Mom, you are most welcome

On Wednesday November 21st, grade 5 science session wasn’t the same as everyday. Special visitors were present in our classroom. Fifteen mothers were invited to attend an interactive science class where we were the teachers and our moms were the students.

 We started preparing for this event a week ago.  Our class was divided into Jigsaw groups. Jigsaw is a cooperative learning technique that promotes better learning, improves student motivation, and increases enjoyment of the learning experience. Each Jigsaw group took a part of the lesson to explain it for the rest of the class. In one jigsaw group, Salma and Marwa were responsible for presenting body cells; Lama and Tala were assigned to cover the respiratory system; Ruba and Mona the excretory system; Hiba and Lana the circulatory sytem; Bayan and Malak the skeleton system. Jamal summed up the lesson through an interactive flipchart. Finally, Nivine gave us some tips that help us keep our body strong and healthy.

When mom is present Learning becomes definitely so much fun!

What do you like most about KSPS?

It has been around a month since the school started. New KSPS clovers had their own opinion concerning their new school. We used a new web 2.0 tool, Answer Garden, to express what we like most about KSPS.

What do you like most about KSPS?... at AnswerGarden.ch.

What do YOU like most about KSPS? Write your opinion in the above Answer Garden

Clovers Majestic Wishes

           As the scholastic year started, KSPS students had their special dreams with them. Each student came with a majestic wish hoping to achieve it before the end of the year. Students jotted down their small wishes, believing that some will come true. This activity was performed using the web 2.0 tool: Wall Wisher.

Empowering Teachers’ Effectiveness through Promethean Active Board

 Technology has the capacity to truly transform the learning experience of young people. Makassed Khalil Shehab Primary School tells a story of how well planned professional development programmes are critical and support teachers to become more effective in their practice. Teachers leverage the appropriate technology in making the right choices to help students develop critical skills for the 21st century.

I, as a Math and Science Coordinator, participated in the case study and had an opinion on how using the active board played a huge role in teachers’ effectiveness.

Click HERE to read the case study.

 

 

 

 

Teacher-Parent Attitudes

I would like to share with you an article in “Terrific Teaching Tips” newsletter. The article is focusing on teacher- parent attitudes as there is the initial contact with parents in the first month.

“In order to turn this around so that it is not detrimental to their child, your student, here are a few suggestions for you as their teacher:

1. You must continually acknowledge achievement by recognizing students who function at a high academic level. This is proof that we are teaching and your students are learning. If we want parents to know that we are doing our job properly, we must also acknowledge and reward student improvement in their attitude and behaviour. Most people look at achievers as excellent role models and want to copy them. That's why recognizing their successes acts as a powerful motivator for your students and their parents. That’s why you should never group students with learning difficulties together - no role models to follow.

Remember, also, that excelling in sports or other activities are opportunities to provide great recognition as well.

2. We must always keep parents informed and offer help continually. Be consistent - let them know about their child's achievements and improvements. Remember to change parents' negative attitudes, acknowledge students' progress openly.

3. Inform parents of test results, special assignment and project marks. Don't keep them in the dark. When report cards are sent home, you don't want an irate parent calling you saying "I wasn't aware. Why didn't you let me know my child was having problems (or failing)"?

Call, email, or see parents in person. Telling them what's happening (in a professional and tactful manner) with their child's progress will build positive parent feelings. Believe me!

4. Another way is to acknowledge another teacher's excellence. If another teacher is doing a great job to promote a child's progress, make the parents aware of it. Be professional, honest and sincere about the other teachers.

It's easy to resent or ignore negative parent attitudes. But who's the big loser in the end ... their child, your student! This kind of behaviour is WRONG (on our part). We need to consider what WE (as teachers) can do to improve the situation.”

 Danny Krumholz

 

 

Towards the International School Award

The British Council offers the "International School Award" (ISA) as an accreditation framework for schools to record and evaluate their international work and embed it into the curriculum and whole school ethos. The accreditation lasts for three years.

ISA has a very positive impact on developing pupils’ awareness of the cultures of other countries, while still promoting an understanding of their own culture.

