computer was a crucial skill. In my own classroom, I would want to make sure that we had many preparatory lessons in formatting, in the programs we were using, in surfing the web and in saving files before I embarked on any major project with the students. While this prep work is time-intensive, I think that it is worthwhile for students to be learning these technological skills.