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.
Tuesday, September 25, 2012
Saturday, September 22, 2012
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…
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.
-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
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 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.
-Infograph:
A useful tool that sums the lesson up, it can be created using word, PowerPoint, and paint.
Google → cool infographic gallery
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