ISA supports schools to develop the following:

-An international ethos embedded throughout the school
-A majority of pupils within the school impacted by and involved in international work

-Collaborative curriculum-based work with a number of partner schools

-Curriculum-based work across a range of subjects

-Year round international activity

-Involvement of partner schools and the wider community in the UK

During this academic year, KSPS worked hard to acquire ISA accreditation for the second time.

We worked on producing 8 activities under 3 themes.

Health and Care Theme: 100 m Race, Olympic day, World Health Day, Safety

Tourism Theme: Exchanging postcards with Nottingham schools, Virtual Museum, International Cultural and Food Festival

Imagination and Story Telling: Talent Show, Story Booklets (exchanged with schools in Nottingham)

Our determination towards winning will allow us to win the International School Award again and again:)

Rawaa Shehab

ISA International Coordinator

Sharing My Best Practice

“Empowered Educators” Workshop for Teachers

27 & 28 August 2012

Crown Plaza Hotel

As part of the component "Professional Development for Internationalizing Education", the British Council organized a 2-day workshop delivered by Dr. Baldev Singh from Imagine Education UK. Attendees were teachers from different Lebanese schools; I was presenting Makassed Khalil Shehab School.

This workshop provided support to teachers to understand how technology impacts the classroom dynamics (pedagogy), motivate students and develop creativity in both the teaching and learning process.

*Workshop Outcomes:

• Create learning activities to support development of 21st century skills (Collaboration, Knowledge building and assessment)

• Increase knowledge of meaningful applications of Information Communication and Technology (ICT) tools in the classroom

• Engage students with professional learning communities through Web 2.0 tools

We were introduced to a set of new tools which allowed us to understand how to develop learning activities which are effective to support learning and development of 21st century skills. A number of Web 2.0 tools were used in the workshop to get teachers think creatively and enhance the learning process. I found it very useful to share with Makassed teachers some new web 2.0 tools presented in the workshop.

- Symbaloo:

It is a Personal Learning Environment (PLE) for teachers to visually organize and share the best of the web with students. Symbaloo allows you to create your own pages with your favorite websites, videos, images, word documents…

www.symbaloo.com

You can also access your “Symbaloo” account through your smart phone by downloading Symbaloo App.

- Answer Garden:

Plant a Question, Grow Answers... Answer Garden is a new feedback tool that can be used in your classrooms to motivate students and trigger their prior knowledge.

www.answergarden.ch

-Wall wisher:

An online wall that is built for students to write their wishes, feelings, thoughts… Students will post sticky notes on the wall. Create an account www.wallwisher.com

-Online Tests through Your Google account:

Access your Google account → documents → create → forms (in this form you can create several forms of tests such as choose best answer, true or false, open ended questions…) → more actions → embed code ( to embed the test that you just created on your blog or wiki)

- QR Code:

A QR code is a barcode which can be read by webcams and smart phones. When the barcode is scanned, information appears on the phone screen or computer. This information can be text, a web address, an email address or a video. You can generate your own QR codes

http://qrcode.kaywa.com/

You could create a puzzle-solving lesson out of QR codes or you can use these codes as secret messages to the parents. These codes are newly used in books... Example of a QR code:

Download the QR reader App to read the code!

-Educational Games:

Super new educational games www.classtools.net

-Wordle:

Wordle is a toy for generating “word clouds” from text that you provide. You can tweak your clouds with different fonts, layouts, and color schemes.You can create your own Wordle gallery to share with your students especially in English Language sessions.

www.wordle.net

-Infograph:

A useful tool that sums the lesson up, it can be created using word, PowerPoint, and paint.

Google → cool infographic gallery

Technology Rocks!

The era of technology brought advanced technologies that had a significant effect on the way we live. New and emerging technologies challenge the traditional process of teaching and learning, and the way education is managed. Several technological inventions invaded our classrooms, and had a major impact across all curriculum areas and enhanced the teaching skills and learning abilities.
The “ActivBoard” is providing instant access to a vast array of data, challenging assimilation and assessment skills. Collaborative learning is accomplished while using “Mouse Mischief”. Moreover, we are using the “ActivSlate” in our classrooms. It is a wireless, notebook-sized graphics tablet, which brings control of the “ActivBoard” to every corner of the classroom. Using “ActivSlate” teachers can instruct directly from inside group discussions or pass to students for input. It encourages students to interact with their peers and communicate ideas.